in our hearts that our gifts may be successefull that our graces may flourish And that the Spirit of God dwels in you The first sort of the Spirits inhabitation in us viz. by Gifts hath been dispatched We now come to the more noble and excellent way which doth inseparably accompany salvation and that is the sanctifying graces of Gods Spirit By which indeed we may gather That God dwels in us For as when Daniel could so wonderfully open and interpret the Kings dreames they said The Spirit of the most high God was in him So if you see a people heavenly mortifying sinne walking in close communion with God you must needs conclude the Spirit of the most high God is in that man It 's not nature or moral virtues could raise him up to such an high Pinacle as this is And before we come to the particular effects of Gods in-dwelling after this manner it 's good to observe the Emphatical expressions that the Scripture useth equivalent to this of dwelling in us As Rom. 8. there it 's called Being in the Spirit as here The Spirit is in us So there we are in the Spirit Now that phrase is very emphatical and doth denote that all our lusts and sinnes yea our very selves are as it were swallowed up and nothing but the Spirit of God works and moveth in us To be in the Spirit denoteth the great efficacy and powerfull dominion in us as men are said to be in sinne because they no longer live but sinne nothing but sinne doth appear so it should be with the godly The Spirit of God not flesh not corruption not carnal or worldly principles should appear in them As the Prophets in the time of their Prophesie were said to be in the Spirit in an extasie minding no earthly or worldly thing Thus ought we to be emptied of our selves and filled with the Spirit of God Therefore John 3. it 's said Whatsoever is born of the Spirit is Spirit in the very abstract We have also Gal. 4 pregnant expressions To live in the Spirit to walk in the Spirit to be led by the Spirit Oh let such expressions as these make you ashamed to see so much of a man or carnal affections stirring in you What believer hath these things in the full power thereof But to the Particulars First The Spirit of God dwels in us after a saving manner in the general By way of sanctification of the Spirit soul and body even the whole man 1 Thess 5. This is the general Every man is all over unclean filthy polluted full of enmity to what is holy Now the Spirit of God that makes an universal sanctification of all these Hence by way of Office it 's called The Spirit of sanctification and the holy Spirit as Creation is appropriated to the Father and Redemption to the Sonne so Sanctification to the Holy Ghost So then as Christ in respect of his body is said to be conceived by the Holy Ghost there was a preparing and sanctifying of it for the Personal Union and the work of Redemption So the Spirit of God sanctifieth the soul of every godly man it makes every part and faculty prepared for holy Duties in an holy man for as the soul is the life of the body that can doe no vital action without it So the Spirit is the life of the soul and that can doe no spiritual action without it Oh then consider this all ye that heare and ponder it in your hearts Have you thus been conceived and borne of the Spirit of God Thy other birth will availe nothing though borne rich or noble Yea Couldst thou be borne a thousand times in a naturall way thou wouldst still be a miserable wretched man What is a good or ingenuous nature What are excellent and choice abilities if thou art not sanctified by the Spirit of God Doe not thinke these things are fancies and notions The Spirit of God may as well be called a fancy as his operations fancies But more particularly The Spirit of God dwels in a saving manner First By Illumination and opening of the darke minde of every man Every man is darknesse it selfe he cannot discerne of spiritual things revealed in the Word till the Spirit of God enlighten him Therefore the worke of Gods Spirit is great upon the minde and understanding of a man it convinceth the soul of a man of those things it never believed before John 16.9 of sinne it makes a man see the woefull and damnable estate he is in It 's so plaine that he cannot deny it he believed and judged no such thing once in him but now such light shineth in his breast that he is a very dung-hill a very hell to himself and then he convinceth of righteousnesse viz. a Gospel-righteousnesse by Christ Now all his workes all his good duties are dung and drosse all that Religion he put confidence in is abandoned by him the Spirit of God convinceth him of a glorious righteousnesse without him which onely is able to cover his nakednesse Againe Another special worke on the understanding is To teach to guide and leade into all truth We cannot say Jesus is the Christ without the Spirit as you heard 1 Corinth 12.3 Spiritual things must have a spirituall ability to discerne them It 's true he leadeth in and by the use of meanes appointed but yet he onely doth efficiently dispell the darknesse and worke faith to holy Truths So then we see it 's the speciall worke of Gods Spirit not humane ability to be directed into truth And we must not onely study Books but pray to God and take heed of such sinnes which may drive Gods Spirit from us for then we are as a wilde horse without a rider like a ship in the midst of the sea without a Pilot. Secondly The Spirit of God quickens and reviveth those graces that by Regeneration were infused to us compared therefore to the winde as the blowing of that makes the flowers of the Gardens to send forth their sweet smels So it 's here It 's not enough to have the habit and principles of grace within us but we need a fervent and vigorous actuating of them And therefore is the Holy Ghost compared to fire and hence that phrase To be filled with the Holy Ghost which is applied to the godly sometimes doth as learned men observe denote some actual and vigorous impression upon their hearts Their graces were now put forth in a lively vigorous way Oh this is a blessed life when a Christian is constantly filled with the Holy Ghost that doth actually make his heart fervent and burning in all its duties towards God! If this were the life of the godly man there would not be such complaints such feares such doubts Oh they cannot tell what to say to themselves They are dull heavy earthly Alas all this is because the Spirit of God filleth not thy heart if this were working thou wouldst be like Ezekiels wheeles that
Saviour to those that do not find themselves lost to commend a Physician to those that find themselves whole to pour oyl where there are no wounds is to pervert all order Ho every one that thirsteth saith our Saviour Joh 7.37 And Come unto me all ye that are heavy laden Mat. 11.28 The Spirit of God convinces the world of sin and then of righteousness Oh but how much unwise and unfaithfull preaching is there in this respect How many are there that strengthen wicked mens hearts and make them not sad whom God would have made sad That daube with untemppered morter that say to every prophane man if he do but cry Lord have mercy upon me Be of good comfort thy sinnes are forgiven thee It 's this daubing and soothing up people in their wickedness striking out all fear of hell and damnation that makes them wallow like swine in their filth To such to preach no comfort but the Law and Threatnings but to those that are broken in heart a tongue of the learned is required to speak a word in season How carefull was Paul that the incestuous person should not be overwhelmed with grief 2 Cor. 2 And here is the more wisdome because Satans temptations are subtile and insinuating We are not ignorant of his devices of his schismes what false circumventions and appearances he will have Now How many are there that are not acquainted themselves with the depths of Satan that are no better Comforters then Jobs Friends were Christ himself was affected with all our temptations that he might know how the more feelingly to pity others Thus a Minister that hath himself been in the deep matters of God that hath himself been exercised with all kind of temptations he can only tell how to speak to the heart of another So that you see much wisdome is required in the giving of comfort Alas every sick man every dying man looks we should give comfort and they would have a word of comfort Oh but what hath thy life been What truth of grace is there in thee Have not some wicked men cryed out of their sinnes in fear of death and publique judgments as Pharaoh did Therefore we must take heed what we do we must not comfort whom God would not have comforted Here is great wisdome required A third part of his Doctrinal Key is To rebuke and reprove for sinne Now how great a skill is it wisely to reprove to have zeal and knowledge together Some must be reproved sharply Tâ—t 1.13 cuttingly We must not spare Thus John called some a generation of vipers Mat. 3.7 and our Saviour Wo to ye Scribes Pharisees Hypocrites many times repeating that upbraiding of them These were obstinate impenitent Hypocrites Mat. 23.13 14 15. and little blows will not move them Others again are tender tractable meekness will do more than austerity So that there is scarce any thing requireth more wisdome than publique and private reproofs Men can so hardly bear them Genus quoddam Maritirii est reprehensionem patienter ferre It is a kind of martyrdome to bear a reproof patiently And Ministers are either apt to be too awfull and pleasing of men or else too boisterous or passionate So that the Shepherd of irrational Sheep have a farre more easie task then spiritual Shepherds of men especially in superstitious Customes in false waies of worship Here an Angels wisdome will scarce suffice What a trouble was that to the Church in her infancy about the retaining or leaving the Jewish Ceremonies The Questions and differences grew so hot that it had almost torn the Church in pieces The Council of Jerusalem was called about this many still Judaizing thought that if you took the observation of times and outward Ceremonies away you took away all Religion Paul in his Epistle to the Galatians and Rom. 14. is very diligent to inform them about this endeavouring to make them spiritual and to draw up their hearts from those beggerly elements Paul was circumspect how to walk in this slippery Controversie To the Jew I became a Jew 1 Cor. 9.20 Not that he was a dissembler or an Hypocrite or humoured them in their superstitious weakness but he took upon him all sweet affections he was as a Jew to a Jew as weak to weak he would consider them as if he were in their case Yea to walk in these Controversies was so hard that Peter gave great occasion of offence yea Barnabas was also laid aside for he did not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which made Paul resist him to the face with this dissimulation Gal 1. Now if the Apostle was so industrious to root out the practice of those Rites and Ceremonies which yet God himself had once commanded how much rather should we those things which were brought into the Church without any command of God or warrant of Scripture but meerly by the will of man As for the other kind of Keyes Church-Government the wise managing of that is far more difficult then Political But I shall wave that as not so proper to this Text. Let us consider the Reason Why this Doctrinal feeding requireth such skill and Prudence And First Because divine truths are not to be managed by humane wordly wisdome but by spiritual wisdome As it 's God that teacheth people to profit Isa 48.17 so it 's God that teacheth the Minister to preach profitably Hence the word of wisdome is reckoned among the gifts of Gods Spirit 1 Cor. 14. and the Apostle saith We are not able of our selves to think a good thought 2 Cor. 2.5 as some expound it in the way of our Ministery we cannot think that which is good and profitable to mens soules without God Hence as of Christ the cheif sheepherd it is said the Spirit of wisdome counsell and understanding shall rest on him Isa 11.2 so it would be happy if the same Spirit proportionably did rest on inferiour shepherds I have caught you with an holy guile 2 Cor. 12.16 There are divine stratagems to win mens soules and if Aholiab and Bezaliel are said to have the Spirit of wisdome given them to build the material Tabernacle how much more do others need it to edifie this spiritual one Exod. 36.1 Seeing then the managing of holy truths is not had by humane prudence but by wisdome from above we must be Scribes instructed to the kingdome of heaven we are not born but made Preachers of the Gospel by God no marvel if this be so great a work Secondly Therefore is wisdome necessary in our preaching of divine things because the miscarriage of these precious truths is a farre greater loss then any earthly loss It 's pity for want of skill in any calling to miscarry in a mans wordly affairs but much more in heavenly there needs not only faithfulness but wisdome A wise and faithfull steward it is that makes five multiply to ten If the Prophet speaking of the Husbandmans skill about his several graines tithes and
no more gainsay it Thirdly Lay aside all superfluity of naughtinesse Jam. 1 21. If Aristotle thought not a young man a fit Auditour for his Ethicks much lesse is a propane beast wallowing in his filth fit for the Word The ground must have all the bryars and thorns pulled up ere the seed sown can bring forth any fruit No lust no sinne lived in hath ears to hear When the Law was to be promulged what washings and preparations were there for several dayes together Thou that comest to the Ministry with all thy goar and filth upon thee thou art a loathsome and an abominable object Do men use to sow in bogs and quagmires So neither doth the Word thrive in men of loose and dissolute lives The Prophet in an indignation at the sinfulnesse of his people crieth out Hear ô Heavens and hearken ô Earth Isa 1.2 as if those insensible creatures would more attend than some men Vse of Exhortation Labour to find the Ministry something some great thing some terrible thing some comfortable thing to thee Oh how many are there to whom it 's nothing They make nothing of any Sermon they hear yea and people generally delight in such a Ministry that brings nothing to them They love not when it is like fire like a two-edged sword they love not when it troubles and disquiets them for sinne the more it 's nothing and passeth away as nothing the more contented they are Oh people prepared for destructon Oh people hated by God! For wherein doth God shâ—w his love more to a people then by causing the Word to be like fire in the bowels Those whom God loveth they find the Ministery efficacious and vigorous they find it to come with power and autority they cry out great is the power of the Lord. Oh how it searcheth how it tryeth how it convinceth how it conquers nothing an stand before it Verse 8. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one THe Apostles scope is as you have heard to prevent factions and divisions both in Preachers and hearers to unite them together in love and agreement for which he hath used several Arguments And this eighth Verse beginneth a new Medium to prove the necessity of concord both among the Ministers themselves and the people What is said of men joyned in earthly power Erunt insuperabiles si inseperabiles the same is true both of the Officers and members in the Church of God Now the Argument the Apostle presseth is to this effect Those that are one ought not to be divided either by themselves or by their hearers But all the Officers in Godâ— Church whether those that plant or water they are one Therefore they ought not to be divided So that you see though there is diversity of gifts and employmenss yet they all agree in one it 's unity therefore among Ministers and the people that is made the ground of concord This would be a very necessary subject in these times of multiplyed divisions it being very hard now a daies to say He that watereth and he that planteth are one But I shall pass it over briefly in one Sermon Now this phrase They are one is not to be understood essentially as if they were one nature in which sence 1 Joh. 5. it 's said There are three that bear witness is heaven and these three are one Nor secondly are they one in respect of labour and worth No Paul laboured more abundantly then they all and as the starres differ from one another so do the Ministers of God in worth and ability Therefore the Apostle prevents such thoughts by the words appendant Every man shall receive according to his own labour Vnum sunt non individuo non gradu non donis non vocatione non autoritate non tempore non labore nec non maerore saith Baldwin on the place But they are said to be one in regard of the scope and end for which the Ministery is appointed viz. to gather a Church unto God and to build them up in saith and godliness Observe That although there is diversity and variety in the gifts of the Ministers yet they all ought to agree in one They are to have the same mind the same ends the same mouth Hence is that expression According as he hath spoken by the mouth of his holy Prophets which were from the beginning Luk. 1.70 All the Prophets ever since the world began had but one mouth He doth not say the mouths but the mouth To shew there was no contrariety no opposition but all agreed in this Thus it should be the mouth of the Ministers of Christ they should go the same way one should not preach contrary to the other one should not destroy what the other affirmes Hence our Saviour did so earnestly pray That his Disciples might be one Joh. 17. For what a scandal and offence would it have been if they who were to be Teachers of the Word and to lay the foundation of the Gospel should not have agreed among themselves So that whereas the Apostle pressing unity Eph 4.4 5. doth reckon up several kinds of unities One body one spirit one hope one Lord one faith one Baptisme so we may adde one Ministery so that divisions are a great argument of weakness and of errour foâ— truth cannot be divided is not contrary to it self as errour is not that unity is a note of the true Church as Papists plead who yet have little cause to boast of it especially not unity in matters that are not fundamental and necessary The Apostle supposeth that when he saith If any be otherwise minded the Lord will reveal even this also to him Phil. 3.15 To open this The Ministery ought to be one First In respect of doctrine and true doctrine that is the soul and life of all 1 Tim. 1.3 Paul layeth a charge that they do not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 teach another doctrine Oh it 's a sad prognostique of ruine when some Ministers preach one doctrine as necessary to salvation others another now the true doctrine is revealed in the Word and whatsoever is another from that is not grounded there that is to be rejected Yea the Apostle would have us anathematize an Angel from heaven that should bring any other doctrine Gal. 1.8 And John would not have us so much as receive them in the house or bid them God speed 2 Joh ver 10 11. and who doth so he saith is partaker of all his evil deeds So then the Ministery ought to be one in respect of doctrine to preach one God one Christ one Faith one way to heaven for they are not to be inverters but keepers only of heavenly doctrine Keep that good thing committed to thy trust said the Apostle 2 Tim. 1.14 Secondly There ought to be unity in regard of their end and scope They all ought to shoot at the same mark which is two-fold 1. The glory of God to set up God and
to worship God any way a man pleaseth And the more waies he multiplyeth the worship of God may it not be the more acceptable to him Do not men hereby shew their good affections and zeal to hâ—m Can a man worship him too much Can we exceed in any way of worship of him As we cannot love him too much nor delight in him too much so neither can we worship him too much This doth satisfie some men in their multiplyed waies of worship The Answer is this There can be no excess in the formality of true and lawfull worship so a man is to worship God witâ— all his might and strength but in the matter of the worship there may be an excess That is a man may take up more means and parts of worship then God hath appointed and so thereby there is a sinfull excess So that all thy good intentions and zealous devotions they have no acceptance with God and whilest thou thinkest to honour him thou doest dishonour him Even a Platonist Philosopher said That a superstitious man was Gods flatterer not his friend Now this is the rather to be observed because there are few whom the simplicity of God pleaseth Oh that Text Joh. 4. My Father seeketh such as worship him in spirit and truth is worth the gold of Ophir See all Christs Institutions the administration of Baptism of the Lords Supper though they be full of majesty and gravity yet also full of plainness and simplicity Now instead of this true foundation there are three rotten ones First The imagination of a mans heart This God doth often and often forbid Oh it 's not enough to say Methinks this is very good worship Methinks this is excellent There must be more then a methinks Secondly A desire to satisfie and please the sense The Prophet cals them Their goodly Images As Eve saw the fruit that it was comely and good to eate O miserable delusion All worship of God is the exercise of thy faith to draw out spiritual Meditations not to please the eye Yet all those goodly Images and curious Ornaments were only to satisfie the eye Thirdly Antiquity Custom and tradition of Fathers Austin complained much of this Vah tibi flumen moris humani quis resistet Our father worshipped here saith the woman That of Cyprians is commended Antiquas mihi Jesus Christ and Christ said he was truth not Custom saith the Father This Argument all Jews Turks and Heathens pleaded against the Christians Vse of Instruction How necessary is it to be well setled in this foundation of Gods worship Oh where shall we find a spiritual people that delight in the simple pure and plain Institutions of Christ That say Hitherto I must go and no further That as the possessed party said Paul I know and Peter I know but who are you Thus this worship I know and that I know but who brought in this Who appointed this As a wise master-builder I have laid the foundation c. The third Foundation every faithfull Minister is to lay in the hearts of his people is for Comfort and Salvation But this I shall reserve as more properly to be handled in vers 11. The last therefore I shall insist on is The foundation for outward practice of holy actions It 's not enough to pray to hear It 's not enough to exercise the acts of any grace but we are still to consider upon what foundation these are built I shall therefore first lay down the foundation of all practised holinesse then the Necessity of this The foundation therefore of every good duty or work we do hath these parts First There is a foundation by way of a Direction or Rule to which every thing we do must be commensurate and by which it must be regulated now that is the Word of God For Gods word is not only a Rule of Faith but of Manners And as thou must be of no other Religion than the Word directs to so thou must do no other actions or live any other life than that guides thee too Therefore when it 's commended for a lamp or a light it is to a mans feet that they do not slip or fall By them thy servant is forewarned Psal 19. And as many as walk by this Rule peace on them Gal. 6.16 So that we shall never come to doe any truly good action all our life time unlesse we do it according to this Rule which doth not onely informe about the Duty but the manner end and all other qualifications So then whosoever doth not pray as the Scripture speaks of praying who doth not repent as the Scripture speaks of it he faileth in a very foundation he hath not laid as yet so much as an hopefull beginning for his salvation A second part of that foundation we must lay for the practice of holiness is The Justification and Reconciliation of our persons with God through Christ For till our persons be thus accepted of though we should give our bodies to be burnt for the Truth of Christ it would not be accepted of Thus God had respect to Abel and then to his offerings Heb. 11. We are by faith to be planted in Christ and then as his branches we are able to bring forth fruit Now this truth is very transcendent to our thoughts Who doth not think it is in Divinity as they speak in moral Philosophy Just a agendo sumus justi by doing good actions we come to be made good and acceptable with God This is that dangerous Position which the Apostle doth so often oppose shewing grace and works can never be brought together in the same subject We must therefore in this matter wholly goe out of our own selves we must attend to the acceptation of our persons first otherwise all our best workes are damnable and loathsome to God we are stubble and he is fire Though the Papists thinks it hard Doctrine yet it is sure enough that every man unjustified doth sinne and provoke God in every thing he doth Thirdly Another foundation he must lay is To receive power and strength from Christ onely both in the beginning and progresse of all good actions Without me ye can do nothing saith Christ John 15. The branch separated from the Vine is dried and withered James 1.17 Every good and perfect gift comes from God alone As all light is from the Sunne I can doe all things through Christ that strengthens me saith Paul Phil. 4.13 He is the Head and the Member receiveth all its vertue and power from it So then whosoever thinketh to set upon any good work by his own ability is like Samson when his hair was cut off alas those Philistims of lusts are too strong for him he cannot goe out against those Goliahs of temptations but in the Name of the Lord. Now here is the ignorance of most people they that should not resolve to say so much as that they will go to this or that
