Thirdly Our Saviour hath moreover purchased for us a rich supply of Grace to enable us to use the forementioned Means with happy success He hath obtained from his Father by his Perfect Obedience both Active and Passive Authority to send the Holy Ghost powerfully to assist us and hath assured us that those who ask him shall have him in those most excellent and most comfortable words Luke 11. 11 12 13. If a Son shall ask bread of any that is a Father will he give him a stone Or if he ask a fish will he for a fish give him a Serpent Or if he shall ask an Egge will he offer him a Scorpion If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your Children how much more shall your Heavenly Father give his holy Spirit unto them that ask him And if any of us want the Holy Spirit 's Assistance it is certainly because we either pray not at all for it or not with a sincere and earnest desire that he should root up and destroy every Evil Affection in our Souls Because we are secretly unwilling to let go some beloved lust or other And because we are false to God and our own Souls in those things which he hath put into our Power For 't is certain that not to put forth the power we have already received and yet complain for want of strength is to play the Hypocrities and no wonder if the Holy Spirit of God doth estrange himself and withhold or withdraw his blessed Influences from such persons But as for those who are faithful so far as those Talents reach which they are at present intrusted with our Lord hath promised them that more shall be given them That is the meaning of those words Mark 4. 25. He that hath to him shall be given That is that useth what he hath for no man properly hath or possesseth what he makes no use of 't would be the same thing to him to be without it Nay our Lord doth not only promise to him that hath that more shall be given him but also that he shall have abundantly more Matth. 13. 12. For whosoever hath to him shall be given and he shall have more abundance And he repeats this Chap. 25. 29. And if we were not through wilfulness and carelesness wanting to our selves in putting forth that measure of strength we have as sure as Iesus is the Christ we should fully experiment the truth of this promise We should then feel the Divine Spirit working in us mightily as the Apostle S. Paul saith he did Col. 1. 29. The great things that are spoken concerning the Spirit and of what he shall do in the hearts of men would be then punctually fulfilled in us and we should be satisfied by happy experience that they are not mere words the Holy Ghost would not fail to do all that for us he was sent by our Lord to do It is to be acknowledged with great sadness that both Fleshly and Spiritual Lusts are exceedingly strong and vigorous even in the generality of those that profess Christianity as well as in others and no less than in others that are Strangers to our Religion But this never to be enough lamented Evil doth not proceed from hence that grace is denied to the generality but 't is wholly to be imputed to their Receiving the grace of God in vain and wilfully refusing to comply therewith It is not at all to be ascribed to the Spirits refusing to perform his Office in them or to do in their behalf what doth belong to him but to their refusing to do their part This we are as fully assured of from abundance of Texts of Scripture as we can desire to be The same is to be said of mens so ordinarily falling again and again into those sins which they frequently Pray and Resolve and Vow against This is far from being the account of it that God is not willing to hear their prayers For as S. Iohn speaks 1 Epist. 5. 14. This is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask any thing according to his will he heareth us and to ask victory over our Lusts is of all Petitions most agreeable to his will This cannot be the reason of it that the Holy Spirit refuseth to inforce his Preventing or Prevenient with his Assisting Grace that he will not assist some persons in the performance of those good Resolutions which his Preventing Grace hath excited in their Souls But this is the true account hereof viz. Such Persons are undoubtedly wanting in the use of some Necessary Means or other for the subduing their Lusts they do not use all the means our Lord hath appointed and are especially faulty in neglecting particularly the great duty of Consideration They pray it may be very frequently and earnestly too that God would give them strength against this or that Corruption and they add Vows to their Prayers but they add not Consideration to their Prayers and Vows they watch not over themselves disregard the first motions of their Wills and inclinations of their Souls towards the sins or sin they so Pray Resolve and Vow against and are not careful to avoid Temptations And as inconsideration is the chiefest cause of unsuccessfulness in the use of means for the subduing of Corrupt Affections so the gross neglect of that grand Means the Lords Supper but now discoursed of which I hope in no Age nor among any people professing Christianity was ever so common as to our great shame it is in this Age and this Nation this gross neglect I say is questionless a very great cause of so much Non-proficiency in attendance on other Ordinances as is complained of Which Nonproficiency may well be notwithstanding the Promises of the plentiful Effusion of the Spirit and our Saviour's purchasing so rich a supply of Grace for us For our Saviour is no such Friend to Negligence and Carelesness as to dispense his Grace in such a way and manner as that it must necessarily be a motive and encouragement to do nothing or but little our selves But on the contrary he so communicates his Grace and Strength as to make it a great Exciter and Quickner of Endeavours Of this S. Paul assures us in making God's working in us to will and to do or his readiness so to do an argument to perswade us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2. 12. Lastly As our Saviour hath purchased for us a rich supply of Grace for the Enabling us to use the Means of our Deliverance with happy success so he hath given us the most powerful Motives and Arguments that can be imagined to prevail upon our Wills to comply and cooperate with this Grace And these Arguments are not only proposed outwardly to us in his Gospel but they are also inforced inwardly upon our hearts as appears by what hath been now said by his Holy Spirit That is they are inforced upon the
