his operation in them when their minds and spirits become purified and refined from inordinateness of affection and unruliness of passion until by degrees they are brought in some good measure unto a likeness and conformity to the spirit and temper of Jesus Christ whose Scholars they are They that are joined to the Lord are one spirit They mind love hate and design the same things which our Saviour doth They participate of that love gentleness benignity and goodness which was so eminent in him the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness righteousness and truth Ephes 5.9 by which means they come to be in the world as he was in the world as S. Johns phrase is Hereby saith S. John we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us Joh. 3.24 It is so like him that it must needs come from him and if it be in us it is because he dwells in us If we love one another God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us 1 John 4.12 When we love one another as Christ hath loved us when we are merciful as our heavenly Father is mercciful his love and goodness is so resembled by us as that it is perfectly discernible in us Moreover the Holy Spirit is given to the Believers to be with them to strengthen them with resolution and courage to hold on their course of holy living and cleaving faithfully to Christ notwithstanding all opposition and discouragement they may meet with from the World in doing so To this end they are strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man Ephes 3.16 For God hath not given them the spirit of fear but of power and love and of a sound mind 2 Tim. 1.7 And not onely so but the Holy Spirit is given to the Believers to be always with them to maintain and uphold in them a comfortable and chearful frame of spirit and so to keep them from fainting when they are called to suffer for the sake of our Saviour or his truth or doctrine And it is doubtless from this effect among others of the Spirits abiding with the Believers that he is stiled the Comforter And for the same reason principally the joy which they have amidst their sufferings for righteousness sake is called the joy of the Holy Ghost 1 Thess 1.6 having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost And well may it be called the joy of the Holy Ghost because solid joy under such circumstances can proceed from no other cause but the Holy Spirits operation It is not the manner of the World as it is with Believers to rejoice in affliction in wrongs and injuries and hard usage from men but the contrary because they have no principle in them out of which such a thing should proceed And therefore our Savior saith to his Disciples My peace I give unto you not as the world giveth give I unto you Joh. 14.27 The Holy Spirit can raise joy yea great joy in the souls of the followers of Christ when they suffer never so hard measure from the hands of men so long as they know it is for their faithfulness to their blessed Lord and Master who hath suffered and done so much for them as he hath done The Spirit of God can so order their thoughts within them that they shall not look upon themselves as disgraced thereby but as highly honoured by their Master by giving them both opportunity and courage to do him that honour when his adversaries would cast reproach and shame upon him and his Cause and all that appear for it And thus the Apostles when they had been beaten departed from the Council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Jesus their Lord Acts 5.41 The Holy Ghost can suggest to them also that a great deal of good by such sufferings may be done to others in causing them to think the more and the better of the Christian Religion when they see with what chearfulness the Professors of it can suffer for its sake When the Thessalonians received the Word in much affliction and yet with joy of the Holy Ghost they became thereby ensamples to all that believed in Macedonia and Achaia and from them and their deportment in suffering for the Gospel the word of the Lord sounded out not onely in Macedonia and Achaia but also in every place their faith was spread abroad and talked of 1 Thess 1.6 7 8. It was this joyous deportment of the primitive Martyrs in their sufferings that tended so greatly to the increase and enlargement of the Church as History relates it did The Christians then were enabled to glory in tribulation of this kind in as much as they were guided to consider that this patient enduring without repining would give them experience of their sincerity and fidelity in cleaving to Christ and then this experience would give them hope such as should not make them ashamed through any disappointment but great confidence towards God of being accepted Rom. 5.3 4. And not onely so but also touching the greatness of the reward which is laid up in heaven for such a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Upon account whereof our Saviour bids them to rejoice and to be exceeding glad yea to leap for joy in that day when they should be persecuted for righteousness sake and have their name cast out as evil and the like When the Christians were enabled to suffer the spoiling of their goods yea and of their lives too not onely with patience but also with joyfulness when they were as sorrowing and yet always rejoycing whence was this And how can it be imagined that they should ever be able to do and to be so but that they were strengthened with all might according to Gods glorious power unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness as S. Paul speaks Col. 1.11 The Spirit of God and of glory then rested upon them as the other Apostle saith 1 Pet. 4.14 How came S. Stephen to stand with such an undaunted courage before the Council as if his face had been the face of an Angel Why it was because he was full of the Holy Ghost he had a mighty presence of the Spirit with him to enable him thereunto S. Paul learned by experience that as his sufferings did abound for Christ so his consolations by Christ did abound also 2 Cor. 1.5 that when he was weak then he was strong that he had a mightier presence a more powerful and comfortable influence of the Holy Spirit in times of great trials and sufferings for Christ than he had at other times And this experience of his made him so far from being afraid of suffering that for the sake of that wonderful comfort which was wont to come along with suffering he was rather glad when suffering came than any way dejected and cast down for it 2 Cor. 12.9 10. Most gladly therefore will I
