and grave Whatsoever things are just or exactly agreeable to the Rule of doing as we would be done unto Whatsoever things are pure or far from all shew and appearance of unchastity Whatsoever things are lovely or which tend to secure to us love among men such as all works of benignity mercy and Charity Whatsoever things are of good report or which are apt to procure a good name and therefore to prevent all the causes of shame and to give us the greatest freedom and confidence as before God so before Men too If there be any virtue if there be any thing that is by Good men reckoned in the number of Virtues And if there be any praise or any thing laudable and praise-worthy All these things as the Apostle in the general here enjoyneth us to think upon them so they are very particularly and as clearly and perspicuously recommended to us to be carefully observed by us in the New Testament There is nothing which it becometh us to Do or Forbear whether in reference to God our Great Creator Governour and Benefactor or to our Fellow-creatures or to our own Souls and Bodies but here we find it Again we may observe all these in our Saviour's Life also wherein He set us an Example that we should follow his steps And it is a most admirable Example of Piety towards God of Love to him Trust in him and Submission to his Will of Charity to all men even his greatest Enemies and of Humility Meekness Temperance Purity Contempt of the World and Heavenly-mindedness He that shall observe how our Blessed Saviour Lived cannot be ignorant of any of those Laws of Righteousness and Goodness which before his coming the World was so lamentably in not a few instances to seek in the knowledge of through that blindness which by the customary gratifying their vile Affections men had generally contracted I say he that is acquainted with the Life of our Saviour cannot easily be ignorant of any of those Laws although he never understood what particular Commands or Prohibitions his Precepts consist of So that this is the First thing Christ Iesus hath done for us in order to our being made Free He hath given us fully to understand what it is to be Free what are those several Rules of Righteousness and Goodness in compliance with which consists our Liberty Secondly Our Saviour hath also prescribed most Effectual Means by making use of which we shall most certainly obtain and maintain this Liberty that is obey those Laws of Liberty which he hath given us These Means are especially Believing himself to be the Son of God and consequently the Truth and Divinity of his Doctrine Hearing his Word and Receiving it into honest hearts or Pondering it in our minds and Meditating upon it with the Design of conforming our selves to it Prayer to God in his Name together with Faith in his Bloud for the Remission of our Sins and in his Power and Goodness for the Subduing our Lusts and the making us Obedient to his Precepts That is for the blessing our Endeavours to that End Setting his Example before our Eyes which is an Excellent Means to beget in us a likeness to him and to our partaking of his Spirit and Temper Watching over our own Hearts and against Temptations Denying our selves and not indulging our Sensitive Part. Advising in all Cases of doubt and difficulty with our Pastors and Spiritual Guides whom Christ hath given to his Church For the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministery for the Edifying of the Body of Christ Ephes. 4. 12. And obeying them which have the Rule over us in the Lord they watching for our Souls as those that must give an Account Heb. 13. 17. Which Duties were never more neglected than in this Age to the great scandal of our Reformed Religion Keeping in the Communion of the Church And not forsaking the Assembling our selves together or our publick Assemblies as the manner of some is Heb. 10. 25. And now is the manner of vast numbers of us though no Terms of Communion are required that contradict any one Text of Scripture which Separation we are too like ere long to pay dear for The Religious observation of the Lords Day both in Publick and Private is another singular Help and Advantage Though few Professors of Christianity seem now to have any great sense of it to the great prejudice of their own Souls and the Souls of those who are under their charge And to these add in the last place because 't is most convenient to place them here The Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper By Baptism we are admitted into the Church of Christ and brought into a New State We are baptized into the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost or devoted to their service And the Father in this Sacrament takes us into his special care and into the Relation of his Children whereas before we were only the Children of Adam The Son receives us as members of his Body the Church We are baptized into one Body as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 12. 