doctrine of faith and love which is in Christ Jesus he must keep it and reserve it by him as a most pretious treasure The Law of God is a perfect rule of righteousness commanding good and forbidding evil The Gospel t is the doctrine of faith and repentance from dead works that by Jesus Christ we may have eternall life The Word of God as it takes in both parts is a compleat rule of faith and obedience The main thing the Law requires is obedience He that doth them that is the Commandments of God shall live in them The main thing the Gospel requires is to beleeve on Jesus Christ Act. 16.31 Beleeve and thou shalt be saved Now Jesus Christ is the summe both of the Law and the Gospel Joh. 1.45 Of him speak all the Law and the Prophets He is the substance of the Ceremoniall Law which either typified Christ himself unto us or represented unto us the benefits which come by him to beleevers The Sacrifices were but shadows of good things to come The Morall Law it is our Schoolmaster to bring us to Christ Gal. 3.5 for the Morall Law being become weak through our corruptions to bring us unto life and we being driven through a holy despair of our selves and of our insufficiency to seek to Jesus Christ that he would fullfill the Law for us and that through his righteousness our imperfect sincere obedience might be accepted the rigour of the Law is taken away How beleevers are bound to the Law so that we are not bound to the strictness of it as the unregenerate are who have no part nor portion in Christ but only as it is a testimony of our obedience to God the Father and of our hearty love to Jesus Christ How a be leever is said to keep the Law Every sincere convert may be said to do the whole Law in an Evangelicall sense because Christ hath done it for him Rom. 8.3 4. For that which was impossible to the Law in as much as it was weak because of the flesh God sending his own Sonne in the similitude of sinfull flesh and for sinne condemned sinne in the flesh That the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit For salvation Jesus Christ ought to be the foundation of our faith to wit as the Word of God doth set him forth a Prophet ☜ a Priest and a King the Word of God ought to be the rule of our faith in respect of discipline and manners Not the Testimony of the Church not mens traditions and inventions but the pure Word of God which he hath set up for a light in his Church unto the end of the world which shall never perish not the least tittle or Iota thereof shall fail but as God is the first eternall truth so the Word of God is the eternall truth Cursed shall they be ☜ yea thrice cursed shall they be who shall count the Word of God as a thing of no use and that look for another word to wit a Revelation of the Spirit I know not what revelation but a delusion of the devil and a giddy fancy of their own pernicious brains and shall not receive the Word of God as the rule of their faith Zech. 5.4 If the curse of God enters into the house of the thief and of him that sweateth falsly by his name how much more into the house body soul estates relations good name posterity of the sacrilegious thief who is guilty of most horrid blasphemy in taking away the Authority of the Word of God and denying that end for which God hath appointed it How many are they that cavil at the plainness and evidence of it because it points out as it were with the finger the evil practices of this crooked and perverse generation That most blasphemously say if they had been in Gods place they would have made a better word wherein every punctillo should have been so plain that none of those doubts which distract the mindes of men should have been in it and all those false interpretations quite taken away not knowing what they say Like that proud King of Arragon who said that if he had been in Gods place he would have made the world after a better manner for which blasphemy he was smitten with a dreadfull judgement by God If men had but a spirit of discerning and their mindes enlightened to see the excellency and the majesty speaking in it they would esteem and value it as much as ever yea much more than they now disrespect it The Word is clear in it self but because darkness is upon our understandings therefore we cannot see the beauty of it O that we could prize the Word as David did Psal 119.72 above thousands of gold and silver Job 23.12 and as Job esteemed it more than our appointed food making it the joy and the delight of our souls Deut. 6.8 That it may be continually between our breasts and as a frontlet before our eyes that we could meditate therein day and night David out of an admiration of the excellency of Gods love cries out O how love I thy Law Psal 119.97 it is my meditation all the day He loved it because he meditated in it Vbi amor ibi animus and this love was so great that he could not express it therefore cried he out by way of admiration O how love I thy Law and in another place he saith Psal 119.11 I have hid thy word within my heart that I might not sinne against thee that is in the chambers of my soul for the soul of a man is a large cabinet fit to receive many pretious truths against the time of need Mat. 13.52 Therefore every Scribe instructed for the Kingdom of heaven bringeth out of his treasure that is out of his heart things both new and old I have treasur'd up thy threatnings against sin and sinners that whensoever a temptation is offered to sinne against thee I may draw forth a direct command against such a sinne or denunciation of wrath against such a sinne As if he were tempted to uncleanness he would object Gods direct command against it Exod. 20.14 Thou shalt not commit adultery As Christ vanquisht the devil by the sword of the Spirit ☞ saying It is Written Mat. 4.7 Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God So should we take the sword of the Spirit and the shield of faith whereby we may quench his fiery darts As that pious Matron when a lewd Ruffian tempted her to uncleanness desired of him again to hold his finger one hour in the fire for her sake at which request he answering that the demand was unreasonable replied How much more unreasonable is yours that would have me burn in hell for ever to satisfie your lust So should we say How can we do this great wickedness and sin against God We
