generality of the Saints will enjoy besides that of being filled with the Spirit of God and being drawn out accordingly into waies and works of excellency and well-doing unless it be by suffering Persecution for the Gospels sake although it might be doubted too whether some good degree of being filled with the Spirit be not requisite even to put men into this capacity also For they who have not some competent anointing in this kind will hardly hold out in suffering That which maketh men constant and persevering under temptations and great tribulations to the end is a certain hope and expectation of a great recompense of reward from God as the Scriptures witness in many places which we shall not now insist upon Now such a hope which will make a man stand upright under great Afflictions cannot be raised and gotten up into the soul but by the reflection of a mans Conscience upon him and witnessing unto him that he hath walked in waies of a worthy life and excellent deportment in the World if then there shall be no place for such things as these in the soul without a being filled with the Spirit of God which hath been formerly and largely proved then evident it is that neither men nor women are likely to be capable of that best Resurrection and consequently not of the best Eternity upon one account or other without being filled with the Spirit of God But be it granted or supposed that men may be able deeply to be baptized into suffering for righteousness sake and so become capable of a greater reward in Heaven as our Saviour speaketh without being filled with the Spirit of God Yet as I was saying unto you this method or way to obtain an eternal greatness is more uncertain as to any particular person one or other and less within his liberty or power than by an abundant fruitfulness in well-doing which as hath been shewed will not be found in any man without a being filled with the Spirit nor any man found to be filled with the Spirit without that For to be called forth and strengthened by God to suffer for Christ's or the Gospels sake is matter of peculiar Grace and gift from God and so not in the power of any man himself to chuse according to that of the Apostle to the Philippians Phil. 1.29 For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him but also to suffer for his sake This Argumentative Particle also clearly implieth that to suffer for Christ's sake is not so generally granted unto men as to believe on him is I mean is not granted unto all those unto whom it is granted to believe By suffering in this place I suppose is meant a suffering deeply and to a more than ordinary degree Nor is that of the same Apostle 2 Tim. 3.12 contrary hereunto Yea and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution i. e. shall be obnoxious and liable to suffer persecution or to some degree or other actually suffer So then there being no way at least no way of certainty to heap up these Treasures in Heaven to lift up your heads on high and that to Eternity amongst those that shall be partakers of the same glory with you to enlarge your capacities respectively for blessedness and glory but by being filled with the Spirit â—â—is must needs highly commend such a qualification or priviledge 〈◊〉 this unto you and cause your hearts to burn in longing desires â—â—â—er it The two Sons of Zebedeus James and John made this reâ—â—est unto Christ that the one of them might sit at the right hand c. Mar. 10.35 that they might be next unto him in greatness and in glory The motion our Saviour seemeth to have distasted as in considerately made and accordingly gave the makers of it this check You know not what you ask meaning that they did not understand nor consider how great and excellent how transcendent above measure the matter or priviledge was which they desired nor yet considered upon what terms and on what kind of persons according to the righteous purpose and intent of God it was to be conferred It is not mine to give but to those or those only for whom it is prepared But now though he checked them in respect of their inconsiderateness in making the motion because they understood not what they asked nor knew upon what terms they asked it for they asked it upon the account of favour and partiality in God because related unto him as Friends and Followers Yet otherwise he doth not blame them simply for desiring it but for desiring it after such a manner viz. carnally But when he saith ver 40. it is for them for whom it is prepared He doth imply that it is not for two persons only but for such persons that are so and so qualified As if Christ should have said this on purpose to draw and wind up the hearts of his Creatures men and women to waies of excellent righteousness and holiness There shall be some places of glory higher than other and they whose hearts will serve them to come up to my Fathers terms and quit themselves like men in what he expects from them in righteousness faithfulness and holiness these shall be the persons He doth not blame them simply for desiring these high accommodations in heaven but rather enciteth and encourageth them to quit themselves at such a rate of worth and excellency whilst they lived that they might be found those persons indeed for whom they were prepared and so be invested with them My Brethren the right hand and the left hand of Jesus Christ in his Kingdom of all desirable things they are most desirable The Ministration of the Law the Apostle plainly informeth us was glorious and yet affirms withal the Ministration of the Gospel to be much more glorious Yea though the former Ministration of the Law in simple consideration be glorious yet comparatively it was not glorious So my Brethren we might very well have some such kind of notion that all Believers are blessed all are glorious yet nevertheless in respect of those that shall be superabundantly blessed and glorious the others glory shall be but little in comparison There is one glory of the Sun and another glory of the Moon and another glory of the Stars and these differ one from another in glory even so shall it be in respect of the glory of the Saints Now Who is there but would be willing especially by waies that be honourable and worthy and withal are not difficult to better his estate and condition in the World that now is though what improvement soever he shall make in this kind he is not like to enjoy but for a short season here being no enduring substance Suppose he be in a competent way of subsistence at present as suppose he be worth a hundred pounds or two or three per Annum if there were a way opened to
are under the Law as under the Law to them that are without the Law as without the Law to the weak I became weak I became all things to all that by all means I might win some Paul had gone so to work with himself that he had brought himself to a conformity to all occasions and kinds of services and could comply with all for their benefit When men shall see the carriage and deportment of a man and shall not be able to see what the natural temper and genius of the man is when they shall see him in such variety of action and all that which he doth to become him to have beauty and reason in it this is a sign that the man thus endued hath a very rich and glorious anointing of the Spirit of God in him But when mens natural tempers do encrease in them so as that these will have part and share in their actings it is a sign that Nature is not thoroughly broken nor wholly subdued but that there is somewhat yet more for the Spirit of God to do Elsewhere he demandeth of these Corinthians 1 Cor. 4.21 What will you Shall I come unto you with a rod or in love and in the Spirit of meekness From whence it appears that Paul could upon occasion both use the rod of Apostolical Authority where he saw cause and take vengeance on disobedience as he speaketh elsewhere And could likewise demean himself with gentleness towards Christians even as a Nurse cherisheth and is tender over her Children as he speaketh of himself 1 Thes 2.7 In matters of outward estate he knew as he saith both how to be abased i. e. to want and how to abound Phil. 4.12 Meaning that he was able and knew how to manage both estates Adversity and Prosperity according to such Rules by which these conditions ought to be managed respectively yea and may be managed to the glory of God and likewise to the comfort and contentment of men that partake in either And as he saith he knew how to be abased and how to abound so likewise in his deportment he knew how to stoop to the ground and to sit upon a Dunghil with those that were Poor and weak and of Low degree in the Church of Christ And he knew likewise how to be a Companion for Princes and to stand up with the highest and greatest of all with persons of greatest esteem Paul we know had a spirit that was able to resist even Peter himself one of the greatest Pillars of the Christian Faith then in the World and to withstand him to his face when there was just occasion so to do My Brethren He that knew how to do this must needs have a mighty command of himself For take him at another turn when the state of businesses was altered and when he was in the presence of poor and weak Saints he could act another part and quit himself like a poor and weak man as if he had nothing of the carriage or of the resolution of a man in him Thus Jesus Christ himself to whom the Spirit was given not by measure as John speaketh Joh. 3.34 is compared in Scripture as well to a Lamb as to a Lion and is presented unto the World under both these Denominations one while he is called the Lamb of God another while he is called The Lion of the Tribe of Judah to shew that he knows how to act the properties of both according as he judgeth seasonable and meet When he cometh to those who are poor in Spirit he blesseth and speaketh in a still voice unto them and when he hath to do with the Scribes and Pharisees then he pronounceth with a loud voice Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees hyppocrites Now his Spirit was up on high and full of courage and undaunted resolution Yea now he is in heaven and ascended to the right hand of the Majesty on high Heb. 1.3 Yet doth he still retain the same qualifications or dispositions To many Persons he doth behave himself like a Lamb with much sweetness and great condescention and otherwhile he can roar like a Lion upon others and appear in judgment when he seeth his time and when the exigencies of the business which is before him requireth it Now the reason Sect. 8 why I conceive that such a sweet consorting of a mans spirit and behaviour to all variety of occasions which he can meet with from time to time must needs be a great Argument of a rich anointing of the Spirit is this partly because to distinguish exactly between the Exigencies of Occasions requireth a very excellent degree of Wisdom a much refined Understanding and partly also because it requireth a great command of a mans spirit a depressing or dissolution of a mans natural temper whatever it was to be able to apply himself only and conscienciously to all variety of occasions respectively both which argue a large and liberal presence of the Spirit of God in men partly also because it is so rare a sight to see a Person man or woman even amongst Believers themselves in whose Conversations and Deportments that savory wise and consciencious comportment with the various natures and Exigencies of occasions is to be found First I say to understand judgment as the Scripture Phrase is to know what is comely and worthy for a Christian to do at all times and cases requires a great spiritualness of understanding to apprehend how the feries and tenour of all a mans actions may be made spiritually harmonious when to rise and when to fall and when to keep a middle strain between high and low as every of these respective carriages may best accommodate the interest of God in the World I mean his honour and praise and the interest likewise of men this requireth an heart in some degree like unto Solomons which the Scriptures compare to the sands that are upon the Sea-shore 1 Kings 4.29 Now the heart of Solomon is said to be large like unto the sands of the Sea-shore which are not to be numbred because he had a world of notions and apprehensions in his mind or understanding by reason whereof he was able to understand most exactly how he ought to behave himself upon all occasions and how to sute himself with the Exigency of every affair he had all circumstances before him and he turned them and weighed them in his hand and therefore saith he Eccl. 3.1 2 c. There is a time for every purpose under the Sun A time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted a time to build and a time to break down a time to weep and a time to rejoyce a time to cast away stones and a time to gather c. Now he must be a wise man indeed as he speaketh Chap. 8.5 6. Whose heart discerneth time and judgment i. e. that is able to discern the time and season for one Action or one kind of deportment from that which is proper
shews â—hat the reward of a Prophet is great And so again He that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous mens reward Now here he makes a difference between the reward of a righteous man and of a Prophet And so in 1 Cor. 3 12. the Apostle speaking of the different managing of the Ministry of the Gospel in the preaching thereof expresseth himself thus If any man bâ—ild Hay and Stubble c upon the foundation Jesus Christ he shall suffer loss namely in his reward though he may be saved And so on the other hand he that shall build Silver and Gold and Precious stones shall not only be saved but shall sustain no loss or detriment in his reward which the other shall certainly do Other foundation saith the Apostle ver 11. can no man lay i. e. upon any reasonable terms or grounds Men indeed may build upon this foundation either Silver or Gold or Precious Stones or Hay and Stubble and rotten Wood I mean men may build such kind of Doctrines which do hold a natural correspondency with the foundation or they may build such Doctrines as are unsutable and are so expressed by the terms of Hay and Stubble and Wood that is such Doctrines Notions and Imaginations which are altogether inconsistent with that precious foundation Jesus Christ Now speaking of these things saith he Every mans work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it and if any mans work shall abide the trial he shall receive the full reward of it but if any mans work shall be burnt meaning in part not that the foundation shall burn if any mans superstructure shall be Hay Stubble c. he shall suffer loss his reward shall not be so large so rich and so great as it would have been in case he had neither built Hay nor Stubble nor Wood but only Gold Silver and Precious Stones Therefore it is clear that there shall be some difference even amongst those that are Preachers and Teachers of the Gospel which together shall be saved in respect of the reward of their labours Besides this place there are several other expressions to this purpose that of our Saviour in his answer to the Sons of Zebedeus Mat. 20.23 clearly doth suppose that there are such places in his Kingdom places at his right hand and at his left hand we know it is not only the common interpretation of the place but it is likewise according to the manner of all Nations of Kings and supreme Governours that those that are nearest unto them in place and highest in their favour do sit next unto them at the right hand and at the left And so again 2 Joh. v. 8. he adviseth them not to lose those things which they had gained meaning that they had done much good that they had held forth the name of Jesus Christ now take heed saith he that you do not lose the things which you have wrought that you may receive a fall reward Now such men who shall hold on their way not only when there shall be no interruption in their way of well-doing but also when troubles and temptations shall attend them for righteousness sake these are they that shall not lose what they have wrought But for others that shall abate in their zeal and faithfulness to God though they do not decline to that degree but that they may be saved at the last yet will they not receive so full a reward there will not be so many blessings for them as there might have been in case that they had pursued without making any digression Mat. 5.10 11 12. Our Saviour pronounceth blessedness to them who are persecuted for righteousness sake Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsly for my names sake rejoyce and be exceeding glad the word signifies leap or dance for joy for great is your reward in heaven Sect. 16 But besides the general vergency and leaning of the Scriptures on that hand we speak of there are several reasons and grounds agreeable to the Scriptures and to the nature of the thing it self that perswade very much that way First If God should make those of his Saints or believers that are most remiss and negligent in his service here on earth equal in reward of blessedness and glory unto those who have been eminently zealous and signally faithfull and have been content to spend and be spent as the Apostle speaks upon his interest and service and especially if he shall be supposed to declare his mind accordingly unto the World he shall not only want one of the greatest Arguments and Motives to perswade men and women unto waies that are excellent but also overture such a thing which would be a snare and temptation to fight low and to move drowsily heavily and slowly in the course of Christianity For when men shall know and consider that whatsoever they shall do more than others of their Brethren shall turn to no account at all unto them unless it be haply to somewhat that is less considerable in this present World as matter of credit reputation c. though in such respects it is much more like to work a quite contrary way viz. to matter of envy hatred c. When men I say shall understand that all their high acting for God and the interest of his glory in the World shall produce nothing of a more desirable consequence or import unto them than seven times less would have done must not their hand hereby be much weakned as to the things that are excellent Secondly If they who shall excell in righteousness shall be but equal in reward unto those who shall act but at an under rate therein then it follows that God should not love Holiness and Righteousness at least that there should be some Holiness or which is the same some degree of Holiness which he doth not love or at least that he should love something in the Creature which yet he should not reward or which is the same with all these that God should not love him more who is more holy and righteous and consequently more like unto himself than another who is less righteous less holy and so less like himself But all these things are repugnant to the Nature of God For certain it is that if God loves righteousness and holiness simply and in respect of their nature absolutely considered then he proportionably loves them more where they are found in any further or more eminent degree As it was in Christ Because he loved Righteousness and hated Iniquity viz. with a more perfect hatred than any other of the Saints therefore he anointed him with the oyl of gladness above his Fellows Heb. 1.9 Thirdly and lastly it is evident that God doth consider the eminent services of some men in this World and doth eminently and above the rate of the ordinary wages of