13. that Body whereof Christ is the Head And the Holy Ghost who is the Author of Grace and Spiritual Life taketh us for his Temples We are said to Receive the Holy Ghost in Baptism to receive that power and strength from him which will enable us to Mortifie the deeds of the Body and to acquire the Divine Graces and Virtues which we shall certainly do if we refuse not to Exert and Improve it when we come to years of Discretion and our Faculties are ripe enough for that purpose In Baptism the Holy Spirit communicates to us the Beginnings of a new life which may afterwards be improved to large measures of Virtue and Goodness if we be not wilfully wanting to our selves in the other Means And in the Lords Supper as we renew the Covenant we made in Baptism to renounce the Devil and all his works c. So all worthy Receivers of that Sacrament receive great additions of Grace and Spiritual Strength are fed with the spiritual food of the most Precious Body and Bloud of Christ. And of all the Means prescribed for the Subduing our Lusts and Growing in Grace the Frequent Receiving the Lord's Supper is very deservedly accounted the Principal Certainly there is not any Ordinance wherein sincere Souls do so experiment the Communications of the Holy Spirit by which they are so Strengthened with strength in their Souls Nor are there any such Strong and Spriteful Christians any so confirmed and rooted in Goodness in the love of God and their Neighbour and all the Christian Virtues as those who take all occasions to attend upon it with a thankful sense of the infinite love of God and Christ to them and sincerely design in so doing a fuller participation of the Divine nature But this intimation that these two Sacraments are conveyances of Grace and Strength leads me to shew that
Thirdly Our Saviour hath moreover purchased for us a rich supply of Grace to enable us to use the forementioned Means with happy success He hath obtained from his Father by his Perfect Obedience both Active and Passive Authority to send the Holy Ghost powerfully to assist us and hath assured us that those who ask him shall have him in those most excellent and most comfortable words Luke 11. 11 12 13. If a Son shall ask bread of any that is a Father will he give him a stone Or if he ask a fish will he for a fish give him a Serpent Or if he shall ask an Egge will he offer him a Scorpion If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your Children how much more shall your Heavenly Father give his holy Spirit unto them that ask him And if any of us want the Holy Spirit 's Assistance it is certainly because we either pray not at all for it or not with a sincere and earnest desire that he should root up and destroy every Evil Affection in our Souls Because we are secretly unwilling to let go some beloved lust or other And because we are false to God and our own Souls in those things which he hath put into our Power For 't is certain that not to put forth the power we have already received and yet complain for want of strength is to play the Hypocrities and no wonder if the Holy Spirit of God doth estrange himself and withhold or withdraw his blessed Influences from such persons But as for those who are faithful so far as those Talents reach which they are at present intrusted with our Lord hath promised them that more shall be given them That is the meaning of those words Mark 4. 25. He that hath to him shall be given That is that useth what he hath for no man properly hath or possesseth what he makes no use of 't would be the same thing to him to be without it Nay our Lord doth not only promise to him that hath that more shall be given him but also that he shall have abundantly more Matth. 13. 12. For whosoever hath to him shall be given and he shall have more abundance And he repeats this Chap. 25. 29. And if we were not through wilfulness and carelesness wanting to our selves in putting forth that measure of strength we have as sure as Iesus is the Christ we should fully experiment the truth of this promise We should then feel the Divine Spirit working in us mightily as the Apostle S. Paul saith he did Col. 1. 29. The great things that are spoken concerning the Spirit and of what he shall do in the hearts of men would be then punctually fulfilled in us and we should be satisfied by happy experience that they are not mere words the Holy Ghost would not fail to do all that for us he was sent by our Lord to do It is to be acknowledged with great sadness that both Fleshly and Spiritual Lusts are exceedingly strong and vigorous even in the generality of those that profess Christianity as well as in others and no less than in others that are Strangers to our Religion But this never to be enough lamented Evil doth not proceed from hence that grace is denied to the generality but 't is wholly to be imputed to their Receiving the grace of God in vain and wilfully refusing to comply therewith It is not at all to be ascribed to the Spirits refusing to perform his Office in them or to do in their behalf what doth belong to him but to their refusing to do their part This we are as fully assured of from abundance of Texts of Scripture as we can desire to be The same is to be said of mens so ordinarily falling again and again into those sins which they frequently Pray and Resolve and Vow against This is far from being the account of it that God is not willing to hear their prayers For as S. Iohn speaks 1 Epist. 