thus truly with thee if thou runnest into any excesse of ryot that the world greedily pursueth Thou hast made thy self like a Dunghill not Gods Temple Thirdly The Temple was full of external glory A magnificent place admired by Heathens And we see what weeping there was of the old men that the glory of the latter Temple was not like that of the former Ezra 3.10 Now the glory of Christians is likewise great but in a spiritual and heavenly way The Church is all glorious within Psalms 45 13. The Gospel that is preached is stiled a glorious Gospel 1 Tim. 1.11 And the Spirit of God The Spirit of glory 1 Peter 4.14 It 's promised That the glory of the second Temple should farre exceed that of the first Hag. 2.9 Now how was that made good not in any outward glory but because Christ in a spiritual manner did reform all those corrupt Doctrines and did sit as a refiner to purifie the Sonnes of Levi. This was glory to have the spiritual worship of God It 's true this is not the glory of the world which the Devil sheweth and so many do fall down and worship it but to a spiritual eye that judgeth spiritually these things are the greatest glory Who would think that the Preaching of of the Gospel deserved such a Title as a Kingdom and a Kingdom of Heaven The most sublime and transcendent perfection that can be Yet What is more ordinary in Scripture then to dignifie it by that Name Do not then account the glory of the Church to lye in goodly Edifices in glorious Ornaments in stately Images but in pure Doctrine Godly Government and an Holy life Such times are glorious times such Administrations use to ravish a godly heart David cryed out How amiable were the Tabernacles of the Lord of Hosts Psalmes 84.1.10 And one day there was better then many any where else And all because of the Spiritual enjoying of God in them It 's the excellency of a Pearl to be in its native lustre to paint that would disgrace it so it 's the excellency of all spiritual Ordinances and Institutions to be in their pure native appointment and to adde to them by goodly Inventions is but to disparage them Jesus Christ had no external glory yet to the Spiritual Believer Christ is precious as Peter saith 1 Peter 2.7 Fourthly The Temple was in a peculiar manner holy in respect of other buildings as the Apostle saith in the next verse Now when we say it was Holy we do not mean an holinesse inherent as Angels and men are holy but of Dedication and Consecration a relative holinesse being set apart by Gods special Command to such an use And therefore the Synagogues of the Jews neither our material Churches have such an holinesse as is to be shewed when we come to the 18 verse For that is a necessary point to handle to take of men from superstitious thoughts about holy places Among the Jews there was a relative or typicall Holinesse The Temple was an Holy Temple Jerusalem is called the Holy City yea every Jew is called an Holy person Mat. 4.5 and Gentiles are unclean as appeareth by that Vision to Peter Call no man unholy or unclean Acts 10.38 But of this more This is enough to shew that the Temple was peculiarly dedicated to God and had a relative Holinesse Thus all Believers they are in a spiritual manner Dedicated to God They are separated from the world and sinne They are not to live in the same wickednesse and impiety as men of the world do Oh Beloved What a strong Obligation is this to us all to live holily We are separated from the world We are not to have such thoughts such lives such affections as the world hath Procul O Procul esse prophani they would cry in respect of their heathenish Temples and this is much more true of the Church of God Moses was commanded to pull off the shooes of his feet because the place was holy Exodus 3.5 Oh much rather must thou pluck off thy sinfull lusts thy carnal pleasures For God is holy and the Ordinances are holy about which thou art conversant Fifthy Because of this relative Holinesse it was a Capitall crime to defile this Temple There were Porters set at the Gate to keep out all unclean things 2 Chron. 23.19 No unclean thing might be brought therein and so it is here because the people of God are a company joyned in such an holy manner for such holy ends Therefore they are commanded to cast out all unclean persons 1 Cor. 5. ult Here comes in the Necessity of godly Discipline and Excommunication which is meerly medicinal not vindicative for edification not destruction Thus the incestuous person an unclean vessel in this Temple he was to be cast out Cast out from among you that wicked person 1 Corinth 5. The Church should be like an excellent disciplin'd Army Therefore if any man walk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 disorderly note such a man and withdraw from him that he may be ashamed 2 Thessalonians 3.11 14. 1 Corinth 5.7 the Apostle commands them to purge out the old leaven the wicked person that they might be a new lump a choice and holy company worshipping God in Spirit and Truth This spiritual Sword is in the Church as the temporal one in the Common-wealth Neither is this power given in vain but that men who do ill might be afraid In the Primitive times this godly Discipline was admirably executed as appeares by Tertullian and Cyprian but when this weeding-hook was laid aside or abused Gods Garden was runne over with weeds Lastly That which was the glory of the Temple and the life of it was Gods gracious presence From thence he did hear prayer there he accepted Sacrifices thence he commanded blessings His promise was that he would put his Name there and this still continued in Gods Church When two or three are gathered together in my Name I will be there in the midst of them Mat. 18.20 Though God be every where in the world yet his gracious presence is only in his Church This is the Closet or Privy-Chamber this is the Garden wherein he walks Now Gods gracious presence in his Church is discovered these waies First Here only are the Priviledges of grace Here only is Justification Adoption Sanctification This is the Pool of Bethesda wherein the Angel comes down Through all the world be Gods yet his Church is the place of his gracious favoures This is the Ark in which salvation only may be had There is no pardon of sinnes among Heathens God indeed doth many times differ his temporal judgments upon Heathens and he heareth their prayers and groanes as their natural desires even as he doth the young Ravens but their is no gracious answer of any Prayer nor any pardon of the least sinne Thus they are as some places of the earth where they say it is alwaies night Ice and cold alwaies
no Sunne beames to comfort and refresh Secondly Here only is the Foundation of all graces or the Mediatour by whom God is gracious to us As they say in Aegypt there is never any rain from Heaven so all that part of mankind which is without Christ partaketh not of gracious influences of Heaven God is a consuming fire to them There is no death of Christ no Ascention no Intercession no pleading for them they come into Gods presence without Beniamin Thirdly Only in the Church are such persons who are qualified for gracious Priviledges Here only is true Piety here only is Faith Repentance Here only men do in a right manner pray to God All those moral vertues and excellent endowments amongst the Heathens though gilded over were nothing but drosse Vse of Instruction Are the Churches of God thus Temples of God and should every one of us be thus in particular Oh then how holy how godly how orderly should all our Assemblies be What Jeremy can make Lamentations bitter enough to see how this Temple of God is made a dunghill How comes so much ignorance and prophanenesse to be amongst us Are we not places prepared rather for the Devil and his evil Spirits to dwell with us then Temples of the Holy Ghost Know this that your defilements are worse then those of Heathens and therefore it 's said Judgment should begin at the House of God 1 Pet. 4.17 And in Ezechiel's Prophesse The destroying Angel is commanded to begin at the Sanctuary Ezek. 9.6 Yet we sit and hear these things and do not fear and tremble Where is Gods gracious presence discovering it self How few are the men that have God and his Spirit dwelling in them but rather their souls are possessed with Devils Hence cometh that pride that malice that opposition unto all godlinesse Oh then let us so live that we may say Such men have God and his Spirit dwelling in them Be men affected with understanding of these things To see nothing but a man in you nothing of God yea to see nothing but a Beast or a Devil in you how contrary is it to that holy relation we stand in And that the Spirit of God dwels in you We have considered what that is to which the Church of Corinth is compared viz. The Temple of God what more is to be said of that will come in the next verse I proceed to the ground and reason of the Comparison Why they were the Temple of God and that followeth in the next words And that the Spirit of God dwels in you The particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath many significations or uses in the Scripture Here it is Causall as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for ye are In many other places it 's so used Jere. 42. Thou art angry And We have sinned i. e. For Joh. 2. they staid not there many daies and the Passover was at hand i. e. For. So here you are the Temple of God for the Spirit of God dwels in you Thus you see it 's a causall Inference In the Reason consider the Person described Secondly His efficacy or operation The Person described is said to be the Spirit 2. The Relation to whom the Spirit of God Thirdly The operation or effect it dwels in you The Greek word Spirit as the Hebrew Ruach is of a vast signification in the Scripture I know none more boundlesse but when attributed to God it signifieth either absolutely the Divine Nature common to the three Persons Joh. 4. God is a Spirit because of his most pure and simple essence 2. It signifieth the Divine Nature of Christ as when it is said to be dead in the body but quickned in the Spirit 1 Pet. 3.18 3. Sometimes the anger of God and the effects of his wrath Thus we read of a Spirit of judgment and burning Isa 4. And a Spirit of giddinesse c. Lastly Relatively for the third Person in the holy Trinity Baptizing them in the Name of the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost Mat. 28.19 And thus it 's used here because it 's called the Spirit of God Now this Texe doth two waies prove the Divine Nature of the Holy Ghost 1. From the Manner of argunig They were the Temple of God because the Spirit did dwell in them which could be no sound Argument were not the Holy Ghost God And 2. Partly Because Temples wâ—re built to none but God even as Sacrifices were offered to God only And this is so ingrafted a truth in nature and acknowledged so professedly by Papists that when they are charged for Idolatry in dedicating their Temples to such and such Saints they say Temples indeed are to be built only to God but they name such a Saint only for memorial not as a Person they dedicate them to But that distinction is a meer fig leaf if you consider their practice So that we have two Doctrines 1. That the holy Spirit of God is God 2. This Spirit of God dwels in the Church These Points will be very profitable For the first The Holy Ghost is God There have not only Heretiques of old as the Macedonians or of late in other Countries as Polonia and Transilvana Servetus and the Socinians but even some in this land very lately not only maintained privately but have published Books on purpose to prove the Holy Ghost not to be God of the same essence with the Father and the Sonne Indeed there was a long contention whether verball or real it 's disputed between the Greek Churches and the Latin Churches about the procession of the Holy Ghost whether from the Father and the Sonne also or Father only but no doubt at all about the Deity of the Holy Ghost I intend to handle this point Practically yet so as first Doctrinally to inform your judgments about the truth of it and that I may do it the more orderly you must know that those who have denyed the holy Ghost to be God have been divided into two waies Either First Such who have thought him to be no Person but to be an attribute or operation in and from God which in man we would call an accident So that as Gods wisdome Gods anger and power they do not make a distinct Person they say So neither doth this concerning the holy Ghost but is no more than the mighty power of God putting forth it self Secondly Others make him a Person yet not a God but in the fore-front of the Angels they make him the chief Angel as they say there is a Prince of Devils But the Scripture is very clear to overthrow those damnable Heresies And 1. That he is a Person not an attribute appeareth by all those personal operations that are given to him So that by what arguments we can prove God the Father or any man to be a Person by the same we may prove the holy Ghost to be a Person as that form in which we are baptized Into the name
of the Father of the Sonne and of the Holy Ghost Mat. 28.19 To be baptized into the name of one argueth that one to be a Person And how absurd would it be to say the Father and the Sonne are Persons but the holy Ghost is an attribute or operation So There are three that dear witnesse in Heaven the Father the Sonne and the Spirit 1 John 5.7 Three he doth not say three things but three viz. Persons as appeareth by the personal operations These bare witnesse in Heaven Some reade The Spirit of God descended in the shape of a Dove which plainly denoteth a thing subsisting not an attribute We are said To sin against him which must needs imply a person Thou hast lied to God Act 5.4 That which is here said to be God is called the holy Ghost vers 3. Thou hast lied to the holy Ghost And the sinne against the holy Ghost shall never be forgiven Matth. 12.31 Lastly There is attributed understanding and will to him Vnderstanding the Spirit of God searcheth the deep things of God and the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2.11 And Will 1 Cor. 14. where he reckoneth up several operations Even as the same Spirit giveth to whom he pleaseth So that you see the Texts are so clear that were not men sadly forsaken by God they could not deny these things In the second place Let us prove that it 's not a chief spirit among Angels but in deed and in truth of the same Nature with God Now some choice Arguments to prove this may be reduced into these heads First The Name of God is directly and properly not metaphorically attributed to him Thus God is said to speak by the holy Prophets which have been ever since the world begun And if you ask What Person it is in the God-head 2 Pet. 1.21 The Prophets spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost So that the holy Ghost was that God who enlightened and moved all the Prophets that were from the beginning of the world Thus Acts 5.4 Why hath Satan filled thy heart thou hast not lied to man but to God Ananias he thought he had only to do with men but mark the opposition not man but God especially 1 Cor. 12.3 4. There are diversities of gifts but the same spirit the same Lord the same God Spirit Lord and God So that by what Texts we can prove God the Father to be God the same we can prove the holy Ghost to be God Secondly The holy Ghost hath those works attributed to him which do onely belong unto a God Such as God only can do as Creation Sanctification and Redemption and miraculous operations These things do demonstrate and prove a God Creation Psal 33 6. By the word of the Lord the Heavens were made and by the Spirit or breath of his mouth thâ—y were created Job 33.4 The Spirit of God made me Thus in the Creation at first The Spirâ—t moved on the waters as the Hen on the eggs giving vivifical influence For Redemption the holy Ghost concurreth to that in preparing and fitting the body of Christ and sanctifying it to be an oblation Hence Christ is said To be conceived of the holy Ghost which could not be an Angel for then an Angel would have been greater than Christ And secondly In the application of the Benefus of the Redemption to the godly The holy Ghost both applieth them and assureth thereof The Spirit of God that heareth witnesse with our spirit Rom. 8.16 And we are sealed by the holy Spirit of God Ephes 4.30 Thirdly In the works of miraculous operations So 1 Cor. 12. all those extraordinary and miraculous gifts are attributed to the holy Ghost Hence he is called The finger of God Luke 11.12 by which Christ is said to cast out Devils And on the Feast of Pentecost He descended in a mighty rushing wind and cloven tongues of fire filling all the Apostles with miraculous gifts Acts 2.3 4. Lastly The works of Sanctification Faith Repentance and all other graces are wrought by him Yea he is called The holy Spirit because that is his peculiar Office to work holinesse and to sanctifie men by the Ministry Now Divines say It is a farre greater work and argueth more power to sanctifie the natures of men then to make a new world yet this is constantly applied to the holy Ghost though not so as to exclude the other Persons in their order Hence likewise all the means of Sanctification viz. the Ministry and the gifts thereof are also given to the same Spirit Acts 25. Over which the holy Ghost hath made you overseers Thirdly The attributes and properties of a God as well as the works of a God are also in Scripture given to the holy Ghost omnipresence filling the whole world Whither shall I go from thy Spirit None can flie from it Psal 139.7 His Omniscience in that he searcheth the deep things of God 1 Cor. 2.11 His Omnipotency as you heard His Eternity called the Eternal Spirit Heb. 9 14. Though some understand that of Christs Divine Nature and being before the world in that he made it Unity with the other Persons These three are one So that having the properties of God he must needs be God Lastly The religious worship that is given to the Holy Ghost doth not onely argue he is a Person but a Divine Person equal with God And 1. We have the Angels giving worship unto him whereas John when he would have worshipped the Angel he is forbidden Worship thou God Revel 19.10 So that religious worship is only to be given to God And thus the Angels in that glorious vision sang Holy holy holy unto God Now it 's worth your observing that this vision is attributed both to the Father to the Sonne and to the holy Ghost To the Father that is without doubt Isa 6. for there he is described as a glorious Judge in all Majesty To the Son John 12.41 This spake Esaias when he saw his glory and spake of him viz. of Christ as the Evangelist applieth it Lastly To the holy Ghost Act 28.25 That men also are to give religious worship to the holy Ghost appeareth in their baptismal profession Being baptized into the Name of the holy Ghost As also by that form of prayer and blessing The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the love of God and communion of the holy Ghost sometimes â—sed in the Epistles Thus you see the Scripture clearly determining this matter of faith And if we cannot comprehend how there should be one God and three Persons eveâ—y one of them God and yet but one God you must remember That faith is the captivating of the understanding unto a meer tâ—stimony It 's not science but faith that Christians professe In humane things Argumentum facit fidem in divine things Fides facit argumentum Neither is it any wonder that we cannot in the creatures find an exact comparison to
this later way of Gods Spirit as formerly you heard dwelling in us is most comfortable and most to be regarded though the other be more admired The former did especially belong to the Church in its first plantation Hence Acts 2. we reade of the accomplishment of that glorious Prophecy Joel 2. To pour out his Spirit c. but now these miraculous operations are ceased Vse of Instruction What Congregations and what manner of persons we ought to be To be meer men cometh farre short of being spiritual men we ought to be above sense and all humane principles Take the most refined men for morality and civility the choisest for all humane abilities yet without the Spirit of God they are no more than Adams body till life was brethed into him no more than those bones in Ezekiel till the Spirit of God gathered them together Oh that our Congregations consisted of spiritual men Paul complained He could not preach to them but as carnal The Spirit of God would lift thee up to other affections other desires As the Spirit took some mens bodies and lifted them up into the air so would it doe to the soules of men they had the Spirit of God who said Our conversation is in Heaven They had the Spirit of God that did look for the coming of Christ They had the Spirit of God who had prayed with groanes unutterable and who had joy unspeakable But oh we poor worms and not spiritual men cold clods of earth destitute of Gods Spirit And that the Spirit of God dwels in you We have heard what this inhabitation of Gods Spirit in his Church doth imply and how he may be said to dwell in us In the next place let us consider the special Workes and Effects of Gods Spirit in his Church For therefore partly hath he the name Spirit because of that power and efficacy he hath in the Church Hence he came downe in a mighty rushing winde and cloven tongues of fire So that he is called the Spirit internally and externally internally for his personall character whereby he proceeds from the Father and the Sonne Externally because of those admirable effects and demonstrations of his presence in the Church Now I shall not speak of these operations which he hath as God in creating and conservating of the world but what are more peculiar to the Church in which sense he is called The Spirit of Christ Romans 8.9 because Christ by his death did purchase such gifts and graces for his people the efficient whereof in an appropriated manner is the Spirit of God And First The very ministerial functions and abilities to discharge them are of the Holy Ghost in the Church For although Ephesians 4.11 it 's said That Christ after his Ascension and triumph over Death and Hell Gave gifts unto men Even as great Emperours when they ride in glorious triumph after a final Conquest over their enemies use to distribute large favours and many bountifull signes of honour yet because upon his Ascension he promised the Spirit of God in his absence as the divine Vicar of Christ therefore 1 Cor. 12. we find all operations and diversities of them attributed to the holy Ghost And Acts 25. the holy Ghost is said To make those overseers in the Church of Ephesus So that what Church-officers or what Church-ordinances or order we have and what Gifts and Abilities likewise there are to discharge them These are all of the holy Ghost and of the holy Ghost three wayes 1. In respect of their Institution and being For although it 's by man that such and such persons are elected and ordained to this or that Office yet the Office of it self is of the holy Ghost They are not the Institutions of men nor may men appoint some Church-officers which God hath not because their end is wholly supernatural As it 's said 2 Cor. 12.28 God hath set in his Church such Officers even as he hath set the Sunne and starres in the firmament so that all Officers lawfully called are of the holy Ghost either immediately as at the beginning or else mediately by the order and designation of the Church And as for their gifts it 's plain the extraordinary and miraculous gifts in the primitive times were from Gods Spirit The Scripture often attributeth them to it Only now it may be doubted Whether we can say that the gifts and the abilities that Ministers have now are from the holy Ghost because they are got by humane study and industry And is there any more required to understand the Scripture than any other humane Authour Plato or Aristotle Those cursed wretches Julian and Porphyrius who wrote against the Scripture they understood what they were so invective against yet it cannot be thought they were inabled by the holy Ghost Now to answer this even those natural abilities and humane indowments that men obtain by study are a gift of God they are a blessing which we see God giveth to some and not to other It 's Gods mercy thou art not a natural fool a mad man but when thou hast more understanding and better intellectual abilities than other thou hast a greater gift from God than others Hence in our very ordinary phrase we say such an one hath an excellent gift in his memory in his elocution c. And the Scripture is clear James 1.17 Every good and perfect gift cometh from the Father of lights which is to be understood universally both of naturals and supernaturals And what hast thou thou hast not received 1 Cor. 4. Hence in the Parable all abilities whether gracious or natural are called Talents and are given by one Master That is the first thing even those excellent abilities which the greatest Heretiques and enemies to the Christian Religion had were of God though the sinfull use of them came from the Devil and their own corrupt hearts They were talents of gold and they made Idols of them 2. As the gifts and abilities Church-officers have are from God so the right understanding of the Scripture and believing the sense contained therein is in a more particular manner a gift of Gods Spirit For although the Spirit of God doth not give us the sense and meaning of the Scripture in an extraordinary manner viz. without the knowledge of the tongues the comparing of places together c. yet in and by these means the Spirit of God doth help us to understand the Scripture I do not here speak of a saving knowledge of the sense of the Scripture but a meer literal knowledge of the meaning thereof This is plain by the Apostle No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Spirit 1 Cor. 12 3 The very historical believing of Scripture truths is from the Spirit of God So that here is required a more peculiar and particular assistance of Gods Spirit in ministerial abilities for the opening of the Scripture then for any humane Authour because the matter