Gods providence he hath undergone and all to the benefit of his precious soul what heavenly Soliloquies have been between God and his soul in private Prayer and heavenly Meditations what reiterated conquests he hath had over his domineering lusts and what spiritual wisdome to discern the sleights of the Devil How often he hath had the witness of the spirit upon his heart though for a season the spirit hath withdrawn its testimony What groans and sighs and daily complaints under the sense of the burden of his sins What change hath been wrought upon him considering his vain conversation while he was in the flesh what experimental truths both Theoretical and Practical for the establishment of his soul in grace have been imparted unto him and what future hopes of glory he hath enkindled in his brest by the operation of the spirit that so his faith and hope might be in God alone at the hour of death 2. To express those fears which are within us arising from that original corruption and from that unbelief which is in the best of Gods servants which do most of all shew themselves at such a time A believers fears are commonly more then his hopes when the hopes of a wicked man and of a presumptuous sinner overcome all his fears Fear it is a distracting passion filling the minde with a multitude of trembling amazing astonishing tumultuating perplexing thoughts that a true childe of God many times is in great doubts when he comes to dye but yet the spirit of God will bring in at such a time such sweet experiences of Gods love to his soul of what God hath done for him that though he may not have the full assurance of faith which is without any doubting at all yet he shall have sufficient motives and encouragements to keep him as from sinking and despair and upon firme grounds to repose himself in God for salvation upon the account of Jesus Christ Perfect love casteth out all slavish fear and when once the soul is well grounded in this principle that God loved him in Christ before the foundation of the world of which love he hath had some foretasts thereof by the earnest of his spirit in his heart there is no ground left for despair but for a firme belief that God is his and he is Gods God keepeth his strongest arguments to oppose the greatest conflicts Now I come to answer those doubts which arise from the Spirits teachings on the hearts of Believers 1. Quest How may we distinguish between the teachings of the spirit and that common Illumination spoken of in in the sixth of the Hebrews 4. verse which persons being so enlightned may fall away finally to the perdition of their immortal souls 1. Common illumination never descends to particulars but remaines onely in generals A carnal man may know what faith is what repentance is what humiliation is what self-denial is what sincerity is what new obedience is He may know all those things in a general way but he can never come to particulars by way of propriety unto himself He cannot say I believe I repent I am truely humbled for my sins I have learned the lesson of self-denial I am sincere I am obedient to the will of God but the light of the spirit within makes a Christian to say experimentally feelingly out of that abundance of comfort which he hath by reason of the experience of those things upon his soul that Christ is mine and I am his I have given glory to God by believing I have worked the works of God I have had the spirit of God leading me into the Land of uprightness Rom. 4.20 I have that heavenly fire of love enkindled in my brest by the divine sparks of light from heaven Psal 143.10 which will burn for ever still ascending to be united unto God in heaven The valley of Baca is turned into a valley of vision though not the immediate fruition The teachings of the spirit do make a Christian go to particulars because what the spirit teacheth if it be a habit or a qualification connatural to the soul as spiritual the spirit worketh the same quality in it The spirit teacheth us to believe and the spirit worketh faith in us for faith it is the gift of God 2. Common Illumination produceth but a common faith which is rather presumption then true faith a common love which is rather lukwarmness then the ardent love which is a fruit of the spirit a common joy which is rather like a flash of lightning then that Meridian joy of the Saints of Jesus Christ a common humiliation which is rather an Ahabs humiliation a legal conviction upon the soul by the terror of the Law then any true genuine sorrow for the displeasure done to God by their sins a common hope which is rather self conceitedness and vain confidence then that lively hope which purifies the soul a common well-wishing to leave their sins then a setled determinate resolution to forsake them and to turn to the Lord God with all their hearts As a mans knowledge is so is his faith so is his love so is his obedience Now this knowledge which ariseth from common illumination it never savingly works upon the heart to an hearty obedience of the things known it is never joyned with true Grace but that knowledge which comes from the teachings of the spirit works a true faith in the soul and is ever accompained with all the saving effects of the blessed spirit The Apostle joyns Grace and Knowledge both together Grow in Grace and in the Knowledge of Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 3.18 For where there is a sanctified knowledge there is true and saving Grace 3. Common Illumination never makes a man serious in the service of God to serve him constantly let his condition be what it will but as his joys and his outward comforts are so are his services unto God as when the Mood the Fit takes them then they will seem Religious like the Lunaticks which are mad only at the full of the Moon when any profit or honour or any advantage goeth along with the serving of God or when nothing is offered which may displease their carnal minds then who but they in an outward profession for the serving of God but the teachings of the spirit make a Christian resolute in the ways of God like Noah that his whole life shall be nothing else but a continual walking with his God A true Christian let his outward state and condition be what it will yet he will be sure not to forget his God his Maker his Preserver his All in All in whom are all things and in whom he enjoyes all things but like Zachary and Elizabeth as far as he can he will walk in all the commandements of the Lord blamelesly 4. Common Illumination it breeds not the evidence and demonstration of the Spirit whereby a man upon good and solid grounds may truely believe that he
of Israel from his Father David so we are to win mens affections to our selves by our plausible and affable carriage and allure them by a self-denying frame of spirit to yield unto us As the Poet saies Peragit tranquilla potestas Quod violenta nequit It is reported of Musculus that by his gracious behaviour to the Anabaptists in his time visiting them in prison exhorting them and beseeching them to be reclaimed he did more prevail upon them to their conversion than the Magistrates could do by their imprisonments and punishments 2 Tim. 2.24 But the servant of the Lord must not strive but must be gentle towards all men apt to teach suffering the evil Instructing them with meekness that are contrary minded proving if God at any time will give them repentance that they may acknowledge the truth 2. To rebuke them sharply Greek Tit. 1.