5. 14. This is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask any thing according to his will he heareth us and to ask victory over our Lusts is of all Petitions most agreeable to his will This cannot be the reason of it that the Holy Spirit refuseth to inforce his Preventing or Prevenient with his Assisting Grace that he will not assist some persons in the performance of those good Resolutions which his Preventing Grace hath excited in their Souls But this is the true account hereof viz. Such Persons are undoubtedly wanting in the use of some Necessary Means or other for the subduing their Lusts they do not use all the means our Lord hath appointed and are especially faulty in neglecting particularly the great duty of Consideration They pray it may be very frequently and earnestly too that God would give them strength against this or that Corruption and they add Vows to their Prayers but they add not Consideration to their Prayers and Vows they watch not over themselves disregard the first motions of their Wills and inclinations of their Souls towards the sins or sin they so Pray Resolve and Vow against and are not careful to avoid Temptations And as inconsideration is the chiefest cause of unsuccessfulness in the use of means for the subduing of Corrupt Affections so the gross neglect of that grand Means the Lords Supper but now discoursed of which I hope in no Age nor among any people professing Christianity was ever so common as to our great shame it is in this Age and this Nation this gross neglect I say is questionless a very great cause of so much Non-proficiency in attendance on other Ordinances as is complained of Which Nonproficiency may well be notwithstanding the Promises of the plentiful Effusion of the Spirit and our Saviour's purchasing so rich a supply of Grace for us For our Saviour is no such Friend to Negligence and Carelesness as to dispense his Grace in such a way and manner as that it must necessarily be a motive and encouragement to do nothing or but little our selves But on the contrary he so communicates his Grace and Strength as to make it a great Exciter and Quickner of Endeavours Of this S. Paul assures us in making God's working in us to will and to do or his readiness so to do an argument to perswade us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2. 12. Lastly As our Saviour hath purchased for us a rich supply of Grace for the Enabling us to use the Means of our Deliverance with happy success so he hath given us the most powerful Motives and Arguments that can be imagined to prevail upon our Wills to comply and cooperate with this Grace And these Arguments are not only proposed outwardly to us in his Gospel but they are also inforced inwardly upon our hearts as appears by what hath been now said by his Holy Spirit That is they are inforced upon the
Selfishness and the like But some or other nay most of these are all wicked men servants to and over-powered by If Tully could say of the Lustful man An ille mihi liber videtur cui mulier imperat Shall I think him a freeman who is at the command of a woman And if Arrian could say What miserable wretch dost thou fancy thy self free who art 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Slave of a Wench and a vile sorry Wench too well may I say what a wretched Slave art thou then who art under the dominion of so many base vile opprobrious shameful and hateful things To be subject to any one of these is vile Servitude what is it then to be at the command of so many such Masters to serve divers Lusts as the Apostles expression is Titus 3. 3. and all most vile base and brutish Thirdly The wicked man is also inslaved by the most Tyrannical and Cruel Masters Indeed 't is rare that the Base prove other than Cruel whensoever they happen to get into power Having understood who are this mans Masters we must needs be satisfied that they are not more vile than they are Tyrannical And their Tyranny is shewed in requiring the most Vnreasonable services and the most Vneasie Their Commands must necessarily be most unreasonable in that they themselves are so The forementioned vile Affections and the like are therefore Vile because perfect contradictions to the Reason of mens Minds and degradations of the Humane and Intellectual Nature Because they Brutifie mens Souls yea and make them more Vile than the Beasts which perish In short he who obeys these Masters preferreth the Creature before the Creator God blessed for ever He forsakes the fountain