heart and spirit Psal 31.9 10. It makes men heavy lumpish and sad averse unto all action as if they had neither life nor soul as we use to say being like unto Davids Images That have hands and handle not feet and walk not c. Psal 115.7 And Jobs three Friends Job 2.13 cast themselves down with him upon the ground and for seven daies and seven nights together none of them speaking so much as a word unto him the reason is given because they saw that his grief was very great Meaning as Junius well interprets it That the greatness of that grief which they perceived had taken hold of the spirit and soul of their Friend so afflicted them and because that sympathy commiseration had wrought such a grief in them that they sate all this while as persons astonished and were not able to stir up themselves to comfort him by these instances you may see it is the nature of grief to contract the heart and to make men listless unto action In like manner the Spirit through the ungrateful disobedient and unworthy behaviour of men towards him is said to be grieved when by such means men have wrought him if we may so speak to the like listlessness of acting and putting forth the excellencie of his power in their hearts and souls as formerly he did and doth sometime in others On the other hand a man is never in a right posture for action or for the doing of any thing that is of any good or great concernment unto others but when he enjoyeth himself upon the highest and richest terms of satisfaction and contentment So then the Spirit of God is said to be grieved by men when they shall deal so unkindly with or by him as to reject and neglect his heavenly motions and inspirations by giving over such and such waies of honour Christian excellency and worth which they had sometime lift up their hearts and hands unto and walked with delight in them When men I say shall cease to go on in such waies as these and prefer the ignoble and base motions of the Flesh or of the World before those that come from him and which are all honourable and heavenly such a demeanour of men towards the Spirit of God grieveth him that is Maketh him listless unto action and causeth him to abate and to fall lower in his operations and to give out himself more faintly than before Whereas he had been active and ever and anon stirring and provoking them and this with efficacie and power unto this and that good way and work now he withdraweth by degrees and declineth these motions and operations upon which the soul of man becomes listless and dull to any thing of a spiritual concernment like a Ship becalmed on the Seas whose Sails a little before were filled with fresh and pleasant gales of wind carrying her amain to her desired Port. Now then if it be a duty lying upon Christians not to grieve the Spirit Then by the authority of both the Rules by which we found out the true sense of our former proof both of them being as proper and useful here it is their duty also to chear and delight the Spirit I mean to keep themselves in such a frame or posture both inwardly in heart and soul and outwardly in life and conversation that he may take delight in them And if it be the duty of Christians to be pleasing unto and compliant with the Spirit simply indefinitely and in any degree Then upon the grounds formerly argued and made good it is more their duty to endeavour with their whole heart and soul to please him in the highest Now when he taketh delight and pleasure in any man in more than an ordinary degree he will signifie not only his contentment in this kind but even the measure and degree of it also by a proportionable advancement of his gracious activity upon all occasions This is that we intend and hold forth in the Doctrine from the Apostles expression of being filled with the Spirit which also by warrant of the same authority we affirm to be a duty lying upon all Christians We shall insist only upon one proof more to confirm the truth of the Doctrine Sect. 11 Be kindly affectioned saith the Apostle one unto another c. Be not slothful in business but fervent in spirit serving the Lord Rom. 12.10 11. To be fervent in Spirit especially in the Service of God or of Christ requires a great presence or fulness of the Spirit of God in a man For the Spirit of a man acted only by it self or by its own strength wisdom or goodness will never rise so high in any true and real Service of god as fervency of spirit doth import Neither will an ordinary presence or assistance of the Spirit of God himself carry the heart of a man up unto any such pitch of devotion He that will have an ear to hearken to the voice of this Exhortation of being fervent in spirit in the Service of the Lord must find out a way how to engage and how to comport with the Spirit of God that he may vouchsafe unto him a measure of his presence heaped up to make him capable of so great and worthy an undertaking Yea men I suppose cannot be fervent in spirit in doing any thing which they call or judge to be the Service of God although it be a Service of their own fansie or genius or of some worse deity unless they be acted therein by a spirit more active than their own So then if it be a duty lying upon all Christians to be fervent in spirit serving the Lord then is it a duty that beareth with the same weight upon them to be filled with the Spirit Inasmuch as the performance of the former of these duties cannot stand but by the performance of the latter so that from hence it is evident that it is a duty incumbent upon all Christians to be filled with the Spirit Besides these Scriptures now argued we might if need were increase their number for the proof of our Doctrine by arguing in like manner all those Scriptures which require such things of men that cannot be performed by men without a being filled with the Spirit such passages of these which are not a few do clearly import that it is a duty yea a duty of duties such a duty without the performance whereof great numbers of other duties will suffer and never appear in their glory Texts of this import are these with their fellows Rom 8.13 Joh. 16.24 Luke 21.36 CHAP. II. The first Reason of the Doctrine propounded and argued viz That it is the duty of all persons especially of all the Professors of the Gospel or Christianity to be filled with the Holy Ghost or Spirit of God Because if men be not filled or in a way of being filled with the Spirit of God they will be filled with some evil Spirit one or other IT is
the face of the Lord Christ himself in his transfiguration on the Mount did shine as the Sun Mat. 17.2 Yet I think it is no mans Faith that either the faces or the bodies of the Saints shall shine with equal glory unto his For how should he then in all things have the preheminence which yet the Apostle affirms concerning him Col. 1.18 Therefore when it is also said That he shall change the vile body of the Saints that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body the word like doth not import the quantity or degree but only the quality or nature of the glory of the body of Christ unto which their vile body shall be conformed as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth For otherwise the import would be that the bodies of all the Saints should be equal in glory unto the body of Christ himself which is a thing so little worthy belief that as was even now hinted Christians generally are either ashamed or affraid to affirm it So that the meaning of the passage must needs be this or to this effect That Christ by the Almightiness of his power will so alter the property and condition of the bodies of the Saints which now in the state of mortality are vile that is of an abasing and humbling complexion and frame as to invest them with an heavenly splendour and brightness of the same kind with that wherewith his own body is made most transcendently glorious not but that he should be known amongst them by the surpassing glory of his body above theirs as readily as the Sun may be known from the rest of the Stars whose light nevertheless is of the same kind with the light of the Sun and derived from it Nor yet as if all the Saints who shall all partake of this glory should partake hereof in the same measure or degree As though all the Stars in the firmament of Heaven which to us are without number shine with one and the same kind of light namely that which is originally vested in the Sun and is by and from him communicated unto them yet are they not equal among themselves in the participation of this light the Apostle himself attesting the judgment of our sense in this that one star differeth from another in glory 1 Cor. 15.41 meaning not in respect of the nature or kind but in the quantity measure or degree of that light which makes them all glorious And if that notion of some Philosophers as well as of some learned Christians be true which many thoughts bestowed upon the Contemplation have made little questionable unto me that God hath stamp'd the matters of the visible and invisible World with the same seal and made the things that are seen in a rational correspondency with the things that are not seen that so by the one men might the more easily ascend to the knowledge and belief of the other I cannot but judge it a probability of the first magnitude that God as the Author of Nature hath created such Creatures as the Sun on the one hand and the rest of the Stars respectively on the other and so contrived dependencies respects and relations between and amongst them not only if so much to serve the World in those inferiour accommodations of light influence distinction of seasons c. for in reason he might have as well provided for these and all such ends and purposes by some other contrivance and ordering of them at least in some particulars but that they might be a natural type or representation wherein he purposeth to appear in glorifying his Son Jesus Christ on the one hand and his Saints respectively on the other For he purposeth to confer and settle upon Christ such an heaped measure of glory by which he shall be known to be the only begotten of the Father Joh. 1.14 and be eminently conspicuous amongst and over all his Saints and from which all these according to their different capacities shall be furnished and filled with glory even as all the stars according to their several magnitudes and receptivities have their fill of light communicated unto them by and from the Sun whose superabounding light by degrees without number surmounteth theirs So when the Apostle Paul promiseth or declareth that Crowns of righteousness shall be given to all the Saints by Christ for these he meaneth by those that love his appearance as well as unto himself although there will be found very few or none of them equal in service unto him his meaning only is that they shall be advanced to royal honour and dignity and wear Crowns as well as he But amongst Kings themselves there is we know a great difference in respect of riches extent of Dominion number of Subjects strength for war and consequently in Magnificence Grandeur Majesty Yea all Crowns are not of equal weight or value Nor doth the Apostle in the place in hand give the least intimation of an equality in worth or richness in all the Crowns that shall be given by Christ unto his Saints in glory The current of the Scripture as was lately shewed unto you runs another way And thus we have at last we trust made good the first of the two supposals in the reason last propounded Which was that there is a variety of rewards greater and lesser intended by God to be counferred upon his Saints according as his grace shall be found to have wrought in them more or less effectually in this present World The second thing supposed in the Reason was that every man every person of mankind stands bound in duty towards God yea Sect. 13 and towards himself also to put himself by the grace vouchsafed unto him into a capacity of the greatest rewards to seek and labour for the richest investiture of glory that such a Creature as he is capable of There is a sense indeed wherein the seeking of such a thing is so far from being matter of duty that it is nothing else but sin and vanity to do it And this is such a seeking as that which we read of in the Mother of Zebedees children Mat. 20.20 21. and so in the Children themselves Mar. 10.35 Now the Mother sought for the highest preferments in Heaven signified by sitting on the right and left hand of Christ in his Kingdom she sought I say for this in the behalf of her Sons in the nature of a gratuity hoping that seeking in time and before the said places were disposed of she might be gratified in her request as if the first desires were likest to speed And so the Sons themselves sought it after the like manner or upon the same terms if the honours or high places in Christs Kingdom were to be obtained by meer petitioning or asking for them The meaning therefore of the supposition is That it is every mans duty not simply to ask or only to desire the most excellent things of the World to come but to put themselves into
as this is therefore he is said to be sent sometimes by the Father sometimes by the Son And yet the same sending as I said before doth not imply as the Argument would have it as if he changed his place because he is said to be sent from heaven as if he were not resident and present there still But he is said to come from Heaven to shew that the work which he doth accomplish and bring to pass from day to day is a divine work And it is the manner of the Hebrew Dialect and Language to say that that is spoken from heaven or revealed from Heaven which is done with a high hand and in a wonderful and more than ordinary manner As when there is the unbared Arm of God then the work is said to be done from Heaven The Holy Ghost when he was sent down upon the Apostles was as much in heaven as before So much for answer to this Argument we will God willing be briefer in the rest The seventh Argument He that is the gift of God is not God Sect. 13 the Holy Ghost is the gift of God therefore he is not God The sum and substance of this Argument being contracted is this The Holy Ghost cannot be God because he is given God being himself the giver of all things and so not capable of being given and a gift or that which is given being at the disposal of him that giveth which is unworthy to conceive of God viz. that he should be at the disposal of another These three Propositions laid before us in this Argument which are Pillars and supporters of it are all weak and unsound As first That he that is the gift of God is not God or cannot be God Secondly That he that is the gift of God cannot be the giver of all things Thirdly and lastly That a gift is in the power and at the disposal of another For To the first of these God being sui Juris at the absolute disposal of himself for who shall deny him this liberty may give himself unto whom he pleaseth so that God may be both the Gift and the Giver As when the Husband or Bridegroom giveth himself to his Bride he is both Gift and Giver And thus Christ gave himself to his Church in respect of which Act of Donation he is both the Giver and the Gift And the truth is that God in giving his Spirit unto us yea though we should grant the Adversary his blasphemous Supposition viz. That the Spirit is not truly God may yet be said to give himself unto us how much more when we according to the Scriptures which teach us that the Spirit of the Lord and the Lord the Spirit are all one 2 Cor. 1.11 do believe this Spirit is God and consequently giveth himself For what is it for God to give himself unto men but by a free and voluntary disposing himself by Covenant or Promise to become theirs Did he not establish his Covenant between himself and Abraham and his seed after him for an everlasting Covenant to be a God unto him and to his seed after him Gen. 17.7 And so afterwards unto Israel this Seed of Abraham did he not say by the mouth of David Hear oh my People c. I am God even thy God Psal 50.7 What is that which is given us more than ours Or what can it be more So that the first Proposition mentioned is notoriously untrue He that is the gift of God is not God or cannot be God From the errour of this Proposition thus evicted as you have heard the weakness of the second fully appeareth many words I shall not need for confutation of it The Proposition was this He that is the gift of God is not cannot be the giver of all things If God be the giver of all things which our Adversary with the Scriptures granteth and affirmeth and withal be his own gift It is a clear case that he that is the gift of God may be yea and is the giver of all things And concerning the Spirit of God it is expresly said 1 Cor. 12.11 But all these things worketh one and the self same Spirit dividing to every man severally as he will these words as he will clearly prove that those Administrations and gifts of the Holy Ghost there spoken of are not only distributed and given immediately by him but that he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at full liberty of and from himself to order and make this distribution as he pleaseth which is a Character not of a derived and commissionated power but of that which is soveraign and absolute which in this case must needs be divine and appropriate unto God for it is not only said that he worketh all these things and giveth all these gifts but that he giveth and maketh distribution even as himself pleaseth Certainly there was no Commission so large as this ever given out by God for any Creature whatsoever to do by the great things of Jesus Christ and such as concern the Salvation of men to dispose and distribute of them to whom and where and to what degree he pleaseth And accordingly he that in the place last cited is termed the Spirit but all these things worketh one and the self same Spirit He is in the sixth verse expresly said to be God And there are diversities of operations but it is the same God that worketh all in all therefore certainly the Spirit of God and God himself they are one and the same these things duly considered they are impregnably express for the proof of the Divinity of the Holy Ghost For the third and last Proposition of the three specified viz. That a gift is in the power and at the disposal of another neither is this necessary and universally true For God as we have proved is a gift viz. of his own giving and yet is not hereby proved to be at the disposal of another but only and solely of himself so that this Argument is crazie and loose all over As for that which he adds towards the close of it it is altogether as inconsiderable as the rest viz. That if the Person of the Holy Ghost be given unto certain men then he was not Personally with them before and consequently cannot be God by the concession of his Adversaries themselves who deny not that God is alwaies personally present with all alike For the Holy Ghost is noted to be given unto some certain men in respect not simply of his Personal presence with them but in respect of the fruition and enjoyment of his Personal presence or in respect of such a presence of his Person with them which sheddeth or poureth out the love of God abroad in their hearts i. e. perswades men effectually and with power to believe the love of God towards them stirs up many holy thoughts and motions in them from time to time We do acknowledge indeed such a personal presence of his with all men alike
