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
of the spirit shall shine into their hearts through the face of Jesus Christ Till Christ shall sit as a refiners fire and purifie the hearts of his people as the Prophet Malachy hath it and shall make them willing in the day of his power to receive the truth in the love of it But yet we ought to distinguish Psal 110.3 Rom. 14.1 and to make a difference between the pretious and the vile between him that is weak in the faith and him that offends out of malice and obstinacy and knows that he is in a wrong way and will not be reformed With the later we are to deal in a more severe way openly 1 Tim 5.20 Mat. 7.6 Mat. 18.17 rebuhing them before many witnesses and if they still persist turn to Dogs and rent us then let them be unto us as Heathens or Publicans and let them be given over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh 1 Cor 5.5 that their spirits may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus I finde that the Scripture useth severall Greek words to express and shew forth the various waies we ought to proceed withall in handling those that have erred from the faith 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Admonition a friendly and courteous telling them that they are not in the right way and that as long as they stick to these principles and adhere to those false conclusions they are to seek in the things of God Beseeching them to examine them by the light of the Word and the Spirits speaking in the hearts of others who have further discoveries upon their hearts of the truths of God and of those things which accompany salvation than they and to judge according to the analogy and proportion of Faith Rom 12.6 To beseech them to examine upon what grounds they close with these opinions and of the ground of their faith and of the reason of their hope For we are not upon Trust and upon bare Tradition to close with any Doctrine delivered unto us though it comes with never so fair a species of truth 1 Joh 4.1 but to try the Spirits whether they be of God or no and be alwaies ready to render a reason of our Faith 1 Pet. 3.15 and of the work of Grace upon our hearts to every one that shall require it of us And to search into the lives of those men who endeavour to draw us to their opinions Gal. 6.13 whether they are those that seek themselves and their honour and the pleasing of their own humour or the advancement of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ in the hearts of his people Now this admonition it must not be once but again and again till by the power of the Word and the bright shining forth of truth they being overcome by the beauty and the excellency and the power of it for what is stronger then truth they be over-weaned and prevailed upon to a sincere and hearty affection to it Now this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Admonition includes 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 falsae doctrinae a demonstration of the absurdity and the falsity of the opinion they are in love withall as the Apostle Paul did who proved Justification to be of Grace and not of Works shewing the impossibility of it by an Antithesis between Works and Grace If it is of Works Rom. 11.6 it is not of Grace otherwise Grace is no more Grace We must first shew them that they are in a wrong way before we can perswade them of the right Saith Solomon Prov. 14.12 There is a way which seems right to a mans eyes but the ends of those waies are death Now till a man sees that death and destruction follows and attends his waies he will never seek after Wisdoms path and the waies which tend to life Act. 8.3 Act. 9.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As long as Paul was nurtur'd up in the Jewish doctrine and insensible of the depravation of it he was inraged in his spirit against the Church of God haling men and women to the Judgement seat but when once the Spirit had convinced him of the weakness of that dispensation under which he lived Rom. 10.1 and that the Law was not able to bring any thing to perfection and the Ceremonial Law is Statutes which were not good Ezek 20.25 as the Prophet Ezikiel cals them and that he cannot be justified by the works of the Law he presently disclaims whatsoever formerly he imbraced counting all things but loss and dung in comparison of the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ 2. A secret insinuating unto them the truth and the excellency of the opposite to which they hold saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 12.16 I beguiled you i. e. I caught you as fishes are caught in a net before you were aware by the power of the Word upon your hearts We ought to strike the iron while it is hot and to work upon mens hearts when they are stirred up by a holy compunction of spirit to search into the nature of things Every time is not fit to deal with men for their souls good because the spirits of men according to mens various assections stirred up at such a time rather then another are more sutable to receive an impression than at another time as the stories of Amaziah and Asa will clearly shew 2 Chron. 25. We read of Amaziah that having hired an hundred thousand valiant men out of Israel of the Tribe of Ephraim to assist him against the children of Seir the Propher came to him in the Name of the Lord commanding him to separate these men from the men of Judah that they might return to their own place Here Amaziah readily obeyed the Word of the Lord by the Prophet though to his own damage with the loss of the hundred Talents of silver Yet we finde in the following verses of the same Chapter that the same King Amaziah when the Prophet came to reprove him for serving the Gods of the Nations whom he had overcome he was wrath with the Prophet and disobeyed the Word of the Lord. O what a happy issue might many of Gods people have had of their admonitions and reproofs upon the souls of others if they had done it when the soul was of a tender frame of spirit sensible of its own infirmity and under the sense of its insufficiency kept low in its own eyes desiring above all things to be taught by the Spirit I have known many who at the first onset of a reproof though sugar'd over with many sweet words which is a great oversight in the people of God Psal 141.5 and farre from Davids temper who said If the righteous smite him it shall be as a pretious balm which shall not break his head who afterwards were as Lambs apt to be guided by the weakest hand 2 Sam. 15.6 As Absolon is said to steal away the hearts of the men
outward worship that we should bow before him and fall down at his presence and testifie the brokenness and contrition of heart by outward gestures as well as heart-worship though that be the principall he aims at Pray observe that God looks to every circumstance of his worship as well as to the essentials of it yea to the least circumstance and when he shall come to revenge the quarrell of his Covenant will severely punish those who have failed in the least particular of his worship O that men would consider this who are all for duty but little for the right performance of it after Gods way and manner ☞ all for worship but care not how they worship God I finde in Scripture 1 King 18.28 that hypocrites have been most in duty Baals Priests used to cut selves from day to night Mat 6.7.23.14 and the Pharisees used to make long prayers but I finde that the people of God have studied more how to please God and to serve him after his own way and method The circumstances of an action saith the Philosopher aggravate the action more than the action it self You will think Nadab's and Abihu's fault to be of no consideration Lev. 10.1 2. as to deserve so great a punishment as to be destroyed for it What was their sinne why they offered fire to the Lord as he commanded but not that fire which he commanded that fire which should be continually kept in upon the Altar for that very use but fetcht elsewhere and therefore 't is called strange fire such fire as the Lord never demanded Let Gods Word be our rule and Gods glory the ultimate end and scope of all our actions and then we cannot do amiss in point of worship and if we continue in well doing at the length we shall reap everlasting life But when men corrupt the Word of God 2 Cor. 2.17 as the Apostles phrase is putting new glosses upon it and making it as a nose of wax to turn every way according as their genius tends and it serves for the carrying on of their designes for how glad are wicked men if they catch at any part of a sentence which according to their blinde apprehensions though to a judicious minde and to one enlightened by the Spirit it is nothing to the purpose or handling the Word of God deceitfully 2 Cor. 2.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cauponantes Adulte rantes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A corrumpendo vine atque infuscando ut caupones sâ—lout Men adulterate the word and take away the beauty and the majesty from it when they think to put a lustre upon it by their own inventions mixing it as a Vintner doth water with wine according to the Apostles word or neglecting the Word of God lean to the light of their own understandings and studying strange and unheard-of doctrines under the name of experimentall truths and which by long experience they have found out deliver unto the people the scum and the froth of their own vain mindes as the false Prophets of old who spake lyingly in the Name of the Lord saying they had a vision and a revelation when they had not that so both Minister and people might both fall together and both might be destroyed for ever and ever and rendring themselves abominable in the eyes of God they build their faith upon their own wisdom which is rather folly than wisdom for every man as the Psalmist saith Ps 49.10 by the fall is become brutish in his understanding and is of a reprobate minde that is Tit. 1.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 void of judgment of a minde that cannot approve of the things of God and neglect the wisdom and the power of God They cry up themselves as Simon Magus did for some body Act. 8.9 for the great power of God as he for his miracles was termed so and delighted in this appellation so these would be so termed for the abundance of the Revelations and the great measure of the Spirit which they pretend to partake of as if they were the only lights in the world and the Oracles which God hath set up in his Church Lord I beseech thee by the power of thy sanctifying Spirit to destroy this Babell in the hearts of those who are thy people that they may not build their faith upon lying vanities and trust to the sparks of their own understandings 1 Sam. 5.4 but that this Dagon of superstition and false worship of will-worship Col. 2.23 and of that worship which seems to carnall flesh glorious and beautifull 2 Cor. 7.1 may fall down at the appearance of Jesus Christ in their hearts that being kept from the pollutions of the flesh and Spirit they may perfect holiness in the fear of God for as long as this wisdom of the world is in us which is foolishness in thy sight there is no room for thy word or for Jesus Christ who is the eternall wisdom of God the Father Joh. 6.27 Let us not build our faith upon traditions and mens inventions and feed upon that meat which perisheth for all ceremonies customs and will-worship is but perishing meat but upon the Word of God as our rule and Jesus Christ for our Saviour that so we may finde comfort and peace of conscience at the hour of death and in the world to come everlasting life To proceed in the context the Apostle having shewed that he did not preach the wisdom of the world yet to magnifie his Doctrine and that he might give it the preheminence Vers 6. he saith Yet we preach wisdom amongst those which are perfect yet not the wisdom of this world that is though our preaching be plain to you who are but as babes in understanding yet we can preach in a higher style and more profound matter amongst those which are perfect that is amongst those who are men in understanding and more knowing in the things of God vers 7. We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery Ver. 8. Wisdom which the world cannot attain unto Vers 9. Eye hath not seen nor ear heard the things which God hath prepared for them that love him Hence observe Note That a servant of Jesus Christ must suit his style and his matter according to the capacity and judgement of his hearers Saith Luther Optimi ad Vulgus sunt concionatores qui popularitèr pnerilitèr trivialiter docent They preach best to the common people who preach in the plainest way and method The converting of souls to Jesus Christ and the building up Christians in the most pretious faith and comforting sad dejected spirits and destroying the Kingdom of Satan in the hearts of wicked men and to dispossess them of the unclean spirit and to convince gain-sayers who oppose the truth and to vindicate the purity of the Word of God against men of reprobate mindes is the work and main business of a true Ambassadour of Jesus
to make them humble for their sinnes or to prevent the breaking forth of the boyls of sin for the future They know that God looks more to the frame of their hearts and how their spirits are under Gods hand whether perverse and peevish or patient and submissive than at any thing else Besides they consider that these afflictions are but to drive them to their Fathers house and when they are sufficiently broken and sufficiently humbled under his afflicting hand he will take them up in his arms and kiss them as a loving mother doth a weak sickly childe and restore unto them the joy of his salvation There are two extreams we are apt to runne into under afflictions either to despise the chastning of the Lord Heb. 12.5 or to faint under his displeasure Wicked men they despise the hand of God and Christians are ready often to faint but that Jesus Christ stands by as he did by that blessed Martyr and wipes the sweat off from their faces when they are nigh to swound and gives them some comfortable sun-shines of his loving presence X. The Spirit is taken for the motions of the Spirit upon our hearts 1 Thes 5.19 Quench not the Spirit i. e. the motions and impressions of the holy Spirit of God upon thy heart Beleeve it Christian for a truth that though thou canst not blot out the teachings of the Spirit yet thou maiest shift off and extinguish the motions of the Spirit Have a care of this great sinne lest by thy impenitency ingratitude and willfull rebellion thou stiflest the glowings of the Spirit Have a care that when God strives with thee thou doest not strive with God again It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks Act. 9.5 Have a care thou beeft not found a fighter against God Saith Stephen of the rebellious Jews Ye stiff-necked Act. 7.51 ye do alwaies resist the holy Ghost i. e. you turn the deaf adder you stop your ears against the blessed Spirit warning you of that destruction which you have brought upon your selves in betraying the Lord of life Wicked men when they quench the Spirit are said to provoke the Spirit They stirre up a holy anger and revenge in the Spirit against their sins Mark 3.5 As Jesus Christ looked upon the Pharisees with a holy anger being grieved for the hardness of their hearts so the Spirit is angry at the hardness of the hearts of stubborn hearted sinners Eph. 4.30 But you who are the people of God you grieve the Spirit of God by your unkindness when ye seek to put out the light of the Spirit within you Walk in the light while you have the light for though God will never leave you wholly in the dark and utterly deprive you of his Spirit yet he may bring a cloud of temptation over you which may eclipse the glory of it for a time I beseech you grieve not the Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption As you would not be said to kick against the bowels of a bleeding Saviour by your sinnes so neither do you kick against the bowels of a most gracious Spirit or of the Spirit of grace striving with your hearts to the obedience of the truth As wicked men by their often sinning against the Spirit do quite sinne away the Spirit for by sinning so often against conviction they sinne so long till they have no light to sinne again having sinned it all away so the godly by sinning against the Spirit do cause it to withdraw its gracious influences for the present O that troubled consciences mourning under the loss of the comfortable presence of God in Jesus Christ would consider this Thou that complainest of the Spirits absence Hast thou not sinned away the Spirit by quenching its motions and resisting its impressions Thou that complainest of the want of assurance and of the Spirits not witnessing with thy Spirit Hast thou not sinned away thy assurance by committing some sinne or omitting some duty against the light of the Spirit What a wicked thing is it that Christians should complain of the Spirit and murmur against God for the light of his countenance when God and his Spirit have more reason to complain of them Christians are said to quench the Spirit two waies 1. When they withdraw the fuell which should maintain the Spirit as fire is put out when you withdraw the fuell which should maintain the fire so you quench the Spirit when you withdraw the fuell by which the Spirit is cherished When you will not hear the Word when you will not pray when you neglect the Sacraments the Sacrament often received is a great confirmation of our faith and a great cherisher of the work of the Spirit upon our hearts when you will not be much in meditation the Spirit loves to meet with a solitary soul disburdened of the world and seeking to have communion with God when you will not conferre and often speak of the things of God when you forsake the assembling of the Saints together As one coal kindles another and one candle enlightens another so the light of the Spirit in the heart of another may in time kindle and flame thy heart 2 Tim. 1.6 When men fail to stirre up the gift of God which is in them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 iguem rineribus absconditum resuscitare and to excite their graces and to bring them forth into action but let them sleep and lie dead and buried in their souls by these means they substract the fuell of the Spirit Christians should be men of activity alwaies doing and never idle in the work of the Lord. As the fountain is still purging forth that filth which lies nigh it so Christians should be still purging forth the remainders of that originall corruption which is in them still resisting temptations continually treasuring up the whole armour of God against the fiery triall daily weaning themselves from the world and preparing to meet Jesus Christ the Bridegroom of their souls As an idle man is the devils shop wherein he forgeth what he pleaseth so an active Christian is the Spirits shop If we do what we are able beleeve it Christians the Spirit will not be behind hand but will further the work of grace in our hearts It is because we are so backward in our duty that the Spirit is so backward upon our souls If thou wouldst have the continuall flowings in of the Spirit I beseech thee Christian for the good and for the comfort of thy soul for I speak what all true Christians do generally finde good pray more 1 Thes 5. pray continually that is lose no opportunity let no time pass when thou oughtest to pray or when thy occasions require it for there are many emergencies which fall out which require this duty and of some Christians more than others but be sure to pray hear the word at all occasions let not a
Sermon pass if you can hear it let not your souls be famished for want of nourishment As you would not be said to murder your bodies so do not you murder your precious souls Many do quench the Spirit when they do not know it Some will hear a consciencious Minister a long while and highly commend him as most of our profane Esau's do but when once this Minister shall touch their beloved sinnes they presently fall off and hear him no more Mar. 6.20 Herod heard John gladly for a time and reformed many things but when once he touched his Herodias and toucht the apple of his eye he presently distates him and cuts off his head What a sad thing is it that men should shift off such an impression and wipe off the sweet and heavenly dew If you will not wait at the pool you are never like to have the Spirit descend upon you and if you will not mark the time of the Spirits coming down and comply with the Spirit at such a time you are never like to have any feeling effect wrought upon your souls Have a care therefore of withdrawing the Spirits fuell 2. When men cast their lusts in the Spirits face and damp the breathings of the Spirit by their lusts then they may be said to quench the Spirit As water quencheth fire so lusts they quench the Spirit Lust is the great quench coal of the Spirits motions As mud and filth doth damp up the course of the water so every lust doth dam up the course of the Spirit Yea every particular sinne which is committed with a high hand to the reproach of godliness and to the dishonour of God quencheth the Spirit for a time When David had committed those two great evils murder and adultery in the matter of Vriah upon the commission of these sinnes God withdraws his Spirit and the comfortable presence of his countenance Hence he complains of brokenness of bones and of wounds in his soul Psal 5.8 My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness And he prayeth God to uphold him with his free Spirit ver 12. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit As the water free-zeth when the sun goeth down so your spiries wilk freeze when the spirit goes away from you What do you think will become of you when the Spirit departs from you You are in a dull lumpish condition you cannot pray nor hear the word nor do any spirituall duty with that rejoycing and freeness of spirit and alacrity of minde as formerly you did you are left in a sottish condition for a time Your spirits will be as heavy as lead very unapt and contrary to the service of God and if those sparks of grace which God hath put into your hearts did not inable you to do somewhat more than those who never knew what the saving work of the Spirit meant you would as wicked men do when the Spirit leaves them never seek to God for his Spirit any more As lusts choak the Word so they choak the Spirit Whence is it that many Christians do complain of the Spirits absence and of the departure of God from them as Saul did 1 Sam. 28.15 Wo is me for God is departed from me Why As Saul by his disobedience and rebellion caused God to depart from him so you by your disobedience and resisting of his motions have caused the Spirit to depart from you Search your hearts diligently and see whether there be not some abominable thing which the Spirit would pluck forth of thy heart Is there not a hankering after thy old beloved lusts Hast thou not an itching after past delights when thou wert in the flesh The Spirit doth not all its work upon a soul at the first work of conversion but still afterwards is imployed to purge out every abominable thing out of thy heart a child of God after conversion may fall into the same sinnes he committed before conversion yea the very same beloved sins the venomous humour is not throughly purged out in conversion and the Spirit by its good will would not leave a hoof or any root of bitterness in the heart but because we are in the body of this flesh we must grow by degrees and make progress daily Search I beseech you and examine your hearts whether there be not some lust the Spirit would give a deaths wound to and throughly mortifie and extinguish and you will not yield to the Spirit that you may be mortified I beseech you Christians to set about it The Spirit will never be quiet and let you alone if you belong to God till this root of hemlock and wormwood be rooted out i. e. whensoever it comes to thy soul the controversie shall be about thy lust whether thou wilt yet leave it or no whether thou wilt be throughly purged from thy old lees whether you would have this body of flesh throughly crucified It will never come with its comforting presence till thou closest with the Spirit in this great work Examine your hearts I beleeve if the business were throughly fifted there is some lust at the bottom some filth that lies below which keeps out the Spirit from coming into thy heart Sic ut fumus apes fater columbot sic Spiritum sanctum expellit grave oleus peccatum Basilius As smoke driveth away bees and an ill sent the doves so a noysom lust driveth away the Spirit As loth as thou art to go into a dungeon full of toads and serpents and venomous creatures so loth yea more loth is the Spirit to come into thy heart if there be a lust or an abominable thing at the bottom Yea I say the Spirit cannot come into thy heart while thy lust standeth out against him There is an opposition in respect of the things themselves What communion hath light with darkness God with Belial the pure Spirit with thy filthy lust The Spirit may come and knock long enough and Christ may knock long enough and to no purpose if thou art not willing that the Spirit should accomplish the work upon thy heart I beseech you examine your hearts in this matter Note this well A man may live a Professor all his daies and be as conscientious in the waies of God ☞ as any Christian in the world and think himself as fair for heaven as the best and yet at last perish for some unknown lust in his heart which if he had examined and found out it might have been mortified and his soul saved in the day of the Lord Jesus Besides consider you have not the influences of the Spirit at command The Spirit will not blow upon thy heart when thou wouldest have it but when it lifteth The Spirit comes down but upon certain times and those times are uncertain to thee how therefore doth it behoove thee Christian to take the Spirits time and to joyn with the work of
3. or whither it goeth so is every one that is born after the Spirit It is a very difficult thing to tell what the Spirits teachings are First Because they are teachings abstracted from sense And as the Philosopher saies by how much things are abstracted from sense the higher they are and the more difficult to be understood By how much things are more spirituall by so much the more hard it is to have a species or an apprehension of them We can conceive of things but under gross and materiall apprehensions because the Phantasm which is transferred from the active intellect to the passive is materiall That they be abstracted teachings appears 1. Because they are immediatly upon the soul and not barely upon the soul but upon the inmost parts of the soul Jer. 31. I will write my Law in their inward parts i. e. in the most retired part of the soul I will write my Law So likewise the Apostle Eph. 4.23 Be ye renewed in the spirit of your minde Not only in your minde but in the spirit of your minde What is meant by the spirit of the minde i. e. in the inmost and most spirituall part of your minde Grace hath its foundation laid deep in the soul by the Spirit of God now you know that is the best foundation which is laid the deepest the Spirit searcheth into the bottom of the soul and laies the seeds of grace as deep rooted as he can As God when he wrote the Law Exod. 32.15 he wrote it upon the two Tables of stone he wrote within and without upon the Tables noting thereby that there was no place left for man to adde any thing to the perfect Law of God So the Spirit writes within and without upon the soul The Spirit in conversion ploughs up the fallow ground of our hearts and sows the seeds of grace within us which because of the deepness of the soil cannot be at first discerned by us but when the seed begins to grow up then we see evidently what the Spirit hath been doing And as Christ said to Peter Joh. 13.7 What I am doing thou dost not know as yet but thou shalt understand hereafter so thou maiest not know for the present what the Spirit means when it teacheth thee The Spirits foundation is in the dark but when he comes to rear the building for beleevers are a spirituall house of the Spirits own building and to beautifie the work 1 Pet. 2.5 and to raise it higher and higher then thou shalt see the teachings of the Spirit The first lessons of the Spirit may be somewhat mysterious but when the Spirit shall comment upon them then nothing will be more plain unto them 2. Because they are spirituall teachings and therefore abstracted teachings They are spirituall teachings because the Spirit teacheth them A spirit cannot communicate it self to our spirit no otherwise then a spirit can Now as it is a very difficult thing and much controverted with the Schoolmen to know how the Angels impart their conceptions and express their mindes one to another whether intuitivè by viewing one another or by something analogcall to speech which we shall know when we come to heaven So it is as difficult if not more difficult to know how the Spirit communicates it self unto our hearts Satan is said to put evil things into our hearts Joh. 13.2 Satan put it into Judas his heart to betray his Master but what this putting is we cannot tell So the Spirit of God is said to put the things of God into our hearts I will put my Law into their hearts but what this putting is we cannot tell Jer. 31.33 Secondly The Spirits teachings are very mysterious because they are set forth in Scripture by various significant acts John 16.13 as if the teaching of the Spirit was not one numericall act Rom. 8.16 but as it were a complex act including many particular acts in it Col. 2.2 Job 33.31 Rom. 12.2 Sometimes the guiding act the witnessing act the assuring act the inlightning act the transforming act the helping act 2 Cor. 3.18 and in a word the teaching act is mentioned in Scripture The Spirits teaching includes many particular acts Rom. 8.26 when it teacheth us to be holy it makes us holy John 14.26 when it teacheth us assurance it assures when it teacheth us what justification is it justifies when it teacheth us to pray it is said to pray along with us Now multiplicity of acts breeds distraction of minde especially when the single acts of the Spirit are in themselves mysterious Who can tell me what the witnessing act of the Spirit is whereby he witnesseth with our spirits that we are the sonnes of God I am certain none can know what it is but he that feels the effect of it upon his own spirit and that not at all times but when he feels the spirit witnessing Who can tell me what the sealing act of the Spirit is that seal of the Spirit by which we are sealed unto the day of redemption This art is better felt than taught Who can tell me what the assuring act of the Spirit is when it begets that plerophory Heb. 10.22 that full assurance of faith Saith John in his Revelation Rev. 2.17 No man knoweth what that white stone of absolution is but he that hath it He shall have a white stone and a new name which none shall know but him that hath it The acts of the Spirit are better felt than expressed known only to those that have them not to others Having done with the premonition I come now to shew what the teachings of the Spirit be Herein I shall observe the words of the Covenant made to beleevers in Jesus Christ under the Gospel whereof one main part is the teachings of beleevers by his Spirit The teachings of the Spirit what they be The Spirits teachings upon the hearts of beleevers are his puttings writings printings ingravings the Law of God and all those things which accompany sallvation upon their hearts which ingravings c. are by a secret way power and method unknown to us but only to the Spirit only we feel the effect of the Spirits teachings upon our hearts Or It is the Spirits creating a new light within us by a secret way unknown unto us at the first which light in our consciences enkindled by the Spirit doth in all things correspond and agree with the light of the word and addes more clearness to it in respect of our selves that we might know the things of God 1. I say the Spirits teachings are his puttings writings printings engravings the Law of God upon our hearts together with all those things which shall accompany salvation Heb. 8.8 9 10. Behold saith the Lord I will make a new Covenant and this is that Testament that I will make with the house of Israel After those daies saith the Lord I will put my Laws
into their mindes and in their hearts will I write them and I will be their God and they shall be my people 2 Cor. 3.2 3. In that you are manifest to be the Epistle of Christ ministred by us and written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God not in tables of stone but in the fleshly tables of the heart Jer. 31.33 34. But this shall be the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those daies saith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people and they shall teach no more every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying Know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them saith the Lord. You see that the Law must be first written in their hearts by the finger of God i. e. by the Spirit before they can know the things of God Ezek. 36.27 And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgements and do them the Spirit doth not only write upon our hearts the Law of God but all things which accompany salvation John 17. And when the Spirit comes he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you There is no truth which accompanieth salvation in the Word of God but the very same is written by the finger of God upon the hearts of beleevets That even as you see in a seal when you have put the seal upon the wax and taken it away again you shall see it stamp answering to stamp character to character print to print so it is in the hearts of the faithfull after their hearts are softned the Spirit of God writes the Law in their hearts So that there is a Law within answerable to the Law without i. e. an inward aptness and disposition whereby a man is inclined to keep the Law in all points which Law within us is called the Law of the minde Rom. 7. I see a Law in my members warring against the Law of my minde The teachings of the Spirit do not only put the things of God into our mindes but ingraff them as naturall dispositions in our hearts yea the Spirit of God ingravens them As when letters are engraved in marble so the teachings of the Spirit engraven the things of God upon our hearts I call them the writings the engravings of the things of God upon our hearts to distinguish the teachings of the Spirit from the motions impressions flashes illuminations of the pirit These are but light superficiall transient works they reach not to the bottom of the soul but they float at the top These impressions are suddenly begun and suddenly ended They are but as a flash of lightning which is no sooner seen but vanisheth They are but as the morning cloud and as the early dew which suddenly pass away as the winde presently scatters the clouds and the sunne takes away the dew so all these common works of the Spirit pass away and melt as the dew before the sunne The best seeming professors that want the teachings of the Spirit they are but as blazing comets which appear for a while and presently disappear Wandring starres Jude 13. to whom is reserved the blackness of darkenss for ever Heb. 6.5 Psal 34.8 They do but taste of the goodness of God and so away But the teachings of the Spirit make a Christian not only to taste but to see the goodness of God They are permanent upon the soul never to be blotted out again They are not as the flash of lightning but as the noon-day full of brightness and comfort They are riveted in the soul and imprinted in it 2. I say they are the Printings of the things of God upon the hearts of beleevers Beleevers only have the teachings of the Spirit And ye shall be all taught of God Joh. 6.45 i. e. all ye who are under the Covenant of grace and are interrested in Jesus Christ shall have the teachings of the Spirit Unbeleevers may have the motions the breathings the quicknings the flashes and the illuminations of the Spirit but not the teachings 3. I say these printings and writings of the things of God are done by a secret method unknown to us yet known to the Spirit What he 〈…〉 tell but how he writes we cannot tell what he prints we can tell but how he prints we cannot tell Dan. 5 5. As Belshazzar saw the hand when it wrot but could not tell what the hand did write so beleevers on the other side they see the writing of the Spirit but cannot see the hand that writes nor understand how the Spirit writes yet we are in a farre better condition than Belshazzar was For t is better to understand the writing than to know how the hand doth write what is printed than how the Spirit prints as it is farre better to know that we are elected that we are justified that we are renewed in the Spirit of our mindes considered in themselves than to know what Justification and Adoption is though we may know what Justification is and that we are justified by the Spirit 4. Only we see the effect of the Spirits teachings upon our hearts as a woman may know she is with childe because the infant moves in her belly so we may know what the Spirit hath been doing on our hearts by that knowledge zeal life heat motion activity and courage we find in our spirits towards Gods waies We hear the clock strike though we do not see the hand or the wheels that set it a going so we may see our hearts eccho back to the Spirit though we do not see the Spirit setting them on work Ezek. 1.20 As Ezekiels wheels wheresoever the Spirit went the wheels went for the spirits of the living creature was in the wheels So because the Spirit of God is in us wheresoever the Spirit carries us we are carried The Spirit moves and we are moved the Spirit praies when we pray the Spirit witnesseth when our spirit witnesseth the Spirit sets the wheels going and we go God is of a truth in every Saint though they cannot see him but in his operations We know that God is in us of a truth because we act for God and have the principle of spirituall life from him As we know the evil man hath been teaching of us when we see his evil tares and heresies and prophaneness to spring up so we may know the Spirit hath been teaching of us when we see the wheat to grow apace Otherwise The Spirits teachings is the Spirits creating a new light within us by a secret way unknown unto us at the first which light in our consciences enkindled by the Spirit doth in all things correspond with the light of the