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cuttingly to lay open the Word before them that two-edged Sword and to press it home to the conscience v. g. as if they were to deal with one that denies the resurrection as the Saducees did to set home with the evidence and demonstration of the Spirit that is plainly and powerfully that place of Scripture which Christ objected against them Mat. 22.32 I am the God of Abraham of Isaac and of Jacob the God not of the dead but of the living This is it which Ecclesiastes speaks of Eccles 12.11 when the Word is nailed home by the Masters of Assemblies 2 Tim. 2.15 this is rightly to divide the Word of God giving to the stout-hearted sinner its portion Ministers are not to fear the face of man Eph. 6.20 because they are the Ambassadours of the ever living God but to particularize sinners as Nathan did David 2 Sam. 12.7 saying Thou art the man Saith God by his Prophet Hosea Hos 6.5 I have slain them by my Prophets The Word of God it kils the unregenerate part and makes us dead to the customs of the world but quickens the regenerate part within us It either divides between Christ and us and then it is the savour of death unto death 2 Cor. 2.16 or either between us and our sinnes between us and the world between us and our carnall corrupt reason and then it is the savour of life unto life It is called a fire Jer. 23.29 because as the fire consumes the dross and purifies the metall so the Word it purifies the dross in our hearts and of reprobate silver it makes us fit for the use of our spirituall Master Jesus Christ And although they may resist thee and shift off the truth and hate the light and are become thine encmies because thou dealest plainly and powerfully with them as Paul speaks of the Galatians Gal. 4.16 Am I become your enemy because I tell you the truth Act. 7.54 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Instar serrae dentes frendebant Yea though they may gnash upon thee with their teeth as the malitious Jews did at Stephen yea though they may persecute you for your zeal yet know this that thou hast performed thy duty and delivered thy own soul Rom. 12.20 i. e. Either by thy rendring good for his evil thou hast gained thy Brother and caused him to render love for love For love is a certain secret fire enkindled in mens hearts by a sympathy with the object which allures still blazing forth and aspiring to be united with the thing loved Or if thou shalt not gain thy brother by thy Christian carriage thou shalt heap coals of fire and brimstone upon his head to his everlasting torment and thy reward is with God Thou hast heaped coals of fire upon his head and fuell for his everlasting burning But thy reward shall be as great as if thon hadst reclaimed him seeing thou hast not been wanting on thy part to do thy duty 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 3.10 i. e. Recusare repudiare To give them over to the swing of their lust and to let them have their liberty in their pernicious waies and for a time to divorce them from our company from having any communion or society with us as a Husband doth divorce his Wife who is given over to a spirit of Whoredom so to give them as it were a bill of divorce for the future to have any spirituall commerce with them as the word imports till God by his blessed Spirit shall bring them out of the snare of the devil Analogicall to this is the Apostles phrase he that loves not the Lord Jesus let him be Anathema Maranatha that is 1 Cor. 16.22 let him be accursed till the Lord comes till Christ who is the Lord shall arise in his heart and dispell the clouds of sin and ignorance and the day-starre arise in his heart Like to this is the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deflectere to turn aside from them till their eyes shall be inlightened to discern between truth and errour saith Christ Mat. 18.18 Whose sinnes you binde on earth shall be bound in heaven c. So that the Church of Christ which includes both Pastor and People excommunicating a prophane Esau or a licentious Libertine or a scoffing Ishmael or a false-hearted Disciple or a rotten member that hath a postatized from the faith or one that hath fallen into some gross sin to the scandall of Religion till they have repented is seconded by God in heaven as acting that Discipline and Jurisdiction which he hath enacted in his Church Simile As a dead member in a mans body joyned to the living members doth but annoy and hinder them as if a man had one leg which were quite dead and utterly useless it were better it were cat off than that is should remain united to the rest for it rather hinders the rest of the members than profits them so it were better that all these dead members fruitless branches in Jesus Christ Joh. 15.2 walking Saints talkative Christians were separated from the Church of God especially if they are discovered to be so by some notorious fault or Apoflacy till they are renewed again by repentance than that they should defile and annoy the Church of God Saith the Prophet Haggai Hag. 2.12 An unclean thing may defile a thing which is clean though a clean thing cannot purifie an unclean ☜ Aster an unclean person or an hypocrite is discovered if they cast him not forth and excommunicate him he defiles the Church and the Ordinances of God but if he be not discovered and goes for a Saint and hath a name that he lives when he is dead Rev. 3.1 and according to the Apostles phrase Heb. 10.29 2 Pet. 2.1 for one that was sanctified by the blood of the Covenant and bought by Jesus Christ though in Gods sight he be a wicked wretch and abominable hypocrite he defiles not the Church because he is not discovered After the
of John our blessed Saviour having termed himself the Bread of Life vers 35. And Jesus said unto them I am that Bread of Life he that cometh to me shall not bunger and he that beleeveth in me shall not thirst Verse 41. the hard-hearted Jews they murmured at him because he said I am that bread which came down from heaven The Jews who had as yet the vail upon their hearts and whose minds by their own wilfulness and disobedience Satan had blinded lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ should shine in their hearts had no other apprehensions of bread When Manna which was the type of Christ came down upon the earth there was old wondering at it and it was called Manna because they said by way of admiration Ma-hu What is this And they were very greedy for a time after it But when Jesus Christ the true Bread the true Manna came down from heaven to feed our souls there was no minding of him because his Divinity was over-vaild in his humanity they did not admire at Gods goodness as they ought to have done they rejected him He came to his own and his own received him not Indeed they made him the laughing-stock of the world And so Christ may be said to be the wonder of the world as the Prophet Isaiab saith I and my children are set for signes and wonders Isa 8.18 i. c. We are made the maygames of the world at whom all do deride and wonder But they did not admire his excellency and acknowledge him and seek to him as it behoved them to have done but as it fed the belly But Christ Jesus hath a higher mystery in it to wit that he was the true Manna the true heavenly Bread that feedeth their souls unto everlasting life In the succeeding verses 48 49 50 51. when Christ proceeds in declaring himself to be the Bread of Life that his flesh is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed Verse 52. the Jews strove amongst themselves saying How can this man give us his flesh to cat In the 60 Verse many of his Disciples when they heard this said This is a hard saying who can hear it Verse 66. From that time many of his Disciples went back and walked no more with him Hence you see what carnall reasonings and sinfull objections mens hearts do frame and invent to hinder and oppose the comfort of the sweetest and most comfortable Doctrine What more sweet to a hungry soul that longs after eternall life than to be fed and to be nourished with this Bread of Life It is an infallible sign that you are born of God ☜ and that your