that way and to tempt our selves to a neglect of the Commandments of God yea and to dishearten and discourage men from so much as the knowledge of what is commanded them of God For if they shall know their Masters Will and yet not do it and do it they cannot if the intention of God stand in opposition hereunto or if they want ability to do it I say to know the Will of God and not to do it is to incur the danger of being beaten with many stripes and to bring the sorer condemnation upon themselves Therefore we need not demur upon this Point or doubt but that whatsoever God hath commanded us to do yea or shall exhort us unto he hath put us into a capacity of doing it at least into a mediate or remote capacity from which we may thorough the grace of God that is never wanting unto us in this kind advance unto that which is immediate and within reach of the duty or performance it self Let us therefore comfort our selves over this gracious Advice and Exhortation given unto us by God of being filled with the Spirit and know that though it be an Estate or Priviledge very high and glorious as we have declared formerly yet it lieth within the reach of our faithful and zealous endeavours for the obtaining it there is nothing that can hinder us from the obtaining of it but our voluntary neglect and our slothfulness which as it is the impoverishing and beggaring many thousand in the World in respect of outward things so is it universally the spiritual beggary and poverty of Christians There is no man suffers the want of any thing for his peace and for the accommodation of his soul but his own slothfulness and his own carelesness in this kind is accessary unto and the occasion of it Fourthly and lastly for Instruction If the Doctrine be true Sect. 7 take we notice from hence yet further that it is the Will and Desire of God we should be excellent that we should be a Royal Priesthood indeed unto him that we should live the life of Angels both in point of HOliness and of Happiness For such a life as this in both these high accommodations is comprehended in a being filled with the Spirit as we have formerly at large made known unto you when we set before you the transcendent Priviledges and great glory of such a state or accomplishment How rich and blessed a Contemplation is it to feed upon and to nourish our hearts withal that God would not have us live at any low under or pedling rate as not of Action Service or Employment so neither of Contentment Joy or Satisfaction But his mind and desire is to make us to live like Princes for the greatness and nobleness of our Imployments on the one hand and like Princes also for the desirableness of our state and condition on the other hand It is said of Chirst that he hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father Rev. 1.6 First Kings then Priests Kings in order to their Priesthood for the truth is there is none fit or meet to be Priests unto God but those that are Kings i.e. that enjoy themselves upon the richest and highest terms of contentment and joy that may be Those that minister unto him in his holy things do not answer the nature and dignity of the Service or of the things about which and wherein they minister but especially they do not answer the infinite goodness and bounty of him whom they serve who minister unto him either with dejected and sad hearts and spirits on the one hand or with remiss or indifferent hearts on the other hand Priests of a right Consecration had need partake of the anointing of the great High Priest himself I mean they had need be anointed with the oyl of joy and gladness above their Fellows above other men Now that the Heart of God is with the Sons and Daughters of men to put them into the honourable capacity we speak of as far as is meet for him to promote the thing appears as hath been said by that most gracious advice he gives them in requiring them to be filled with the Spirit This is that which will make them Kings indeed and Priests indeed He that is filled with the Spirit is fit to stand before the God of all the Earth and to minister unto him so that if any person be not a King and so in the fullest capacity of being a Priest unto God the reason of his defectiveness in this kind is not God The reason why he is not a King or Priest of this Royal Consecration is not because God would not have him to be such or because he is unwilling to confer such things upon him such an anointing which would make him a Priest of this Consecration We see that God would have us all filled with the Spirit which being interpreted as we have heard is to make us a Royal or Kingly Priesthood But the reason of every mans defectiveness or falling short in this kind is his own Oscitancy willing negligence and unworthiness of spirit We cannot say as Balak the King said unto Balaam the Prophet Num. 24.11 Now the Lord hath kept the back from honour No it is not the Lord who hath kept us from this honour but we our selves He is so far from keeping us from it that he calls upon us and counsels us and tells us what we have to do in order to the obtaining of it And as I said before it is not meet for him to go on any farther in this work his Spirit is free unto it his Spirit is near unto you it would fill your heart and soul it would make you all Princes and make you all a Royal Priesthood unto God but it is not meet for God to force such a thing as this upon you to make you do it whether you will or no to make you Kings and Priets whether you will or no But now that you might do this he delivers out himself unto you and he expecteth that there should be a consent on both hands though otherwise there is as much importunity and force to encline and carry you that way as can be in a way of Argument yea and as much force in respect of secret Impulse and Excitation by the Spirit of God as may be only reserving unto you the Liberty of consenting unto it So that this is another Instruction of rich concernment unto your souls even to consider that there is nothing between us and such an unspeakable dignity of being Kings and Priests unto the Eternal God There is nothing on Gods part wanting the Heavens are open they bow down themselves unto you on this behalf If any man doth fall short let him know that there is nothing but only his Unworthiness of spirit which whilest he doth harbour and doth nor overcome he cannot lay out his heart and soul so free in the consideration of
dissatisfaction and contradict and be contentious such ought to know and consider for their satisfaction that neither they the Apostles nor yet the Churches of God far or near had in the case mentioned any such custome which was contrary unto and differing from that which now they had commended unto them So the great Prophet David long before judged it an absurdity a thing unworthy of him to act any thing wherein he should offend against or condemn the generation of the Righteous Psal 73.15 meaning the generality of Saints or persons fearing God So that the Authority Testimony and Consent of Christians in their several Generations in matters concerning their Profession and Religion ought to be and alwaies hath been amongst the best and soundest Christians of very great esteem especially when matters in question between themselves could not be cleared issued or determined otherwise And they that in such cases would not be satisfied herewith were still looked upon by sober Christians as men of proud turbulent and unpeaceable spirits according to the saying of an ancient Writer Contra rationem nemo sobrius Contra Scripturas nemo Christianus Contra Ecclesiam nemo pacificus And it is a saying of a learned Country-man of our own Doctor White Hominem Christianum nunquam eum arbitrabor qui judicium Ecclesiae nihili fecerit Another late Writer of great note and worth hath this saying Quod per omnem Ecclesiam receptum est disputando velle in cotroversiam vocare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est Now then for the swaying and ordering of our Judgments in the Question in hand in case we be at a loss or at a stand in respect of all artificial Arguments and Proofs from the Scriptures certainly the Judgment of the Christian Churches and of the learned Teachers thereof in all Ages is of the most and safest concernment unto us What their sense in the case more generally is and from the Apostles time hath been we shall shew presently Secondly Sect. 13 Suppose this to be the case that we are travelling in a Journey we come where there is a diversity of waies one on this hand another on that hand and being strangers in the Country we know not which of the two waies leads to the place whither we are going only we are certainly informed that many sober and understanding persons who have travelled to the same place whither we are going and were careful in their Journey to find out the right way went that way for example which lieth on the right hand and that very few and these little considerable otherwise went the other way that lieth on the left hand Is it not then much more reasonable that in this uncertainty we should take that way which hath been most occupied and beaten by the feet of so many discreet and wary Travellers who we have the greatest grounds of confidence to believe are safely arrived at the place whither they intended their Journey and we intend ours also than to adventure our selves in the other way concerning which we know not whether ever any person travelling in it came in peace to his Journeys end This is the case between the two Opinions before us that which denieth the Holy Ghost to be God the same God in Essence or Substance with the Father and that which confesseth or believeth him to be God equal with the Father Now then there is on the right hand way those who say that the Holy Ghost is God the most high God And there are on the left hand those also who deny him to be the most High God But those that went on the right hand way were the generality of Christians which were most sober and most learned and fullest of Piety and Zeal who believed the Holy Ghost to be God indeed one and the same God with the Father and concerning these viz. the generality of ancient Fathers and Christian Martyrs of old and Confessours in the Primitive times and the great body of Christians taught and instructed by them we have the greatest assurance that lightly can be that these are safely arrived at the place whereunto they travelled which is the Kingdom of Heaven Whereas concerning those who have gone the other way which saith the Holy Ghost is not God but a created and finite Spirit as they are very inconsiderable as I said being compared with those that have gone the other way so were they viz. the greatest number of those few the greatest Persecutors that ever the Christian Churches met withal For it is generally acknowledged that the Arian Persecution was the greatest that ever was and that it rose from out of them And for the course of their lives they are not therein comparable to the generality of those that are gone the other way So that in such a case as this it is easie to determine what is best becoming Christians to do if they should be strangers to both the Opinions If they do not know but that the one may be as good as the other yet inasmuch as the generality and best sort of Travellers those who are of the best credit and most judicious have gone that way which we are contending for it is most safe and most acceptable in the eyes of God who loveth that men should act according to Principles of Reason for men in their judgment to go along with such For certainly after a consciencious search and enquiry about the truth in any matter of question in Christian Religion if we cannot come by the light of any Argument from the Scriptures to satisfie our selves touching the truth therein God himself doth send us for our resolution to the footsteps of the Flock and to the Shepherds Tents I mean to the Authority and Judgment of the Churches of Christ in their Generation Thirdly Sect. 14 Though God in his Law Exod. 23.2 prohibiteth men to follow a multitude to do evil what multitude soever it be and consequently to joyn with a multitude in receiving or taking up an Error yet of the two it is better I mean it is far the lesser sin and less provoking in the sight of God to follow a multitude of grave wise and consciencious persons upon the terms specified though it be as to matter of issue and event to take up an erroneous Perswasion or Opinion than it is to forsake such a multitude as we speak of grave wise c. though a man should peradventure embrace the truth it is more safe for a man to take up an error with such a Multitude than to go alone or with some few or inconsiderate or inconsiderable ones only The reason is because it is much more reasonable to expect the truth amongst a multitude of grave sober and consciencious persons who are studious of the truth than to expect it amongst a few inconsiderable persons comparatively concerning whose integrity or unfeigned love to the truth there is much more doubt and question Now this also is the case before us
unto persons of both opinions whose waies otherwise are worthy the Gospel and Profession thereof yet the truth is that partly the nature and partly the consequence of the two Opinions compared together their distance being so great as it is and they so contrary one unto the other it is not a matter of easie conception how they both should be saved unless with the men against whom we now argue and have under reproof who are in this respect the off-spring of the old Hereticks called the Origenlans who hold that after a certain time all men without exception as well bad as good shall be saved yea the very truth is that the entire Systeme and body of that Religion and Doctrine some few common and general Principles only excepted and these also corruptly understood which the men we now speak of own is scarce any thing else but a Rapsody or Fardle of old abhorrid Errors and Heresies of the Anthropomorphits Arians Macedonians Origenists with several others who were the greatest troublers of the Gospel in the course of it and Enemies and Opposers of the Truth in their times Sixthly and lastly All the premised particulars duly weighed Sect. 18 and considered methinks any sober and considering Christian should require and stand up every whit as much for his satisfaction and conviction in this opinion that the Holy Ghost is but a meer Creature and to bring over his Judgment thereunto as the Jews did to perswade them that Christ was the Son of God who as our Saviour himself told the Nobleman at Capernaum Joh. 4.48 were at such a distance from believing it that exept they saw signs and wonders they would not believe they were resolved not to believe it upon any inferiour or lower account In like manner considering what the Scriptures speak in way of oppesition and how matters have gone all along from Age to Age in the Christian Churches in reference to this Doctrine and Opinion that the Holy Ghost is a Creature and not God It is strange to me that any sober or well advised persons professing Christianity should entertain it upon terms of any weak or less convincing demonstration than of Miracles and Signs and Wonders or of the Testimony of an Angel from heaven to assert it and therefore they that do subject unto it are of that Generation of men which the Wiseman speaketh of Pro. 14.15 They are of the House and Linage of that simple man who will believe every thing any thing let the nature of it be never so inconsistent and the connexion between things never so loose and groundless I had not insisted upon this branch of our Use of Reproof so largely but that the delinquent spirit is so rampant in the World and busily acting his part near unto us and amongst us and the Apostles direction to Titus is Tit. 1.9 10. That a Bishop or Pastor of a Church should hold fast the faithful Word as he hath been taught viz. by the Apostles that he may be able by sound Doctrine to exhort and convince the gain-sayer for there are many unruly and vain talkers especially they of the Circumcision whose mouths must be stopped There are men and still have been whose mouths must be stopped but not as some would interpret it by Prisons or by Sword No but stopped they must be i. e. way-laid in their Judgments Consciences and Understandings by the Scriptures This is that which the Apostle requireth in a Bishop that he may be able by sound Doctrine both to exhort and convince And by the way take notice of this that he must exhort by sound Doctrine the truth is that many Bishops in the World do exhort many times very soundly but not by sound Doctrine For their Doctrine standeth at West and their Exhortation standeth South Now a faithful Bishop every man in that Office and Place must exhort with sound Doctrine his Exhortation must be comportant with the spirit and soul and tendency of his Doctrine the one must not be a Samaritan and the other a Jew But this by the way I shall leave this sort of Offenders at present only with reminding them of that passage of our Saviour Mat. 5.19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of the least of these Commandments and shall teach men so he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of heaven My Brethren to break any of the least of the Commands of Christ knowingly when a man doth understand and is convinced that it is the Command of Christ is a sin of high provocation unto God but especially to teach men so to do i. e. to teach such a Doctrine which may strengthen any mans hand to despise neglect and disregard any Commandment of Christ this is provoking in the sight of God and that in the highest and of such a demerit that such a man deserves no place in the Kingdom of God Therefore whosoever they be who shall first weaken their own hands before they weaken anothers they that teach themselves to break the Commands of God and then shall spread abroad such Opinions and Notions that shall animate and encourage men so to do they shall be least in the Kingdom of God they shall have no respect there they shall not be numbred amongst the Servants of Jesus Christ therefore such persons as these who bring in and set on foot any such Doctrine which doth break and quench the endeavours of the spirit of men from following any piece or strain of that heavenly Counsel which the Holy Ghost hath given unto men certainly they fall under this heavy Sentence and Censure of Jesus Christ to be least in the Kingdom of Heaven CHAP. XIV A third sort of Offenders reproved are such who instead of following the Exhortation of being filled with the Spirit take a course to be emptied of the Spirit of God Who make it matter of Conscience to turn their backs upon the Ministry of the Gospel which is called the Ministry of the Spirit Wherein the several Scriptures and Reasons by which they strengthen themselves in their evil way are examined and found bent against them And likewise the necessity of the Ministry of the Gospel and the great benefit thereof largely asserted and vindicated A Third sort of Offenders to be reproved upon the former general account viz. as Enemies to that subjection Sect. 1 and observation which ought to be given to the Apostles Exhortation of being filled with the Spirit are such who take a course rather to be emptied of the Spirit of God than to be filled with him and of losing all that presence and Communion with the Spirit which sometimes they had received and yet may partake of to some degree and that by falling upon such practices and engaging in such courses which are of a direct tendency to dispossess them of all Communion with him and to make an absolute separation of the Spirit of God from them These are of two sorts The first are those who make