the Spirit how couragious was he in the work of the Lord he that formerly was mad with fury against the Church of God how strongly doth he row the other way As soon as ever Ananias had said Brother Saul receive thy sight Act. 9. his eyes were opened and his heart enlarged in the knowledge of God he presently goes about his Masters business to win souls over by the evidence of the Spirit to the obedience of the word Yea he was ready not only to be bound for the Lord Jesus ☞ but to suffer for him A spiritual man he chooseth and pitcheth upon mature and serious deliberation with himself being helped by the light of the Spirits teachings I say he chooseth God for his God and Christ for his Christ and the Spirit for his Spirit and the Word for his rule and Gods Commandments for his delight An implicit faith Many Christians have but an implicit faith for what they believe some believe the Word of God because they were taught so and so were instructed by education others believe so because it is the generall opinion of most men others because this way seems the best to their corrupt naturall reason others there are because such a man said so because they are perhaps engaged to him in Church-society when they have no ground in their own consciences why they close with this rather than with that The devil will have a shrewd combate with this mans faith in the hour of temptation when he shall come to die 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 efflagitavit The devil hath desired to winnow thee as he did Peters faith He will try thee of what mettall thou art made whether thou art dross or silver he will sift thee throughly and if thou art found wanting as I am sure thou wilt be found for this faith hath no foundation thou shalt be cast forth as chaff out of Christs floor to be burned for ever What is the reason that we drive on so slowly for heaven why it is because of the unsetledness of our spirits We do not walk by fixed principles Go to this point whether the Word be the Word of God were you never under the buffetings of Satan for a while concerning this thing hardly any but some times or other have been under such a cloud of temptation If you were really fixed upon this principle that the Scripture is the Word of God reading what judgments attends sinners in their evil courses and what happiness follows the Saints there could not be such a general spirit of prophanness amongst men as there is and that little care to walk exactly according to the preciseness of the Gospel The Spirit quiets our mindes concerning this doubt by discovering unto us the majesty purity and perfection of it A spiritual man can say I know whom I have believed 2 Tim. 1.12 I know what I speak I know that God is true and that there is no unrighteousness in him God is in me of a truth Besides have we not Atheisticall thoughts of God like that fool Psal 14.1 who said in his heart there was no God denying the providence of God When we see the wicked men of the world prosper and we our selves counted the offscouring of it are we not ready to say like David 1 Sam. 27.1 I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul or that we shall fall of everlasting happiness God hath cast us off for ever calling the servants of God liars who speak unto us in the name of the Lord and to distrust the word of promise Heb. 13.5 I will never leave thee nor forsake thee where there are five negatives for the confirmation of it I will never never never never never leave thee nor forsake thee Psal 73. Now as David when he went into the Sanctuary of God he was better principle'd and understood their latter end that God had set them in slippery places that they might fall and not rise again So if we would wait till the Spirit comes down upon our hearts we should have all these carnall reasonings and these fleshly doubts removed and we should be setled in the truths of God When a man is taught by the Spirit he doth not stand to reason with flesh and blood shall I do this or shall I do that shall I choose heaven or shall I choose hell shall I choose sinne or shall I choose grace shall I choose God or shall I choose Baal he doth not stand reasoning the case Shall I be religious or shall I not Shall I trust all upon Gods bare promise or shall I close with the pleasures of sin which are really present but he presently renouncing all those carnall reasonings which arise from flesh and blood presently sets upon the work of the Lord knowing that his labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. So did Paul Gal. 1. 15 16. When the Lord had endued him with his Spirit sutable for his calling whereunto he was called he stood not to reason with flesh and blood but presently sets upon his great Masters business Jesus Christ The great danger there is in consulting with flesh and blood This consulting with flesh and blood hinders many a poor soul from a through closing with Jesus Christ Flesh will say Do not close with Jesus Christ do not serve God you had better take a certainty for an uncertainty and those present enjoyments here and live merrily In consulting with flesh and blood you consult with the enemy of Jesus Christ of the Gospel of his grace and with an enemy to your own souls Be sure the flesh will decide the controversle on the devils part against Jesus Christ Now the Spirit of God determines the matter on Christs part against the devil teaching thee the insufficiency of all the creatures to make thee happy and the true happiness only resides in God putting thee into the way wherein God is to be found and preserving thee in the same that at length thou maist reap everlasting life Seventhly The teachings of the Spirit are consonant to the Word they agree with the Word of God As the minde of the Spirit in one place of Scripture agrees with the minde of the Spirit in another and there is a sweet harmony in the Word of God So the teachings of the Spirit upon our hearts they also are correspondent with the word Saith Paul to the Galatians Gal. 1.8 If an Angel from heaven should deliver any other doctrine unto you than what you have received let him be accursed And the Apostle by a resumption or ingemination repeats it again If any man teach any other Gospel unto you than what you have received let him be accursed ◠11 12. And why My Doctrine is not of flesh nor of the will of man but of God Note this well ☜ As if the Apostle had said My word which I have delivered unto you being the Word of God
was as fire in his bones till it was revealed Jer. 20.9 It is a great burden to a gracious soul that he cannot hold forth the truths of God as the Spirit hath held them forth to his own soul It is one of the greatest troubles to a saithful soul when he comes to dye that he hath not been so serviceable to the Church of God as he might have been if he had improved that light and those talents which God hath given him to the best advantage We must have charity towards all we must wish well to all pray for all relieve all according to our abilities we must love all we must love our enemies but familiarity with all is not expedient we must edifie all and strive to convert all to the faith of Jesus Christ Now there be none so fit to edifie others as those who have the spirits teachings upon their hearts Gal. 6.1 Yee which are spiritual restore a fallen brother in the spirit of meekeness A spiritual man is best acquainted with the evil nature of sin and what shame and sorrow it brings along with it with the wrath of God and with the excellency of Jesus Christ and that beauty and comeliness which is in his wayes 4. If thou art taught by the spirit thou art a man of another spirit then thou wert heretofore as it was said of Caleb he was a man of another spirit Num. 14.24 so thou wilt be of another spirit Wert thou before carnal now thou shalt be spiritual Wert thou of a malicious spirit thou shalt have a spirit of love Wert thou of a proud spirit contentious high minded spirit thou shalt be of an humble and of a meek spirit Wert thou under a spirit of bondage thou shalt be under a spirit of liberty a spirit of adoption Wert thou of an unclean froward perverse foolish spirit thou shalt be of a clean milde and of a wise spirit Wert thou of a base cowardly frame of spirit that thou wert ashamed to make mention of the name of the Lord thou shalt be of a couragious spirit full of a holy zeal for the glory of God Wert thou of a fearful doubting drooping sad sorrowful dejected spirit thou shalt be of a merry joyful and of a lightsome spirit It is said that after Moses came down from the Mount his face did shine he had been a talking with God and afterward his face did shine So every faithful soul after he hath been in the Mount of contemplation and hath had the spirit instructing him in the things of God his heart doth shine with the oyle of Grace and his life doth shew forth the praise of him who hath called him out of this state of darkness into this marvellous light 5. He is of a meek spirit that hath the teachings of the spirit upon his heart Psal 25.8 The meek will he guide in judgement and the meek will he teach his way Isa 28.18 19. In the day shall the deaf hear the words of this book and the eyes of the blinde shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness The meek also shall encrease their joy in the Lord and the poor among men shall rejoyce in the holy one of Israel Psa 149.4 The Lord taketh pleasure in his people he will beautifie the meek with salvation Isa 61.1 The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach glad tidings to the meek to binde up the broken spirit Moses Numb 11.3 Who is called the meekest man of all the men that were upon the earth had the neerest approach to God of any that we read of in the book of God he spoke with God as a man speaks with his friend or as one man speaks to another He spoke with God face to face We must be children in our own account if we would be taught by the spirit Psal 131.2 Surely I have behaved and quieted my self as a childe that is weaned of his mother my soul is even as a weaned childe i. e. As a childe is gentle and submissive you may do what you will with a weaned childe so he was of a tractable spirit ready to yeeld and to submit to Gods dispensations whatsoever they might be unto him Saith he Mat. 18.4 He that is not as a little childe shall never enter into the Kingdom of heaven 1 Cor. 14.20 A little childe in respect of meekness and gentleness and love and amity according to the Apostle In malice be ye as children but in understanding be ye men The poor receive the Gospel The poor in spirit that tremble at the word of God that are wrought upon by a kinde work of the spirit upon their hearts that dread the exceeding goodness of God and thinke themselves unworthy of any mercy at all at Gods hands who can undergoe any thing what God is pleased to impose upon them confessing that God punisheth them far less then their iniquities deserve that God cannot inflict too severe a punishment on them for their sins Signes of poverty of spirit and that if any thing besides hell it is a fruit of mercy and who groan under the burden of their sins and under the apprehension of Gods love unto them who are willing to receive any thing from Gods hand These are the fittest men to be instructed from heaven if we could perfectly go out of our selves and purge our selves of all created love we should have the flowings in of Divine grace upon our hearts abundantly If the spirit should teach wicked men it were but to cast darts against a rock It is reported of Tygers that they enter into a rage upon the sent of fragrant spices so do ungodly men at the blessed savour of Godliness It is reported of some Barbarous Nations who when the Sun shines upon them shoot their Aâ—â—ows against it so do wicked men at the light and heat of godliness Burroughes which are so far from admitting any entrance that they cast back the darts against him that shoots them but the meek spirited man is ready to receive whatsoever the spirit shall dictate unto him What ever is written upon a proud and a carnal heart it is as if it were written upon the sand now you know what is written upon the sand every blast of winde is apt to deface so every blast of temptation will blot out whatsoever is written upon a carnal mans heart but what is written by the finger of God upon a meek spirit it is as it were engraven in marble never to be done out again Therefore I know no greater signe that some that pretend most of all to the spirit in these times are most of all void of it because they are of such a railing contentious froward perverse malicious spirit I am sure they were never so taught by the spirit of God for the spirit of God is a spirit of love a spirit of meekness a spirit of gentleness meekness is a
say For the holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say Whether the Saints in the Primitive times who suffered for the Gospel or the Martyrs in Queen Maries daies had not these influences of the Spirit upon their sad exigencies when they were brought before their cruell persecutors to answer for themselves is beyond all controversie Certainly silly men and women I mean in respect of any deep knowledge could never on a sudden express their mindes so excellently concerning the things of God had they not more than ordinary at such a time the teachings of the Spirit upon their hearts witness that woman of Exeter mentioned in the Book of Martyrs with many others The times wherein the Spirits teachings are most manifest 1. In times of affliction thou art most of all sensible of the teachings of the Spirit upon thy heart In themselves they manifest nothing to the soul but the displeasure of an angry Judge intending to destroy them but the Spirit concurring along with them and shewing us the minde and will of God they are precious cordials and purgations for the sinne of our souls If afflictions could make us hearken to the voice of God and savingly instruct us and teach us those things which concern our everlasting peace why do not many wicked wretches who live under the scourge of the Almighty all their daies who have one wave of affliction after another upon them learn obedience by the rod and understand the minde and intent of God Afflictions in themselves are neither good nor evil but accordingly as they are improved by us through the help of the Spirit according to the will of God Now although the Spirit hath written the things of God long before upon our hearts yet the manifestation of those things most of all is apparent to us when God doth instruct us by his rod together with his Spirit that those graces which for a long time were not discerned by us being pressed down by affliction may send forth a precious smell in the nostrils of our God and to the sense of others We learn by afflictions 1. To see those things which we never perceived to be in us before to wit the actings of divine grace in us supporting us and carrying us along chearfully through this valley of Baca and the actings of our spirit towards God again in way of filiall affection and son-like obedience under his hand being taught by the Spirit what the mind of God is concerning them As no man knoweth the vileness of his heart till God is pleased to let Satan have his liberty to tempt him and his own hearts lusts to draw him aside So none can know the prevailings of grace upon his own heart and the efficacy of divine teachings and the triall and experience of those things which are written upon his heart till God shall bring him under the fiery triall The Spirit hath taught us that all trust and confidence is to be reposed in God alone because God alone is able to deliver us and that we may thereby be quit and set free from all those distracting fears which do molest us Psal 37.5 Commit thy waies unto the Lord that thy thoughts may be established Now our confidence in God is then most of all exercised when all other props and staies do fail us and we cast our selves under the arms of Almighty God We know not our own strength against the temptations of sinne and Satan that we are fortified with the whole armour of God Ephes 6. to wit the shield of faith the helmet of hope the breast-plate of righteousness the sword of the Spirit the Spirit of prayer and supplication the inward support and aid of the Spirit of God and the continuall prayers of Jesus Christ interceding for us at the right hand of his Father that our graces fail not in the hour of tribulation till God shall smite us with his rod. By afflictions the teachings of the Spirit of God upon our hearts are most known to others Rev. 14.12 Here we may reade the patience of the Saints the sincerity of their hearts the power of divine grace and the sweetness of the comforts of the Spirit upon their hearts when we see them cheerfully willingly and joyfully submitting themselves to the good pleasure of God 2. By afflictions we are more and more acquainted with the evil nature of sinne which hath brought such afflictions upon us with the holiness of God which cannot away with sinne and sinners and with the exact justice of God against it in so severely punishing of it with the benefit that comes by seeking Gods face and by walking up to the light which God hath put within us 3. The Spirit of God is very active upon the hearts of believers at such a time in rooting out the remainders of originall corruption and in the exciting of those things which he hath put within them 2. Near the time of death Sweet have been the discoveries of Gods Spirit upon the hearts of his children when they have been near the time of their dissolution for these reasons 1. Because near such a time Satan and all our spirituall enemies will muster up all their assaults to weaken a believers faith hope and confidence in God especially when the believer hath been a hainous sinner formerly and after his conversion hath fallen into some gross sinne to the wounding of his own conscience and to the quenching of the blessed Spirit for a time though the sin is done away by the blood of Jesus Christ and the pardon of it sealed by the testimony of the Spirit yet the devil will be pudling in this old sore and perswading him to the contrary telling him that his conversion was never reall because since he hath fallen so foully in the flesh The devil tempted Christ when he was near the time of his suffering to drive him from his hope and confidence in God his Father Saith Christ The Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me Joh. 14.30 Christ was perfectly holy so that no temptation could take hold of him to overcome him ☞ or to taint him with the least sinne But we poor creatures when the devil comes to tempt us have something in us we have a great deal of unbelief abiding in us we have a body of sinne and of death and hereupon our bullwarks would easily fall our confidence in God would easily give place to unbelief were not the Spirit of God which is in us stronger than him who by way of eminency is in the world 1 Joh. 4.4 to wit the devil Now God on the other side fils a believer with continuall fresh and renewed supplies of his Spirit and with new experiences of his love unto him bringing unto his remembrance all former loving kindnesses past between God and his soul what a great work was wrought upon him in the work of conversion what various dispensations of
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 the Son of God and art thereby become guilty of the death of Jesus Christ and of thy own eternal condemnation Walk up to this precious light seek not to put out the candle of the Gospel lest God in wrath for thy idleness thy unprofitableness thy stubbornness come and put it out himself But walk in the light as long as thou hast the light repent of thy sins repent from thy sins leave thy sins which have crucified Christ which have been nails and spears in thy Saviours side and as thou art willing to be saved by him so likewise be thou governed by him that Christ might be thy Lord as well as thy Saviour lest otherwise by the hardness and impenitency of thy heart thou treasurest up to thy self wrath against the day of wrath and the righteous revelation of the judgement of God by despising the riches of Gods Grace revealed unto thee in the Gospel of his Son R m 1.2 3 4. 5. To the light of the conviction of Gods spirit walk up to the light of the spirit convincing thee of thy sins The spirits conviction is the spirits setting home upon the conscience some sin by undeniable arguments A description of the spirits conviction and by an evident demonstration derived from the Word of God whereby the sinner may know that he is guilty of the same sin together with some dreadful place of Scripture holding forth the terrible judgement of God upon those who commit such a sin that thereby he might be drawn to a loathing and to a forsaking of it Sad is their condition who have such a conviction upon their hearts and do not comply with the conviction for the forsaking of their sins That think by merry company by worldly employments by long continuance to shake off this conviction from their spirits Better had it been for thee that thou hadst never been born then that thou shouldst live all thy days in the commission of any known sin or in the omission of any known duty that spirit convincing thee of thy sins Motives against this sin 1. Motives to close with the spirits conviction That in not complying with the spirits conviction thou opposest the spirit in its first werk tending to thy conversion upon thy soul The spirit convinceth before it converteth the spirit of bondage must go before the spirit of adoption The thundering and terrible voice of the Law before the sweet and the still voice of the Gospel the Arrows of the Almighty within thee make way for the sweet oyle of consolation in resisting the spirits interest in this work thou opposest thy own salvation 2. In opposing the light of the spirit by way of conviction upon thy soul thou wilt bring by little and little such a brawniness upon thy conscience such a hardness upon thy heart such a deadness upon thy affections such a customariness in sinning such an indisposition and averseness upon thy soul to any good thing that the meats of grace which should have been for the food of thy soul shall bâ—thy poyson every Ordinance unprofitable and thou shalt be a burden to the earth an abominable creature in the eyes of God the spirits quench-coal an utter enemy to all goodness and when thou comest to dye Magormishabib a terror and an astonishment unto thy self another Francis Spira another Judas another Saul when thou comest to lye upon thy death deb 3. This not walking up to the light of conviction will be an unconceiveable torment and vexation of spirit unto thee in the flames of hell fire When thou shalt have nothing to do else but to consider how foolishly how vainly thou didst spend this transitoty life in fulfilling the lusts of the flesh and besides which will be the greatest misery when thou shalt with anguish of spirit and with gnashing of teeth consider that if thou hadst closed with such a spiritual truth committed unto thee in a Sermon perhaps the Minister beseeching thee inviteing exhorting thee perswading thee with tears in his eyes to leave thy beloved sins and to embrace Jesus Christ under the penalty of eternal condemnation and hadst complyed with the conviction of the spirit at such a time upon thy heart thou hadst escaped this place of torment All convictions impressions motions of the spirit which the damned souls have had in this life all powerful Sermons all opportunity for the advantages of their souls all good counsels exhortations beseechings of friends relations acquaintance all that progress which they have made in Christianity and that if they had gone but one step farther they might have obtained heaven if they had not loved this present world too much and with the young man in the Gospel loved their possessions above Christ they might have been while now they are in extream misery and when above all this the consideration of the spirits conviction how that they were convinced in their own consciences by the act of the spirit setting home this sin I say when all these means of grace advantage and precious opportunityes with superadded convictions shall be upon their spirits as then they shall be in a most eminent matter their affections being quickened and raised to the full vigor of them God is the immediate inflicter of the souls punishment in hell their memories strengthened their understandings enlarged and all their vain hopes and confidence ruined to their exceeding grief and misery they will weigh heavier then the sand of the Sea and did not infinite power support them under this unconceiveable torment as well as infinite justice inflict this torment by way of vengeance and in full fury upon them the damned spirits could not subsist one moment What language do you think you should hear supposing you were at hells gate Such as this O wretch that I am what a foolish silly wretch was I that I did neglect so great salvation that I did shift off the spirit striving and pleading with me from time to time convincing me of my sins saying to morrow and next day I will begin a new lesson I will redeem the time I will bethink me of eternity but this morrow never yet came till now it is too late time being swallowed up in this Ocean of eternity O what a sluggard was I to shift off the blessed spirit with such fond foolish and frivolous excuses to make every thing an objection and a doubt to keep me off from an obedience to the truth What a mad fellow was I to create fears where no fear was and to think that Gods wayes were full of bitterness and that pleasure of sin exceeding sweet to make offence and stumble at a crucified Christ to believe the divel to hearken to flesh and blood and to follow the course of this present evil world O that I had those opportunities and those precious means for the good of my soul again afforded me how would I live How would I walk up to that light which God hath
of a dove upon our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Mat. 3.16 Were they ever truly affected with Gods distinguishing love and mercy in that his Spirit should teach them as they say and let others lie in darkness Did the spirit drive away from amongst them the dust and the chaff of their vain and frothy minds Did the spirit ever enable them to overcome the bent of their natural inclinations If Socrates by the help of moral instructions was able to bridle his loose disposition much more may they who are taught by the spirit Did the spirit ever make them of unwilling willing to receive Jesus Christ and to take his yoke upon them The Spirit is resembled by the wind which in its blowing is arbitrary Joh. 3.8 irresistible full of might and efficacy scattering the dust and dispolling the clouds Do their hearts burn within them at the hearing of the things of God as the two disciples hearts did with whom Christ had conference after his resurrection The Spirit of God came down upon the brethren in the form of fiery flaming tongues It is an easie thing for a man to say he is taught and enlightned by the Spirit of God but how few are they that are so indeed Beloved Christian I have given thee some light into this mystery concerning the teachings of the Spirit which if improved by thee will bring much comfort to thy precious soul and much joy to him who is thine and the truths friend I R. A Brief summary of those generall heads which are in this ensueing Treatise FIrst the readiest way to win dissenting brethren to the obedience of the truth is to deal with them in the spirit of meeknesse Under which head is containd the handling of those who are of a contumacious spirit still opposing the shinings forth of divine truth 1 Admonition which must be once again 2 Sharp reproof and that openly before many witnesses 3 A Disowning them and a rejecting them from being of the Church This admonition includes two things as 1 A demonstration of the absurdity of the things which they hold 2 A secret insinuating unto them the truth and the excellency of the opposite to which they hold 2 The best and the most precious doctrine that is meeting with an unsanctified heart is opposed and had in derision 3 That is the best preaching which works upon the affections stirring us up to our spirititual duty that we may serve God acceptably in reverence and godly fear all the daies of our life as well as informs our judgements 4 The Embassadors of Jesus Christ and of the Gospel of his grace must be men of peace and not study to make factions and parties in the Church of God 5 For believers to call themselves by the names of their spiritual guides be they never so holy and religious men or by strange names taken up by the contumelies of ungodly men is an unchristian thing and disagreeing to the minde of the spirit 6 The word of God considered absolutely in it self as the word of God ought to be the rule and ground of our faith 7 For men to preach their own inventions and new fangled notions and the fancies of their own intoxicated braines or for men to allegorize Scriptures according as their mind serves them neglecting the pure fountain of the word of God is to build mans faith upon humane wisedome and not upon the power of God 8 A servant of Jesus Christ must sute his style and matter according to the judgement and capacity of his hearers 9 There are secrets in Gods own keeping which all the learning in the world can never attain unto onely the spirit reveals them 10. Those that have the Spirit of God cannot but know the things of God 11 There is no other way but by the Spirit to know the things of God 12 Only the Saints have this priviledge to enjoy the Spirit which the world cannot receive 13 The Spirit of God comes by receiving as a free gift of God unto believers 14 The spirit of the world is acted with a divers spirit from the Spirit of God 15 The World hath a double evill spirit 1 Satan 2 That inbred spirit of wickednesse which is within it 16 Satan is a Spirit because of his working which is sutable to the nature of spirits He is the spirit of the world upon a double account 1 Because he acts in the world 2 Because the world is willingly acted by him A double Antichrist 1 Mystical sin 2 Personal That man of sin 17 Whatsoever opposeth Jesus Christ or sets it self up in the plaoe of Christ is Antichrist 1 Our own righteousness is Antichrist 2 The divel is Antichrist 3 The world is Antichrist 4 All moral wisdom and humane knowledge is Antichrist unless it be sanctified by the Spirit of God 18 The children of God are acted by a double spirit opposite to the spirit of the world 1 The Spirit of God 2 The regenerate part within them which is called a spirit 19 The Spirit the third person in the blessed Trinity proceedeth from the Father the Son 20 The Holy Spirit is God which is proved 1 By Scripture 2 By reason as 1 Because those attributes are applied to the Spirit which are only proper to God 2 Those works 3 That adoration and worship which only belongs to God 21 God gives all things freely in opposition to merit and in opposition to compulsion Under this conclusion is answered an objection arising from the death of Jesus Christ 22 None can know the things of God but those who have the teachings of the Spirit upon their hearts Vnder this Conclusion is shewed 1 The various acceptations of the word Spirit in Scripture 2 What the teachings of the Spirit are 1 By way of praemonition that it is very difficult to know them 2 Positively 3 How the teachings of the Spirit may be distinguished from the motions and from the impressions of the Spirit 4 How the Spirit teacheth 1 By enlightning our understandings that we may see the things of God 2 By removing the enmity that is in our wills against them 5 What things more especially the Spirit teacheth 1 To know God 1 His love to believers in Jesus Christ 2 His holy nature 3 The exact justice of God against every sin 2 The Spirit only hath shewed us the mysterie of the blessed and incomprehensible Trinity 3 The mysterie of the Incarnation of Christ 4 The evil nature of sin Where is proved that the first motions to sin are sin and an objection arising from them dissolved 5 To understand the word of God aright 6 Several other things the Spirit teacheth Many other practical duties the Spirit teacheth 6 What manner of teachings the Spirits teachings are 1 Infallible teachings Here is shewed the difference between the Divels revelations and the teachings of the spirit Wherein is answered an objection arising from the insallibility of the Spirit 2
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
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
the Lord know the heart but by our actions and by the temperament of our body and by the exorbitancy of our affections and unruly passions he doth conjecture the bent and the frame of our spirits and accordingly suit his various temptations which is more deceitfull than any thing else yea so deceitfull that we our selves cannot know the depths of it For if our hearts condemn us God is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things Now if we cannot know the things which are in another mans heart much less are we able to know the secrets of Gods breast but by the Spirit of God The Spirit is the great interpreter of Gods minde the great revealer of Gods secrets the great unfolder of the mysteries of heaven that knoweth all the counsels and decrees past between the Father and the Son from all eternity Quest. But some may say How came you by the Spirit whence is it that you have the Spirit The Apostle by way of anticipation saith in the words of my Text We have received the Spirit the Spirit is given unto us And so having done with the Context and having shewed the connexion of the words I am come to the subject matter of my ensuing Discourse We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things which are freely given unto us of God In the words you have 1. Something implyed 2. Something expressed The thing implied is That only those who have the teachings of the Spirit can know the things of God In the words expressed you have these parts 1. The spirit of the world put in opposition to the Spirit of God implied in this particle But We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit which is of God 2. The end for which the Spirit of God is given or received by the faithfull to wit that they may know the things of God 3. The manner how God gives his things to wit Freely That we may know the things which are freely given unto us of God More particularly First We have the Subjects in which or the Patients in which the Spirit of God is expressed in the particle We We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit which is of God We the Apostles and Disciples of Christ together with all the faithfull of Jesus Christ Only the Saints have this priviledge to enjoy the Spirit Saith Christ I will send you the Comforter even the Spirit which the world knoweth not John 14.16 17. and I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of truth which the world cannot receive because it seeeth him not neither knoweth him but ye know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you O sweet and heavenly place full of marrow and fatness to the godly but full of terrour to the wicked Art thou a childe of God the Spirit of God dwels with thee and shall be in thee Pray observe the words he not only dwels with a Saint and as it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How the Spirit is in a beleever an assistant unto him but the Spirit of God is in a Saint And as Christ and a beleever is as it were all one so the Spirit of Christ and a beleever is said to be as it were all one See what a near and unexpressible union there is between God and a gracious soul Joh. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysostom I in them and they in me that they may be one even as we are one We shall have a likeness and a resemblance of that union which is between God the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ficut nou nota aequalitatis sed fimilitudinis ut variis locis Scripturae ostendere poffimus and Christ though not the same for substance The Spirit not only dwels but hath its in-being in every Saint And as we cannot see our own souls because they are of a spirituall nature and so not subject to any of the outward senses but we know we have a soul by the immediate operations of it We know we have a rationall soul because we understand and are able to inferre one thing out of another Anima infert unum ex hoc hoc ex alto Angclus unum post hoc one thing after another The Spirit of God dwelleth not in the Saints essentially more than in other creatures yet the faithfull have a speciall right to the essence of Gods Spirit and he dwelleth in them by way of speciall efficacy Downam An immortall soul because incorporeall and not subject to change as considered in it self but only in respect of divine power A sensitive soul because we walk eat drink and do the actions of living creatures so we cannot see the Spirit of God within us but we know we have the Spirit because it quickens it comforts it upholds it sanctifies us and stirres us up to our spirituall duty He that hath Christ hath the Spirit of Christ every Saint of God hath Christ and therefore he hath the Spirit of Christ As faith unites us to Christ on our part so the Spirit unites us to Christ on his part If any man hath not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Rom. 8.9 The world is void of the Spirit because they cannot receive it As they cannot receive Christ so they cannot receive the Spirit Christ makes his abode in no soul but an empty soul Ps 107.9 Luk. ◠53 He filleth the hungry with good things but the rich he sends empty away A full stomack loathes the honey-comb and a carnall soull filled with the pleasures of sinne and with the satisfying of fleshly lusts hates the sweetness and the rich treasures of grace and mercy which are in Jesus Christ The Spirit of Christ loves to dwell in an empty soul Now the world is full of an impure spirit and while this spirit keeps the room of the heart there is no place for the Spirit of Christ O that this worldly spirit were dispossessed and cast out this unclean filthy abominable spirit that the holy Spirit of God might enter in Our hearts must not only be swept but washed before the Spirit of God will enter in You reade Matth. 12.44 that when the house was but only swept the evil spirit returned again with seven other spirits worse than before but when our hearts are once washt the Spirit of God will presently enter Ier. 4.14 Wash thy heart from filthiness O Jerusalem how long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee Iam. 1.21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wicked men may sweep their hearts from that superfluity of naughtiness Saint James speaks of and may remove the excrescencies and the open breakings forth of sinne they may lop the boughs and as it were pare the nails all which is but a
of the devil so many thousand years Why I will tell you as the devil is the Prince and God of this world so Christ Jesus is the King of Saints Rev. 15.3 and the Prince of the Church and God is the God of his people Now which do you think is strongest 1 Pet. 5.8 God or the devil that roaring lion the devil that goes about seeking night and day whom he may devour or the Lion of the Tribe of Judah Which more politick Rev. 5.5 Rev. 12.9 the serpent or Jesus Christ who is the wisdom of God the Father Prov. 8. Which is the likeliest to prevail or which party hath prevailed in all ages hath not the Church Vincit patiendo Ecclesia the Church overcomes by sufferings as the Israelites in Egypt the more they were afflicted the more they grew And though the Church hath been small in all ages in respect of the enemies and of Satans party yet the Saints of God might truly say Let the enemies part be never so numerous or great that there is more with them than against them and why because God is with them He is the Saviour of his people Exod. 24.24 That God who but with a look from heaven could destroy all the Egyptians that God who can destroy them but with the breath of his nostrils Iob 4.9 Exod. 10.12 who can cause weak and inconsiderable creatures to punish the foolishness of his adversaries Isa 40.12 That God who measureth the waters and spanneth the earth and holdeth it in the hollow of his hand that God who created all things and if will say but the word can loose the fabrick of heaven and earth and turn it to its first nothing Dan. 5.23 that God whose is our breath and in whose hands are all our waies that disposeth of Kingdoms and giveth them to whomsoever he pleaseth that taketh the crafty in their own deceit Job 5.12 and destroyeth the wisdom of the wise Last of all that God who hath at this time the devils fast bound in everlasting chains of darkness Jude v. 6. unto the day of judgement and hath thousands of cruell persecutors under his hands whipping them with Scorpions to all eternity Rom. 9.5 that God who is over all blessed for ever he is the God of the Saints and therefore no wonder if the Church prevails and hath prevailed and will prevail to all ages The gates of hell shall not prevail against it Matth. 16.18 We reade in the Book of the Revelation Rev. 12.12 that the devil is come upon the earth with great wrath and malice because he knows that his time is short Saith a Learned Commentator God may lengthen the devils chain and give him more liberty than formerly but he never quite looseneth it and lets him do what he listeth He knows that in these last times his Kingdom is going down and that Christ is fulfilling his work and that he will make but a short work upon the earth He knows it is best to be doing while the opportunity is put into his hand And what in former times he could not do by power and by persecution he endeavours in these later times to do by policy Formerly he was a red Dragon a ravenons Wolf a cruell Tiger but now he is become an Angel of light 2 Cor. 11.14 and comes in a more secret and mysterious way yet his malice is as great as ever against the Church though he rides not upon the pale horse of death Rev. 6.8 and he endeavours by all means to increase his Kingdom to the everlasting destruction of poor souls O that there were a wise heart and a considering heart in Christians to consider this that now we are fallen into the last times and the devil now bestirres himself more than ever that he is doing all he can do with all his policy and subtilty to advance his Kingdom and to gain proselites to maintain his cause listing souldiers daily under his banner therefore we should be a more praying people and a more watchfull people continually pleading at the Throne of grace that God would accomplish his work upon the earth and hasten the coming of Jesus Christ the bringing in of the Jews the fulness of the Gentiles and the destruction of Gog and Magog Pope and Turk with all the rest of the antichristian party 2. He is called the spirit of the world the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience He may well be called a spirit because of his working The manner of Satans working upon the wicked He being a spirit hath a great influence upon our spirits and he can not only suggest his temptations and put evil things into our hearts but like a skilfull fouldier he can marshall them and put them in order before our eyes and set home the object upon the heart with all the delight if an evil thing and with all the detestation if a good thing that possibly he can He doth not only morally perswade us but by a secret indiscernable way for the operations of spirits especially of one spirit upon another are very mysterious and difficult to be understood but by a willing compulsion draw forth the heart to entertain the motion It is said that Satan stirred up David to number the people 1 Chron. 21.1 Joh. 13.2 And that Satan put it into Judas heart to betray Christ And that Satan hath blinded the mindes of them which beleeve not 2 Cor. 4.4 There is a threefold blindness in an unregenerate man A threefold blindness in the ungodly 1. A naturall blindness 2. A contracted blindness by their long continuance in ignorance Wicked men are wilfully ignorant concerning the Commandments of God 3. A blindness which Satan super-adds over and above those two Satan can work insensibly upon the passions of the body and the images in the fancy And as he can delude our outward senses making us beleeve we see such things when they are not such as they are presented unto us so he can delude our mindes and hoodwink our understandings and by his Paralogisms and false argumentations reason us to a hatred of God and his waies to embrace the pleasures of sinne and the works of darkness We reade of the Energy of the devil Eph. 2.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which worketh effectually in the children of disobedience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Efficacia est verbum usitatissimè relitum actionibus formarum spirituum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 operatio â—nima Arist The more spirituall any thing is the more force and power it hath to work and the more insensibly it sets home the impression upon another Conceit in many men worketh strange things A meer conceit of such a thing or of such an evil approaching hath driven men into deep melancholies and great sadness of spirit into strange diseases passions and furies If a meer conceit will do so
