c. Atlas that upholds our Heaven also But I am so well perswaded of the love of all Christians both to their Saviour and themselves that I am perswaded I need not say more in the be half of this Truth or against its Enemies Will not every stone in the spiritual Temple threaten that hand that endeavours to remove the Corner-stone And every one that bears the name of a Christian abhor and detest that wicked Engine that seeks to subvert the very foundation of Christianity O let us fear and tremble to think of laying other foundation then what is laid by the wise Master Builder Jesus Christ that Rock of Ages I apply it not but should an Angel from Heaven preach another Gospel then that which consists Gal. 1. 8. with Acts 20. 21. in repentance towards God and faith towords our Lord Jesus Christ let him be accursed rather then believed But let us sit down and consider a little and we shall hear the most absolutely necessary and immediate consequences and inferences of it discover and cry aloud against the wickedness and danger of this way and Errour which I tremble to mention for 1. It denies Christs Priestly Office for 2. It denieth Christs satisfaction to Divine Justice therefore 3. It denieth our Adoption 4. It denieth our imputative Righteousness 5. It thus puts the soul upon immediate communion with God 6. It confoundeth faith and holiness justification and sanctification All these are not onely immediately necessary inferences from the former principles in themselves but are all of them clearly hinted by the maintainers thereof as he that runs may reade Now as these race out every Letter of our Gospel so of our Names in the Book of Life also for how shall we pay our Debts without a Surety or appear before God without a Propitiation or have communion with him without a Mediator For can dry stubble embrace a consuming fire and Who can dwell with everlasting burning Are not those that walk in the way we are discovering even of all kinde of Professors the most miserable The Turk hath his Mahomet and the Jew beleives in his Messias to come but this strange Generation have cast off all notion of a Mediator as if their hinderance a moat in their eye accounting it their perfection to stand alone their onely full happiness to be taken up into the immediate enjoyment of God O how doth this way smell of Antichrist Popery gross Socinianisme yea it hath set one foot already upon the bank of Heathenisme and I fear it will not rest till it centre in Atheisme These men are gone beyond the Christian Turk or Jew they are about to shake hands with Socrates and Plato and it is much very much to be feared that their end will be to be drowned * The Ranters with some of their fore-runners in Aristotles sea and utterly lost in his * Ens entium universal being O my most dear Saviour who can choose but be zealously affected for him When I seriously think upon that heavenly glory that he was freely pleased to put off for us and in my sad Meditations become a Spectator to that matchless horrible and most inhumane Tragedy that naked Innocence acted or suffered rather upon the Stage of the World for our sakes and sins What contradiction of sinners for sinners he indured What cursings buffettings shames pains and death even from a combination of sin the World Hell and Heaven he received underwent and for no other end in the world but that he must be a Sacrifice Attonement Mediator Advocate and Saviour for us And with an eye of faith behold him maugre all to have spoiled Principalities and Powers and counting it his glory to make a shew of them openly triumphing over them as the Lord of Life and the Captain of our Salvation being made perfectly so by his Sufferings even the Author of eternal salvation to all that obey him Moreover when as I consider all this as the Result Issue Act and Decree of eternal Counsel the most markable pregnant testimony and token of the Fathers everlasting love to the World most remarkable surely that God should give his Son most pregnant also in that with him he should give us all things else as the great Promise of the Law blessed Gift of the Gospel the whole sum and substance of divine Oracles Gods whole and onely revealed will and to conclude for the Application and efficacy whereof the holy Ghost himself hath his onely business and that special Embassie and Errand from the Almighty God and the Father and Christ to the sons of men When I reade with wondering eyes this sacred Story and hear with trembling and amazed ears the Tale this Error tels us viz. That Christ is notwithstanding all this but a Type a Shadow that we must not beleive in him that there is no trusting to him depending upon him for eternal happiness that they have found out a nearer way and cut to Heaven then by him that is the Way a Truth for the Truth opposing to Christ the immediate enjoyment of God in the Spirit without him I am and I judge deservedly at a stand what to think of the Abbettors thereof For ah what a rude Affront and Contradiction is this to divine Wisdome Counsel Will and Word at once What an horrid contempt and insufferable slighting of the Fathers everlasting Grace and Love so highly commended in him Yea what an ingratefull indignity undervaluing trampling under foot the Son of God together with a most desperately wicked despite of the Spirit of Grace And to conclude by a direct refusing our own mercies thereby a most bloody and cruell destroying and ruining miraculous Grace preventing us not of our most precious and immortal Souls for ever For of how much soever punishment shall he be thought worthy that hath troden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite unto the Spirit of Grace Heb. 10. 29. And to add a word more the punishment of such as it will be thus heavy and sore so sure and swift also sure and inevitable for how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation Heb. 2. 3. Swift and unexpected for such as shall bring in damnable Heresies even denying the Lord that bought them bring 2 Pet. 2. 1. upon themselves swift destruction But let this be my trust support and comfort together with all those that wait for his appearing that he that is the Lord Jesus Christ which shall be revealed from 2 Thess 1. 8 9 10. Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that obey not his Gospel shall be glorified in his Saints and admired by all us that beleive appearing able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him seeing he Heb. 7. 25. ever loveth to make intercession for us Wherefore also we
other Professors And the place is to be taken comparatively and not absolutely Answ We need not go about to pick holes in the Coat of the maintainers of this errour But accepting this distinction botâ— for this and the Verses or Termes viz. of Temple Sun Moon c. We now are discussing We shall indeavour and desire to end the Controversie and conclude That As it cannot easily be imagined that no unclean thing shall be admitted into this City so neither that there shall be no form or Ordinances allowed or practised there Let both these expressions be received in a sense comparative and not absolute and without much difference we may here shake hands in the receiving thereof Yet Not that we argue in the least we having sufficiently proved the contrary that this way or any other yet in earth is this new Jerusalem but only thus much we consent to that when ever God shall please to send down this holy City from himself in Heaven there shall not be so much of form in the World yea in the Church as now Observe me I dare not say there shall not be even in this City so many forms in your sense Ordinances much lesse none at all but not so much form opposed to power not so much formality opposed to Reality and Spirit in Holinesse and Worship The second thing I have promised to speak to Therefore The true meaning of the Text. 2. Could it be thought that this City is already come or coming down from Heaven I see not that the fall thereof must needs crush Ordinances Must needs take away the use but rather and only the abuse therof The full and genuine meaning of the place being thus viz. The most of this Chapter is a beautifull rare and goodly discription of the glorious Estate of the Church at the conversion of the people of the Jews therefore the Church the Lambs Wife here is called the City of the new Jerusalem Therefore also we read the whole description almost in the language of the Jews we have an Application of the promises formerly made for the restitution recovery Glory of the Jews and to conclude we therfore read here of a Temple a place of worship peculiar to the Jews and something even God and the Lamb to beare Analogy thereto And now when it is said that there shall be no Temple in the City it is not meant that the Gospell Churches of the Gentiles shall loose and leave there Gospell Ordidinances but that the Jews must not here expect a Iewish Temple a rituall Jewish worship as if it had plainly been said that the Iews may not be so far deceived as to expect the restitution of their old Legall and rituall worship Let them know that in this City the wonderfull presence of God in Christ in a purer truer worship of him shall fully supply all their heretofore externall Pedagogy that they had by their Law in their Temple then The Vaile of this errour yet lying over their hearts they being two much wedded to thâ—ir Law the Law of Moses and the rites thereof in opposition to the Gospell and the spirituall service and worship thereof the Apostle telleth them that this new Jerusalem hath no Temple but that God and the Lamb are Ezek. 48. 33. 2 Cor. 3. ult Rev. 21. 21. the Temple thereof And when their heart shall be turned to the Lord this Vaile shall be taken away and they shall then see with open face as in a Glasse the Glory of the Lord for the Glory of God shall light the City and the Lamb shall be the light thereof And the Jews of the glorious appearance and enjoyment of God and the Lamb among them forsaking their former formall way of worship shall now worship the Father in spirit and Truth for the People that are saved shall walk Joh. 4. 23. Vers 24. in the light thereof Not that all or any the Ordinances of Jesus Christ but of Moses only signified here by the Temple shall be taken away Now Arguments against 1. Cor. 15 24. The performance of them being only cleered brightned and purified in the light of this new Jerusalem holy City For 1. The ministeriall Kingdome of Christ according to his Gospell doth not terminate untill the end shall be 2. Christ must raine in his ministerial ver 25. 