originall is from above and that God is your Father Christ is your Brother and that you have higher principles than the flesh and the world to walk by and that your life is hid with Christ in God if Jesus Christ the true Bread of Life doth nourish up your souls unto eternall Life For the axiom holds true in spirituall things as well as naturall A quo aliquid generatur ab eodem nutritur from the which any thing is begotten of the same it is nourished if you are born of God you will be nourished by the bread of God if your originall be heavenly your food will be heavenly if God were your Father Christ would be your nourishment and your food Therefore Christ tels the Jews who in the eighth of John vers 41. boasted that God was their Father vers 42. proved them not to be the children of God and that God was not their Father because they did not love him who was sent of God the Father If God were your Father then would you love me for I proceeded forth and came from God neither came I of my self but he sent me 1 Joh. 5.1 He that loves him that begets loves him also who is begotten and if we did love God the Father we should love Jesus Christ the only begotten Sonne of the Father and the Saints who are the spirituall sonnes of God begotten of the Spirit crying in their hearts Abba Father In the 44th vers he proves them positively to be the children of the devil because they serve him and do his works Christ turns all carnall things into spirituall uses and changes the nature of them and like a true Alchymist turneth brass into Gold but the Jews on the other side turned Gold into brass and of all those pretious spirituall truths which Christ had delivered unto them they had base carnall and low apprehensions of Blessed are they that by a lively faith feed heartily upon the spirituall Manna while others feed upon the husks with the swine they have bread in their fathers house In the beginning of the second Chapter the Apostle acquits himself in respect of those former contentions while one said he was of Paul another of Apollo another of Cephas another of Christ shewing there was nothing in himself or in his Ministry that could occasion such divisions Chap. 2. v. 1. I came not to you with excellency of speech or of wisdom declaring unto you the power of God that is my preaching unto you was not in lofty strains of eloquence and high notions or in a plausible and alluring style fitter to please the ear and to humour mens fancies and to make them giddy and unstable in the truth or in the high flown Rhetorick of the world which is more sutable to an Orator or a Comedian upon a Stage than for a Minister of Jesus Christ not with the enticing words of mens vanities but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power that is he preacht plainly yet powerfully and effectually and feelingly to the conscience and to work upon their hearts and to inform their judgements If I seek to please men I am not the servant of Christ Gal. 1.10 That is the best preaching which stirres up the affections and desires ☜ and sets all the wheels a work and provokes us to duty and to the exercise of piety in our lives and conversations He is the best Preacher who by his powerfull delivering the Word of God can stirre up what affections he pleaseth in the hearts of his people as it is reported of excellent Bucholcer that though he were two hours in his Sermon yet none of the common people were aweary of him and that with such vehemency of spirit and earnest longing for the good of their souls he dispensed the Word unto them that he could stirre up what affection he pleased in the hearts of his hearers Neither was the matter he preacht so sublime as to make men to admire him and to cry him up Not Philosophicall notions or criticall points of Divinity or curious questions or needless Doctrines but the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified For I have determined not to know any thing among you 1 Cor. 2.2 save Jesus Christ and him crucified Neither was his delivery and outward carriage
are now adays in sheeps cloathing If an impudent contradicting blaspheming spirit If a persecuting spirit If an advancing of their own fictions before the pure and unspotted word of God If a rash impetuous zeal not moderated with discretion and the love of the truth and of the word of God which is rather madness and folly then zeal If unbelief Atheisms Heresies and most horrid blasphemies not to be mentioned If a living above Ordinances without the use of the Word Sacraments and Prayer If a coldnesse and deadnesse in affection to the things of God and a full bent of will to oppose Jesus Christ in his Saints and in his servants and a continual persisting therein though they are condemned in their own consciences and so are like to commit that unpardonable sin against the holy Ghost from which sin I heartily beseech God to preserve the Quakers of these times with many others who sin against the light of their own consciences If a hating of the power of godliness and of the pure worship of God If a want of self-denial and daily bearing the cross of Christ If an Apostacy from the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints If a setting up of false doctrines under the pretence of new discoveries If we are not fallen into the last times of the world wherein that place is too much verified wherein men shall be covetous lovers of themselves boasters proud blasphemers 2 Tim. 3.1.2 3 4 5. disobedient to parents unthankeful unholy Without natural affection truce-breakers false accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good Traytors heady high-minded lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God Having a form of Godliness but denying the power of it If these things be so as it is too apparent to the grief of many righteous persons who weep in secret for the iniquity of the times then we may as truly say that Turks Infidels and Pagans have the teachings of the spirit upon their hearts as the most part of our luke-warm proud opinionative and carnally-minded professors have Such evil principles and wicked practises as are now amongst those that goe for Saints cannot agree with the blessed spirit I am verily perswaded that if once the furnace of affliction should wax hot again and Christ should come to sift England again by the red fiery flaming sword of persecution and bring us under the hatchet and under the hand of Tyrannical persecutors and should come to purge his floor to distinguish between the precious and the vile between him that feareth God and him that feareth him not between him that serveth him out of an upright heart and him that serveth him but under a colour and pretence I am verily perswaded that the greatest part of profesting Christians now adays who make such a fair shew in the flesh who seem so beautiful and glorious in the outside who are so hot at the first onset and taking up a form of religion who pretend so much to the work of the spirit upon their hearts if they were singled out to undergoe the fiery tryal would fall the fowlest in the flesh No outward priviledge or benefit can afford a man any comfort under an afflicted condition but onely the sense of the love of God unto us in Jesus Christ by an act of the spirit sealing it to our souls is a certain sign that