much how much more will the way of reasoning of one spirit by strength of argument work upon another spirit Arguments are spirituall weapons ☜ and he that stands to argue the case with the devil fights with the devil with his own weapons Who is the great disputer of this world the great Sophister the great Logician but the devil He useth all sorts of arguments to raise fears and jealousies in the hearts of Gods people to drive them to despair and to keep wicked men in their carnall security and desperate presumption He is the spirit of this world he is the great agent that commonly sets all the wheels and the springs a going That drives furiously as Jehn did How Satan is said to be the spirit of the wicked world hurrying wicked men in their pernitious waies The devil is the spirit of the world upon a double account 1. He acts in the world and quickens and puts vigour and brings forth into act that originall corruption that lies rooted in the heart of all men by nature The work of the Spirit it is to give life and heat and motion to cherish and refresh to excite the parts to do their office Now as the Spirit of God moved upon the waters in the first Creation hovering over the Mosaicall matter fomenting and cherishing it so the evil spirit the devil moves upon the filthy puddles in our hearts hovering over that filthy corruption which is in us cherishing and fomenting that body of death which we carry aboot us As the Vulture loves to feed upon dead carkasses so the devil loves to rake up that stinking cartion matter which is in the hearts of all men by nature Now the devil is not only an assistant spirit to the world that sees the wheels a going as the assisting Angels are ☞ which Aristotle supposeth to set the primum mobile a work but he worketh with us and he worketh in the world Sometimes our hearts like a mint out of that abundance of corruption that is in them may coin evil things for sinne in the heart will appear in the life obscene and filthy words do naturally flow from a lustfull heart But yet the coin often carries upon it the devils stamp Pliny speaks of the scorpion that there is not one minute wherein it puts not forth the sting as being loth to lose any opportunity of doing mischief so Satan will lose no fit time to tempt us to draw us to his allurements that he might destroy us Burrought Moses choice if he sees us inventing mischief he will be sure to put to his helping hand Many times the devil is the father of evil thoughts but our own hearts are the mother the devil suggesteth but it 's our own hearts that conceive according to the Psal mist They conceive mischief and bring forth falshood It is the devil that blows up the fire of lust in our hearts and adds fuell to it by his delicious objects That makes men rush into sinne as the horse rusheth into the battell As we commonly say he must needs runne whom the devil drives Satan did but put it into Judas his heart to betray his Master and presently he sets about his business As soon as the devil had entred into him he runs headlong to the destruction of his immortall soul When a man hath winde and tide and the sails be up he must needs go apace Our affections are the sails our carnall interest and self-seeking is the tide and the devil is the winde If our sails are up ☜ and the tide favours us the stream of the times or our Dallilah lusts do prosper and the devil comes and addes winde to the tide and flatters us in our waies by promising us the same gales of prosperity still we fail apace and in abundance of delight for a time till at length we fall down into the Mare mortuum into the dead sea of everlasting misery Think upon this who with a full career swim down with the current of the times and care not whither you are carried so be it your carnall interest may prosper and that you may have the favour of a flattering world You are acted by the devil and certainly at death he will pay you your wages He is that filthy unclean Idolatrous spirit that keeps the world in their superstitious waies and which to this day beguiles the poor Indians and holds the greatest part of the world in Idolatry and Heathenish impiety to the great dishonour of the true God and to their own everlasting condemnation 2. He is the spirit of the world because he not only acts the world but also because the world willingly suffers it self to be acted by him Wicked men are said to be led captive by him at his will 2 Tim. 2.26 He leads them in a string to eternall perdition As a Falconer carries his Hawk upon his fist so the devil carries poor creatures They do not take up arms to fight against him Wicked men most properly are said to act evil And because they willingly submit themselves to the devil while they are acted by the devil they may be said to act because they do not resist him The godly are rather acted to evil than said to act evil because they do that which they allow not and which under a serious debate with themselves they utterly hate but they willingly subject themselves to his Government preferring the devil before Christ and these transitory enjoyments before the God of heaven I may say the world is a sworn enemy to Jesus Christ and a faithfull drudge to do the devils drudgery As Christ admits none but voluntiers and suffers none to be of his society but they that willingly submit themselves to his discipline so the devil hath a great army of voluntiers and they willingly accept of his tearms and conditions This only is the difference the godly do take Jesus Christ for their Lord and Saviour directly and as they serve Jesus Christ who is the great Master so they love him and embrace him for their Head and Governour but now the wicked world doth not directly take the devil to be their Lord and Master for the thought of a devil is odious in the hearts of all both good and bad and none would be said to be the devils servants but in as much as they voluntarily do his works and subject themselves to his yoke they may be said indirectly and by consequence not only to have the devil for their Lord Joh. 8. but for their father Ye are of your father the devil for his works ye will do 2. As the world hath Satan for its evil spirit so it hath another evil spirit to wit that imbred evil spirit of wickedness that naturall frame of spirit in the hearts of wicked men continually tending to the waies of sinne This worldly spirit this spirit of sinne or this sinfull spirit 1 Joh. 4.3 it is called
for him It is not agreeable to the everlasting providence of such a Father who is Lord of heaven and earth to see his childe to be in want command therefore that these stones be made bread do a miracle that we may see thou art the Sonne of God God the Father will work a miracle before he will see his childe to want This the devil did to take away his minde from the love of God his Father and to drive him from his faith and confidence in God Besides it had been a sinne in Christ if he had obeyed the devil Christ had another sore conflict with the devil though not immediatly yet mediatly by Peter observe the subtilty of the devil seeing he could not prevail upon him in a publick way he comes upon him in a more covert way tempting him in a beloved Disciple Jesus Christ speaking of his sufferings that were to come to him at Jerusalem Peter disswades him from going up thither but what answer did Christ make him Get thee behinde me Satan Matth. 16.23 for thou savourest not the things which be of God but the things which are of men Christ presently espied out Satan in Peter though a beloved Disciple though a Saint though one that spoke out of a good will to Jesus Christ and out of a desire not to have his Master die ☜ O that we could so suddenly espie the devil tempting us in his wicked instruments and when they tempt us cry out Avoid Satan as Christ did So that Satan is Antichrist and he is called Satan because he is Christs and the Churches adversary Apoliyon the Destroyer the roaring Lion the subtill Serpent As the world hath a double evil spirit to wit Satan and that inbred wickedness that is in the world so the children of God have a double Spirit 1. The holy Spirit of God 2. The Regenerate part within them As appears by those two places Joh. 3.6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit The flesh lusteth against the Spirit By Spirit may be meant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either the holy Spirit of God striving with us by his motions and impressions or the Regenerate part within us which is called a Spirit The unregenerate part the corrupt flesh is called a spirit saith James Jam. 4.5 The spirit within us lusteth to envy i.e. that fleshly part within us is full of envy Lusteth to envy the same word which is in the fore-mentioned place the flesh lusteth against the Spirit And it is observable that the same action that is applied to the flesh is applied to the Spirit the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh i.e. lusteth against the Spirit Now if the same action is applied to both the principles to flesh and Spirit to wit lusteth which action is a proper action of spirits therefore the unregenerate part is a spirit And if the unregenerate much more the regenerate But you will say it is a contradiction to call the flesh a spirit Indeed to say naturall flesh were a spirit it were a contradiction in the very terms but to say flesh i.e. corrupt flesh is a spirit is no contradiction but an abuse of the word But you will say Analogum per se positum stat pro famosiore significatu therefore seeing flesh is put alone by it self it must not be meant of corrupt and sinfull flesh but of naturall flesh To this I answer That the unregenerate part is not Analogically but Aequivocally called flesh It is improperly so called because originall sin by naturall generation is propagated from the parents to the children according to the series of generation sin running continually in a direct line though it self be the only obliquity Fourthly We have a divine attribute noting the Deity of the blessed Spirit in this particle Which is of God We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit which is of God this phrase in that the holy Spirit is said to be of God imports three things 1. That the Spirit proceeded after an ineffable manner from God the Father Hic processus apud Graecos dicitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abusivè tamen not excluding God the Sonne Agreeable to this is that axiom in the Schools Dius Pater est principium Sanctae Trinitatis non tamen causa Principium ordinis sive relationis non essentie seu Deitatis 2. Which is of God Per Hebraismum which is God But the Spirit which is of God i.e. but the Spirit which is God 3. Which is of God that is which came from God Saith Christ I will pray the Father and he shall send you another Comforter Joh. 14.16 Hence note these two Observations which I shall briefly discuss and so pass over 1. That the Spirit the third Person in the blessed Trinity proceedeth from the Father and the Son Not from the Father excluding the Son as the Eastern Churches say but from the Father and the Son joyntly considered From the Father and so 't is called the Spirit of God Rom. 8.11 If the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you i. e. the Spirit of God he also shall quicken your mortall bodies From the Sonne and so 't is called the Spirit of Christ If any man hath not the Spirit of Christ Rom. 8.9 i.e. which proceedeth from Christ he is none of his In that the holy Spirit is called the Spirit of God Sic Metaphrastes in Romanos Siquidem enim est spiritus Dei Patrīs non ipse pater sit necesse est tamen quia Dei Spiritus est verus Deus fit oportet and the Spirit of Christ is observed these three things 1. That the Spirit of God is God 2. That he is a distinct person from the Father and the Son 3. That he proceedeth from them both 2. That the Spirit of God is God Acts 5. Why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie to the holy Ghost thou hast not lied unto men but unto God 2 Sam. 23.2 3. The Spirit of the Lord spake by me and his word was in my tongue The God of Israel said the reck of Israel spake to me 1 Cor. 12.6 But there are diversities of gifts but the same God which worketh all in all 1 John 5.7 For there are three that bear record in heaven the Father the Word and the holy Ghost and these three are one 1. Consider the Scripture gives those attributes to the Spirit which are only proper to God 1. Eternity Heb. 9.14 How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternall Spirit c. 2. Omniscience 1 Cor. 2.10 The Spirit searcheth all things 3. Omnipresence Psal 139.7 Whither shall I go from thy Spirit 4. Almightiness 2 Tim. 2.7 Isa 11.2 2. Those works are applied to the Spirit which are onely proper to God 1. Creation Gen. 1.2 And the
which Christ hath purchased for us upon a cordiall acceptation of them and receiving of them by the hand of faith then the purchase of Christ doth not hinder but that the things of eternity may be free to us 2. There are some things which Christ cannot properly be said to purchase for us but God out of the abundance of his mercy added as it were an over-plus to the death and sufferings of Jesus Christ Heaven and eternall glory and the beatificall vision is not strictly said to be purchased by Christ but it is a redundancy of the Fathers love The immediate effect of Christs death is Justification a redeeming us from the curse of the Law and from the wrath of God which was due to our sinnes The more remote and consequentiall effect is heaven and eternall glory Having explained the words I come now to raise some Observations from them From the matter implied That the teachings of the Spirit are absolutely necessary to know the things of God Observe this Note That none can know the things of God but those who have the teachings of the Spirit upon their hearts From the words expressed observe 1. That worldly men or the men of this world are led by a worldly spirit 2. That the spirit of the world is altogether opposite to the Spirit of God 3. That all that are the people of God have or shall receive the Spirit of God 4. That the end why they receive the Spirit is that they may know the things of God 5. That all things are given to us freely of God The Observation which is the subject of my ensuing discourse is drawn from the thing implied which is this That none can know the things of God but those that have the teachings of the Spirit upon their hearts In the handling this Observation I shall shew First The various acceptation of the word Spirit and that here is meant the Spirit of God Secondly What are the teachings of the Spirit 1. By way of premonition that it is a very hard thing to know them 2. Positively according to the Scripture phrase what they be Here briefly I shall distinguish between the motions impressions and flashes of the Spirit and the teachings of the Spirit Thirdly How the Spirit teacheth to wit 1. By enlightning our understandings 2. By taking away that enmity which is upon our wils against the things of God Fourthly Shew what more peculiar things the Spirit teacheth Fifthly What manner of teachings they are Sixthly Prove the conclusion That none can know the things of God but they that have the Spirits teachings Seventhly Make application 1. By way of Information to shew that the greatest part of Christians are void of the teachings of the Spirit upon their hearts 2. By way of Exhortation to stirre you up to seek after the teachings of the Spirit and this Exhortation is pressed home upon a threefold account And a threefold cord is not easily broken 1. From the excellency of the Spirits teachings and of that light which comes thereby above all other teachings and above all other knowledge whatsoever 2. Because if the Spirit teacheth thee it is an evident sign thou art the friend of God 3. If the Spirit teacheth thee it is a sign thou art instated into the Covenant of grace Eighthly I shall give severall signes whereby we may know we are taught of the Spirit Ninthly Shew how we may distinguish between the more extraordinary teachings of the Spirit upon our hearts which are peculiar to more eminent Saints and other teachings Tenthly Shew the times wherein the Spirits teachings are most manifest 1. In times of affliction 2. Near the time of death Eleventhly Answer some doubts and questions arising from the Spirits teachings Twelfthly Shew that it is the duty of every one to walk up to the light which he hath received The various acceptations of the word Spirit in Scripture I. The Spirit is put in opposition to the body Luke 24.39 A spirit hath not flesh and bones c. so the gross foul of a beast is called a spirit The spirit of a man goeth upward Eccl. 3.21 and the spirit of a beast goeth downward II. It is applied to any tenuious nimble or subtile substance So the winde may be called a Spirit Job 4. A spirit passed before my face i.e. a nimble substance resembling the gliding motion of a spirit So we commonly say the spirits of wines because of the refinedness of them III. Any strong impetous or violent inclination Burroughs upon this place in his Comment upon Hosea or full purpose to do a thing may be called a spirit Hosea 4. 12. The spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to erre i. e. a strong inclination and full bent of will to go a whoring from God hath caused them to erre IV. For the heart of man wherein listh the affections in opposition to the will and the understanding and the memory according to the intellectuall part of it 1 Thes 5.23 I pray God that your whole soul spirit and body may be kept blameless till the coming of Jeses Christ By the soul is meant the understanding and the will and by the spirit the heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherein lieth the affections Rem 1 9. God whom I serve with my spirit Luke 8.55 You know not of what spirit ye are of i. e. of what affections Though some have another interpretation of it as you may see hereafter V. It is taken Quo plus materiae co plus potentiae quo plus formae co plus actus Quo plus potentiae viz. passivae co plus corruptibilitatis quo plus actus co plus substantia â—ic Philosophi aiuns 1. For strength and courage 2. For incorruptibility Isa 31.3 Their horses are flesh and not spirit i.e. subject to corruption and not abiding weak and not strong What is weaker than flesh all flesh is as grass What is stronger than a spirit spirits are of vast strength and operation What is more corruptible than flesh the word flesh notes corruption What is more abiding than a spirit a spirit is of a durable nature in respect of it self though God can suddenly destroy it Luke 1.17 It is said of Jesus Christ that he shall come in the Spirit and in the power of Elias i. e. in the courage strength and power of Elias The Scripture usually puts one word for the further explanation of the other VI. It is taken for the soul of man Luke 23.40 Father into thy hands I commit my spirit Zech. 13.1 The Lord formeth the spirit of man i.e. the soul of man so saith Stephen Act. 7.59 Lord Jesus receive my spirit VII For life Isa 57.16 I will not contend for ever neither will I be allwaies wroth for the spirit would fail before me i.e. the life and the souls which I have made When God comes to contend with sinners for their sins there is no standing before him
word and addes more clearness to it in respect of our selves that we may know the things of God 1. A creating a new light within us As God in the naturall creation created light out of darkness so it is in the spirituall creation when the new man the infant of grace is born in us Eph. 5.8 Ye were sometimes darkness but now are ye light in the Lord. In the Lord that is Jesus Christ by his Spirit hath enlightened our mindes in the knowledge of him 2 Cor. 4.6 God who caused the light to shine out of darkness hath caused the light of the Gospel to shine into our hearts through the face of Jesus Christ This light wrought by the Spirit it is a creation for before this light ariseth before the sunne of righteousness ariseth upon us we were altogether darkenss we were darkness it self And as it is said of the people amongst whom the light of the Gospel shined Isa 9.2 that the people that sate in darkness and in the region of the shadow of death saw marvellous light so we poor souls before the Spirit enlightened us were in utter darkness as in a dungeon where there is not the least crany to let in any light Jude 13. Blackness of darkness i. e. in utter darkness according to the Gospel phrase Extream darkness where there is not the least light not any light at all We were in a spirituall sense as it were in the blackness of darkness but when the Spirit was pleased to come into our hearts he created light out of darkness Non ex materiâ quasi componente sed quasi ex termino à quo that is from darkenss he hath translated us into marvellous light Yea I may say the Spirits setting up a light in the new creature is more than a creation if I may so speak For it is harder to create a thing out of its opposite in the abstract out of darkness it self to create light than to create a thing out of nothing Excellently therefore did the Spirit of God set down this portion of Scripture to note unto us the great work of the Spirit in setting up a light in the heart of man 2 Cor. 4.6 God who caused the light to shine out of darkness I may say that spirituall darkness which is upon the hearts of unregenerate men hath a positive entity in it opposing the light of the Spirit for a time The light shined round about Iohn 1.5 but the darkness comprehended it not It is a willfull darkness and a wilfull ignorance but that first darkness was a non-ens a meer privation and as soon as ever the light shined the darkness vanished away As to make a man that is born blinde to see is a work equivalent to the work of creation as Christ did So to remove that blindness which is upon our mindes that naturall blindness whereby we are as blinde as beetles in the things of God We have eyes and see not to remove that blindness and to make us see it is a work of creation and the only work of the Spirit 2. A new light That is a more excellent light a more transcendent light More excellent than the light of nature or the light of conscience more excellent than the light of Ordinances the light of means the light of naturall improvements More excellent than the light of knowledge or any light whatsoever The light of the Spirit is the most excellent light It may truly be said In thy light O blessed Spirit Psal 36.9 we shall see light in thy comfort we shall have comfort by thy teachings only we shall know the things of God Blessed are they that walk in the light of the Spirit Revel 5.8 The four beasts and the twenty four Elders fell down before the Lamb â—nd they sang a new song saying c. a new song i. e. a more excellent song a new light i. e. a more excellent light 2. A new light in respect of that abyss of darkness we were in before A new thing is either a rare thing or otherwise a thing that never was before There is no new thing under the sunne Eccl. 1.9 that is there is nothing but what hath been before Which light in our consciences enkindled by the Spirit Conscientia est judicium rationis practicae circa particularia per ratiocinatiouem deductum è principits universalibus contentis in synteresi Sic Philosophi Synteresis est habitus sive conservatio printipiorum practicorum doth in all things correspond with the light of the Word The conscience it is an act of the practicall understanding together with the memory bearing witness unto God by accusing or excusing us accordingly as our deeds be whether good or evil Or it is a spark of that primitive light left within us since the fall whereby in some measure we are able to distinguish between good and evil and accordingly to judge and consure our selves Now because the light of the Spirit it is a diffusive light spreading it self over all the powers and faculties of the new creature And not only a diffusive light but a perswasive convincing directive irresistable light which dispelleth all the darkness which is upon the soul such a light which is the life being and vigour of the spirituall life For as knowledge is the life of the naturall soul so is the light of the Spirit the life of the spirituall soul giving life heat and motion unto it The light was the life of men Now because the light of the Spirit is a superadded light to that naturall light which is within us the light of conscience which light consists of the practicall part of the understanding and the memory both concurring together therefore though the first work of the Spirit is to enlighten our understandings yet because our consciences wherein is the seat of spirituall life are benummed and dead and the Spirits teachings according to the practicall part of them which is the greatest part of them reach to the conscience therefore I place the hearts or consciences which in Scripture phrase are Synonymicall the subject of the light of the Spirit Correspond with the Word The light of the Spirit and the light of the Word do not clash one against another but in all things do agree in respect of the subject matter though the light of the Spirit is far the clearer ut antea By which light of the Spirit we come to know the things of God Whereupon David praies Give me O Lord thy good Spirit which may leade me into the Land of uprightness Now I come to shew how the Spirit teacheth 1. By opening the eyes of the understanding and making us to see the things of God A naturall man hath eyes but they be shut he hath ears but they be stopt Now the work of the Spirit is to open our eyes and unstop our ears that we might hearken to the things of God We
of the word of life that I speak Rom. 9. and 't is a certain truth that a godly poor man let him be unskilfull in humane Learning yet if he hath but that unction of the Spirit that St John speaks of he is able to discourse of the things of God more savingly experimentally and powersully than the greatest Clerks and Rulers of the world 1 Cor. 1.20 Not many mighty not many wise not many noble are called but God hath chosen the base things of the world to confound the honourable and the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty God did chuse for his disciples not the learned Rabbies of the world as the Scribes and Pharisees were but a poor company of Fisher-men and Tent-makers delivered this Book unto us God called Amos from following the sheep to go and Prophesie to Amaziab And this God did to stain the pride of worldly wisdom shewing that he stood not in need of an arm of flesh to accomplish his design upon the earth but that by weak and inconsiderable means in themselves he was able to bring about the greatest designes What is the reason that the greatest Scholars are most to seek in the things of God especially in those things which accompany salvation Why as Solomon speaks they leaning to their own understandings and exalting themselves in the pride of their parts and abillities do justly cause God to leave them to themselves and in the dark because they seek not after the Spirit of God which is the chief thing to be desired if they will know the will of God We usually say that he that made the Laws can best tell how to interpret them so the Spirit of God which made the Word of God for holy men of God spake as they were inspired by the Spirit knows best how to explain it We are to compare spirituall things with spirituall and the Spirit of God speaking in one place with the Spirit speaking in another if we would know the scope and intent of the Word No man can say Jesus is the Christ but by the Spirit Saith Christ to Peter when he confessed him to be the Christ Blessed art thou Simon Bar-Jona for flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee but my Father which is in heaven Now the Father as it is clear from Ephes 3.5 declared this mystery by the Spirit Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men as it is now revealed unto his holy Prophets and Apostles by his Spirit As for practicall duties 't is the Spirit only that inflames the heart enlightens the minde breeds compunction and brings sundry comforts That teacheth us to despise earthly things to leath things present and to seek after things eternall to fly honours and to suffer scandals and to place our hope and confidence in God That teacheth us that great duty of mortification If ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the flesh to subdue our lusts to overcome the world to live a life of faith and not of sense to endure afflictions and to resist temptations The Spirit helpeth us to pray We know not how to pray as we ought but the Spirit helpeth our infirmities by making intercessions for us with groanings which cannot be uttered He helpeth together with and over-against us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 collaborantes adjuvat The originall word imports as when another man sets his shoulder to bear a part with us in the lifting up of any burden The Spirit of God removes those clogs and weights which be upon our spirits and puts life into the Chariot wheels of our souls by raising up our affections by stirring up the gift of God that is within us that we may pray with readiness of minde And maketh intexcession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered Not that the holy Spirit is a Mediator of intercessions that is properly the office of the Sonne who is therefore stiled our Advocate 1 Joh. 2.1 But because the Spirit of God doth stirre up our hearts to prayer and infuse into us holy desires stirring us up and instructing us in this duty therefore he is said to intercede for us The Spirit likewise by causing us to groan and sigh for our sinnes is said to make intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered It is the Spirit alone that must convince us of our sinnes When the Spirit shall come be shall convince the world of sinne Joh. 16.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 corripio pervim demonstrationis of righteausness and judgement The Spirit convinceth plainly by a demonstration shewing Thou art the man as Nathan said to David and powerfully to the conscience It is the Spirit that unites us to Jesus Christ he is the bond of our spirituall union He that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his It is the Spirit that quickens The Spirit quickneth Joh. 6.63 the Word profiteth nothing It is the Spirit that sanctifieth and that regenerates the hearts of beleevers 1 John 5.18 He that is born of God sinneth not i.e. he that is born of the sanctifying Spirit of God sinneth not that great sinne against the holy Ghost which is unpardonable It is the Spirit that is the true Comforter Hence he is called by way of eminency John 16. The Comforter The earnest of our inheritance Eph. 1.14 because of his inward testifying act upon our spirits that we are Gods children It is the Spirit that driveth out that slavish fear out of our hearts making us to come with boldness and with confidence to God Psal 51. Vphold me with thy free Spirit It is the Spirit that justifies 1 Cor. 6.10 But ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of God It is the Spirit that preserves the faithfull from falling away by his preventing and establishing grace from that hope that is within them unto the day of their appearance before Jesus Christ Phil. 1.6 Being confident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ What manner of teachings the Spirits teachings are First They are infallible teachings The Spirit teacheth truly without the least errour or deceit He is called the Spirit of truth because whatever the Spirit teacheth it cannot but be truth John 14.16 I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter which shall abide with you for ever even the Spirit of truth The Spirit is said to lead us into all truth Joh. 16.13 When the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth for he shall not speak of himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dux vobis erit Dux viae He shall lead you by the hand as the Nurse doth a weak sickly childe and be a guide unto you in your way In the way of truth but what he hath heara of me that
the smoaking flax untill he bring forth judgement into victory that is he will cherish grace and knowledge though covered over with manifold imperfections and very small till they shall come to that measure of perfection which is appointed for them Reply Doth the Spirit teach successively though he will teach us all things which pertain to life and godliness What hindereth but that a childe of God may erre in many things and yet the Spirit of God be said to teach him all things v. g. A Schoolmaster is said to instruct his scholar in all the rudiments of Grammar yet the scholar may commit solecismes and false concordance and why because the Master doth not teach him all the elements at once but by degrees So the Spirit though it teacheth all things which pertain to life and salvation in time yet because it teacheth by degrees a childe of God may in the mean time fall into errour till the Spirit of God shall give in a further light into his soul declaring unto him that his tenent is an errour Secondly They are inward teachings that is they reach to the heart Many times Ministers teach but 't is not from the heart to the heart but from the heart to the head We may inform your judgments but we cannot enkindle your affections and inflame your hearts with an ardent desire and fervent love of the things delivered unto you The Spirit makes you not only to know the things of God but in love with the things of God A spirituall man can finde more sweetness in reading one of the Psalms penned by that sweet Psalmist of Israel Davia than in reading all the merry books in the world besides Another man may reade the Word of God but it is only the Spirit that can make us delight in the Law of God according to the inward man Another man may hear of the excellency of Jesus Christ but it is only the spirituall man that esteems him the chiefest of ten thousand and desires him above all things When the Spirit teacheth the soul let it be never so dull of apprehension let its affections be as cold as a stone to heavenly things let him be as Epraim like a silly Dove without a heart let him be altogether averse from any thing that is good yet the Spirit shall produce inward heat life and motion to runne in the waies of God and not to be weary to go on and not faint The Spirits teachings will make hearts as hard as rocks to flow forth with rivers of living water they will cause floods to come into the wilderness where no water is It is unexpressible what are the kindlings of love and meltings of heart in a soul towards God that hath once been toucht with this heavenly light of the Spirit from heaven What is the reason we remain so dull and so cold under such powerfull Ordinances and such plenteous showrs of grace Why I will tell you you want the inward teachings of the Spirit upon your hearts In the Word preached you may have light but you can have no heat you may have motion but you can have no zeal Where the Spirit is there is light and heat you will be burning and shining lights Thirdly They are evident teachings 1 Cor. 2.4 We reade of the demonstration of the Spirit the Spirit when it comes it makes a demonstration from the effect to the cause because the Spirit worketh in us what it teacheth The way to faith is by working knowledge in our hearts and by opening our eyes to see in what a case we are in by nature and into what a good condition we are instated into by Jesus Christ Knowledge is put for faith This is life eternall to know thee Joh. 17.3 and Jesus Christ whom thou bast sent that is to beleeve on thee and Jesus Christ We may know we are taught by the Spirit if we live in the Spirit if we walk in the Spirit if we warre after the Spirit and not after the flesh 2 Cor. 10.4 The weapons of our Warfare are not carnall but spirituall and mighty to the throwing down of sinne and Satan The Spirits writing upon the heart is in great letters not in small so that he that runnes may reade it as it is spoken of the vision in Habakkuk grace is written in legible characters The Saints of God generally stand in their own light By others I do not understand the world the wicked world but the Saints of God The true Saints are hid to the world The life of every Saint is hid with Christ in God But one spirituall Christian may easily discern another because of that likeness which each hath one to another and the conformity both of them have no Jesus Christ their head that they cannot see those graces in themselves which to others are very plain and visible True grace loves to lie hid under the vail of humility the more it seeks to hide it self the more it is discovered The Saints are the Epistle of Christ known and read of all men The Spirit doth not teach by tipes and figures and by shadows but it teacheth the very thing the very substance We reade of the manifestation of the Spirit 1 Cor. 12.7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withall Ephes 1.17 So the Spirit of revelation That the God of our Lord Jesus and the Father of glory might give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him The Spirit it is our remembrancer to bring all things to our remembrance which Christ and his Apostles have spoken unto us in the word Saith Christ John 14.26 When the Spirit comes he shall bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have spoken unto you that is the things of God shall be made so plain unto them as if they had known them of old as if they were well verst in them and the things deeply rooted in their memories This is quite contrary to those who say the Spirits teachings are full of mysteries dark and obscure and hard to be understood What is this but to make the Spirit of God like the impure spirit the devil Indeed when Oracles were in use the devils answers were very obscure witness when Pyrrhus sent to the Oracle to know whether he should overcome the Romans or the Romans overcome him the answer was so dubious that he could not understand either of them before the sword decided the doubt on the Romans part Aiote Aeacida Romanos vincere posse But the Spirit of God teacheth plainly and when he speaks he speaks to the purpose If the Spirits teachings should be obscure who should interpret the minde of the Spirit there is none that can resolve the Spirits meanings but the Spirit it self this is the great resolver of all doubts and questions Wouldst thou be resolved whether thou art a childe of God or no Gal. 4. the Spirit will