26. Kingdome till he hath subdued the last of his Enemies death till there be no more Rev. 21. 4 death As 1. The Sacrament of the Supper of the Lord must be done in remembrance of Christ till he come 2. The Commission of Baptisme reacheth Math. 28. ult alwaies even to the end of the World 3. For the preaching of the word even after this new Ierusalem is come from Heaven there is a tender of the Gospell Rev. 22. 17. and water of life not only the Spirit but the Bride saith come c. 4. And Prayer is exercised after it also for the hastning of the coming of Christ Rev. 22. 12. and 20. to Judgement Amen even so come Lord Iesus Thus it then appeareth that none much lesse not all of the Ordinances of the Gospell of Christ do expire at the coming down of the new Ierusalem from Heaven Much lesse are they to be dissolved or abolished before as the men of this errour would have them But In the Chapters following we shall single out the two maine standing Ordinances in the Church which we finde in these daies too too much neglected sleighted and contemned by many viz. the preaching of the Word and Prayer And indeavour at least if possible to recover their credit and practise again CHAP. XV. Of the Ministry of the Word WE are now discended to the speciall defence of these two speciall and most profitable Ordinances the ministry of the Word and Prayer Against the first of these viz. The ministry of the Word they argue thus Obj. 1 The coming of the spirit brings so much Light and Knowledge with it that we have no need of the teaching of men such low and inferiour meanes of Knowledge We shall Heb. 8. all be taught of God and we shall not need every one to teach his neighbour saying know the Lord for all shall know him from the greatest to the least Answ I wonder how this man can reconcile their Judgements and practise in this very case Preaching is dissolved and yet the World must know this by their preaching they go up into the Pulpit to pull down beat down preaching and yet at the very same time and for that very end they preach is their hand so happy that while they go about to ruine they must needs build or so unhappy that they by building it must needs destroy must all be taught of God immediately then why do they that beleeve make so much haste and darken the work of Gods own hand by being the meanes of teaching themselvs doth not this their own practice discover to
see himself in us and not by our eys not through those faculties we had before nor as he is a new form as a new eye or new faculty to us maketh this his seeing of himself in us nothing to us That cannot be a beatificall vision to us which is not our sight thus God seeth himself in every the most stupid yea and most miserable Creature 2. Again if God be indeed our eye as well as light and Object things very different so that as Aqui. expresseth the divine Essence is both the thing seen and Essentia Divina ipsa est quod intelligitur quo intelligitur Aq. upon the question the thing whereby we see both the Object and the faculty And thus truly a new form of our understanding in Heaven is not then the divine Essence ours is not our Essence divine do we not only not cease to be men but even arise to be Gods what now can hinder us for Forma dat nomen esse according to our form even such we are and such we may be called But to conclude and to speak all in a word could we imagine such a thing as that the Essence of God should be the form of the Soule of man doth it therefore inevitably follow that the Soul of man must see and know God in his Essence The Soul of man is the form of the Body yet doth not the Body therefore see the soule yea nor yet the Soul see its own Essence The great Argument that according to The argument for the affirmative Aqnin and others both Philosophers and Schoolemen and Divines maintains and necessitates our seeing of God in his Essence in Heaven is because our happinesse See Aqui. upon the question consists in the knowledge of God But we may reply that do not we know the spirits of our friends yea and our own souls because we do not see them Per essentiam again was not Adam perfect was not he happy yet he confessedly saw neither God nor Angells The scriptures for the affirmative considered in their essences And as reason seemeth to declare against So neither doth scripture for ought that I yet perceive do more then seem to speak for it viz. Our seeing the Essence of God in Heaven The cheifest Texts are only these two 1. The first is this when he shall appear 1 Joh. 3. 2. we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is i say they we shall see the Essence of God But to this we oppose the exposition Beza Camer and Villectus so frequent which taketh it for granted and undeniable that this Him is Cheifely Christ in these words we shall be like the Son of God himself and shall enjoy his sight indeed such as he is now This Exposition is strongly confirmed by that expression before viz. When he shall appear who why surely Christ according to the whole Analogy of the Gospell Which speaks so much for the exercise of Faith and hope concerning the appearance of Jesus Christ our Lord even every where as also by that other viz We shall be like him if compared especially with that of Saint Paul From Heaven we look for a Saviour even the Phil. 3. 20. 21. Lord Jesus Christ who shall change our vile Body that it shall be fashioned like un to his glorious body The other is we now see through a 1 Cor. 13. 12. Glasse darkly but then we shall see face to face c. The exposition before mentioned teacheth us to construe al this by comparison i. in comparison of what we see now There shall be as much difference betwixt our knowledg of God in Heaven and the knowledg we have of him in this life as there is betwixt our seeing a man in a Compare Gen. 32. 30. with this c. Beza translateth it Coram glass and out of a Glasse Face to Face But why may not this be understood of Christ also God hath not a face Christ hath If we will understand it in a strict sense why not in a litterall sense i so far as it will hold The sense may then be this we here have only some letters of our beloveds which do more mediately and darkly give us some hopes and comforts but this we expect this shall be our happiness another day we shall come into the * Shall see is not in the greek Text. In seculo suturo tam perfectam Dei cognitionem assequemur quam humana mens capere potest c. Morton in Lo. presence of our Lord and Husband seeing Face to face or being face to face We grant that in the World to come we shall attain to so perfect a knowledge of God as our humane minde can take or can be made to take up but as it is finite it cannot comprehend that that is infinite nor see or discern that that is too pure and excellent for it Divine Essence 3. If any man add that we in the resurrection shall be as the Angells of God and that therefore we shall see God then in his Essence I answer that that is to be restrained to the particular purpose and case there spoken to We shall be as the Math. 22. 30. Angells not marrying or giving in marriage 2. Crysostome concludes from this very Text that we shall never see the Essence of God The Angells shall never see God in his Essence and our Estate in Heaven is promised to be but equall to the Angels therefore we when in Heaven shall never attain to see God in Essence so immediately Deum nemo vidit unquam nec ipsae Caelestes Essentiae ipsa dico Cherubim Seraphim ipsum ut est nunquam videre potuerunt Sed hominibus non promittitur nisi equalitas Angelorum Chrys Hom. 14. in Joh. Now to bring these premises to a conclusion as lesse in the same respect can never be more then more So cannot the Estate of Grace our recovery inchoate here bring our Souls to a cleerer and more immediate discerning of God and spirits then our recovery consummate in glory in Heaven hereafter If the fullest injoyment of the spirit of God in Heaven shall not give us to attain to the knowledge of God in his Essence how shall that partiall assistance thereof in this life make us so suparlatively perfect think ye yea even a doubt of the first doth withall certainty deny the later the improbability of that reckons and concludes this impossible 2. And those very scriptures that seem to take into favour the opinion questioned viz. that in Heaven we shall see God and Angells in their Essence doth expresly reject the Error viz. of our discerning of spirits immdiately in this world As for that of Ioh. 3. we shall not see him as he is till the time of his appearance and in the Text to the Cor. Paul professeth that though he shall know as he is known yet here he himself knoweth but in
we may take comfort to our selves against both our present and future ends from former experiences These markable Scriptures following especially are largely opened in this Treatise accordingly as the Margin points to ROm. 8. 16. The spirit it selfe beareth witnesse with our spirits that we are the Children of God 2 Cor. 5. 16. Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh yea though we have known Christ after the flesh yet now henceforth know we him no more Isa 8. 20. To the Law and to the Testimony If they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them 1 Joh. 4. 1. Dearly beloved belleeve not every spirit but try the spirits whether they be of God for there are many false Prophets gon out into the World 2 Pet. 1. 19. We have also a more sure word of prophesy whereunto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place untill the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts Rev. 21. 22. 23. And I saw no Temple therein For the Lord God almighty and the Lamb are the Temple therof c. Heb. 8. 