and grave Whatsoever things are just or exactly agreeable to the Rule of doing as we would be done unto Whatsoever things are pure or far from all shew and appearance of unchastity Whatsoever things are lovely or which tend to secure to us love among men such as all works of benignity mercy and Charity Whatsoever things are of good report or which are apt to procure a good name and therefore to prevent all the causes of shame and to give us the greatest freedom and confidence as before God so before Men too If there be any virtue if there be any thing that is by Good men reckoned in the number of Virtues And if there be any praise or any thing laudable and praise-worthy All these things as the Apostle in the general here enjoyneth us to think upon them so they are very particularly and as clearly and perspicuously recommended to us to be carefully observed by us in the New Testament There is nothing which it becometh us to Do or Forbear whether in reference to God our Great Creator Governour and Benefactor or to our Fellow-creatures or to our own Souls and Bodies but here we find it Again we may observe all these in our Saviour's Life also wherein He set us an Example that we should follow his steps And it is a most admirable Example of Piety towards God of Love to him Trust in him and Submission to his Will of Charity to all men even his greatest Enemies and of Humility Meekness Temperance Purity Contempt of the World and Heavenly-mindedness He that shall observe how our Blessed Saviour Lived cannot be ignorant of any of those Laws of Righteousness and Goodness which before his coming the World was so lamentably in not a few instances to seek in the knowledge of through that blindness which by the customary gratifying their vile Affections men had generally contracted I say he that is acquainted with the Life of our Saviour cannot easily be ignorant of any of those Laws although he never understood what particular Commands or Prohibitions his Precepts consist of So that this is the First thing Christ Iesus hath done for us in order to our being made Free He hath given us fully to understand what it is to be Free what are those several Rules of Righteousness and Goodness in compliance with which consists our Liberty Secondly Our Saviour hath also prescribed most Effectual Means by making use of which we shall most certainly obtain and maintain this Liberty that is obey those Laws of Liberty which he hath given us These Means are especially Believing himself to be the Son of God and consequently the Truth and Divinity of his Doctrine Hearing his Word and Receiving it into honest hearts or Pondering it in our minds and Meditating upon it with the Design of conforming our selves to it Prayer to God in his Name together with Faith in his Bloud for the Remission of our Sins and in his Power and Goodness for the Subduing our Lusts and the making us Obedient to his Precepts That is for the blessing our Endeavours to that End Setting his Example before our Eyes which is an Excellent Means to beget in us a likeness to him and to our partaking of his Spirit and Temper Watching over our own Hearts and against Temptations Denying our selves and not indulging our Sensitive Part. Advising in all Cases of doubt and difficulty with our Pastors and Spiritual Guides whom Christ hath given to his Church For the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministery for the Edifying of the Body of Christ Ephes. 4. 12. And obeying them which have the Rule over us in the Lord they watching for our Souls as those that must give an Account Heb. 13. 17. Which Duties were never more neglected than in this Age to the great scandal of our Reformed Religion Keeping in the Communion of the Church And not forsaking the Assembling our selves together or our publick Assemblies as the manner of some is Heb. 10. 25. And now is the manner of vast numbers of us though no Terms of Communion are required that contradict any one Text of Scripture which Separation we are too like ere long to pay dear for The Religious observation of the Lords Day both in Publick and Private is another singular Help and Advantage Though few Professors of Christianity seem now to have any great sense of it to the great prejudice of their own Souls and the Souls of those who are under their charge And to these add in the last place because 't is most convenient to place them here The Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper By Baptism we are admitted into the Church of Christ and brought into a New State We are baptized into the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost or devoted to their service And the Father in this Sacrament takes us into his special care and into the Relation of his Children whereas before we were only the Children of Adam The Son receives us as members of his Body the Church We are baptized into one Body as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 12. 13. that Body whereof Christ is the Head And the Holy Ghost who is the Author of Grace and Spiritual Life taketh us for his Temples We are said to Receive the Holy Ghost in Baptism to receive that power and strength from him which will enable us to Mortifie the deeds of the Body and to acquire the Divine Graces and Virtues which we shall certainly do if we refuse not to Exert and Improve it when we come to years of Discretion and our Faculties are ripe enough for that purpose In Baptism the Holy Spirit communicates to us the Beginnings of a new life which may afterwards be improved to large measures of Virtue and Goodness if we be not wilfully wanting to our selves in the other Means And in the Lords Supper as we renew the Covenant we made in Baptism to renounce the Devil and all his works c. So all worthy Receivers of that Sacrament receive great additions of Grace and Spiritual Strength are fed with the spiritual food of the most Precious Body and Bloud of Christ. And of all the Means prescribed for the Subduing our Lusts and Growing in Grace the Frequent Receiving the Lord's Supper is very deservedly accounted the Principal Certainly there is not any Ordinance wherein sincere Souls do so experiment the Communications of the Holy Spirit by which they are so Strengthened with strength in their Souls Nor are there any such Strong and Spriteful Christians any so confirmed and rooted in Goodness in the love of God and their Neighbour and all the Christian Virtues as those who take all occasions to attend upon it with a thankful sense of the infinite love of God and Christ to them and sincerely design in so doing a fuller participation of the Divine nature But this intimation that these two Sacraments are conveyances of Grace and Strength leads me to shew that
our Soul's welfare and the making us partakers of his own image and likeness can by no Circumstances whatsoever become unfit to be bestowed on those that heartily and sincerely seek it And therefore we are assured that those prayers that are put up for such things with a true heart and full assurance of faith in his Power and Goodness are seconded in Heaven by our Blessed Lord And him the Father heareth always John 11. 42. We have shewed that our Saviour hath purchased a Rich supply of Grace to help our Weakness and that his Holy Spirit is promised to those that ask him who will not fail to assist them whilest they carefully exert that power they are already in possession of But the most Honest Souls have so frequent experience of Heaviness Dulness and Distractions in their Addresses to God that they would be in great danger of despairing of the Success of their Prayers but for this Consideration that they have a no Less Friend in Heaven than the Only Begotten Son of God who is most powerful with his Father and supplies all the Defects of their Prayers by his own Intercession in their behalf I need not say what a marvellous incouragement this is of our Faith and Hope in the Divine Goodness which are so necessary to Animate us and to put Spirit and Life into all our Endeavours And the Mediation and Intercession of our Blessed Saviour conduceth exceedingly to the overcoming those inslaving Passions of Fearfulness and Shame which arise from Guilt and do naturally cause a great Averseness in Sinners from going into the Presence of God and disable them when they are there to behave themselves as they ought before him S. Paul tells the Ephesians that In Christ Iesus they have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him That is through Christ's Mediation those Believing Gentiles of whose Calling he was discoursing as great Sinners as they had been even dead in Trespasses and Sins have liberty of Approach to God with Confidence of a kind Reception and a Gracious Acceptance And the Author to the Hebrews Chap. 10. 