we shall continue unto the end For who God loves once he loves to the end And those whom God loves God will preserve unto himself as a peculiar treasure as precious jewels in his cabinet secretly and will make their mountains strong as strong as Mount Sion which shall never be moved that their faith and confidence shall be in the Lord Jehovah for ever and ever I beseech thee Christian for the good of thy soul to separate thy self from these deceiving creatures let not their hypocrisy their jugling with the world and their own consciences though they cannot mock God their seeming sanctity their pretended piety their high notions and deep interpretations far fetch from the simplicity of the truth which neither they themselves nor others well understand delude thee while they lay claim to the spirit they are in the bonds of iniquity Consider whether they have the spirit before thou closest with their sayings for truth that they are taught by the Spirit of Christ and that the light of the spirit reside within them Are they regenerated born again and renewed by the Spirit of Christ Do they grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ Have they the witness of Gods Spirit concurring with their spirits that they are the children of God Doth the spirit help their infirmities Was ever the spirit of prayer and supplicatton powred forth upon them Have they the preventing grace the renewing grace the establishing grace the comforting grace the quickning grace the healing grace the directive grace of the spirit Do they love the brethren because they are brethren and one with thee in Jesus Christ or because they are of such an opinion Do they acknowledge the spirit in others and magnifie Gods goodness unto their soul Did the spirit ever rarifie the scorching heat of their burning lusts Did the sanctifying influences of the spirit ever descend upon their hearts Did the spirit ever soften their hard hearts Cant. 7.7 fructifie their barren souls The brests of the spouse are like clusters of grapes Cant. 4 16 Did the spirit ever blow upon their gardens that the spices thereof may send forth a precious smell in the nostrils of God Do they bring forth fruits unto holiness that their end might be everlasting life Did the spirit ever quench the fire of hell within their consciences by powring in the sweet oyl of consolation made up of the blood of Christ Did the spirit ever cleanse their consciences from dead works that they may serve the everliving God Heb. 9.14 Ez. 36.25 The spirit is resembled by water I will pour clean water upon you and you shall be clean It is the nature of water to molifie to fructifie to quench to cleanse and purifie what zeal what heat what ardency of spirit what kindlings of affections are there in them towards God and the waies of his worship what lights do they hang abroad to others that others seeing their good works might glorifie God and what progress do they make in Christianity with what eagerness of spirit as if they were serious for their souls good do they lay hold on eternal life Nay rather do they not stand still as if they had already obtained perfection when they are on the declining hand In fire there is heat brightness and motion Ex. 13.22 What Dove-like qualifications have they Doth the spirit of meekness of love and of a sound mind reside amongst them The spirit of peace of unity of gentleness of fear of sonlike obedience to the commands of God The Spirit of God came down in the form
Apostle urged against the proud vaunting Sectaries of his times who named themselves by the names of their spirituall guides 1 Cor. 1.13 Is Christ divided Was Paul crucified for you or were ye baptized into the Name of Paul It is a great indignity and an high dishonour offered to Jesus Christ who is their Lord and Saviour and hath purchased them for his peculiar people with his own blood to be called after other Lords and other Saviours 2 Cor. 5.16 Resolve with St Paul Hence forth to know no man after the flesh but only to acknowledge Jesus Christ And say likewise that though other Lords have had dominion over our faith and tyrannized over our consciences as the late Prelates did and as the tyrannicall party of these times do who would have all men stern their course according to their Compass and sail where they sail and do what they do and speak as they speak yet now Jesus Christ alone shall be to me all in all 1 Cor. 1.24 The Ministers of Jesus Christ are not to Lord it over mens consciences and to impose heavy yokes which they nor their fathers were able to bear but as the servants of Jesus Christ to become all things to all men that they may win all Be not ye called Masters Matth. 23.10 Be not ye Sect-masters such as were amongst the Jews who greedily affected the titles to be called Rabbans and Rabbies and were the ringleaders of parties and factions Be not ye such Masters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Doctores vel viae ductores Ringleaders Sect-Masters for one is your Master even Christ which is in heaven They are not to Lord it over Gods heritage but to account themselves as the servants of Christ condescending to men of low estate for the good of their souls And the people must have a reverent esteem of them as those who are overseers set over them for their good They must not have their persons in admiration and esteem of them higher then they are which thing hath caused God to stain the pride and the glory of the Prelaticall party who advanced themselves above Christ reason above faith and humane Learning which perisheth in the using above the everlasting Word of God because they loved the praise of men more then the praise of God as if they were infallible or they knew all things or as if the spirit of God were straitned up to that particular person or to that particular society they are of or as if they were the only men to be followed and all others of a different judgement were erroneous and that it is necessary to be called by their names as if they were the summe and the top-stones of all piety and knowledge but they must pray for them knowing they are men subject to infirmities as well as our selves Pray to God to give them a door of utterance that they may deliver the word boldly and confidently sincerely plainly in the evidence and demonstration of the Spirit and to desire God to assist them in that great work they have undertaken and to obey them in all lawfull commands as the spirituall Pastors and Bishops of our souls and to encourage them in their work by honouring them and by giving them those Rights and Priviledges which appertain unto them Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars Mat. 22.21 and unto God the things that are Gods You commit sacriledge and rob God of his due when ye withhold from the servants of Christ that right which is their own Will a man rob God saith the Prophet Malachy Mal. 3.8 in robbing God you rob your selves for hereby you cause God to withhold good things from you I could wish that there were a fair and equal carriage on both sides It were to be desired that Christians would rather say they are of the Church of God in such a place or of the Church of God over which such a man is the Overseer than that they would say as they commonly do say they are of such a mans Church It is the