11. And they shall not teach every man his Neighbour saying know the Lord for all shal know me from the greatest to the least A Table of the severall Chapters contained in this following Treatise CHap. 1. Of its Definition fol. 1. Chap. 2. Of the grounds or rise of this Opinion in generall fol. 5. Chap. 3. Of qualifications f. 15. Chap. 4. Of the immediate witnesse of the spirit f. 55. Chap. 5. Of the knowledge of Christ after the flesh or in his Mediatorship f. 68. Chap. 6. Of the Allegoricall sense of Scripture f. 91. Chap. 7. Of beleeving those truths of the Word that we are not yet convinced of by the spirit f. 104. Chap. 8. Of the Scripture as it is the Rule of Faith 115. Chap. 9. Of the VVord as Judge of spirits f. 133. Chap. 10. Of the VVord as profitable for Instruction f. 154. Chap. 11. Of the Scripture as profitable in its command for obedience f. 161. Chap. 12. Of the Scriptures as usefull in their promise for comfort f. 179. Chap. 13. Of the Gospell Communion of Saints or Church fellowship f. 192 Chap. 14. Of Gospell Ordinances in generall f. 186 Chap. 15. Of the Ministry of the word f. 205. Chap. 16. Of Prayer f. 233. Chap. 17. Of Experience f. 252. Chap. 18. Of the spirit of Christ as the Soules immediate Rest and Evidence f. 263. A farewell to the Reader f. 309. THE GENERALL CONSIDERATION of the ERROVR CHAP. I. Of its Definition in Generall IT is a pretence unto the immediate enjoyment of Definition the Spirit of God as alone the onely All-sufficient means to the Soul even for all intents and purposes especially for Evidence 1. It is a pretence Viz. As opposed to that that is true and reall or so indeed 2. The fallacy and formality of the Errour lies hid in the words Immediate as alone Means as they have their place and sense in this Definition 1. Immediate that is not to be taken in opposition to distance of place but to the meanes of enjoying But this word Immediate will be better cleared if we will joyne it with the second terme of fallacy mentioned as alone 2. As alone without the use of any means whatever subordinate thereunto Thus whatsoever we can call Religious helps Gospell means though owned and ordained by God himself is plainly excluded this their Canaan as imperfect or a very needless thing and all use thereof flatly condemned as a living and resting below God and Of false rests which is wholly used in this Treatise therefore oftentimes compared in his Book to the Children of Israels resting in the Wildernesse In a word it pretends to be in the Sunne and holds the beames in contempt trodden under foot It is in an everlasting Light and hath cast a vaile of darkenesse upon these things below it Viz. Ordinances Graces Scriptures Experiences and not onely upon those meanes but upon Christ Jesus the Mediatour himselfe These are forms types shadowes while it is swallowed up in the Power Truth Substance God its glorious Heaven 3. Means it is not said Efficient ' nor yet End I advise the Reader to take speciall notice of both those 1. The question is not whether the Spirit of God be not as alone the onely All-sufficient Efficient of all in the Soul of a Creature Here we dissent not but subscribe with both hands to that of the Apostle That it is God that worketh in us both to will and to doe of his own good pleasure 2. Neither is the question here whether God as alone be the onely All-sufficient End of the Soul in this we agree For God is our Portion for ever Nothing below God nothing but God is the rest of Souls in this sense The sound of this most frequent terme namely Rest is so equivocall and dubious that the weaker Reader had in a most especiall manner need to retain this Item That we controvert not about the Finall rest of our Souls but the means thereof not about our Objective but our Evidentiall rest 3. Therefore the Spirit here is to be understood as means or as the supply of all means to the Soul it is confest we cannot call the Spirit means but in an unusuall and improper sense yet we can no way better if any way otherwise expresse their sense who prefer I am sure and recommend their Spirit in stead both of the cause and means also 3. To all intents and purposes it stands in the room of all the means both of knowledge and grace but especially of comfort all our usuall and most comfortable Evidences of the truth of our grace Gods love and favour to and presence in us these especially are most suspicious and forcibly beat back with an high zealous Arm out of this their rest This Errour will tell you that Christ in us hath this Prerogative to be immediately i. e. without and above the use of any means both the Spirit of Truth Grace and Comfort even All in All unto its subject It pretends to the immediate injoyment of God as alone the onely All-sufficient meanes to the Soul even to all intents and purposes c. CHAP. II. Of the Grounds or rise of this Opinion in generall WEE come now to consider what may be the Grounds and Principles that afford most occasion and help to the bringing forth of this fond conceit into the inventions of men and among many others perhaps we have thought upon these following The first may be either a conceited or perceived abuse of the usuall Gospell means and helps either in themselves or others Sad experience witnesseth that this doth too too often create in many a most zealous prejudice against the very use of lawfull things such is the vulgar unstayed rashnesse it puts too an inconsiderate violent hand
in the Sense we speak of may not alwayes be true or false but the words true or false may be Ambiguous For 1. Qualifications may be said to be true or false 1. With respect to the Cause and Principle as Effects 2. With relation to their End as means because 3. They may be true or false with regard to our knowledge Now according to the first Interpretation gracious qualities cannot be false and therefore not either true or false for they are true effects of the Spirit of Truth and if that be his Sense his Argument is guilty of contradictory qualities he before having frequently granted them all to be truely wrought by the speciall operation of the Spirit and still denying them as to be Evidences of the true Enjoyment of God Page 22. line 22. Page 21. line 14. But if we conceive true or false in the later Constructions namely by our ignorance of the Truth thereof they may be false means with respect to this End Viz. The Evidence of the true Enjoyment of God I answer that as I have already so hereafter in their place shall more cleerly free them from this Romane scruple from being false i. e. fallible Evidences of the true Enjoyment of God Object If it be Objected that wicked men and Hypocrites have the same qualifications it is a needlesse thing For Answ Such men have the Spirit as much and more truely then Grace as it works upon such mens hearts with its common Effects and motions If this then hinders our infallible Judgement of the Truth of Grace how will ye judge of the Truth of your Spirit Object It is as little worth to affirm that Hypocrites may thinke their Grace to be true as well as the Godly For Answ Truth being seated in the understanding hath its answerable light and it doth not hinder the Godly mans assurance of the truth of his Grace because wicked men flatter and deceive themselves with a fals opinion of theirs not so because the Mad-man thinks he is a sober man cannot the man that is sober indeed be assured thereof The Childe accounts his Counter gold and so is mistaken therefore cannot the Father know his Gold to be Gold Men in the dark may err and no wonder but the Candle of David is Enlightned the Disciples of Christ have a light within them a light that manifests evil from good truth from Errour even that Anointing that teacheth them all things But to conclude a wicked man may as well and more easily mistake in his judgement of his Spirit if Judge thereof and not by its effects then of his Grace this being more visible descernable as corporall the other more subtill and indescernable as Spirituall The fourth and last Argument Object The last Objection against Qualifications lyes in experience the Abbettors of this way have found by experience that such Evidences as these are as a rotten wall to those that trust and lean thereon Answ It is most clear they lean too much upon their own phansied Experience But I shall onely put their Experiences in one scale and the many thousand Counter Experiences of Holy men of all Ages that have abundantly testified for such Qualifications as bearing invincible Truth of Evidence in the other scale leaving them to be poysed by indifferent Judgements Yea are not many Experiences of this very kind left recorded in Scripture on purpose for our clear instruction and strong consolation in this Case and that not onely in the old but new Testament also even of such as had attained Gospell perfection Our Pattern Christ Jesus takes great boldnesse to himself in Prayer to Heaven that he had glorified his Fathers Name and if you aske Holy Pauls advice and experience in this kinde you may hear his answer 2 Cor. 1. 12. This is our rejoycing even the Testimony of our Conscience that in simplicity and Godly sincerity we have our Conversation in the world Yet then we may affirm what this Errour denies that Qualifications wrought by the Spirit are good and sure Evidences of our enjoyment of God Arguments to prove the Affirmative that Qualifications may be used as Evidences Having pulled downe and laid Errour desolate we shall now attempt to build up Truth and render it strong and glorious upon the Grounds following Arg. 1 The first Argument is taken from that of S. Peter 2 Ephes 1. 10. where the Apostle doth exhort us To give all diligence to make our Calling and Election sure now how shall we make our Election sure but by our Calling for we are called according to his purpose Rom. 8. 28. And how shall we make Vers 5. our Calling sure but by the worke of Calling and the effects thereof but by adding unto Faith Vertue c. Now if ye doe these things you shall never fall do you fear your falling away is this your desire to make your Calling and Election sure This is the way add to Faith Vertue c. and if you doe these things you shall never fall c. Arg. 2 You must give us leave to make use of our Reason Whom God hath joyned together let no man put asunder the Spirit of God and our Reason these two make up a truely enlightned and reformed judgement a sound minde Then 1. While the Scripture hath plainly laid down this Proposition He that beleiveth shall be saved If I can assume I beleive why may not blood be my witnesse and my Faith a blessed Evidence of salvation to me 2. If the Word of God witnesseth the deceitfulnesse of our heart in being apt to perswade us that we beleive when our Faith is dead doth not the Law of Reason as well as of Scripture command Examine your selves whether you be in the Faith prove your owne selves But how Therefore 3. While the Scripture declares that Faith works by love purifieth the heart c. As it thus affords a Rule for triall so by measuring our selves by this Rule if we can truely finde That we are such as love God Christ our Brethren our Enemies c. and that our hearts are 1 Joh. 2. 3. cap. 3. 19. 21. Ver. 14. cap. 2. 3. purifying in the Refiners fire doth it not incourage yea command to conclude That we are past from Death to Life because we love c. And to strengthen in our Souls that blessed hope while we purifie our selves as he is pure and so for any other true Grace I close up this with that invincible Scripture that hath already been hinted and if truely weighed might end this Controversie 2 Cor. 13. 5. Examine your selves whether you be in the Faith prove your own selves know ye not even your own selves that Jesus Christ is in you unlesse you be Reprobates i. e. unapproved whence 1. the ordinary rule for the triall of our Faith of which it is a shame for Professors to be ignorant is the being of Christ in the Soul 2. The ordinary way for Professors to finde