for the most part is spiritual and supernatural and partly because as the Prophets and Pen-men spake or wrote as they were moved by the holy Ghost even to every syllable and word so the same Spirit of God is required though not in such a measure to the understanding of it Hence the Spirit of God is promised To lead us into all truth John 16.13 Alas the greatest men of parts and learning have many times been the greatest Heretiques and most ignorant of the Scripture because destitute of the Spirit Yet on the other side you must not runne into another extremity as if the Spirit alone without those helps God hath required would lead us into truth for that were to tempt God and to expect a miracle For give a Bible in Hebrew or Greek to a man though enjoying Gods Spirit yet he is not able to understand this or that Text without the interpretation of the language I have been more large on this because it 's necessary to shew with how much prayer and earnest application to the throne of grace the Ministers of God should addresse themselves to their work without the Spirit of God guiding and leading of them they are the ship that wants a winde yea though they have many excellent gifts and much humane learning They are but as a swift horse without a rider while they want Gods Spirit and the faster they runne the more they are out of the way So then put the Spirit of God and other helpes appointed by him together and then you will never split at any Rock Secondly As the gifts of the Ministry are thus efficiently from God So directively also they are from his Spirit The guidance and ordering of the whole Ministry is from the Spirit of God When Paul was resolved to go to some place to preach the Gospel he was sometimes forbidden by the Spirit and directed to go to others Acts 16.6 9. Thus in the word of God preached by the Apostles the Spirit of God did demonstrate it self because the Jews are said to resist it Acts 7.51 therefore though it was first dispensed to the Jews yet upon their neglect it was transplanted to the Gentiles And thus truly every Congregation every particular person may wonderfully observe the divine guidance of the Ministry that it should come to such a people and not to such that those who are unworthy and trample upon it as swine do the pearl should have it and many a poor hungring and thirsting people can never enjoy have or such a Ministry especially every godly hearer may observe a divine guidance of the Word in the matter preached how near and seasonably it comes to him The unbeliever that came to the Church ordinances saw his heart and thoughts so judged and discovered that he cried out Verily God is among you 1 Cor. 14.25 Thou sittest and wonderest how the Minister should fall on such a point how he should be directed to such a particular that doth so nearly concern thee this makes thee say Verily God is here Thirdly Which is the last and greatest The efficacy and spiritual benefit of the Ordinances and gifts of Officers is wholly from the Spirit of God Hence it is called the holy Spirit not only essentially as the other Persons are or by way of opposition to the unclean spirit the Devil but effectively because by way of title and Office as it were it belongs to him to sanctifie the gifts of the Minister and to make them powerfull in the hearts of the hearers So that although parts and abilities should be in the Officers choice and power yet the successe and benefit is not When Paul hath planted Apollo watered it 's God that giveth the increase 1 Cor. 3. And certainly if the Physician cannot give health the Gardener cannot make any fruit only disposeth and prepareth in these things much lesse can spiritual Officers in the Church cause the Word to open the eyes of the blinde or soften the heart of those that are hardened Thus we have seen how the Spirit of God dwels in the Church by reason of gifts only and to be more affected with this though that of Graces be more excellent consider First That the end of all these gifts thus vouchsafed by the Spirit is only to profit withall as the Apostle argueth 1 Cor. 12.7 They are not for vain oftentation neither are we to seek our selves by them but they are to be improved for edification Now that cannot be called profit which is onely to please the ear to tickle the fancy but what is to convince the conscience and change the heart and lives of men Oh that this were considered both by Minister and all people It 's spiritual profit that is to be looked at Hence the Word is compared to food which is not for the eye but the stomack The more usefull and profitable the gifts of any are either for instruction or reformation the nearer they come to their due end Secondly Consider the plenty of these gifts under the New Testament The Spirit of God inabled to all those gifts and graces in the Old Testament but because they were in a little pittance or measure therefore the Gospel is said to be The time of the manifestation of the Spirit So that it 's a great shame and sinne if both Ministers and people partake not more of the gifts of Gods Spirit than in the Old Testament and that so much grosse ignorance and beastly prophanenesse doth overflow is a great reproach unto the times of the Gospel Thirdly The variety of them is also very admirable The Apostle reckons up the diversity of them So that as it was an argument of Jacob's love to give Joseph a party-coloured coat Thus it is of Gods favour to bestow such diversity of gifts This makes the Church indeed to be in imbroidered garments Fourthly The wisdome of the Spirit is seen in that no one man hath all As all men have not the same face but some difference there is which makes Gods providence admirable in this particular So all have not the same gifts some are for the word of Doctrine some for the word of Exhortation and all this is that there being a mutual excelling of one another there might be no envy or schisme in the body Vse of Instruction What cause we Ministers and you people have to pray for this Spirit of God without which we preach in vain and you hear in vain As Moses said to God Vnlesse thou go along with us we will not go up O Lord if the presence of thy Spirit be not with us we cannot discharge those duties who is sufficient to preach Who is sufficient to hear Oh it should be like a sword in our bowels to think we feel no more of him in our Assemblies Arise O North winde and blow O South saith the Church that the spices may send forth their smell Cantic 4.16 Oh that the Spirit of God would thus arise
foundation in the hearts of their hearers 125 Of a two-fold foundation Fundamentum cognoscendi the foundation of our knowledge and faith in matters of Religion viz. the Scripture And fundamentum essendi or the foundation of the being or existence of all our glory and salvation viz. Jesus Christ ibid Four unquestionable Scripture-foundations ibid. With a discovery of rotten foundations 127 Why it is such a sinne to worship God many wayes as man pleaseth 132 As a wise master-builder 137 Observ That it 's not vanity but a duty in some cases for the Ministers of the Gospel to magnifie and set up their Work and Office ibid In what cases a Minister may magnifie his work and office ibid. And another buildeth thereon 139 Observ That people are not to expect that Ministers should bring any other Doctrine than what is laid by Christ and the Apostles already ibid. The use of preaching notwithstanding the fulnesse of the Scripture 140 But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon 141 Observ The Ministers of God are greatly to take heed that they preach no other thing than what is already contained in the Scripture Or It 's a dangerous thing to put that sense and meaning on the word of God which is not the true genuine sense of it ibid. A two-fold building upon the foundation ibid Why Ministers must take heed how they build upon the foundation 142 Verse 11. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ 145 Observ That the Ministers of God ought to lay no other Foundation than Christ ibid. How many wayes Christ is to be preached as a foundation ibid. Reasons why he must be preached as the foundation 150 Objections and Doubts answered 153 How Duties are to be done and preached with relation to Christ 154 The great Advantages those have that are built on Christ 155 Verse 12. Now if any man build on this foundation gold silver precious stones wood hay stubble c. 157 Observ That the Doctrine and Truths of Christ are very precious and excellent ibid What the comparing them to Gold c. implieth ibid. If any man build hay and stubble 161 Observ That all errours and falshoods in Religion though not fundamental are no better than hay and stubble ibid Some Propositions about errour ibid. Why errours are called hay and stubble 162 Verse 13. Every mans work shall be made manifest 165 Observ That all the wayes and works of wickednesse though acted in never so hidden and secret a manner shall be made manifest ibid. What kind of hidden wickednesse shall be made manifest ibid. The Aggravation of those sins that are secret and hidden 168 Observ That all the hidden and secret wayes of false Doctrines God will one day make manifest 169 The Causes Nature the cunning subtilty in divulging them shall be made manifest ibid. For the day shall declare it 173 Observ That God hath his time when he will discover the errours and falshoods of mens Doctrines ibid. Errours are spiritual judgements the removal in mercy at Gods time 174 Why God will have a day to discover false Doctrine 176 Because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall declare every mans work of what sort it is 177 The interpretation of fire 178 Observ That God useth to bring people out of errours and false wayes by his Word and Afflictions ibid. Though the Word and afflictions are both helpfull yet differently 179 How wandring sheep are reduced by the Word ibid. How by afflictions 181 Verse 14. If any mans work abide which he hath built thereupon he shall receive a reward 181 Observ That Gods Truths are of a firm and durable Nature notwithstanding any tryal or opposition whatsoever 182 Truth two-fold Increated and Created ibid Scripture-truths reduced to four heads 183 Verse 15. If any mans work shall be burnt he shall suffer losse but he himself shall be saved yet so as by fire 185 Observ That every man will be altogether a loser in any errour or false way that he hath maintained he shall suffer loss 186 Wherein they shall be losers ibid. He shall be saved yet so as by fire 189 Observ That even errours of judgement may endanger a mans salvation as well as ungodlinesse in practice ibid. The several kinds of corruptions of the understanding that indangers a mans salvation ibid. The Difference between errour and heresie with the grounds of the Doctrine 190 Observ That every godly man though never so eminent yet is very difficultly saved 192 Verse 16. Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you 193 Observ That the consideration of those Priviledges and Relations which all the People that professe God are put into would be a great Argument against all kind of Pollution ibid Some of the chief Titles or Relations which the people of God have 194 Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God 197 Of the word Temple ibid. Observ That the people of God met together to worship him according to his way are the spiritual Temple of God 197 What there is in the Church allusively to the Temple 198 Of Gods presence with his Church 200 And that the Spirit of God dwels in you 201 Observ That the Spirit of God is God 202 The signification of the word Spirit when attributed to God ibid. That the holy Ghost is God and a person ibid. Why the holy Ghost is called Spirit 204 Observ That the Spirit of God dwels in his Church 205 What to have the Spirit dwell in us implieth in that phrase ibid. How many wayes the Spirit may be said to dwell in Gods people 207 The special works and effects of the holy Spirit in his Chruch 209 I. Gifts ibid. How farre the gifts and abilities of Ministers that are acquired by humane study and industry are to be ascribed unto the holy Ghost ibid. II. Sanctifying graces 209 Of the saving inhabitation of the Spirit 212 Verse 17. If any man defile the Temple of God him shall God destroy 216 Observ That those men who defile the Church of God with corrupt Doctrines do highly provoke God to punish them ibid Why errours are said to defile Gods Church 217 How God will punish Heretiques 219 A godly man may fall into a damnable Heresies 220 How a godly man erring differeth from a wicked man ibid. Errours are erroneous persons distinguished 221 Why God is so provoked with corruptions in Doctrine and worship ibid Him shall God destroy 222 Observ That eternal Damnation is the destruction of a man ibid. Of the punishment of losse sense 224 With the Aggravations of this punishment 225 For the Temple of God is holy which Temple ye are 226 Observ The holy Temple of God under the Gospel is not any place though never so adorned or glorious but persons believing and worshipping of him according to his will ibid Verse 18. Let no man
deceive himself if any man seemeth to be wise in this world let him become a fool that he may be wise 229 Observ Thut humane and earthly wisdome is a great enemy to all the heavenly things of Christ 230 A man having no more than natural humane wisdome is an enemy to 1. The supernatural Matter and Doctrine to be believed 2. The manner of promulgation of it in Scripture 3. The holy and spiritual duties required of us ibid. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world 239 Observ That all humane and earthly wisdome cometh farre short and is but a meer shadow and appearance in respest of Scripture-wisdome ibid. Wisdome of the world Speculative and Political ib. That the Scripture way of believing exceeds their contemplative Science And That the Scripture motive of doing surpasses all their morality 237 Let him become a fool that he may be wise 239 Observ That true Christian wisdome is nothing but folly in the worlds account ibid The seeming follies that are in things to be believed ibid. Let him become a fool that he may be wise 243 Observ That onely in the Church of God or in Christianity is true wisdome ibid. The point evidenced by ten Arguments ibid. Verse 19. For the wisdome of this world is foolishness with God 246 Observ That all the admired wisdome of a meer worldly man is nothing but contemptible folly before God 247 Their folly manifested both Active and Passive iâ—id What humane wisdome it is that is here intended 253 For it is written He taketh the wise in their own craftiness ibid Observ That God delights to take the earthly wise men of the world in their own craft 254 How many wayes God takes the wise men of the world in their own craft ibid. And why he doth it 256 Verse 20. And again The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise that they are vain 257 Observ That the choisest and best thoughts of the wisest men are vain ibid. In what sense the Scripture useth the word vain or vanity ibid. Verse 21. Therefore let none glory in men for all things are yours 260 Observ That it 's a great sinne to glory in men 261 How many wayes we may be said to glory in men ibid. For all things are yours 264 Observ That all things are for the spiritual good and advantage of the godly man 265 In what respect all things may be said to be the Saints ibid. Why God made all things for them 266 Vers 22. Whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas 270 Observ That all Offices and Gifts howsoever diversified are for the Churches of God 271 In what sense Ministers are not Servants of the Church against the Brownists ibid. And in what sense they are the Churches Servants ibid. The end for which both Offices and Gifts are the Churches 273 Or the World 274 How the word world is to be here taken ibid. Observ That the whole world with all things therein is for the spiritual advantage of a godly man 275 In what sense the world is said to be a godly mans 275 Or Life 278 Observ That godly men do only live or The godly only make a spiritual use of their life 279 In what respects it is true that the godly man only lives ibid. And in what respects it's true that the wâ—cked man doth not live 281 Or Death 282 Observ That even death which in it self is so terrible yet is for a godly mans advantage ibid. Some Propositions about death ibid. In how many respects death is a godly mans 283 Or things present 286 Observ That whatsoever falls out for the present to a godly man it is for his good ibid. A division of all Events into happy and prosperous and adverse and afflicting ones ibid. In how many respects both the one and the other are for the good of Gods people ibid. Or things to come all are yours 290 Observ That all things which are to come or may fall out hereafter are a godly mans mercy and advantage ibid. This is proved by Instances and Promises 291 How on the contrary it is with a wicked man in respect of things to come 293 Vers 23. And ye are Christs 294 Observ That a godly man in all that he is or can do is wholly Christs ibid. In what respects a godly man is Christs ibid. Characters or Properties of such as are Christs 296 And Christ is Gods 298 In what sense Christ can be said to be Gods ibid. Observ That Christ as Man and as a Mediatour is wholly Gods ibid. Of the Nature and Person of Christ and of the Hypostatical Union ibid. How Christ as a Man and as Mediatour is Gods 299 And how admirable these Truths are ibid. THE CONTENTS OF THIS TREATISE OF THE GODLY MANS CHOICE THat no Natural or Unregenerate man can lift up his heart any higher then unto a worldly happinesse and content in the Creature 1 The sinfullnesse and wofull Aggravations of such an Estate 10 Antidotes and Meanes against setting the heart upon the Creature 14 That a gracious heart doth more esteem the favour of God and the light of his Countenance then any earthly thing whatsoever 19 The Qualifications or Characters of those who do value and desire Gods favour above all things else 23 A Consideration of some false Grounds of a Perswasion of Gods Love 27 Of the Joy of Saints in God and Heavenly things as one Effect of the light of Gods Countenance The Nature of it and the Preeminences of it comparatively to all other Pleasures whatsoever 32 Of the godly Mans holy Security and Admirable quietnesse of spirit as another Effect of the light of Gods Counnance 40 How the vigorous Actings of Faith doth quiet the heart 46 The difference between Carnal and Gracious Confidence 49 The Reason of the Saints confidence viz. That God alone is their Preserver Shewing also the Wayes and Meanes by which God doth Preserve them 53 The Bookseller to the Reader I Hope there will not be found in the Reading of this Book any considerable Faults some lesser Errata's there may notwithstanding the great care that was used in the absence of the Author which of course must be pardoned The Contents noted in the Margin with the Table were done by a Friend for the pleasure of the Reader which is mentioned to clear the Author from what weakness may possibly be observed in the doing of them Tho. Underhill AN EXPOSITION WITH Practical Observations ON THE Third Chapter of the first Epistle of St Paul TO THE CORINTHIANS 1 COR. 3.1 And I Brethren could not speak unto you as unto spiritual but as unto carnal as unto babes in Christ FOr the Apostles method observe this you have his Complaint and the Cause of his complaint His Complaint I Brethren could not speak unto you as spiritual but as carnal Where First There is the Compellation Brethren He reproveth yet keeps up his love This mollifieth and suppleth the wound Dilige
together were spent in libelling and in accusations of one another till Constantine took all the papers and burnt them We might tell you of the other great Council of Constantinople against Nestorius with what factions carnal policies and sinfull animosities Nestorius and his party did strive against the Orthodox But of this enough We see how prone these worms are to breed in the sweetest roses Satan is busie in this way God put enmity between the Serpent and the womans seed and he labours to put enmity between the womans seed among themselves Now let all these divisions be what they will publique or personal Civil or Religious they come from sin and tend to confusion Now God he is the God of order and of peace not of confusion 1 Cor. 14.33 In the next place What makes division or faction And 1. That is when men promote any false or wicked way against truth and godlinâ—sse We see all parties brand one another with divisions and factions The Papist cals the Protestant a Sectary and that though a Metropolitane and saith The leaving of their Church that had so much Antiquity and Vniversality was a schisme The Metropolitane he maketh all those guilty of schisme whether Bishops or Presbyters that recede from obedience to him as appeareth in a late Book Hammond of Schisme But it 's not the calling or the branding of any with the name of schisme that makes the thing so but you must consider the cause and the matter If Elijah and some few with him will not bow their knees to Baal nor will not go with the multitude of Idolaters this is no sinfull division or faction When Arianisme like a deluge did overflow the Church the Orthodox who were called Eustathiani from Eustathius the President in the Council of Nice and a valiant Champion for the Truth had their private and secret meetings not daring to communicate in the publick worship with the Arians yet no sound man in judgement will brand these with schisme If the people of God come out from Babylon and separate from their uncleannesses this is no schisme or faction but a duty God commanded them So that before we charge any with this crime we must alwayes consider the Cause and the Matter who hath the truth who hath Gods Cause otherwise men are hereticks and schismaticks to one another and so they judge by partiality not by the Rule Neither is it enough for men to say they have Scripture or to alledg Scripture for that may be wrested to their destruction but the true sense and meaning of it which is attained by those that walk humbly in Gods way and use those means God hath appointed in his Church If therefore a man plead against the Idolatries the impieties and falshoods of other men This is no faction if so Paul himself who condemneth these had been the most factious man in the world For who more zealous than he in Christs way against the superstitious Pharisees and those who pleaded the Law for Justification Secondly Faction and division is seen when though the matter be true or good they strive for yet they do it not in a godly orderly way He that striveth is not crowned unlesse he strive lawfully 2 Tim. 2.5 A good intention even in a good matter without good order is not warrantable The Disciples that would have fire come down from Heaven knew not what spirit they were of Vzzahs sudden punishment for the touching of the Ark should make us look not only to a duty but to the order of a duty The Apostle layeth down this injunction We must not do evil that good may come on it Rom. 3.8 And he saith of those teachers that would make such constructions from his Doctrine That their damnation was just The Apostle by the similitude of members in the body doth shew how every member should keep to his own office A third thing in Division is When men do not keep to their proper places to their Offices If the foot will be the eye if the hand will be the head here is a monster not a comely body The Apostle Paul is very large in this and oh that this age would observe it To teach every member in the body to keep to its own Office and to its own Calling not to take one anothers operations but to convey their mutual nourishment one to another in their proper way In what a blessed Unity and comely Order would the Church of God be if every member would do its proper work The Apostle calling so much for humility and modesty and not to think of our selves above what we ought to do fore-saw how hard a matter it would be for Christians to keep up Unity and Concord among themselves Fourthly Thus it 's division and faction when the affections and passions of men are scured and imbittered with any carnal distâ—mpers so that this sinne doth affect the heart and spirit of a man and then it breaks out into actions Though men should be in a good way and are for the truth and glory of God yet if they do this in anger and passion and frowardnesse of heart here is a sinfull division upon them though for the matter and way it self they be right Gods righteousnesse and truth needeth not our passions So that all these or any of these is enough to make the divisions in the Text here forbidden In the next place What are the Causes that make these the efficient causeâ— First The ignorance of men as long as men know but in part have not perfection in the understanding and this breedeth difference of opinions and difference of opinions difference of affections The Apostle chargeth the wresting of the Scripture to mens destruction upon their ignorance In which Epistle are many things hard to be understood which the ignorant or unlearned wrest 2 Pet. 3.16 Thus our Saviour told them They erred about the resurrection because they knew not the Scripture Mat. 2.29 So that those who have but a slighty flatry-knowledge in matters of Religion they presently runne into wayes of division These are children easily seduced Secondly Self-confidence and arrogancy When men think those abilities or that worth is in them which indeed is not This makes them bold and distracting of the Church Thus Corah Dathan and Abiram they said Num. 16.3 All the Congregation is holy They thought there was as much in every person as in the Priests whom God had set apart for that office Oh what an excellent patern is that to all which David giveth O Lord I have not lifted up my self too high or to things above me Psal 131.1 It was an excellent speech of Ambrose Heretiques with Scripture are like David in Sauls armour they are too heavy too weighty for them in stead of defending themselves they are wounded with it Hence the Apostle commands us not to mind high things Rom. 12.16 viz. which are above our power or capacity We are all