be praised so shall I be saved from mine Enemies I will pray saith he and then I do expect as it were of course Salvation and deliverance from God And so again in ver 5 6. The sorrows of hell compassed me about And what did he in this case When he saw no way of escape he dispatches his Angel unto Heaven and his Angel was sent back with deliverance he heard my voice out of his Temple and my cry came before him even into his ears And then what follows What a tempest and storm doth God presently raise against his Enemies Ver. 7 8 c. Then the Earth shook and trembled the foundations of the Hills moved and were shaken c. And so again ver 18.19 They prevented me in the day of my calamity But the Lord was my stay he delivered me because he delighted in me We know it is a thing usual with men and that which is but equal and no mans reproach or shame to be more kind and more enclinable to help those that are willing to serve them those that are respectful of them and charge their minds and thoughts with their Affairs and Concernments I say it is but reasonable that a man who is thus respected by another should shew and measure out respects proportionably to him again So God it seems uses to deal with men in this case ver 20 21. The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me for I have kept the waies of the Lord and not wickedly departed from my God We see that it was not simply Prayer or David's crying unto the Lord that brought this deliverance down from Heaven unto him with so high an hand no but it was his righteousness the cleanness of his hands the keeping of himself clean in the sight of God this was that which gave power to his Prayer and caused it to prevail at that high rate with him And so Psal 6.9 10. The Lord saith he hath heard my Supplication and he will receive my Prayer And what then Let all mine Enemies be ashamed and sore vexed c. As if he had said Let them look to it all mine Enemies for I am resolved that I will pray and call upon God and I know then what will fall to their portion and therefore let them look for nothing nor expect nothing but ruine and destruction when I shall do it And in Rev. 11.5 6. It is said there concerning the two Witnesses That if any man would hurt them fire proceeded out of their mouth and devoured their Enemies and if any man will hurt them be must in this manner be killed As if he had said there is no way with them but one if they attempt any thing cruelly and unmercifully against my Witnesses their fiery Prayers and Supplications which proceed out of their mouths will destroy them And so he goes on ver 6. These have power to shut Heaven that it rain not in the day of their Prophesie and have power over waters to turn them into bleud c. Ye have heard that this Book of the Revelations runneth much upon Allegories and Types which it borrows from the Old Testament but the plain meaning of these Expressions is only this that those that should stand it out against Antichrist his Apostacies and the Idolatrous doings in those times should be able to do as great things and to bring to pass things of the like nature and consideration in their kind with those great works in the daies of Elijah and of Moses c. Ezek. 14.14 where God speaks of Noah Daniel and Job that if these men should stand before him yet they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness It is very likely that it was a received Principle amongst the Israelites that men like unto these could prevail for what they would with God and God would not deny them any thing that they asked of him For otherwise it was to no purpose to affect the people and to take them off from expectation of any help from the mediation of them or such as they were unless they had hoped for deliverance by the means of such men But now saith he it is true indeed if these men or any like unto them should stand up and intercede with me they should have somewhat more than other men they should prevail with me for themselves But as to the saving of the Nation and the preventing of the Judgment which I am now fully resolved to execute upon you it is such of such a nature and consequence that it is not fit for me to grant neither indeed would these men ask any such things at my hand if they knew the state of things between me and you and how repugnant it is to those Principles of Holiness Wisdom and Justice by which I govern the World and must govern it if I govern it like my self So God likewise telleth Jeremiah Neither lift up a cry for this people for if they pray I will not hear them Jer. 11.14 14.11 7.16 As if Jeremiah had had such an opinion that this people might have been brought off from that Judgment which God intended towards them and that God should have suffered some kind of inconveniency to have denied him if he had prayed for them and therefore to prevent him he plainly tells him that he would not have him pray for them As if God had said it is not at all out of my way to deny such Petitions and Suits as they that are wicked and stubborn put up but it would be otherwise with me in case thou shouldst pray and I must go somewhat out of my way to deny thee and therefore saith he do it not Now this passage plainly shews that such persons who excell in righteousness and that are wont to lay out themselves freely for God he is wont to express himself with an answerable freedom and bounty to them and consequently to give them power at the Throne of Grace and interest there Thus then we see how and upon what account Persons filled with the Spirit of God must needs according to the Scriptures have a great interest in God and carry a great stroke by their Prayers at the Throne of Grace viz. because they keep his Commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight Now it is a matter of easie and ready apprehension to conceive of how rich a consequence such an high Priviledge as this we have mentioned Sect. 5 and found men and women filled with the Spirit to stand possessed of must needs be to make the life of a man most desirable in this World We know for a man to have the Ear of a King or a great Potentate of the Earth so as to be able to procure his Arm to be stretched forth on his behalf as oft as he should reasonably desire it is esteemed and not altogether without cause to
themselves For when because of any weakness or infirmities which men are subject unto or because of any discourteous behaviour in word or deed used towards us we shall be at any greater distance from them or shall be less kind or serviceable unto them than otherwise we would be in case no such weakness were found upon them or no such unkindness had been done unto us this is the casting of mens burthens upon their own necks and to reject the Commandment of Christ by which we our selves stand charged to bear them The Apostle in this injunction of hearing one another burthens seems to suppose that even in men of the best temper and most Consciencious and Circumspect in their lives and waies there is somewhat more or less that is burthensome that is distasteful unpleasing and in some degree offensive unto others This notwithstanding if men would but fulfil the Law of Christ and cut Tallies one with another every man gratifying other with bearing his burthens the great Common-wealth of Mankind would be prosperous and happy and little or no damage or inconvenience accrue unto it by the weaknesses or want of wisdom in the respective members of it There would be the same as full as quick an entercourse and commerce of love and of the services thereof as there would or could be in case they were all perfect and as so many Angels of God Yea my Brethren this bearing the burthens of one another did we freely submit unto it and practice it would turn to a very happy account ot us in another day For God will not give greater rewards for any kind of works or service than for bearing the burthens of men especially the burthens of the Saints and most of all for the bearing the burthens of Christ viz. persecution for righteousness and a good conscience sake We shall hardly find any of the Commands of God or of jesus Christ but the keeping of them would turn to the peace and comfort of men These are they that in the very nature of them all are apt to create peace and prosperity in the World and the want of a diligent and faithful performance of them is that that doth occasion trouble between man and man and maketh breaches upon their mutual Comforts You can hardly break any of the Commands of Jesus Christ but you will make a breach upon the peace of the World you will fall foul one of another But so long as you keep on in the waies of Christ's Commands you comply and comport with the peace and comfort of the World round about you Secondly Sect. 5 The very Example of a through Conformity and subjection to the Law of God must needs be of a very choice and high accommodation to the World besides the nature and tendency of the actions themselves The very Example though but of one single person his Conformity to the Laws of God may be of singular concernment to the World Your Zeal saith the Apostle to the Corinthians hath provoked many 2 Cor. 9.2 And as the Scripture demandeth a little fire how great a matter or how great a wood for so it is in the original how great a wood or forest of wood doth it kindle or set on fire So one person one man or woman that doth clearly and in the face of the World walk in a through Conformity to the Law of Christ that is tender and circumspect and taketh all his Commands in their respective seasons along with him in his course may propagate a great Generation of Conformists in the same kind For who knoweth how many trees of the Forest of this World may be set on fire by this Example Men and Women more generally seem to look upon the Laws of Jesus Christ as if they were given to men only to hear and speak of or at most to live by in another World and so the neglect or breach of them toucheth few mens Consciences makes no breach upon their peace Whereas if these Laws were but translated into practice by flesh and bloud by men and women subject to like passions and infirmities with themselves this would beget other manner of thoughts in the hearts and consciences of the World generally concerning them Did men but seriously consider it with themselves that if flesh and bloud men of the same nature liable to the same tentations with themselves by the same means and assistance both inward and outward which are afforded unto them can keep the Commandments of Jesus Christ and walk holily they could not lightly but be convinced that certainly the God of Heaven will look for it at their hands that they go and do likewise Again secondly Sect. 6 He that shall diligently and faithfully keep the Commandments of Jesus in the view and sight of the World must needs be a signal Benefactor unto it in the things of their Eternal peace which are of a thousand times greater consequence than all the concernments of this life Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works c. Mat. 5.16 Our Saviour in this passage clearly implies that there is a proper tendency in mens good works to prevail with others to glorifie their Father which is in Heaven viz. by repenting and believing in him and living unto him and this is a most blessed accommodation unto the World The Apostle speaketh concerning the faithful behaviour of Servants towards their Masters Tit. 2.9 10. telling them that by such a carriage and behaviour they shall adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things Now Brethren What is the reason that the hearts of men are not drawn out more freely to the Doctrine of God and Christ Why do mens hearts stand off and make no more treasure of it than they do Doubtless one main reason hereof is it wants adorning and beautifying it is not set forth before their eyes with that advantage to take the hearts of men wherewith it might and ought to be But who are they that do adorn this Doctrine and consequently that commend it in the sight of men and make it a beautiful lovely and desirable object unto them They that deal by their Great Lord and Master Jesus Christ as the Apostle would have other Servants to deal by theirs viz. by being obedient unto them and pleasing them well in all things Tit. 2.9 They that shall diligently and faithfully observe and keep the Commands of Jesus Christ they will adorn it they will commend it with authority and power to the souls and consciences of men Such men when they shall but utter and assert the plain words of the Gospel when they shall say unto any man or unto any numbers of men that certainly Jesus Christ is He He is the Saviour of the World and whosoever cometh unto him shall be saved by him or the like such persons I say as these we speak of by such plain and known words as these are like to pierce and wound
reclaimed from his dissolute and destructive courses are emphatically represented ver 20.22 23 24. although he is said to have had another an elder Son who had been regular and well ordered all his daies Yea when this Son made himself agrieved that greater respects were shewed by his Father to his Brother that had lately and for a long time together been a Son of Belial than unto him who had alwaies been observant of his Counsels and Commands his Father pleads not simply the lawfulness but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the meetness or comliness of that which he had done in that case in these words It was meet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oportebat or it was as it should or ought to be that we should make merry and be glad For this thy Brother was dead and is alive again and was lost and is found Ver. 32. So that the way of God in making the last first and the first last a way wherein he frequently walketh that is his giving the precedency of reward unto those who having lived long in a lost condition and whose repentance was against hope and above expectation yet unfeignedly repent and turn with their whole heart unto him at the last rather than unto such who from the dawnings of their daies have plodded on in a regular course and profession of his Worship and Service without any scandalous or reproachful deviation at any time this way of God I say is justifiable by the like demeanours of the generality of men in like cases But Notwithstanding this or any thing formerly argued or pleaded Sect. 7 to evince the equity and fairness of those proceedings of God between his last and his first his Evening and his Morning Converts which have been mentioned yet nothing hinders but that they who began early and were the first in service or of the first may if they quit themselves accordingly keep their place of priority unto the end so as never to be cast behind or come into the number of those that shall be last in reward For if they shall all along their progress be diligent to stir up themselves daily to be like unto those that come late into the work and service of God in their love their zeal their humility their self-denial and chastity of dependence upon the grace of God in Christ for their Justification and Salvation and their other Christian excellencies and shall not grow drowsie or sleepy because the Bridegroom tarrieth nor wax weary of well doing nor suffer their love to wax cold nor let their left hand know what their right hand doth in works of righteousness nor stumble at any other of those stones which are commonly laid in the way of a long profession by the Flesh the World and the Devil doubtless they shall have equal respects from God in their reward with the best of his late Proselytes or Converts Nor is it impossible on the other hand but that even they who have waxed old in the service of Sin and Satan and so upon their repentance have had much forgiven them and withal more reasonable advantages and engagements than their Brethren early called to excell in holiness and so to approve themselves towards and in the close of their daies upon terms of highest acceptance with God and upon this account to be of the first in reward may notwithstanding before they die through an unmanlike oscitancy and the allurements of the Flesh and of the World turn their backs upon all the great advantages of their late Conversion and either suffer themselves to be overtaken with the usual drousiness dulness or formality of old Professors and so become last in reward in the better sense of the clause or which is much more sad cast in their lot with final Apostates and so become last in the worst and hardest sense of all As it was no part of the intent or meaning of Christ in presenting the Lord of the Vineyard in the Parable yet in hand giving order to his Steward to pay the Labourers their wages in this order beginning at the last unto the first in the sense so oft and at large declared either to discourage men from remembring their Creator in the daies of their youth and believing with the first but only to caution and admonish those who shall thus believe that they take heed of those evils which are so incident to a long race of Profession and that they be careful so to grow in grace daily all along their course that every new day may seem to be the first day of their conversion unto God or to encourage men to defer their Repentance unto old age and until sin hath abounded but only to encourage those for whom Satan hath been too hard all or the greatest part of the best of their daies yet to repent at the last by assuring them that though it be very late in the day of their lives ere they repent and turn unto him yet their repentance shall be most acceptable and their entertainment by him with more or greater respects of grace and favour than he is wont to vouchsafe unto their Brethren who have been of far more ancient standing in his service As these I say were the things intended and not intended by Christ in the passage in hand so neither is there any other thing intended in all that explication that hath now passed on it The gloss doth all homage and reverence unto the Text and trembleth to make it speak any thing which is not in the heart and inward parts of it Yea and would not willingly conceal any of those gracious and comely things wherewith the heart of it is full even to the brim And for a cloze I shall here subjoyn this that it is the sense of some good Expositors and this so probable that I could with very little regret of Judgment espouse it and make it mine own that the passage last insisted on Give the Labourers their wages beginning from the last unto the first is the Master vein in the Parable and that all the passages in it besides are subservient to it and face towards it as well those in the rear of it as those in the front and that they were framed by Christ either only or chiefly to make way for a rational and commodious introduction of it However by that narrow and large survey that hath been taken of the Parable it sufficiently I presume appears that which way soever it be managed or the interpretation and sense of it carried so it be with reason and with due respects to the ground or occasion and so to the scope of it or conclusion intended by Christ to be illustrated by it together with the proper import of the principle clauses and passages in it That there can nothing reasonably be inferred from it in favour of that opinion which undertaketh to reduce all the Crowns of righteousness that shall be set upon the heads of the Saints
to one and the same weight in glory We shall at present add a few Scriptures Sect. 8 and some Arguments very briefly to demonstrate the truth of what is supposed in the Reason in hand viz. that God distributeth rewards unto his Saints by different measures and degrees And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and they that turn many unto righteousness as the stars for ever and ever Dan. 12.3 Doubtless the Holy Ghost would not particularize a special and eminent service such as the turning of many to righteousness is as that they who have been diligent and faithful in it should be signally rewarded by God in the Great Day if all services or the most profitable kind of services otherwise should be rewarded and recompensed by God upon equal terms with them Consider the plain tenour of the words They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and they that turn many unto righteousness as the stars for ever and ever If so be that he had intended or if this had been his sense That all Believers or that all the Servants of God all that fear God without exception should have been partakers of these rewards signified by the shining of the stars for ever and ever there can no reason be given nor a colour of reason why he should single out a certain vein of persons from amongst the great Community of the Saints namely such as turn many to righteousness that is that have endeavoured and done that which was in their power to do to turn many unto righteousness as if none should be rewarded at the Resurrection with that peculiarity of reward but such Nay doubtless his intent is to shew that whereas there shall be very many rewarded and that very graciously and bountifully at that day yet there will be appropriate rewards Crowns as it were made on purpose more weighty and massie in glory than the rest for such persons as these Then again consider that passage of our Saviour to the Mother of Zebedeus children Mat. 20. She came to him desiring a certain thing of him which was that he would grant that her two Sons might sit the one on his right hand and the other on his left hand in his Kingdom Now I suppose that here by sitting on the right and on the left hand of Jesus Christ in his Kingdom are meant and I think no man did ever lift up a thought to the contrary the chiefest and highest places of glory and spiritual preferment in his Kingdom Possibly she might look to an earthly Kingdom and direct her request in reference thereunto but when Christ gave his answer unto her he doth not deny but that there was a right hand and a left hand in his Kingdom some more honourable and richer manifestations and communications of the infinite blessedness of God than others For thus saith he Ye shall drink indeed of my Cup and be baptized with the Baptism wherewith I am baptized but to sit on my right hand and left is not mine c. He here supposeth and giveth that to her for granted that there was such a thing such Prerogative honour in his Kingdom as sitting on his right hand and left but withal informeth her thus that they were not his to give save only to such for whom they were prepared of his Father implying that God hath prepared these places for persons of the greatest worth and eminency