tell thee God hath sent the Spirit of his Son crying in our hearts Abba father The Spirit of God witnesseth with our spirits that we are the children of God Fourthly The Spirits teachings are irresistible teachings Acts 6.10 And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which Stephen spake i. e. the writings of God upon Stephens heart or the teachings of the Spirit were so evident upon him that they could not withstand him or oppose what he said When the Spirit comes it shall convince the world of sinne of judgement and of righteousness It shall convince if it doth not convert It shall either drive thee besides thy self ☜ and make thee despair of salvation or to go out of thy self and to trust in Jesus Christ There is no opposing the Spirit when he comes with the prevailings of grace upon thy heart It is said of Christ that he spake as one that had anthority Mat. 7.29 and not as the Scribes Why because he spake by the Spirit My words saith he they are spirit and they are life Joh. 6.63 Let there be never so much opposition in the heart never so much prevalency of sinne let the soul be kept never so fast bound and setter'd with the vanities of the world with the devices of Satan and with the deceitfulness of sinne Yea supposing thou wert fast asleep in the midnight of earnall security yet if the Spirit comes and joggs as the Angel did Peter we shall presently awake Act. 12.7 and the prison doors shall be open and our fetters shall be knockt off and we shall be set at liberty It is our misery that when God comes to deal with his Spirit for our souls good the Spirit doth not finde us sitting still and quiet and out of the way to heaven but posting with all speed in a quite contrary way as fast as we can to hell We do not only by nature not love God but we hate God and preferre sinne and the devil before him Now when the Spirit comes supposing we are at the very brink of hell just dropping in yet if we hear the voice of the Spirit that voice which Isaiah speaks of Isa 30.12 a voice behind thee saying This is the way walk in it we shall return and be as fire-brands pluckt out of the fire The Spirit when it comes to write the things of God upon our hearts it doth not finde our souls a rasa tabula a meer blank wherein there is nothing written but the rudiments of the world of the flesh and of sinne are naturally written upon them the devil is engravened and pourtrayed all abroad upon the heart of a wicked man Now the finger of God can presently blot out this writing and unteach us whatsoever the flesh the devil and the world hath taught us and write his own characters as it were with the juyce of an onyon never to be blotted out again Joh. 5.25 It is said in the Gospel of John the dead shall hear the voice of the Sonne of God and live that is those that are dead in sinnes and trespasses that are spiritually dead that have no spirituall life that do not relish the things of God that cannot move one foot towards heaven when the Spirit cals which is meant by the voice of Christ like those dry bones which the Prophet Ezekiel speaks of they shall arise and walk and live the life of faith Ezek. 36.27 I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my waies to do them When the Spirit teacheth Isa 32.4 the heart of the rash shall understand knowledge and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly No naturall impediment no indisposition can hinder the effects of the Spirit Fifthly They are arbitrary teachings As the winde bloweth where it listeth Joh. 3.8 so is every one that is born of the Spirit The Spirit teacheth when it listeth and where it listeth The Spirit is a free agent bound to none and whatsoever he doth Matth. 11.25 he doth it freely I thank thee O Father Lord of heaven and earth because thou hast hid these things frem the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes even so Father for so it seemeth good in thy sight By the same Spirit is given severall gists but all these worketh that one and the self same Spirit 1 Cor. 12.11 dividing to every man severally as he will The Spirit of God out of a family perhaps it teacheth the Master and leaveth the servant in darkness the childe and leaves the father in darkness And as Christ said in the Gospel of Matthew Matth. 24.41 there shall be two a grinding in the mill the one shall be taken and the other left so say I in the same seat at the same time there be many a hearing of the word together and the Spirit may come and teach one and leave all the rest in darkness What a mercy is it therefore to thee whosoever thou art to thee I say that art so highly honoured as to have the Spirit to be thy teacher that the Lord should open thine eyes to see the ugly nature of sinne and the excellency that is in Jesus Christ Why might'st thou not have been one of the ignorant prophane world one that never knewest experimentally and savingly what it is to beleeve in Jesus Christ what it is to sit down at Christs table and to eat of the feast of fat things which he hath prepared for thee Why maist thou not have lived under the dispensations of the old Law when the Patriarchs had but the glimmerings of the Spirit but that thou shouldst live under the Gospel And why under the Gospel shouldst thou have a more plentifull measure of the Spirit than others but because it is the Spirits pleasure it should be so Even so Father for so it seemeth good in thy sight As Christ said to his Apostles though in another sense Mat. 13.16 17. Blessed are the eyes which see the things which you see and the ears which hear the things which you hear so I may say to you that live under the teachings of the Spirit in these Gospel-times Blessed are the eyes which see the things which you see and the ears which hear the things which you hear And as Christ said to the woman that came to him saying Luke 11.27 Blessed is the womb which bare thee and the paps which gave thee suck Nay saith Christ rather blessed are they which hear the Word of God and do it So say I Blessed are they that hear the voice of the Spirit speaking in their hearts and walk up to this voice of the Spirit Sixthly They are determinating fixing and quieting teachings They fix the soul in the waies of God They resolve all the doubts and carnall reasonings which are in our hearts and quite stop the mouth of flesh and blood When Paul had received
and seeing I have received it from God I am certain God will not send a message contrary to his Word or send an Angel from heaven to infirm and weaken that which I have delivered unto you So I say ☜ whosoever thou art that pretendest to revelations and mysteries and high discoveries from God if the manifestations you pretend to be to draw you to the promoting of any thing contrary to the Word of God or to encourage you in the waies of sinne and to carry on the interests of the flesh it is a lying Spirit it is not the Spirit of God I am sure God will not send a message to contradict his own Word or give in a revelation which shall weaken and destroy that word which his Apostles and Prophets have delivered unto us I could wish that the Quakers of our times who pretend so much to the Spirit The Quakers are void of the Spirits teachings and yet walk after the flesh vilifying and reviling the precious servants of Jesus Christ their mouths being black with hellish imprecations against the servants of Jesus Christ would lay this to heart Certainly they are void of the Spirits teachings upon their hearts if any people in the world are void because they are so full of malice against the Word of God which is the minde of the Spirit and so impetuously carried by a spirit of envy An envious person is the very picture of the devil against those who watch for their souls good that they may be saved at the great day of account Isa 8.11 To the Law and to the testimony if they hearken not to these it is because there is no light in them I know the devil can put on Samuels mantle and he will bring Scripture in his mouth as well as the best He brought Scripture to Christ Mat. 4. but you may easily perceive him by his cloven foot it is either to tempt thee to sinne as here he did Christ or to some errour and heresie The devil is Gods Ape The devil is Gods Ape and as God hath his miracles so he hath his wonders as appears by the Sorcerers in Egypt and he will set up his standard by Gods standard in this world If God hath his revelations the devil will have his but you may easily difference them by these signes 1. The devils revelations are but hidden things How do men in these times who talk much of the light of the Spirit within them runne all upon Allegories wresting the Scripture to their own damnation 1 Cor. 14.32 2. The devils revelations put men into strange passions and phrensies Spiritus Prophetarum subjecti sunt Prophetis ie nihil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sacient sed decentèr ntilitèr Et hoc distinguuntur Prophetae veri à vatibus prophauis quia illi omnia faciunt quodam furore ecstafi alie nautur mentè abripiun tur extrà sese ut saepe seipsos non intelligant inde ambiguè etiam ludunt quia incerti sunt de rebus At veri Prophetae non ita modestè sedatè omnia agunt spiritum habeut sibi subjectum ut nihil indecorum admittant idco libemèr cedunt aliis Arecius The spirits of the Prophers are subject to the Prophets that is they do nothing disorderly but with decency and profit And by this manner are distinguished the true Prophets from the false and prophane ones because they do all things with a certain kinde of fury and madness and are estranged in their minds and snatch besides hemselves that many times they do not understand themselves and speak ambiguously because they are uncertain of the things themselves But the true Prophets do not so they do all things modestly and quietly hâ—y have their spirits in subjection so that they do nothing ancomely and can willingly give place to others and I know not what distempers but the Spirit of God doth not so reveal it self but teacheth in a milde gentle and in a quiet way 3. After the devils revelations there follows great disquietness of minde and little settlement of spirit but they are left in manifold perplexities sometimes the light that is within them as they call it carrying them to such a place and sometimes to another and whatsoever the light bids them do that they must do As the evil spirit hurried Christ up and down setting him upon the pinacle of the Temple but the teachings of the Spirit bring peace of conscience and joy in the holy Ghost which is unspeakable and full of glory Saith Christ When the Spirit comes it shall speak of me and shall bring all things to your remembrance Whatsoever I have spoken unto you Whatsoever Christ speaks and the Word speaks the Spirit speaks but whatsoever the devil speaks he speaks it of himself and not according to the word for he was a liar from the beginning he abode not in the truth and the truth is not in him Eighthly They are effectuall powerfull transforming teachings As God by his word in the Creation did create light upon the earth God said Let there be light and there was light so God by one word from heaven by his Spirit can create light in our understandings As Christ by a-word did raise Lazarus out of the grave so God by one word by his Spirit can raise us up from the grave of sinne to newness of life As thou canst not hinder the influences of heaven nor cause it not to rain when God hath unlockt his store-house of rain or from keeping the light of the sunne from the world much less canst thou hinder the work of the Spirit upon thy heart the influences of his Divine working Prov. 21.1 The Lord tunneth the heart of man as he turneth the Water-brooks One would think that such a one as Saul a persecutour should never have been a Paul a chosen vessell to bear his Name before the Gentiles That a Manasseh who made Jerusalem to swim with blood should have been a Convert That a Mary Magdalen out of whom Christ had cast out seven devils should become a Saint but such is the power of the Spirit that though thou hadst a legion of devils Christ by his Spirit which is called the finger of God as Christ saith Luke 11.20 If I by the finger of God cast out devils he can cast them out and fill thee with his good Spirit When Christ comes to a mans house and saith This day is salvation come to thy house as he did to Zacheus Luk. 19.9 let him be a Publican he shall give half his goods to the poor and if he hath wronged any man he shall make restitution So when Christ shall come to thy heart by the Spirit and cry saying This day is salvation come to thy soul thou shalt open and become a new creature be thy former condition what it will 2 Cor. 3.18 But we all with open face behold as in a glasse the glory of the Lord are
with him pouring forth those desires which he suggesteth unto us the fire which God would have continually to burn upon his Altar came out from the Lord Rev. 9.24 If sacrifices were offered up with any other fire that fire was counted strange and the sacrifices no whit acceptable but abominable to the Lord the heavenly fire whereby our spirituall sacrifices of prayer must be offered up is that holy Spirit which cometh out from God he carrieth the very Image of God we must therefore give unto God that which is Gods A childe of God upon this ground may come with boldness to the throne of grace that God will accept his prayer because it is a fruit of his Spirit He may wrastle with God and never let him alone till he obtain the blessing or some gracious answer to his prayer though not in the same kind he petitioned for He can say I am thy childe thou art my father I am one with thee by thy Spirit I belong to thy family both in heaven and in earth I am one of them for whom Christ sweat drops of blood for I have thy Spirit interceding for me with sighs and groans which cannot be uttered and therefore Lord I know that thou canst not deny me my petition if it be for my good and for the glory of thy Name Now is it so that where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty is it not too too evident that the greatest part of professing Christians are void of the Spirit Are they not in bondage to some secret lust Doth not their speech bewray them in stead of speaking the language of Canaan do they not speak the language of Ashdod In stead of being led by the Spirit of God are they not led by the spirit of the world While they talk of the Spirit do they not walk after the flesh Have they not the Spirit to talk by and the world to walk by Are they not in love with the fashion of the world and intangled with the rudiments of it Can they pray in the Spirit can they sing in the Spirit can they restore a fallen brother in the evidence of their own spirit If they can What means these swarms of lusts in their hearts of pride envy self-love contempt of their poor weak brethren and little regard they have to the promoting the work of the Spirit in the hearts of others These with many others are true notes that the greatest part of Christians are void of the Spirit Secondly Is it so That none can know the things of God but they that have the teachings of the Spirit upon their hearts Then I beseech you to desire God to give you the teachings of his Spirit Pray earnestly for that wisdom which comes from above that St James speaks of Jam. 3.17 Which is first pure then gentle then easie to be intreated which is full of good works If any man lack wisdom let him ask it of God for he giveth liberally and upbraideth none He will not upbraid thy ignorance thy poverty thy former unwillingness and disrespect if thou wilt ask it of him If the Lord blessed Solomon so much for asking wisdom before riches 1 King 3.11 honour life that the Lord gave him a wise heart together with riches honour and life as an over-plus into the bargain how much more pleasant and wellcom will thy petition be to God if thou askest of him spirituall wisdom which is not to be compared with the most precious Rubies or with the finest Gold If thou would'st have spirituall wisdom desire God to give thee the Spirit of wisdom to give thee the grace of unction as well as the grace of union that as Jesus Christ had the Spirit of wisdom resting upon him so thou maiest have likewise To stirre thee up to this main duty Consider first of all Fidelis mater utra que praebet infautulo ubera Sic Deus pater non solum dedit filium sed ctiam dedit Spiritum sanctum Haec duo ubera vino sunt pulchriora That thou askest nothing but what is agreeable to the will of God Matth. 7.11 If ye being evil know how to give good things to your children how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Spirit to them that ask it of him 2. Thou askest nothing but what Christ hath promised Saith Christ when I go away the Comforter shall come unto you So likewise I will pray the Father and he shall fend you another Comforter If Christ who is the Amen of all the promises Rev. 1.5 who is the true and faithfull witness who is truth it self Saith he John 14. I am the way the truth and the life who hath sealed the Covenant with his own blood if he hath promised the Spirit he will not be worse than his word if thou ask it of him 3. Consider that Christ was anointed with the Spirit and received a more plentifull measure of it for our sakes that we might partake of his fulness he was filled with the Spirit that we might partake of the same Spirit with him Joh. 3.34 Non ad mensuram i. e siue mensurâ The Spirit was not given unto him by measure that we might have a measure of his Spirit 4 Consider that we are to ask nothing but what we are to expect at Gods hand under the Gospel It is said that the Spirit was not yet given because that Christ was not yet glorified Joh. 7.39 that is it was not poured forth in that measure and abundance as it was to be given after Christs ascension Now Christ being ascended and sitting at the right hand of God on high the Apostles long ago and the Saints in the primitive times having had the first-fruits of the Spirit When the holy Ghost descended in the form of cloven tongues we also may expect the gleanings of so plentifull a harvest Sicut unctio à capite Aaronis in ipsius membra descendebat fic à Christo capite vigor Spiritus sancti in omnia membra dimanat As the oyntment did runne down from Aarons head to the rest of his members So from Christ the Head the efficacy of the Spirit flows forth upon all the members To stirre you up to desire the Spirits teachings consider this that it is a singular mercy to be taught by the Spirit Blessed is the soul that heareth the Lord in or by his Spirit and that receiveth from his mouth the word of comfort If the Queen of Sheba 2 Châ—on 9.7 after she had made triall of Solomons wisdom cried out with admiration Happy are thy men and happy are these thy servants that stand continually before thee and that hear thy wisdom How much happier are they then that heard the gracious words which proceeded from the mouth of Christ when he was upon the earth and that have the teachings of the Spirit upon their hearts All other teachings besides the Spirits teachings will avail
so neither is the soul of man with any created excellency whatsoever We all desire knowledge naturally because knowledge it is the perfection of a rationall soul What is the chiefest happiness of a Christian and the highest perfection that the soul can attain unto but to know God aright and to rejoyce in that knowledge for ever and ever Eves affectation of knowing both good and evil and to be like God in knowledge was the cause of the fall of mankinde The soul it hath a large extent and is never satisfied with the knowledge of any thing unless it laieth hold of the most infinite God who is alone able to replenish the same without the knowledge of whom we understand nothing but are compared to the beasts which perish 7. All other knowledge it is subservient to the Spirits teachings and to that spirituall wisdom which flows from the Spirit It is subordinate and inferiour to it John 17.3 This is eternall life to know thee and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Other knowledge it may serve us about the inferiour works of Christianity how to live justly soberly honestly to carry our selves prudently in the eyes of the world and to do many outward good works of Religion but to make us to approve our hearts to God to believe on Jesus Christ to deny our selves to take up Christs Cross daily and to follow him this only the teachings of the Spirit can help us to do It is one thing to be a good man and another thing to be a good Christian Morall men who have nothing but tivility in them and a discreet carriage to carry all things squarely along in the world may be called good men who wrong no body and live honestly and demurely and are good for the benefit of the Commonwealth either in a civil or in an Ecclesiasticall way knowing how to direct all things for the best advantage both to themselves and others These may be called good men But good Christians servants of Jesus Christ the called ones of God the Father are only those who are the children of light and have the light of the Spirit residing in them The Arts and the Sciences may serve as the Gibeonites did about the Temple to perform all the inferiours works of Religion as farre as sense and reason may be a competent judge but at the service of the Altar the principail thing is the light of the Spirit Logick shews the way of defining and dividing and of demonstrating the truth or the absurdity of a thing Ethicks further us in the illustration of morall vertues Metaphysicks help us in explaining the terms of art which we use in setting forth the nature of things and being the highest and the chiefest Science how to draw conclusions from inferiour objects in subordination to the highest and to reduce all inferiour things to the first cause How to discourse of God of the Angels of the soul of the Attributes of the beings of things in a Scholasticall way To know the first principles of things with severall composed affections which arise from thence and so to finde out principles and subjects for inferiour Sciences But what is all this to the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ to the doctrine of humiliation of examining our own hearts to the great doctrine of morrification and of the Spirits in-being and dwelling in us to the comforting of distressed consciences to the edifying of the Church of Jesus Christ and to the purifying of our hearts from that inbred corruption that is within us to the renewing of the Spirit of our mindes to the obedience of the truth An humble knowledge of our selves is a more secure way to God then a searching after criticall things and of all knowledge the knowledge of God and our own consciences is the best of all 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basilius Christianae religionis finis ac perfecÌ„tio non est nuda 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Qui humilitatem castitatem mansuetudinem temperantiam charitatem non aâ—at etiam Christum non amat quia Christi vita nihil aliud erat quam humilitas castitas mansuetudo temperantia charitas Gerhardus All other knowledge it makes a man either a good morall man or a good Mathematician or a good Grammarian or a good Linguist or a good Statesman or a good Merchant and the like But the teachings of the Spirit make a man a good Christian Which of these do you think is the best To be a good Mathematician or a good Christian A good Christian shall be saved but a good Mathematician may be damned It is better to be a good scholar in Christs School and to learn apace what the Spirit teacheth us and daily to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ to be like him in humility meekness patience contentment charity then to grow apace in humane knowledge neglecting that knowledge which is for the good of their souls Other knowledge makes a man eminent but for one thing Aliquis in singulis nullus in omnibus but the knowledge that comes from above makes a man eminent in all things in all companies upon all occasions whatsoever he sets about The righteous man is more excellent than his neighbour let him be never so rich Pro. 12.26 never so wise never so honourable never so mighty never so knowing otherwise let him be what he will be a righteous person that is acquainted with God and with Jesus Christ is more excellent than him if he hath no more but a meer scepticall scholastick knowledge in his head The light of the Spirit it enlightens the whole soul As the light of a candle presently diffuseth it self over the whole room so this light spreads it self over the whole man 9. All other knowledge it is but vanity and vexation of spirit Solomon who is said to know every herb from the Cedar of Lebanon to the Thistle that groweth by the wall whose heart was so filled with wisdom that there was none like him before or ever shall be after him who wrote abundance of Proverbs and had the faculty of deciding controversies and resolving hard questions whose heart God had endued with wisdom exceedingly yet this Solomon writes this Motto upon all things All is vanity Socrates who was the wisest man in the world according as the Oracle pronounced of him yet what doth he say of himself Hoc unum scio quod nihil scio I know this one thing that I know nothing Nothing in comparison of what the Saints know and nothing in respect of that true substantiall wisdom which will profit me at the last day Saith true wisdom Pro. 8.21 I make him that loveth me to inherit substance By wisdom we are to understand either Jesus Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jescht Substantia realitas who is the substantiall and eternall wisdom of God the Father or complexly Christ Jesus and that spirituall
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
and his greatness Contrary to the Prophet who saith Fear the Lord and his goodness Hos 3.5 When they fear God as a consuming fire but not as a gracious Father When they fear to offend out of a sense of hell and not out of any love they bear to God 3. A filiall fear when men fear to offend God who hath been so gracious a Father unto them who hath done them so much good and shewed them so much mercy When they consider what an ocean of love was shewed unto them by God when they lay wallowing in their blood by pitying them in their condition and shewing them mercy in Jesus Christ The love of God constrains a Saint to an obedience of him And a childe of God hath such ingenuity in him and such a son-like affection to God his Father that he would not willingly grieve him for the whole world 4. A reverentiall fear so the Angels in heaven they are said to fear God because they do him reverence The Saints reverence God Rev. 4.10 casting down their Crowns before him that sitteth upon the Throne That vast disproportion between God and the creature he being the fountain and we the streams who hath his being of himself depending upon none and we continually depending upon him cannot but work a reverence and a godly sear in the hearts of those that love him and embrace him 7. If thou hast the Spirits teachings upon thy spirit upon thy heart thou wilt still desire to have further discoveries of the Spirit upon thy heart Thou wilt much be exercised in all those waies and means the Spirit useth to come down Much in private prayer in that heavenly duty of spirituall meditation much at home with thy self and less gadding abroad in thy desires and affections There was a time when the children of Israel said unto Moses Exod. 20.19 Speak thou unto us and we shall hear let not the Lord speak unto us lest perhaps we die But when was this When the Lord came down upon mount Sinai with thunderings and lightnings to give his Law unto his people But now under the Gospel when the Spirit is poured forth abundantly a childe of God rather cries out with the Prophet Samuel Speak Lord 1 Sam. 3.10 for thy servant heareth Let not Moses or thy servants only instruct me but rather do thou speak my Lord God by thy Spirit in my heart who art the enlightner of all the Prophets for thou alone with them canst perfectly instruct me but they without thee can profit nothing As Mary sate down at Christs feet to hear the gracious words which proceeded from his mouth so thou wilt wait at the Ordinances to have more flowings in of the Spirit upon thee ☜ When a soul shall remember at such a time such a spirituall truth was imparted unto me at such a time and in such a place I was convinced that such a thing was a sinne and by the power of the Spirit overcome to a forsaking of it that such a thing was a duty that I was setled in my mind concerning such a Tenet that I had a fuller assurance of Gods love upon my heart than formerly this will make the soul pant and breath after a more full manifestation of spirituall things As David cries out Psal 42.2 When shall I come and appear before God so thou wilt cry out When will the time be that I shall have another teaching of the Spirit upon my heart Psal 63.2 Lord let me see thy outgoings in the Sanctuary as formerly I have seen Let me hear thy voice O blessed Saviour for sweet is thy voice and thy countenance is comely Teach me thy statutes shew me wisdoms path Instruct me in the way that I should walk in Shew unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free Spirit 8. He that hath the Spirits teachings upon his heart is of a heavenly minde and can perform all duties in a spirituall manner As it is impossible for a man at once to look upwards towards heaven and downwards towards the earth so it is impossible for a Christian with one and the same judgement and affection to look upon earthly and heavenly things He counts the riches and honours and pleasures of the world but as crumbs cast to dogs but as triviall things not worth the mentioning in comparison of the enjoyment of God in Christ He is resolved not to be put off with those common mercies and not to receive his good things in this life but he tramples upon all these things under the Moon as mutable and that pass away having his eye fixt upon that eternall weight of glory in heaven and upon that Crown of bliss and happiness reserved for him A simile As children when they come to be men they put away childish things bowling-stones counters and all other vain and foolish sports and pleasures and become more serious and solid weighing what will become of them and how they may live in the world so when thou art taught of the Spirit thou wilt abandon all former delights when thou wert in the flesh and count the world thy enemy which would have kept thee from Jesus Christ yea the memory of thy vain conversation when thou livedst according to the course of the world will be bitter unto thee and thou wilt count all the things of this world but toys and trifles in comparison of the true and the heavenly riches When a spirituall man hath the things of this life he doth not set his heart upon them he doth not trust in them Mat. 6.33 he looks upon them but as additionals and as a handfull over and above into the bargain of eternall life but his heart is where is treasure is even in heaven In the fulness of all things his heart is empty and in the want of all things he can enjoy all things in Jesus Christ The more the understanding is enlightned to see the excellency of a thing and the necessity of it Whether the will follows the last dictate of the practicall understanding presently the will closeth with it And though in outward things the will doth alwaies follow the last dictate of the practicall understanding for Medea said Video meliora probóque Deteriora sequor Yet the will of a Saint cannot but follow the last dictate of the practicall understanding taught by the Spirit Now the Spirit it puts a new face upon things it takes away the false painted mask which the world and our own corrupt hearts had cast upon those transitory things and that vizard Satan had put upon them and shews us the emptiness the insufficiency the vanity the mutableness the inconstancy and the perishing nature of them that they are weak inconsiderable things which cannot afford the least solid joy and comfort That the pleasures of sin and the world are but as the cracklings of thorns under a pot which blaze for the
hath an interest in Jesus Christ in the Covenant of grace and in all those priviledges which belong to the Saints because the spirit of sanctification abides upon him but meerly an opinionative self-conceited vain glorious presuming confidence that Christ is his and he is Christ though no regard be had to those qualifications which are required in those in whose hearts Christ dwells by his blessed spirit Every hypocrite that hath been once enlightned and tasted of the heavenly gift and of the powers of the world to come will lay claim to the priviledges of the Saints and of the benefits that flow upon the account of the death and sufferings of Jesus Christ though their hearts were never truely wrought upon to a full and a final closing with Jesus Christ and they never had the witnesse of the spirit upon their hearts that he is the childe of God but the teachings of the spirit bring in unto the soul solid reasons founded upon the word of God and upon the experience of the Saints whereby from the foregoing premises he can draw a true and a real conclusion that he is Christs and Christ is his Justification and sanctification are inseparable according to that golden chain of mans salvation Rom. 8.30 Whom he justified them he also sanctified so that besides the testimony of the spirit he hath those inherent principles of sanctification within him whereupon he may evidently conclude that he is no changeling but a new born creature a true Citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem a true son amongst the Native sons of Zion But some weak Believer may say how may I distinguish between the Witness and the testimony of the spirit that I am the childe of God and that vain confidence and presumption which is in wicked mens hearts who say they are the children of God when they are not 3. The spirit doth not onely bear witness but fully perswade us of this very thing upon solid reasons which we finde true by our own experience that we are the children of God therefore saith that knowing Apostle Saint John 1 John 3.14 1 Iohn 4.13 We know that we are passed from death to life because we love the brethren Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit But wicked men who are full of carnal confidence and sinful presumption have no sweet experience of saving grace upon their souls or any testimony much less a perswasion of the spirit that they are the children of God The grounds of carnal presumption but this presumption ariseth from a bare conceit of their good estate still hoping well of themselves or from the delusion of the Devil who hath besotted their minds with his sinfull Sophistry 2. The spirits testimony is founded upon Gods word and not upon any testimony from our selves 3 Wheresoever the spirits testimony is upon the hearts of any there follows a hatred of sin zeal for the glory of God a care and conscience to serve God in all well-pleasing for as some eminent Divines do say though I do not pin my faith upon any mans sleeve but onely as the light of the word and the light of the spirit teacheth me the doctrine of assurance will not make a Christian secure and idle in the work of the Lord ☜ but more watchful over his wayes and more thankful for so great a mercy being constrained by the love of God to the obedience of the truth and that the preaching of the Cross of Christ what love and mercy God the Father and Jesus Christ what power and wisdom was put forth in that great work of mans Redemption is of a more prevailing nature then to preach the terrors of the Law against sin and sinners to bring men out of their natural condition though both wayes must be used even by fear plucking them forth out of the fire of hell 2. Quere Whether or no are the spirits teachings or the light of the spirit in the heart of a Believer a sufficient plea for him to cast off all Ordinances means of grace as unprofitable things under so clear a dispensation I answer no 1. For as Jesus Christ in explaining the Law of Moses did not abrogate the law or derogate any thing from the use and majesty of it Mat. 6. but only clear it from those foul aspersions which the Pharisees had cast upon it so the spirit in teaching us the things of God and in enlightning our minds to understand his will doth not take away the use of the word but adds a further light unto it that we may understand the minde of the spirit in it and that all those prevarications by reason of the darkness of our understanding may be rightly placed The Sun is full of light but a blinde man cannot see it So the word is clear in it self but because our understandings are darkned we cannot understand it Now the spirit of God doth five things in order to the word of God 1. It explains it 2. It gives a further authority unto it 3. Shews us the majesty The spirits actings in reference to the word purity and excellency of it 4. Makes us to prize it above all things 5. Enables us to keep it 2. Because the word of God acknowledgeth no Spirit but what works in and by the word Gal. 5.2 Received ye the spirit by the Law or by the hearing of faith Did ye not receive the spirit by the preaching of the doctrine of saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ The spirit teacheth which is consonant and agreeable to the word of God so that the word and the spirit both concurr together the spirit as the principal agent the word as the instrument which can do nothing without the spirit to teach us the will of God and to work in us all those saving Graces which accompany salvation 3. Because the word of God in the Scripture is set down as a standing rule according to which we must frame our lives unto the end of the world 1 Tim. 3.13 Till I come give attendance to Reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Attendere cum diligentia cu ram adhibere to Exhortation to Doctrine 15. Meditate upon these things give thy self wholly to them that thy profiting may appear unto all 16. Take heed unto thy self 1 Pet. 1.23 Mat. 5.18 and unto thy doctrine continue in them c. The word of God which liveth and abideth for ever Not the least tittle of the word of God shall fail till all things be accomplished some of which things will not be fulfilled till the end of the world The Sacraments also are in use and have their efficacy for that end for which they were appointed by God in his Church to the end of the world 1 Cor. 11.26 By the Sacrament of the Lords Supper we are to remember the Lords death till he come so that till Christ shall come againe at the