of living waters and heweth out to himself broken Cisterns which can hold no water His Body is far more dear to him than his Soul and he esteems slight and momentany satisfactions and pleasures above the most Substantial and Eternal He fears the displeasure of a poor Creature and some very tolerable and small evil more than the wrath of the Omnipotent God and than Hell it self He is ever doing that which the sence of his own Mind upbraids him with and what he knows before hand he shall wish undone as soon as done In a word he is always contradicting the Great Design of his Creation and coming into Being Such things as these as I need not stand to shew do the Lusts of wicked men put them upon doing such services as these are they perpetually imploying them in And what we said of the Vnreasonableness of their commands speaks them also Vneasie Grievous and Troublesome It is impossible for a Creature to act contrary to its Nature and Essential principles but it must needs feel much Pain in so doing the more Unnatural any thing is the more Disquieting and Tormenting must it necessarily be The very presence of evil Affections in the Soul must needs make it as uneasie as evil Humours do the Body what then will the gratifying the Nourishing and Cherishing them do I appeal to the Covetous and Ambitious to the immoderate Lovers of Riches and Honours to such Lovers of Wine and such Lovers of Women to the Revengeful and Malicious and the like whether they do not feel excessive disturbance and perturbation of Mind from the several passions that denominate them such and whether the Pain they cause to their Souls be not incomparably greater and more lasting than the pleasure which their Flesh or Sensitive part receiveth from them Add hereunto the grievous Disquiet and Torment that is occasioned by Reflecting upon the past pleasing and gratifying a Lust. Tully hath an excellent observation to this purpose When a Lust hath ceased to exercise its dominion for a while or to employ its vassal in new drudgery he is not for that time at ease but another Lord immediately tyrannizeth over him viz. the Dread that ariseth from consciousness of Guilt oh what a miserable slavery and bondage is this And by the way methinks it should much affect us to find a Heathen expressing such a sense of the intolerable Slavery men are brought into by satisfying their Lusts. I might add further that mens Lusts have no moderation with them neither though as that Philosopher supposeth they may after their commands are obeyed for a while cease to command again yet it is but for a very little while before the sinner hath recovered his spent spirits they lay new burdens on his weary shoulders What the Apostle saith of those who have eyes full of Adultery that they cannot cease from sin is as true of those who are under the dominion of any lust whatsoever And what Horace observes of the Tyranny of sensual Love may as well be applied to every other corrupt Affection namely Vrget enim mentem dominus non lenis acres Subjectat lasso stimulos This cruel Lord th' unhappy Creature rides And when be-jaded claps sharp spurs to 's sides I might moreover shew were it needful that the service which mens Lusts exact from them is such as ordinarily is of fatal consequence to their Estates and Bodies as well as Souls but there is nothing to which universal observation in all Ages and Sinners Experience gives clearer evidence I might also in the last place shew that mens Lusts do deliver up their Servants to the power of the Devil such being said to be in his snare and to be taken captive by him at his will 2 Tim. 2. 26. And no man I hope shall need to be informed what a Tyrant and Tormenter the Devil is But enough hath been said of the service of Sin to make us cry out with the Philosopher in the forementioned words Quà m illa misera quà m dura Servitus What miserable and cruel Slavery is that Service Enough I say hath been said to assure us that no Slavery is comparable to this and consequently that the careful observance of the Laws of Righteousness is the true and most Glorious Liberty in that Freedom from such Bondage is implied therein as is not to be found in any other sort of Liberty CHAP. III. That the Liberty which resulteth from the Observance of the Laws of Righteousness is the Liberty of the Soul and how it is so is shewed in four Particulars SEcondly The Liberty which resulteth from the Observance of the Laws of Righteousness and Goodness is the truest and most excellent of Liberties in that it is the Liberty and Freedom of the Soul As this is apparent by what hath been already discoursed so we may further take notice that by the Observance of these Laws the Soul comes to be enlarged to have Self-enjoyment and to be as it would be in that it is by this means delivered from those Passions which straiten confine and pend it up and put it into a Slavish state Those Passions are chiefly Fear Shame Trouble and Dejection of Mind and an immoderate love to our own Bodily