more easy for beleivers then for such as doe not yet beleive to act Faith of Adherence It seems most strange that the Spirit should choose to work a Miracle where is least need and work no Miracle where most should make use of means or instruments for the creating of Faith and yet afterwards work comfort in the same soul immediately miraculously Faith of Adherence is a Creation and giving life Faith of Evidence is onely the motion of that life given For the first the Spirit must enlighten for the last he need onely snuff this Candle of the Lord in Man The worke of assurance is halfe wrought by and in the Faith of Adherence the Soul hath received the prime efficient of it Viz. The Spirit Secondly the Principle or second efficient Faith together thirdly with the matter of comfort Viz. Justification and a right to Heaven There wants nothing for the Soul to be assured of this but the work of his Faith through reason of his Qualification shewed to the Soul in the light of the Spirit Now how fitly doth enlightned Reason and this habit of Faith offer themselves for this blessed work Assurance God hath put an inclination in Reason and Faith towards this work and shall Potentiality never come to act Shall a Miracle be rather wrought to act their proper work without them No assuredly God will not spend his own Omnipotency in such Cases as this who as he maketh nothing in vain so he doth not delight to work a Miracle for that that is more easily Weames done in an ordinary way The Holy Ghost doth make an Exercise of our Reason about our Qualifications in the humbling of our Souls with Godly sorrow then why not also for heavenly Joy Why may not the Spirit as the Spirit of Adoption as well as a Spirit of Bondage work mediately through Qualifications There can be no Godly sorrow but it aims at Sinne is conversant about sin and can there be any Godly solace that springs not from Grace As reason exercised about sin causeth sorrow doth not Reason exercised about Grace work out comfort Let the rule of Contraries judge betwixt us It is the same that ascends and the same that descends the same Spirit that humbles and exalts the change is not in the efficient but the matter or object Sin and Grace But is there not the same reason for our exaltation and comfort from gracious as for our dejection from sinnefull Qualities Have I not as much cause to rejoyce at my recovery as to sorrow and greive at my decay or delay in sickness Why should not the Spirit discover our Grace for matter of rejoycing that discovers our sinne for cause of sorrow But all Reason and Scripture will affirm that that is no godly sorrow Evangelicall repentance that is not the fruit of conviction of sin That sorrow is again 2 Cor. 7. 8. with 13. to be sorrowed for and that repentance to be repented of that with its watery eyes lookes not at sinne whose tears fall not down on sinne For for what must I greive surely for something and for what must I greive with Gospel-sorrow surely for sin so consequently Is not Joy infidelious and also ridiculous that comes not from Reason and as exercised on Grace laughter is the immediate Affection of the reasonable Soul The Holy Ghost doth exercise our Reason about our Qualifications in our Petition then why not in our prayse and rejoycing also they are both parts of the same duty and both affect the same matter I pray for that for which when obtained I am bound to give prayse and I prayse and give thankes for that which is unto me the return of Prayer Now most Evident it is that Col. 1. 9 10 11. Heb. 4. 16. I must pray for Grace and that under the sense of the want of Grace I must addresse my selfe unto the Throne of Grace to finde Grace to help in time of need Therefore I may and must rejoyce in God as I reveiw that Grace the return of my Prayer derived into me from my Head Christ as the Spirit of Prayer doth make use of my reason to see and express my want of Grace and so teach me to pray so the Spirit of Prayse doth make use of my reason to reflect from Grace obtained my thanks unto and my Joy in God and so is my Comforter Lastly the Holy Ghost by reasoning from our Qualifications doth Evidence to us our right and interest in the Supper of the Lord then why not also by the same means our right and interest in Heaven and Happiness If hereby we come to know our propriety and interest in the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ Sacramentall why not hereby also our right and benefit in the flesh and blood of Christ reall and consequently in the fovour of Heaven The consequence is clear for we must put on the wedding Garment we must know our selves to be the freinds of the Master of the Feast before we may enter and venter to his Feast Now what is the matter of our Spirituall Joy yea what the Hellen we so much strive for but even this The Knowledge or Evidence of these conditions Viz. our Union with Christ our interest in Heaven c. So that we must know our interest in Heaven in order to the knowledge of our interest in the Sacrament or in our preparing for it But the Argument is proved from 1 Cor. 11. 28 29. Let a man examine himselfe and so let him eat c. Wherefore examine That he may eat c. of what examine Whether he be worthy i. e. fitly qualified for this Supper i. e. whether he have an interest in the Master of the Feast but whereby must he know this By searching trying and examining himselfe by exerciseing his reason about his Qualifications Viz. Whether hee can come in Faith Love c. But can this Examination prove a means effectuall for this end Yes verily ordained of God for that very purpose Let a man examine himselfe and by the Holy Ghost supposed effectuall and so let him eate having found himself worthily qualified for it by a sober due and rationall examination of himself so let him eate Then examin your selves in the like manner Whether you be in the Faith or no and if by the Evidence of your own Examination of your selves impartially exercised by your reason enlightned by the Spirit of God you can truely conclude you beleive Fear not but rejoyce in the light of this Evidence with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory in beleiving giving thankes unto the Father that hath made you meete not onely to be partakers of the Supper of the Lord Col. 1. 12 13. but of the inheritance of the Saints in Light Thus we have at length ended as we hope this Controversie for the fruit of Righteousnesse is Peace and the effect thereof assurance for ever Isa 32. 17. 18. Cautions about Qualifications But
pray always for you even you that yet oppose your 2 Thess 1. 11 12. selves that our God would count you worthy of this calling and fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of faith with power That the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ may yet be glorified in you and ye in him according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. CHAP. VI. Of the Allegorical sense of Scripture WE have hitherto been imployed in the reconciliation of the Spirit to his Effects and Cause but now how great occasion of Endeavour have we put into our hands of making peace betwixt the Spirit and his Word Their unchangeable Spirit doth deny his own word and opposeth the Scriptures As Absolute and that both in the whole As Respective to our use and that both in in many parts First then we finde that this Error doth gainsay the Word of God in an absolute acception in these two particulars 1. That visible Scripture or the Bible is but a bare Allegory Page 64. Page 65 ult 2. We are bound to beleive no more of Gods Word then the Spirit doth perswade and clear up to us How much of Popery Familisme and Anti-scripturisme are couched under these two Propositions we may in a measure guess by the first hearing and may further understand by the following Discourse hereof But of them in order For the first of these that that lifteth an high hand to pull down the plain express and visible meaning of Scripture to exalt an allegorical sense I know no other seeming ground whereon it sets footing to do this feat but one and that is borrowed from the Scripture it selfe that it might be an Engine for its own subversion and is the word Mystery Arg. Because we reade many times of the Mystery of the Gospel Mystery of the Kingdom Mystery of Faith Mystery of Godliness c. They gather that in all that is written or spoken there is hidden Manna a hidden Mystery That the outward visible sense is not to be regarded but their inward sense alone their allegorical interpretation is the Word of God the Scripture Answ This Argument is very much ingaged to the so frequently mentioned Author who makes so very much of that little nothing in it But I answer hereunto First because we reade much of Mysteries in the Word is therefore the Word all allegorical Why then do you not take the word Mystery also in a mistical sense and look for a mystery in the word Mystery But let us more plainly seek a Revelation of the word Mystery Now we as readily grant as you can demand that the whole Fabrick and Frame of the Gospel is very mysterious deep and unsearchable yet not allegorical But that that makes the difference betwixt us is the Papistical Equivocation of the word Mystery this word is first made pregnant and then is delivered of a double sense though the Mystery that is in the literal meaning be onely lawfully begotten and that that is in the Allegorical be Illegitimate But since we are forced to be Midwife for want of one of more skill in this present exigency we deliver into the World this Distinction There is a Mystery of the Sense Allegorical Real Subject The first may be when we dis-regarding the plain and open meaning of the words seek and pick out a further mysterious interpretation of them The later namely the Mystery of the Subject the real Mystery is when in the very opening of the plain intention and sense of the words there is found contained some wonderfull rare deep and mysterious matter in the same And now how easily is it determined that the Mysteries so frequently mentioned in the Gospel are such as respect the Subject-matter of the Gospel and not at all the visible and outward sense and phrase thereof let any man that hath but the Spirit of the Gospel yea but the use of his Reason judge The Gospel is a Relation or Report of the most strong deep and unsearchable Truths of Heaven concerning the recovery Acts 26. 