in his service on whom only they shall be conferred And so 1 Cor. 3.8 there is a place that springs yet another Notion relating to the Point in hand He that planteth and he that watereth is one and every man the Translation is somewhat dull and takes off the edge of the Scripture much it should not be and every man but but every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour The latter part of this verse seems clearly to imply thus much That every man hath a Labour of his Own that is a measure or degree of service so appropriately his that the service of no other Saint shall be precisely in worth or value commensurable to it and consequently that he shall have a Reward of his Own in the same sense somewhat which doth according to the standard of divine bounty exactly answer his labour So that that which I conceive to be hinted here is not simply this that there are either different or indifferent rewards reserved in the heavens by God to be conferred upon different Saints but that there will be no two Saints in heaven whose rewards shall be equal For though we cannot find a real difference between the serviceableness the faithfulness and worthiness of every Saint throughout the World throughout the whole armies of them yet God who weigheth with a more exact ballance than men do if so be there be never so little more if any Saint hath but the advantage of an hairs breadth in any spiritual worth above another God I say is perfectly apprehensive of it and will interpose by his righteousness that he shall have his own reward Now if we shall suppose that every one shall receive anothers reward and so according to anothers labour which he must needs suppose that holdeth all rewards equal then shall no man or no more than one receive his own reward in the sense lately declared or that which is exactly proportionable unto his own labour But in that adversative Particle but I suppose the Apostle secretly glances at the neglect and contempt which the Corinthians cast upon him preferring as we know and highly prizing and setting up in their esteem other teachers above him those that were not so sound in Doctrine or beneficial in teaching or safe for them to hearken or lean unto being men that were eloquent and spake fairly and smoothly and carried themselves with a kind of stately deportment these kind of Teachers did insinuate apace and win ground of Paul in the hearts and minds of the Corinthians Now the Apostle after that he had in the former part of the Context propounded these questions Who is Paul And who is Apollos And further said I have planted and Apollos watered he tells them that he that planteth and he that watereth are one meaning in their end and scope of their labour both the one and the other seeking after and endeavouring the peace and comfort and salvation of men He that planteth that is he that converteth men and he that watereth that is he that edifieth and helpeth men to persevere unto the end these are one they meet together in the same end But saith he every one shall receive of the Lord his own reward as if he had said Ye may judge of me as you please you may set me beneath the meanest of all your Teachers and value my work in the Ministry accordingly but the best is I shall not be considered or rewarded by God according to your estimate or opinion
to love God in the highest or else love themselves to such an height as to be willing to purchase their freedom from all penal fears in a way of the greatest honour that can be imagined I mean by giving their hearts whole and entire in Love unto God That which we look at in the passage as serving our purpose is that the Saints are therein encouraged and provoked to perfection in Love which being interpreted as was lately hinted is to all perfection Now certainly it is the duty of every Creature to drink in all encouragements from God as Fishes drink water naturally constantly and with delight and to lift up their hearts and hands unto whatsoever by them they are invited and quickened And he that encourageth or inviteth unto perfection doth by the same act invite also and encourage unto the seeking after the greatest and best things that Heaven will afford We might pursue the Point in hand yet further by insisting on several other veins of Scriptures in which the truth thereof beats quick and high and more especially on that large passage Ephes 4. from ver 11. to the end of v. 15. together with Col. 1.28 In the former of which places the Apostle affirmeth that the great end projected by the Lord Christ in his magnificent bounty unto the World at his Ascension into heaven when he gave gifts unto men some Apostles some Prophets some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers was the perfecting of his Saints the building up the body of Christ in all and every the members of it unto a perfect man In the latter the same Apostle professeth his comportment with the said great end of his great Lord and Master in these words speaking of him Whom we preach warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus But enough I suppose hath been already alledged and argued from the Scriptures to settle this in the judgments and consciences of men for truth that there is no person of mankind at least not amongst the Saints but standeth bound in duty to lay himself out with all his might for the obtaining of the highest Prize in glory If you shall now ask me a reason of this assertion because it may seem somewhat strange unto you that it should be matter of duty unto men and women to desire and seek after the greatest excellency in glory Sect. 15 however it may be their duty to excel in all righteousness and to strive after perfection in this life c. for these two seem to be of a much differing consideration I shall endeavour to satisfie you with presenting you with two or three Considerations which if you please you may call so many Reasons of the Point First It is the duty of every person amongst the Children of men and much more amongst those that believe to consult and endeavour the clearest and fullest manifestations of how high an esteem and value the services of his poor Creature man are with God when they are performed upon the best terms that he enables them to perform them This is a Consideration unto the truth whereof every man's judgment and conscience I may well presume will readily subscribe For there is nothing in God but what being discovered and made known maketh for his glory And the fuller and more convincing any discovery of his things is his glory proportionably is so much the more advanced Now it cannot appear at least not so manifestly or with that demonstrative evidence by any lower investitures of men with glory at how wonderful a rate he prizeth righteousness and faithfulness found in their exaltation in men But they who shall strengthen the hand of God by their high actings in waies and works of righteousness and true holiness to bring forth the best Robe of glory to put upon them these are the men that will do their God that most worthy and acceptable service to give him an opportunity of declaring upon the most unquestionable terms of satisfaction unto the World of how sacred a repute and esteem with him so poor and vile a Creature as man is may come to be if he quitteth and behaveth himself only for the few daies of his earthly Pilgrimage accordingly God delighteth in those Creatures most that will draw him forth in his goodness and bounty most freely and fully as appears by his extraordinary rejoycing over Phinehas for the performance of such an act which gave him a regular opportunity to shew the riches of his grace and mercy in sparing the lives of his people which otherwise his just severity against their sins would not as it seems have permitted him to do See and diligently consider Numb 25.11 12 13. And certainly it is the duty of every Creature and much more of the Saints to seek to give the choicest pleasures they are able to the soul of their Great Creator and consequently to set their hearts upon drawing out of his hand the largest portion of that glory and blessedness wherewith he hath judged meet to reward the services of men Secondly It is said 2 Thes 1.10 that Christ in the end of the World shall come to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in all them that believe This is to be understood in respect of that glorious and blessed estate and condition whereunto it will then appear that such a vast multitude of poor and despicable Creatures as his Saints sometimes were are now by his Grace and work of Mediation advanced In this respect the body of Christ consisting of the whole number of his Saints and Believers is said to be his Fulness Eph. 1.23 which is his body the fulness of him that filleth all in all Namely because he will never be seen in the fulness of his glory or rather because he cannot be duly estimated in his heavenly worth and greatness but by the glorious happiness unto which so many Millions of Creatures lately poor vile and sinful have been orderly aad honourably advanced by him Now certain it is that if Christ shall be glorified over and besides his own personal glory in and by the glory of his Saints and be admired in the blessedness wherewith all that believe shall be invested by him the greater the glory and felicity of any of them shall be he must needs be the more glorified and admired in them And if it be the duty of all the Saints not only or simply to desire and seek after those things whereby Christ may be made glorious and wonderful but rather after those whereby he may be lift up in glory and admirableness to the highest evident it is from the Premises that it must be their Duty also to press with all their might after the greatest Excellency in that glory which is intended and held forth by God unto men Thirdly Unless men shall stir up their hearts and strengthen their hands by a desire and expectation of the
to have come down upon Christ upon his being baptized may be clearly evinced First the opening renting or cleaving of the Heavens expresly mentioned in all these places plainly prove the Holy Ghost that is said to have come down upon Christ to be no Creature no created Angel but true God Let the Scriptures be searched from first to last we shall no where find the rending cleaving opening or bowing of the Heavens to be mentioned upon occasion of any created Angel coming down but very frequently upon any solemn or more than ordinary appearance or coming down of God himself unto men Bow the Heavens O Lord and come down Psal 144.5 2 Sam. 22.10 saith David in his affectionate addressment of himself by Prayer unto God Bow the heavens and come down i. e. Shew some Majestick and Godlike token or sign of thy Presence shew thy self like unto thy self like a God indeed in Umpiring the Affairs of the World between upright and wicked men In like manner the Prophet Isaiah or the Church of God personated by him Isa 64.1 O that thou wouldest rent the Heavens and come down Doubtless his meaning was not to desire of God that he would display the Ensign of an Angel before him and so come down to help his Church and People no but as was said before that he would appear in his appropriate and God-like Majesty It came to pass saith the Prophet Ezekiel that the Heavens were opened and I saw Visions of God Ezek. 1.1 The Heavens are never said to open or be opened but upon the account of some immediate or extraordinary appearance of God as Steven is said to have seen the Heavens opened and Jesus standing at the right hand of God Acts 7.56 As for that of our Saviour in John Verily verily I say unto you that hereafter you shall see Heaven open and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man Joh. 1.51 Whether we understand the place Metaphorically with some concerning more full and manifest discoveries of his Divinity that should shortly be made in the World by a more clear preaching of the Gospel by the Apostles or more literally with others of the Day of the general Judgment of the World when the Angels shall accompany him from Heaven and minister unto him during the continuance of the Judgment it no waies contradicts that Principle of truth on which we build viz. That the Heavens are never said to be opened rent or bowed down but upon some extraordinary appearance of God This is one consideration from the place cited to evince and prove the Holy Ghost coming down upon Christ to have been truly God viz. That the Heavens are said to have been opened rent or cleft at or immediately before his coming down 2. Another thing in the same passage evidently evincing the same Truth is that this Spirit of God is said to have descended and lighted upon him John adds that this Spirit abode upon him I saw saith John the Spirit descending from Heaven like a Dove and it abode on him Joh. 1.32 33. First if this Spirit were but a meer Creature a created Angel he must be supposed to have been locally and essentially absent from or out of the World some space at least before his coming down upon Christ for John saith as we heard expresly that he saw him not simply descending but descending 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from or our of Heaven therefore he was in Heaven some while at least immediately before his coming down If then he were a created Angel he could not be at the same instant of time in Heaven and in Earth too and consequently the World must needs Universally and in all and every the members of it have been utterly destitute of the Holy Ghost some while before Christ was baptized yea the Lord Christ himself must be supposed to have been wholly without the Holy Ghost untill now whereas the Scriptures make it an unquestionable Character of an ungodly man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to have the Spirit Jude v. 19. So that it clearly follows that in case the Spirit of God which descended on Christ upon his baptism was but a meer Creature or a created Angel that there was never a holy and good man in the World for some time before no nor that the Lord Christ himself was such which I know not how any man that desireth to be counted a Christian can own without trembling 2. This Spirit is not only said to have descended or come down upon Christ but also as we beard from John to have continued or remained on him Now no created Angel whatsoever is said or reasonably can be said to remain upon him Created Angels are said to minister unto him to stand by him to ascend and descend upon him are commanded to worship him c. but are no where said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to remain in him By the way this expression of the Holy Ghost's remaining on Christ signifies his uniform and equitable presence with him in the fullest or highest measure that he was capable of and that he was not subject to ebbing and flowing to rising or falling as he is in the best of men and besides it may import that this Spirit is not communicable unto any other person of mankind but only from through or by means of Christ Sed hoc obiter Again Were this Spirit of God a finite or created Angel in case he shall rest or abide upon Christ the rest of the World and all mankind besides must needs perpetually want him For nothing that is finite or that hath bounds and limits of essence and being can be or abide with one person in one place and yet be present with another person though at never such a distance form him 3. When the Evangelists report that Christ soon after his Baptism was led of the Spirit to be tempted of the devil in the wilderness they speak doubtless of the same Spirit which came down from Heaven upon him immediately upon his Baptizing Now it is marvellous improbable at least that He whom all the Angels of God are streightly commanded to worship should be acted and led by one of them into the Wilderness and this for such an end and purpose as to be tempted by the devil That Jesus Christ is God is I suppose evident enough from hence not only that one or some few but that all the Angels of God without exception of any are commanded to worship him Heb. 1.6 Certainly God would not command one Creature to worship another no not the Inferiour to worship the Superiour much less the Superiour to worship the Inseriour Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Luke 4.8 Now then if Jesus Christ be the Lord of all the Angels it is not like that he should be led or acted or prevailed with by any of them one or more especially into an engagement or undertaking of such a
as intimate the Holy Ghosts not being truly God but rather assert and affirm it Because the Apostle Paul teacheth us Phil. 2.12 13. that it is God and not an Angel that worketh in us to will and to do of his good pleasure and upon this account admonisheth us to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling which admonition clearly implies these two things 1. That that working of God in men to will and to do doth not make men actually to will and to do but that over and besides that which God doth in this kind mens own endeavours to provoke them to comport with God in these preventing interposures of his are requisite and necessary Otherwise the Apostle need not to have admonished them to work out their Salvation with fear and trembling nor needs there more to be done by men for their Salvation but only to will and to do 2. The said admonition considering the ground and motive upon which it is given and administred clearly implies that God's preventing grace vouchsafed unto men termed by the Apostle His working in men to will and to do is a most dreadful engagement upon men to take the opportunity and advantage thereof to bestir themselves about the great business of their Salvation Now he doth not simply warn and charge them to work out their Salvation but to work it out with fear and trembling and that because it is God that worketh in them This clearly implies that much of this engagement would be taken off if it should be a Creature only as suppose an Angel and not God himself that should work in us to will and to do Bat Before we proceed to a fourth proof from the New Testament Sect. 7 to prove the Holy Ghost to be God we shall answer the Objections made against the Scriptures already produced and argued upon that account The first place insisted upon from the New Testament was Mat. 3.16 which mentions the opening or cleaving of the Heaven and the descending of the Spirit of God from whence we argued several things But because some of contrary judgment importunely and vainly boast that this Scripture is for them and that they desire no better advantage of ground for their opinion than what this passage affords though they cannot reasonably object or except against any thing that was delivered against their opinion from it let us here briefly weigh what their confidence in this kind amounteth unto or what there is in that plea whereon they build themselves from any thing found in this Scripture The strength which they pretend unto from the place lieth it seems in that metaphorical expression of the Holy Ghosts descending upon Christ Their notion or conceit is this He that removes and descends from one place to another cannot be God or the most high God But this is here and elsewhere attributed to the Holy Ghost Ergo. To this I reply First To the Major He that removes or descends from place to place c. 1. Simply to the principle of those men themselves who thus argue this Proposition taken in the most literal sense or construction that can be put upon it is untrue For they say and hold that even their most high God is bounded and limited in his Essence contained and comprehended within the Circle of the Heavens and that he is not Omnipresent unless haply it be in respect of his knowledge and power Though out of their bountiful respects towards him they grant him to be Omniscient and Omnipotent yet their liberality will not hold out to grant him an Immensity or an Omnipresence in respect of his Essence So that in making a capacity of removing from one place to another a demonstrative Argument of a created Essence and Being they prevaricate with their own grounds and principles and fall fowl upon their own Tenets which is a seldom failing Character of men intangled with error For if God the most high God as they love to call him be bounded in his Essence and his ordinary residence be circumscriptively in the Heavens what should hinder but that he may remove from place to place and as well as Angels or created Spirits do ascend and descend at his pleasure Therefore they that reason so as we have heard pull down with the right hand what they build up with the left But 1. As to the said Proposition simply considered and in it self true it is that he that removes descends or ascends from one place to another viz. literally properly and after the manner of Creatures or finit beings is not cannot be God the most high God But it follows not from hence that he that is figuratively and in some particular respect only said to remove or descend from place to place must needs be a Creature or some finite being For it is well known and generally acknowledged amongst Christians and men learned in the Scriptures that most of those things if not the whole sum of them which are spoken of God I mean the most High God in the Scriptures are spoken figuratively and with the exclusion of such particularities importing imperfection which the same things spoken of men or any other Creature do commonly imply and signifie So that God may in Scripture Language and indeed oft is said to remove from his place Psal 18.9 without any breach made upon the infinity of his Essence or without any repugnancy thereunto Thus Gen. 18.21 He is said to go down So Exod. 19.18 to descend or come down Hos 5.15 He is said to return to his place Now God may be said to descend or remove from place to place not because his Essence or substance of being changeth his place or ceaseth to be where it was before or beginneth to be where it was not thus to descend argues finiteness of being and limitedness of Essence and consequently imperfection and so is no waies attributeable unto God but he I say is said to descend when he makes any glorious or more than ordinary appearance or discovery of himself in one kind or other in these sublunary parts upon or near unto the earth or amongst men the ordinary place where he gives an interview of his face glory and Majesty unto his Creature being the Heavens above Even as a person that ordinarily makes his abode in the upper rooms of an house when he desires to shew himself to those below and who cannot with conveniency go up to him descends or goes down to them And God is said to return unto his place as in the expression cited from Hosea when having been graciously present with a Person or People for a time as either by a more than ordinary protection over them or by a more than ordinary communication of his Counsels unto them or the like when he shall now withdraw these signs of his gracious presence from them In such a case as this he is said to return to his place because he doth like a Prince who in his Progress