I am of Christ Thus they expounded it thinking it not matter of reproof for any to say they were of Christ and they say Pauls arguments would hold for this as much as they did against glorying in men For though Paul was not crucified for them yet Christ was Though they were not baptized into Pauls name yet they were into Christs But to answer this It 's true absolutely and simply it 's not a sinne but a duty for every believer to say he is of Christ To call no man Master but Christ therefore he is called a Christian because a worshipper of Christ And the Apostle 1 Cor. 3.22 useth this Argument The believers were not Pauls or Apolloes but on the contrary Whether Paul or Apollo c. all are yours but then mark he doth not say Christ is yours but you are Christs So for believers to say They are Christs is in the general a duty but that which the Apostle here reproveth is such a setting up of Christ as doth oppose the Instruments that Christ also hath appointed and that the Apostle blameth those who said They were Christs it's plain by the Context It 's told me by the house of Chloe That there are divisions and contentions This was a fault complained of And then he instanceth in the matter of the contentions I am of Paul I am of Apollo I am of Christ This is in the same manner reckoned as the former whereas if the Interpretation of the Ancients were true the expression must have been adversative But I am of Christ And then the Argument following is plain Is Christ divided viz. Is the Doctrine or Person of Christ divided Hath Peter one Christ Apollo another or these immediate pretenders another Christ Now these that set up Christ thus in a sinfull way may be either those that pretended immediate teachings by Christ for such were in the Apostles dayes therefore he bids them Try the Spirits or such who happily might have heard Christ himself teaching in his own person and so did wrest those Doctrines that Christ taught and yet in their sense made Christ the teacher of them both may be included Although I must adde That a further thing also is to be comprehended in this factious exalting of Christ vâ—z not only thereby to exclude Instruments but also to conclude that they only had Christ amongst them For this is the property of many Sects to appropriate Christ to themselves as if none had Christ but they Thus the Donatists did monopolize the word Christians to themselves Observe That although Christ onely is to be relied upon as the Head of his Church yet it is not his will that under this pretence wee should despise or contemne his Ministry and the means of grace he hath appointed So that this Text with the former doth excellently bound the spirit of believers that though they delight and rejoyce in the gifts and office of the Ministry reaping much spiritual benefit by it yet they are still to look up to Christ in the Ministry as the author of all increase And on the other side Though the Ministry can do no good without Christs teaching and it 's the Spirit that giveth grace not the Ministers yet we must not so immediately depend on Christ and his Spirit as to neglect the instruments and means he hath appointed Our Saviour cleareth this when in one place He sends his Disciples to preach commanding all to hear them And yet again Bids us call no man master upon earth Here is no contradiction but if a Christian be wise he may excellently compose them No man is to be called Master principally and authoritatively yet Christ hath appointed Teachers and Doctors by whom we are to believe So that it 's the errour and foolishnesse of men when they runne into extreams even as in the Doctrine of Grace and Free-will The Marcionites and Manicâ—ees they denied the Natural Liberty of a man and the Pelagians on the contrary the efficacious grace of God To understand this Consider That there are principal and efficient causes of grace and salvation and there are subordinate and instrumental and these must not be confounded A sound mind must not make instrumentals principals as ignorant people doe thinking the very Sacrament will save them Nor yet must we exalt the principal to exclude the instrumental as Enthusihsts do The Efficient Cause of all grace is attributed onely to God or the three Persons the Father Sonne and holy Ghost in their appropriated way So that it 's true Every good and perfect gift comes from God the Father of lights Jam. 1. No man can come to Christ unlesse the Father draw him John 6.44 And Christ saith He will draw all men to him John 12.32 He is the chief shepherd of our souls He is the truth way and life John 14.6 The Spirit of God also that leadeth into all truth that sanctifieth that inlightneth the mind So that when we have to do with a people that do rest upon outward meanes As some thinke the Ministers gifts the Ministers parts or the very coming of a Minister to them and praying for them while sick is enough to send them to Heaven To such hearers we are much to preach of the efficient principal cause of grace We are to cry Sursum corda we are to say as the Angel to the women looking for Christ in the Sepulchre He is risen Look up to Heaven so to such who rest upon external meanes and Instruments Why look ye downwards look upwards We see among the people of Israel yea and Christians in the New Testament too so great a pronenesse to relie on Instruments but as in civil things we must not relie on an arme of flesh so neither in Church matters on a tongue or mouth of flesh as the Ministers are In the next place There are Subordinate and Instrumental means of Grace which God though he could doe all spiritual things immediately for us and in us yet he hath obliged us to the use of them So that it is an high contempt of God and such may never expect the workings of his Spirit or virtue from Christ that doth not use those instituted meanes he hath appointed Now there is a three-fold Instrumental cause of Grace When we call them a Cause we mean not a natural Cause producing Grace by any inherent power as fire doth burn no but onely instituted Causes God in the faithfull use of these will worke Grace in us And they are three especially First There is the Scripture the Word of God This as it is written and consigned into a Canon is a Rule by which all must believe worship and live Insomuch that if a man pretend any Revelations or teachings which are not warrantable by this written Word he is to be held as accursed To the Law and to the Testimony Isai 8.20 Christ himself still directeth to the Scripture Paul directs Timothy to the Scriptures and
doubt may be raised How Paul can say He layeth the foundation which is no other but Christ as appeareth at the eleventh verse seeing God appropriateth it to himself Isa 28.16 Behold I lay in Zion a foundation stone c But The answer is God layeth this foundation 1. By his Decree appointing Christ thereunto And 2. By his temporal mission of him into the world but Paul layed the foundation only ministerially and declaratively by publishing Christ to be the Saviour especially to those who never heard of him before It 's a special part of the wisdome and heavenly art of the Ministers of the Gospel to lay a good and sure foundation in the hearts of their hearers This Paul makes the principal part of his wisdome that he began with a good foundation If people are not rightly built upon this any tempest that ariseth will throw down all theâ—r Religion Our Saviour speaketh a Parable Luke 6.48 49 like to this of the wise builder and the foolish builder And although there it be meant of every particular Christian yet we may apply it to every Minister He that doth not build up his people upon sure and Scripture foundations they are like the chaff and straw that the wind doth drive to and fro There is no true faith no truâ— godlinesse no true hope of salvation where the right and sure foundation is not laid The point therefore in hand is of great consequence both to the Preacher and to the Auditor to consider what foundation his Religion and Godlinesse is fixed upon For the opening of this Consider that Divines do ordinarily make a two-fold foundation The one they call Fundamentum cognoscendi The foundation of our knowledge and faith in matters of Religion and this is the Scripture only We can lay no other foundation for matters of Faith but the word of God Non credo quia non lego said Tertullian of old And Secondly There is Fundamentum essendi The Foundation of the being or existence of all our glory and salvation and that is only Jesus Christ He is the foundation-stone and every one is to believe in him only for Salvation and Justification So that as God made two great lights for the world so he hath done for the Church the Scriptures and Christ This Doctrine is true yet Heb. 6.1 we there reade of more foundations than one for there are practical fundamentals as well as speculative I shall therefore not limit my self to this one foundation mentioned by the Apostle but enlarge my self to the necessary foundations in our Christian life and shew you the necessity of that wisdom which will build upon these fundamentals And although I am not ignorant That the Dispute about what are foundations or fundamentals in Religion and what not is very hard and difficult yet I shall instance in four unquestionable foundations which are the four main pillars that support our Christian building The necessary things of Religion are these four Either 1. The Matters to be believed 2. The Worship and necessary service of God 3. The spiritual Benefits and mercies Justification and Salvation 4. The things to be done by us in our way to Salvation All these are fundamental and necessary in their kind to salvation and therefore it behoveth every Minister of the Gospel to principle and settle his people in all these particulars For herein is the danger not of mens bodies or estates but their immortal souls We will begin with the first The foundation of our faith or divine assent in matters of Religion What is that which every man must build his faith upon What is the foundation he must lay there And that is the Word of God declared and written for our instruction in those Canonical Books of the Scripture When we come to believe the matters of our salvation the ultimate motive into which all is to be resolved is Thus saith the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word of God hath spoken it It 's not antiquity universality or the laws of the Land or the tradition of our fathers that is the warrantable foundation but the Scripture only Thus Timothy is commended for attending to the Scriptures which are able to make him wise to salvation through faith 2 Tim. 3.17 18. So that although other things be required by way of helps and means as prayer interpretation of the Scripture Gods assistance the guidance of the Ministry yet by way of a Foundation or a Rule that is the Scripture only As God at first put all the light into the Sunne and the Starres shine by a borrowed light from it So God hath now put all supernatural light into the Scripture and all guides are to shine by that Hence it is so often compared to a light and a lamp unto our feet So that the Ministers of the Word do then lay a good foundation when in matters of Doctrine and truths to be believed they build them on the Scripture make them a Scripture-auditory a people that dare not that will not take any matter of faith but upon Scripture-grounds Thus those Bereans are commended for a noble and ingenuous people that compared what Paul preached with the Scriptures they then had whether it was consonant to them or no Act. 17 11. So that that people who know nothing of the Scripture are not instructed by the Word have not their faith their Religion from it all they offer to God is a Sacrifice without eyes they do believe they know not what Now that the written word of God is the only foundation of our Christian faith appeareth by these Reasons First A Christian faith ought to be a divine supernatural faith not a bare humane faith Now nothing can be the ground of a divine faith but a divine authority a divine Argument suggested by God himself Most men that call themselves Christians have no more than an humane faith in matters of Religion They believe thus because their parents did so because the Laws of the Land compell them to do so Thus they have no other grounds of faith then the Turks or Papists have for themselves but as copper is not gold so neither is this humane faith that holy and Christian perswasion which the Spirit of God through the Word works in man because revealed in the Word 1 Thess 1. They are commended That they did not receive the Word preached as the word of men but as indeed the word of God 1 Thess 1.13 So that whosoever hath an holy faith he must have a divine perswasion for this from the Authority of God that as an humane faith is because humane authority speaks it so a divine faith because God revealeth it in the Scripture But alas generally our people can no more look into these things then an Owl in the dazelling Sun How few are perswaded of the true Doctrine of Christ from this Divine Authority because God hath said thus God hath spoken thus Oh
corrupt errours though not fundamental are called hay and stubble It behoveth us therefore to take heed what we do that we give you not gall for honey poison for food The Apostle compareth all Ministers in himself to a tender nurse 1 Thess 2 now she is carefull to give fit and convenient food to her child Scripture-truths only can give nourishment 2. If we build not on this foundation the preaching of the Word loseth those glorious and excellent effects for which it is appointed You have many admirable properties of this The word of God enlightens the mind Psal â—9 It sanctifieth the nature Joh. 17. It is the power of God to salvation 1 Cor. 1. It 's the instrument by which we are begotten anew Heb. 4.12 It 's a two edged sword to enter into and discover all the secrets of the heart Now alas are the foolish and unwarrantable opinions and doctrines of men able to produce such gracious effects No Gods word only is blessed to such great ends and therefore it 's good to consider that our Saviour looking upon the people in his dayes it 's said His bowels were moved within him as sheep without a shepâ—erd Mat. 9.36 They had the Priests the Scribes and Pharisees then who read the Scripture and taught in the Synagogue every day yet because they mingled their own sour leaven they brought their chaff to the wheat therefore he pitied them 3. On the peoples part we had need to take heed Because they are more prone and ready to receive any corrupt sense than the pure meaning of the Scripture A natural man perceiveth not the things of God they are foolishnesse to him 1 Cor. 2.14 he hath enmity to them Paul said The Law was spiritual but he was carnal Rom. 7. No man naturally can love the Bible in the true and heavenly sense of it no more than a malefactour can his Judge for that condemneth sin that convinceth of folly that spareth not that flattereth not As the people of Israel could not endure the light on Moses his face but they would have a veil on it So neither are people able to receive the true and pure sense of the Scripture it is too glorious too spiritual therefore they put a veil upon it Hence you see how quickly errours and false doctrines especially such which give licence to sinne get a multitude of disciples Paul complained of this when he said They would suffer false teachers to abuse them to oppresse them 2 Cor. 11.20 The Corinthians would endure false teachers though they domineered over them kept them in bondage when yet they would not bear Pauls Ministry And did not many willingly suffer the Egyptian thraldom in Popery who would not endure the yoke of the Gospel Thus Christ complained If any man câ—me in his own name you will receive him John 5.43 Lastly On the Ministers part it 's necessary that he should take heed For 1. He hath not a Magistery but a Ministry committed to him He may not be a Master to dictate and affirm what he pleaseth but his Office is a Ministry to deliver nothing but what he reads Thus Paul That which I have received of the Lord I deliver unto you 1 Cor. 11. If among men Judges must not make new Laws but are strictly bound up to the Laws made to their hands Then much more are the Ministers of God bound up to their Rule the Scripture truth is committed to our charge we must be sure to render that in kind which was betrusted to us And as Aristotle observeth He that is unfaithfull in any thing deposited with him is worse than an open unjust or unrighteous man because he wrongs the good thoughts and opinion the other man had of him he thought him faithfull and honest but he proveth not so Now every Minister hâ—th the truths of God deposited as it were in his faithfull custody 2. He is accountable for all the sin and errour people run into through his neglect If he indeed sound the trumpet and warn the sinner then he hath delivered his soul and the blood of wandring sheep will never be required at his hand if he hath used all means to keep them in the sheepfold and they would not It behoveth us therfore to take heed how we build for herein we do not only endanger our own selvs but others The blind lead the blind saith our Saviour and both fall in the ditch Mat. 15.14 It was Luthers temptation he had sometimes on him Qâ—id si tu dâ—â—naris c. What if thou by thy doctrine are damned and drawest many others to hell with thee It 's true indeed the seduced are under a milder punishment then the seducers yet they are not excused Those that received the mark of the â—â—â—st in the hands and fore-heads though but followers yet had not their name written in the book of life This certainly should make every one take heed what he delivers for should he be a snare to or a murderer of other mens souls the blood of the soul will cry more terribly than the blood of the body 3. He must take heed Because though a man do preach the substantials and the necessary things of salvation purely yet if he adde or mix any corrupt opinions though of a lesse nature that mans salvation is very difficult and that the Apostle driveth at in this place If a man build gold and silver that is the precious fundamentals and afterwards build hay and stubble that is frothy unsound and unsavoury doctrine though it doth not overthrow the fundamentals that man shall be saved yet so as by fire I know it 's a place about which much fire of contention hath been but generally the most learned do agree That it signifieth the difficulty of that mans salvation he must go through many tribulations look for many afflictions which will be as fire to get his drosse out Oh do not then account such errours in judgment so easily venial yea almost innocent as the Socinians saying blind men are to be pitied not punished The Scripture putteth a severer character upon them In the next place What is to be done both by people or Minister that they may both build and be built on a sure foundation that they may not take drosse for gold 1. Be much in prayer That is the key to open all mysteries locked up studying praying and temptations make a Divine said Luther Daniel was much in prayer about studying those seventy weeks and God instructed him revealing them to him 2. Prayer is not enough There must be a holy and godly life Thou wilt never understand Pauls sense if thou hast not Pauls spirit nor Davids Psalms if there be not such a spirit in thee as was in David He that doth my will shall know whether the Doctrine be of God or no John 7.17 3. Neglect not those external means which are requisite to understand the sense of the author as knowledge