Apostles phrase to the Church of God which is at Coloss Col. 1.2 Eph. 1.1 Act. 20.28 which is at Ephesus which is in her house the Church which God hath purchased with his own blood Ministers are but Gods Vicegerents speaking unto us in the place of God for we should never be able to stand before God and to receive the word from his own mouth because of the vast sea of guilt which lies upon our consciences and that infinite distance between the pure nature of God and our defiled and corrupted souls they are the mouthes of God to the people but the Church is Gods Church which Christ hath purchased with his pretious blood He it is that keeps the Church from the malice of blood-sucking persecutors Ps 121.4 He that keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps He it is that destroyes the implacable enemies of it destroying them with everlasting vengeance He it is that purifies the Church Tit. 2.14 that by his blessed Spirit doth unite all the members together Spiritus est vinculum Ecclesiae Pet. Mart. and at the last day will make of many Churches now scattered up and down one universall triumphant Church for ever and ever Let it be therefore the Church of Christ and of God and not the Church of man Yet pray have a care of this that you do not term your selves the Church of God when you are of the Synagogue of Satan Who say they are Christians when they are not as those hypocriticall Jews did in Johns Revelation Rev. 3. but see that you have Gods worship rightly administred amongst you and that ye worship God the Father in sincerity and in truth Now the Apostle goes on in the same Chapter shewing the reason why he used such plainness in the exercise of his Ministry to wit that their faith might not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God that is that your faith might not be built upon humane inventions and traditions but upon the Word of God which is the power of God to salvation Eph. 2.20 that you may be builded upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner stone Hence observe That the Word of God Note considered absolutely in it self as the Word of God ought to be the rule and ground of our faith St Paul to Timothy 2 Tim. 1.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 10.15 Scriptura seu verbum Dei dicitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 regula mensura The word of God ought to be the rule according to which we ought to square all our actions Lev. 18.5 Keep the true pattern of wholsome words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus Greek The form or lively exemplar of wholsom words So that that word which the Apostle had committed unto him to wit the
Spirit moved upon the waters i. e. as a Hen lieth upon her brood cherishing it and giving it heat so did the Spirit of God lie upon that Chaos fomenting and cherishing it Psal 33.6 By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth 3. Adoration and worship is given to the Spirit Quod si Spiritus non esset persoua distincta sed tantum Dei virtus utique non possit in invocatione distinctae illius fieri mentio cum per particulam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aequalitèr distinctè persouae conjunguntur Si non esset Deus non esset adorandus which is only proper to God We are said to be baptized in the Name of the Father Sonne and of the holy Ghost And St Paul in his Epistles frequently The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the love of God and the communion of the holy Ghost be with you all Amen 2 Cor. 13.14 Fifthly We have the end for which the Spirit is given i. e. That we might know the things which are freely given unto us of God Without the Spirit we are in the dark and we know not whither we go But of this hereafter Sixthly We have the adjunct or circumstance put to the things which are given unto us of God to wit that they are given freely That we might know the things which are freely given unto us of God How God is said to give us the things of salvation freely God gives and he gives freely liberally and bountifully and expects nothing at our hands but a thankfull heart The things of God are given freely upon a double account 1. In opposition to merit 2. In opposition to compulsion and unwillingness God gives freely in opposition to merit We deserve nothing at Gods hands but hell and destruction We merit hell but we merit nothing else Rom. 6.23 Primarily eternall death is meant there as appears by the Antithesis between life and death 1 Cor. 4.7 The wages of sinne is death i.e. all manner of death the death of afflictions temporal death eternall death but the gift of God is eternall life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Our common mercies as life health peace liberty friends food for our bodies and the like are all from free-grace What hast thou that thou hast not received and that thou hast not received freely If our common mercies be of free-grace for every step we step is a step of mercy the breath we breathe forth is Gods breath and not our own if he taketh away our breath we perish how much more are spiritual things of free-grace which are more eminently called the things of God It is of Gods abundant grace and goodness that by his Spirit we might know our election of God ☜ God might have elected us unto everlasting life and we never have known it untill we should have enjoyed it We might have been left in despair and under a cloud of temptation all our daies had not God freely given unto us the earnest of his Spirit The Gospel or the glad tidings of peace and reconciliation through Jesus Christ is of free grace therefore it is called the Gospel of his grace Act. 14.3 So likewise Jesus Christ is a most signall fruit and effect of Gods free grace and love to mankinde Joh. 3 16. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Sonne c. Salvation by Jesus Christ it is of free-grace Eph. 2.5 By grace ye are saved All of grace and nothing of debt All from Gods love and nothing that is in us Gods good pleasure and his free-grace is the impulsive cause of all our mercies and that we are acquainted with those mysteries which were hid from all eternity Erigu me gratia divina sed terret me indignitas mea atqui si dignus essem jam non esset gratia sed merces si ex operibus utique non ex gratia gratia cuim non est gratia ullo modo nisi sit gratuita omni modo oie Gethardus untill these last ages Ascribe all to free grace and account thy self less than the least of all Gods mercies and unworthy of any smile or any favour from Gods hands So likewise God gives freely in opposition to compulsion or unwillingness say the Schoolmen Gods will is the cause of all things Eph. 1.11 Who worketh all things according to the counsell of his own will Nothing moves God to do good to poor sinners but the riches of his grace in Jesus Christ Remember this thou poor drooping soul that complainest by reason of the burden of thy sinnes and thinkest that the multitude of thy sinnes do exceed the greatness of Gods mercies As the most righteous man that ever lived could merit nothing at Gods hands or move God to bestow any thing upon him upon his own account so neither can the greatest sinner that ever lived hinder God or his sinnes put a stop in Gods way that he cannot shew him mercy in Jesus Christ if God be pleased to