19 c. doth thus encourage Sincere Souls to draw near to God Having therefore Brethren boldness or Liberty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to enter into the holiest by the bloud of Iesus by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us in opposition to the dead shadows under the Law through the veil that is to say his Flesh Breaking through the veil of his Flesh being fain to die before he ascended into Heaven And having an High Priest over the House of God Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of Faith Having our Hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience and our Bodies washed with pure Water That is being sincerely resolved against all sins both of Heart and Life As none that had touched any unclean thing under the Law till the Priest had sprinkled them with pure Water had Liberty to enter into the Congregation Fifthly The Reward which our Saviour hath purchased for and promised to those that shall get free from the power of their Lusts is another Motive than which a more Powerful one is not to be imagined He hath promised that such shall be with him where he is That because he lives they shall live also Hath assured them that He is gone to Heaven before to prepare a place for them That He is entered thither as their Forerunner That they shall behold the Glory there which his Father hath given him and that they shall be sharers also with him in that Glory That they shall sit with Him upon his Throne Rev. 3. 21. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me upon my Throne even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father on his Throne That the Righteous shall shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of the Father Matth. 13. 43. That their dead Bodies also being raised again shall be fashioned like to his own most Glorious Body according to the Mighty working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself Phil. 3. 21. Of this Glory it is impossible we should speak much in this state worthily of it it far surpasseth our most Elevated Conâ—eptions and therefore our highest Expressions must needs fall excessively short of it It doth not yet appear what we shall be saith S. Iohn 1 Epist. 3. 2. only we know so much of the Heavenly Bliss as to be assured that it is astonishingly Great for as it follows this we know that when he appears we shall be like him like Him the infinitely Holy and Happy Being in his Holiness and Happiness for we shall see him as he is Which implieth such a clear distinct and vigorous knowledge of his most Glorious Perfections as will transform the Soul into His own Nature and fill it with His own Blessedness to the utmost extent of its capacity Could we now apprehend this Blessedness in any proportion to its transcendent Greatness and Excellency we should have no more Spirit left in us as it is said of the Queen of Sheba when she beheld the Magnificence of Solomons Court Indeed there is such an Account given us of the Happiness prepared for Good men that we should find it impossible to believe it but that God which cannot lye hath promised it and that it is the purchase of a most inestimable price the Bloud of his Eternally Begotten Son And we have so great Evidence of its being promised by his Father and purchased by Himself given us by our Blessed Lord that our own Hearts can't wish for greater nay such as we could not have asked any comparable to it might we have had our own choice of Evidence viz. His innumerable Miraculous works His Resurrection from the Dead His Ascension into Heaven And afterwards exactly according to his promise His sending the Holy Ghost We have not more Evidence that Iesus is the Son of God than we have that All his sincere Disciples shall live with him in unspeakable and Eternal Blessedness for we have the self same for both The same Arguments which have abundantly demonstrated the truth of the former Proposition do equally prove the latter for they depend mutually upon each other As S. Paul hath shewed in 1 Cor. 5. 13 14. If there be no Resurrection of the Dead then is Christ not risen And if Christ be not risen then is our Preaching vain and your Faith is also vain That is there will be no Resurrection of the Dead Now of what mighty force and efficacy are the exceeding great and precious promises of such a Glorious state as this to engage all the Powers of our Souls in the pursuance of that Holiness which is not only an indispensable Condition to precede the obtaining of it but like a necessary Qualification for it The Happiness which will naturally by proper Efficiency and necessary Consequence result from our
to the Will of God to have Granted or Denied to us as shall seem most agreeable to His infinite Wisdom the Good things of this present Life and hungering and thirsting desires after Righteousness after those Divine Dispositions and Qualifications which are necessary to our being made meet for the Kingdom of Heaven In such things as these doth consist the Soul and Spirit of Prayer These are the Absolutely necessary and Essential ingredients thereof But Fourthly As for Words they are but a circumstantial part of Prayer and no farther necessary than as they tend to the more quickening our Affections exciting our Desires inlivening our Sense of the forementioned Objects and keeping our Minds fixed and intent And in publick Prayer or Prayer with others they are necessary to enable others to joyn with us But the Omniscient God understands the sense of our Souls the temper of our Spirits and the desires of our Hearts though no words be used for the expressing of them And always measures our Prayers by those not at all by these I say not at all by Words because if they flow from an honest Heart and a good disposition of Mind they cannot be so faulty as to make a Prayer unacceptable And therefore it is the same thing to God whether a good Sense and good Desires be from time to time expressed by the same or by variety of Words and Phrases And he who is affected as he ought to be in the use of a Form who hath such Desires and such a Sense as he ought to have as thousands of good Christians have hath as much the true Spirit of Prayer and as much of it too as he can have who hath the most notable Faculty at varying his Expressions And he who hath this Faculty but wants that Sense and those good Dispositions is notwithstanding utterly destitute of the Spirit of Prayer But it is incomparably most fit that there should be a Liturgy or Forms prescribed for the publick Worship of God for Prayer and Praising of God in the Church and for the celebration of the Holy Sacraments with the other Offices because the publick Worship of God ought always to be performed with the greatest Gravity and Solemnity possible But such a performance of Divine Worship can never be secured where Ministers are wholly left to their own Liberty and permitted to put up all the Confessions Petitions and Thanksgivings of the Congregation and to perform all the Offices in their own Arbitrary and Extemporary Expressions For though some Ministers who take this Liberty may pray excellently well when their heads are clear and they are in a