this is a very deep and secret work but God will manifest it Policy is no policy if the design be not laid deep and secret Therefore Isaiah reproving carnal Politicians saith Woe to them that take deep counsel Isa 29.15 And in other places That cover with a covering but not of my Spirit God hath his time that he will discover the thoughts of the worldly wise to be vain he will make known all the secrets and crafty consultations against his truth and people and he will be avenged for all the Atheism and prophane boldnesse and hardnesse of heart such carnal policy hath been accompanied with For he said well That a Politician was a man that stood upon his head with his heels upwards shaking them against Heaven Well then it 's good for such to remember that â—very work shall be made manifest and when the storm ariseth those cob-webs will be driven away Sixthly Dissimulations and inconstancies in matter of Religion This is a secret work God will manifest Divines call it to be a Nicodemite He came to Jesus by night John 3.2 and durst not openly professe Christ for fear of the Jews There were some who have held That they might do any external acts of Idololatrical worship be at Masse say they believe any thing so that they keep their consciences and minds pure The Priscillianists are noted for wicked dissimulations herein In Ezekiel we reade the Prophet is commanded To dig through the wall to see the women and men committing their religious abominations in private Ezek. 8.8 Now God will bring this hypocrisie to light External profession is nectssary to salvation when the command requireth it as well as inward faith With the heart man believeth and with the mouth confession is made to salvation Rom. 10.10 So that in case of confession it is damnable not to acknowledge the truths of God God gives a great commendation of seven thousand in Ahabs time that had not bowed their knee to Baal 1 King 18.19 They would not dissemble that outward worship commonly there are never more subtil and secret shiftings then in matters of Religion But of that more in time In the next place Consider the aggravation of those sinnes that are secret and hidden For although to be an open bold sinner is in some respects a greater sinner than a close private sinner because hereby there is more dishonour to God more scandal to others and more impudency in the sinner which happily might be the cause of that speech attributed to Athanasius Vtinam omnes essent hypocritae Hence some are reproved for having an whores fore head that they were not ashamed when they had sinned that they bâ—asted of it yet in many respects these secret sins have terrâ—ble aggravations 1. It argueth a mâ—n hath more consciousnesse to himself that he doth not welâ— therefore he wouâ—d not have the world know Now when any man sins with a consciousnesse to himself that he doth sinne this is a bloody aggravation Tremble at this you who live in secret wickednesse Why doest thou keep it so close Why art thou so fearfull Why doest thou as Rachel make aâ— excuse to cover thy Idols All this argueth the more consciousnesse the more guâ—â—t in thee Thy conscience is awakened thou hast â—â—ruglings and convâ—ctions within thee this is to rebel against light this is to stop the mouth oâ—â—hy monitour thy conscience within which the very Heathen could say was a god to every man I tell thee sinning thus against conscience more have despaired than upon any other ground Oh they did thus and they lived thus but all this while they had a consciousnesse to themselves they should do otherwise This hath made them so deepâ—y possessed though happily upon false grounds that they have sinned against the holy Ghost 2. This secret sinning puts farre more respect and fear upon men than God Thou wilt be unjust in secret thou wilt be unclean in secret Why thou art afraid such men know it Oh thou wicked wretch Art thou afraid of the eye of a man and not of a great God Carest thou not though God see thee whereas thou wouldst hide thy self if man come near thee Thus thou art a coward to man but thou bravest it to God Thou doest in effect say Though God behold though God know though God be acquainted with it I matter it not Oh foolish and unwise Can man damn thee Can man fill thy conscience with terrours Can man bid thee depart into everlasting howlings Why then art thou afraid of man and not God 3. The more secret any wickednesse is it argueth the heart is more studious and industrious â—bout it how to contrive it how to bring it about Of all Davids sins that in the matter of Vriah the Scripture giveth the greatest bâ—and on it because it was done with such secrecie David did that which was right in the sight of the Lord save in the matter of Vriah 1 King 15.5 and premediation Mark Josh 7.11 how Joshua in Achans sinne observed the secresie and the dissimulation and craft used in it Oh that men and women would consider this thing God takes notice with how much craft and subtilty you commit your sins and none never know it Vse of Admonition Take heed of secret hidden sins God will one day manifest what thou hast been Oh it may be the world thought of all the men that lived thou wouldst never do such and such things but God knoweth thy down-sitting and uprising Whither can you flie from his presence Oh let every one then bewail the plague sore of his own heart When Christ convinced the woman of Samaria of the secret sinne she lived in she crieth out Come and hear one that hath told me all that ever I did John 4. Prevent confusion hereafter at the day of judgment by humble confession of all thy secret sins unto God and he will not then upbraid thee Every mans work shall be made manifest This Proposition hath been handled as a general truth and so is a thunder-bolt against all secret sins what they do in secret God will reward openly The more secresie the more guilt Now I shall consider this Proposition in its limited and restrained sense as it relates to false Doctrines to those that build haâ— and stubble where the very expression That it shall be made manifest denoteth That errour for a long time may go undiscerned it may have a counterfeit passe even hay and stubble may be thought gold The false Prophet may get Elijah's mantle and hide himself in it but it shall be made manifest first to the builder and then to the whole world To the builder it may be a manifestation for Direction and Illumination he shall see he was in errour he shall confesse he was seduced and built unprofitable stubble or a maniâ—estation of confusion He shall be confounded with shame when his nakednesse shall appear and like Adam shall hide himself because of
his nakednesse And 2. It shall be manifest to others to the whole world that they shall see a difference between truth and errour Even as you see the Magicians did such things as Moses and for a while there seemed to be no difference but at last there was a plain discovery which was of God and which was not Observe That all the hidden and secret wayes of false Doctrines God will one day make manifest God will raise a fire to consume hay and stubble it will be put to a touchstone whether gold or counterfeit This certainly should make us tremble about what we teach or preach it will all be examined again God will discover all the Errata's and that by a sharp fiâ—e if we build hay we shall suffer losse All that time labour and study will be wholly lost To open this let us consider What concerning errours will be made manifest And 1. The Causes and Ends of them 2. The Nature of them 3. The cunning Artifiâ—e in divulging of them And First God will manifest all those hidden causes and ends of thy false Doctrines Now the Scripture gives these causes 1. Pride and self-conceit or overweening of thy own abilities and sufficiency such a man is in the high way to all errours For the humble and meek God will teach Psal 25. The valleys are fruitfull when the high mountains are barren Therefore the Apostle in this Epistle and in many others beateth down pride and vain-glory Hâ— that thinketh he knoweth any thing knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know 1 Cor. 8.2 Oh this is a golden truth A man must have that modestie that humility as to think himself a Disciple rather than a Teacher Paul that had such extraordinary Revelations God gave him a thorn in the flesh some extraordinary heavy tempâ—ation to humble him that he might not be lifted up 2 Cor. 12. Consider that God will make manifest all those secret works of thy heart Thou thinkest it zeal thou thinkest thou hast received greater abilities than others but God wil make it known whether it be noâ— thy self-confidence thy self-conceit or no. As in the Apostles times they had miracles to confirm their Doctrine and that they were of God they did heal the sick and raise the dead So I may now say humility is that miracle which may confirm our Doctrine If thou art of God if thy wayes are of God thou hast no glory no boasting in thy self above others Christs symbol was a Lamb and the Spirit of God appeared in the form of a Dove If thou hast the Spirit of God and Christ thou wilt be of a Lamb-like Dove-like disposition Take heed then of heart-pride and pride of gifts it 's worse than pride in cloaths or wealth This carrieth thee to the pinacle of a Temple sets thee on high and throweth thee headlong Vnlesse a man become as a little child he cannot be my Disciple Matth. 18 4. Here is a copy of humility and modesty to write after Many Heretiques have bâ—en bold self-conceited men the first that ever were almost in the Church called themselves Gâ—ostici The knowing men as if none had knowledge or understanding but they but God will raise a tempest that shall discover this root under ground 2. Ignorance and weaknesse of judgement And truly this is the most innocent cause of errours when men through ignorance and weaknesse go in a false way yet this doth not excuse For Peter saith Even ignorant men wrest the Scripture to their own destruction 2 Pet. 3.16 Though ignorant or unlearned men yet that will not excuse them Thus the Disciples through weaknesse of â—heir faith and knowledge manifested very grosse errours about Christ and his Office till they were endowed with the Spirit of God from above And where there is a cordial and plain desire to know the truth they sâ—udy they reade they pray they do conscientiously make use of all means God hath appointed for tâ—at is a great matter to make use of all means what one opinion saith as well as another what one Texâ— saith as well as another such I say as those are to be tenderly handled Rom. 15. Him that is weak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 receive him lovingly In this case Saeviant illi qui nesciunt quantis gemitibus vel tantillum datur intelligere de vero as Austin of old When it 's not obstinacy perversnesse but meer ignorance and thou doest instantly day and night pray to God using all means this doth greatly extenuate though not totally excuse thy blindnesse may make thee fall in the ditch and God will have all this ignorance manifested to thee sometime or other it may be 3. Hypocrisie The Scripture brandeth that for a heavy cause sometimes of the errours and falshoods in Religion This indeed is a work that God only can manifest who knoweth the hearts and trieth the reins yet that this is the bitter root of many bitter errours the Scripture giveth pregnant instances The Pharisees were famous for building hay and stubble What trash and trumpery superstition and false worship did they introduce And now Christ who knew their hearts tels them it was nothing but hypocrisie It was not God nor a love to his truth or glory but their own credit and glory They do all things to be seen of men Woe be to you hypocrites said he often Maâ—th 23.14 And Paul tels of men that taught lies in hypocrisie 1 Tim 4.2 Oh it 's a matter to be trembled at that such hypocrisie should ever fill a mans heart that we should scatter errours propagate falshoods to get our selves a name As they went to build Babel that they might have a name Search thy heart what moveth thee to hold any opinion if it be this hypocrisie God will bring hidden things to light and to have our portion with hypocrites is the highest condemnation Mat. 24 51. 4. Ambition and affectation of high places in the Church of God and to be above others This hath made men build hay and stubble This indeed is a daughter of pride and so is of the same nature yet it 's a distinct head for more bitter fruit hath grown on this root than upon most sinnes which made the Apostle James give that excellent Antidote Not to be many Masters James 3.1 Do not ambitiously affect places of trust and rule in the Church of God and thereupon he makes a large digression to shew the several wicked wayes of the tongue that is the unruly member that setteth all on fire If thou once hast a pronenesse to offend there look to it set a watch before thy mouth nature hath hedged it in by teeth and lips The Scripture also hath put many muzzles on thy mouth especially that My Brethren be swift to hear and slow to speak Jam. 1.13 You ought to be farre more desirous to hear than to speak If ambition and affectation to be above others provoke
unthankfulnesse and disobedience with corrupt ends and practices As it 's said Because men did not receive the truth in love God gave them up to believe a lie 2 Thess 2.10 So that it 's hard to say whether is more sad to consider the nature of the errours that dishonour God or the cause of them which is Gods anger against a people for barrennesse and unthankfulnesse God then hath his times when for the sinnes of a people he lets Satan loose and suffers this red Dragon to vent his dreadfull poison Thirdly As the corrupt errours of men came from Gods anger so in mercy he hath appointed times wherein he will purge and take away their drosse For these Church-burthens and Church-corruptions have been farre more heavy upon Gods people than State-oppressions Therefore the first thing that Gideon did who was raised up by God to be a Judge to deliver Israel from their cruel oppressions was to remove their Altars and all their Idolatry he began with God first Judges 6.28 And so when Moses had gathered the people of Israel into a body and they were capable of a Civil Government yet the first thing he doth is to prescribe them Lawes concerning the worship of God and in the Decalogue the first Table is for the Duties relating to God By this you see That corruptions in Gods worship and truth as they are greater sinnes than others they are talents when others are pounds so they lie more heavily upon the people of God they bewail them more Rome as it was Aegypt did not so much trouble the godly as it was Sâ—dome the Idolatry more than the cruelty offended the people of God This being so God among temporal promises of deliverance of righteousnesse and peace doth also comfort the godly with times of Reformation in his Church that this hay end stubble shall no longer stand to dishonour his building Thus God by the Prophet Isaiah promiseth To purge away their drosse and to take away their tinne from them Isai 1.25 which doth relate to their Church-sinnes their Idolatries as well as State-sinnes And by Ezekiel you have a glorious promise concerning Church-Reformation Ezekiel 36.25 as well as temporal He will give them to see their Idolatries so that they shall be confounded and never open their mouths Especially God hath those times when people shall be ashamed of their errours of their superstitions and shall never open their mouths again to plead for them or justifie them When they shall see the patterne of the Mount Ezekiel 43.10 You have a notable promise Malachi 3 3 where upon Christs coming there is promised a glorious restauration He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver and he shall purifie the sonnes of Levi. Christ when he came into the world found all Gods worship grossely polluted all the Priests had defiled themselves Now this was one end of Christs preaching to purifie them to cleanse them from these defilements It 's true prophane and worldly men or meer Atheistical Politicians they make no matter about Gods truth they make advantage of any Religion that serveth a designe but this was the great worke of Christs Ministery to make a Reformation in Doctrine and Worship Though this was very unpleasing to corrupt men therefore it is said Who can abide the day of his coming It is even like a day of judgement to them It is observable what our Saviour saith as much to our purpose and parallel with the Text John 4.23 The hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth You see how God hath his houre his time and season for such a thing and then when that is come they shall worship God will so over-rule enlighten and perswade mens hearts that they cannot but yeeld Such an hour or time God had when we recovered out of Popery Then darknesse covered the face of the earth The Sunne and the Moone and the Starres were turned into blood The Officers of the Church who should have had light to instruct did cruelly and bloodily persecute such as did hold the truth Now though all the world was thus in darknesse yet when God raised up those instruments of his truth Luther Melancthon Calvin and others They were no more able to stop the spreading of the Gospel then they could hinder the Sunne from running its race Gods hour was come and then the eyes of men would be opened There were many persons before Luther's time learned and godly men that did withstand Popish errours that died in contradiction of them but yet the world was not awakened they did not thinke of coming out of Aegypt till Gods time was come Fourthly This Day of Gods revealing may be a long while as to our expectation God may suffer corruptions to cover all the body of the Church You may see onely chaffe and no wheat and this may be a long while so that the godly doe even languish under their expectations Thus in Elijah's time 1 Kings 19 14. to his knowledge and according to visible appearance he onely was left to vindicate the pure Glory and Worship of God And in what a temptation was he about it It 's true God told him He had reserved seven thousand that had not bowed their knees to Baal that did not communicate in Idolatry But what was seven thousand to all the people of Israel No more than the gleanings of the Harvest And thus also we might shew how in the Christian Church when errours had once got possession in it they were like the Jebusites and the wilde beasts in the Land of Canaan which could hardly be destroyed Donatisme lasted above two hundred yeares Pelagianisme and Arianisme though but sparkes yet kindled such a fire that it was not extinguished in many generations So that we may say of this time as Christ to the Disciples It is not for us to know the times and seasons when God will restore his Church to her purity That is enough which our Saviour saith Every plant that is not of my Fathers planting shall be rooted out Matth. 15.13 That is an excellent place compared with this Text God hath his time when he will root out all the plants that he did not plant in his owne Vineyard But how long it will be ere this day breake forth God hath not discovered to us These things thus explained Let us consider the Reasons Why God will have a Day to declare mens workes in matter of false Doctrines And First Because the truth of God is deare and precious to him Christ himselfe makes it one main reason why he came into the world viz. To beare witnesse to Gods truth So that Divines say Though Christs death in respect of God the Father appointing him to be a Sacrifice for sinne was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an attonement or expiation yet if you doe respect men before whom he made a good Confession as Paul saith 1 Timothy 6.13 So it
erre or be of this or that opinion is no great matter is as much as to say faith is no great matter the truths of the Scripture are no great matter It was well said of Austin Veritas Christianorum est incomparabiliter pulchrior Helenâ Graecorum The Christians truth is more lovely than the Grecians Helena for whom there was much strife Hence the Apostle commands us To strive earnestly for the faith once dâ—livered to the Saints Jude v 3. Thirdly They endanger salvation Because all errours come from a damnable cause Gal. 5.20 Heresies are said to come from the flesh as opposite to the Spirit and therefore are reckoned in the same Catalogue with grosse sinnes So that if you go to the first fountain you shâ—ll find errours in Doctrine and loosnesse in practice boâ—h came from the same ground they are both fruits of the flesh though they be different streams yet they are united in one â—pâ—ing Though they may struggle one with another yet both are twins in the same womb Oh what an antidote would this be against these soul-infections that are abroad to think that errours and ungodly practices come both from the same fountain They are all fruits of the flesh and therefore have a damnable cause Fourthly Errours in judgement endanger salvation Because they lead into sinfull and dangerous practices In Philosophy we are â—old of the great connexion that is between the understanding will and affâ—ctions Now the understanding that is the Sunne in this firmament and if that be in an Eclipse you know that evils are portended thereby The understanding is the counsellour and if that be corrupt the will and affections must be very sinfull and unruly Vse of Admonition To take heed we be not led aside with any errour or corrupt Doctrines You see death is in these things as well as in lusts yea if the mind be corrupt all else will be corrupt If the eye be dark the whole body will be dark Errours will breed loosnesse and prophanenesse of life They are a disease in the choisest part of a man and know it is not thy wisdome thy care can preserve thee It 's the Spirit of God through his Word that leadeth us into truth Christ is the truth the way and the life John 14.6 The greatest learning and knowledge will not keep a man learned men have been Heretiques but two things will especially keep us 1. Humility and lowlinesse of mind To such God giveth grace To babes and sucklings he revealeth himself And 2. An holy conformity to Gods will so farre as we know When we do not detain truth as a prisoner in our lives Doct. 2. Whereas you see an eminent Officer in the Church building but hay and stubble is yet hardly saved We may hint this Doctrine though not insist on it That every godly man though never so eminent yet is very difficultly saved If hay and stubble will put us to such danger what then will evident poison If these errours of the mind which are so hardly prevented what will the constant lusts and daily infiâ—mities even of all men Which makes the Apostle Peter say The righteous man is scarcely saved 1 Pet. 4.18 Which although some understand of a temporal salvation he is very hardly delivered from those temporal afflictions that fall out in this life yet by consequence it reacheth to eternal salvation Hence is that command To work out our salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2.12 Yea Paul who had one foot in Heaven yet he said He kept under his body lest while he preached to others he himself should be a reprobate 1 Cor. 9. ult Now the Grounds of these truths are First From the exactnesse and strictnesse that is in the way to Heaven Godlinesse is on the high hill as he placed virtue Strive to enter in at the strait gate Luke 13.24 Be in an agony yea how strait is it as in Matth 7 14 by exclamation few do enter therein To lay out the nature of a godly man or godlinesse from Scripture-rules would be almost like Tullies description of a perfect Orator or Plato of a Commonwealth Our Saviour speaking of the difficulty of a rich man to be saved that is one who trusteth in them as one Evangelist saith Mar. 10.24 The Disciples cry out Who then can be saved They do not say What rich man but who can be saved because every man hath something or other be trusteth in as well as the rich man in his riches Secondly The difficulty doth appear from that remainder and relique or corruption that is in every man which is in danger to break out Our Saviour bid hiâ— Dâ—sciples Beware of drunkennesse and surfeting though they seemed to be â—arre from it Luke 21.34 Paul how doth he mourn under the powerfull vigor of sinne still abiding in him Rom. 7. Yea the Apostle speaking of a combate in all The Flesh lusteth after the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh Gal. 5. So that by this means he is in constant danger of being undone There is heart against heart affections against affections c. Thirdly There are many afflictions and tribulations which God brings on his people and they do much endanger Did not God break out upon Aaron Eli David and Moses very dangerously as if he would have cast them quite off and therefore the Apostle brings in the difficulty of the righteous mans salvation upon that Judgement must begin at the house of God 1 Pet. 4.17 So that if we consider the tempests and rocks in the sea of this world it 's a wonder any can come to the haven Vse of Exhortation Be quickned up to more exact strict and diligent walking If Paul that knew how to abound and want and to do all things who was like a gyant running his race and yet hardly gets to Heaven Where wilt thou appear Hear what he saith I presse forward I forget what is behinde if I may attain to the prize of the high calling Oh then how inexcusable is thy negligence thy dissolutenesse Is thy life a striving an agony Art thou like one in a combate and conflict By this we may see the number of men that shall be saved is very few there are so few that strive that pray that work with fear and trembling that are violent for the Kingdom of Heaven and get it by force Verse 16. Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you THe Apostle though he alter his Metaphor yet continueth in the same matter In the verses before he compared the Church of Corinth to a building here he sheweth what kind of building it is even a sacred holy building The Temple of God So that as in the Temple of old which was consecrated to God whosoever did bring in any unclean and unconsecrated things to the Temple he did pollute it and was to be punished thus all corruptions in Doctrine Worship or