21. of miserable man out of the Kingdom of Darkness into marvellous light and from the power of Satan unto God by Jesus Christ. Now when you have found this out once assure your selves you have the Truth look for no higher vain imagination no other Mystery then this which is the Mystery of the Gospel O take heed as you prize your Souls and Heaven of catching at any seeming though seeming never so glorious a Shadow of the Gospel least you with the Dog in the Fable let slip away from you and lose irrecoverably the substance thereof When we reade of the Mystery of the Kingdome therefore let us take heed of mistaking it for the Mystery of the Sense but of the Subject the Mystery i. of the Kingdome i. the mysterious way of the Reign of the Gospel Mysterious because the Kingdom of Christ cometh conquereth ruleth and governeth so secretly strangely mysteriously The Kingdom Luke 17. 20. of God cometh not with observation i. with outward pomp and victory which makes it so worthily called the Mystery of the Kingdome Secondly when we reade of the Mystery of Godliness we must not understand it as if we were to look for an allegorical sense and meaning of Godliness how weak and ridiculous is such a construction and yet there is a Mystery and Great is the Mystery of Godliness notwithstanding Now what is this Mystery Must we allegorize God manifested in the flesh into Christ in the Spirit to make this Mystery of Godliness Yea God in the Spirit is no Mystery at all at least in comparison of the Mystery of God in flesh this is a Mystery though it be revealed in the plainest and easiest words and phrase a Mystery still and such a Mystery as is incomprehensible by the largest and deepest capacity of Reason for without all controversie great is the Mystery of Godliness God manifested in the flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles beleived on in the World received up into Glory 1 Tim. 3. 16. So to conclude the Mystery of Faith is also to be revealed understood in like manner Faith is mysterious two ways Objectivè as Christ the former Mystery is the Object or Medium of Faith Secondly Effectivè its Effects are mysterious deep and unsearchable by humane Reason as it unites with Christ justifies adopteth regenerateth * 1 Tim. 3. 8 9. sanctifieth saveth Thus plainly there is a mystery in Faith And that far greater then ever can be found in any other allegoricall faith imaginable But what color or gloss can they possibly have for their allegorically interpreted resurrection day of judgment matters of such high import concernment I say no more but I will avouch and testifie they had as good in plaine English to deny them both What hindereth yet poor Soules but you may if God suffer you see your fallacy surely you
the punishment Lam. 3. of his sin The consequence is cleare as the Sun for what the Spirit hath revealed to us we cannot have an ignorant unbeleif thereof We are to beleive every Truth that God hath revealed to the World in Scripture But there are many Truths in the Scripture that the Spirit hath not yet revealed to most if to any Therefore we are to beleive more Truth and Scripture then the Spirit hath yet revealed to us The Proposition is clear because all revealed Truth is to be beleived First by that Law of Reason that is implanted in every man by Nature Secondly by the Law of God that condemneth every spirit as foolish and bewitched that obeyeth not the Truth in believing of it Gal. 3. 1. But now how shall we prove the Assumption to them that deny the Scripture viz. that there is more Truth in Scripture then the Spirit hath yet revealed to any They will be forced to grant it will they but yeild a little to consult their own experience for they will acknowledge that there are some that are more enlightened inspired with the spirit of Truth then others even among themselves Now that revelation that hath honored them above and beyond their Brethren was either made known by a spirit of Truth or Error but they not acknowledging the later of these then that they have received from the Spirit of Truth must needs be Truth and that may be the Truth for their sufficient conviction that is not revealed by the Spirit to many There is some Truth in Scripture that is not yet revealed to some men all the Truth in Scripture ought to be beleived by all men therefore men ought to beleive more Scripture then the Spirit hath yet made clear and manifest to them But a word to hint at the absurdity and danger of this Opinion and I shake hands yea wash my hands of this And first we must needs infer that there is no sin * Ignorantia Juris of ignorance can possibly be committed for if I am bound to beleive no more then the Spirit doth reveal I can be ignorant of nothing that I ought to know for whatsoever the Spirit doth reveal I must needs know There can be no sin of unbeleif for so far as the Spirit perswades and enlightens I must and cannot but assent There can be no actual sin at all among the Heathens for they either have the Spirit of Christ or not The first is too absurd to be imagined Then if they have not the Spirit they cannot have the Law revealed to them by it therefore the Law concerneth them not and where there is no Law there is no Transgression The Man of sin himself as so cannot sin i. against the Gospel the Saints or Christ since he is not perswaded by the Spirit of Truth that these are true Neither do I well conceive how the People of God can sin either for so far as they receive the Truth from the Spirit so far do they not obey it and no further are they bound to regard it Or to conclude if the Saints can sin the Saints it seems are the onely sinners in the World upon this account However men may wallow and tumble in the grossest prophaneness and yet not lose their Cloak The Spirit hath not revealed it to me it will be said I am not yet convinced that what I do is sinfull or evil And Happy thrice happy are ye blinde and ignorant Indians rise up and cal this way above all other blessed it freeth you from sin and punishment also for where there is no Conviction of spirit there is no Law and where there is no Law there is no Transgression and where there is no sin there is no punishment As this Opinion lays a good Foundation for sin so for Ignorance and Error also Well might the Papist say that Ignorance is the Mother of Devotion it being so good a Preservative against sin and wickedness And for Error this will lead us to deny Jesus Christ and God himself the Resurrection of the Body Immortality of the Soul Heaven Hell and worse if possible and bring a man safely off and free from any sin or check upon this account plea ground and warrant I am not yet convinced hereof by the Spirit of God And to conclude it doth plainly levell the holy Bible with any other Book whatsoever whether godly or profane and make the Word of God of no better Authority then they which even the very very worst of which I am bound to beleive so far as the Spirit I mean by Scriptures shall convince and assure me of the truth thereof And yet which I greive to think and tremble to write this is a most commonly received Opinion among us in this Age. Ah! let us take heed of loosing that if such Errors as these once spread and prevail wherein our very Souls are bound up Religion it self CHAP. VIII Of the Scripture as it is the Rule of Faith WE now shal pass on in the defence of the Scripture to consider it respectively to our use thereof first altogether in the bulk whole therof as denied by this error in these two assertions 1. That the Scripture or Bible is not to be the Rule of Faith Page 128. 2. Nor the Judge and triall of the spirits page 66. line 2. 3. page 127. Both these are also known to every one that hath any knowledge of popish tenets to be ranke Popery The difference lies only in the different use hereof the Jesuist using them to advance his Pope and the men of this Errour making them a mean to carry on the designe of their spirit but of them in order Now in answer to the first viz. The deniall of the Scriptures to be the rule of Faith these popish assertions are found in the Jesuites Books Namely That the Gospell was written not to rule our Faith but to be ruled by it That it receiveth all the Authority it hath from the Church And that we must live more according to the Authority of the Church then Scripture c. Now may we but call the Church here the Pope and the Pope the Spirit a most easie mistake and in these and many other particulers the Abbettors of the Errour we are disputing against do willingly bow do obeysance to his holiness if not even fall down and kisse his Toe But there being nothing to be brought for this Errours upholding that I can think of at present that hath not already The truth proved received an answer upon an other occasion before I shall immediately betake my self for the strength and establishment of the contrary affirmative viz. That the Word or Scripture is to be the rule of our Faith For First we have cleere and pregnant scriptuâ—e for it 2. Tim 3. 15. The scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation through the Faith that is in Christ Jesus where observe 1. That Christ