good Temper yet I doubt there are very few who have always that Presence of Mind that Composedness of Thoughts and Constancy of Temper as not to be forced sometimes to use many Tautologies and indecent expressions But however the Church is never like to be provided with such Ministers as shall be able for the most part of them to keep themselves from great confusion in their conceived Prayers from bald and absurd phrases and from Nauseating their Auditory with repetitions of the same things fulâ—om sayings or lamentable misapplications of Texts of Scripture through over-much modesty or other infelicities of Temper in some and in others through ignorance or weakness of Natural parts either slowness of Invention or want of Judgment And besides there is this necessity of having a Liturgy that without one there is no rational way of perswading strangers to hold Communion with us Except we can shew them something which is acknowledged by common Agreement for a Form and Method of Divine Worship we cannot satisfie them what publick Service we perform to God it will then be so various that is as not alike in all places so neither at all times in the same places But to complete my Answer to the Question in hand Fifthly The affecting us with a profound Sense of the Majesty and Glorious perfections of the God we pray to and of our own Vileness and Unworthiness And a Submissive frame of Mind to the Divine Will Ardent Breathings after more of the Divine Image and Likeness And a lively Faith in the Power Wisdom and Goodness of God which are as I said the Substantial and Essential parts of Prayer all these we heartily and thankfully acknowledge to be the Gifts of the Spirit We own them to be so otherwise than all other good things which are every of them expressions of the Divine Bounty and consequently Gifts of the Spirit as He is one of the Persons of the Blessed Trinity But we profess to owe them to the more special operations and influences of the Holy Ghost And for the working and encrease of these all good Christians do daily crave the Spirits assistance Now I need not say that to endeavour to put a restraint upon the exercise of such Gifts as these is a most wicked invasion and violation of our Christian Liberty according to our own Notion of it But what we have discoursed concerning Prayer gives me occasion to add something of Preaching too and to shew also how far an ability for that performance is to be ascribed to the Holy Spirit or called one of his Gifts And consequently we may from hence be satisfied whether a Preacher of the Gospel is inâ—â—tled to such a Liberty in reference to Preaching as may not be limited by Auâ—hority or upon no accounts taken wholâ— from him without putting an affront upon the Holy Spirit First It is out of doubt that no man 〈◊〉 hath the Gift of Preaching in the demonstration of the Spirit and of Power in the sence that S. Paul and his fellow-Apostles had it For by the demonstration of the Spirit and of Power is meant those extraordinary Gifts of Speaking with Tongues Prophecy and Miracles accompanying their Preaching whereby they demonstrated the truth of the Doctrine preached by them And so Origen understands it in his Book against Celâ—us Secondly There is not the least ground to believe that any man hath now the Gift of Preaching by Inspiration or from the immediate Revelation of the Spirit Nor do any seriously pretend to it but wild Enthusiasts Brain-sick Melancholy and Hot-headed people who take their own Fancies and Whims and the products of an ungoverned imagination for Inspirations I say none but those who plainly discover themselves to be such do seriously pretend to this Gift because there have been and still are a company of Knaves in the World as is manifest by their actings who for the carrying on their corrupt and naughty designs pretend to that which they are conscious to themselves they have nothing of But sober and honest Preachers of the Gospel do profess to deliver nothing to their people but what they conceive to be long ago revealed But what they acknowledge they have with study and pains gathered from the Holy Scriptures either immediately or by plain consequence wherein are contained all things necessary
Evil from an Overpowering Sense of the Becomingness and Excellency of the one and the Vileness and Odiousness of the other is the very Perfection of Liberty And this is so far from being impossible to be obtained by Creatures or by our Selves that by the help of God's Grace it is in a large measure even in this life Attainable I mean such a Sense of Good and Evil as shall certainly determine us to Good and against Evil in most of the instances of each There are some immoralities and wicked Actions that they who have attained to but very mean and ordinary degrees of Goodness cannot perswade themselves so much as to endeavour to reconcile their Minds to Nay there are some that no man can easily be supposed able to consent to but an extraordinarily Depraved and Wicked Wretch let the Motives that are used to perswade him be what they will Such as Blaspheming of God Contriving the Murther of our Parents or of a most obliging Friend Torturing of innocent Babes and the like Horrid Villanies Surely then a man is capable of such a Vivid sense of the Hatefulness of Sin in general as will whilest it lasts render it impossible for him to Will deliberately to commit any known Sin whatsoever 'T is confessed that we cannot hope to get past all danger of sudden Surprizals so long as we inhabit these Bodies and remain in our present Unhappy Circumstances but I say so powerful a Sense of the Infinite Unrighteousness Disingenuity Unreasonableness Folly and Madness of opposing the Holy Will of our Great Creator and Blessed Redeemer may by the Divine Assistance be acquired even on this side Heaven as shall Determine us effectually against all Deliberate and Wilful Violations of the Divine Laws For this we have the Authority of a Great Apostle S. Iohn saith in his 1 Epist. 3. 9. Whosoever is Born of God doth not commit Sin for his Seed remaineth in him neither can he Sin because he is Born of God He here affirms not only that those who have attained to extraordinary Measures of Goodness cannot Sin that is cannot will to sin deliberately but likewise that no Regenerate or truly Good man can He cannot thus Sin because he is born of God because he is a Child of God by the inward Renewing of his Holy Spirit And because his Seed remaineth in him that is the Divine Seed Which Divine Seed I take to be the same thing with the several times mentioned Quick Powerful and Pungent Sense of the Horrid Nature and most dreadful Effects and Consequents of Wilful Sinning It is more than Morally impossible that whilest this Sense abideth in its Strength and Vigour the Good man should lapse into such Sins Have we not such a Sense of the Vileness of some Actions as to say frequently I could not for all the world find in mine heart that is in my Will to do so or so And if we had the same Sense of all Sins which it is unreasonable not to have considering them as Sins or Transgressions of the Everlasting Rules of Righteousness for considering them under that notion all sins are alike I say had we the same Sense of all Sins we should as truly say concerning each I cannot find in mine heart I cannot will to consent unto it CHAP. XII Which Treats of one Branch of the First Inference from the Argument of the Second Section That in Freedom from the Dominion