represâ—nt this though many learned men ancient and later have used similitudes because there is no such thing as a God besides the true God And therefore Basil said well to the Heâ—etique desiring a similitude to represent the Trinity Da mihi alium Deum aliam trinitatem tibi ostendam Thus we have laboured to establish your faith in this necessary point Now I shall shew Why the holy Ghost is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spirit The word at first did signifie wind Why then doth the Spirit of God assume this comparative expression of wind Or rather Why is he called a Spirit Even for these Reasons First Essentially For the simplicity and purity of his Essence and this is common to every other Person for God is a Spirit Secondly Hypostatically For his personal propriety because he proceeds from the Father and the Sonne by way of spiration the manner whereof we cannot comprehend no more than the generation of the Sonne Thirdly Effectively Many wayes 1. For the Incomprehensibility of the actions of the Spirit John 3. The wind bloweth where it lists and no man knoweth from whence it comes so is the Spirit 2. The Diversity of his operations As the breathings of the winde is from several corners the Spirits dispensations have not been alwayes alike 3. For the Efficacity moving the hearts of men to love good to hate evil 4. For the Impossibility of resisting this 5. For the Necessity of it to every good worke as the winde is to the ship Vse Is the holy Spirit God Then take heed of that blasphemous scoffing which many carnal and wicked people are guilty of which is to mock at the very name of the Spirit If a sinne against the holy Ghost be unpardonable and doing despite unto the Spirit of grace leaveth a man in an impossibility of recovering How darest thou let thy heart and tongue be thus set on hell fire Thy body and soul is to be the temple of the Spirit Thy duties are to come from this Spirit and doest thou deride it Vse of Admonition Take heed of entituling thy own fancies and delusions to the Spirit of God For seeing the holy Ghost is God it must be a capital crime to make such sinfull fancies and thoughts that come from thy corrupt heart to flow from the holy Spirit of God If to counterfeit the publick Seal or Coin of a Land be a capital crime How great a sinne is it to â—ake thy sinfull and carnal affections as if they were the workings of Gods Spirit And that the Spirit of God dwels in you Two Propositions you heard were contained in these words First That the Spirit of God is God which hath been demonstrated Secondly That the Spirit of God dwels in his Church We therefore proceed to this second Doctrine And now to open this let us consider First What the phrase to dwell in the Church implieth Secondly How he dwels there As the Spirit of God is said to dwell in us so in other places God promiseth to dwell in his people 2 Cor. 6 16. And Christ is said To dwell in our hearts by faith Ephes 3.17 All which are not to be understood of any visible or local habitation much lesse comprehensive that we cold comprehend God for he is as he said one whose circumference is every where and center no where The Heaven of Heavens cannot contain him but it is meant in a mystical and spiritual manner Now this phrase To have the Spirit dwell in us denoteth First The propriety that it hath to us that we are his possession as an house is a mans own where he is Lord and Master And this is worthy of consideration That we who once were the Devils he dwelt in us He ruleth in the hearts of the disobedient Ephes 2. have now him expelled from us and the Spirit of God taking us for his possession We pity persons bodily possessed that they foame and rore and are throwne sometimes into the fire and sometimes in the water but he who is a wicked man the Devil possesseth his soul more dreadfully he puts him upon anger malice upon unclean lusts and noisome filthy wayes and though many be of the Church visibly yet in regard of their own particular they are thus possessed by the Devil who hath their heart their eyes their tongues their whole body so that they seem to be a walking Hell So that herein is a wonderfull change when the Spirit of God comes and takes possession of a people who before were captives to Satan and led aside according to his will 2 Tim. 2.26 Secondly When it 's said The Spirit of God dwels in a people it supposeth That he doth fashion and prepare them for himself For every lodging is not fit for so noble a guest but as great men carry their rich furniture with them to have convenient lodgings so also doth the Spirit of God raise up a people by illumination and sanctification to be a fit habitation for him As they say Anima fabricat sibi domicilium The soulâ— makes the body so curiously organized and diversified for it's self to be in So much more doth the Spirit of God put spiritual life and quicken up our dead hearts that we may be prepared for the enjoyment of him It 's said The Spirit of God moved upon those waters Genes 1. that covered the deep when the earth was without forme or void Thus the Spirit of God doth take us out of our natural confusion and horrible darknesse and makes us comely with those ornaments he puts upon us So that as it is impossible to have the Sunne but withall we must enjoy glorious light So we cannot have the Spirit of God but withall many precious and heavenly gifts will be bestowed upon us Oh then how few persons how few Congregations can endure the lustre of this Doctrine What heavenly or precious jewels have they of Gods Spirit Thirdly When it 's said The Spirit of God dwels in us it denoteth The familiarity and condescending Communion that God vouchsafeth unto his children To dwell with one is an act of communion Hence 1 Peter 3.17 Husbands are commanded to dwell with their wives Our Savior expresseth this familiarity by John I will come in and sup with him and he with me Revel 3.20 So that what was spoken of Moses as so rare a priviledge He spake to God face to face as one friend speaketh to another in some kinde of sense though not after the same manner is true of every godly person Hence the Spirit of God is said to enable us to cry Abba Father Galat. 4 6. which though it suppose a filial reverential frame in us yet also godly boldnesse and confidence Hence he is also said To witnesse with our spirit that we are the children of God Rom. 8. So that children being admitted to sit at their Fathers Table have that bread which dogs may not eat of They have
that Pearle which must not be cast to swine But who are the people that God doth thus honour How few are such favourites How many are amongst us that are not admitted with Moses to come to the top of this Mount They know not what Communion with God meaneth what those filial cryes of Abba Father are Certainly a rational man doth not more differ from a beast than a spiritual man doth from the best rational man that is That as a worme knoweth not what reason and arguments are the best so learned and able men without grace do not know what this enjoying of Gods Spirit and communion with God is we speak though not in an unknown tongue yet unknown matter to such men Fourthly In that the Spirit of God is said to dwell it denoteth A permanent and constant abode in his people For this you must know The Spirit of God is many times working where yet he doth not dwell There is a great difference between transient motions and constant mansions of Gods Spirit Hypocrites and reprobates have the former but not the latter They that wrought miracles had the Spirit of God moving in them but not dwelling in them Even Balaam in that prophetical passage about Israel had a transient motion or a blast of this Spirit but the Spirit of God did not abide in him Yea hereby Caiaphas being high Priest that year was moved to say what he did It 's expedient for one to die for many but yet he knew not what he said So that there is a great difference between the transient motion of Gods Spirit and his constant inhabitation Thus many not truly sanctified have the common gifts of Gods Spirit they have abilities in prayer enlargements some joyes all which are of Gods Spirit moving in them not dwelling in them And truly this is a dangerous Rock upon which many split themselves taking transient gifts of Gods Spirit for permanent graces sometimes they are hardly discerned as the Rockes that are under water But of this neccessary point more Fifthly The Spirit dwelling in us doth denote The intimatenesse and inward efficacy it hath It doth not onely dwell with us but in us which denoteth great intimatenesse Thus the Apostle often complaineth of the Law of sinne that dwelt in him Romans 7. because of the inward natural power of it that whensoever he would doe good evil was present with him It was alwayes at hand to infect and pollute So that by this is declared how powerfull and inwardly efficacious the Spirit of God is in his people Hence he is said To make intercession with groanes unutterable Romans 8.26 which could not be without a wonderfull secret and hidden deep working of the Spirit even in the depths and bottome of our souls Thus you have heard what the phrase doth imply Now let us proceed to shew How the Spirit of God dwels in his Church and afterwards Wherein his dwelling doth manifest it self For as original corruption is alwayes breaking out it 's not a dull idle sinne it 's Peccatum actuosum though not actuale So the Spirit of God is compared to fire because of the powerfull and active nature it hath in the people of God Fire doth assimulate every thing to it self Thus men filled with the holy Ghost are made exceeding spiritual endeavouring to make all like themselves Now several wayes we may consider of the Spirits dwelling in the people of God First There is an essential dwelling or a gracious dwelling by a special manifestation of more peculiar favours we doe not speak here of an essential dwelling for so the Spirit of God is every where Whither can I flie from thy presence Psal 139.7 Thus he hath the same divine Attribute as God the Father and the Sonne have Thus he filleth the whole world But we speak of his gracious presence Now how to make a difference between his essential presence and his gracious presence is impossible for men to expresse because our knowledge of God is onely apprehensive not comprehensive We see all the Schoolmen labouring to this very day to shew how an Angel is present and yet they have not waded out of those deeps Onely thus much we may in sobriety say That though the Spirit of God be every where yet he is said to be in his Church because of those peculiar and gracious operations which he produceth in them and no where else Even as God is said to be in Heaven though he be in Earth and no where else because there is a peculiar manifestation of more glory and power from him Thus then we are first to conceive of his presence But. Secondly When the Spirit of God is said to dwell in his Church it may not onely be understood of the gracious effects thereof but also of his Person likewise And this indeed I finde a very sublime and mysterious Dispute both among Papists and Protestants Whether believers are made partakers of the Person of the holy Spirit or onely of his graces According to many all those places where we are said to receive the Spirit or to be full of the holy Ghost they are extended no further than the gifts and graces of the holy Ghost But certainly many places as this in my Text are to be understood of the Person of the holy Ghost For it 's the Spirit as we shewed that is the same with God Now the gifts and graces of the Spirit are not the same with God So we are said to be a Temple of this Spirit and a Temple doth relate to a God and to a Person not to graces meerly So that we conclude that opinion to be farre more true and consonant to Scripture which makes us partakers even of the Spirit it self as we also are of Christ himselfe and not of the benefits onely that come by him But the Scripture layeth downe this in a transcendent and mystical manner and it 's by faith onely So that those who have fancied a transubstantiation into the God-head To be Christed with Christ and Godded with God or to be made the Spirit with the Spirit have thought of a physical and natural union as if a drop of water were poured into the sea where as it is onely a moral union even as the wife is made partaker not only of the husbands wealth but the husband himself yet not turned into his nature and this comparison the Scripture doth often use Lastly The Spirit of God dwels two wayes in his Church 1. In respect of wonderfull and miraculous operations 2. In respect of saving and sanctifying graces The former way the Church of Corinth was admirable you may reade 1 Cor 14. alibi of the plenty of gifts and divers operations amongst them so that they seemed herein to excell all other Churches yet in respect of the sanctifying graces they seemed to be very defective for the Apostle cals them babes and complaineth he could not speak unto them as unto spiritual so that
moved so swiftly because the Spirit was in them Oh then as she said If thou hadst been here my brother had not died So doe thou Oh Lord if thy Spirit had inlivened me and moved in me I had not â—ad such dead duties such a dead profession Oh where is thy Spirit When will it breathe heavenly life and vigour into me Thirdly The Spirit of God doth enable us to kill and mortifie sinne Rom 8. If ye through the Spirit mortifie the deeds of the flesh Through the Spirit There is no sinne so deare and beloved to thee so strong and imbred in thee that is as thy owne soule to thee but by the Spirit of God thou mayest mortifie it Never then be afraid of those great Anakims Oh thou cryest out I cannot believe I cannot be heavenly minded Indeed thou canst not but the Spirit of God doth lift up his people to these things Men by natural conscience may leave many outward sinnes but they doe not or cannot mortifie them this is done by Gods Spirit onely As onely by him they could cast out Devils from the possessed thus onely by him can they subdue such sinnes We see then why it is that so many resolve never to sinne again to be such beasts any more and and yet are overcome Alas they goe out in their owne strength against these Goliahs Oh therefore pray and againe pray for the Spirit of God! O Lord here is a lust or a sinne dwels in me as the Jebusite in Canaan I know not how to be freed from it gladly would I be heavenly I cannot I would be believing I cannot give that holy Spirit of thine unto me Pray thus for the Spirit of God more than for health life or any worldly advantage whatsoever Fourthly The Spirit of God doth bestow a filial and ingenuous spirit upon believers whereby they are carried out upon Evangelical and Gospel grounds in their obedience to God And this is a most precious worke to be desired more than all the world An heart with slavish feares is an hell where a man is a tormenting Devil to himself and the guilt of sinne is a gnawing worme that never dieth but Galat. 4.6 He hath sent his Spirit in our hearts whereby we cry Abba Father There is earnestnesse and a Gospel holy boldnesse Hence it is called The Spirit of Adoption Now how admirable and desirable is this when we through feare were subject to bondage to have this Evangelical freedome of Spirit The people of God should pray and seek for this Spirit of Adoption as well as of Sanctification This would be oyle to the wheel this would be wings and legs to thee Fifthly The Spirit of God workes comfort and joy in the hearts of the godly Hence he is called The Comforter John 15.26 As the Devil delights to keepe us in darknesse and feares therefore he had almost swallowed up the incestuous person with immoderate grief 2 Corinth 2. So the Spirit of God delighteth to turne water into wine Joy is a fruit of the Spirit of God Galat. 5.22 Yea it 's called Vnspeakable joy in the Holy Ghost Doe not therefore thinke that the Kingdome of Grace and Godlinesse lieth in a dejected spirit in a troubled soule No it 's in joy as well as in righteousnesse Rom. 14.17 Those doubts and sad thoughts that do lie like a burden and load upon thee came not from the Spirit dwelling in thee Sixthly That we may have this boldnesse and joy the Spirit of God hath another effect which is To witnesse and seale unto our spirits that we are the children of God Grieve not the Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed Ephes 4.30 The Spirit beareth witnesse with our spirit that we are the sonnes of God Rom. 8.16 Oh what a blessed life is this when all these works of Gods Spirit go along together teaching sanctifying and comforting This is the Mount of Transfiguration It 's good to be here Doe not think these things are too great and too good to be had in this life For if we be not wanting to our selves if we bring our cruises he is ready to pour in his oyl Seventhly The Spirit of God worketh wonderfull support and even glorious rejoycing in all afflictions and tribulations Then if ever it 's admirable to see what the Spirit of God doth in believers The Spirit of glory shall rest upon you 1 Peter 4.14 If you reade of the Martyrs burning at the stake if of the persecutions and torments they did with such invincible joy and patience endure it was from the Spirit of glory resting on them Alas we think if God should exercise us with such straits bring us into such troubles we could never bear them Oh consider there is Gods Spirit as well as thy spirit Lastly The Spirit of God doth worke the prayers of Gods people Rom. 8. It 's a Spirit of prayer and mourning he teacheth what to pray and how to pray for spiritual and heavenly things with zeal faith and importunity It helps our infirmities many sins and corruptions are apt to spoil our prayers he helpeth against them yea he worketh groans unutterable he moveth the very foundations of the soul and those prayers cannot but speed because the Spirit knoweth the mind of God All prayers are dead carkasses without the Spirit moving upon them Vse of Examination Try whether thou art one who hast the Spirit of God thus dwelling in thee Oh where is the man or woman that heareth us that knoweth the meaning of these things When Christ spake about eating his body the Capernaites had a grosse understanding therein but saith our Saviour The flesh profiteth little the Spirit giveth life John 6.63 If Christ said thus of his own body than how much rather may we say parts duties an outward Religion profiteth little The Spirit giveth life Rom. 8. Paul saith If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Thou speakest of Christ and thou hopest he died for thee see what the Scripture saith If thou hast not his Spirit thou art none of his Verse 17. If any man defile the Temple of God him shall God destroy THe Apostle in this seventeenth verse aggravates that Argument which before he had propounded viz. The temple of God wherein the Spirit of God dwels ought to be kept pure and not defiled by any corruptions of Doctrine or lives 1So that the Apostle makes all false Doctrines and corruptions in Gods worship to be a sacriledge And therefore in this verse he doth further amplifie the hainousnesse of this sinne wherein you have 1. The malum culpae supposed If any man defile the temple of God 2. The malum poenae proposed Him will God destroy For the sinne supposed If any man defile the temple This is an allusive expression to the custom among the Jews If any man defiled their Temple the crime was capital what accusations were brought against Paul because he brought in Greeks uncircumcised
we called an house of prayer In Solomons prayer 1 Kings 8.48 the captives of Israel carried into another Land are supposed in their captivity to pray unto God with their face towards the Land of Israel and also towards the Temple Fourthly But from this Temple to argue for such holinesse in our Churches Yea and with Bellarmine and others to plead for private praying in the Church more than in other places as if there were more holinesse therein and for the places sake to have more acceptance is unjustifiable by Scripture John 4.21 24. The time is coming when they shall not worship in this mountaine or in Jerusalem but they shall worship him in Spirit and truth There is no Jerusalem now nor any place like Jerusalem and now God would have us in every place lift up holy hands in prayer 1 Tim. 2.8 It 's therefore unwarrantable by Scripture to pray in a Church for the places sake to have the prayer the more acceptable as Bellarmine pleadeth And indeed because there is no such peculiar institution nor no such peculiar promise therefore there cannot be such a relative holinesse Private prayers in the Church though pretended not to be done for the places sake while we are at the publick Ordinances are also incongruous and unwarrantable partly because they are against the nature of private prayer prescribed by our Saviour When thou prayest shut thy door after thee Mat. 6.6 Private prayer must be done in a private manner and partly because the Church is for publick Ordinances We meet together in spiritual communion and while the society is singing for thee to be privately praying is unsuitable to the duty in hand where there ought to be one heart one mouth and consent Fifthly Because the Temple was so glorious and Gods promise was in a special manner made to it therefore the Jews put all their trust and confidence in this though their lives were full of wickednesse and grosse impieties yet because they had the Temple that made them think themselves happy Hence the Prophet severely reproveth them for it saying Trust no more in lying words saying The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are these Jer. 7.4 Hence at last God was so provoked that he gave it up to idolatrous Heathens to be destroyed that a stone should not be left upon a stone For Hadrian the Emperor quite demolished it and in stead thereof built a place with a new name calling it Aelia and upon the gate set the Image of a Swine by way of scorn and derision to the Jews to whom that beast was unclean And thus truly God hath done with many glorious spiritual Temples under the Gospel Where are the seven Churches of Asia And where is the pure Church of Rome now The present Governours of that Church glory of their succession to their former Worthies Whose faith was spread over the whole world but they succeed them as vespae apibus Wasps many times do Bees or as night doth the day Lastly Our Churches therefore do not resemble the Temple an holy place dedicated to God but their publick Synagogues where they met together to pray and reade the Word and have it expounded Some find fault that we call this material building a Church but use of speech doth fully justifie this It 's an ordinary figure to put the place containing for the thing contained Thus it 's said All Jerusalem went out And Oh Jerusalem that killest the Prophets Mat. 23.77 which is meant of the Inhabitants thereof Thus we call a City or a Town the people of the Town But of this we have spoken formerly But though there is no such relative holinesse in these places as was in the Temple neither are the duties regarded for the places sake but the place for the duties yet there is a moral and civil decency or respect to be had to them as we do unto places appointed for solemn meeting and therefore are unfitly compared to barns or stables or to be polluted like them not because of any holinesse in them more than in other places but from a civil respect But these things only occasionally by the way The next main thing is That believers joyned in a Church way according to Scripture are Gods temple and that requireth these things First Purity and an undefiled life from the wicked wayes of the world Though they be in the world yet not of the world This is called pure Religion to keep a man defiled from the world Jam. 1.27 And we must not be conformed to the fashion of this world Rom. 12.2 We are to be as Lot in Sodome so farre from having fellowship with it that we are to grieve in seeing and hearing the evil deeds of others We are to be like the three Worthies in the midst of the fire and yet our hair not singed thereby Do not thou then judge of thy self as the Temple of God when thou art like a dung-hill thy heart is not a sacred Temple but an open Inne or Market-place all strange lusts may lodge in thee thou art to take Christ for an example not the world Secondly Dedication and giving up our selves wholly unto God Thy soul and body are to be one Temple onely thy soul is the Saxctum sanctorum there should only be admitted choice and sanctified thoughts and intentions Shall I take saith the Apostle the member of Christ and make it the member of an harlot 1 Cor. 6.15 Shall I take the Temple of God and make it a publick stew for all lusts As they said of their Temples Procul ô procul este prophani So do thou of all noisome and filthy sinnes As there were constant Porters to watch the Temple so do thou continually set a watch before thy heart and soul that no unclean thing enter in Thirdly Here is implied Vnion of the members of the Church together The Temple was not one stone or a few stones scattered up and down but exactly and curiously joyned together The Churches are compared to a body where there are several organized members and all usefull one to another Lastly Communion Not onely internal by faith and love which we have with Christ the Head and so with all the members For this communion is invisible but external in a visible society and fellowship one with another in the publique worship Hence they are greatly reproved That forsook the assembling of themselves together Heb. 10.15 Visible communion in Church-Ordinances brings much glory to God and great edification to our selves Vse of Instruction What kind of societies we should be who are Gods temple Gods house Gods Church What enjoyment of God What effectual participation of his presence The body by its senslesnesse doth quickly discover whether a soul be in it and the soul will quickly manifest whether God and Christ be in it if the Temple of God What holinesse and purity ought to be in our lives Oh this is the glory of the Church