by himself the true Riches By the Salvation which he is the Author of is meant that from the worst of evils principally and everlasting Salvation So proportionably whenas the Son is said to make us free the meaning is free with the best of Freedoms viz. that from sin as also we have seen is manifest from the Context Whenas Christ is said to be Anointed according to the Prophecy of Esay concerning him to preach deliverance to the captives and to set at liberty them that are bruised with being long fettered and shackled we are likewise to understand the same most desirable of all Liberties and Deliverances Whereas S. Iames calls the Gospel the law of Liberty Chap. 1. 25. and the perfect law of Liberty Chap. 2. 12. we are primarily to understand it as will be further shewn of this same Liberty which infinitely surpasseth all other In which sence the Apostle S. Paul understood it to be The perfect law of Liberty when he called it The law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Iesus adding that it had made him free from the law of Sin and death Rom. 8. 2. Secondly We find this Liberty was that the instating us wherein our Saviour when he was in the World and his Apostles after him were altogether bent and intent upon The business of making men holy and obedient to the Laws of Righteousness they had not only mostly in their Eye but all they did was subordinated thereunto All those powerful means that were used to perswade the world that Iesus is the Christ were in order to this end For the Son of God was manifested to take away our sins and to destroy the works of the Devil 1 John 3. 5 8. Therefore is Faith so highly commended and so much ascribed thereto and men so excited to believe in Christ or to believe his Gospel because the Doctrine Precepts Promises and Threatnings therein contained have a great aptness and tendency are of mighty force and efficacy to the thorough Reformation of our Lives and the cleansing our Natures from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit Because that Faith which is terminated upon those Objects is such a Shield as whereby we shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one Because it is most effectual to the purifying of the heart and the overcoming of the world In short Christ gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Titus 2. 14. He died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves to the drudging service of their Lusts but unto him that died for them and rose again 2 Cor. 5. 15. Or that they should be his Servants that is his Free-men according to that of S. Paul 1 Cor. 7. 22. He that is called being a Servant is the Lords Free-man He gave himself for the Church that he might sanctifie and cleanse it by the washing of water by the word That he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish Ephes. 5. 26 27. He his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sins should live unto Righteousness 1 Pet. 2. 24. Or as S. Paul saith Rom. 6. 7. That being dead we might be freed from sin That is that being dead to it we might be freed from the Bondage we were in under it Or as we have it ver 18. That being made free from sin we might become the servants of righteousness Our Saviour required nothing of us forbad nothing to us but what was apparently designed in order to our deliverance from sin the making us pure in heart and holy in all manner of conversation He gave us not a Promise but what was to encourage us hereunto nor yet a Threatning but what was intended to scare us from the serving of one Lust or other And the Apostle tells us that the whole of the Gospel or The grace of God that brings salvation is designed to teach us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Tit. 2. 11 12. 'T is sufficiently evident from this little that hath been said that the setting us free from Sin and the making us Free to Righteousness was the business which took up our Blessed Saviour's time and thoughts when he was upon the Earth and wherein his holy Apostles were employed after his departure And therefore this must necessarily be our grand Christian Liberty Abundantly more might have been said upon this Argument but we have heretofore copiously handled it in another Treatise Thirdly Our Saviours abrogating the Ceremonial Law his freeing from that yoke was mainly designed in order to the thorough effecting this Freedom and Liberty This was a yoke which the Apostle Peter saith neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear Acts 15. 10. It was a yoke of bondage as S. Paul calls it Gal. 5. 