of Corrupt Affections doth that Liberty Principally or rather Wholly Consist which Christ hath purchased for us Namely that several Notions of Christian Liberty which have too much prevailed are false and of dangerous Consequence The First of which is That which makes it to consist wholly or in part in Freedom from the Obligation of the Moral Law Certain Texts urged by the Antinomians in favour of it vindicated from the sence they put upon them And the extreme wildness and wickedness of it exposed in Five Particulars WE proceed now to the Inferences from the latter Argument viz. That in Freedom from the Dominion of Corrupt Affections and all the sad Consequents thereof our Christian Liberty doth Eminently consist and wholly too the Liberty which Christ hath purchased for us Gentiles And First We infer from hence that several Notions of Christian Liberty that have too much prevailed are False and of dangerous Consequence We will speak to First That which makes it to consist in Freedom from the Obligation of the Moral Law Secondly That which makes it to consist in Freedom from those Laws of Men which Enjoyn or Forbid indifferent things Thirdly That which makes Liberty of Conscience a Branch of Christian Liberty First For that Notion of Christian Liberty which makes it to consist either wholly or in part in Freedom from the Obligation of the Moral Law This is extremely Wild and Wicked as will appear from what hath been discoursed It is the Doctrine of the Antinomians and they produce in favour of it all those Texts wherein we are said to be delivered from the Law As particularly Rom. 7. 6. Now we are delivered from the Law that being dead wherein we were held c. Gal. 2. 19. I through the Law am dead to the Law c. Rom. 6. 14. Ye are not under the Law but under Grace Gal. 4. 4 5. When the fulness of time was come God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law to Redeem them that were under the Law c. To this it is Answered That there are indeed many Texts which Assert our being freed from the Law but the Question is What Law they mean Or rather 't is out of Question that they mean not the Moral Law For there is no need of doing more than reading throughout the forementioned Verses to satisfie us that the Apostle understood in each of them nothing less than that Law Nay we need do no more to be assured that he Abominated this Notion of Christian Liberty For whereas he saith Rom. 7. 6. Now we are delivered from the Law that being dead wherein we were held it follows that we should serve in Newness of Spirit and not in the Oldness of the Letter That is That we should no longer be merely Externally Obedient but also Inwardly and Spiritually Whereas he saith Gal. 2. 19. I through the Law am dead to the Law he immediately adds this as the reason why he was so that I might live unto God Or be in all things conformed to the Rules of Righteousness and Goodness which He hath prescribed all which are comprehended in the Moral Law Again whereas he tells the Romans Chap. 6. 14. Ye are not under the Law but under Grace This comes in as a proof of what he said immediately before in the same Verse viz. Sin shall not have dominion over you Lastly In saying Gal. 4. 5. That Christ was made of a Woman made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law he gives this in
Attention in saying their Prayers and numbering them over is as much as is necessary And if we can believe that we need not mind our Prayers we have no reason to blame those of them who do not desire to understand them Nor yet their Church for enjoyning the saying them in a Language which the Generality of Her Children are ignorant of as if She designed in so doing to put an Affront upon S. Paul who hath taught us in the most express terms the quite contrary Doctrine in the 14 Chapter of the First to the Corinthians To conclude this Chapter Our Notion of Christian Liberty is so very far from befriending Popery that 't is not possible it should have a greater Enemy in that it so highly conduceth to the advancing of the true Spirit and Power of Religion and to the perfect ridding our Minds of those two as Great Friends to Popery as Pests to Religion and even Humane Society viz. Superstition and fanaticism I mean by these two a Base Unworthy Apprehension of the Deity and a Blind Irrational Heady Zeal If it be said after all that supposing the two Notions of Christian Liberty which we have now declared our Sense 〈◊〉 be never so false yet we are notwithstanding too confined in Our Notion in â—hat Christian Liberty doth not onely â—onsist in Freedom from the Dominion of 〈◊〉 and the other sad Consequents of it â—ut also in our Freedom as to all things â—fan Indifferent nature to or from which â—e are not determined as by any Divine 〈◊〉 neither by any Humane Law If this â—say be objected our Answer in one â—ord is this This is not Christian but â—his is Natural Liberty That of S. Paul â—ving been in All Ages and in refeâ—ence to all sorts of People as Great a Truth as it hath been since our Saviours â—ime and in reference to Christians viz. Where no Law is there is no Transgression CHAP. XIV An Answer to this Question Whether the Prescribing of Forms of Prayer for the Publick Worship of God be not an Encroachment upon Christian Liberty Wherein it is shewed that this is not a Stifling of the Spirit or Restraining the exercise of his Gift And what in Prayer is not as also what is the Gift of the Spirit Whereby is occasioned an Answer to another Question viz. Whether an Ability for Preaching be properly a Gift of the Spirit WHat hath been last discoursed gives me occasion to Enquire Whether the Imposing of a Liturgy or Forms of Prayer for the Publick Worship of God be not an Encroachment upon Christian Liberty I answer it is if that Principle taken up by very many among us be a true one viz. That this is a Stifling of the Spirit and a Restraining of the Exercise of one of his Gifts If this be so I say it can be no better than a very great invasion of Christian Liberty and a far greater than the mere obliging men to things Indifferent For as S. Paul saith 1 Cor. 12. 7. The Maniâ—estation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal and therefore for Christians to be limited in doing good by a Gift of the Spirit must needs be a robbing them of that Liberty which Christ in sending Him design'd to give them By the way it shall be no part of my Reply to say that onely the Ministers are here concerned not at all the People For although a Conceived Prayer of the Minister be of the nature of a prescribed Form to those that joyn with him as to the confining their Spirits yet the People must needs be sufferers by means of their Ministers being stinted in the exercise of a Gift of the Spirit since it was designed for their profit and therefore upon this account and moreover in regard of the Countenance they will thereby give to Authority in such a kind of Sacrilegious Usurpation of power over Ministers it cannot be justifiable in them to Attend willingly upon such Forms But in order to the undeceiving of those who are so tenacious of this conceit that a prescribed Liturgy is a hinderance to the Free Exercise of a Gift of the Spirit I must freely profess that I know of no Gifts of the Spirit which we have warrant from Scripture to believe are continued to the Church at this day besides those which S. Paul calls the Fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5. 