Wine when it is red and giveth its colour in the Cup or glass when it moveth it self upright i. e. when it springs or sparkles Prov. 23.31 Look not on it when it is red c. i.e. do not fix thine eye upon it do not continue looking on it for so the word looking oft imports his meaning is not that a man should not simply see or cast his eye upon it as if there would be danger in such a case for then he could not tell when or how to observe this Precept but his meaning is if a man will fix his eye upon it there is danger of being inflamed with inordinate love unto it So our Saviour Mat. 5.28 Whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her i. e. until he lusts after her or after any such manner that he comes to lust after her hath committed adultery with her in his heart Now this sheweth when and how this lusting cometh to be propagated in the heart if there be any loveliness in the Creature this may draw our hearts forth as it were of course unto such covetings The reason why men and women hate not sin with a more vehement vigorous and perfect hatred than generally they do is partly because they do not frequently and with intenseness of mind consider the abundance of evil that is in it that violent and virulent Antipathy or contrariety that is in it to their comfort and peace in many kinds For certain it is that sin hath enough in it to set all the World on fire with enmity to it Yea as the Devil when he had sinned had that in him and upon him which being looked upon by God was sufficient to throw him down from Heaven into the bottom of Hell So likewise hath sin that in it which being clearly seen and diligently considered by men is sufficient to cast it down out of the heavens of mens love and desires into the deepest hell of their hatred and indignation So on the other hand it is as true concerning righteousness in general which Plato the Philosopher had a glimmering of And as it is with Righteousness in general so it is with and also concerning that excellent peece or member of it whereof we speak A being filled with the Spirit This is such a Master-peece of humane felicity it hath so much worth and goodness and desirableness in it that was it thoroughly known and frequently whetted upon the thoughts and minds of men and women they need take no further care how to come by such covetings after it as those now prescribed unto you as a means in the first place to obtain it unless happily it be to satisfie themselves in this that it is nothing but what is attainable For if indeed you shall look upon it as a thing absolutely out of your reach your souls will hardly put forth in coveting or desiring after it But this scruple being removed you would soon find your hearts full of those covetings and desires so full that they would not be long able to contain themselves but that they would break forth and utter themselves in such other waies and means which they shall understand to be proper and likely to obtain it If you ask me But what is there so excellent Sect. 8 so greatly desirable in this being filled with the Spirit which being known and narrowly considered by us must needs as you say set us on coveting after it and so put us into a nearer capacity of obtaining it I reply first in the general the desirableness of it is such so exceeding great that neither the Tongue of men or Angels are sufficient to express it it is of kin to the peace of God and partakes herewith in that property that it passeth all understanding so that when we shall travel many dales yea many years with our minds and understandings to search out and discover the riches of it we shall leave much hereof undiscovered and unknown But more particulary First Such a filling with the Spirit as we speak of will leave no place for foolish and hurtful lusts in one kind or other to play their parts within us which as Peter saith 1 Pet. 2.11 Fight against the soul that is against the peace comfort and prosperity of it As upon the bringing in of the Ark into the Tabernacle the Tabernacle was filled with smoak Exod. 40.34 And so in the Dedication of the Temple the Priests could not enter because of the glory there 1 Kings 8.10 11. even so when the soul when the inner Temple of the heart of a man or woman shall be filled with the Spirit of God there will be such a glory of holiness there that there will be no standing or abode for those base Companions unclean impure carnal and sensual desires and inclinations No but they will all be scattered as the Mist is scattered before the Sun when it ariseth in its might These Companions which have haunted your souls and inner man hitherto Pride Envy and Malice and inordinate love of the World Pleasure Ease and all such kind of things as these they will be sensible of the glorious presence of this Spirit of God in you they will not be able to abide it his presence will fright away all those Aliens and strangers that are contrary to him It is true the greatest filling with the Spirit that flesh and bloud is at lâ—ast ordinarily capable of obtaining will not wholly overwhelm or drown the flesh as to extinguish the motions or stirrings of it in men This is clear from many Scriptures and particularly from that of the Apostle Gal. 5.17 .. For the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit When by reason of the contrary lustings between the Flesh and the Spirit he saith they cannot do the things they would he speaks not so much indeed not at all of the species kind or substance of the Action but of the spiritual and exact manner of performing it Yea cannot do the things ye would his meaning is not that though they were willing to pray yet because of the lusting of the flesh they could not pray or though they were willing to hear the word yet they could not hear but thus ye cannot pray ye cannot hear or ye cannot give Alms as ye would that is with as much Faith with as much Fervency with as much Freedom and enlargement of Heart and Soul as ye desire The Flesh will be still interrupting and mingling it self with your actions and in preciseness and strictness of speech that which a servant of God or spiritual man properly would do is not simply to pray or simply to hear or to give Alms or the like But to do these and all other services and actions after the best and purest manner without any reluctancy or gainsayingness or interruption so that when men pray and do not pray thus when they hear and give Alms and do not both the one and the other upon such terms as these they
a greater presence of God and where he filleth the hearts and souls of men with his presence there he riseth and advanceth in a more excellent manner with greater accommodations teaching them how to pray meaning the manner how they should pray Now in that he is said to relieve our infirmities and to help our ignorances when we pray and so to teach the Saints to pray as they ought by making Intercession for them the meaning is that he teacheth them a prayer of a more excellent and of a more spiritual import and teacheth them how to present this Prayer of theirs upon terms of a richer and more high acceptation unto God And Gal. 4.6 it is said God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Alba Father This is a Phrase or Figure of speakking wherein Actions are ascribed unto those who are the means or cause of them and not to the Actors themselves As for instance Charity is said to believe all things and to hope all things because it doth qualifie and dispose the Person where it is found thus to believe all things and to hope all things So here the Spirit is said to cry Abba Father and so to make intercession for the Saints because he doth teach enable and dispose them both to the one and to the other You had a taste of that formerly in Jude ver 20. praying in the Holy Ghost that is by or through the help and assistance of the Holy Ghost According to the same figure our Saviour's Saying unto his Apostles is to be understood Mar. 10.20 For it is not ye that speak but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you When they should come before Rulers and Governours he saith it was not they that should speak but the Holy Ghost that was within them his meaning is not that the Holy Ghost did speak the words but only because the Holy Ghost did furnish them with such and such things which they should speak So now they that be filled with the Spirit of God there is as it were a characteristical difference between the same kind of actions in them and that which proceedeth from other men who have not the same edge of spirit and life in them these are full of power and authority and heavenly lustre and beauty in their actions and doings whereas the like actions and performances of persons that do them without the Spirit have nothing of excellency in them Now of how great and blessed a consequence is it unto you to be enabled to pray effectually to carry things in Heaven richly and upon terms of highest acceptation If we could but weigh this one priviledge or advantage alone in the balance we should find it to weigh more than all the Silver and Gold in the World What To be able to pray yea to pray unto God with acceptation to pray so as to be able to prevail with God and that about great matters for States and Kingdoms as they may that have an interest in Heaven as such persons we speak of have Such men might carry the World before them they might pluck up States and Kingdoms they might be as great in Heaven as Nâ—buchadnezzar was here upon Earth whom he would he set up and whom he would he pulled down so had we interest in Heaven as we might have we might do likewise It is like we are at such a pass as the Disciples were at when it is said that they believed not for joy when Christ came first amongst them the consideration of his being rose again from the dead was a business of such a mighty consequence such a matter of joy that it became a stumbling-block in the way of their faith They believed not for joy i. e. they were not capable of the most demonstrative Arguments and Convictions as when he shewed them his hands and his feet and talked with them This is the case of this great Priviledge I speak of viz. of carrying matters in Heaven we are conscious to our selves that we are poor and weak men and women whom the men of this World are generally ready to to be treading and trampling under foot and to despise Oh my Brethren the things we speak of How incredible above measure are they Yet it is a most certain and an undoubted truth that if we be filled with the Spirit of God we might pray at such a rate and after such a manner that we might carry our Petitions in Heaven and even whatsoever we should ask in the Name of Jesus Christ according to the will of God And we need have no larger Rule than this we need not desire a larger Commission than the compass of the Will of God For all things are according to the Will of God which are necessary for the comforts and accommodation of men and women in the World round about Jâ—m 5.16 The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as all Greek Authors give out the proper signification of it is this It noteth a Person that is possessed or acted by a supernatural power whether it be of an holy or an unclean Spirit above their Sphere so now that prayer viz. the effectual fervent prayer c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is acted wrought and raised by a Spirit which is greater than the spirit of man and therefore of necessity by no other than the Spirit of God the Holy Ghost himself who thus raised and lifted up himself in might and power to enable them hereunto Eighthly and lastly By being filled with the Spirit of God Sect. 18 you shall by the mediation of the fruit and consequence of the particular last mentioned consult to your selves so much the better Resurrection and consequently the better Eternity I allude to that place in the latter end of Heb. 11. where the Author speaking of the Servants of God saith that they might obtain a better Resurrection where the Antecedent is put for the Consequent a better Resurrection for a better State in the Resurrection There are other waies and practices or at least may be upon which men may obtain the fatness of Heaven the best of the glory and great things of the World to come But there is none so certain or regular none within the reach of the Wisdom or Providence of men that a man may rely and reckon upon whereby to consult to himself a better Heaven but only that we speak of A being filled with the Spirit of God If you be made great in the Kingdom of Heaven in any other way or by any other means than that we speak of you must as well be beholding to the sin and wickedness of other men as to your own worth grace or faithfulness and there must be more than an ordinary hand in the Providence of God to bring it to pass For what other waies or means are there of obtaining a greater preeminence in glory than the
that they should submit unto them The Reason hereof hath been lately intimated in part viz. because they have not a sanction like that of the Law given upon Mount Sinai they are not given or enjoyned with Thunder Earthquakes or Fire but as with a still voice And the Children of God themselves as we lately had occasion to observe having much servility of Spirit hanging on them and so being more intent and taken up in their thoughts about escaping hell and damnation and not so much upon obtaining Heaven and Salvation but only in a collateral and and consequential way hence it cometh to pass that they chiefly and mainly set their hearts and minds upon such Precepts the disobedience and neglect whereof is threatned with the vengeance of Hell fire or with exclusion of the Kingdom of Heaven and think that those which have not this Iron Rod in their hand to over-aw the Consciences of men into obedience unto them are less considerable For this is much to be minded which I do not remember that I have had occasion heretofore to offer unto you viz. Sect. 3 That God hath built and framed the body of his Laws and Precepts given unto men upon the like terms by such Principles and Rules of Wisdom and Equity according unto which prudent Law-makers amongst men are wont to compile and frame the body of those Civil or Politick Laws which they make for the benefit or use of their States or Communities respectively and very probably nay the thing is very little or not at all questionable God hath imprinted that Principle of Reason and Equity we now speak of in the hearts of men in conformity to the Original Copy in himself Now it is generally found in the Systeme of all Politick Laws and Constitutions that though there be rewards in several kinds and degrees assigned and decreed by Law unto persons that shall do any eminent or worthy service unto their State or Country yet there is no penalty or punishment enacted against those who shall not quit themselves thus worthily and honourably for the benefit of this state Penal Laws and Statutes are not made for those or against those that are not eminently vertuous eminently valiant liberal bountiful wise or the like But only against those who are eminently vicious and shall act to the detriment prejudice or hurt of the Community of which they are Members Thus the Romans had Laws for the rewarding of the high Services of their Souldiers he that first sealed the Walls of a City or Town besieged had his Corona muralis i.e. A certain Garland or Crown which was a Badge of honour appropriate to that Service so he that first entred the Trenches of the Enemies had his Corona vallaris so he that preserved the life of any Citizen or free Denizon of Rome had his Corona civica But they had no Laws that inflicted any punishment upon those that did not perform those Services or had not valour or courage sufficient to atchieve them Anciently in our own Land there was by Law a reward appointed unto him that should kill a Wolf and bring forth his head So Josh 15.16 Caleb made a Law or Decree that he that shall smite Kiriath-Sephar and take it should have his Daughter to Wife Now as the Romans did not enact any penalty to be inflicted upon any that did not attain any of those excellent Atchievements neither did the Law in this Land inflict any punishment upon those who could not kill a Wolf In like manner God hath so contrived and tempered the frame and Systeme of his Laws in the Scriptures which are made for the orderly regulation and benefit of the great Community or Body Politick of the World that though there be rewards and encouragements Enacted and Decreed in them for those that shall excel in vertue and quit themselves above the ordinary rate of men either for the honour and glory of God or for the publick benefit or service of men yet there is no threatning of punishment in one kind or other against those who shall not attain to that excellent strain above their Fellows unless haply it be that they shall not partake in the signal reward of the other which to speak properly is no punishment But the threatnings in the Law of God are bent against those who shall be wicked that shall live and act to the dishonour of his name or to the damage prejudice or trouble of the Community of men amongst whom they should have their being We shall see in the course of the Scriptures how the threatnings of God lie against that kind of sin or sinners that are directly set and bent against the holy and righteous Law of God 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God c. Eph. 5.5 6. For this ye know that no Whoremonger nor Covetous man who is an Idolater c. Let no man deceive you with vain words c. and compare Rev. 21.8 27. But the Fearful and Vnbelieving and Sorcerers and Idolaters c. shall have their portion in the Lake c. As Civil Constitutions and Politick Laws of men do provide for the peace safety and comfort of those that shall live in subjection to them prohibiting and punishing all waies and actions that are prejudicial and hurtful to the publick yet not enacting or inflicting any punishment on those that do no rare or excellent service as though they be not eminent defenders of the State c. In like manner God by his Laws hath provided for the safety for the Eternal Salvation of those that shall live in subjection unto such Laws and Commands of his by which men are restrained from waies and actions signally dishonourable unto him or disturbing and mischievous to those amongst whom they live and converse although they do not attain unto the eminent Services of Noah Daniel and Job nor deserve to be numbred amongst the Worthies of the Christian World yet for those who shall rise up to the Line of those famous men we speak of and serve God and men at such a worthy rate as they served them in their Generation he hath in his Law provided better and greater things than simply safety and salvation viz. salvation with an Emphasis or Superlative weight of glory To this purpose I conceive the two Parables of our Saviour both recorded by Luke Sect. 4 the one in Chap. 12.36 37. the other in Chap. 17.7 8 c. are very considerable The former of these And ye your selves like men that wait for their Lord when he will return from the Wedding that when he cometh and knocketh they may open unto him immediately blessed are those Servants whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching Verily I say unto you that he shall gird himself and make them to sit down to meat and will come forth and serve them Compare this Parable with that Luke 17.7.8 Which of you having a