shew him mercy God sheweth mercy because he will shew mercy Rom. 9.15 Exod. 33.19 God is gracious because he will be gracious As all thy prayers tears duties fastings watchings can prevail nothing with God but upon the account of Jesus Christ so neither can thy unkindness thy unprofitableness thy sinfulness thy disingenuous and foolish carriage with the great God of heaven and earth keep God from shewing thee mercy God hath his therefores of mercy in himself and not in the creature Ezek. 30.18 Therefore will the Lord wait that he may have mercy upon you and therefore will he be exalted that he may have compassion upon you It is a strange therefore that hath no dependance upon the words foregoing but upon Gods infinite mercy God shews mercy because he delights in mercy God gives us heaven because he delights to magnifie his glory upon all the vessels of mercy And when we by our prayers at the Throne of grace obtain good things at the hand of God we do not change God but only those things which God had decreed from all eternity to give us upon the condition of our asking though not for our asking we receive in time when we beg them at Gods hands Ob. How can the things of salvation as Justification Adoption c. be freely given unto us of God Baxter in his excellent Book called the Saints Everlasting Rest seeing Christ Jesus hath purchased them for us Ans 1. The purchase of Christ doth not clash with the freeness of the things of God to us They were dear to Christ but free to us If the Father freely gives the Sonne and the Sonne freely paies the debt and if God freely accepts that way of payment when he might have required all which Christ hath done at our hands and if the Father and the Sonne and the holy Ghost do freely offer those things
unclean heart Besides the Spirit takes away those objections which are in carnall mens hearts against the purity of religion What needs this preciseness this Pharisaism muchness in duty to be alwaies praying and alwaies hearing and the like It is a wearisomness to the flesh it duls the spirit and makes one melancholy it is more then needs be required As long as our hearts are upright with God and we desire to glorifie him in all his waies and we have upright intentions this is sufficient for heaven though we are not so much in duty as the pharisaicall men are Now the Spirit setting home the love of Christ upon our hearts and shewing us what he hath done for us brings us off from this lure to a perfect resignation of body and soul to his service Moreover he sheweth us that we must be holy in all manner of conversation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That we must walk exactly and as much as in us lies keep every circumstance that is contained in the Law of God And truly there is not a more certain sign of an upright heart than to have an universall respect to all the Commandments of God When out of a conscience to the command of God we would not commit the least sin or omit the smallest duty When the enmity is removed and the prejudice taken out of our hearts and all our misgivings and misapprehensions rightly placed we can easily hearken to the voice of the Spirit What things more peculiarly the Spirit teacheth 1. Thou canst not know God aright without the Spirits teachings Malè vivitur ubi de Deo non benè creditur A childe of God may know more of God in one Chapter of the Book of God which is the minde of the Spirit than all the writings of all the men in the world are able to shew forth without this word of God It is the Spirit alone that can ravish our hearts to the love of God in Jesus Christ 1. Gods love That can make us see the heighth depth and breadth of Gods love unto us Who would ever have thought that apostates rebels enemies should ever have become the sonnes of God heirs joynt-heirs and coheirs with Jesus Christ but that the Spirit hath made it clear Behold with what manner of love hath the Father loved us that we should be called the sonnes of God Philosophers could tell you that the Being of beings the first mover the first Cause of all causes must be infinite just mercifull and the like but that God through Jesus Christ should finde out such a way of reconciliation that sinners should be called the sonnes of God and that they should be one with the Father and with the Son Jesus Christ and that they should have communion with him for ever and ever this only the Spirit teacheth It is the Spirit only which sheweth the most holy nature of God 2. The holy nature of God 1 Joh. 1.5 In God is light and in him there is no darkness He is holiness it self therefore saith God Be ye holy as I am holy We are apt to think that God is such an one as our selves that he mindes not our iniquities that he walks aloft in the heavens and cares not for the things which are done upon the earth but the Spirit hath declared unto us Hab. 1. That God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity Psal 5. The foolish shall not stand in thy sight thou hatest all the workers of iniquity I have read of some Nations that because they have thought their Gods to have delighted in some vice therefore they have addicted themselves in the imitation of their Gods to the same vice Some have thought their Gods delighted in uncleanness some in drunkenness others in cruelty and therefore they have been drunken unclean and cruell but we have learned God otherwise by the mind of the Spirit that there is no iniquity in the God of Israel Mercy and truth goes before his face justice and judgement is the habitation of his Throne The Spirit alone hath shewed us the exact justice of God against every sinne 3. The exact justice of God that the least sinne unrepented of and not washed away by the blood of Christ though it be but an evil thought or an idle word shall be punished with everlasting destruction Origin with some others have thought that it could not stand with the mercy of God to punish a sinner everlastingly in hell and therefore they have jumpt in with the Popish purgatory thinking that after the soul hath been punished so many years in hell fire it shall be released and set at liberty But this is contrary to the Spirit of God in many places of Scripture 2. The mystery of the blessed Trinity The Spirit only hath shewed us the mystery of the blessed and incomprehensible Trinity That there should be three persons Father Sonne and holy Ghost and yet these three but one God There are three that bear record in heaven the Father the Word and the holy Ghost and these three are one All the great Rabbies of the world will never attain this mystery it is only the Spirit that teacheth it What Pla. to writes of the blessed Trinity it is supposed he had it out of Moses his writings or else some other way This doctrine of the Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity that there should be three persons and but one God and one God and yet three persons that the Father should be God the Son should be God and the holy Ghost should be God it is a doctrine of faith and not of reason a doctrine which ought to be beleeved because the Spirit hath revealed it and therefore not to be disputed of The Schoolmen whose foolish hearts are darkned have become vain in their imaginations concerning this transcendent and exceeding great mystery 3. It is the Spirit alone that teaches us the great mystery of the incarnation of Christ that there should be two natures the humane and the Divine united together and yet but one person The union or the two natures in Christ is 〈…〉 by a fiery flaming sword or rather by the similitude of a branch engrafted into a stock of another tree where there is not a mixture of the nature of these trees nor a constitution of a â—hird out of them but a drawing of one of them into the others subsistance Dr Field this is the mystery of mysteries And without controversie great is the mystery of godliness God manifested in the flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels beleeved on in the world and received up into glory John 1.14 The Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us and we saw the glory as the glory of the only begotten Sonne full of grace and truth Was made flesh This destroys the Heresie of the Marcionists who said that Christ was not made flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Est articulus