1. Stand fast in the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not intangled again with the yoke of bondage This Liberty as appears by his discourse both before and after was that which Christ had given them from the burdensome services of the Mosaical Dispensation And diverse other places there are which speak of this Liberty as an effect and fruit of the death of Christ. Now it is worthy our Observation that the great reason wherefore our Saviour did put an end to the Obligation of this Law and why the Apostles especially S. Paul insisted so much upon it and so earnestly cautioned the Jewish Believers against intangling themselves again with this yoke was because it became very highly injurious to the Grand Evangelical Design of setting men perfectly free from their Lusts Because it gendered to that spiritual bondage in deliverance from which consisteth our best Liberty For this Law understood Carnally and according to the letter only which it ought not to have been was very apt to beget a sordid and low spirit a temper of mind very much estranged from true Piety and Goodness And it is too unquestionable that the Iews generally had no higher a sense of it The Law the Author to the Hebrews saith made nothing perfect Chap. 7. 19. It gave no man Freedom from the power of Sin no power to subdue corrupt Affections was obtainable thereby it did not make men truly and internally Righteous but only Ritually and Externally As the most eminently Good men under the Law did fall far short of the Apostles of our Saviour and those whose lives have been most answerable to the Christian precepts so those degrees of Virtue and Goodness they did attain to were not owing the Law but to the Covenant made with Abraham which was the same for substance with the Gospel Covenant The Law is
Attention in saying their Prayers and numbering them over is as much as is necessary And if we can believe that we need not mind our Prayers we have no reason to blame those of them who do not desire to understand them Nor yet their Church for enjoyning the saying them in a Language which the Generality of Her Children are ignorant of as if She designed in so doing to put an Affront upon S. Paul who hath taught us in the most express terms the quite contrary Doctrine in the 14 Chapter of the First to the Corinthians To conclude this Chapter Our Notion of Christian Liberty is so very far from befriending Popery that 't is not possible it should have a greater Enemy in that it so highly conduceth to the advancing of the true Spirit and Power of Religion and to the perfect ridding our Minds of those two as Great Friends to Popery as Pests to Religion and even Humane Society viz. Superstition and fanaticism I mean by these two a Base Unworthy Apprehension of the Deity and a Blind Irrational Heady Zeal If it be said after all that supposing the two Notions of Christian Liberty which we have now declared our Sense 〈◊〉 be never so false yet we are notwithstanding too confined in Our Notion in â—hat Christian Liberty doth not onely â—onsist in Freedom from the Dominion of 〈◊〉 and the other sad Consequents of it â—ut also in our Freedom as to all things â—fan Indifferent nature to or from which â—e are not determined as by any Divine 〈◊〉 neither by any Humane Law If this â—say be objected our Answer in one â—ord is this This is not Christian but â—his is Natural Liberty That of S. Paul â—ving been in All Ages and in refeâ—ence to all sorts of People as Great a Truth as it hath been since our Saviours â—ime and in reference to Christians viz. Where no Law is there is no Transgression CHAP. XIV An Answer to this Question Whether the Prescribing of Forms of Prayer for the Publick Worship of God be not an Encroachment upon Christian Liberty Wherein it is shewed that this is not a Stifling of the Spirit or Restraining the exercise of his Gift And what in Prayer is not as also what is the Gift of the Spirit Whereby is occasioned an Answer to another Question viz. Whether an Ability for Preaching be properly a Gift of the Spirit WHat hath been last discoursed gives me occasion to Enquire Whether the Imposing of a Liturgy or Forms of Prayer for the Publick Worship of God be not an Encroachment upon Christian Liberty I answer it is if that Principle taken up by very many among us be a true one viz. That this is a Stifling of the Spirit and a Restraining of the Exercise of one of his Gifts If this be so I say it can be no better than a very great invasion of Christian Liberty and a far greater than the mere obliging men to things Indifferent For as S. Paul saith 1 Cor. 12. 7. The Maniâ—estation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal and therefore for Christians to be limited in doing good by a Gift of the Spirit must needs be a robbing them of that Liberty which Christ in sending Him design'd to give them By the way it shall be no part of my Reply to say that onely the Ministers are here concerned not at all the People For although a Conceived Prayer of the Minister be of the nature of a prescribed Form to those that joyn with him as to the confining their Spirits yet the People must needs be sufferers by means of their Ministers being stinted in the exercise of a Gift of the Spirit since it was designed for their profit and therefore upon this account and moreover in regard of the Countenance they will thereby give to Authority in such a kind of Sacrilegious Usurpation of power over Ministers it cannot be justifiable in them to Attend willingly upon such Forms But in order to the undeceiving of those who are so tenacious of this conceit that a prescribed Liturgy is a hinderance to the Free Exercise of a Gift of the Spirit I must freely profess that I know of no Gifts of the Spirit which we have warrant from Scripture to believe are continued to the Church at this day besides those which S. Paul calls the Fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5. 