words of Eternal life by his Messengers his Servants sent unto them when they know not well where else to be or what to do they will offer Sacrifice of that which cost them nothing or else no Sacrifice at all Now men of this Character and frame whose spirits sit thus loose to the Ministry of the Spirit are in this respect in the same condemnation with the former they also are so far from obeying the voice of this heavenly Exhortation Be ye filled with the Spirit that they seem to hearken to a quite contrary suggestion Be ye emptied of the Spirit at least to a degree For they that are thus neutral in their attendance upon the Ministry of the Gospel and only hear now and then as if they were afraid to hear too often and seem to think that they have somewhat too much of God or of the Spirit of God in them at the present or more than is expedient to accommodate them upon the best terms for the enjoyment of themselves in the pleasures and contentments of the World And therefore as men are wont to do when there is too much fire in the Room where they are for the season and the heat beginneth to be a little troublesome or offensive to them they lessen the fire by taking off some of the wood that is upon it and so reduce the Air in the Room to a convenient temper In like manner that Generation of men and women now under censure seem to moderate stint and limit themselves in their attendance upon the Ministry they will hear but now and then lest the Spirit of God should come in too fast upon them and they should grow too hot in their spirits too full of Heavenly Heat to comport with the Pleasures and Profits with the Principles and waies of the World round about them without interruption or check from their Consciences and yet they would not be counted or seem to be prophane neither but would willingly keep some fair correspondency with God and Christ though at a distance that if there be such things as the Worm that never dieth or the Fire that never goeth our I mean hell and damnation on the one hand or if there be happiness and glory heaven and salvation on the other hand they may have somewhat to depend upon for an escape of the one and an obtainiug of the other And the truth is this seemeth to be the secret policy the deep and profound reach of the Religion of the generality or far greater part of Professours amongst us they project and design to yoke the two Worlds that which is present and that which is to come and to make them draw together As if Solomon had spoken of the two Worlds when he gave that Advice Eccles 7.18 as our former Translators read the place It is good that thou lay hold on this but yet withdraw not thy hand from that and his meaning had been that men should do wifely and well to keep sure and fast hold of this present World and yet not wholly to withdraw their minds and thoughts from that which is to come though he speaks of quite another thing of which we shall not enquire at present but the Counsels and Designs of the hearts of men and women in that kind we speak of are legible in the tenour of their waies and practices and in the distribution they make of themselves between the one World and the other To make earnings of the World that now is men and women labour in the very fire they rise up early and go to bed late and eat the bread of much carefulness day after day They that are addicted to pleasures and given up to voluptuous living they forecast too to make provision for the flesh they waylay opportunities and means for the gratifying of themselves in this kind yet there is neither the one nor the other of them but will keep an eye upon that World which is to come they will be doing somewhat this way though it be to little purpose If Jesus Christ teacheth in their Streets when the World and their ease and pleasures will give them leave they will give him the hearing On the Lords day when the World that now is stands still and the World that is to come moves and stirs these persons we speak of will give some formal attendance upon the Ministry of the Gospel they will hear a Sermon or perhaps two and they think that by steering such a course as this they shall make the Port of Heaven and Salvation if there be any such thing or however that they shall escape the Wrath and Vengeance which is to come in case there be any such thing which indeed is that which runneth most in their thoughts Now they think the lowest and smallest degree of Righteousness and Obedience will keep them from hell and indeed it is true a lesser care will keep men from the penalty of the Law whereas it requireth a greater engagement to do such things upon which a man shall receive a great reward This is only the portion of noble and excellent enterprises But I say men generally do not so much look upon the glory which is to come Sect. 2 as that they may escape wrath and the vengeance of eternal fire Now their design being no higher their endeavours are according they seem to imagine that the World that now is is stiff and stubborn and will not bow or turn in unto them but by a strong hand of labour care contrivance diligence and circumspection and therefore they lay out a main proportion of their time and much of themselves and the chief of their strength about it but that the World which is to come is gentle and easie to be entreated and that an Inch of care and diligence for obtaining this will go as far as ten Ells as we use to speak for the obtaining of the other This I verily believe is the very thought and inward conceipt of the hearts of many amongst us Whereas the Lord Christ from place to place makes a quite contrary representation of them The Genius of the World to come according to his Pourtraiture or Description is far the stiffer of the two and harder to be entreated and the Genius of this present World more facile and pliable First saith he to his Disciples and in them to all men Mat. 6.33 seek ye the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be cast in unto you The Kindgom of God i. e. Heaven and the salvation of the soul these require seeking or else they will not be found yea they require seeking in the first place i. e. seeking with the many and principal intentions of the heart mind and soul or else they will not be had whereas these things i. e. the conveniences of the World shall upon the seeking of the former be freely and by way of gratuity cast in by God unto men as that which
lose all your other services for God Have you suffered so many things for God in vain Gal. 3.4 What have you done so many things in vain as to your peace Have you served God in a first and second Command and will you lose so great a recompense of reward that fulness of peace and height of rejoycing in the Lord Jesus Christ 2 Joh. 8. Look to your selves that we lose not those things which we have wrought but that we receive a full reward You know the young man that had kept so many of the Commands of God Mar. 10.21 22. that there was only one thing wanting How sad was it with him upon our Saviours discourse For it doth appear that his state and condition Godward was very deplorable notwithstanding he had been so exact and observant of the Commands of God So that if you desire your hearts and souls should be like Jordan overflowing their banks if you desire they should be readily prepared to carry you up to Heaven in joy and gladness then you must be careful to number this amongst the Precepts of God you must see to it that you endeavour to be filled with the Spirit of God Thirdly Sect. 4 The Exhortation now recommended unto you is an Evangelical Exhortation brought by Jesus Christ from heaven and in this respect ought to be more highly reverenced than if it had been delivered over unto you upon other terms For this is to be considered that what is delivered unto the World in the New Testament by the mouth of Jesus Christ himself or upon the account of his coming from Heaven unto the World as all that which the Holy Ghost hath further revealed by the Apostles is is more obliging and binding upon the Consciences of men and more severely punishable by God when neglected or despised than things delivered in the Old Testament or before Christ's coming into the World were or are This I conceive is evident from that of the Apostle Heb. 12.25 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth much more shall we not escape if we refuse him that speaketh from heaven To open this passage a little and so to give somewhat the more efficacy and weight to the Motive in hand First It is to be considered that the opposition here made between him that spake on Earth and him that now speaketh from Heaven doth not imply a plurality of Speakers or persons speaking but only a difference between the manner and terms of speaking at several times by one and the same Speaker viz. God or rather Christ for it was he that spake both on earth by Moses and that now speaketh from Heaven It is not unusual in Emphatical Discourses to speak of one and the same person in different considerations as of two as the Woman that came to make a suit to King Philip He being drowsie and giving her an unpleasing answer she told him She appealed from King Philip when he was sleepy to King Philip when waking and more attentive Now there were not two King Philips but one only as two in different considerations We might bring several instances wherein one and the same person is represented under two different considerations Secondly When God or Christ spake by Moses he is said to have spoken on Earth not because Moses was on Earth when Christ spake by him but because he spake by a man who was from the Earth or earthly as it is said the first man Adam was for otherwise the Lord Christ himself spake on the Earth being on the Earth as well as Moses and so the opposition would fall But Christ who now speaketh in the New Testament is said to be from Heaven or which is the same to speak from heaven though the word speak is not in the Original but inserted by the Translators as the different Character implieth but Christ I say is said to be from Heaven because he was of a miraculous of an heavenly Parentage and propagation being conceived by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost in the Wombe of a Virgin and not after the manner of men according to that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 15.47 The second man is the Lord from Heaven meaning of an heavenly Parentage or royal Descent as hath been said wherein he had no Brother amongst all the Children of men Thirdly It is to be considered that whatsoever is dispensed unto the World and conteined within the compass of the New Testament as well in the Writings of the Apostles as of the Evangelists is to be looked upon as the Dispensation of him who is from Heaven as that which Christ himself speaketh unto the World And for this reason he is said to be the Mediator of the New Testament Heb. 9.15 And elsewhere The Surety of a better Testament Cha. 7.22 The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in both these places and elsewhere translated Testament signifieth as well a Covenant and is so translated Gal. 3.17 Acts 3.25 and in many places besides and properly enough in the ordinary Grammatical sense of it it signifieth in the general and indefinitely any ordering or disposing of things so that when Christ is said to be the Mediator of the New Testament or of a New Covenant the meaning is that he is the Dispenser or Promulgator or Minister of God unto the World of a new spiritual Oeconomy of another spiritual Charter Settlement or Establishment of matters relating unto the eternal peace and blessedness of the World differing from that which God had formerly settled for a time by Moses This new Oeconomy Covenant or disposition of things by the Lord Christ is called a better Covenant or Testament First Because it is settled upon better Promises wherein God doth bring forth more of the blessed fruits of his Grace and rich Bounty unto the World here life and immortality are brought to light they are unvailed and a glorious representation made of them that the World may look upon and see them face to face Then secondly It is called a better Covenant because here is a better discovery of the mind of God concerning his Ordinances which are of a more excellent and spiritual nature and of higher acceptation with him here are many things to be found which were not to be found under the Law And Christ in one of the places mentioned is said to be the Surety of this New Covenant i. e. One that is the great Avoucher or Assertor of it One who undertakes with Power and Authority to secure the World of the truth and of the certainty of this Covenant and that it is from God Now whatsoever is comprehended within the virge and limits of that part of the Scriptures which is commenly called and known by the name of the New Testament appertains to the New Covenant which Christ hath brought with him into the World and hath published settled and established here In which respect he may
any such terms which had set limits and bounds unto it and told them that it was good to such and such a degree but not further this had been apt to have diminished the esteem and reputation of it and consequently to have interrupted and checked the desires of it in the hearts of men Even so we may say concerning this great Priviledge of being filled with the Spirit if we could measure out unto you and were able to say that it is thus much and no more this were neither for your benefit or profit neither should we be found faithful or true Witnesses of those excellent and glorious things of God There is no question but that the Apostles in their daies did make large discoveries of the peace of God and spake many glorious things of it so much that might have enflamed the hearts of men to have desired it but yet there was more than all this in that Character whereby it is described viz. A peace that passeth all understanding So questionless many great and excellent things and that according to sobriety and truth may be spoken concerning this great and happy Priviledge yet if we should attempt any thing in this kind without giving knowledge that we do not speak limitedly or to confine your apprehensions as if there were nothing further or greater in it besides and above or beyond what we can express without some such intimation or â—aution as this is we should rather prejudice you and set you off than quicken you and set you up to look after it We have formerly as I remember acquainted you with several Royalties and blessed Contentments which do attend the state of a person that is filled with the Spirit 〈◊〉 God One thing was that they that are filled with the Spirit of God are like to be much imployed and set on work by God he deâ—ghteth not to imploy such persons about any great services which he hath 〈◊〉 do in the World that are streightened in their spirits whose anointing 〈◊〉 but scanty narrow and low God doth not care that much of his Work should pass thorough their hands because they will not quit themselves so as to answer the Majesty of God nor the excellency of such Services Whereas those that are filled with the Spirit look whatsoever they go about or put forth their hearts unto they will carry it on with the greatest authority and highest hand neither will they baulk this or that Truth of God nor in the least give in for any opposition or contradiction of Men. Now this is a great Priviledge if we had hearts to conceive aright of it for a man or woman to be much imployed or much set on work by God the Angels are as it were proud of his service Christ speaking of his little ones saith Their Angels do alwaies behold the face of my Father which is in heaven Mat. 18.10 They stand waiting to see if there be any service or imployment they strive who shall be most set on work and who shall have most put into their hands for this is their honour and their glory And doubtless my Brethren if we had but the true sense and resentment of the transcendent worth and desirableness of serving God and of being imployed by him in the world we should account of it and esteem it after another manner of rate than I fear generally we do Another thing was this they that are partakers of that blessedness are upon the matter out of the reach of all sorrows or troubles about any thing that can befall them in this present World those things which cut other men to the very heart and soul these men are secured from when the World riseth up and lieth down by them they know not they are in an heavenly extasie or a spiritual kind of drunkenness As Lot being drunk knew not when his Daughters rose up from him nor lay down by him men that are full of the Spirit are lifted up they are in the upper Region where no storms no tempests nor troublesome things come there is a perpetual serenity clearness and peaceableness of mind whilest the World generally and those that are strangers to this fulness of the Spirit are tossed to and fro tumbling up and down their thoughts disquieting and tormenting them continually And so again we shewed that they that are filled with the Spirit are to a degree freed from Temptations It is said of God He cannot be tempted with evil Jam. 1.13 Now such men are partakers of that blessedness of God himself as far as flesh and bloud is capable of drawing near unto him Resist the Devil and he will flee from you saith the Apostle James c. 4.7 Brethren Why should the Devil flee from him that resisteth him and giveth him a peremptory denial It is because that he hath much to do and but little time to do it in and he will not lose his time when he hath no hope to speed he is then as if he stood upon thorns as we use to say if he get no profit or advantage by his Suggestions it is so much out of the way of his miserable comfort and that solace which he is capable of during his present state and condition all his solace being this to draw men into communion and fellowship with himself in his misery and knowing by his own experience that the way thereunto lieth by the way of sin and doing wickedly therefore he laboureth to entice men to walk in such waies knowing if he can but draw men into these paths he will presently meet with them and that they will arrive at that place of endless misery and torment which he is gone unto But now this great and blessed Priviledge of being filled with the Spirit of God will make all the enticements and allurements all the baits and temptations to evil of no force they will be as Arrows shot against a brazen Wall that will recoyl and turn upon him that shooteth them So that we need not ask a question What the fulness of the Spirit meaneth You see it is worthy all your labours all your endeavours and layings out of your selves in one kind or other though you should prejudice your flesh never so much upon the account of it yet nevertheless there is no cause for you to complain for the Priviledge is so great that it will do a thousand times more than bear its own charge and it will recompense a thousand fold into your bosome whatsoever you expend of your pleasures and enjoyments in the World for the attaining of it Sixthly Sect. 6 To promote the interest of the Exhortation propounded in your hearts and souls and to make you desirous indeed to be filled with the Spirit of God you may please yet further to consider that your Minds Reasons and Understandings with whatsoever besides shall be necessary for you to imploy or lay out about this great and blessed undertaking cannot be disposed of or imployed by