is so far from being proud that he will stoope and condescend to the meanest Christian for their souls good The heart of man is full of wickedness it is a nest full of unclean birds for if a world of iniquity be in the tongue Jam. 3.6 How much iniquity is there in the heart Now when the Spirit shall lead us into every cell and corner of our hearts as the Lord did the Prophet Ezekiel c. 8. and shall shew the still greater and greater abominations and shall rip up every fester'd corner therein and let out all the ill blood certainly this cannot but humble a child of God the more a man sees his own vileness the more he admires the goodness of God unto him and is sensible of the evil of his sin Jam. 4.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ex adverso seponit As God communicates himself to none but to the humble spirit God resisteth the proud but he giveth Grace unto the humble so none have the teachings of the Spirit but those that are humble 2. If there be the teachings of the Spirit upon the heart there will follow more joy then can well be conceived of Archimedes when he had found out a Mathematical demonstration cryed out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have found it I have found it how much more wilt thou rejoyce when thou shalt know the things of God! If Simon when he saw Christ in the Temple cryed out Now Lord let thy servant depart in peace Luk. 2.29 for mine eyes have seen thy salvation O how wilt thou rejoyce when thou shalt see Christ in thy heart dwelling there by a lively faith It is not Christ come in the flesh that saves us but Christ come in the heart Christ in us is the hope of glory Col. 1.27 Knowledge is better then life how much better is the Knowledge of God If it be such a pleasure to a man to know that which he never knew before what a pleasure is it to know by the witness of the Spirit upon our hearts that God in Christ is reconciled to us Saith the Spouse to Christ Cant. 1.2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth for his love is better then Wine These words hold forth three things 1. The great familiarity between Christ and his Church As a kiss is a sign of homage and obedience Psal 2. Kiss the Son least he be angry i. e. Obey the Son do homage to him so it is a sign of familiarity and love therefore saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 16.20 Greet ye one another with a holy kiss you know friends after long absence use at their meeting to salute each other with a kiss of love The familiarity of Christ a Believer is in the kisses of his mouth i. e. the teachings of the Spirit to shew their mutual joy at their meeting together again 2. That this familiarity and mutual love between Christ and his Church comes in by his Word and by the teachings of his Spirit he doth not say with the kisses of his lipps but with the kisses of his mouth the word Kisses is taken in Scripture for flattering soft and pleasant words shewing forth some love and charity Prov. 27.6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful The Churches desire is that Christ would instruct her by his Word and Spirit for his love is better then wine 3. The love of Christ in the kisses of his mouth to his Spouse is better then wine all the comparisons in this book of Canticles are drawn from things which do most of all title our minds and delight our senses Wine amongst those things which belong to the taste is the sweetest The love of Christ in the teachings of his Spirit is better then all things better then Wine then Wine which maketh glad the heart of man If Christs love in the kisses of his mouth be better then wine then certainly the joys which come in by the teachings of Gods Spirit are better then the joys which come in by wine all the joyes which come in by these carnal delights are of a perishing nature as soon as the act is past the pleasure is past A drunkard as soon as his cup is down the pleasure vanisheth but the joyes that come in by the Spirits teachings are abiding joyes all other joyes have a sting at the end of them sin it hath a fair entrance The disference between the joyes of the Spirit and other joyes but at the length it bites like an Adder and stings like a Scorpion but the joy that comes from the Spirit is without sorrow it is not adulterate Wine but pure and sweet Wine Psal 122.1 I was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the Lord. Psal 27.4 One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the dayes of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his Temple As the Doctrine of Christ exceedeth all other Doctrine so it breedeth a greater delight and joy in the heart then other Doctrines do He that hath the light of the Spirit will discern therein a secret and hidden Manna which the world knoweth not of As the dew descendeth upon the ground and rejoyceth the earth and maketh it to flourish so the Spirits teachings are by the dew to refresh the barren and drooping Spirit Hos 14.5 I will be at the dew unto Israel he shall grow as the Lily and cast forth his roots as Lebanon Dent. 32.2 My doctrine shall drop as the rain my speech shall distil as the dew as the small rain upon the tender herbe and as the showers upon the grass As the dew in Spring and Autume when the Aire is temperate and clear doth fresh the ground and make the herbs to flourish and to give a sweet smell so the teachings of the Spirit they cause our hearts to rejoyce they come as the rain upon the dry ground and as the dew upon the tender herbe Phil. 4.4 A Christian should alwayes be of a joyful Spirit Rejoyce in the Lord always and again I say unto you rejoyce 2 Cor. 11 30. saith Paul I rejoyce in my infirmities what if thy sins were never so many Did not Christ satisfie for thy sins Are thy afflictions heavy upon thy Spirit the joyes which flow in from the Spirit of God will superabound and exceed all thy afflictions besides the Spirit will teach thee Heb. 12.10 1. That all thy afflictions are but to make thee partaker of the holiness of God Rom. 8.28 2. That they shall work for thy good all things shall work for the good of them who love God 3. All thy afflictions cannot hinder God from loving of thee God loves a Saint in prison in nakedness in famine in distress God loved Job on the Dunghill Lazarus with