22. Where he saith The fruit of the Spirit is Love Ioy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance These and the like Christian Graces are Gifts which the Spirit still bestows and therefore called Graces They are supernatural Gifts as no man by his mere Natural power can obtain them but only by the Spirit 's blessing of our Endeavours and to the sincere use of the Gospel-means the Spirit is always ready to give his blessing And the reason why in these latter Ages these blessed Gifts are bestowed upon no more Professors of Christianity than they are is because the generality of such are miserably wanting to themselves and to the Holy Spirit in refusing to do their part and to cooperate with Him Because they will not attend to the evidence the Spirit hath given to the Truth of the Gospel and therefore have too weak and ineffectual a belief thereof Because they will not consider the Doctrine of the Gospel they will not weigh well and lay to heart its Precepts with the infinitely powerful motives wherewith they are inforced Because they will not listen to the Spirits good motions and suggestions whereby he works in men to Will and begets in them good Resolutions but do truly â—â—ench the Spirit though that phrase is â—sed in reference to his miraculous Gifts and resist the Holy Ghost and because they will not make a believing Application to Him for his powerful Assistance I say it is upon these and such like accounts that the forementioned Gifts of the Spirit are so rare and that the generality of those who are honoured with the Title of Christians are so destitute of them as we see they are Nay multitudes are so befooled by the enemy of their Souls as to expect that the Spirit should do all in them without their doing any thing that He should make them Temperate Righteous Charitable Meek Humble and Submissive to God's Will Heavenly-minded and the like without their due attendance upon those Ordinances of the Word Sacrament and Prayer and serious Consideration and Watchfulness over themselves wherein alone we have ground to expect the powerful working of the Divine Grace in our Souls But I say though these Gifts are observable in so very few comparatively the account whereof I have briefly touched upon and shewed that 't is mens own fault that they are not very common yet we have no warrant from Scripture that I know of to call those which are much more common though they are by many so reputed Gifts of the Spirit notwithstanding the Prophecies and Promises of so
plentiful a pouring of Him out in the times of the Gospel There were indeed common as well as more special Gifts of the Spirit in the First Ages For the miraculous ones of speaking all manner of Tongues Prophesying Healing all sorts of Diseases Casting out Devils c. which were the great Witnesses to the truth of Christianity were very common They were not only conferred upon the Apostles but the private Believers These signs said our Saviour shall follow them that believe in my name c. Mark 16. 17. And not onely on those Believers who were sincere Christians but those also whose Lives were not at all answerable to their Christian profession as appears by those words of our Saviour Mat. 7. 22. And several of these miraculous Gifts we have full assurance from Antiquity did continue in the Church though in nothing so plentiful a measure particularly those of Healing Prophesying and Casting out Devils till about the beginning of the Fourth Century when Providence blessed her with a Christian Emperor and she came to be protected by his Sword and Laws and consequently stood not in such need of those Gifts for the keeping her in Heart and the upholding her Credit and Reputation in the World But as these have ceased for many Ages so the abovesaid Fruits of the Spirit are the onely Endowments now remaining which may in a more peculiar manner be ascribed to Him that is they are the onely Supernatural Endowments As to that therefore which is commonly called the Gift of Prayer we have these things to say First That we have not the least reason to believe that the expressions of the very best mens Prayers are now dictated by the Holy Ghost or that they pray by the Inspiration of the Spirit as to Words or Matter I know not that any sober men do pretend to such a Gift as this in Prayer and too many of those that do pretend to it do manifestly declare by the management of their Gift that either they juggle and are gross Cheats or are sadly deluded What slovenly what ridiculous what bold and impudent expressions are ordinarily heard from them And what a deal of nauseating stuff that hath brought a vile scandal upon Religion and furnished Atheistical and Prophane people with matter of derision Even such stuff as that it is no better than a Blaspheming the Holy Ghost to father it upon Him But I delight not to insist upon this Argument It is objected that S. Paul saith Rom. 8. 26. We know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh Intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered I answer that this Text makes not at all for the purpose of those who in this sence pretend to an ability of praying by the Spirit For as for the Apostle's saying that We know not what to pray for as we ought it is to be limited to Temporal things and wholly to them For we do know that all those things which are necessary to our Eternal Felicity viz. all spiritual Blessings are to be prayed for And we do or may know what all those are without inspiration But we do not know whether worldly Prosperity or Affliction may be best for us or what measure of temporal good things or what particulars of such good things and therefore in reference to these things we are not to pray Absolutely but Conditionally and with a Willingness to be denied if God sees it not good to grant them to us And the following words shew that it is not therefore to be concluded that the Spirit will put it into Good peoples hearts what temporal things they should pray for for they tell us that He will back their Petitions in Heaven by interceding for them with unutterable Groanings not that He will put words into their mouths or suggest matter of Prayer to them I dare not say the Spirit never does thus I should be then too bold but we have no ground to expect or hope He should at least in ordinary cases In short whosoever pretends that his Prayers are dictated by the Holy Ghost must have the very same opinion of them that he hath of the Divinely inspired Writings Secondly I say consequently That an ability of uttering our Minds to Almighty God in great variety of words and phrases is as much a Natural Gift or a Gift acquired in an ordinary way that is by study and frequent practising and exercising as any Art or Ability whatsoever Very bad men have been often known to have a notable Faculty this way and so miserably weak and silly are abundance of people as to admire those for excellent Christians in whom they perceive it though they know them guilty of very great immoralities and they have nothing to commend them but this Faculty But there is no man if he will set himself to it and he be made for it that is prepared with a sufficient measure of Boldness and Confidence with a glib Tongue and a warm Head but may be excellent at it Therefore I say how shamefully ignorant and childish are the Vulgar sort I fear the much greater part that this dexterity at pouring forth words to the King of Heaven without fear or wit with a mighty voice great earnestness and abundance of action shall