when he saith he that soweth plentifully shall reap plentifully it must needs be understood comparatively in respect of him that soweth sparingly So then evident it is such a procedure of God with men as the Objection supposeth obscureth the name and glory of God in the eyes of the World Only there is one thing which we ought to be somewhat tender of Sect. 18 namely how to understand all the Promises and Declarations which God hath made in this case of what he intends and purposeth to do with men whether to understand them as engagements absolutely and universally upon him to the observation of which he is alwaies engaged or rather whether they be only to be understood and taken as a course which he intends to follow ordinarily and for the most part and in standing cases and that he doth rather declare what he would have men expect what is fit and meet for them to look for at his hand in reference to their Services than what he would absolutely and universally bind himself to do For doubâ—less as it is in humane Laws and so in Promises â—hat are of the greatest moment and consequence for the benefit and good of the State and Common-wealth unto which they relate such cases may fall out wherein the Letter of the Law is better to be waved and declined than râ—gedly to be observed and insisted upon and yet this is no prejudice to the goodness of the Law that it will not serve the tâ—rn in all cases because it is a Rule amongst Politicians and Wise men that Laws are not made for all cases whatsoever that may occur but only for ordinary and standing cases and such which most frequently fall out amongst men So this possibly may be no disparagement at all to God nor no ground of causing any disrepute upon him or dishonour that he doth sometimes step aside from some of his Promises and Declarations which he hath made in this kind if the Circumstances under which he doth it will bear it and do in an equitable and rationable way require it at his hand There is a time saith Solomon Eccl. 2.5 to gather stones and a time to cust them abroad now it may be there may be ten times the proportion of the time to gather stones of what there may be of that time which is seasonable for the throwing them abroad yet it doth not follow but that it may be as fit that stones be thrown away as gathered together So there may be such cases I suppose it will be hard to determine the contrary but that there may be such cases wherein God may refuse to go by his own Declarations and Expressions in this kind and that without being liable to any change or blot or blemish as if that God should suffer his truth to fail or that he should go contrary to his Word It is true when the Apostle saith of him he is a God that cannot lie it doth not therefore follow that he doth alwaies literally perform what he saith because that is not his meaning alwaies so to do we are not so to take his Promise nor is it so to be understood but only of ordinary cases and where there is not some special inducement one or other of greater consequence to cause him to leave it and to walk on the other hand of it Now by all that we have argued upon this Point we may see clearly that as far as we can estimate in like cases God will reward equally those that shall be equal in their service and unequally those who shall be unequal in that sense and that he hath in readiness Crowns of glory of different weight and brightness according as he seeth and beholdeth that men and women do either fall or continue low in their Service or else as they grow and proceed and rise God I say hath Crowns of glory to fit and to answer according to the Rules of his own proportion and equity Rules of his own drawing up and making he hath rewards commensurable to every mans case and to every mans faithfulness and zeal in his Service Concerning that Parable Sect. 19 Mat. 20. a passage of Scripture which seems to cross and thwart this Opinion of variety of Rewards in Heaven They that are contrary minded to us in the Point in hand understand that by the Penny here which is said to be given to the Labourâ—â— respectively is meant Eternal Life and Salvation Others upon a better ground are of a contrary Judgment and do not suppose it necessary that we should so understand it And there are some that are divided in their judgments about it who yet agree in this that Eternal Life and Salvation is not signified by it Touching the Parable I clearly find from the words of Christ which went before in Mat. 19. the last words But many that were last shall be first that the intent of it was only to make good or to declare in an Instance or Type the truth of what the Lord Christ had said that the first should be last And indeed it is the general Scope of the Parable that is to be minded and all particular clauses and carriages in it are not to be applied unto any special thing As it is with many of your Maps there are the Places and the Cities and Distances of them these are only the Scope of the Maps but there are many things by way of Ornament besides to make them pleasant to the eyes So I conceive our Saviour doth frame most of his Parables only with one edge as it were to fit and sute the business which he aims at and which he seeks to convey and stick in the minds and consciences of the Hearers But there are many Passages and Sayings in several Parables which have no special and particular relation unto the main end but only to set off the Parable and to make that as it were more fit for the understanding and pleasant to the apprehension and more convenient to be carried away by the memories of men And so we may conceive that the main scope of the Parable is only this to shew that men who stand upon their terms with a mistaken conceit of themselves and of their Services as the Jews did are out of the way And this our Saviour would teach them by the Parable when he saith they that were hired in the morning early contracted with the Housholder for so much for their days work which is said to be a Peny But for the rest who were called to the work afterward we do not find any Contract or mention made of what the Housholder should give them or what they should demand for what they do but only he tells them in the general what was meet for them should be given them he bids them go and labour and do their work faithfully and that then they should receive accordingly Now when he comes to account with these workmen he begins with those that were
hired in the Morning and then with the rest that came later and then with the last that came at the Eleventh hour When the first saw that there was as much given unto those that had laboured but one hour of the day as there was unto them that had borne the heat and burthen of the day this caused them to break out against the Housholder that had hired them as if he were unequal unreasonable and unjust in giving more unto such as had laboured less as they judged it and less to them who had laboured more the proportion of their labour considered Now Christ shews that this might very well be in the Kingdom of Heaven that is in the business of the Gospel and preaching of that in the World that God may justly and upon his own terms though he would not account with such Murmurers and Quarrellers about his terms yet that God was at liberty to make what Law or Terms he pleased for the disposal of his own and to walk by this Rule accordingly that this was just and equal and there was no cause to contend with him or to murmur against him for so doing But it may be some mans Question Sect. 20 But how could any such Terms or Rules be equal for God to proceed by to make these equal in reward who laboured but one hour with those that laboured many and as themselves pleaded their own cause that had borne the heat and burthen of the day To this I answer That God doth not simply and barely estimate the external Actions and Services of men but doth lay together and puts into the balance whatsoever it may be the inward frame of the heart and soul And so we find in Scripture that when mention is made of the righteousness of God in judging of men it is said that he will judge men according to their works and bring forth every secret thing to judgment That which will bear special weight in the judgment of God is the frame of the heart and spirit which it may be some had not the opportunity fully and thoroughly to express in their outward deportments and service in the World but when God comes to pass Sentence and to give Judgment then he will estimate things according to the strictest and accuratest terms of reason But our Saviour in this Parable sets forth the high presuming nature of the Jews in opposition to the Gentiles whom they despised and who at the Eleventh hour of the day were called into the Service of God He there sets forth their Genius and Disposition who because they had done so much and had been so laborious above others in the Works of the Law and in the Ceremonies and Sacrifices and in the legal Rites and Observations therefore they thought they should have double and trebble and a thousand-fold above the Gentiles that came in so late Now the Lord Christ declares unto the Jews Parabolically that he knew the frames of their hearts how they were much expecting and looking for rewards from him for what they did upon the account of themselves but intimates that the Gentiles were content to submit to the good will and pleasure of God that they came in to serve him freely without indenting or any particular contracting with him after the manner which it seems the Jews did Upon this account he makes equal the performance and Services of the Gentiles though it was not of so long a continuance The Gentiles had not been so long in his Vineyard as they had been yet the Gentiles served him with a better heart and more ingenious mind and affections than the Jews did which they ought to have considered and not so much to have stood upon their ten thousands of Rivers of Oyl their Sacrifices and Legal Observations as to contend with God for a reward in rigour of Justice That by the Peny is not here meant Eternal life Chrysostome of old and sundry later Interpreters have sufficiently proved from hence namely that they who come in at the first hour of the day that is the murmurers and those whose eyes were evil because God was good that envied at the bounty and magnificence of God towards the poor Gentiles that such persons are not like to receive the Kingdom of Heaven Salvation from the hand of God Or if we should in the last place understand by the Peny here the Kingdom of Heaven or Salvation it self yet would it not follow from thence that therefore all these workmen had all the same part and the same portion there or the same degrees in glory Because as when it is said that the Righteous shall shine as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father though they shall be all equal in this that they shall all shine as the Sun yet it doth not follow that they shall all shine with the same lustre and splendor and brightness but that there may be different degrees of shining So it may be said that all those persons even they that were men of an evil eye and were apt to murmur and grudge at them who they thought were inferiour unto themselves and had not been so long in the Service of God as they supposing I say that those persons should be saved as well as the other yet it doth not follow that therefore there should be no difference between the one and the other for every one may have his Peny if we understand Salvation by it for all the Saints and all Believers that have the least Faith and the lowest degree in Grace as well as the highest they shall all be saved But it doth in no wise follow from hence because they shall receive every man a Peny that therefore they shall each one receive no greater proportion than the other I say it hinders not but that there may be degrees and greater proportions and shares in this Salvation to be conferred upon some above what shall be given or conferred upon other So that the truth is though this Parable be very hard and obscure and accordingly hath tried the Judgments and Understandings of men and divided them to purpose Yet there is nothing can reasonably be brought from it which hath any clear or pregnant Argument against that inequality of rewards which we have been arguing until now So that we shall take this for a ground or Basis of that Discourse which we are upon That certainly there is a variety and difference of Rewards in Heaven there are Crowns some greater and more weightier than others Now this we should have added in the close that the Crowns of greatest weight and glory are prepared for the heads of those who are filled with the Spirit of God these are the persons that shall be highest and nearest unto Jesus Christ in his glory they that shall most abound in the work of the Lord they that are fullest of Zeal and Faithfulness they that will make the greatest disposure of themselves that shall be content to
spend and be spent upon the interest of God in the World certainly if there be any Crowns of Glorie in the World to come more weighty than others they are the persons that shall receive them from Christ Now it only remains that we weigh the Motive and for that I shall refer you to the consideration of what hath already been delivered in this Motive FINIS A Table of such Texts of Scripture unto which light is given in the foregoing Discourse ABraham will command his Children Gen. 18.9 and his House after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord Page 512 Now therefore go Exod. 4.12 and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say Page 143 If there be a Prophet among you Num. 12.6 I the Lord or I Jehovah will make my self known unto him in a Vision and will speak unto him in a Dream Page 143 I said indeed that thy Fathers House shall walk before me for ever 1 Sam. 2.30 Page 30 The Lord hath heard my Supplication Psal 6.9 10. and he will receive my Prayer let all mine Enemies be ashamed and sore vexed Page 529 I will call on the Lord Psal 18.3 who is worthy to be praised so shall I be saved from mine Enemies Page 529 The sorrows of Hell compassed me about Ver. 5 6. He heard my voice out of his Temple and my cry came before him even into his ears Page 529 The eyes of the Lord are upon the Righteous Ver. 34.15 17. and his ears are open to their cry the Righteous cry and the Lord heareth Page 525 Then shall I teach Transgressors the way Ver. 51.13 and Sinners shall be converted unto thee Page 48 They are all plain to him that will understand Prov. 8.9 Page 517 Wherefore is there a Price in the hand of a Fool to get wisdom Prov. 17.16 seeing he hath not a heart Page 474 He that despiseth his way Prov. 19.16 Page 83 84 Labour not to be rich Prov. 23.4 Cease from thine own wisdom Page 474 Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not Ver. 5. For riches certainly make themselves wings they fly away Page 474 Awake thou North wind Cant. 4.16 and come thou South and blow upon my Garden that the Spices thereof may flow out Page 183 184 Make the heart of this people fat Isa 6.9 10. Page 145 And now the Lord God and his Spirit hath sent me Isa 48.16 Page 145 Neither lift up a cry for this People Jer. 11.14 for if they pray I will not hear them Page 530 Behold the daies come Jer. 30.31 saith Jehovah that I will make a new Covenant Page 145 They should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness Ezek. 14.14 Page 530 When I say unto the righteous man he shall surely live Ezek. 33.13 if he shall trust to his own righteousness and commit iniquity in his iniquity he shall die Page 30 The morning cloud Hos 6.4 and early dew Page 88 Rejoyce not against me Mic. 7.8 O mine Enemy Page 83 Be ye therefore perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect Mat. 5.48 Page 127 And I say unto you ask and it shall be given you Mat. 7.7 8. seek and you shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you For every one that asketh receiveth he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened Page 309 Then shall the Righteous shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father Mat. 13.43 Page 122 123 Therefore every Scribe Ver. 52. which is instructed unto the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a man that is an Housholder which bringeth forth out of his Treasury things new and old Page 435 And they likewise received every man a Peny Ver. 20.9 Page 93 94 119 120 Grant these my two Sons may sit the one on thy right hand Ver. 21 23. and the other on thy left in thy Kingdom It is not mine to give but unto them for whom it is prepared of my Father Page 124 125 For unto every one that hath Ver. 25.29 shall be given and he shall have abundance but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath Page 19 27 28 29 c. Go ye therefore and teach all Nations Ver. 28.19 baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Page 135 c. He saw the Heavens opened Mar. 1.10 and the Spirit like a Dove descending upon him Page 151 152 Why doth the man thus speak blasphemies Mar. 2.7 Who can forgive sins but God only Page 155 156 Ye know not what you ask Mar. 10.35 Page 27 c. For it shall be given to whom it is prepared Ver. 40. Page 27 That he would grant unto us Luke 1.74 that we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without fear Page 68 69 And ye your selves like unto men that wait for their Lord when he will return from the Wedding Luke 12.36 37. that when he cometh and knocketh they may open unto him immediately Blessed are those Servants whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching verily I say unto you that he shall gird himself and make them sit down to meat and will come forth and serve them Page 350 Which of you having a Servant plowing or feeding Cattel will say to him by and by when he is come from the field Luk. 17.7 8. go and sit down to meat and will not rather say unto him make ready wherewith I may sup and gird thy self and serve me till I have eaten and drunken and afterwards thou shalt eat and drink Doth he thank that Servant because he did the things which were commanded him I trow not Page 350 c. That was the true light Joh. 1.9 which lighteth every man that cometh into the World Page 284 I saw the Spirit descending from Heaven like a Dove Joh. 1.32 and it abode upon him Page 153 Jesus answered verily Joh. 3.5 verily I say unto thee Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Page 156 That which is born of the flesh is flesh Joh. 3.6 Page 18 The wind bloweth where it listeth Joh. 3.8 and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh nor whither it goeth Page 174 Except you see signs and wonders you will not believe Joh. 4.48 Page 408 I am come that they might have life Joh. 10.10 and that they might have it more abundantly Page 68 But if I do Ver. 38. though ye believe not me believe the Works that ye may know and believe that the Father is in me and I in him Page 516 Even the Spirit of truth whom the World cannot receive because it seeth him not Ver. 14.17 neither knoweth him but ye know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you Page 21.22 But the Comforter Ver. 26. which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father