22. Where he saith The fruit of the Spirit is Love Ioy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance These and the like Christian Graces are Gifts which the Spirit still bestows and therefore called Graces They are supernatural Gifts as no man by his mere Natural power can obtain them but only by the Spirit 's blessing of our Endeavours and to the sincere use of the Gospel-means the Spirit is always ready to give his blessing And the reason why in these latter Ages these blessed Gifts are bestowed upon no more Professors of Christianity than they are is because the generality of such are miserably wanting to themselves and to the Holy Spirit in refusing to do their part and to cooperate with Him Because they will not attend to the evidence the Spirit hath given to the Truth of the Gospel and therefore have too weak and ineffectual a belief thereof Because they will not consider the Doctrine of the Gospel they will not weigh well and lay to heart its Precepts with the infinitely powerful motives wherewith they are inforced Because they will not listen to the Spirits good motions and suggestions whereby he works in men to Will and begets in them good Resolutions but do truly â—â—ench the Spirit though that phrase is â—sed in reference to his miraculous Gifts and resist the Holy Ghost and because they will not make a believing Application to Him for his powerful Assistance I say it is upon these and such like accounts that the forementioned Gifts of the Spirit are so rare and that the generality of those who are honoured with the Title of Christians are so destitute of them as we see they are Nay multitudes are so befooled by the enemy of their Souls as to expect that the Spirit should do all in them without their doing any thing that He should make them Temperate Righteous Charitable Meek Humble and Submissive to God's Will Heavenly-minded and the like without their due attendance upon those Ordinances of the Word Sacrament and Prayer and serious Consideration and Watchfulness over themselves wherein alone we have ground to expect the powerful working of the Divine Grace in our Souls But I say though these Gifts are observable in so very few comparatively the account whereof I have briefly touched upon and shewed that 't is mens own fault that they are not very common yet we have no warrant from Scripture that I know of to call those which are much more common though they are by many so reputed Gifts of the Spirit notwithstanding the Prophecies and Promises of so
First of these That known Doctrine of the Dependence of the Efficacy of Sacraments upon the Priests intention Such as Baptism the Lords Supper Absolution which is a grand Popish Sacrament c. Can it be other than a great disturbance and distraction to a considering person whether there be any dash of Melancholy in his Temper or no to think with himself thus What if after all my care and all my expence the Priest should either from a principle of Malice or non-advertency not direct his Intention as he ought to do Then if I am not remedilesly damned I am at least in eminent danger of damnation But then as to the Second relating to Confession This ushers in this perplexing difficulty viz. How shall I in enquiring after my particular sins in deed word and thought assure my self that I have used my utmost diligence Which if I have not done my Absolution will signifie nothing to me And as to Confessing the Circumstances of sins the Questions and Scruples which naturally arise from thence are too many to be recited But I 'le transcribe some passages of the Learned Bishop Taylor ' s concerning Auricular Confession which are greatly to our present purpose Saith he in his Disswasive from Popery the First Part How this can be safely done and who is sufficient for these things and who can tell his Circumstances without tempting his Confessor or betraying and defaming another person which is forbidden and in what cases it may be done and in what cases omitted and whether the Confession be valid upon infinite other Considerations and whether it be to be repeated in whole or in part and how often and how much These things are so uncertain casual and contingent and so many cases are multiplied upon every one of these and these so disputed by their greatest Doctors by Thomas and Scotus and all the School-men and by the Casuists that