to babes and hid them from the wise men of the world said our Saviour with much hearty affection Matth. 11.25 The valleys they receive the drops of heaven and are more fruitfull than the mountains though high but barren So that humane wisdome is as great an hinderance as humility is a furtherance Lay down then all high and conceited thoughts when thou comest into Christs school yea unteach thy self all thy former opinions and arguments and be like an rasa tabula as Aristotle said the soul was for the Spirit of God to write divine truths upon thy heart Doth not the Wiseman tell us That he who is wise in his own eyes there is more hopes of a fool than him Prov. 26.12 Therefore saith he Leane not unto thy own understanding Prov. 3.5 Oh this humility would preserve against all heresies all dangerous opinions An humble man is like the Tree planted by the waters side God hath two places as it were to dwell in Heaven is one and the humble heart is another Isa 57.15 God by the Prophet in that place accounts of such an heart like as unto his glorious Throne in Heaven Thirdly Humane conceited wisdome must needs hinder the entertainment of Christs truth Because it sets it self on the Throne to be Judge and to determine truth or falshood according to her own principles It makes weights and a standard of its own and will weigh even what God and the Scripture saith by its own self yea humane wisdome doth not only thus intrude into the throne but hath her instruments the Socinians who plead to have her the Judge and the Determiner of all religious controversies What from Scripture hath by the Orthodox been asserted to be that these will put upon reason making it the rule of faith Hence there is no Trinity with them not three Persons and one God because it 's against their reason Christ is not truly and essentially God because against reason say they Christ was not a Mediatour by his bloud as a Sacrifice to expiate our sinnes because against their reason Thus you see what a direct adversary the reason of man as of it self is against divine truths whereas what the Apostle speaks of the woman He did not permit her to usurp Authority over her husband or to speake in the Church 1 Tim. 2.12 The same ought to be applied to humane wisdome not to usurp over faith or to speak authoritatively in the Church It 's true a mans reason or wisdome may be considered two wayes 1. As corrupt and darkened through original sinne And in this respect onely we speake of it as such an adversary to the mysteries of Religion 2. As enlightned and sanctified by the Word and the Spirit of God Now in this later respect though it be not a Judge but is to be judged yet it 's an excellent instrument to faith When faith hath first laid its foundation then reason and learning succeeding and building upon it is wonderfull serviceable for the explication and confirmation of divine truths I speake as unto wise men saith Paul Judge ye what I say 1 Cor. 10.15 Thus civil prudence and all humane literature while it 's a servant not a Mistresse is of wonderfull use but when with Hagar it will pride over Sarah then cast it out of doores That which some adversaries to learning object That learning is never sanctified is contrary to the instance of Moses who was skilfull in the Aegyptians learning which was the fountain and seminary of all learning to the world And thus the Apostle Paul as he sanctified some verses out of Heathen Poets as Tertullian expresseth it So God had also sanctified all his humane abilities But herein earthly wisdome is so repugnant because it 's apt to make it self judge And although nothing in Religion be against sound reason yet many things are above it such as it cannot reach unto Fourthly Humane wisdome is such an opposite to heavenly truths Because of its subtilty to finde out cavils and excogitate Arguments against the Truth Insomuch that the more learned and knowing men are the greater difficulty it is to believe men who have lesse parts and learning know not all those subtil and specious Arguments which Heretiques especially if learned and subtil do bring forth They know not what the Socinians have to say against the Trinity against the Deity of Christ What Arminians for Free-will What the Papists for many of their superstitious wayes and it 's well they doe not not but that the truth is evident against them onely it might shake and stagger their faith who are weak whereas men of knowledge exercising themselves in their Bookes that they may be able to confute them meet sometimes with specious colours yea even some seeming Anakims in the way Mans wisdome is farre more able Destruere falsa then probare vera we can better object against truth then by faith assent to it and then no wonder it be so apt to miscarry Lastly The more wisdome and knowledge men have the more busie the Devil is to make them on his side Because the Serpent was more subtil than other beasts of the field therefore the Devil used him Ornari à te Diabolus quaerit said Austin to a great Scholar whom he would gladly have converted Most Heretiques have been men of great parts of admirable eloquence to perswade and winne men Good Elocution and Rhetorique is so apt to beare all downe before it that Hercules was made the God of Eloquence by some Heathens as if it had as much strength as he Vse Then how much are men of parts and understanding to bewaile themselves God chooseth babes and simple ones rather than such Study humility renounce thy understanding become a little childe Oh it may be that which thou art so proud of so confident of will be the means to damn thee as Absolom's hair was his death If any man thinke himselfe wise let him become a foole that he may be wise The Doctrine observed is That humane and earthly wisdome is a great enemy to the things of God In the matter of Doctrine to be believed we have demonstrated it already The next thing in order is The manner of Declaration and Publication of it in the Scripture And here we shall find worldly wisdome to be a great adversary But I shall instance in one thing only about that and that is The simplicity and plainnesse of the style That whereas there are two things that are exceeding apt to take with the world The one with Rational men The other with Affectionate men The Scripture seemeth to be furnished with neither For with rational men strong demonstrations and scientifical probations prevail exceedingly they lay they are slaves to reason bring a rational argument and this is such a cord that the strongest Samson cannot break Now many times men of strong reason are no wayes Rhetorical As the earth where mines of gold are is barren of grasse and
there is nothing which would be for their good that God denieth them Whatsoever is in all the world if it be good for the godly man he shall have it No good thing will he with-hold from them that fear him Psal 84.11 Now the godly mans good is two-fold either that which is Absolutely and Necessarily good so that it cannot be evil nor it cannot do a godly man any hurt to have them such as Christ is Pardon of sinne and Heaven and these are bestowed on all godly men There is no man that feareth God though he may say I want riches I want health I am without this or that that can say he is without Christ and justification and the Covenant of Grace 2. There is a limited Good that which in its self is good but doth not make good those that have it yea it may be turned to evil As wine is good but give it to the feavourish man you hurt him And thus it is with all the temporal good things of the world they do not make the possessours good yea they may be turned to sinne and increase thy corruption And then it 's no wonder if God out of his love to thee with hold these things from thee If they were as necessary and as good as Christ is and Heaven is thou wert sure to have them Rom 8.32 If he hath given us Christ How shall he with him but give us all things else Now this very particular should rebuke all the winds and waves of fears and discontent within thee Art thou repining and carnally muttering thou hast not this thou hast not that Oh look Hast thou godlinesse Hast thou the fear of God in thy heart than thou hast all things because there is nothing that is good for thee that God keeps from thee Do not thou blame God but thy own corruptions if thou wantest such temporal mercies say rather God seeth I should make them a poison to my soul I should grow drunk with this sweet wine Secondly A godly man may be said to have all things Because he hath a right and a claim to the Covenant of Grace wherein is a deed of Gift of all things both spiritual and temporal The Covenant of Grace lieth in this That God will be our God giving remission of sinne healing of our corruption and blessing us with all temporal blessings This God made with Abraham and so with all believers Therefore Godlinesse is said to have the promise of this life and the life to come 1 Tim. 4.8 All heavenly and earthly things are by promise made to the godly only heavenly things absolutely earthly things conditionally and with subordination and exception So then it is with thee as some man who hath all his estate lying in Bonds and Covenants though for the present he cannot command such a summe of money yet he is rich in Bonds Thus the godly man hath sure Bonds and Promises even of Gods own making who cannot lie or deceive and therefore he may be as much supported as if he had the things themselves Hence ariseth that life of faith Habakkuk and godly men have in their great extremities and necessities Thirdly All things are the godly mans Because he hath God for his God who hath all things Qui habet habentem omnia habet omnia He that hath the Sunne hath the light of all the starres He that hath the Ocean hath all the streams Deus meus omnia as he said Hence our happinesse is said to be in this if we have the Lord for our God David in all his exigencies supported himself with this That God was his portion and his inheritance Now he is such a portion that there is nothing else good beside have him and ye have all Though a child hath not money and raiment at his command yet because he hath a rich father who can procure all these things therefore he may be well said to have them all Thou shalt not want as long as God hath it If God have it thou shalt have it and what can be more desired Fourthly A godly man may be said to have all things Because godlinesse worketh such an holy contentation and satisfaction of spirit that in what estate he is he is as well pleased as if he had all things as if he had the whole world Therefore it 's called Godlinesse with content 1 Tim. 6 6 viz. which worketh and causeth contentment it is the proper effect and fruit of it Thus Paul I have learned to be content in all conditions I have all things I want nothing Phil. 4 11 12 That which pride and presumption putteth some upon to say they wanted nothing for which God severely reproveth them here true grace puts the godly upon Here is a godly Dives that may say Soul take thy spiritual ease for thou hast not many but all good things laid up for thee Thus all things are theirs because through contentation they have all things Fifthly All things are the godly mans Because they were made finaliter for him They are all for his spiritual use If you regard the Offices and Ordinances in the Church they are all for the Church either to begin increase or consummate grace If you look upon the whole Creation there is no creature therein but the godly thereby do or ought to glorifie God and to draw nearer thereby unto him If every thing thou lookest upon thou hearest thou treadest upon doth not make thee more godly thou losest the good use for which they were made Every gift is given to profit withall 1 Cor. 12.7 And every creature was also made to profit withall At the first we see the whole world with all things therein were made for man which made the Psalmist spend an whole Psalm in the admiration of Gods goodnesse and bounty What is man that thou art thus mindfull of him Psal 8.4 yet that was chiefly because the starres in Heaven and the creatures on earth were made for him But with what praises may the mouths and hearts of Gods people be filled with in that not only the things of the world but that all the Offices and Ordinances of the Church are made for them But this excellent point will be more improved in the particular enumeration Let us now consider Why God should make all heavenly and earthly things for the godly And First We need not wonder at it if we consider That Christ himself took our nature upon him and did undergo that shamefull death and those terrible conflicts with Gods wrath for his Church he gave himself for his Church So that Christ being theirs no wonder if all things else be theirs If ever God would have denied any thing would have with-held any thing it would have been his only Son in whom he was so well-pleased But this he parts with for his Church Yet we cannot say Christ is ours as Paul and Cephas and other things therefore he addeth We are Ghrists and
not Christ ours because though Christ was given for us yet it was as a Mediatour to work our peace that so thereby he might be exalted and might have the preheminence in all things So that the Church is for Christ not Christ for the Church Secondly Because all things in the world are ordered by his providence onely but the whole worke of God about his children is the effect of his Predestination Now Predestination is an act of his more immediate love than Providence is and the Providence of God is subservient to his Predestination Therefore is Gods care and government over all things that he may attain the ends of his Predestination Insomuch that there had been no Creation at first no world at all nor would there still be any sustentation or conservation of it were it not for the Churches sake Vse 1. Of Exhortation to the godly to live by faith on such principles What generous noble and heavenly dispositions would these thoughts breed Scito te Deum esse said one thinking the soul to be a beam of that Divine Essence but thou mayest truly say God hath made thee heir of all things It 's not the Devil but God that doth now shew thee the glory of the world and the Church and saith All these things are thine Consider then whether they be thine by that spiritual end they are intended for Do all creatures all conditions all events make thee more godly Do they work such divine effects upon thy soul Oh do not thou be thy own adversary herein Vse 2. Of Terrour to wicked men for it followeth by way of contraries Nothing is yours viz. for your spiritual good The Ministry God gives is not for you The mercies you have they are not for your souls health Oh the depth of thy unspeakable misery whether life or death all things help thee forward to hell Having asserted a comfortable and rich Doctrine out of these words for the godly we proceed to make some Objections or doubts about it which will be as file to the iron or like the Wine-presse to the Grapes to prâ—sse out the sweet Wine therein And indeed this truth seemeth Obnoxious to many Exceptions as in Religion there are many Doctrinal points which do amaze humane reason such as that of the Trinity the Incarnation of Christ the Resurrection of the body so there are also many Practical Positions which seem contrary to all reason and experince of which this in my Text is one All things are the godly mans It seemeth to be an Idea or meer fiction and expression if we consult with what befals the godly Come we therefore to Answer some of the Objections And First The doubt may be How are all things the godly mans for his use and spiritual edification when many times we see the godly man gets no goâ—d by these The Corinthians who had Paul and Apollo and all those eminent Teachers for their use yet by their Divisions and carnal Emulations they made no spiritual improvement of them How many Sermons and Sabboths do even the godly let go that there never appeareth any footstep of them as if they had never been And then as for their mercies and their afflictions how many times do these draw out their corruptions and they seem to be the worse for them To Answer this First We must distinguish between Gods intention in giving these and the godly mans actual improvement of them to that end When the Apostle saith All things are yours his meaning is on Gods part His love is so great that for the godly only all things in Heaven and Earth were created If so be therefore at any time these things turn to thy hurt blame thy self The Physician will tell the Patient sometimes All these Potions and all these Cordials they are yours you are to take them you may expect much good and ease by them But if the Patient be wilfull and disorder himself it is his fault not the Physicians that they do hurt So that the meaning is all things in their creation and Institution were for the godly mans good Therefore Secondly The godly man through his weaknesse and sinfulnesse not walking up to Gods order may make that an hinderance which God intended a furtherance A godly man may receive the Word and Ordinances sometimes in vain Sometimes afflictions may for the present make him more froward and passionate and mercies more presumptions and confident as the Examples of David and others shew So that our folly and corruptions mingle bitter things with Gods sweet and then we complain this Text is not true The foolishnesse of a man perverteth his way and his heart fretteth against the Lord Prov. 19.3 When we do not our duty we think God doth not fulfill his Promise Our waies are unequall and then we think Gods are not equall So that you must understand this Promise All things are yours in a well ordered use of the means as all other Promises are It 's said The Spirit will lead you in all truth Joh. 16.13 Gods Word is promised to be accompanied with the fulnesse of the Lords blessing to those that are his But how If we order and prepare our selves If we do not put in some barre and obstructions For sinne that withholdeth good things from us that separates between God and us as also between these Promises and us Thirdly Though the godly may for a while make these things against their end and not for it yet this will not be alwaies Nay God will so order it that this decay of theirs or this disorder shall likewise be turned to their good As those who through mistake may swallow down some strong Physick though for the present they may be deadly sick and worse then ever they were yet afterwards it may be they are the better for such violent helps Fourthly When we say all things are the godly mans you must take them in their Collective cooperation as Rom. 8. All things work together This particular or that particular may throw thee down may make thee worse but then God bringeth about some other things that help altogether for thy good As they say of Aegypt All the venemous Herbs grow there and also all the Antidotes are to be had there Where there is a Malady there is also a Remedy And truly thus Gods dispensations are with his Children This or that particular may hinder thee this or that may prejudice thee but God hath appointed other things to correct these There is a benigne influence with the malignant as it were and both tempered together advance speedily towards Heaven The second doubt is this If all things are for the godly and only theirs exclusively to the wicked then this may seem to justifie all the wickednesse and impiety of ungodly men Why should they be blamed if they get no good by the Ordinances if they profit not under the Ministry for God did not intend them for their
a curse a punishment and so can be no more for good then hell and damnation can be Insomuch that to the wicked man death and hell are both alike they are of the same nature He can take no more comfort from one then from the other when death is approaching then also is hell and everlasting torments This is decreed immutably for every man once to die It was a vain boast of Paracelsus to think That if he had had the ordering of himself from his birth he could have preserved his life alwayes These are mad delusions Where sinne is there death followeth and it would be an excellent Antidote against sinne to consider what followeth it When thâ—u entertainest any sinne thou biddest death also come in at the door as pleasant and as delightfull as it is yet it brings death Thirdly Though death be in it self thus a curse and cometh as a punishment to wicked men yet unto the godly it is of a clean contrary nature The guilt and curse of it is taken away It 's no more the execution of that dreadfull sentence Thou shalt die but the chastisement of a loving Father because God loveth his children therefore they die death is made like Jacob's Chariot as the old man rejoyced when he saw that because it would carry him to see Joseph whom he so much longed for Thus doth death to the godly man It 's the glad messenger that comes to carry him to his Father to eternal glory It 's true the godly man dieth as well as the wicked he hath the same diseases the same paines but the Nature of them is farre different one is a curse to the wicked a beginning of hell and torments The other is a mercy to the godly and a passage to eternal glory Even as the afflictions which befall the godly they come from Gods love Whom I love I chasten Heb. 12. Thus it is also with death it self Lastly The ground why death is thus altered to the godly man why he should thus differ from the wicked men is wholly from Christ and his death as appeareth 1 Cor. 15.54 O death where is thy sting Death is swallowed up You would think the grave swalloweth up the godly man but his body swalloweth up the grave The sting of death is sinne if that be taken away the Snake cannot hurt now the guilt of sinne is removed by Christ Do not then think it impossible that ever such a terrible thing as death should be made lovely and the thoughts of it sweet and comfortable Yes by Christ all the terrour is done away As death had no power over him so neither shall it have over the godly These things premised Let us consider in how many particulars death is a godly mans it 's for his benefit and comfort And First In this respect Because by death he gaineth he is invested with greater glory joy and happinesse than this world can afford All the while a godly man liveth in this world he is a loser he is kept from his best treasures he is not enjoying his best blessings which will be vouchsafed to him This the Apostle you have admirably expressing Phil. 1.23 Paul is there in a great strait he knoweth not how to be content to live he can hardly satisfie himself to be kept from Christ so long To die is gain saith the Apostle and to depart and to be with Christ is farre better Paul is willing to live for the Churches good but yet that is not so good to him as to die Oh if a godly man could raise up his heart to such faith as Paul had he would even think this world an Aegypt this life a prison it 's to my losse to be here I might have better company better glory better joy every thing transcendently better Indeed we reade of Elisha and Jonah desiring death from impatiency because of the vexations upon them but that was sinfull But to long for and hasten the coming of Christ to be above the love of life and all outward comforts above the fear of death because of the heavenly affections the soul is transported with to Christ this is admirable Oh then that we were not such worms but like Larks could rise out of the earth and soar up into Heaven with holy joy and delight of spirit then death would be as a gain to us and life as a losse Yet this is not so to be understood as if death in it self were to be desired or to be prayed for for in it self it is a natural evil and so is only to be submitted to patiently not desired but the consequent of it viz. eternal glory this is to be prayed for as the Apostle doth fully expresse it 2 Cor. 5.4 We would gladly be cloathed with immortality yet to put off this mortal body is grievous as little children cry for their new garments and yet cry while they are putting them on Secondly Death is a godly mans Because it putteth a period to all those miseries and troubles he was here exercised with It 's the haven after all the tossings he had in this world If we had hope only in this life saith Paul 1 Cor. 15. we were of all men most miserable therefore death is that which makes them happy Alas were it not for death their reproaches would be eternal their persecutions would be everlasting Insomuch that death must be as welcome to them as the divisions of the waters of Jordan were to the Israelites to come out of Aegypt Mat. 24. Lift up your heâ—d for your redemption draweth nigh And Christs coming not only at the Day of Judgement but at the particular death of every godly man is the coming of the Bridegroom Then all tears are washed from their eyes Their happinesse doth not begin till death arrests them Now in this world for the most part the godly have the bitter things thereof Dives had the good things of this life when Lazarus had the bitter Besides the hatred and opposition in the world They groan under the guilt of sinne under the power of sinne Now death puts a stop not onely to worldly troubles but all spiritual diseases This flux of blood will run no more they shall have no more pride no more unbelief no more doubting about the pardon of sin in a moment their souls will be made like a paradise like the upper region no clouds no fears at all Thirdly Death is theirs Because it 's the finishing of all their worke and servâ—ce and by that they come for their wages How doth the labouring man long for the end of the day or the week that he may come to receive his wages Thus is death God putteth all his children on work he giveth them all talents and he takes them not away till they have done their work for which he appointed them Thus Moses Gods servant dieth Thus David served in his generation Thus Paul finished his course When they have done all their