in their infancy as it were till they arrive at heaven Ob. What do you say to that place in Joel Joel 2.28 where it is said that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh and your sonnes and your daughters shall prophesie c. And to that place in the Prophet Isaiah where it is said Isa 30.26 that the light of the Moon shall be as the light of the Sunne and the light of the Sunne seven fold And to that place in John 1 John 2.27 where it is said that you have rectived the unction of the holy one and you need not that any man teach you Ans I answer that in these places of Scripture is only held forth a more plentifull giving of the Spirit under Gospel-times than under the former dispensations Therefore it is said that the Spirit was not yet given because Christ was not yet ascended The performance of which prophesie was upon the Apostles together with other elected Saints Act. 2. Hence then is no place given for Enthusiasms because it is usuall with the Prophets of the old Testament when they did speak of the restauration or amplification of the Church of God to set it forth Tropically under figures and shadows Zach. 14. Mal. 1.11 with many other places For that place in the Epistle of St John it holds forth unto us this that for those fundamentall truths which the Saints had received from him from which the false Apostles did seek to remove them they needed not again to be re-established in these truths being set home upon their spirits by the Spirit of God but only words of exhortation to stirre them up to execute and to put in practice those fundamentall truths which they had received Ob. But what say you to that passage of Scripture in the 2 of Peter 1.19 where it is said We have also a more sure word of prophesie whereunto you do well that ye take herd as unto a light that shineth in a dark place untill the day dawn and the day starre arise in your hearts Ans The Apostle in these words doth not take away the use of the word and other means of grace but the scope of the place as I gather from the context rather tends to the establishing of the word and other means of grace till Christ who is the morning starre the day starre in the morning of the resurrection shall arise in the hearts of his elect ones after a more glorious manner than when they were in this body of flesh in this world which is rather a state of darkness than of the light in comparison of that light of knowledge of joy and of comfort which shall be to the Saints in heaven To explain the words The Apostle having before in the foregoing words declared the certainty of the doctrine of the Gospel both from his own experience and from the testimony of God the Father now in these words he confirms the certainty of it from the consent of the Prophets under the old Testament As if the Apostle should have said The Doctrine of the Gospel is confirmed by the Prophets of old therefore the Doctrine of the Gospel is most true and certain therefore if ye mistrust me in commending the Gospelunto you I remit you unto the Prophets of old whose doctrines are a more surer word than this testimony of mine in respect of your selves as yet unto which word of Prophesie you do well to attend as a light which shineth in a dark place as to that light which now under the state of non-conversion and of blindness may do you some good till the vail is taken off from your hearts and Christ the morning starre whom you so much despised arise upon you by his blessed Spirit to unfold this word of prophesie unto you which will then not be a light in a dark place but a true light unto you indeed Christ by his Spirit having unvaild your hearts that you may see that was the Messiah of the world that was the true Christ whom you have crucified and of which this more sure word of Prophesie or all the Prophets have spoken of How this interpretation and explanation of the words may take with many I cannot tell but as yet till God shall give in a further light upon my soul I think it most agreeable to the minde of the Spirit Aretius Lucifer est plena Christi cognitio postquam drsinet usus Propheticae doctrinae The day-starre is the full knowledge of Jesus Christ after the use of prophesying shall cease which is if it be meant of all believers then the words must be thus understood That when the time comes 1. When Ordinances shall cease and the means of grace shall cease which will not be till the end of the world till the dawning of the morning of the resurrection the day starre shall arise in our hearts that is a full and perfect knowledge and enjoyment of Christ 2. If in respect of the Jews to whom he wrote scattered up and down the Nations then the words may be thus interpreted That they do well to attend to the word of prophesie which speaks of Jesus Christ as unto a light in a dark place that is as yet though but a darkish dispensation till Christ the morning starre shall arise and take the vail from off their hearts that so they may see he was the very Messiah of the world whom they have crucified of whom the Prophets of old have foretold Qu. Whether are the teachings of the Spirit upon our hearts a sufficient call for us to undertake the Ecclesiasticall Function No. 1. Because then all elected converted persons should be Pastors of Churches 1 Cor. 12.17 And if all the body were an eye where is the ear for all true believers are taught of the Spirit 2. Because the Spirits teachings are not revelations of high mysteries of things to come a declaring of the whole minde and will of God in respect of every circumstance a furnishing a man in a generall way to know more than is meet for him as a private Christian to know but a writing of all those things in his heart which pertain to life and godliness and which are necessary for him to know as one that must be saved by Jesus Christ 3. Because a man may have the Spirits teachings upon his heart and yet be ignorant of many truths of God because the Spirit teacheth successively ut antea 4. Because we never reade in Scripture that any took upon them to be publick Pastors of Churches but only as it were auxiliaries and helps for the promoting of the work of the Lord in the planting of Churches in the Primitive times as Aquila Priscilla and Apollos were unless besides these teachings they had an immediate call from God or a mediate by man yea though they had extraordinary teachings upon their hearts 5. Because besides the inward call of Gods Spirit which is a secret testimony that
THE SPIRITS Touchstone OR The Teachings of Christs Spirit on the hearts of BELIEVERS Being a cleare discovery how a man may certainly know whether he be really taught of the Spirit of God Being very useful for these times 1 Cor. 2.15 But he that is spirituall judgeth all things yet he himself is judged of no man By J. R. late Student of Morton Colledge in Oxford London Printed for Simon Miller at the Star in St. Pauls Church yard 1657. Sept. 10. 1656. Imprimatur Edm. Calamy TO THE WORSHIPFUL Dr. LANGLEY Master of Pembrook-College in Oxford and one of the Canons of Christ-Church Reverend Sir VNder God and next to my Parents I may righty term you the dearest friend that I have in the World from whom when I was at Oxford a Student in Merton-College I received many favours and great encouragements to the promoting of my studies being by your care and vigilance over me preferred from Pembrook-College over which your self is a worthy Master thither to a Schollers place in the house And since I left Oxford I have been continually in your thoughts when God shall open a way for my further preferment Vpon this account with many other obliging arguments I have presumed in this present Treatise aâ— the first fruits of a more plentifull harvest to address my self unto you by way of thankefulness to whom I owe my self and the praise and the glory as to a secondary cause of all those services which God shall ever enable me to doe for his Church and people My portion to dispense the Word of God is fallen out in a very disheartning and in an evill time yet let the opposition of the world of flesh and of the devil let the carnall reasonings of flesh and blood let the malice of unreasonable men be never so great I have determined with my self to be the servant of Jesus Christ and of his Church so long as my life health strength liberty or any ability by the good providence of God is preserved unto me and to spend it and to be spent for the Gospel of my Saviour If I meet with opposition as I must doe I have nothing but what I looked for and what is my lot and portion while I am in this life and what all the faithfull servants of Jesus Christ have formerly undergon and what the enmity in the spirit of the world against the Spirit of God doth naturally produce and what we must have if we be faithfull and consciencious in our places not dawbing with untempered mortar but speaking the truth in the heart and what follows as necessarily wheresoever the power of godliness the cross of Christ the lesson of self deniall and the setting our selves against the corruptions of the times and the breaking down of the Magazines of sin and the setting up the pure worship of God and a plain sincere honest hearted dealing for the good of their souls not sparing any high or low rich or poor honourable or despised so he it God may be glorified and the Kingdom of Christ advanced is fully held forth An evil time I say it is wherein under a colour of zeale for the cause of God as if these were the forerunners of Christs second comming upon the earth wherein as they say he shall reign a thousand yeers as John the Baptist was the forerunner of his first comming He indeed was so for he came to prepare the way of the Lord to make his paths straight before his face But if we grant them forerunners they are no otherwise then sad omens of the worlds destruction with all the rest of the Antichristian party when Christ shall come to render vengeance upon them that know him not and obey not the Gospel of his Sonne they pervert the right wayes of the Lord and corrupt the word of God before the second comming of Christ there shall be an Apostacy from the faith when they seek to remove and to put out the light of the glorious Gospel that they may sinne with more freedom by turning our Bethel into a Bethaven and the houses of the Prophets to a den of abominable wretches Woe be to those men who are disobedient to the heavenly vision who despise Prophecyings who reject the word of his faithful Ambassadors calling them Popish fellowes and Priests of Baal under a pretence of higher mysteries It will be the saddest time that ever England saw yet if the Sun shal goe down upon the Ministers of the Gospel and the night shall come upon them Where the vision fails the people perish My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge Prov. 29.18 Hosea 4.6 2 Chro. 15 3 4 5 6. When there was no vision nor no teaching Priest then there was no peace to him that came in or to him that went out David saith Psal 11.3 If the foundations be destroyed what shall the righteous doe And if a faithfull Ministry and a conscientious Magistracy be removed and men be suffered to do what they list without reproof and correction and instruction what can we expect but abominable prophannesse but that England should become a second Rome a second Babylon and another Sodom But yet I hope better things of England yet since God hath a precious seed to shew forth his praise growing up in the two famous Vniversities of this land watered exceedingly with Divine showers of heavenly grace with the influences from above by the late prudent government in them seeing by the wise providence of God such pious conscientious and holy men do sit at the stern and doe guide the helm lest the sons of the Prophets might be infected with the errors and heresies of the times and the sons of Belial might prevaile over them though yet there is not a sufficient purgation of pride self seeking and of the advancement of humane wisdom before the everlasting wisdom of God from the Midst of them And there is yet something to be done before the blessing of God will descend upon them in such a plentifull measure as otherwise it would to wit a joynt setting themselves with one shoulder and with one consent to serve God in sincerity of heart and to bestir themselves more then ever for the preserving of the truth of God and to cleare the truth from all those calumnies which have been cast upon it in these latter times and to stand up for the honour of God and of his Church Now as there is a generation of men men of perverse minds reprobate concerning the faith given over to a spirit of delusions blinded with a judiciall blindness and hardned with a judiciall hardness led away with the vanity of their minds wicked and ungodly men foreordained to destruction who would pull down all Ordinances as preaching prayer receiving of the Sacraments holy conference and all those means whereby grace is wrought cherished promoted confirmed in the hearts of believers and which is far worse they pretend to doe all this
by the light of the spirit within them As Mahomet the vilest of men did pretend that he was inspired by the holy Ghost in the form of a Dove so these miserable creatures pretend to the teachings of the spirit upon their hearts that so their hereticall and blasphemous Tenents may receive the better entertainment If they had not fathered their falshoods blasphemies heresies upon the Spirit of God I had slept in silence but when they make the Spirit of God to be a lying spirit a deluding spirit a profane spirit by their saying that the Spirit teacheth them to live above Ordinances to blaspheme to scoffe at the word of his grace that the Spirit will supply all their wants without the use of means and that they stand not in need of those beggarly Elements to wit the Word Prayer Sacraments and other means of grace as they call them and all upon the account of the Spirits teaching I had no rest in my spirit till what light was imparted unto me concerning the teaching of the spirit upon the hearts of believers I had published for the benefit and comfort of true honesthearted Christians expecting to undergoe the censure of some Aristarchus or other though God who trieth all things knoweth the sincerity of my heart in this matter I wish the subject of my discourse had had a better workman to have handled it but what is defective in my endeavours shal be supplied in my prayes that God would poure forth of his Spirit more and more upon the hearts of his people according to the tenour of the covenant and that Gospel promise that we shall be all taught of God and to rectifie those horrid abuses which are done to the blessed Spirit and to shame those impudent creatures who say they are taught of the spirit while they fulfill the dictates and commands of the flesh and of the Divel and to destroy the spirit of errour prophaneness the spirit of Antichrist which exalts it self in the lives of many Saints eminent in the eyes of the world and to preserve his people his Embassadors his Sacraments his truth his Word in the power and purity of it and to keep us from Popery superstition will-worships and from the doctrnes of men and to make his Church a glorious Church for purity of worship and piety of life in this thrice blessed Nation for the means of grace and for the true knowledge of God which is in it which is and ever shal be the request of him at the thron of grace who is Yours most obliged in all duty add observance J. R. TO The Ingenuous and Honest-hearted READER IT is well known to the grief and sorrow and daily vexation of many righteons Lots who daily torment themselves for the perversnesse of this crooked generation amhngst whom they dwell that the common plea of most men who pretend to the knowledge of the things of God is the teachings of the Spirit upon their hearts Never was the spirit so much cryed up in respect of its teachings as it is now adays Caution God forbid that I should sin against the generation of the righteous and offend one of Gods litle ones by opening my mind in so free a way I am verily perswaded God hath at peculiar people a godly party amongst us most dear and precious unto him who know what their generation work is what it is to serve God in spirit and in truth a praying people for whose sakes this very sinful Nation laden with sin and with iniquity is still preserved a most glorious Nation By these therefore whom I so characterize in this Epistle understand those overly righteous people who confining salvation religion to themselves as if none were saved but they set themselvs with all their might against those who doe not comply with them and by opposing godly Magistracy Ministry of this present Nation seeke to extirpate both so be it their ends and aims may be carried on And I am verily perswaded had done it had not God procured in his mercy a gracious liberty for us Wo to those who abuse this liberty by venting forth uncouth opinions strange doctrines horrid blasphemies these persons the Lord will consume with the breath of his nostrils and never were men less void of the spirit and besotted with the delusious of the Divel and with the fancies of theis own pernicious braines then they are now If self-pride intolerable covetousness ambition of honour contempt of the word and Gospel of Christ disrespect slighting and open scoffing it the Ministers of the Gospel If a secret covert-acting of prophaness under the cloak of religion as to lye to deceive to cozen to backbite to revile to reproach to revenge to hate to rejoyce at the harmes of others who are far better then themselves and to lay wait for their falls as if it did them a pleasure to see God dishonoured to persecute to molest and the like and all this under a pretence of doing God service If want of love to the Saints of God and to the waies of his worship a not receiving of the truth in meekness of spirit if earthly mindedness and a groveling in this present world a not obedience to Magistracy and the powers set over us by God If a slavery to the traditions and inventions of men If a prejudice oâ—a heart against whatsoever is not sutable to their corrupted minds If self-seeking when they seek their own things and not the things which are of Jesus Christ and a refusing whatsoever they cannot apprehend and the light within them directs them to If an undervaluing of others and a preferring of themselves when every true Christian esteems each other better then himself If a proud censorious critical spirit interpreting and judgeing of persons and of things according as their blind reason and ill affected minds lead them If inconstancy and levity of mind ignorance prophanesse and a building upon truths without any ground or foundation If a boasting and bragging of an infallible spirit and of the light of the spirit within them If a making of sections parties and factions needlesly and without any cause onely upon the account of singularity because they love to be Christians by themselves and to walk upon their own leggs and to stand upon their own bottoms If a walking contrary to the mind of the spirit making the spirit the author of confusion in Church and State when meerly upon the account of the spirits teachings as if these were a sufficient call for a man to be an Embassador of Jesus Christ and therefore he must break his bounds and leave that calling and station God hath set him in and run upon irreverent things when they are not sent If superstition will-worship sacriledge neglect of the Sacraments of Prayer of the Word and of building up one another in the most precious faith If a malicious frame of heart under a sheepish sanctity for many wolvish professors
They are inward teachings 3 Evident teachings 4 Irresistible teachings 5 Arbitrary teachings 6 Determinating fixing and quieting teachings 7 They are consonant to the Word of God 8 Effectuall powerfull transforming teachings 9 Quiet and comfortable teachings 10 Abiding teachings 11 Uniform teachings 12 Only teachings 6. Prove the conclusion that only those that know the things of God can have the teachings of the spirit upon their hearts Where that place of Scripture is opened 1 Cor. 2.14 The naturall man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God because they are spiritually discerned Because all the men that have not the spirit are either bewitched or besotted or overcome with the power of some domineering lust or drunken with the pleasures of sin or have no other light to judge by but that little sparke which is left within them since the fall which is overpressed with the corruptions of sin or are guided by sense which is not able to judge aright of spiritual things 7. Make application 1. By way of insormation to shew that the greatest part of Christians are void of the spirit from that place of Scripture 2 Cor. 3 17. Where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty Now most Christians are in a state of bondage Wherein you have three respects how the spirit is called a spirit of liberty 2. By way of exhortation to stir you up to seek after the spirits teachings upon a three fold account 1. It is a singular blessing to be taught by the spirit 2 The teachings of the spirit are better then all other teachings and the wisedome of the spirit is better then all other wisdom whatsoever for these reasons 1. All other knowledge it breeds distraction of mind and pierceth the soul through with many sorrows 2. A little knowledge with true grace is better then all the knowledge in the world without the light of the spirit 3. Other knowledge it puffeth up but the light of the spirit it humbleth 4. All other knowledge it doth but furnish a man that he might be a more able instrument for the Divel and to carry on his designs in the world 5. All other knowledge will but aggravate our condemnation because it is not sanctified by the spirit 6. All other knowledge it is subservient to the light of the spirit 7. All other knowledge will never make a man a good Christian 8 All other knowledge will never satisfie and quiet our souls 9. All other knowledge is but vanity and vexation of spirit 10. All other knowledge it rather hinders then promotes the salvation of men 11. God hath a time when he will blast upon all humane unsanctified knowledge 2. If thou art taught by the spirit it is an evident sign thou art the friend of God 3. If thou art taught by the spirit it is a true sign that thou art instated into the Covenant of grace 8. Give several signs whereby we may know we are taught of the spirit 1. He that is taught by the spirit of God is of an humble spirit 2. He is of a joyful spirit 3. He that is taught from above will not grudge at the dispensations of God to others but will do what lies in his power to teach others 4. He that is taught of the spirit is a man of another spirit then he was before 5. He is of a meek spirit Wherein you have the several kindes of meeknesse opened and what it is to be of a meek spirit 6. He that is taught of the spirit is one that seareth God Wherein you have the several kinds of fear declared and what it is to fear God aright 7 He that is taught of the spirit will still desire to have further discoveries of the spirit upon his heart 8 He that is taught of the spirit is of a heavenly mind and can perform all duties in a spiritual manner 9. Shew what are the extraordinary teachings of the Spirit from the ordinary 10. This head is discovered in four particulars Declare the times wherein the spirits teachings are most manifest 1. In times of affliction 2. Neer the time of death 11. Answer several doubts and questions arising from the spirits teachings 12 Declare that it is the duty of every Christian to walk up to that light which God hath given him 1 To the light of nature 2 To the light of conscience 3 To the light of naturall improvements morall education good examples 4 To the light of the word which includes both Law and Gospel 1 Those that have only the light of the Law ought to walk up to that light 2 It highly concerns all Christians to walk up to the light of the Gospel because of the nature of this most excellent light and the aggravations of their sins who sin against it 5 To the sight of the conviction of the Spirit of God Reasons 1 Because every one shall be judged according to what measure of light he hath received 2 From the nature of light which manifests to us our evil deeds that thereby they may be reformed 3 Because he that walks not up in some cases to the light of his conscience offends in not so doing Where is shewed in what cases we may walk according to the light of our own consciences The Teachings OF CHRIST'S SPIRIT Upon the Hearts of BELIEVERS 1 COR. 2.12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things which are freely given unto us of God IN the former Chapter the blessed Apostle of the Gentiles after his wonted salutation to this Church of Corinth in the 10th verse of the same Chapter he exhorts them to unanimity and concord of spirit to wit that there be no dissentions among them but that they be knit together in one minde and in one judgment And to bring them over to this oneness of spirit of being knit together in love he doth not come in a rigorous way pleading his authority as the Apostle of Christ or the power of the Keyes or Church censures or denouncing the threatnings of the Law and the curses of God but by a sweet and alluring compellation calling them brethren and befeeching them in the Name of Jesus Christ he winnes them over to the obedience of the truth Hence observe That the readiest way to win gainsaying bretheren to the obedience of the faith Note is not to be of a fiery spirit as James and John were and presently to count them as disjoyned and disunited from the body of Christ and to count them enemies to the power of godliness and to excommunicate and dismember them but as good spirituall bone-setters according to the Apostles word Gal. 6.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 6.1 Metapho ra à Ghirurgis artus dissolu tos leviter connect entibus Mal. 3.2 3 To restore our fallen brethren with the spirit of meekness and to pray for them daily and to expect their re-union when the light
have his command to the contrary his Word bids us not to do it How can we violate the authority of the sacred Majesty of heaven and earth How shall we be able to stand before God who is a consuming fire and commit these abominations in his sight What a good thing were it if Christians would make a Common-place-Book in their hearts out of Gods Word and by often reading of it and by that excellent duty of meditation laying it up that they may have spirituall matter to furnish their souls withall upon all occasions This is the true pondering of the Word of God So much of the Word of God as we meditate on and by meditation is concocted to the nourishment of our souls so much we have and no more This hiding of the Word within our heart is an excellent means to further the gift of prayer whereby we shall have store of matter at all times and upon all subects to render up our petitions unto God ☜ That is the best prayer that is founded upon the Word of God How sweetly doth the Spirit of God breathe forth in Davids Psalms and what heavenly expressions there are suitable for a Christians spirit to exercise his faith and comfort in God by in the greatest trials and most soul-dejecting desertions This hiding of the Word of God to wit the sweet promises which concern salvation contained therein to poor broken-hearted sinners affords abundance of peace of conscience and consolation of the spirit Saith David I have hoped in thy Word ☞ He is a true emblem of a faithfull soul A true sign of a beleeving soul who can trust God for his word sake and build upon the Word of consolation who can plead with God upon a bare word of promise Lord hast thou not said it and wilt thou not bring it to pass If we would by a lively faith suck eagerly at these breasts of consolation and dive deep into these wels of salvation and carry our buckets often to draw and look to Jesus Christ in whom all the promises are Yea and Amen for the earnest of his Spirit upon our hearts that they may be rightly applied to our everlasting comfort our souls would be satisfied abundantly as with marrow and fatness So likewise saith David Thy Word is a light unto my feet and a lamp unto my paths and in the same Psalm Psal 119.96 I have seen an end of all perfection but thy Commandments are exceeding large The literall Word of God though it hath a beginning and an end in respect of the letter yet the Word of God considered Doctrinally as it is the wisdom of God the Father it is infinite like God himself and hath unfathom'd depths of the riches of Gods grace to sinners in Jesus Christ contained in it Rom. 8. O the depths of the riches of the wisdom of God how unsearchable are his works and his waies past finding out ☜ It is a rich Mine of excellent discoveries of the Almighty God which never yet hath been searcht to the full though when we come to heaven we shall know abundantly more of it than we do now and all doubts concerning it fully satisfied which do so trouble us in the body of this flesh Let men of corrupt mindes talk what they will that they fully understand the minde of God in his word by the light of the Spirit speaking within them that they can unfold all mysteries and that they need not hearken to the word any longer but only hearken to the voice of the Spirit speaking in their hearts because the light of the Spirit is a greater light they say than the light of the word I am certain that they are grosly deluded by the father of lies for the Apostle Paul that knew as much of the things of God as any Enthusiast whatsoever yet did see but through a glass as it were imperfectly till this veil of the flesh being laid aside he shall see God face to face We know in part Now if the Word of God be exceeding large larger than the perfections of all the creatures so that there is no sinne that can be conceived of but is forbidden in it and threatned with eternall death and no grace but what is commanded and exhorted to under the promise of everlasting life and the means to eschue the evil and to imbrace the good fully declared unto us without all controversie this and this only is the Word of God and ought to be the ground and rule of our faith 2. That for men to preach their own inventions When men are much addicted to Allegorize Scripture suddenly they fall into some and new fangled notions and the fancies of their own intoxicated brains or for men to Allogorize Scriptures according as their minde serves them neglecting the pure fountain of the Word of God is to build mens faith upon humane wisdom and not upon the power of God We live in a Scepticall age deadly errour and are caught as it were in a snare before they are aware What a Solaecism upon his own body Origen the father of Allegories committed by Allegorizing that portion of Scripture Mat. 19.12 is known to all those that are verst in Ecclesiasticall History wherein most Christians being troubled with that itching humour the Apostle speaks of are all for novelties and vain questions which are nothing materiall to the establishing our souls in grace and neglect the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ They are all for light but little for zeal all for knowledge but little for practice all for notions but little for truth all for further discoveries of secret mysteries but little searching into their own hearts all for those truths that may inform the Judgement but little for those truths which may work upon the affections Lord A sweet ejaculation I pray thee to give me no more knowledge than what may work upon my heart to the joyning of a hearty obedience unto it and that above all other knowledge I may seek to know Jesus Christ and him crucified to be made partaker of his sufferings and of the fellowship of his resurrection that as he rose from the grave of death so I may arise from the grave of sinne unto newness of life Lord grant that while others dive into thy secrets and search after thy Decrees and do limit thee who art the holy one of Israel by speaking of thee irreverently and ascribing unto thee those things which are not convenient and as the fly about the candle never leave prying and approaching too near till they be consumed in the pride of their own hearts and in the vanity of their own imaginations I may sincerely and humbly with all fear and reverence to thy great and glorious Majesty take thy Name into my mouth and only speak of thee as the word speaks and no further Lord thou hast said that thou art Jehovah Jchovah Jah Eheie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
superficiall piece of work and a light piece of business but the godly only we who have the Spirit of God Tit. 3.5 we only have our hearts washed with the water of Regeneration therefore we and we only have the Spirit of God Secondly Here is the way by which or after what manner they came to have the Spirit We have received it They came to have it by receiving It is not said we have purchased it or we have obtained it by our praiers or by our duties or the like or we have bought it with our money Act. 8.18 as Simon Magus thought to have bought the holy Ghost but we have received it 1. How the Spirit is received 1. The Spirit it is a free gift Luke 11.13 Gal. 4.6 As a free gift given by God to beleevers in Jesus Christ The Spirit it is a free gift God is said to give us his Spirit How much more shall your heavenly Father give his Spirit to them that ask it of him Because ye are sonnes God hath sent the Spirit of his Sonne into our hearts crying Abba Father From this place we must not think our Sonship is the cause why we have the Spirit Quia pro ergo Because It is not causal but illative rational in this place or rather demonstrative for the Spirit goes before Adoption now the effect doth not go before the cause but follow it but because ye are sonnes that is to witness unto you that ye are the sonnes of God God hath sent the Spirit of his Sonne into our hearts crying Abba Father 2. As a promise of Jesus Christ 2. We have received the Spirit as a promise of Jesus Christ at his departure Christ when he was to leave the world promised to send another Comforter even the Spirit of truth Christ deals with his Church as a loving friend doth with his friend You know when friends are going a long journey or a dangerous voyage by sea they use to leave behind them with their dearest friends some pledge or token of their love Some leave their pictures some a ring some a good book some one thing some another with this saying When you look on this remember me and though you should see me no more yet be not troubled here is a pledge of my love which I have left with you keep it be sure you keep it and do not part with it So our blessed Saviour that he might not leave his Church all-together comfortless at his departure Luk. 22.14 15 19. first of all he leaves his Sacraments with them as lively pictures and emblems of his death and sufferings so that in the Sacrament of the Communion of the body and blood of Christ when we see the bread broken we should remember and present to our view the breakings of Christs body upon the Cross and when we see the wine poured forth remember the pouring forth of Christs blood upon the Cross and this do remembring the Lords death till he come Secondly His Peace My peace in opposition to the sottish peace that the world giveth My peace I leave with you Ioh. 14.27 Ioh. 15.26 Thirdly His Spirit I will send you the Comforter so that we are to receive the Spirit as a promise of Jesus Christ 3. 3. As a redundancy of Gods love As a redundancy and fruit of the Fathers love As Christ is a most eminent fruit of the Fathers love so is the Spirit As Christ sends the Spirit so doth God 4. 4. As a testimony of our adoption Rom. 8.16 As a testimony of our Adoption The Spirit witnesseth with our spirits that we are the children of God Our spirits do nothing avail to the grace of Adoption without the comforting Spirit of Jesus Christ The Spirit of God lindx if it withdraws its testimony for a while our souls are even in Hemans case Psal 88. at the brink of despair And before conversion before the Spirit witnesseth our spirits like Nabals are sottish and secure like a dead piece of flesh insensible of the greatest evil If the Spirit comes by receiving and not by any thing in us but is a fruit of the Fathers love what a Popish spirit are they of who think to procure the Spirit by their prayers and by their duties Though Christ hath promised to give the Spirit to those that pray yet not for their prayers We are to pray for the Spirit because God hath commanded it but not to expect it for our prayers because God hath promised it The Spirit of God comes by receiving therefore whosoever thou art that thinkest by thy endeavours to have the Spirit though I will not curse thee as Paul did Simon Magus for thinking to purchase the holy Ghost with money though he had but such a thought in 's heart yet I tell thee thou shalt never have it Pray for the Spirit but look not to obtain it by thy prayers but only by the way of receiving Thirdly The spirit of the world put in opposition to the Spirit of God 1. A remotione subjectorum infertur diversitas for marum quia lapis non est idem subjectum cum plantâ ergo habet diversam formam ratio quia in omni subjecto debet apta esse organizatio membrorum ut melius forma introducenda suo munere fungatur In omni vero subjecto promiscuè sic dicto non datur sufficiens organizatio membrorum quo quaelibet forma suas operationes exerceat In lapide non dantur organa satis quo anima sensitiva quod suum est exercere exerceat Non datur organum videndi in lapide nec inplantâ By way of remotion in respect of the subject We have recived not the spirit of the world i. e. The world hath its own spirit and the children of God have theirs different subjects have different forms Now the world is not only different but divers quite another thing and other men considered with the people of God therefore have they different spirits and not only different but divers The Spirit of God makes us altogether other men and other persons than we were before When the Spirit of God comes into the heart all old things are done away and all things are become new There is a Metamorphosis a transmutation non ex hoc sed ab hoc in aliud totalitèr diversum from corrupt nature to grace from the flesh to the Spirit from darkness to light from being the children of the devil to become the children of God from the power flavery and dominion of sinne and Satan unto the glorious liberty of the children of God from the fulness of the devil of sinne and of the world to that fulness which is in Christ to that fulness which is of God Joh. 1.16 Of his fulness have we received all grace for grace that is one degree of grace after another That ye may be filled with all the fulness of