as Beatus Rhenanus complains it was truly observed by the famous John Geilerius that according to their Cases Enquiries and Conclusions it is impossible for any man to make a right Confession And thus he concludes that Section So that although the shame of private Confession be very tolerable and easie yet the Cases and Scruples which they have introduced are neither easie nor tolerable And though as it is now used there be but little in it to restrain sin yet there is very much danger of encreasing it and of receiving no benefit by it But yet for all this the Trent Gentlemen in the fore-cited Session and Chapter call it an impious thing to say that this their Auricular Confession is Carnificina Conscientiarum a Racking and Torturing of Peoples Consciences But it would be a wonder if the greatest Wickedness should be unaccompanied with the most shameless impudence As for the Third Doctrine I named viz. That of their distinction of Sins into Mortal and Venial that is in their own nature so the intanglements it brings men into are inextricable For they cannot be satisfied from their Casuists what Sins are Venial and what are not so in very many instances And much less can they distinguish between the greatest Venial Sins and the least Mortal ones Now considering this little that hath been said as the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 3. 17. Where the Spirit of the Lord is or the true Spirit of Christianity there is Liberty so may we say Where the Spirit of Popery is there is Slavery much worse than Egyptian Slavery No Papist who is disposed to be Devout and Religious can be better than a poor Superstitious Creature Nor can scarcely serve God after a better sort than a Turkish Slave doth his cruel Patron or than the poor Indians Worship the Devil But that those of them who make Conscience of their ways and are Religiously inclined are not beholden to their Popery for being so will be fully made to appear in the next Chapter CHAP. XVIII The Third Particular discoursed on viz. That the Admirable Method our Lord hath taken to Instate us in our Christian Liberty is made lamentably Ineffectual by Popery This shewed as to each of those four Particulars that Method consists of The Second Head briefly spoken to viz. That Popery is also the greatest Enemy to that Liberty Christ purchased for the Jews in Particular A Pathetical Exhortation to a higher valuing of the Priviledges we enjoy in the Church of England concludes the Chapter THirdly The Admirable course and Method which our Lord hath taken to instate us in our Christian Liberty is made lamentably Ineffectual by Popery For First Whereas we have shewed that He hath fully informed us concerning all the parts and particulars of our Liberty what can the Romish Church do more than she doth to keep men in Ignorance of them The Holy Scriptures as hath been said She hath locked up And though as that excellent Gentleman Sir Edwyn Sandys saith as well to beat back the irksome out-cries of their Adversaries as to give some content and satisfaction to their own that they might not think them so terribly afraid of the Bible they were content to let it be translated by some of their Favourers into the Vulgar as also some number of Copies to be saleable a-while at the beginning yet since having hushed that former clamour and made better provision for the Establishment of their Kingdom they have called all Vulgar Bibles straitly in again yea the very Psalms of David which their famous Preacher Bishop Panigarola translated as doubting else the unavoidableness of those former inconveniences And such base blasphemous Reflections upon the Holy Scriptures have been published both from their Pulpits and Presses as speak them exceedingly dangerous by reason of their extreme obscurity even in points necessary to Salvation though the Apostle saith If our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost as well as not worth the reading as being fitted to serve all turns a dead letter and at best an insufficient Rule and not signifying any thing unaccompanied with their paltry Traditions though S. Paul saith The Scriptures are able to make us wise to Salvation Nor do their Preachers make any great amends for this intolerable abuse for as they are too generally most sottishly ignorant and know little more of the Scriptures than the poor people so the most Knowing of them for the most part stuff their Sermons with Legends and Idle tales make as little use of Scripture as they can and feed their Flocks with sorry Trash nay with rank Poison mingled with the sincere milk of the Word and the Saving Doctrines of the Gospel Secondly Whereas we have shewn that our Lord hath furnisht us with the most potent Means for the gaining of our Christian Liberty this Church hath also taken a course to make these unsuccessful We will instance in some of them As for that of Believing himself to be the Son of God c. we need add nothing to what hath been said