gain to a man a greater repute with them for a precious Christian than all the above-mentioned real fruits of the Spirit put together Although any Hypocrite that is qualified as we now said may with the greatest ease attain to it Such a brave man as this shall lead multitudes by the Nose work his base designs upon them and infuse what Principles he listeth into them Such Babies are the common People too generally in the affairs of Religion and their Spiritual concerns But Si populus vult decipi decipiatur If Folk will be thus cheated and made a prey of who can help it It may grieve us at the Hearts to think what work the Popish Priests and Jesuits may hereafter make as we know that in Disguises they have already made sad work among these silly Sheep No men in the World having a rarer knack at Extemporary performances and at Feigning and Raising of Passions than many of them have But Thirdly The true Spirit of Prayer consisteth in a deep sense of the Incomprehensible Majesty of the great God of the infinite distance that is between Him and us of our unspeakable Obligations to Him and necessary dependance upon Him In an affecting sense of our own Wretchedness and Sinfulness which makes us altogether unworthy to appear in His presence or to receive the least Favour at His hands In a sense of His infinite Goodness Wisdom and Power and an undoubted Belief that whatsoever is really needful for us He knoweth so to be and is both Able and Willing to confer it upon us when we ask it as we ought in the Name of Iesus Add hereunto entire Resignation of our Wills
to be believed and practised by us in order to Salvation and which without any Additions are able to make us wise to Salvation as S. Paul assures us and are a complete Rule of Faith and Practice And that Preacher who shall offer to require his Auditors assent to any thing not delivered either in express terms or by plain consequence in the Writings of the Old or New Testament doth impudently impose upon their belief except he be able to work real Miracles for the convincing of them He takes more upon him than either the Apostles or our Saviour himself who did still appeal to the works the Supernatural works he did to attest the truth of the Doctrine he delivered I would such impudent imposers were onely to be found among the Romanists who are all so and the most impudent that ever appeared upon the stage of the World but alas they are too too common also among professed haters of Popery Thirdly And as to the sence of the more difficult places of Scripture no sober Preacher pretends to come to the knowledge thereof by the immediate illumination of the Spirit but such a one acknowledgeth he doth it in the general by the exercise of his Reason And particularly by considering the proper signification of Words and Phrases in the Original Languages by comparing Scripture with Scripture by searching into the Ancient Customs which give great light to a great number of Texts and without the knowledge of which they are not to be understood by enquiring after the judgment of those who lived nearest to the Times of the Apostles c. And after all they submit their Expositions of such Texts to the judgments of their Hearers I mean such of them as are capable of judging As for others Oportet discentes credere It becomes Learners to give credit to their Teachers And Credendum est peritis in suâ Arte. But Fourthly We do piously and by the Authority of Scripture believe that the Spirit is ready to assist us in our Reasonings and Enquiries and whatsoever particular good means we use for the understanding of Scripture when He is humbly and devoutly sought to by us and when without the least prejudice partiality ill design or sinister respect but for the best of Ends and from the pure love of Truth we make Enquiry Thus even Private Christians are assisted in the searches and enquiries which they are able to make For God hath promised that The Meek he will guide in judgment and the Meek he will teach his way Fifthly In composing also of profitable Discourses as we implore so we have the Divine Assistance but we see no ground to believe that we have it in any other manner than in other good works of what nature soever But as for the ready Faculty of Discoursing from a Pulpit and popular speaking to a Congregation we have no reason to believe it a Gift of the Spirit any more than the Lawyers strange readiness in pleading at the Bar. And a volubility of speech upon any subject whatsoever heat of Fancy and nimbleness of Wit and Invention are as much to be attributed to the Holy Spirit as such a Faculty And hence we may gather that a Preacher of the Gospel can plead no such Liberty as is wholly exempted from Restraints by Authority But one that is known to have never so good a Talent at Preaching may be forbidden the exercise of it till he hath submitted to a lawful Ordination such as was in use in the Churches of Christ for Fifteen hundred years together And when Ordained he may lawfully have bounds set him as to the places where he shall exercise his Ministry in publick and as to the times when And he may be forbidden to meddle with such Arguments as are above the reach of his Peoples Understandings or are not like to conduce to their Edification and much more to broach dangerous Doctrines that is such as are so in the judgment of his Governours And for his Disobedience and other Misdemeanours he is as liable to be suspended or totally deprived of his Ministerial Office as are any other Officers I do but touch upon and give light glances at these things because my present subject will not give me leave to discourse largely upon them which would be too great a digression from its proper business CHAP. XV. A Third False Notion of Christian Liberty viz. that which makes Liberty of Conscience a Branch of it Two things premised 1. That Conscience is not so sacred a thing as to be uncapable of being obliged by Humane Laws 2. That no man can properly be deprived of the true Liberty of his Conscience by any Power on Earth That what is contended for is more properly Liberty of Practice than of Conscience The Author's Opinion in reference to this Liberty delivered in Ten Propositions That whatsoever Liberty of this nature may be insisted on as our Right it is not Christian Liberty but Natural Liberty THirdly and Lastly I proceed to that Notion of Christian Liberty which makes Liberty of Conscience a Branch of it But before I deliver my Opinion about this weighty point which hath occasioned as great Feuds and sharp Contests as any whatsoever I shall premise two things First That Conscience is not so Sacred a thing as to be uncapable of being Obliged by Humane Laws Secondly That no man can properly be deprived of the true Liberty of his Conscience by any Power on Earth First That Conscience is not so Sacred a thing as to be uncapable of being Obliged by Humane Laws This is sufficiently clear from what is discoursed in the Thirteenth Chapter But it is said by many that God is the onely Lord of Conscience and therefore it is the highest presumption for Men to go about to bind it by their Laws It is the sole Prerogative of the Deity to search the Heart and try the Reins of the Children of men Conscience is too inward and secret a thing to fall under Mans cognizance and therefore what have any of our Fellow-Creatures to do to give Laws to our Consciences In Answer hereunto We have already seen what S. Paul's sense is about this matter that he saith We must needs be Subject or Obedient and that not only for wrath but also for Conscience sake So that the Apostle was far from thinking that the obligation of Humane Authority is founded in mere Prudence not at all in Conscience But no man in his Wits will say that the Laws of Men do oblige Conscience as the Laws of God do Those cannot do it immediately as these do but onely by virtue of the Divine Authority S. Paul saith Rom. 13. 1. Let every Soul be subject to the Higher Powers I think I shall not be over-critical in saying that is every Conscience for what follows proves the obligation of Conscience to subjection and is an Answer to the foresaid Objection against it viz. For there is no Power but