the spirit of Antichrist for there is nothing so opposite to God the Father God the Sonne and God the holy Ghost as sinne is and this spirit of sinne within us What a worldly spirit is When men have an impetus of spirit or a propensity and a full bent of will to sinne then they are said to have a worldly spirit When their hearts are set upon the world and upon their sinnes and they will contrive all the waies and spate no cost and charges to bring their wicked designes to pass A spirit of Idolatry Men are said to have a sinfull spirit of Idolatry when they will undergo any danger and count nothing too much to lose so by it they may keep their Idols amongst them A spirit of Adultery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oculos plenos adulterae Men have a spirit of Adultery when their eyes are full of Adultery and are so impious that one might see the whore sitting in the adulterers eyes and they will spend their estates and their time and all they have upon their beloved whores When men covee after riches beyond measure and care not how they grow rich so they have it and pull the meat out of the poors mouths by usury and extortion and never think they have enough then they have a sinfull spirit that worldly spirit of covetousness This spirit of sinne it is not only a spirit of Antichrist but Antichrist it self There is a double Antichrist 1. A mysticall Antichrist A double Antichrist and this is sinne 2. A personall Antichrist which is excellenthy described by St Paul in the 2d to the Thessalonians where he is set forth by severall characters as these 1. By his sinne he is called That man of sinne v. 3. 2. By his parnishment The sonne of perdition 3. By his pride He exalts himself above all that is called God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. By his policy he is called The mystery of iniquity 5. By his hypocrisie He works with all deceivableness of unrighteousness 6. By his success Many thousands shall come in unto him So likewise in the Revelation this personall Antichrist is excellently described the number of the Beast agreeing with Irenaeus his AATEINOS and Gregory the 3d Bishop of Rome pointing out as it were by the finger Gregory the 7th otherwise Hildebrand or the brand of hell his successour whom Phocas the Usurper having slain his Master Mauritius caused to be proclaimed universall Bishop and Head over all the Churches of God Then began this mystery of iniquity to shew it self But there is a generation of men in the world that hold there is no other Antichrist but sin and that impure spirit of the world that spirit of Antichrist denying that there is any personall Antichrist at all But they are grosly mistaken for this delineation which the Apostle holds forth of Antichrist cannot agree to things but to persons Howsoever sinne it is a mysticall Antichrist and that which makes the personall Antichrist to be an Antichrist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A thing may be said to be Antichristian or to be Antichrist in a double respect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sumitur aliquando significat 1. Pro seu vice alicujus 2. Contra fic fine compositione in compositione accipitur 1. When it is set up in stead of Christ and stands in his place 2. When it opposeth and fighteth against Christ Sin is an Antichristian thing or a mysticall Antichrist upon this double account 1. Because it sets it self up in the heart of an unregenerate man in the place of Christ It is Christs prerogative to have the heart My son give me thy heart Sinne steps into the throne and stands there in Christs place There is something of Antichrist in the best men that are upon the earth because sinne remains within them Saith the Apostle What I would not that I do Rom. 7. and what I would that do I not now it is no more I but sinne that dwelleth in me 2. Sin it is a mysticall Antichrist because it opposeth Jesus Christ and fighteth against him sinne it opposeth Christ in all his Offices as a Prophet a Priest and a King in his Sacraments in his worship in his Word in his Ambassadours and in his Saints Our own righteousness in the former respect is Antichrist When men establish their own righteousness they destroy the righteousness of Christ and make it of no effect The devil is Antichrist in both respects for he sets up himself in the place of Jesus Christ Matth. 4. Angels could fall no other waies but by a ceflex of their understanding upon themselves when being held with an admiration of their own sublimity the memory of their subordination unto God and their dependency on him was drowned in this conceit whereupon their adoration love and imitation of God could not but be interrupted Thus M. Hooker He seeks to be worshipped with the same worship which God is worshipped withall Saith the devil to Christ If thou wilt fall down and worship me all these things will I give thee He tels a lie to make up the bargain as if he had the power of the earth to bestow it on whomsoever he pleaseth when the earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof The devil desires nothing more than to draw mens hearts from God and to have that worship given unto him which is due unto God alone Pride was the cause of his fall as appears by that place 1 Tim. 3.6 Ordain not a novice lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil And since the fall through the pride of his minde he hath sought in all places to set up his worship in place of the most pure worship of God Idolatry in Scripture-phrase is called worshipping of devils 1 Cor. 10.10 Rev. 9.20 and in worshipping Idols they worship him And as it is reported he hath feigned voices in the air commanding that such a Saint departed should be worshipped As Romulus after he was dead appeared again or the devil in the shape of Romulus commanding that he should be worshipped for a God under the name Quirinus And therefore that was the devil in Samuels mantle 1 Sam. 28.14 and not Samuel himself because he permitted Saul to worship him The devil is Antichrist also because he opposeth Christ Christ had two eminent conflicts with him one in the wilderness where the devil was in presence with him tempting him to have unbeseeming thoughts of God the Father Mat. 4. If you be the Sonne of God command that these stones be made bread as if he should have said Certainly if God were your Father he would not let you be in so great straits as to want bread Earthly parents give their children food when they want how much more shall God the Father give his only begotten Sonne if thou art he those things that are convenient
unless Jesus Christ intercedes and makes up the difference VIII We reade of a spirit of infirmity Luke 13.11 There was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years i. e. she had a vehement and a great infirmity lying upon her IX We reade of a spirit of judgement and of a spirit of burning Isa 4.4 When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion by the spirit of judgement and by the spirit of burning i. e. by great judgements and by burning afflictions That Gods judgments are compared to fire appears by that place in the Prophet Ezekiel where God saith of wicked men Ezek. 21.32 I will bring them into the fire and there I will leave them You see the sad condition of wicked men God brings them into the fire of affliction and never takes them our again When God comes to deal with wicked men for their sinnes when he begins he makes an end Afflictions shall not rise up the second time saith the Prophet Nahum Nah. 1.9 But though God may bring sore judgements upon his own people and bring them into the fire of affliction he takes them out of the fire again and doth not leave them in it as he doth wicked men but when he hath accomplisht his own work upon them and they are fit vessels for his use he takes them out of the fire It is a sign thou art not reprobate silver but tried silver and a true Saint if thou canst patiently and beleevingly undergo the siery triall And though thou maiest be ready for the present to faint under the afflicting hand of God thinking that God hath forgotten thee and that he will be gracious to thee no more yet when Gods time is fully come and thy filth is throughly done away God will take thee out of the sire and thou shalt be a glorious Saint in the sight of God Indeed Gods people may be sorely smutted and besmeared with the fire of affliction as we see by experieuce that fire commonly blacks things before it makes them clear but yet they shall not be consumed as the wicked shall be but shall be delivered Ps 34 17. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the righteous out of all their afflictions Well may Gods judgements be compared to fire to the spirit of judgement and to the spirit of burning for these reasons 1. Fire purifies it separates the dross from the pure metall so afflictions they purifie the soul Gods children are afflicted that they might be made partakers of his holiness Heb. 12.10 Before affliction came upon us we were unclean we were worldly earthly minded we forgot our God we were impure instruments fit only for the devils service But by afflictions we are cleansed we are more spirituall and have learnt to minde heavenly things more watchfull more industrious to pump out sinne as fast as it comes into the soul and to be more diligent in Gods service afflictions are Gods files whereby he takes away that rust that defiles the soul How many hath a fit of sickness an outward cross in their estates relations good names the missing of their expectations the unfaithfulness of friends the deceit that is in the world or some grief which hath been as a continuall dropping upon their souls as the Stone Wind-cholick Falling sickness c. driven home from the house of their spirituall bondage and from this mysticall Egypt where there is nothing but pollution to bethink themselves of the house of their heavenly Father Before saies David Psal 119.67 I was afflicted I went astray but now have I learned thy righteous judgements Affliction it is Gods pruning knife whereby he lops off the superfluous branches it is Gods Razor whereby he shaves off the excrescencies of sinne it is Gods niter whereby he cleanseth our defiled garments They are Gods messengers sent to call us forth our of Sodom the spirituall Sodom where there is nothing but filthiness and wallowing in the mire of sinne to prepare our hearts to meet Jesus Christ our Bridegroom in the beavenly Canaan As the shepherd sets his dog at the sheep to fetch it out of the mire and dirt wherein it is plunged so afflictions are as it were Gods dogs to bark and hunt us out of the pollutions of the world that we may be made meet for the inheritance of the Saints in light 2. Fire melts some things and consumes others Afflictions melt the heart of Gods people but they consume the ungodly Josias heart melted when he heard the Law of the Lord read 2 King 22.19 though he did but hear what threatnings God had made against the breach of his Law his heart melted within him Manasses heart melted under Gods offliction Poverty of spirit comes often from poverty of purse in a childe of God But the afflictions of the wicked they do but perboyl them for hell they are but heralds of everlasting vengeance Gods pledges that he will never do them good they do but eat out their spirits their comforts their common graces against the eternall consumption of their spirits by that ever gnawing worm 3. Fire it softens some things and it hardens others So afflictions they soften the godly but harden the wicked the more God afflicted Ahaz the more he sinned and the more his heart was hardened therefore God hath put this brand of infamy upon him never to be wiped off again 2 Chron. 28.22 This is that King Ahaz So Pharachs heart was hardened by Gods judgements It is a most dreadfull sign God intends to make thee a brand of hell fire if thy heart is hardened under the afflicting hand of God How afflictions may be said to harden Fire it softens the wax but hardens the clay afflictions do not harden as considered absolutely in themselves but accidentally as they meet with the corruptions of mens wicked hearts A wicked man is like the Smiths Anvill the more he is smitten the more rebellious and stout hearted he is ☜ Affliction it is so farre from driving a wicked man to God that it drives him farther from him making him desperate in his wicked courses and like Julian the Apostate when the dart of Gods vengeance hath been upon them they have blasphemed and cursed the holy Name of God It is a most dreadfull thing and a great aggravation of our condemnation when we adde sinne to sinne under the afflicting hand of God As in Ames 4. saies the Lord I have brought such and such judgements upon you yet have you not returned unto me saith the Lord. But Gods people are of another disposition of a flexible and of a pliable nature ready to receive whatsoever God shall impart unto them they consider that God is their Father and that all their afflictions shall be for their good That God corrects them but in measure Enashim of a weak sickly crazy man and with the rods of a man and that it is either
the Spirit upon thee Besides dost thou know how long the Spirit will move upon thy heart how long the prosperous gales will laft which if thou hadst sailed along with would have brought thee to heaven Dost thou know how long the Spirit will strive with thy heart crying out Why sinner how long shall it be ere Christ shall be thy Lord and Saviour Beloved Christian though there be hope as long as the pool is open and thou art alive and livest under the Ordinances of grace that the Spirit may descend again upon thee yet seeing thou hast sinned so often against the pleadings of the Spirit and hast quenched the Spirit so long who can tell whether ever he will come down in mercy again upon thy soul for ever For God hath a time in this life to bid his Spirit to let sinners alone and never to strive with them more but let them be filthy if they will be filthy Though this time God hath reserved in his own wisdom secret from men that they should not know it The black book of reprobation is known only to God and none may say positively God hath rejected him unless he is certain he hath sinned against the holy Ghost as too many weak Christians under desertion are apt to say and how knowest thou thou hast sinned the sin against the holy Ghost if thou hast a desire to repent for thy sinnes if thou art willing to receive Jesus Christ for thy Lord and Saviour never fear it Christian all is well thou art in a good condition yet I beseech thee do not quench the motions of the Spirit upon thy heart XI The Spirit is put for a state or a condition or a calling as some interpret We have not received the spirit of bondage Rom. S. but the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father i. e. not a state or condition of bondage but a state of adoption so Ravanellus Likewise when Christ said to his Disciples You know not of what spirit ye are of Luk. 9.55 i. e. of what state of what calling of what condition ye are of It is not suitable to men of your profession of your coat to be so fiery and so impatient so Aretius Yet I rather follow the judgement of a judicious Divine in our daies who in the forementioned place in the Romans means by spirit not a state there but a person i. e. the third person in the blessed Trinity very judiciously explaining the words after this manner Shewing that when once the Spirit hath been the Spirit of adoption that Spirit is never after the spirit of bondage again unto us this in no waies hindering but that a childe of God after the Spirit of adoption may have the fears of bondage again for though the Spirit doth not contradict his testunony yet he may withdraw his rest mony for a time and leave us in the dark yea the devil may trouble and affright us and our own consciences may condemn us XII By Spirit may be meant a pretence and opinion of some revelation Dr. Goodwin in his excellent Book called A childe of light walking in darknels concerning something which a mans own private conceit or imagination inclined him so to think 2 Thess 2.1 Be not troubled neither by spirit nor by word to think the day of judgement is at hand By spirit i. e. if any pretend a revelation that the day of judgement is at hand do not beleeve him 1 John 4.1 Try the spirits i. e. those pretended revelations which men feign and see whether they are of God or no. Beleeve not every spirit because that many false Prophets are gone out into the world XIII The Spirit is taken for the graces of the Spirit in you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Revel 1. To the seven Spirits of the seven Churches i. e. to that Spirit which is seven-fold in respect of its graces to the seven Churches The Spirit of God dwelleth within you that is according to some not the Spirit it self but the graces of the Spirit Gal. 5. These are the fruits of the Spirit love joy peace meekness temperance patience c. XIV The Spirit is taken for those unclean lusts which the devil brings along with him in the hearts of those in whom he lodgeth Matth. 12.45 When the unclean spirit returneth he bringeth with him seven other spirits worse than the former i. e. many other filthy lusts more abominable than the former XV. Consule Pareum in Genesin na hunc locum interpretatur viz. Spiritum illic accipi pro vi seu officacia divina Cap. 1. Geneseos The Spirit is taken for Divine force and efficacy Judg. 14.19 And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him i. e. a Divine force from on high came upon Sampsons spirit whereby he set upon the enterprize of killing the Ashkelonites XVI The word Spirit fignifieth a new quality of holiness created and wrought in all the Elect by the Spirit of God whereby all the powers and faculties of the soul and body are renewed according to the Image of God in wisdom holiness and righteousness otherwise called the Regenerate part Rom. 8. The flesh lusteth against the Spirit XVII Spirit is taken for the chief and excellent faculties of the soul called reason and understanding 1 Cor. 2.11 XVIII The Spirit is taken for the vigour and efficacy of the understanding Be ye renewed in the spirit of your minde More particularly First The Angels are called spirits 1. Good Who maketh his Angels spirits and his Ministers a flame of fire Heb. 1. 2. Evil Mark 5.4 We reade of a man possessed with an unclean spirit and saith Christ What is thy name saith the unclean spirit again My name is Legion for we are many A Legion of devils in one poor man Secondly By way of eminency God is called a Spirit John 4.24 God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth God is a Spirit if you take God essentially for the Deity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or personally for the three persons Father Sonne and holy Ghost Thirdly More particularly the third Person in the blessed Trinity distinguished from the Father and the Sonne is called a Spirit Often times in Scripture he is called by the Name of the holy Ghost Matth. 3.16 I saw the holy Ghost descend upon him like a Dove Having done with the ambiguity of the word Spirit I come to shew what are the teachings of the Spirit upon the hearts of Beleevers In handling of this I shall premise That it is a very difficult thing to know what the teachings of the Spirit are As thou canst not tell how the bones grow in her that is with child or what properly be the influences of the starres Eccl. 11.5 or how-one spirit communicates its minde to another or the causes of naturall sympathy or antipathy as thou canst not tell whence the winde cometh John
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
demonstrativus notans ipsum verbum fieri carnem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indefinite sumitur fine ullo articulo inde notans eum accepisse totam nostram naturam and that he was not formed in the womb of the Virgin Mary but that he passed through the womb of the Virgin as water passeth through a Conduit And dwelt amongst us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greek Had his Tabernacle among us There are many other duties which only the Spirit teacheth as justification by faith alone the doctrine of the resurrection of the immortality of the soul of the happiness of the Saints in heaven and of the future torments of the wicked in hell The Schoolmen with their fine-spun distinctions and criticall questions do rather darken the minde of the Spirit in these waies than adde any further light unto them Their teachings are like the way of a serpent upon a stone very slippery and uncertain 4. The evil nature of finne The Spirit alone hath shewed unto us the evil nature of sinne It condemns an evil look a malitious thought Mat. 5. He that looks upon a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart Eph. 5.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 urbanitas apud Spiritum est vitium upud Aristoteleus est virtus 1 Thess 5. He that hâ—ttih his brother in his heart is a murderer It condemns jesting and evil speaking It is to be observed that that very word which Aristotle cals a vertue the Spirit of God terms a vice Jesting with Aristotle is a vertue with the Spirit of God it is a vice We are commanded to abstain from all appearance of evil To hate the very garments spotted with the flesh To resist the first motions and allurements to sinne Rom 7. I had not known sinne but by the Law for I had not known lust except the Law had said Thou shalt not covet Unless the Word of God had told us and the Spirit of God had set down this for a certain truth that these motions to sin are sin we should never have known it or beleeved it These first motions were never counted for sinnes by any of the Heathen Philosophers or by the more refined wits of the Schoolmen only the Spirit hath pricked them down for sinnes That they are sinnes ☜ appears by this because they tempt a man to sinne If concupiscence were not a sinne it would never tempt a man to sinne for nothing bringeth forth sin formally but sinne Lust when it conceiveth it bringeth forth sin and sin when it conceiveth it bringeth forth death Ob. The wages of sin is death now if lust were a sinne it would bring forth death how then is it said that luft when it conceiveth bringeth forth sin and sin when it conceiveth bringeth forth death Resp St James in this place distinguisheth the severall sorts of sinnes There are some sinnes consummated and finished and those bring forth death but it followeth not that other sinnes bring not forth death but that they do not bring forth death to the same degree as those sinnes do for there are diversities of torments in hell and the best place in hell is very lamentable As he that cals his brother fool is worthy of hell fire Raca i.e. a fellow of no worth from the word Rik ovacuare yet it will not follow that he that cals his brother Raca is unworthy of it but that he is not worthy of it in the same degree and measure Lust it bringeth forth death but not to the same degree that sin consummated doth God judgeth the secrets of mens hearts that secret wickedness which is within us and reproves it and makes it manifest to our consciences Rom 2.16 In the day when God shall judge the secrets of mens hearts according to my Gospel It is only the Spirit that condemneth heart-wickedness So saith Peter to Simon Magus Pray to God that the thought of thy heart might be forgiven thee The Laws of man do not reach to the conscience to heart wickedness to the secret inward abominations to which God and thy own conscience are conscious to Only the Law of the Spirit doth reprove this heart wickedness The Spirit of God it condemns hypocrisie when men will seem religious and would be counted true Christians though their hearts runne whoring after their base lusts When like a man at Oars they will row one way and look another Pretend for God and for Gods cause when their design is to carry on the interest of the flesh and of the devil When they will worship God and speak him fair to his face and give him a parcell of good words in a few formall words and in an externall lip-service when malice and covetousness and carnall lusts are in their hearts Matth. 23. How many woes hath Christ denounc'd against hypocrites Wo to you Scribes and Pharisees hypocrites Externall worship is sufficient in mans sight but God requireth the heart and the whole heart Matth. 22.37 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul with all thy might and with all thy strength Hypocrisie is no sinne in the worlds account but a criminall fault a crimson sinne in the sight of God Dost thou think to mock God and to put him off with shadows in stead of substance with thy formality in stead of sincerity Gal. 5. Be not deceived do not deceive your selves and think to put off God with any thing the heart of man is full of deceit deceitfull above all things and desperately wicked Why be not deceived why I will tell you for what a man soweth that shall he reap if ye sow chaff you shall reap chaff if you sow wheat you shall reap wheat Hypocrisie is an epidemicall sinne in this professing age Consider against this sinne Cor secundum Auagramma est Camera omnipotentis Regis The heart is the seat of the great King of heaven and earth the King of Kings and Lord of Lords God hath two places wherein he most especially is resident the highest heaven and the lowest heart In heaven he is by his glorious presence In an humble heart by his gracious presence 1. That all thy endeavours will be utterly lost unless thou hast an upright heart if thou praiest never so much if thy heart be not perfect with thy God all thy prayers will do thee no good As good not at all as never a whit the better 2. Consider that God judgeth a man and esteemeth of him according as his heart is if that be sincere thou art a sincere Christian but if that be rotten thou art unsavory in the sight of God 3. God answereth a man according to what is in his heart not according to what is in his lips when he praieth to him Thou art a drunkard or a whoremonger or a covetous wretch or an extortioner c. and thou comest as Gods people do and sittest before him and
praiest unto him Why God will not answer thee according to thy prayer for it is but lip-service but according to the Idol that is in thy heart Ezek. 14. In stead of pardoning thy sinnes he will give thee more liberty to gratifie thy lusts God will answer thee but it shall be with a curse rather than with a blessing Sinne it is filthiness in the sight of God Ezek. 36. I will pour clean water upon you and purge you from all your filthinessess Saith God remove this abominable thing out of my sight which I hate As it is spoken in reference to Idolatry so it may be applied to all manner of sinnes Remove this abominable thing to wit sinne either in generall Jer. 44.4 or this particular sinne out of my sight Rebellion is as the sinne of witchcraft 1 Sam. 15.23 He that sinneth hurteth his own soul Every sinne properly is a destruction to the soul Isa 59 2. Your finnes have separated between you and your God and he hath hid his face and will not hear 2 Cor. 6.15 Sin it defaceth the beauty of the soul It is a fretting leprosie which only the blood of Christ can purge away The deluge which drowned so many sinners was not able to wash away the least sinne Sin it is the greatest evil because it is worse than the devil for it made him to be so 'T is worse than hell that is but opposite to the good of the creature this of the Creator And if the greatness of the malady may be judged by the cost and difficulty of the cure it will easily appear that no evil is so great as this because nothing could serve for the remedy of it but the infinite precious blood of Jesus Christ 'T is so great an evil that there can be no greater punishment of iâ— than by it self When God would deal with man as a most desperate enemy he gives him up to sin There can be no worse Epithete for it than it self When the Apostle would speak the worst of it as he could he cals it by his own name Rom. 7.13 Sinfull sin Dr. Wilkins in his Discourse concerning the gift of prayer it is a leprosie which infects the whole man it is that which makes the inhabitants of the earth to stink and be corrupt in the nostrils of God It is that which is the greatest evil because it is opposite to the greatest good God blessed for ever and brings the greatest evil upon creatures the privation of Gods glorious presence for ever 1 Cor. 6.9 Neither fornicators nor Idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankinde nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor reyilers nor extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of heaven The Morallist defines sin after this manner Vitium est quod à mediocritate deflectit vel in excessu vel in defectu Actuall sin according to the Schoolmen is thus defined Peccaium actuale est actus indebito modo circumstantionatus the circumstances are these Quis quid ubi quibus auxiliis cur quomodo quando But the Word of God cals sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sin is the transgression of the Law Every deviation from the perfect Law of God in the least punctillo of it though but in a thought in a word or in one particular action it is a sin Regula est judex sui obliqui And the Law of God it not only shews what is good what is right and what is just but what is evil what is unjust because it shews us all our obliquities and defects from it 5. None can teach us to understand the Word of God but the Spirit of God The Word of God it remains alwaies the same and it is a clear and a plain way in it self Till the Spirit removes the scales from our eyes such scales as fell from Pauls eyes we cannot understand the minde of the Spirit We may prove the Word of God to be the Word of God by reason for unless we go by reason we shall never be able to convince an Infidell or a Pagan that the Seriptures are the Word of God But to make a man understand it is the work of the Spirit What is the reason that having been so much verst in the word we remain so ignorant of the minde of the Spirit Why it is because thou art void of the Spirits teachings The word it is not written upon thy heart by the finger of God but as fast as it comes in at one car it goes out at another and the devil comes and steals the word out of thy heart I tell thee thou maiest have the whole Word of God by heart and yet farre to seek in the right knowledge of it Scriptura omnibus accessibilitis paucissimis penetrabilis Aug. Act. 8. We reade the story of Philio and of the Eunuch The Eunuch was reading a place of Isaias He was led as a sheep to the slaughter and as a lamb before the shearer opened he not his mouth Philip comes to him and said Vnderstandest thou what thou readest said the Eunuch again How can I except some man guide me Then Philip expounded the place unto him But what set Philip a work to go to the Eunuch The Spirit said unto Philip Go near and joyn thy self to his Chariot So I may say to a poor man when he reads the Word of God Understandest thou what thou readest Dost thou know the minde of the Spirit in that place and he may answer me How should I unless the Spirit teacheth me or some body whom the Spirit sets a work for that end Beleeve it ☜ When sensual men that have not the Spirit let them be never so book-learned or head-learned otherwise speak of the things of God they speak as some Geographers write of other Countries who never were there themselves to see the situation or the sertility of them they travell by other mens eyes and see with other mens light and what they write for the most part of it they take up on trust and record and have but an opinionative knowledg of them if I may so speak and mix many errors with little of truth So Learned men void of the Spirit the greatest part of their knowledge they have upon trust and upon the record of men like Augustine who as he before his conversion said I beleeve so because the Church said so so they beleeve so because the fathers of old said so or because such and such persons whom they esteem say so not considering the light of the Spirit which is greater than the light of reason or any other light whatsoever But the spiritual man speaks experimentally what he seâ—â— by the light of the Spirit within him Every spiritual man can say and only he can say so I know what I speak I beleeved therefore have have I spoken My record is true because I have the record of the Spirit What I have heard seen and felt
changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Here you may observe this rule A Rule That whatsoever is spoken of the word in reference to our spirituall estate it is to be meant of the word as the Spirit goes along with it Heb. 4.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad intimos recessus ad spinae medullam usque penetro To pierce to the very back bone as when a beast is chined But the word of God is quick and powerfull sharper than any two-edged sword dividing between the joynts and the marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and of the intonts of the heart that is the word in the hand of the Spirit is so and not otherwise therefore the word is called The sword of the Spirit and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God As the sword cannot cut of it self but as it is in the hand of a strong and of a skilfull man so neither can the Word have any effect upon our souls but so farre forth as 't is managed by the Spirit Ninthly They are quiet and comfortable teachings 'T is the Spirit alone that teacheth without noise of words without confusion of opinions without ambition of honour with contention of arguments 'T is the Spirit alone that in an instant raiseth up the humble minded As it is said of Christ so it may be said of the Spirit that his voice shall not be heard in the streets The Spirit hath its gentle gales and blasts of love it doth not compell men to Jesus Christ but it invites perswades allures them and brings them over in a loving way The voice of the Spirit it is a sweet gracious inward voice It is a soft voice which will break the hardest rocks It is a soul-melting voice which will make a soul dissolve into tears it is not a thundering voice but a secret powerfull voice calling us from the world to enjoy communion with God Amongst the Jews there was a certain revelation called Bathcol that is filia vocis because usually when it thundered they had a Revelation Therefore the Jews to this day when it thunders use to light candles expecting to hear a voice concerning the Messias Agreeable to this is the place of the Psalmist I answered thee out of the secret place of thunder And when Christ was in his transfiguration some said it thundered others that an Angel spoke unto him But the Spirit doth not teach in a thundering voice but in a sweet still voice And as God was not in the wind and in the earthquake and in the fire but in the sweet still voice 1 King 19.12 so the Spirit of God when it teacheth the soul it is by a sweet and a pleasant voice Tenthly They are abiding teachings 2 Cor. 3.3 Saith Christ I will send the Comforter to you and he shall abide with you for ever Jer. 31.33 34. I will write my Law in their hearts and put my fear within them and they shall never depart from me 1 Pet 1.23 Being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible of the Word of God which liveth and abideth for ever As none can blot out the Law of nature written naturally on the heart of man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Communes notiones Honeste vivendum neminem laedendum suum cuique tribuendum for there are certain principles in our hearts certain generall notions common to all men to wit that God is to be loved and worshipped that we should live bonestly and reverence our parents and the like Therefore the Gentiles when they walked contrary to that naturall light which God had put within them are said to withhold the truth in unrighteousness Much less canst thou blot out the teachings of the Spirit The finger of God writes indeleble characters We reade of the seal of the Spirit Eph. 1.13 Now you know a seal is for two things 1. For confirmation of the Covenant 2. For perpetuity as long as the Bond stands sealed it is in force As long as the Spirit hath been a Spirit of Adoption to us we need not ever fear that he will be a Spirit of bondage again As long as we have Gods seal upon our hearts which stands firm and sure untill the day of redemption we need not fear but that we shall continue stedfast in the faith of Gods elect Eleventhly They are uniform teachings that is in respect of the subject matter the Spirits teachings are the same to wit the things of God though the Spirit hath not alwaies one and the same way to communicate those things unto our souls Twelfthly and lastly The Spirits teachings they are the only teachings As Peter said to Christ when Christ asked his Disciples Joh. 6.68 Will ye also forsake me Lord whither shall we go thou hast the words of eternall life So whither should we go to be taught the minde of God but to the Spirit in the Name of Jesus Christ to desire him to instruct us by it As the men that were sent by the rulers to take Christ brought word back again that never man spake like this man Ioh. 7.46 So when once thou hast had the experience of the Spirits teachings upon thy heart thou wilt say indeed and in truth Never any taught me so as the Spirit hath taught me Now my business is to shew unto you That only those that have the Spirits teachings can know the things of God Which is proved from one place of Scripture 1 Cor. 2. 14 it is said that the naturall man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him In this place of Scripture you have two parts First A plain Proposition which is this That the naturall man receiveth not the things of God of the Spirit of God Secondly You have the reasons of the Proposition which are these two 1. Because they are foolishness unto him 2. Because they are spiritually discerned It is said The naturall man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit The Apostle doth not here speak of Epicures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom Peter 2 Ep. 2. chap. v. 12. cals bruit beasts but of the great men of this world excellent for wit for wisdom and for morall vertues as Scipio Cato Socrates Aristides Those men cannot discern the things of the Spirit Neither doth he speak there of those who by the just judgement of God are delivered up to Satan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 opponitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 animalis opponitur spirituali The Schoolmens questions are for the most part idle and curious as the most of their hypotheticall propositions and the manner of disputations for oftentimes they dispute ex alienis principiis out of the grounds of other sciences they confound Divinity and Philosophy and the Media which they use oftentimes are impertinent They trust too much to the testimony of men they go very rashly
many of them and speak not soberly enough of the great mystery of the Trinity bringing in Philosophicall reasons whereas these mysteries should rather be adored than searched after They distinguish were God disting uisheth not being full of vain Philosophy and needless doctrines Weems that seeing they might not see who are called men of corrupt mindes reprobate concerning the faith 2 Tim. 3.8 But by the naturall man is understood every man whatsoever that is not taught and inlightened by the Spirit As fleshly is opposed to spirituall so animall or naturall is opposed to spirituall So that whosoever he be let him have the highest perfections of nature or morality or common endowments he is an ignoramus in the things of God if he be void of the Spirit Wicked men they count spirituall things foolishness As the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God so the wisdom of God is foolishness with the world 1 Cor. 1.25 Though the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men So we reade of the foolishness of preaching in the 21 verse of the same Chapter Wicked men count preaching of the Word of God foolishness and Religion but a toy a bable and as a bug-bear to keep us in awe they cannot savour or relish any spirituall thing Besides saies the Apostle they are spiritually discerned Now wicked men who are void of the Spirit they have not that Spirit of discerning which other men have As a man who hath a vitious humour in his eye whatsoever he looks upon it is represented under that humour as if a man hath the Jaundis in his eyes all things are presented to his sight under a yellow colour So wicked men because they are sensuall and have not the Spirit as Jude speaks they look upon all things with a carnall eye and so are not able to discern aright Many times naturall men they judge of things according to their bulk and quantity they judge of the goodness of a prayer by the length of it of faith by a meer casting of themselves at all adventures upon Jesus Christ for salvation never seeing whether their hearts are purified by faith or no Indeed the wicked that have learning may perceive and know those things of the Spirit but they know them in a carnall manner not in a spirituall manner and howbeit they may reform their outward courses and cut off many acts of sin and like grace somewhat in their hearts thus farre and farther may a carnall man go being but changed not renewed Now they cannot spiritually discern grace for in regard of spirituall discerning they are in the dark even as the eyes if they would see without light the eye-sight and the goodness and the excellency of the ball will not avail to make them see so the wicked even the learned'st of them all they cannot see grace because they have not the Spirit of discerning light their learning their wit and all their good parts cannot suffice to descry the things of God as they are seen by the godly They seeing see not and hearing they might hear and not understand This knowledge of the things of God this spirituall knowledge it is called the Unction of the holy Ghost 1 John 2.20 You have an Unction from the holy One and you know all things It is called eye-salve Rev. 3.18 It is called the opening of the eyes Psal 119.18 Open thou mine eyes that I may behold the wondrous things in thy Law It is called the lightning of the eyes Psal 13.3 Lighten my eyes It is called seeing Isa 29.18 And the eyes of the blinde shall see out of darkness Mr. Feuner in his mystery of saving grace or joyned with a true love unto him They mistake common grace for speciall grace and rest satisfied with the common graces of the Spirit never minding whether they have that prevailing degree of grace to love God and Jesus Christ above all things They are ready to think themselves the children of God because they prosper in the world and have not crosses as other men because they are quiet in respect of sinne and have no trouble of conscience upon their hearts as other men have They are apt to conclude that God loves them and delights in them because they have sometimes more than ordinary raptures of Spirit and are sometimes stirred up to prayer and the like because they have more head-knowledge than many other honest-hearted Christians have All these false conclusions come from corrupt flesh because they are not inlightened by the Spirit of God John 2.11 He that walketh in the dark knoweth not whither he goeth You are all in the dark unless you have the Spirit If the people of the world had the eyes of the children of God they could not but love grace and holiness and Christ and the Word and the Ministers for the beauty and the excellency that is in them Then they would say with David Psal 84. I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness a thonsand years Psal 42.1 As the hart panteth after the water-brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God when shall I come and appear before God! They would hate sinne for that odious nature and that vileness that is in it but their eyes are vitiated and in stead of the Doves eyes of the spouse of Christ their eyes are bewitched with the things of this world Gal. 3.1 O ye Galatians who hath bewitched you It is a bewitching with the eyes as the Greek word imports It is said of Agar that when she was in the wilderness and the Lad was ready to die for thirst that God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water So though Jesus Christ that fountain which is open to Judah and Jerusalem for sinne and for uncleanness be daily put before our eyes yet if God doth not open our eyes we shall never see it we shall never taste of the waters of life What is the reason that David prayed so often Psal 119. Open thou mine eyes that I may behold the wondrous things of thy Law Teach me thy statutes Make me to understand the way of thy precepts I am thy servant give me understanding that I may know thy precepts Why Because David knew that he could not understand the things of God unless he were taught by the Spirit When the earnall men of the world condemn the children of God for their zeal and constancy in his waies and for their preciseness in living up to the terms of the Gospel they may answer them as one did his fellow in another case for looking upon a picture said his fellow Why dost thou gaze upon it so long O saith he if you did see with my eyes and had that skill to discern as I have you would gaze upon it as long too So if you did see with our light and had that Spirit of