and his presence is with us not only to blesse our faithfull labours but also to Matth. 28. ult blast and curse our Opposers and Enemies This gives me an occasion to shake hands with the first of these Objections against the Ministry and thereby I shall take my leave of this chapter and let no man think as is most apt and agreeable to the dangerous Principles of the errour questioned that the spirit and the Ministry of the word are a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Inconsistent The Ministry of preaching is according to the Apostle and as hath been already observed a Co-worker with God 2 Cor. 2. ult 3 Cap. pri the Ministry of righteousnesse the savour of life unto life yea and to conclude and put all out of doubt expresly called the Ministry of the spirit The Ministry of the word and spirit do as peaceably agree in one and the same Age and Work as the Soul and the Body in one and the same person and action even so as that he that despiseth Prophesiing quencheth the spirit Let us therefore fear least a way being left us and we not being willing to walk therein the Father of lights should withdraw his direction and we loose both our way and our selves too Let us never discover our selves to be a generation so foolish and unwise yea so desperately wicked as eternally to perish with the plague of our Hearers while we trample under foot the sole Remedy As willfully refusing our own mercies most cruelly to murder our own seals rather then to accept of recovery and life which the hand of the preaching of the word would administer to us But Let us be wise and rather repent of our former great abuses of the light thereof Rev. 2. 5. least the Lord come quickly and remove his Candlesticks away from us as a wicked generation most unworthy therof except we repent CHAP. XVI We having sufficiently spoken for the VVord it followeth that we make intercession for Prayer Obj. ANd now what can be said against this harmlesse and innnocent duty this heavenly and profitable Ordinance Prayer Why Prayer is too poore and contemptable a practise say they for us The Miserable effect and consequent of want but we want nothing The dejected companion of impotency weaknesse and imperfection c. But we are strong intire and perfect We wanting nothing we have no need of prayer for what shall we pray for we having attained perfection already we are perfectly above all means of supply and what shall we pray for Answ After this vain manner these men while they walk upon the Battlements of heaven in their proud imaginations they trample under foot this sacred ordinance as a carnall base and unworthy thing But even in this while they plead their perfection how do they in the interim discover their weaknesse and imperfection 1. Do we not think that he that knew no sin even the Lord from Heaven was as perfect as holy as these men are yet how many severall times do we finde our Saviour himself upon his knees in Praier surely those then are none of the followers of Christ that cast off prayer his so frequent practise 2. Yea certainly Jesus Christ if there a thing as perfection here had attained perfection just before his death yet even then he findes occasion to authorize the excellent practise of prayer by his own Joh. 17. 1. example Jesus spake these words and lift up his eyes to Heaven and said Father c. Obj. But it may be said that although we are not actually perfect yet we are as sure of all things by the promises of God that can possibly add any thing to our absolute perfection that it would but expresse and manifest our unbeleeving hearts to pray for any thing Answ Alas the exceeding great and precious promises are so far from forstalling preventing prayer that they are the only ground of incouragement whereon it ascendeth to Heaven God standing upon Gen. 28. the top of the Ladder as the God of the promises 2. As that all the promises are made unto and are to be performed by the motion of Prayer As Ezek. 36. ult Where God concludeth his everlasting Gospell-covenant and all the better promises whereon it is established with this proviso Yet for all these things will I be inquired of by the House of Israell to do it for them saith the Lord. 3. And as for Faith prayer is so far from hindering that it is the very means of excercising Faith Yea they agree so well together that God to shew his likeing and incouragement thereof hath promised a Grant even of whatsoever we ask beleeving As Math. 21. 22. Mark 11. 24. Jam. 1. 5. 6. But we shall have occasion more abundantly to cleer these things in the positive proofe of this Haevenly exercise which we shall immediately undertake by confirming 1. The warrantable secondly the usefull and necessary practise thereof 1. We shall warrant the practise of praier even by all that live in this World by arguments taken First 1. From the nature of prayer which is not temporary but Eternall Let us therefore consider it a little as devided distinguished into its two main parts Petition and Thanksgiving And now for the later of these all joyne hands to lift it to Heaven by the acknowledgement of all it must yea is long agon arrived the heavenly Canaan And why must Petition the Companion of Praise a part of the same Duty Ordinance dy in the Wildernesse what is there more inherent to praise then Petition to make it more Eternall or what in petition to make it more mortall then praise have they not both the same Subject man have not they both the same Object God and is not the matter for which we pray or give thanks one and the same also only prayer stands before and praise after in the want we praying Joh. 11. Compare 38. 41. in the injoyment we praising yet both with respect to the same thing and why then should the one be more immortall then the other hath God commanded Rejoyce in the Lord alwaies and hath he not said also pray ever more Que. But why then doth Petition dy on earth while praise and Thanksgiving is alive and tryumphant in Heaven for ever and ever Answ Petition and praise are two different Branches of the same root which though contrary weather and seasons even summer of mercy the one a winter of want and misery the other make them flourish in themselves yet they live together in their root continually Praise hath its season and matter in Heaven and therefore it flourisheth there Its matter I mean not any internall part or cause of Praise but that causa sine qua non that occasion or subject matter of it those heavenly injoyments for which we praise or give thanks to God and therefore it rather then petition hath its work business imployment and exercise there in Heaven And
if Prayer or Petition fall short of this Honour and preferment it is because it wants only proper occasions a fit and hard season in Heaven It is dead in its use and matter only things externall to it being as truly alive and eternall in its root and nature as thanksgiving Imagine we but an occasion of prayer in Heaven it self viz. Never so short a winter of want or misery there and prayer behold it hears the voice of cries and tears and will not dy but live and put up it self with strength of importunity while praise is silent We have an instance of this in our blessed Saviour who his Heaven of glory and happiness being seemingly ecclipsed in the daies of his flesh with strong cries and tears petitioned heavily My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Prayer it is an immortall spirit most like unto fire not in the Embers but in the flint where it lives for ever in vertue and power and any hard dealing will strike it forth into art and use imagine it in Heaven or any where else Prayer is no more dead in Heaven then it is betwixt its set houres or upon a thanksgiving day in the World Prayer I mean the Petitionary part of Prayer is eternall after the same manner with the heads of Logick the principles and conclusions of reason all naturall and morall truths which are produced into use and art but by occasion only Petition or the craving of things which we want it is the natural effect of a cause viz. sense of want The proper and rationall means of an end The obtaining our desires both witnessed in their observed rise in children and their generall use and practise among all People and Nations and in both these respects eternall Yea so far as is discovered any occasion thereof in Heaven experience testestifieth Prayer lives and breaths there also 1. Our Saviour is there and there lives ever lives to make intercession or to pray Heb. 7. 25. for us 2. And John saw the soules of them that Rev. 6. 9 10. were slaine c. And they cried with a loud voice saying How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them which dwell on the Earth Arg. 2 Secondly For the strength and application of what hath been said for the proof of the warrant of Praier to all of this world we shall argue now from the subject of prayer Man And as Prayer is of an eternall nature and power and is only suspended till occasion acts it So every man alive a Tenant of this World hath continuall matter and occasion thereof and therefore every man alive have their warrant most ready for the practise of Prayer Now that every man alive hath occasion and matter of prayer will appear in the truth of these two propositions 1. That want or misery of any kind whatsoever is the proper and naturall occasion and season of Prayer 2. That the best and most perfect of men in this life are the Subjects of want or misery of one kinde or other while they live in the World 1. Now for the first of these because the want of spirituall Heavenly things as it is an occasion of Prayer is as lesse doubted so lesse sensible also we shall therefore demonstrate that even earthly and temporall wants are a fit and seasonable occasion of prayer 1. Even temporall blessings are promised and therefore may and must be praied for Godlinesse having a Promise of and therefore a Prayer for this life also I will saith God multiply the fruit of the Eze. 36 30. 