rather glory in mine infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in necessities in persecutions in distresses for Christs sake for when I am weak then am I strong Their hope that God would make good to them his exceeding great and precious promises was at such time raised very high made lively vigorous and strong by the Spirit of God Rejoycing in hope saith S. Paul in one place abounding in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost in another Rom. 12.12 and 15.13 When the Holy Ghost did put forth himself did exert his power in raising the Christians hope it is no marvel then if they did abound therein that is that their expectations rose very high were vigorous and strong and very affecting filling them with such joy as over-topp'd and in a great measure swallowed up the sense of their sufferings And thus I have endeavoured to shew how the Spirit of God doth assist the Believers to do more than meerly to persevere and hold out in performing the condition of the promise under the sorest trials and greatest temptations to the contrary for it enables them to glory and rejoice under them and so to be more than conquerors to fight the good fight of Faith to finish their course to keep the Faith and all in order to their laying hold of eternal life To conclude then this matter all these and other like assistances influences and consolations of the good Spirit of God by which the Believers are prepared for glory are I conceive the things meant by S. Paul by that Communion or rather Communication of the Holy Ghost which he in his Apostolical benediction seriously desired and invoked in the behalf of the Christians when he dismissed them thus The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the love of God and the communion or communication of the Holy Ghost be with you all Amen 2 Cor. 13.14 For as he wished them the comfort and benefit that flows from the grace or charity of our Lord Jesus Christ expressed in his Mediatorial performance and from the love of God from which that did proceed So he did likewise the communication of those assistances and graces of the Holy Spirit by which they might be enabled to do their part in performing what was required of themselves in order thereunto CHAP. VIII Cautions against mens depriving themselves of Divine Assistance by running into two contrary extreams HAving thus far shewed as well as I could what assistance men receive from God in performing the condition of the promise of pardon and life it will be necessary now to add something by way of Caution 1. To take heed not to deprive our selves of those benefits for the attaining of which these assistances are granted nor of those assistances themselves by neglecting to do what God expects we should do towards the working out our own salvation as we shall if we neglect to fall in with these assistances by endeavouring to do those things for the accomplishing of which these assistances are afforded us The very notion of assistance implies in it that those who are assisted by God are not meerly passive in performing the condition of the promise for the performance whereof these assistances are vouchsafed us but some way active in that performance God doubtless does expect when he hath awakened in men a sense of their danger by reason of sin and hath set before them what he hath done and Christ hath done to rescue and deliver them from it and what must be done by themselves to make them capable of the blessed effects of our Saviours performance in obtaining pardon and life and what assistance they shall have to that end if they will but truly endeavour to do what they can do towards it I say when God hath set all this before them he expects that they should put forth themselves in endeavours tending towards the performance of the condition of the promise He expects they should think on and consider those things which he sets before them and at least out of regard to their own safety to be moved thereby to make use of the means tending to enable them to perform the condition of obtaining pardon and life and to be doing what they well can do towards that performance Doubtless such expressions in Scripture as I shall now set before you cannot signifie less than this Ezek. 14.6 Thus saith the Lord God repent and turn your selves from your Idols Ezek. 18.30 Repent and turn your selves from all your transgressions so iniquity shall not be your ruine Vers 31. Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby ye have transgressed and make you a new heart and a new spirit for why will ye die O house of Israel Ver. 32. I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth saith the Lord God wherefore turn your selves and live Can all these expressions can mens repenting and turning themselves and their making them a new heart possibly signifie less than real endeavours to do so Again Jer. 4.4 Circumcise your selves unto the Lord and take away the foreskin of your hearts Acts 2.40 Save your selves from this untoward generation And all the precepts exhortations and persuasions in Scripture to repent to believe to obey are of the same signification Such for instance as Acts 17.30 But now God commandeth all men every where to repent Chap. 2.38 Repent and be baptized Chap. 3.19 Repent ye therefore and be converted and the like These Scriptures imply and suppose that men can do something towards repenting towards turning themselves and making them a new heart or else we must suppose that God commandeth presseth and persuadeth men to do that towards which he knows they can do nothing The latter of which to suppose would be to suppose the Scriptures to make the same bad representation of God with the slothful servant in the Parable viz. that he is a hard Master expecting to reap where he hath not sown and to gather where he hath not scattered And who would not abhor to fasten that upon God which is not consistent with the goodness of a man We know what it signified in Pharaoh to require the full tale of Brick when he did not give the people Straw wherewith to make them And God forbid we should represent the good God to our selves in the likeness of Pharaoh Besides for any to say that men are wholly passive in performing the condition of the promise is to lay a temptation upon themselves and others not to endeavour to perform it nor to do any thing towards it For who will attempt to do or endeavour to do that which they believe impossible to be done by them And for men not to endeavor to do what they can towards the performance of that condition is the directest course they can take to deprive themselves of that assistance from God by which they might have performed it For from him that
many and many thanksgivings unto God for his grace bestowed on them by Jesus Christ And if so we cannot doubt of our Saviours willingness to assist all those who are any whit willing to be assisted Charity in good men will make them willing to engage in such an action as will both relieve men and procure many thanksgivings unto God though they do thereby to a degree empty themselves and diminish of their own store How much more then will that goodness in our Saviour which is infinitely greater dispose him to yield us his assistance to become good in performing the condition of the promise when he shall thereby both glorifie his Father and make us happy and procure to himself the satisfaction of doing all this good and everlasting love and praise from those that are made happy by it and all this too without any more diminishing of his own riches than when by a word of his mouth he healed the diseased bodies of men 5. The pleasure which our Saviour takes in mens becoming good as they do by performing the condition of the promise is a ground of great assurance that nothing shall be wanting on his part fully to assist them to perform that condition that will consist with his wisdom and with the terms on which the Father will have men to be so assisted The Prophet speaking of the Messiah saith He shall see his seed and he shall see of the travel of his soul and be satisfied Isa 53. To see the fruit of his Mediatory performance in mens being recovered from being bad to become good from Rebels to become obedi nt Subjects yea dutiful children to his Father and so heirs of salvation is and needs must be matter of great satisfaction to the soul of our Saviour because it is the very prize for which he ran the design of his whole undertaking as Mediatour And therefore he cannot possibly be wanting in any thing that is but fit for him to do to help men to become good or to perform the condition of the promise which is the same We see by his weeping over Jerusalem how he is grieved when men refuse to make use of those helps and means of deliverance which he hath obtained for them at a costly rate when they refuse to be holpen out of the pit of destruction when help is offered them By which we may easily judge how acceptable it is to him to help and assist them to get out of a sinful state who have any mind to be so assisted by him These considerations are enough and sufficient I conceive to satisfie us touching our Saviours willingness to assist those to perform the condition of the promise who do not remain unwilling to be so assisted by him after what God has been doing in their souls to make them willing and greatly tend likewise to strengthen their faith in Christ and to encourage their dependence upon him for all necessary supplies of assistance and grace who have any mind to become good or to increase in goodness and to put forth their endeavours to that end THE END Books sold by Walter Kettilby at the Bishops-head in S. Pauls Church-yard SHerlocks Discourse of the Knowledge of Jesus Christ and our Vnion and Communion with him c. To which is annexed a Defence and Continuation with a particular respect to the Doctrine of the Church of England and the Charge of Socinianism and Pelagianism in Oct. Hotchkis 's Discourse concerning the Imputation of Christs Righteousness to us and our Sins to him c. in two Parts in Oct. Allens Answer to Fergusson about Justification in Octav. His Mystery of Iniquity unfolded c. in Oct. His Christian Justification stated in Oct. His Friendly Advice to the Non-Conformists beginning with the Anabaptists in Oct. Hallywels Account of Familism against the Quakers in Oct. His Discourse of the Excellency of Christianity in Oct. His Sacred Method of saving Humane Souls by Jesus Christ in Oct. Needhams Six Sermons most of them preached at St. Maries in Cambridge in Oct. Worthingtons Discourse of Self-Resignation in Oct.