discerning which we have you would be as eager in the waies of God as we possibly can be Wicked men are not able to judge aright of the worth of grace and of the excellency of the things above as they should do therefore they preferre Barabbas before Christ and sinne before grace but the godly on the contrary they cry out with that godly Martyr Lambert None but Christ Nothing but grace Give us grace and Christ and it sufficeth us Do you think that men that are bewitched or that are besotted or that are overcome by the power of luft or that are drunken by the pleasures of sinne or that have no other light to judge by but that little spark which is left within them since the fall which is over-pressed with the corruptions of sinne these men are not fit to be competent judges of the minde of the Spirit Now all men that have not the teachings of the Spirit they are either drunken men drunk with the pleasures of sinne Eph. 4. Be not drunk with wine but be ye filled with the Spirit Or drunken with the cares of the world as Martha was who was cumbred about so many things There is a drunkenness wherein Nazarites themselves may be overcome The very cares of this world and voluptuous living have a kinde of inebriating power with them The excess of our affections in the pursuit and use of any earthly thing may be called drunkenness Dr. Sclater that she could not have time to attend to the sweet words which dropped forth from Christs-mouth Or they are drunken with self-love with self-pride with self-admiration with self-applause and so they lift up themselves before Jesus Christ The excess and immoderate use of a thing especially when the thing is unlawfull in it self may be called drunkenness as the Prophet cries forth O ye that are drunken but not with wine Isa 29.9 As wise Abigail did not discover the intent of David over night to Nabal A simile till the drink was out of his head and he had slept his sleep so these swinish men cannot understand the things of God till the Spirit of God of swines makes them men and of men Christians Many are sottish children that consider not the Lord nor the operations of his hands Isa 1.3 The Ox knoweth his owner and the Ass his Masters crib but Israel doth not know my people doth not consider They are benummed the devil having seared their consciences with a hot iron Now for sots and innocents to know the things of God it implies a thing impossible to flesh and blood Indeed according to the things of the world they may be wiser than the children of light but in respect of heavenly things they are sottish children Ask them what Regeneration is and about the new birth they are as great strangers to it as Nicodemus was Ioh. 3.9 Ask them concerning the teachings of the Spirit and like those in the Acts Act. 19.2 they will answer you they never heard of the teachings of the Spirit before Likewise men that are sensuall who are led by sense and not by faith who can believe nothing but what they see and can yield to no truth but what their blinde understandings can reach unto Arabicum Proverbium Obstrue quinque fenestras ut luceat domus qui sunt in eâ Shut your five windows that the house and all that are therein may shine i. e. Consult not with your senses with carnall reason which like Sarah laughs at heavenly promises and looks only to earthly possibilities and as the Sunne whose rising discovers the terrestiail globe to our sight but hides the starres and the celestiall Dr. Stoughton what they are able to apprehend these are not able to distinguish between light and darkness Now the Spirit subjects our sense to reason and reason to faith that what before we could not close withall for truth because it was above our capacity to understand by the Spirits witnessing with our spirits we can more certainly and resolvedly comply withall and beleeve than with those things we see with our naturall eyes The more we have to do with sense the less we have to do with God We finde it in naturall things that the more retired our souls are and the freer from this body of flesh and the more contracted within it self the higher it soars in the meditation of heavenly things Pleasant walks and solitary places where there is no recourse are fittest for the soul to be busie within it self by viewing Gods goodness and raising sweet experiences from severall creatures and divers objects of the infinite wisdom goodness and mercy of God in his providence over the world St Bernard that spirituall Father who had sweet Soliloquies between God and his own soul much delighted in fragrant places separate from all company that thereby he might have the more freedom of spirit to have communion with his God If a soul desires to be guided by the Spirit let it get from sense as high as it can lest like Anselm's bird intangled with the bird -lime of the world the more it flutters to escape the more it is intangled with the pollutions of it Those which have only that little spark of light within them since the fall ☜ which is like the snuff of a candle in a dark lanthorn these are to seek in the things of God They may have as it were an Owl-light but to have the Sun-light which is promised under the daies of the Gospel that the light of the Moon shall be as the light of the Sun and the light of the Sun sevenfold Isa 30.26 this they cannot have But when the candle of the Lord which is within us For the Spirit of man it is the candle of the Lord Pro. 20.27 is inlightned by a further light superadded by the Spirit from the book of providence from the book of the creatures from the book of our own hearts we are able to draw many spirituall conclusions and are enabled to know the mind of the Spirit in the Word of God Is it so Vses That none can know the things of God but they that have the teachings of the Spirit Then First It shews us this that blindness lies upon the minde of the greatest part of the world of the greatest part of Christians because the greatest part of them are void of the Spirit That they are so I shall prove by Scripture 2 Cor. 3.17 Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty There is no inslavery no thraldom no bondage and therefore in Rom. 8. the Spirit of adoption is put in opposition to the spirit of bondage The Spirit is called a Spirit of liberty in three respects 1. The Spirit of liberty Because it hath rescued us from a state of bondage 2. Because it hath put us into a state of liberty 3. Because it gives us liberty and freedom of spirit to come with
nothing Men may pronounce the words but they cannot give the Spirit They may speak marvellous well but if the Spirit holds its peace they enflame not the heart They deliver the letter but the Spirit opens the sense They bring forth mysteries but the Spirit unfolds them They declare thy Commandments but the Spirit helps to fulfill them They shew us the way but the Spirit gives us help to walk in it They water outwardly but the Spirit gives fruitfulness Paul may plant and Apollo may water but it is God that gives the increase All other knowledge if thou hast not the light of the Spirit will little avail to bring thee any substantiall good or any true or solid comfort Consider with me in these severall particulars the vanity of all other knowledge compared with the light of the Spirit that hereby thou maist be stirred up to seek to God to give the Spirits teachings upon thy heart 1. All other knowledge it breeds distraction of minde and pierceth the soul through with many sorrows Eccl 1.18 He that increaseth wisdom increaseth sorrow and in much knowledge there is much grief When a man sees those many defects and fallings that are in the world those corruptions which are in Church and State those evils that attend this miserable life sees the utter impossibility to flesh and blood that these things should be amended For saith Solomon That which is crooked cannot be made straight Eccl. 1.15 and that which is wanting cannot be supplied The best of us fail in many things and there are many defects in the world which cannot be supplied in this miserable life When a man that hath his eyes in his head considers this it cannot but be a grief unto his soul The more a man knows the more he seeth his own ignorance when a fool is proud knowing nothing He sees that for all his knowledge he knows nothing in comparison of what may be known and that in many things he is uncertain and that he errs in many things this is a trouble and a vexation to his Spirit Acts 26.24 Saith Festus to Paul Much learning hath made thee mad Too much study it is a wearisomness to the flesh And over-hasty pursuit of knowledge hath crackt the brains of many men and when they attain'd that they sought after they have been as unquiet and unsetled in their Spirits as ever they were before yea they have been much more unquiet for as we commonly say what the eye sees not the heart grieves not so if men were not more knowing than formerly they have been there would not be those actings of fear of distrust of strifes contentions and emulations as there are in their spirits The Poets feign of Promotheus A Morall that having stoln fire from heaven his carckass was bound to the mountain Caucasus where a Vulture doth continually feed upon his lungs The Morall of it is good noting unto us this that when men seek after that knowledge which will not profit they do but eat out their spirits with many sorrows But the light of the Spirit it is full of comfort Psal 97. Light is sown for the righteous and joy for the upright in heart There is no such comfort like to that which flows in upon a sanctified knowledge of the things of God 2. A little knowledge with true grace is better then all the knowledge in the world without the light of the Spirit If thou didst know the whole Bible by heart and the sayings of all the Philosophers what would it avail thee without charity and the grace of God Vanity of vanities all is vanity but only to know God and to love him being known What would it avail thee to dispute profoundly of the Trinity if thou be void of humility It is not knowledge but grace makes a man glorious in the eyes of God The Kingdom of God it consisteth not in words but in vertue The Kingdom of God is within you it cometh not by observation If men religions men professing Christians would bestow so much labour in rooting out of vices and planting of vertues as they do to move doubts and questions there would not be so much prophanness in the world nor so much looseness amongst Professors 3. Other knowledge puffeth up but the light of the Spirit it humbleth The Titles that the Schoolmen had do evidently show their monstrous pride one was called Jacobus de Voragine as though he had eaten up the whole book of God in reading it another Doctor Scraphicus Angelicus another Doctor Subtilis Doctor Irrefragabilis venerabilis inceptor Doctor fundatiffimus Dector illuminatus Doctor resolutum 1 Cor. 13. Knowledge puffeth up but charity edifieth As winde in the head makes a man giddy so this vain worldly knowledge it makes a man giddy and unstable in the truth It is as leaven A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump so a little vain knowledge will swell the heart of man that it can hardly contain it self A vain knowing person he never ascribes to God his parts and abilities and gives him the increase of his talents but to himself As Herod did when he had made an elegant Oration in the Auditory he is so farre from giving glory to God that he suffers the people to cry out It is the voice of a God and not of a man So it is usuall with Scholars when they have done a thing whereby they have gained credit as made an elegant Oration or done some great thing whereby they have gained some honour Dr. Goodwin on the variety of thoughts to be often pondering with themselves the chief things contained in the work and to revolve in their mindes those commendable speeches which have been given them for their pains As the Cow after it hath sed it useth to chew the cud so these do as it were chew the cud by meditating in their mindes with self-applause and self-pride what glorious things they have accomplisht and what praise they have obtained for them And as Nebuchadnezzar prided himself in the glory of his outward pomp Dan. 4.30 saying Is not this great Babel which I have built So these pride themselves in the glory of their archievements Have not I done such a curious piece of business worthy of the name of a Scholar Pride ambition and covetousness do sweetly sleep in the hearts of many Scholars Cyprian What is the reason that in these later times there shall be such an apostacy from the faith This is the reason The true reason of apostacy in these our daies because knowledge shall abound men shall pride themselves in their parts and abilities and exalt themselves above the grace of Jesus Christ and the simplicity of the Gospel and therefore cause God to give them over to strong delusions that they should beleeve lies Ezek. 28.3 The proud King of Tyrus he thought himself wiser than Daniel he thought himself wiser and in a better condition than
Adam was in Paradise yea he did set his heart above God But the teachings of the Spirit make a man to ascribe all to God and to say with the Apostle 1 Cor. 15.10 By the grace of God I am what I am and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain but I laboured more abundantly than they all yet not I but the grace of God which was with me So much sanctified knowledge so much grace For though there may be knowledge without grace so there cannot be grace without knowledge According to the Apostles phrase Grow in â—ace 2 Pet. 3.18 and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ So much grace so much humility so much carnal knowledge so much pride so much pride so much sin 4 All other knowledge without the teachings of the Spirit it doth but furnish a man that he might be a more able instrument for the devil and to carry on his designes in the world because only those who have the Spirits teachings upon their hearts have a sanctified use of their knowledge What a sad thing is it that God should give men parts and abilities only to be the devils drudges and to do his service When men shall employ their parts against the Kingdom of Christ against the power of godliness and against the Saints and servants of God when men shall fight against God with those very weapons which he put into their hands The devil knows that these be the fittest men to manage his cause upon the earth and therefore he chooseth these above all others as most sutable to his intent and purpose If the leading party of the times who are eminent for knowledge and for a wolvish sanctity who carry as it were all â—â—â—ore them wheresoever they come and are applauded of all men for their excellent parts and endowments be on his side and under the cloak of a counterfeit zeal and a pretended holiness can mask over and palliate over most abominable corruptions in the sight of God if this party be on his side the devil sleeps as it were in a whole skin knowing that he hath able Proctors and agents that can bear a great sway in the world to sweep down millions of poor souls into hell with the besom of everlasting destruction What say the Pharisees to the ignorant people when they spoke of Christ say they Have any of the rulers beleeved on him Have any of the Doctors of the Law who sit in Moses Chair Have any of the Sect-Masters Have any of the Rabbies and of the Gymnosophists beleeved on him and those men are wiser than you Those should know sure how to judge of things better than you who know not the Law of God but only as you receive it from their mouths Who were Paul's enemies but the Epicures and Stoicks and the Philosophers of the world Act. 17.18 Then certain of the Philosophers of the Epicures and Stoicks encountred him saying What doth this babler say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Seminiverbius He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange Gods Who was Paul's enemy but Tertullus the Orator when he was to plead for his life Who were Christs enemies but the Scribes and Pharisees when it is said that the common people heard him gladly Julian was a great Scholar yet a great Persecutor and an enemy to Jesus Christ Learned men are but the devils factors to trade for him and to gain proselytes unto his Kingdom 5. All other knowledge will but aggravate your condemnation unless thou hast the Spirits teachings at the day of judgement Sinnes against knowledge are the next sinnes to the sinne against the holy Ghost Saith David Lord deliver thy servant from presumptuous sins Psa 19.3 so shall I be free from the great transgression They are sinnes of a deep dye scarlet sinnes sinnes of ignorance and sins against knowledge are both the same for substance yet knowledge it adds a searlet dye unto them What was Belshazzars fault Dan. 5 22 That though he did know the failings of his father Nebuchadnezzar yet he did not humble himself for all this This is the condemnation that light is come into the world Joh. 3.19 but men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil If I had not spoken unto you John 15.22 saith Christ you had not had sinne but now you have no cloak for your sinne No sinne comparatively in respect of what they now have You cannot improve your knowledge aright to the glory of God and to the comfort of your own soul unless it be sanctified unto you by the Spirit Knowing persons will have the deepest place in hell fire and will be more tormented than any other persons whatsoever for God will enlarge their faculties in hell and their mindes shall be enlightned to discern between good and evil Christians that live under the light of the Gospel and have not the light of the Spirit shall have a very low place if not the lowest in hell hereafter Their condemnation shall be greater Their condemnation shall be greater than the condemnation of Aristotle of Pythagoras and other Heathen Philosophers because they live under a clearer light the light of the Gospel yet those shall sink very deep into the bottomless pit Whatsoever is not done in faith and proceeds from the Spirit and is done after a due manner and to a right end to the glory of God is sinne Now all that have not the Spirit of God let them have never so much carnall knowledge they can never do any thing out of a principle of faith within and as a fruit of the Spirit or to the glory of God as they ought to do but meerly as reason or as a common knowledge guides them and no higher Many will curse the time that ever they had so much knowledge one day and that they have been so greedy after it when to all eternity they shall consider and have nothing else but to consider how unprofitably and vainly they have lived in respect of that plentifull measure of knowledge God hath given them 6. Other knowledge will never satisfie your souls The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the ear with bearing The soul is infinite in its desires in its aims and in its intentions A covetous man is never satisfied with his riches an ambitious man with his honours a lustfull with his pleasures an Epicure with his delicious fare The knowledg of all things besides God are no more able to satisfie our understanding than a Peck of Corn is sufficient to fill up all the vast regions that are under the circumference of the highest heaven You may as soon fill a purse with wisdom as the soul with vain knowledge the Scholar with his knowledge but still the more they they have the more they continually desire Hab. 2.5 The soul it enlargeth its desires as â—ell As hell and the grave is never satisfied
to deal withall that let them be never so great opposers to the Majesty of it by their contradicting and blaspheming yet all their carnall wisdom and policy could not avail but they must confess it to be the Word of God though the pride of their hearts and the vanity of their corrupt mindes would not suffer them to obey it 11. God hath a time when he will blast upon all other knowledge but the spirituall wisdom which comes from the Spirit shall endure for ever When the man of sinne shall be destroyed what a treasure of vain and fruitless knowledge by the bright shinings forth of the light of the Spirit which hath so so much been idolized in the world shall fall into the dust with him God hath a time to take the wise in their own counsels and to overthrow the devices of the crafty God blasted the counsell of Achitophel against David 2 Sam. 16.23 Though Achitophel was accounted as the Oracle of God for wisdom whose word was usually taken in difficult matters yet God at this time when he sets his wit to plot against his servant David he makes his counsell of none effect The Princes of Zoan are fools Isa 19.11 all their knowledge cannot deliver them in the day of the Lords wrath There is no evasion whereby thou canst shift off God and hide thy sinnes from him for God knows all the plottings and contrivances which have been in thy heart all the time of thy life 1 Cor. 1.27 Hos 5.3 Notitia judicialis non approbationis God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise Saith God in the Prophet Hosea I know Ephraim and Israel is not hid from me I know all their shifts and policies and delusions which they have invented to excuse themselves for their idolatry but when I come to plead with them for the breach of my Covenant I will lay the glory of their policy in the dust and destroy them with the breath of my mouth When once the beams of the Sunne of righteousness shall arise upon thy heart and God shall enlighten thine eyes by his Spirit then thou wilt count all thy former knowledge which thou didst so much pride thy self in but dross and dung in comparison of the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ But spirituall wisdom endureth for ever it is of an abiding nature It is of an establishing nature it confirms and strengthens the soul against all the temptations and assaults it may meet withall That heart which is filled with this treasure of heavenly wisdom is as impregnable as a Castle with bars and irons Hereby we are instructed with the methods of Satan we can search into the depths of Satan Rev. 2.24 Hereby we are furnished with an abiding store of rich grace whereby we may hold out in the fiery triall Wisdom and knowledge is the most durable of any treasure that is But when he was deprived of all his outward comforts riches houses lands friends relations all taken from him could say Omnia mea mecum porto I I carry all things away along with me because that stock of knowledge which he had none could take away from him So likewise a Saint of God hath the stock of knowledge and spirituall wisdom that shall never be taken away from him I have read of some that have lost that knowledge which they have got by study and their own pains taking Corvinus a great Scholar was brought so low by a violent fit of sickness that after he was recovered he forgat his own name but the Spiritual Wisdom which comes from above shall never be taken away from you 2. If thou art taught by the Spirit it is a sign thou art the friend of God John 15.15 Henceforth I call you not servants for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doth but I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of my Father have I made known unto you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chryst Oh how greatly God condescends to the godly He speaks to them as a man would speak to his friend Abraham is called the friend of God saith God shall I hide from Abraham the thing which I shall do from Abraham my friend from him whom I have called by name to be my servant 'T is one part of friendship to reveal secrets Happy soul if God be thy friend who then shall be thy foe God is a friend that sticketh closer then all relations then Father Mother Brothers c. 3. If thou art taught by the Spirit it is a signe thou art in the Covenant of Grace It is one part of the Covenant that Believers shall be taught of God Jer. 31.33 I will put my Law in their hearts and they shall all know me It is an exceeding great comfort and a most special spiritual blessing to be in the Covenant of grace 1. Because in the Covenant of Grace God makes himself over to the Believer to be his as the Believer gives himself wholly totally and finally to be Gods My beloved is mine and I am his Hos 2.19 2. If God be thine and thou art the Spouse of Jesus Christ then all things are thine marriage makes all things common 3. If God be in Covenant with thee all the creatures are in league with thee Several signs whereby we may know we are taught of the Spirit 1. He that hath the teachings of the Spirit upon his heart is of an humble Spirit We finde in Scripture that the holy men of God both in the Old and in the New Testament when they have approached near to God to have any revelation from him or after they have had a revelation they have abased themselves and have been of a more submissive frame of Spirit Isa 6. Job 42. Job after God had appeared unto him and shewed him his own weakness and his Justice in proceeding with him such a way saith I abhor my self in dust and ashes Isa 65.5 Is 34.11 He doth not contemne his weak brother and like those in Isaiah say Stand by for I am holier then thou but as David he saith Come unto me and I will teach you the fear of the Lord and what he hath done for my soul He doth not think the better of himself but the more lowly and doth admire the Free-grace and love of God unto his soul See how Paul magnifies the Free-grace of God in discovering unto him the Mystery of Jesus Christ Vnto me who am less then the least of all the Apostles is this grace given that I should make known to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ Eph. 3.8 So a gracious soul is not proud of the teachings of the Spirit upon his heart but counts meanly of himself and exalts the Grace of God that such a one as he who was formerly serving divers lusts should be admitted into the number of Gods Favorites and to partake of his secrets he
his sores Paul in prison yea I may say God is more choice of a Saint under affliction then at another time as the Goldsmith looks well to the mettal while it is in the Furnace A simile lest that the least grain of silver be consumed with the dross so God is very careful lest that the least grain of his servants Graces may perish under the fire of affliction 4. That all thy afflictions shall make thy future glory 5. That the cross of Christ hath sanctified the Cross unto thee 3. If thou hast the Spirits teachings upon thy heart thou wilt not grudge at the dispensation of God to others but wilt do what lies in thy power to teach others Thou wilt be so far from grudging that thou wilt magnifie the Grace of God and bless God for what he hath done for others as well as for thy self Act. 26.27 I would to God said Paul that not onely thou but also all that hear me this day wete both almost and altogether such as I am except these bonds Likewise Moses when they told him that Eldad and Medad prophesied said Num. 11.29 I could wish that all the Lords people were Prophets So Christ Mat. 18. Father I thank thee that thou hast hid those things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto Babes c. Christ did not envy us his fellow brethren neither was he ashamed to be called our brother neither was he unwilling to undergo that great work for the salvation of our precious souls but he was glad when he saw the fruit of his travaile and it rejoyced his seed he shall see the travaile of his soul and be satisfied A spiritual man owns the gifts and Graces of God in the hearts of others Luk. 1.41 as well as in his own heart as the Babe in Elizabeths wombe leaped for joy at Maries salutation so will the new-come Babe within thee leap for joy when thou shalt hear of the salvation brought to light to others It is the Divels spirit and a carnal fleshly spirit to envy the gifts and Graces which are in others but it is a signe of a true Christian spirit to acknowledge the least grain of true Grace in others and to cherish it as much as we can Christ ownes whatsoever is of his Spirit in us a little faith if it be true shall have its reward and so should we do Christ acknowledged a little strength in the Church of Philadelphia Rev. 3.8 Thou hast a little strength and hast kept my word Rom 9.3 and hast not denied my name Paul was so far from envying his Countriemen that he wished himself accursed from Christ for his brethen the Jews and Moses desires to be blotted out of the book of life Exod. 32.32 Nay thou wilt do all the good that thou canst whence once God hath taught thee to teach others saith Christ to Peter When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren Luk. 22.32 Joh. 1.41 Andrew as soon as he had found the Messiah he presently telleth his brother Simon of it that he might also be one of Christs Disciples and if ever the true Messiah the King of Glory hath once entred into thy heart there will be such meltings of the heart within thee that thou canst not refrain but thou must discover the excellency of Jesus Christ to others The woman of Samaria in the fourth of John as soon as she had found the Messiah she presently left her water-pots and went into the City telling the Samaritans that she had found the Messias So likewise wilt thou do if ever the Sun of righteousness hath risen in thy heart So the converted thief he presently strives to convert his fellow Thief Fearest thou not God saith he Luk. 23.40 seeing thou art in the same condemnation The light of the spirit in a regenerate soul cannot be hid the more thou smotherst it the more it riseth up as the fire the more it is pressed down by and by it riseth up in a greater flame Saith Christ No man lighteth a candle Mat. 5.15 and putteth it under a Bushel So the Spirit it doth not create a new light within us for nothing but that we might shine to others and light others and that others might see by our light and be warmed by our fire Ministers are the lights of the world in a more eminent way as being publike lights lights set upon a hill that all may take notice of them ☞ They are the Beacons of a Nation to foretell those dreadful Judgements which are coming upon them for their sins if they do not repent They are to call upon private Christians that they hang out their lights to the world that others seeing their good works might glorifie their Father which is in heaven Mat. 5.16 Here private Christians are lights Every private Christian is to hang out his light in a private way and to shew to others what God hath done for his soul As every man hath received so let him freely give The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal This is quite opposite to the Pharisaical temper of the Separatists of our times ☞ they hold it unlawful to have any spiritual commerce with a wicked man as if they themselves were too worthy to speak unto them and to pray with them and for them and so they are more worthy then Christ or as if they were so wicked that they were past all cure and remedy Mr. Baxter If wicked men should be shut out of Gods thoughts of love and mercy as they are out of the affections of the separatists hell would enlarge her self exceedingly It is true we are to make none our companions but the godly saith David I am a companion of all them that fear thee Psal 119.63 but yet for the good of their souls we must not be strangers and unacquainted with them How knowest thou O thou Religious soul but that by thy good conference holy life and pious walking with God thou mayest gain thy brother and win him over from his vile course of life to a conscientious performing of the will of God Christ kept company with Publicans and sinners but it was for the good of their souls O that there were not a too censorious Spirit in the hearts of Gods people to count them forsaken of God and not amongst the number of his Saints who are cast out by them out of their societies If we were of the right stampe we should as the Apostle Become all things to all men in a lawful way that we may win all Yea it is impossible if thou hast the teachings of the Spirit upon thy heart but that thou shouldst make mention of the name of the Lord. The Prophet Jeremiah when he had a word from the Lord to deliver to the people he could not keep it in though he strove as much as he could to do it it
fruit of the spirit While they speak of perfection and living without sin in this life Phil. 3.13 14. they cry down the Apostle Paul who thought himself not prefect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Metaphor drawn from those who run in a race who when they approach the Goale press forward with all their might their Arms and Leggs to touch it but still prest on to the mark of the price of the high calling of Jesus Christ As long as we are of the Laodicean temper and think our selves rich and wanting nothing we are never like to come to Christ to buy raiment of him and to have that spiritual eye-salve whereby we may discerne the things of God but when we are like Christ meek and lowly then we shall finde rest unto our souls God deals with men as he finds them Psal 18. With the froward thou wilt shew thy self froward Mat. 11.29 and with the upright thou wilt shew thy self upright Many times Gods people are of crabbed and knotty spirits that God for the present is as it were at a stand what he should do with them O Ephraim what shall I do unto thee Hos 6.4 O Judah what shall I do unto thee Now as the Carpenter plains the peece of wood so the Lord plains their hearts mountains shall be turned into valleys and the Lords way shall be made straight before him and of rugged spirits they shall become smooth and the froward spirits become meek and quiet that the Lord Jesus by his spirit might be pourtrayed in their hearts as the peece of wood when it is plained and made smooth is apt to receive any form whatsoever the Carpenter pleaseth so our hearts when they are once softned by the Spirit and smoothed by the planer of affliction God can mould them and fashion them as he pleaseth A meek spirit is of a docible disposition ready to receive and most apt to retain most thankfull for what he hath and ever mindfull of its own unworthiness Now here for to prevent mistaking I should shew the nature of meekness to wit what this meekness is Severall kindes of meekness but I shall only shew the severall kindes of meekness which are four 1. A naturall meekness arising out of the constitution of a mans body 2. A morall meekness arising from good precepts instructions and examples 3. A stoicall meekness which is a sameness of spirit upon all occasions this is rather a stupidity then a meekness 4. An artificiall meekness which is when men can restrain their passions though their heart is as full of envy as it can hold Such was Esans meekness to Jacob. 5. A true meekness A true meekness what it is which is a spirituall frame of heart whereby a man gives no provocation and is ready to receive any and whereby a man moderates subordinates and governs all his anger to the glory of God and to the good of others Meekness is passions jaylor True meekness is not alwaies the same but when Gods glory is blasphemed or any waies diminished then it turns to zeal and an holy anger Exod. 32.20 21 22. Moses the meekest man upon the earth when he saw the idolatry of the Israelites he broke forth into an holy anger being grieved in his spirit for the dishonour done to God 6. If thou hast the Spirits teachings upon thy heart thou art one that fearest God Psal 25. What man is he that feareth the Lord Tiberius Gaesar thought no man fit to receive his secrets and yet the Lord vouchsafeth the godly his own secrets None but Noblemen Lords and Dukes might be made partakers of State-secrets the godly are heavenly Lords and Nobles and the privy States men of heavens Court Such honour have all the Saints to know the things of God him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him and he will shew them his Covenant Mal. 4.2 Vnto you that fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings The fear of God it puts a bridle to our lusts and corrupt affections which choak the things of God As an unruly horse may be curb'd with a bit and a bridle so the fear of God it is as it were a bit and a bridle to curb the extravagancy and the breaking forth of sinne The fear of the Lord is to depart from evil As a brick wall keepeth in the waters from overflowing the ground and banks from breaking in upon the meadows so the fear of God puts a stop to the breaking forth of many a sin which otherwise we should commit Now when the strength and the power and the dominion of sinne is taken away the Spirit comes in with more freedom into the soul When Joseph was tempted by his Mistress unto uncleanness he having the fear of God before his eyes refused her with this saying How shall I do this great wickedness and sinne against my God! Gen. 39.40 41. Because of this he is clapt up by a false slander of his Mistress into prison But the Lord was with Joseph in prison and shewed him mercy And Joseph because he feared God had the spirit of revelation given him that he could interpret dreams He expounded the chief Butlers and Bakers dream and Pharaohs dream And the Lord honoured him in the sight of Pharaoh and all his servants By humility and the fear of the Lord come riches Pro. 22.4 honour and life Daniel because he feared God Dan. 9.24 and would not consent to worship other gods the Lord revealed unto him the expiration of the seventy years captivity which was at hand And Noah because he feared God Heb. 11.7 an hundred and twenty years before the overflowing deluge came had this secret committed unto him that God did intend to drown the world for that deluge of sinne which was then in it By faith Noah being Warned of God being moved with fear prepared an Ark for the saving of his house and thereby condemned the ungodly World The salvation of the Lord is nigh them that fear him that glory may dwell in our Land The fear of Gods glorious Majesty and unquestionable authority puts the soul into a fit capacity to be taught by the Spirit As long as a man is presumptuous self-confident and thinks himself somewhat when he is nothing there is no place for any doctrine of Jesus Christ God usually puts men into great fears and terrours and then raiseth them up before he communicates himself unto them Jer. 3.33 I will put my fear before them and write my law in their hearts Severall kindes of fear There is a fourfold fear 1. A naturall fear which in it self is not sinfull because God hath put this affection of fear into our hearts So Christ feared to die 2. A servile or a slavish fear when men fear God not for his goodness but only for his justice