37. Tree the increase of the Feild c. Yet for this will I be inquired of by the house of Israell to do it for them saith the Lord. 2. And therefore our Saviour that was free from sin the most perfect of men he prayeth notwithstanding if it be possible let this Cup passe 2. And as any misery is the occasion of prayer so the best and perfectest of men alive are subjects of misery in one kinde or other and least men should boast of perfection of Grace though such boasting is vain yet we may infallibly convince them of outward sufferings as liable to them as to any others and therefore affording to them an equall occasion and season of Prayer with others They will not deny that man that is born of a woman let him be who he will our Saviour God himself hath but a short time to live and is full of misery Yea and a man that is born of the spirit much more For those that will live Godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution and here no argument will heal and help the men of this errour in this fruit their rience visible all the world over discovers and proclaims their vanity and sufferings they being subject to greifs sicknesses wants death as well as other men Now unlesse they will maintain their Resurrection is past before their death one of their Paradoxes how can they escape the dint of this argument how can they put of the impetious motion of their wants and miseries in their Freinds themselves their Soules Bodyes Estates Names c. And still resist and quench the spirit of Prayer 3. Thirdly We argue the warrant of this practise by all from the principle of it the Efficiens adjuvans the assisting helping cause of prayer the Spirit of God For that prayer dependeth upon its occasion and season and man in this life hath continuall occasion and season thereof and man is foolish and weak and not able or wise of himself to improve this occasion for this end and purpose Gods Grace hath provided him the Help and assistance of his own spirit to teach him Rom. 8. how to pray But to make it as cleer as the Sun that the coming of the spirit doth not put to silence but rather raise and elevate the voice of prayer we consider him 1. In his promise 2. in his Office 1. In his promise and we read many pregnant promises of the spirit and of its abundant powrings forth especially at the famous conversion of the Jews towards the later ages of the World The great question is what will be the manner and effects of his coming from some generall discriptions thereof some men as our Antagonists imagine that such shall be the powring forth of the spirit then as that he shall drown and wash off from the earth all former Ordinances of the Church and this of praier among the rest but as we defended the rest in their place so here we shall read upon that promise in Zach. 12. 10. Which declareth after this manner the spirit shall come in the Zach. 12. 10. plentifullest powrings forth thereof even at his most glorious coming upon the new Jerusalem With relation to the duty in hand Prayer Let us read to be satisfied I will power upon the House of David and the Inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of Grace
vision as this Can a reasonable creature know or understand and not by reason And can reason discerne of God and Angels and not by effects We shall attain we grant and desire a farr more high and large degree and measure of knowledge and discerning in Heaven then we have here or then we had in Paradice either our perfection there by reason of that world of experience both with respect to our selves and God we have gained by our fall But shall not this be by the same faculty Our light shall be other our objects other but must our eyes be other also Then must not we be men but some other creatures But it is granted that we shall see with the same eyes we must also conclude that so long wee must not we cannot discerne of spirits thus immediately This is therefore the conclusion of many both learned Divines and Phylosophers Intellectus noster impossibilis nunquam potest ad hoc provenire ut intelligat sub stantias seperatas as Alpharabius and others Theologi posuerunt intellectus Humanus nunquam potest ad hoc ut Deum per essentiam videat Aquin. in que Invisibilis quidem Deus propter excellentem claritatem sed claritas eius sicut excedit intellectum hominis in via ita excedit intellectum hominis in patria ergo sicut invisibilis est in via sic erit invisibilis in patria Dionil Plut. distat Deus ab intellectu nostro quam intelligibile creatum a sensu sed sensus nullo modo pertingere ad creaturam spiritualem videndum ergo nec intellectus noster potucrit pertingere ad videndum divinam essentiam that our understanding i While ours or humane cannot possibly attain so high as to understand seperated substances that that moveth them hereto is the distance betwixt our humane intellect and them but especially and God our understanding in act being one with that that is in act understood thereby whence Crysos scrupleth thus Quomodo creabile videt in creabile Whence also Dionisius reasoneth God is invisible because of his exceeding brightnesse But the brightnesse and splender of God as it doth exceed the understanding of man on earth so also doth it exceed the understanding of man in heaven also therefore as God is invisible here so in Heaven also Again there is a greater distance betwixt God and our intellect then betwixt a created intelligible Object and sense but sense can no way attain to the sight of a spirituall Creature intelligible Object therefore our understanding cannot by any means attain to the sight of Divine Essence But Aquinas hath a salve for every wound of his maintained affirmitive viz. by imbodying the Sun into a Candle he telleth us that God we being so neerly united to him in Heaven is even as it Proportio divinae essentiae ad nostram intellectum est ut proportio formae ad materiam Aquin in quaes were the form of our intellect implying thereby that we in our selves cannot see Gods Essence yet God in us can see himself He doth not affirm that God is really the form of the Soul but saith that the proportion of the divine Essence is to our intellect as the proportion of the form to the matter To which if I may presume to answer I say that In this blessed vision neither we see God our selves or God doth see himself in us The first will not be strictly granted for then himself hath largely proved that our reasonable soules as they are fitted to inform our Bodies can onely see and know by a conversion of things to the Phantasme which rendreth it impossible Per nullam similitudinem receptam in intellectu creato potest Deus intellegi ita quod essentia ejus videatur imediate Aqi upon the question Quia quacunque alia forma informaretur intellectus noster non posse per eam duci inessentiam divinam Claritas Dei non tamen excedit ipsam essentiam divina que erit quasi forma intellectus in patria as to see the Essence of God or Angells therefore he here doth admit that God cannot possibly be immediately seen in his Essence by any similitude had or received in a created intellect and that whatsoever other form except God onely the understanding is informed it cannot be possibly led thereby into the divine Essence But therefore it is said that God seeth himself in us And therefore though it be purity of God doth exceed the form of our understanding here yet it wil not exceed the Divine Essence it self Which shal be as the form of our intellect in Heaven Then I demand whether God shall see himself in us and with us or in us and without us Whether he will make use of our principles or Faculty or not If the first of these be chosen viz. That God in heaven wil make use of our Faculty the eye of our reason and understanding and only give us a cleerer light and a higher use of our selves by his immediate dwelling in us for this great blessed sight Viz. Of his own Essence I answer that as God doth not cannot compell the will so neither can he wind upreason above reason and make reason continue to be reason still The reasonable soul as so can no more see the divine essence though never so much inlightned extended then the eye of sense as so can see intelligible Objects though it had all the help and light in the world imaginable 2. Moreover as God cannot make a sensitive Creature to be reasonable and accordingly to act but the Creature must leave its former form and become a creature of another kind even so how can we imagine that God should make man to act above its kind man whose form is reason to see and know things by inlightning and heightning his principles that are not knowable by reason yet man be man Deus operatur in quolibet operante ut tamen ipsa etiam agant non ut ipsa non operantur Aqu. Par. ques 105. arti 5. and a reasonable Creature still 2. But if the later be owned viz. that God in us and without the use of our eies doth see himself in us then Aquin. may seem to contradict himself while he other where teacheth us That though God indeed doth work in every Creature yet so as the Creature it self doth also act and by no means so as that the Creature doth not work also Therefore in order to our present purpose in another place he telleth us that * Deus ut prima causa movet intellectum creatum Viz. secundam causam viz. Dando ei vertutem ad intelligendum c. Aqui. Pr. Par. ques 105. art 3. God doth move our understanding yet only so as that he is the first and it is still the second cause Secondly If God doth see himself in us and not by us it must either be as he is our form or not our form The later if he
part and this his knowledge here is by reflection in a glasse darkly though he promiseth to himself to see more immediately face to face hereafter Therefore I conclude Si aliquis videns Deum intellexit quod vidit non ipsum vidit sed aliquid corumquae sunt eius Dioni in Episto 1. Adcapiam Monacham and end this Argument with that saying of Dionis If any man whoever have a sight of God and understandeth what he seeth let him know that he seeth not God himselfe but only some effect or symptome of him We might further proceed were it not too injurious to our designe of hast to discover the vanity of this delusion to wit that we may discern the truth or falshood of spirits immediately without regard to their Effects in the light of these and such like Maximes Arg. 2 for the negative Nothing can act beyond its one kind and nature Now it is infinitely beyond the nature of our reason the bounds of Nihil agit extra genus suum our intellect to discern of spirits and not by their Effects To know whether or no they be true or fals immediately i without the use of means about the Effects or signes thereof The Office and naturall work of reason as over and again we have shewed is to judg of spirits by their works and symptomes and no otherwise for men do not gather grapes of thornes or figs of thistles Secondly Phylosophers affirm that Deus ipse non potest supplere vicim causae formalis even God himselfe cannot supply the place of a formall cause i cannot make on the one side spirits to be Bodies and things intelligible to become visible nor on the other side make us to see without eyes to understand without understanding or to know but by our reason All which God must do before we can be able and yet be men to discern of spirits immediately or to know whether they be true or false good or bad without respect had unto their signes or effects But many men are deceived with their Eccle ca. 3. 