acknowledged to be Competent judges of the true meaning of some Scriptures why not of all that are as easily intelligible as those are Those must be very Charitable who can put a fairer Interpretation upon this her Severity than this that it is designed to make us swallow without Chewing receive without Examining the Doctrines which are of her own invention and obey blindfold those Decrees of hers which she is Conscious to her Self have not onely no Countenance from the Holy Scriptures but are as apparently Contradictory to them as any one Proposition can be to another and are framed for no other purpose but the serving of a worldly and most corrupt Interest and the gratifying of those Appetites which it is the Business of Christianity to Subdue and Mortifie viz. Unsatiable Covetousness Luciferian Pride and Ambition and Diabolical Revenge and Malice Again what greater Tyranny can be Exercised over a mans Mind than to impose upon his Faith and that upon pain of Damnation not onely the strangest Absurdities and greatest Fooleries but the grossest most manifest and palpable Contradictions But the Romish Church requireth your Belief of Innumerable of these in that her one Doctrine of Transubstantiation Nay in imposing this mad Doctrine upon you she also tieth you up from giving Credit to your very Senses no fewer than four of five and so would deprive you not onely of the Liberty of Men but of all Animals CHAP. XVII Where it is shewed Secondly That Popery is as great an Enemy as can be to Christian Liberty And First To that Liberty which our Saviour hath purchased for the World in general As 1. That it tendeth as much as is possible to the Corrupting of mens Souls by subjecting them to vile Affections This shewed in the general viz. in that it is apt to beget false Notions of God and more particularly in that it brings men under the Power of the Lusts of Malice Revenge Cruelty Pride and Ambition Covetousness Uncleanness Intemperance and the greatest Injustice and Unrighteousness 2. That it no less tendeth to Disquiâ—â— mâ—ns Mâ—nds with certain troublesome Passions SEcondly As Popery deprives men of that Natural Liberty which doth necessarily belong to them as men so it is as greaâ— an Enemy as can be to Christian Liberty Both to that Liberty which our Saviour hath purchased for the World in general and to that which He purchased for the Iews in particular First It is as opposite and injurious as can be to that Liberty which our Saviour hath purchased for the World in general This Liberty we have abundantly proved doth consist in Freedom from the Dominion of Corrupt Affections and an entire Compliance with the Laws of Righteousness Upon which follow Freedom from the Power of Troublesom and Disquieting Passions and Sweet Satisfaction and Self-Enjoyment Now it will fully appear that the Popish Religion is as opposite as can be to the Liberty which consisteth in these things by that time we have dispatched these following particulars whereon should I give my self leave to be as large as I might I should write a large Volume instead of a Chapter First Popery in its own nature tendeth as much as is possible to the Corrupting and Debauching our Souls by bringing them into Subjection to Vile Affections Secondly It no less tendeth to Disquiet our Minds with Troublesom and Tormenting Passions Thirdly It makes the Admirable Method which we have shewed our Lord hath taken for our Deliverance from both and the making of us Holy and Happy perfectly Ineffectual First It in its own nature tendeth as much as is possible to the Corrupting and Debauching of our Souls by bringing them into subjection to Vile Affections This shall be shewed in the general and more particularly 1. In the general it doth this as it is apt to beget false Notions and very unworthy Conceptions of the Divine Nature Whereas a true Idea of God is necessary to the Reforming of our Lives and Rectifying of our Natures which cannot be done without a due Awe and Reverence for Him nor without Conforming our selves to his Image and Likeness Among the several Instances of Popish Idolatry from the guilt of which high and provoking Impiety the Heathens may as easily purge themselves as the Church of Rome their Picturing of God the Father and the Holy Trinity Allowed by the Council of Trent and Worshipping their Pictures is a very great one But who seeth not how this tends to beget in mens Minds a most Low and Undervaluing Gross and Impure Conception of the Deity Can he easily conceive of God as a most pure Spirit that useth to feed his Eyes and foul his Fancy with bodily Representations of Him That useth to Worship the Trinity under the Figure of an Old man with a long Grey Beard with a Crucifix between his Knees and a Dove in his Breast Or under the ugly Figure of a Man-Cerberus or a Man with three Heads upon his shoulders But 't is well known that these are the Abominable Forms by which the Papists Represent the Glorious Trinity of which the former is much the more Common I do not see how any Man who venerates the Divine Majesty as he ought and hath according to his Capacity a worthy Idea of the unspeakable purity of his Nature and incomprehensible Perfections can endure the sight of such Pictures But whosoever can fall in love with them whatsoever becoming sense of God he had before must needs soon lose it That other Instance also of Popish Idolatry viz. The Addressing themselves to the Saints whether by Images or otherwise with all the Reverence and Solemnity of Devotion which is used to the Great God must necessarily have much the same influence upon their Minds And their multitude of little trifling things and many of them most ridiculous Fopperies in which they place so much Religion and seek to obtain Pardon by them even for great immoralities speaks them to have no true sense of his Wisdom or Holiness to have a base and sordid notion of Him and doth more and more confirm them therein Nor can they have any true Sense of the Infinite Equity and Goodness of the Divine Nature who are able to think that there is no Salvation out of the Church of Rome and that God will damn to Eternal Torments all Persons that are not of her Communion that is the much greater part of Christendom let them be never so good and pious people otherwise But no man can be truly a Papist who believes more Charitably And 't is no wonder that they should be Bloudy Wretches who are able to conceive such a thing of God when according to their Notion of Him the more Arbitrary Tyrannical and Cruel they are the more are they like that Being which to Resemble is their Glory and Happiness 2. This brings me to shew more Particularly that Popery doth naturally tend to bring mens Souls into Slavish Subjection to the Vile Affections of Malice Revenge and