present Eccl 7 6. but suddenly are out That all the creatures are but broken cisterns Jer. 2.13 pits which can hold nothing but muddy and defiled comforts Besides the Spirit it teacheth us the fulness of God the sufficiency that is in Jesus Christ the joys that flow in from above and what a mass of glory is treasured up for us if we continue faithfull unto the death Mark 14.25 That the time is at hand when we shall drink the new wine of eternall consolation with Jesus Christ in the Kingdom of heaven hereafter When a man hath a spirit of discerning to discern between the true riches and the fading riches of this world and the Spirit hath enlightned his understanding and he sees the what things are prepared for him hereafter if he love God and keeps his Commandments He is more Saint-like and is as it were a stranger upon earth seeking rest and finding none till he come to his Fathers house and finished his course One that is taught of the Spirit can do all duties in a spirituall manner He can pray in the Spirit sing in the Spirit walk in the Spirit live after the Spirit warre after the Spirit rejoyce in the Spirit and subdue his sinnes by the strength of the Spirit His affections desires aims and intentions are heavenly You may see a spirituall man by his going by his talking by his eating and drinking by his company by his continuall course and progress in his life Watch him narrowly ☞ and you may see somewhat of the Spirit in his common carriage he doth not minde the world he lives as it were a stranger upon earth all his discourse is about his fathers business and of heavenly things He cares not so much what becomes of his body so his soul may prosper All his delight is with the excellent and with those that fear God He is often upon his knees confessing his sins and abhorring himself for his iniquities He is much with God and little with the world and if it stood with Gods good pleasure and the Churches good he could be absent from the body Phil. 1.23 24. that he may be present with the Lord. Self-deniall is the great lesson he is continually a conning sinne is his greatest burthen the world his purgatory Jesus Christ his only joy God his portion and heaven his rest Now I come to shew what are the extraordinary teachings of the Spirit that so we may know the one from the other 1. A man hath then an extraordinary teaching of the Spirit upon his heart when he is certain God will give him the same thing he asked of him in prayer in the very same kinde and manner he asked it of God when he is fully perswaded and verily believes that God will grant him the very same thing which he asked of him It is an extraordinary work of the Spirit upon the heart that must produce such a strong confidence in God that God will give him the very same thing he desires When a soul can say I know that God heareth me alwaies and will hear me in this thing and give me my hearts desire especially when there is no promise in the word made to that particular thing which he praies for As suppose thou hadst a friend sick and thou praiest for his recovery and hast such a strong confidence in God by the Spirit that thou undoubtedly believest that he shall recover such a confidence had Luther when he wrote to Myconius hearing that he was sick that without he should recover so he did according to Luthers prayer So had Elijah when he prayed for rain and Jesus Christ when he did his miracles 2. When a soul hath that Plerophory that full assurance of faith without all doubting then he hath an extraordinary teaching of the Spirit upon his heart When he can say with Job I know that my redeemer liveth Job 19.25 and though worms destroy my body yet I shall see him with these very eyes 2 Tim. 4.7 And with Paul I have fought the good fight of faith I have finished my course hence forth there is laid up for me a Crown of life c. When a soul can say by the full evidence of the Spirit upon his spirit without the least wavering or doubting I know that both in life and death Christ shall be unto me advantage When a soul can merrily and cheerfully rejoyce in the expectation of the glory of God Many precious Saints are without this full assurance till they come to die as that godly Martyr Mr Glover was who was full of fears and doubts till he came to the stake and then out of a sense of Jesus Christ he cries out He is come he is come That is Jesus Christ was come with his extraordinary comforts unto his soul the Spirit of God sealing unto him the pardon of his sinnes and the love of Jesus Christ unto his soul 3. When a soul hath such a spirit of zeal courage and magnanimity in the waies of God that though he were the Butt of the whole world and the laughing-stock of men and Angels for the cause of God and were persecuted on all sides yet he patiently can undergo it for the sake of Christ These are Saints of the first magnitude who have more than ordinary to other Saints flowings in of the Spirit upon their hearts Such were the Apostles Luther Ignatius Athanasius Gregory Nazianzen and the like Tempore Athanasii totus mundus gemuit sub Ario. The Martyr Antipas who is spoken of in the Revelation of St John Rev. 2.13 who dwelt where Satan had his seat and kept himself unspotted amongst that wicked and perverse generation and witnessed to the truth with the loss of his life had an extraordinary measure of the Spirit upon his heart 4. When men have an infallible Spirit so that whatsoever they say is truth and as it were an Oracle from God and when upon all emergencies they have Divine influences from the Spirit of grace then they have the extraordinary teachings of the Spirit When they have an infallible Spirit so only had the Apostles For they being universall messengers of Jesus Christ not tied to one particular place but to plant Churches in severall places and to pen one part of the Word of God which was to be a standing rule to the end of the world they were guided by the infallible Spirit of God so that they could not erre in things which belong to faith and piety Only the Apostles were infallible in their doctrine Popes and generall Councils may erre and have erred grosly from the faith Also when upon all exigencies they have the supplies of the Spirit of God then they have the extraordinary teachings of the Spirit so had the Apostles Luke 12.11 And when they bring you unto the Synagogues and unto Magistrates and Powers take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer or what ye shall
last day in glory power and majesty we shall stand in need of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper for the confirmation of our faith and to remember the death and sufferings of our blessed Saviour till he shall come to judgement Prayer also is a standing duty required of all Christians while they are on this side heaven that thereby their faith and hope in God might be exercised We are commanded to pray continually that is to let no time wherein this duty is required of us 1 Thess 5. 4. Because a Believer stands in need of continual food and nourishment that the tent of the word and the Bread and Wine Sacramentally so understood should be continually put in his mouth whilst he is under age in respect of that perfection and ripeness he shall attain unto when this mortal life shall be swallowed up in glory that his soul might be nourish'd up unto everlasting life Likewise here bebelow we stand in need of many things strength of grace to overcome sin patience under adversity the arm of God to support us under all our weaknesses heavenly comforts daily supplies of the spirit of grace renewed arts of Divine assistance continually bread for our bodies food for our souls therefore we ought to make our requests by prayer unto God daily for all temporal and spiritual blessings Obj. When we have the greater light what need have we of the lesser when we have the Sun-light what need have we of the Star-light when we have the light of the spirit what need have we of the light of the word when we have that which supplieth all our wants what need we pray what need have we of the Sacraments the spirit can supply all our wants without the use of the means 4. In respect of our selves the light of the spirit is to be preferred before the light of the word but seeing that the light of the word is subordinate to the light of the spirit and that the light of the word and the light of the spirit do not differ in respect of the subject matter but onely in respect of manifestation and the spirit enlightens in and by the word therefore the light of the spirit doth not take away the use of the light of the word besides the comparison doth not hold because the collation between the light of the Sun and Stars and the light of the word and of the spirit halts and is imperfect The spirit enlightens our minds in and by the word but the Sun shines of its self and not in and by the Stars The spirit likewise though it can supply all our wants without the use of means yet it never ordinarily doth without the use of the means God gives his spirit onely to those that pray for it and when we have the spirit we are still to desire God that his spirit may exert his power upon us and act in us and by us that we may not onely have the spirit but feel the operations of the spirit upon our hearts God knows what we want before we pray and can give us them without our asking but God will have us pray that thereby we might acknowledge his power his goodness his mercy and the like and that thereby our faith and patience might be made manifest If upon the account of the indwelling of the spirit in the hearts of the godly they should forbear to pray I would know of those who say so why the Spirit of God is termed the spirit of prayer and supplication as in the prophecy of Zachariah Zech. 12.10 but onely because it stirs up in us good desires and holy affections and puts words into our mouths acceptable words whereby our petitions may be accepted of God Let them likewise answer the portion of Scripture if they can in the sixth of the Ephesians 18. Praying alwayes with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all Saints 5. If we should onely hearken to the voice of the spirit and to the spirits teachings in our hearts there would be no certainty of the true Religion when there can be no Character given by which the spirit of Christ might be distinguished from our owne proper spirit as from the spirit the divel which sometimes transforms himself into an Angel of light That is the pretences of a mans own spirit or of the divel in the hearts of others may seem so true and real to a man himself as if they were doctrines taught by the blessed Spirit Now how should we try the spirits whether they be of God or no but by the word of God Obj. It is a true signe of Divine instinct when of that which we believe or do we are perswaded of and rooted in without any ambiguity or doubting Ans This is a false sign for the Turks and Infidels are as much obstinated and setled in their own doctrines Traditions yea more setled then most of those Christians who pretend so much to the spirit Q. But some may say though we grant you that the teachings of the spirit do not in themselves make us to be above the Ordinances of God and the meanes of Grace yet may we not then when we come to be perfect Christians high-grown Saints and have lived under the teachings of the Spirit along while may we not then cast off the use of the Word the Sacraments and Prayer and only depend upon the Spirit for his supply I answer No. 1. Because the best grown Christians in this life are not above the teachings of the word but ought to minde the light of the Word as well as the light of the Spirit Rom. 1.14 I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians both to the wise and to the unwise Heb. 5.14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of age Strong meat the Word and Sacraments which through long custom have their wils exercised to discern both good and evil 1 John 2.13 I write unto you fathers because ye have known him that is from the beginning c. 1 Pet. 1.1 The Apostle Peter writes to the elect ones and to those who are born again as appears by the fourteenth verse of the same Chapter 1 Cor. 10.15 I speak as unto them which have understanding Phil. 3.15 Let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded 1 Cor. 11.26 Eph. 4.12 13. He gave some Apostles some Prophets c. Till we all meet together in the unity of the faith and the acknowledgement of the Son of God unto a perfect man and unto the measure of the fulness of the stature of Christ which fulness shall not be till after this life as appears by that place 1 Cor. 13.9 10.11 For we know in part and we prophesie in part but when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be abolished 2. Because the highest grown Christians in this life are
God hath set him apart and endowed him with gifts and graces sutable for such a work there is required an outward call which is a designation approbation and setting him apart peculiarly for the work of the Pastorall charge and office the Church and people of God electing him in whose hearts he hath approved himself by his pious life and wholesom doctrine and the Presbyters by the laying on of hands ratifying their election and confirming him in his Office Acts 6. v. 3. with v. 6. 1 Tim. 4.14 Yet the inward call the call of Gods Spirit is the principall call because thereby a man is sure that God hath appointed him for this work who will bless him in it if he be faithfull unto the death Happy is that servant who goeth forth in the Name of the Lord his God that is in the authority of his God God will bless his labours and give him the reward of his work 12. Every Christian ought to walk up according to his light and that measure of knowledge which he hath received Wo be to those that walk not up to that light which God hath given them Luke 12.47 He that knoweth his Masters will and doth it not shall be beaten with many stripes 1. They that have only the light of nature to see by ought to walk up according to their light By the light of nature we know that there is a God that this God is one only God for there can be but one cause of all causes who is the first cause of all causes of whom all causes depend in esse in operari one that is infinite in whom the perfections of all the creatures do meet as all the lines do in the center that this God is to be worshipped and that this God is to be worshipped after his own way and method for who dares be so impudent to prescribe Rules and Canons of Gods worship but God himself Hence we know naturally that as there is a God so that this God hath his word wherein he delivers his minde how we ought to serve him and after what manner to do him homage By the light of nature we know that we must live honestly justly that we must wrong no man and give every one his own The Gentiles who withheld the truth in unrighteousness Rom. c. 1. and disobeyed the light of nature were punished with a dreadfull judgement from God being given over to a reprobate minde to commit all iniquity with greediness Those that walk not up to the light of nature shall be damned as well as those that sin against the light of the Gospel though their damnation shall be the lesser Although the light of nature is not a sufficient light for salvation yet I conceive that if the Heathens would but improve that naturall light which they have unto the glory of God God would come in with a greater light for the salvation of their souls And who knows but that if the Heathens did improve that light which they have to Gods glory but that God might break in upon them with a greater light with the light of the Spirit upon their hearts The work of nature is the work of the God of nature according to the Philosophicall Axiom Causa causae etiam causa causati Etsi hoc axioma cum grane salis accipiendum and if God did see us walk up to that light God would come in with a greater light upon our souls 2. The light of conscience every man ought to walk up according to the light of his own conscience Pro. 20.27 Saith Solomon The spirit of a man is the candle of the Lord searching all the inward parts of the belly God hath set up a candle in every man whereby in some measure he may be able to distinguish between good and evil This candle of the Lord is conscience searching all the inward parts of the belly which conscience is both a witness and a Judge a witness to testifie to our deeds accordingly as they be and a Judge to absolve us or condemn us for them Miserable is the condition of those persons who have their consciences continually accusing them Saith God to Cain Gen. 4.7 It lies at the door like a Mastiff-dog If thou dost well shalt thou not be accepted and if thou dost evil sin lieth at the door Sin by a Metonymy for the guilt of sinne The guilt of sinne lieth at the door it lieth at the door as a Mastiff dog lies at the door it will let thee have no rest day nor night it will haunt thee up and down in thy bed-chamber Saith Solomon Pro. 10.20 Curse not the King no not in thy thought for the bird of the air shall tell the matter and that which hath wings shall carry the thing This bird of the air is our own conscience which will never let us alone till we have confessed them Wo be to those that sinne against their own consciences their sinnes will finde them out and will torment them Blessed be they that endeavour to keep a good conscience void of offence towards God and man that will approve their hearts as in the sight of God that would not violate the peace of their own consciences in the omission of any known duty or in the commission of any known sinne for the whole world A good conscience is a continuall feast He that would keep faith and a good conscience let him be sure to walk up according to the dictates of it 3. To the light of naturall improvements morall educations wholesom instructions good examples pious conversations Wo be to those who walk not up to the light of naturall improvements that by their studies good conference offices conditions employments have much improved that light which they had according to the contemplative part of it and yet never truly have digested this light with the incomes of it by turning it into practise for the benefit of their souls Perhaps they have got a great deal of knowledge by reading by good education holy counsels observance of others and yet are never the better in their lives and conversations He that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow unless true sanctified grace be joined with it And all those good instructions morall educations which thou hast had from thy parents Master friends relations and others will but aggravate thy condemnation one day unless thou art reformed by them The good examples and the pious conversations of others do but reprove the hardness of thy heart and will rise up in judgement against thee at the last day because thou hast been admonished by their righteous dealings Noah in preparing an Ark according to Gods Word condemned the old world of unbelief and of stiff necked impenitency Every pin the good man drove into the Ark was a secret reproof of their unbelief Wo be to those that hate the light of counsell of instruction of reproof and of exhortation Consult that
dreadful place Prov. 28.1 He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck shall suddainly be destroyed and that without remedy 4. To the light of the word which includs both Law and the Gospel 1. Sad is their condition who have onely the Law to be their light and yet sin against this Law that know they should not commit adultery and yet commit adultery they should not steal and yet will steal they should not prophane the Sabbath and yet will prophane the Sabbath that know they should not serve idols and yet will serve idols c. How many sore judgements and grievous captivities do we read of in the old Testament which God brought upon his own people the Jews for the breach of his most holy and righteous Law They had the Law and the Prophets in which Prophets some Gospel which intermingled though little in respect of that light which we have and yet their sinning against the light of the Law and the word of Prophesie delivered unto them did so incense the Lord against them that he often plagued them with sore judgements for their revoltings 2. To the light of the Gospel See the sad condition of those souls that walk not up to the light of the Gospel in the second of the Hebrews 2.3 v. For if the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be preached by the Lord and afterward was confirmed unto us by them that heard him Sins against Gospel light are crying sins in the ears of God By how much the greater engagements of mercy by so much the more hanious will our sins be If we walke not up to the light of the Gospel we sin against a more clear and evident light against such a light which discovers such love of God unto us in Jesus Christ which can never be expressed Against such a light which holds forth the clearest testimony of Gods good will to sinners far beyond the apprehension of men and Angels Such a light which the Angels themselves desire to behold prying into and adoring the infinite wisdom of God revealed in it Such a light which if we sin agaist it will for ever render us altogether inexcusable at the last day so that our mouths shall be muzzled as the mans was which came to the feast without a wedding garment being not able to speak a word for our selves Such a light which if we walke not up to will sinke us deep into the gulfe of misery and the blackness of darkness for ever Such a light which if we walk not up to but maliciously resist and oppose we render our selves guilty of that unpardonable sin against the holy Ghost being condemned in our own consciences and obnoxious to our selves that we deserve eternal vengeance for the slighting of it Such a light which if we do not obey makes us guilty of the highest unbelief the most notorious ingratitude the greatestwant of charity the most out-crying rebellion of the greatest hardness of heart and of the most malicious hatred that possibly can be He that rejecteth the light of the Gospel forsaketh his own mercies he hath bid adien to God to Christ to the Spirit to the Sacraments to the promises to the priviledges of the Saints yea to the Saints themselves being without hope for the present Ephes 4.17 18. being turned from a Christian to be like those Gentiles who walke in the vanities of their minds having their understandings darkned lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ should shine into their hearts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes 3.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes 1.3 Justitia Dei Dom. 1.17 Divina Virtus potentia 1 Cor. 1.24 Such a light in which is revealed the manifold wisdom of God the riches of his grace the righteousness of God Divine power and vertue the truth of God Against such a light which is the ministery of the spirit for the Gospel it is the ministery of the spirit and not of the letter Against such a light which if we walk not up to we mightily incense the great Jehovah of heaven and of earth Do you think that if a great Monarch should send to the poorest beggar that he hath under his dominions having been a notorious rebel traytor and apostate from him A simile a message of reconciliation unto him upon promise that if he would accept of pardon upon the supposition of amendment of life he would not onely be appeased with him and receive him into favor but make him as it were his Son if this miserable creature should refuse the pardon upon such noble terms himself being exceedingly worthy of death would not this render him guilty of the highest ingratitude and of the greatest contumacy if he should not close with this most courteous offer of grace and favor such stubborn hearted sinners are they who walk not up to the light of the Gospel We are all of us by nature miserable poor and wretched creatures enemies rebells traytors and apostates from God The King of Kings the Lord of Lords who is Lord over heaven and earth sends unto us by his onely son a message of reconciliation upon condition that we will receive this his onely son who hath dyed for us to redeeme us from the captivity of sin and Satan and from the curse of the Law and from eternal death for our onely Lord and Saviour and serve him only and obey him and keep his commandments unto which gracious message if we would but repent of our former rebellions and endeavor to believe on Jesus Christ is annexed a most gracious promise of everlasting happiness that we shall be his sons and that he will give us a Kingdom a Crown of Glory an everlasting inheritance and that we shall reign with Jesus Christ our elder brother and with himself for ever and ever Now what rebels and stout-hearted sinners are they who shall not accept of this gracious offer upon so small conditions The conditions are onely to repent for our sins and to receive Jesus Christ for our Lord and Saviour to rule and govern us by his Word and Spirit Who would refuse such an honourable good and gracious Master such a noble service which hath a most copious reward annexed to it In the service of Christ there is perfect freedom but in the divels service the greatest slavery Then are you free indeed John 8.6 if the Son shall make you free Do not stand off I beseech you close with this gracious offer accept of these conditions lest that thereby thou incensest God against thee to destroy thee if thou refusest this offer of reconciliation thou shalt never have the like again for in rejecting it thou sinnest against the remedy which God hath provided for the sin of thy soul by trampling under foot the precious blood
afforded me alwayes praying reading doing good and working out my salvation with fear and trembling But alas there is no more time there are no more seasons of grace afforded me God is departed from me in respect of any future mery for ever hell hath shut her mouth upon me and therefore O that I had to my everlasting comfort complyed and hearkened to the voice of the spirit contending with me That I had walked up to the light of the spirit then it had been otherwise with me to my perpetual joy then it is now to my eternal misery Thus the wretched sinner laments it self when it is too late and wishes it had never been unless he had been better because he improved not those talents and walked not up to that light which God had given him Reasons why every soul ought to walke up according to its Light 1. Because God judgeth every one according to his light Rom. 2.12 For as many as have sinned without Law shall also perish without Law and as many as have sinned in the Law shall be judged by the Law that is those that are without the moral Law written upon tables of stone but have onely the Law of nature written upon their hearts though the moral Law is nothing but what is founded upon nature as appears in the 15. verse For the Gentiles which have not the Law i. e. the moral Law do by nature the things contained in the Law if they sin against the Law written in their consciences shall onely be judged according to that Law and those that have the moral Law shall be judged according to the moral Law but those who have the light of the Gospel shall be judged according to the light of the Gospel 16. v. In the day when God shal judge the secrets of mens hearts according to my Gospel And those that have sinned against the light of conviction and the strivings of the spirit shall be judged according to that light and according as our light is so will be our condemnation Mat. 11.22 It will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgement then for us who live under the light of the Gospel and the spirits convictions because our light is the greater And for those who live under Gospel light it will be more tolerable for those at the day of judgement who have lived under a powerful Ministery all their dayes and have had more influences of the spirit upon their hearts and have had the spiritual Manna continually falling round about their houses as the inhabitants of the famous City of London have who are blessed above all other Nations with spiritual blessings then those who are less watred with showers of Grace from heaven if they shall let slip their opportunities and sleep out the day of visitation which is afforded them The Lord takes notice of every Sermon we hear and of every prayer we have prayed of every time we have received the Sacrament of every impression we have had upon our spirits of all those counsels exhortations admonitions reproofs corrections instructions we have had of all that naturall knowledge we had with the improvements of it of all the prayers and beseechings others have made and put to God for us of all those secret checks of conscience of all those various acts of providence in the course of our lives marvellous deliverances from dangers from sicknesses from imprisonments in providing for us when all other helps and means have failed of all those resolutions we have made of better obedience upon some notable conviction upon our spirits of all our services performed unto him in private and in publick and of all that conference and communion we have had with the Saints of all that progress we have towards heaven and that if we had gone but a step or two further we might have been happy and according to the severall gradations of our spirituall advantages upon the neglect of them so shall our condemnation be God will judge us for every Sermon wherein we have not met him in a Sermon for every prayer wherein we have not met him in a prayer for every receiving of the Sacrament wherein we have not met Christ in that Sacrament We are then said to meet God in a duty when upon the right improvement of it God comes nigher to us in waies of further discoveries upon our hearts or our hearts are drawn nigher to God and to Jesus Christ in way of heavenly mindedness and son-like obedience 2. We ought to walk up to that light which we have because God hath to this end given this light unto us that our evil deeds being made manifest we may loath our selves for them and avoid them for the time to come Wicked men they hate the light Joh. 3.20 because their deeds are evil they know that it is the nature of light to make manifest and thereupon if they should come to the light their consciences would be awakened and the peace of their besotted spirits lul'd asleep in gross ignorance carnall security the pleasures of sinne and by the devil would be disturbed But the godly on the other side they rejoyce in the light in the light of the Word in the light of the Spirit and bless God for the time that ever they were acquainted with the evil nature of their sinnes and with the experience of Gods infinite goodness unto them in Jesus Christ A righteous man fears not the terrours of the Law 1 Tim. 1.9 for the Law was not made for him but for the rebellious disobedient murtherers of fathers and murtherers of mothers And he rejoyceth in the glad tidings of the Spirit He desires to be taught by the Spirit and daily to be nurtured up in the School of Christ till he shall come to the perfection of the Saints in glory He that doth truth cometh to the light Joh. 3.21 that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wronght in God 3. Because if a mans spirit gives him in that such a thing is a duty though it be nor or such a thing is a sinne though in it self it be not a sinne yet if he walk not up according to that verdict his conscience gives in of it unless the Word of God speaks directly against it and it be directly opposite to the analogy and proportion of faith he sinnes in not so doing Saith the Apostle Whatsoever is not of faith is sinne Rom. 14.23 that is whatsoever we do doubtingly and ambiguously being in distrust whether the thing ought to be done or no if we do it we sinne in so doing We should do nothing but what we verily believe ought to be done In these two cases we may follow the light of our own consciences 1. In things indifferent which are neither simply commanded nor simply for bidden 2. In things which do not positively contradict the doctrine of faith and piety and the express Word of God or a direct and an immediate consequence plain to the capacity of all understanding men void of any prejudice against the truth drawn from solid and evident places of Scripture pat to the purpose we have in hand But if any man shall pretend a Tenet or a Custom or a Doctrine to be received believed performed and practised because his own conscience gives him in it is so or ought to be believed and practised though he hath an express command to the contrary in Gods Word I say that this mans heart is full of Atheism and unbelief and grosly deluded by the devil and though his erroneous conscience gives him in it must be so yet he sinnes if he doth it because it is directly contrary to the Word of God Now if a man sinnes if he walks not up to the light of his conscience in some cases though it may be erroneous then much more he walks not up to the light of the Word and of the Spirit these are infallible lights without the least errour and deceit Lord God we beseech thee that seeing our hearts are so apt to deceive us and to be deceived the world to flatter us and the devil to beguile us and because we live in unstable times full of delusions wherein the mystery of iniquity begins to work and Satans agents are now transformed into Angels of light that our hearts might not be bewitched with these meer phantasmes and ghosts of piety with these shadows in stead of substance but give us that spirituall eye-salve whereby we may discern the cunning sleights of men who lye in wait to deceive and that Christian prudence to foresee the evils that are coming upon the earth Psal 43.3 Send forth thy light and thy truth we beseech thee thy light is a true light and thy truth is light that by thy light we may see light and by the teachings of thy Spirit upon our hearts we may be so established in the waies of God that neither the Errours Heresies and Blasphemies that are abroad in the world may taint us nor that desolation which is coming upon us for our sinnes unless they be washed away with the tears of repentance and with amendment of life may drive us from our hope and confidence of God but that patiently enduring the chastening of the Lord because we have sinned against him by that witnessing act of thy Spirit evidently teaching us that we are thy children in the midst of all these heart-quaking times we may rejoyce in the expectation of future happiness FINIS
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
Christ and not to seek their own applause and credit in the world by shewing their learning and their abilities instead of setting forth the glory of God 1 Cor. 14.8 If the trumpet shall give an uncertain sound who will prepare himself to the battell Isa 58.1 and if Ministers who are to lift up their voices like a trumpet and to shew Gods people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sinnes shall give an uncertain sound and shall speak in an unknown Language or in a strain exceeding the capacity of most people how shall they be able to prepare themselves against the battell to fight with sinne and to undergo temptations and afflictions and to save themselves from the overthrow of the ungodly world I have read of those that have repented they have preached too profoundly and have not done that good for the Church of God which they might have done if they had preached in a more humble manner but I never read of any that repented because they preached too plainly 1 Cor. 14.19 St Paul saith I had rather speak five words with my understanding than ten thousand words in an unknown Tongue Yet to explain the Originall and to shew the copiousness or the emphasis of the word in the Greek and Hebrew is a thing very commendable and praise-worthy as our eminent English Commentators in their Comments do and those who are acquainted with the Originall do as every Minister of Christ should be or sparingly to quote some eminent Pillar in the Church of God for the further enlightning or for the present confirmation of that matter which we have in hand Tit. 1.12 St Paul noted the Poet Epimenides when he said The Cretians are alwaies liars and the Poet Araetus in the Acts when he said Act. 17.28 As one of your own tribe hath said As it was said of Christ Now thou speakest plainly Joh. 16.29 and speakest no parable so it should be said of Christs Ambassadors Saith God to Ezekiel Son of man Eze. 16.2 make the house of Israel to know their iniquities It is one thing to preach against sin and another thing to make the people to know their sinnes that they may be ashamed and confounded for the evil of their waies But amongst the higher-grown Christians we are to deliver the mysteries of God Heb. 5.12 13 14. Heb. 6.1 1 Pet. 2.2 we are to preach the wisdom of God that wisdom that the world knoweth not of Strong meat is for strong Christians but milk for babes and children Quest But some might ask the Apostle how he came to partake of the wisdom of God and of this wisdom which the world cannot attain unto You are brought up at Gamaliels feet Act. 22.3 and according to the Law of the strictest Sect of the Pharisees Act. 26.5 we can say of you as they said of Christ we know whence you are Joh. 7.27 and where you were brought up How came you therefore by this wisdom you speak of The Apostle by way of preoccupation saies God hath revealed these things unto us by his Spirit Hence note by the way Note That there are secrets in Gods own keeping which all the Learning in the world can never attain unto only the teachings of the Spirit of God can acquaint us with it and there are some things which God reveals but to a few persons in severall ages of the world Heb. 11.7 Only a Noah can foresee the ruine of the old world and prepare an Ark for the saving of his house Gen. 19.12 a Lot the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah Christ Jesus the miseries that were coming upon Jerusalem Mat. 24. Luther the miseries that were coming upon Germany Augustine the destruction coming upon Hippo in Africa and Mr Calvin the persecution of Gods Church that should follow his departure Only those that are taught of God have their eyes in their heads and that Christian prudence to foresee the evils that are coming upon the earth Pro. 22.3 c. 27.12 The wicked go on and are punished but the wise man that is the spirituall wise man foreseeth the evil and avoideth it Then the Apostle goes on to shew that if we have the Spirit of God we cannot choose but know the things of God for the Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God Gen. 41.38 It is the Spirit that discovers the secrets of God to his people and makes them to know the hidden things of Gods counsell Dan. 4.8 9.5.11 14. therefore Daniel is said to be a man in whom the Spirit of the Gods are And John when the Revelation was committed unto him is said to be in the Spirit Rev. 1.10 I was in the Spirit on the Lords day say the Schoolmen Spiritus est amor amor est nexus Sanctae Trinitatis ex boc sibi volentes Spiritum procedere à Patre à Filio candem numericam essentiam cum Patre Filio habere Patrem à seipso Filium per Patrem Spiritum à Patre à Filio omnia efficere Now if there be such an unconceivable union between God the Father God the Son and God the holy Ghost certainly the communion is as great for from union ariseth communion so that whatsoever secrets are in God the Spirit being one with God the Father the Spirit only must deliver and convey them unto us I speak now of these Gospel-times Vrim Thummim Perspicuitas Veritas Urim ab On Hebraicè lux Thummim à Thammim Hebraicè integer Teraphim ab Hebraico verbo Teraph sanare quia cum malè afficiebantur Teraphim consulebant Teraphim crat caput humanum odoratum unguentis delibutum wherein dreams and visions and the appearances of Angels and Urim and Thumim and all waies under the former dispensation have ceased yea all Diabolicall waies have failed for now there is no consulting of Teraphim of Oracles of the Sepulchres of dead men but the Spirit is now more plentifully poured forth according to the Gospel Covenant Ye shall be all taught of God and in the 2d of Joel speaking of the daies of the Gospel wherein this mystery of Godliness shall be revealed it is said They shall be all taught of God The Apostle proceeds to shew that it is impossible any other way but by the Spirit of God to understand the things of God For what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God As no man can know what are the intents and purposes in the heart of another man unless by conjecture for the devil who is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 q. Sciens an old experienced seducer of almost six thousand years standing by all his knowledge cannot know positively the heart this is Gods prerogative only I