24 25. own vain opinion and an evill suspition viz. Of Qualifications hath overthrown their judgments yet without eyes thou shalt want light profess not the knowledge therefore that thou hast not Obj. 3 But men of much wisdome and piety great Divines affirm that the spirit Dr. Sibs doth sometimes immediately comfort us then surely the knowledge of the truth of the spirit may be immediate also which is the ground of comfort Answ I answer and grant that some learned and pious Divines have said it yet questionless not intending in the least to lay a foundation thereby for such a rejection of Marks and the means of triall as we have in dispute and therefore they immediately Dr. Sibbs in sealing of the spirit subjoyning this question but how shall we know the perswasion of the spirit of God from a delusion they set down such rules of discerning as may help us to know the spirit of truth and the spirit of Errour intimating to us that upon the least suspition or occasions of suspition of spirits we should have ready and speedy recourse to the Tryall thereof thereby But secondly there is to be observed a considerable difference betwixt the comforts the spirit giveth us and the assurance we give or gain to our selves of the truth of the spirit is the spirits ability the measure of ours yea is it not far more difficult to work assurance out of doubting then comfort from assurance Moreover doth it follow that because the spirit can and sometimes doth comfort us immediately that therefore we must not use means for assurance for no man may imagine that we can as easily work upon the spirit for assurance as the spirit upon us for comfort 3. Yet farther for my part though I reverence the judgment of those Godly I must conclude with Scotus in another case Me magis propter autoritatatesquam propter rationes putare posse men yet I cannot well see how the spirit doth comfort us immediately either the comforts of the spirit are most sollid and consequently most rationall if rationall not immediate because then they are convaid into the heart upon reasonable grounds Now the spirit cannot supply the stead of our reason and therefore doth not give in comfort immediately The spirit cannot inlighten our hearts but by our reason though he be a light he can not be an eye or faculty to us And therefore cannot immediately comfort us If we take suggestions upon trust how shall our reason be sanctified and if our reason be not our conscience can never be satisfied and then how weak how superficiall our comfort and how unworthy to be owned by the spirit of God our comforter or to be called that Peace of God which keeps Phil. 4 our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus 4. We are apt to imagine and mistake a flash of our own spirits which may be occasioned by many unknown secret ways to be the unspeakable ravishing comforts of the spirit of God sensitive joy to be spirituall comfort but the difference is as wide as Heaven and Hell And we may be assured fully that what revishments of spirit we know no account of as they are not reasonable so not spirituall the comforts of the spirit whose office it is as comforter to shew us the things of Christ and to give us to know the things that are freely given us of God being ever built upon grounds most rationall and such as are known to us Obj. But I have heard men of parts and piety both to set forth this mediate comforting of the spirit by the comfort we have from the presence of a 20. Sibs Freind Answ To which I answer that if in this act of our comfort the spirit be taken materially and not Essentially I undestand it well as the Apostle affirms hereby we know Joh. 3. ult that he abideth in us by the spirit that he hath given us But secondly Let us consider how the presence of our Freind doth comfort us Either because he is present or because he is our Freind both how do we know he is present but by the means of seeing him and how do we know that he is our freind but because of our experience in the Effects of his freindship and comforts immediate after this manner we grant are attainable by the presence of our freind the spirit viz. By assurance of its freindship by true experience of as also of its presence by due reasoning about the Effects thereof 3. But now unless thou try for ought either I or thy self can know thy spirit may be false as well as true thy joy counterfeit as well as reall Thy spirit may be of the Devill and thy comfort no other then a flash of Hel Yea thou maist be acted by no other then thine own deceitfull and melencholly spirit and thy joy be but sparks of
Christ who then shall be saved But Moses it seems must not enter Canaan nay nor * i. Jesus Joshua neither this new Jerusalem Dear Christians Let him that loves not the Lord Jesus be Anathema Maranatha How venomous is the Breath that blasts the mouth from whence it issues How ungratefull the effect that denies its Cause Can that be the ingenuous self-denying Humble Spirit of Christ that defames his Person and nullifies his Office A bad Servant surely that seeks to eclypse the glory of its Master and he that denies the Son is Antichrist O how needfull and seasonable a Caution is that for us viz. Try the spirits But that we may wipe off let us a little The Argument for this Errour examine the usuall gloss and colour which paints and sets off this Errours ugly and deformed face viz. That every new dispensation dissolves the former the spiritual dispensation must therefore put an end to the carnal or fleshly dispensation of Christ the coming of the Spirit which now is must drive away and banish the Person or the use of the Office of the Person of Christ Answ This is the aliquid nihil that would fain be something to mischief our Saviour but how vainly and idlely for 1. Though the dispensation of the means may in part be dissolved as the Figures and Types of the Law were by the coming of a better and higher dispensation of means viz. the Gospel Yet the last end is still aimed at and endeavoured by all viz. the knowledge and honour of the glorious Trinity among the sons of men Matth. 28. 19. 2. There is not any really distinct dispensation of the coming of the Son and holy Ghost into the World no more then betwixt the coming of the knowledge of the Father and Son into the World the Father was though darkly known unto his Children as appears in Malachy If Mal. 1. 6. I am your Father where is my honor Before the coming of Christ into the World But this knowledge I suppose of God as a Father in those days was only by vertue of the promise of the Son For how know we how have we God as our Father but by Adoption And how have we this viz. Adoption but through the Son So in like manner before the great and markable descention of the Spirit by our Saviours ascention there was some knowledge and faith of the Son of God which came from the more ordinary presence of the Spirit among us For flesh and blood did not reveal him to us And as we Matth. 11. 27. see not know not the Father aright but in the light and by the help of the Son None knowing the Father but the Son and him to whom the Son shall reveal him So the coming of the Spirit doth more clearly and excellently reveal them both for thus we receive the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Rom. 8. Iohn 16. Father which Spirit also takes off the things of Christ shewing them to us and for this very purpose That we might glorifie him as our Saviour can affirm Father I have glorified thy Name So the glory of the Son is not as the glory of Moses that must be done away by any future glory that excelleth the three Persons of the Godhead are not like the strong man and the stronger as if the Spirit at his entrance as the stronger man should binde both the Father and Son hand and foot and cast them out a doors Though indeed they come gradually into the World yet not successively when the second comes the first with-draws not and with the last they all appear that God may be all even all in all as Father Saviour Sanctifier for acceptance satisfaction and application in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost They are co-equal and co-honorable one in essence will power and in glory also not like to such Lights as eclypse and darken each other but rather as Beams of the same Sun or Lamps of an equal glory and lustre whose Lights do sweetly interweave incorporate and every one gains by other And to say no more in this case the Blood and Spirit of Jesus Christ are like the natural moisture and heat in man both mutual preservers of each other and both most necessary for our Salvation and the heat that eats out and consumes tht natural moisture that spirit that dries up the Blood i. mediation of Christ is false preternatural and Antichristian But to come a little closer Is Truth a Type Christ is Truth and that in distinction 3. Joh. 14. 6. with 16. 17. to the Spirit I am the Truth and I will send the Comforter my Spirit the Spirit of Truth c. Now nihil vero verius nothing is truer then Truth and as Christ therefore cannot be a Type so we may beleive the Truth The dispensation of the Son if so called must last and continue even while the last days iast Heb. 1. 1 2. And glory shall be to God by the Church in Christ Jesus throughout all generations Ephes 3. ult And God shall continue to tender salvation and happiness in Christ unto the World even after their new Jerusalem is built untill the last coming of Jesus Christ and by the Spirit himself For the Spirit and the Bride say Come Rev. 22. 17. and let him that heareth say Come and let him that is athirst come and whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely And he that testifieth these things saith Surely I come quickly Amen So come Lord Jesus Rev. 22. 17. 20. Further though Christ must give up his Ministerial Kingdom to his Father yet he shall most certainly retain the glory of a Saviour in his Mediatorship to the days of Eternity We that are Christs Sheep shall be set indeed at the right hand of God but our Fore-runner is there before us who therfore shall be still nearer to God then we and if we shal be at yet he is upon Gods right hand and to which of us yea To which of his Angels shall he say at any time Sit on my right hand c. Heb. 1. 13. Now doth not he sit betwixt us and God to the end that what we receive from God we might receive through him He is our Head and shall be our Head for ever And the glory of Heaven must first have its influence and pass first from God upon our Head and thence flow down upon us Even to the skirts of his Garments And we shall most undoubtedly continue in the presence and favour of God in Heaven untill the day we are able to pay our own Debts to the utmost farthing which will be even for ever and a day in the vertue of the Merits and Mediation of him that is the Mediator betwixt God and man the man Christ Jesus For * Psal 75. 3. He that bears up the Pillars of the Earth is the Rev. 2. 10.