had never seen him they had never known him If they had they would have been enammoured with him as well as the Church And thus when natural men wonder saying Why do these men thus pray thus mourn thus long after God Why is it that they are never satisfied but in him It 's a demonstration that this experimentall work hath never been upon thy heart If it had the spirit of Prophesie as I may so say would fall on thee also Thou wouldst admire the favour of God as well as they Seventhly Such only can desire the light of Gods countenance who have the Spirit of God working in them It 's that which maketh the soul go upwards We being like that man bowed down that Christ healed till the Spirit of God thus raise us up The holy Ghost came down in fire which denoteh the activty of it When fire assimilateth any thing into it self it makes it ascend upwards And thus when the Spirit of God converts and sanctifieth a mans soul it giveth it a contrary motion to what it had before Then it made provision for the flesh then it minded earthly things but now the Spirit of God hath raised it from the death of sinne That as you see it 's the mighty power of God which will make these bodies that are now corruptible heavy and pressing downwards to be immortal spiritual and so agile that they shall meet the Lord in the aire Even these bodies will be so transformed that they shall move in the air like Birds No wonder then if Gods Spirit is able so to work upon our hearts that they shall be constantly inclining to God And indeed none are to rest till they find God thus mightily prevailing upon them This excellent frame may be given by the Spirit and the Spirit is promised to such as ask for it Mat 6. Especially the Spirit of God as adopting enabâ—ling us to call God Father rebuking legall slavish feares and filling us with a filial and evangelical frame of heart Eighthly Therefore another Property of such who do thus highly esteem Gods favour is That they are diligent in Prayer and fervent in approaches to God Prayer is the ascending of the heart to God who is in Heaven The eyes lifted up argue what the heart should be Now Prayer is of this excellent advantage if spiritually and fervently performed that it carrieth up the soul to God and thereby God also manifests his loving kindnesse to his people Even as Moses upon his Communion with God had his face shine so gloriously that the people could not behold it and Christ himself upon Prayer had his countenance changed that his face did shine like the Sunne and his garments were white as snow So that such who esteem of Gods favour they are instant in Prayer They perform that duty with watching and attending thereunto which if so discharged then many consolations many irradiations of his favour are communicated to them So that a man diligent in Prayer is like the tree by the water side whose leafe will never fade Hence we have that encouragement No man seeketh Gods face in vain And no sooner did God command this but immediately David's heart yeelded to it Psal 7.8 Thy face Lord will I seek We cannot have it without seeking for it as that which is most precious and a very infinite Treasure And withall you see the encouragement God bespeaks it he saith Seek ye my face Lastly Such as prize the light of Gods countenance they walk closely with God and keep up strict Communion with him Slothfull and carelesse walking will never be blessed with this glorious advantage You read the Church was but once carelesse and negligent when Christ proffered himself and immediately Christ withdraweth so that though she runne up and down much perplexed to see the face of her Beloved again yet it cost her dear ere she could obtain it David began to have but some proud and presumptuous thoughts Psal 301.7 And God bid his face and then he was troubled You see a little thing a word a thought may do it Therefore those who desire to enjoy it they walk circumspectly lest they should do any thing that may make him angry with them Vse 1. Of Exhortation to Gods Children To keep up a tender mollified heart to take no rest till the light of Gods countenance shine upon thee Let not lusts passions or any thing be an eclipse between this glorious Sunne and you How can you live without this May not the Devil come with seven more tormenting Devils then ever if thou provoke God to withdraw his gracious presence To whom are woes To whom are sad terrours and perplexities of spirit but to such who cry out God frowneth on them Oh they feel his anger consuming of them Vse 2. Of Admonition to natural and unregenerate men To know there is a better good then ever yet they tasted Oh that thou couldst desire God as thou doest wealth and pleasures Is not the pleasant smiling face of some great Potentate a reviving to thee What endeavours for the favour of a great man who yet is mortal Will not this condemn thee at the Day of Judgment Oh how will the face of God be then esteemed of A Consideration of some false Grounds of a Perswasion of Gods Love We have declared already the Characters of such who can truly esteem the light of Gods favour let us now consider the condition of such who are mistaken herein and take that for Gods favour which is not And First There is the rich earthly or great man of the world He who aboundeth in all Prosperity and needeth nothing this man thinketh that Gods face is towards him in mercy They gather from all the mercies they enjoy that therefore God loveth them but this is a very dangerous mistake For 1. In the Scripture we read That chastisements and afflictions are sometimes an argument of Gods love and that God is never more angry then when he lets a mans waies be smooth and prosperous As it was with Moab because he was not moved often therefore he was setled upon the Lees. And thus in Hosea when God is angry in the highest manner then he threatens He will not punish their sonnes or daughters any more Hos 4.14 They therefore have little cause to boast in this That they are not afflicted as other men they are not in such bonds as others are For David Psal 73.6 did of old observe this That whereas the wicked of the world had all encouragements they had all temporal increase yet the godly were bowed down all the day long and that in those times when Promises of temporal abundance were in a larger way proposed to them If then the godly man had this measure in the Old Testamant no wonder if he meet with it much more in the New Testament where tribulations are made the Red Sea to go through into the Land of Canaan Hence the Apostle doth
sinnes provoke God to take it away All the world cannot give such a joy as this is Therefore Gal. 5.22 it 's called the fruit of Gods Spirit and often Joy in the holy Ghost Hence the Spirit of God is called the Comforter And God is stiled 2 Cor. 1.3 the God of all consolations because it is he alone that workes it Men may create the world as well as of themselves get such a joy as this Hence the people of God walk many times mournfully for the want of it And there is no Samaritan can put this Oyl into their wounds David cannot alwaies say God put such joy in his heart Yea he professeth the clean contrary sometimes That his soul was bowed down that he watered his bed with teares And Joh. was almost like a damned man in Hell But of the Reason of this desolatenesse we may speak hereafter It 's enough that this demonstrateth God to be the Author of all our joy And that as all the men in the world cannot make the Sunne arise in the morning did not God appoint it that natural course so neither are any able to bring this joy into their hearts Therefore in the second place The second discovery of this joy is from the manner of working it Thou didst put it into my heart That is an excellent expression It sheweth what dominion and soveraignty God hath over the heart He can as easily put joy into thy soul though afflicted though tempted though grieved with sinne as thou canst pour Wine into a Bottle He can with a word command waters to become Wine So that as the Orthodox maintain That Gods grace in converting the heart is irresistible it 's insuperable The heart cannot resist it with finall prevalency For à nullo duro corde respicitur quippe ad hoc datur ut tollat cor durum So it 's true also in spiritual joy The grieved heart the sad heart cannot reject it because it 's given to take away the sad heart Hence we read of the people of God the Martyrs and others that they have rejoyced under their tribulations more then their Persecutors did under all their abundance How was this possible but that God did so fill their hearts that no outward or inward misery could have any room there This should teach the people of God to walk so exactly that they may not on the contrary say God hath put more bitternesse into their heart then any can have in their worldly miseries For as the joy of God is more then all earthly joy so the sense of Gods anger and wrath causeth more sorrow and anguish of spirit then all outward calamities can do A wounded spirit who can bear Thirdly This Joy which God puts into our hearts followeth upon a true godly sorrow and mourning for sinne All the joy of thy heart which doth not flow from humiliation and deep sorrow for sinne it 's but a blaze it 's like the crackling of thornes And this is necessary to be observed for the Hypocrite who never had any true sound grace yet he may have some transitory joy So Mat. 13. They received the Word with joy And some rejoyced in John Baptists light but it was for a season only And thus many in some fits yea in some holy duties find a gladnesse and inward joy upon their hearts but this never had a true sorrow go before Before Paul was admitted into Gospel joyes he was striken to the ground and had a deep sense of his former guilt Therefore the Promise is Blessed are they that mourn for they shall rejoyce Mat. 5. Therefore as the Psalmist speaks concerning afflictions it 's true also of godly sorrow They that sow in teares shall reap in joy Many desire joy they are willing to hear of a Sermon that may cause gladnesse in their hearts but then they cannot endure the preparatory unto it They do not love the Law should wound them before the Gospel heal them But this is the nature of all heavenly joy it 's a daughter to godly sorrow Verus paenitens de peccato doler de dolore gaudet And this is it which makes godly joy so welcome and so precious because the heart was mourning and humbled before thinking it self unworthy of any joy in the least manner Though others might rejoyce yet not they This then is the method God takes First the Spirit of God is a Spirit of Supplication and mourning then it 's a Spirit of Joy and consolation Fourthly This joy which God putteth in the heart it 's from spiritual and heavenly motives Therefore the duty is so often called for to Rejoyce in the Lord And it 's called Joy in the holy Ghost It ariseth from Gods favour from Gospel-Priviledges because God is reconciled because sinne is pardoned because we are justifica through the blood of Christ So that the joy of a godly man and of a natural man differ as much as Heaven and Earth For what makes thee rejoyce at any time Is it some worldly pleasure Is it not some earthly content Is it not because such and such earthly advantages befall thee Thy heart is never cheerfull and merry but from such considerations Now how different and poor and contemptible are these to this heavenly Joy For the gladnesse of their heart ariseth from the love of God from an Interest in Christ from the consideration of eternal glory These sublime and spiritual Objects do ravish the godly soul So that the delights of a beast are not more inferiour to the delights of a man as a rational man then the delights of a man are to him as a Christian What the Apostle speaketh concerning the thoughts and words of a Child comparatively to a man the same is true also in respect of joy 1 Cor. 13. Children have their joy they laugh as Children they rejoyce in their Babies as Children but when they come to be men they cannot rejoyce as Children they cannot delight to play as they did when little Boyes Thus when thou art once made godly and hast tasted of more excellent Joy thou canst not delight in the pleasures of sinne nor in the greatest advantages of the world They are below thee Thou saiest to thy self when inordinately rejoycing in these things as she did but falsly to David Thou hast made thy self like one of the vile fellows to day The godly mans joy comes from an higher Spring then the worlds doth Fifthly Hence in the next place No man can have this spiritual joy but such who are regenerated and born of God Who have a spiritual and supernatural life We see in nature that according to the several kinds of life so there are several delights and proportionable thereunto the natural and animal life the rational life the sense hath its delights and reason hath its delght Thus when a man is born again he hath his joy and his delight Do not ye read often of David that professeth the Word of God
bitterness at the latter end If these pleasures would not turn into torment then it were something but as these have abounded so will thy torments and troubles also abound Thou canst not say with Agag the bitterness of death and hell are past What is the sad end of all Dives his joy Yea sometimes they are destroyed in the very midst of all their pleasures as the Philistimes and as Nabal were Fifthly The joy and gladness of a godly man is stable and perpetual because the ground and cause of it is unchangeable God never ceaseth to be his Father he shall never be cast out of the state of Justification he shall never lose his interest in Heaven now this rock alwayes abiding their joy must also be immoveable It 's true though the godly have cause alwayes to rejoyce yet they do not so actually for the present they may mourn and be in bitterness but that many times is caused by their own sinne and weakness or else God to give them more comfort afterwards doth suspend present comfort as the Sunne is most welcome after a tempestuous black storme but though this be yet the foundation of their joy remaineth sure there is the same cause why they should rejoyce alwayes Oh but thus it is not with the unregenerate man all his joy is but a blaze and all the cause or ground of it is very uncertain Every creature and condition they rejoyce in is it not mutable To day laughing to morrow crying To day cheerfull because thou hast it to morrow mourning because thou hast lost it Thus in Job Chap. 20.5 Zophar saith The triumphing of the wicked is short and the joy of an hypocrite for a moment The oil to this lamp will quickly fail thy honours thy life thy wealth these things will not last alwayes Oh then should it not be thy wisdome to lay up for such joy that will abide continually that will never leave thee Is it not evident folly to take thy delight in that which may be lost the next hour As Jonah took great content in his Gourd and within a day a worme breedeth therein and consumeth all Therefore say of thy worldly joy as thou mayest of thy life it self It is but a buble a vapour here to day and gone to morrow if thou couldest preserve all this delight continually and death it self could not rob thee of it then go on and make much of it But to thy terrour thou wilt find the instability of it as with the Sodomites The morning was fair and pleasant but fire and brimstone was upon them before night For ought thou knowest thou mayest go from laughing here to eternal roarings in hell the next moment Sixthly Spiritual joyes transcend earthly because the soul can better perceive them they are of a more spiritual and penetrating nature and efficacy The soul can receive them as the spunge doth water or the iron doth fire the soul may be filled with it but all bodily delights and joy they are more gross and thick This reason give the Schoolmen why all soul delights are above the body and much more if they be spiritual and heavenly As those sinnes which are immediately seated in the soul they are more deep and inward then bodily sinnes so that joy and delight which enters immediately into a mans soul is farre more soaking and pressing then that which is upon the body primarily For bodily joyes are like the Sunne-beames which come in at a cranny or little hole but foul delight is as when the Sunne comes in at a window or at a great door there is capacity enough to receive it Seventhly All earthly joy is to be moderated we may sinne in it we may go too farre we may over-joy Therefore the Psalmist exhorts Psal 2. to rejoyce with trembling While we take any joy in these earthly things we are to do it with trembling for then is a temptation to sinne then are we in greatest danger in the midst of heat we are subject to take cold Hence the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 7. Those that rejoyce must be as if they did not rejoyce So great a care are we to have that our joy be moderated we do not say it 's unlawfull to take delight and joy in the creatures the Scripture commands to eat and drink with joy of heart only we must not joy excessively we may quickly let this joy overflow the bankes and certainly the carnal and immoderate joy that men take even in lawfull things is no little part of their iniquity For why is it that thy heart can rejoyce in outward mercies thou canst take delight in these creatures but hast none at all in heavenly things A Fair a Market is thy delight when thou canst not call the Sabbath a delight Is not all this because thy heart over-joyeth in these things Vse of Exhortation not to be disheartned at godliness as if it were a sad melancholy mopish life Oh know thou never comest to have true joy til thou live the godly exact and precise life The closer thou walkest with God the more fearfull to commit any sinne the more unspeakable and solid is thy joy Oh call not that laughter and mirth of the wicked man joy Solomon saith it 's not joy it 's madness Do not ye see mad men they will laugh and hoot and leap with jollity when they are bereft of reason and lye in chains bound up in a dark Dungeon Such is all the worlds laughter They die laughing They go to hell laughing and is not this madness Yet who can perswade men to leave their carnal jollity and to tast how good and pleasant the wayes of God are Well go on and take thy delights thou wilt have laughing enough one day for Prov. 1. God will laugh at thy destruction and mock when thy fear cometh Of the Godly Mans Holy Security and Admirable quietnesse of Spirit as another Effect of the Light of Gods Countenance PSAL. 4.8 I will both lay me down in peace and sleep for thou Lord only makest me dwell in safety WE have heard of one glorious Effect of the light of Gods countenance upon David viz. A gladnesse surpassing all the joy that can be in the world now in this verse we have a second and no lesse noble Effect of the same cause For as the Sunne hath many severall and notable effects upon the earth it doth not only enlighten or comfort but makes fruitfull and aboundeth also in many other effects Thus the favour of God where that is perceived it is not one or two but many glorious consequents flow from thence And this in the text is an holy security and admirable quietnesse of spirit free from all sinfull distempers let his danger be never so great So that this heavenly tranquillity is a fruit of that Faith which he had in God at this time though so greatly tempted Therefore in the words you have David's godly security a fruit of his Faith
when in the Battell was taken by his enemies and they ready to kill him yet he cryed unto the Lord and God moved their heart to depart from him 2 Chron. 18.31 So in the thievings and robberies in the world it 's God that diverts men from designing and doing mischief to such Families While the people of Israel wenâ— up to keep their Feast at Jerusalem he ordered mens hearts so That none should desire their Land Exo 34.24 Vse of Thankfulnesse to God in all these common Preservations Every day every morning and evening thou hast cause to wonder at his Power and Goodnesse under all thy temptations What befalls another God tells thee what might come to thee Oh therefore do not take thy life and health God giveth thee and spend it upon the Devils service Remember Thou livest upon Gods mercy if he withdraw for a moment any suddain evil may fall upon thee â‚ FINIS An ALPHABETICAL TABLE A Admiration OF Admiration of Ministers Persons when sinfull p. 48 Afflictions How Afflictions effect good in a man p. 179 181 Agreement The Motive of Agreement is Godlinesse p. 33 Agreement among the wicked easily broken doth not alwaies denote a true Church p. 41 Protestants Agree in Fundamentals p. 41 B Babes BAbes in Christ p. 5 Babes directed p. 8 Backbyting Of Backbyting p. 35 Building Gods people are his Building p. 118 The Scripture is the foundation of this Building p. 141 Of a two-fold Building upon the foundation p. ibid. How a Minister must take heed how he builds on the foundation p. 142 Of their Building Gold Silver Precious Stones p. 157 Boasting Of Boasting in men p. 265 See Glorying C Carnall CArnall its several significations p. 5 In what sense a godly man may be said to be Carnall p. 21 Ceremonies Of Ceremonies p. 11 Causes Causes of Grace Principal and Subordinate p. 59 Principal the Ministry p. 68 Efficient the Spirit of God ibid. Church The Churches Duties p. 20 Of Church-Government p. 84 Of the Holinesse of Churches p. 118 The matter of a Church ibid. The Church of God is his Temple p. 193 The Churches Priviledges Relations and Titles should be a spur to duty ibid. The Churches Riches enumerated p. 270 Christ Christ justly exalted p. 30 As the Foundation p. 21 145 Christ may be sinfully set up and how p. 58 What it is to preach Christ p. 145 153 The Godly and all they can do are Christs p. 294 Christians Christians should â—â—ve as those that are more then meer men p. 42 Contention Contentions argue men to be so farre carnal p. 33 Contentions are two-fold Good â—vil p. 34 36 37 The cause of sinfull strife p. 34 The Effects of it in Civil Religious Matters p. 35 36 The Aggravations of this sinne p. 36 D Damnation OF Damnation p. 222 Death Death the godly mans advantage p. 282 Deacon Deacon the word used diversly p. 66 Defile Defilers of Gods Temple with corrupt Doctrine p. 216 Difference Difference between Christian and Christian in respect of their Knowledge and Graces p 5.22 Discipline Discipline how severe in the Primitive times p. 7 Divisions The sad Effects of Divisions p. 99 Direction for Times of Division ibid. Difficulty The difficulty of the salvation of those that are most godly p. 192 Divinity Divinity contains a two-fold Matter 1. Fundamentals and 2. Conclusions from them E Encrease THe Encrease and successe of preaching from God p. 86 Ends. Of corrupt Ends in a Minister and good Ends p. 63 64 Envy Envy the word used in a good sense and in a bad sense p. 25 It 's a fruit of the flesh p 25 Its Degrees p 26 Its Object p. 27 It s Subject p. 28 Its Aggravations p. 29 Its Remedies p. 32 How differenced from zeal p. 32 Errour Errour Considerations about it p. 142 c. Errours are Hay and Stubble though not Fundamentall p. 161 Men may be erroneous and not know it 161 Errours Greater Lesser p. 121 161 Why called Hay and Stubble Its secret waies shall be made manifest p. 169 May indanger salvation p. 189 Its Causes p. 169 Defile Gods Church p. 217 Erroneous times sad times p. 174 How God will punish the erroneous p. 186 219 How farre a godly man may erre and how a godly man erring differeth from a wicked man p. 220 The Difference between Errour and Heresie p. 190 See Doctrines Eternal Of Eternal Damnation F Family OF Family-Duties p. 3 See Relations Wickdnesse p. 3 4 13 Such as they are such is the Common-wealth p. 14 Faith Faith Its eminency p. 70 Nature and Acts p. 71 Its Foundation viz. the Scripture p. 126 Effects p. 72 Knoweth its ground why though it comprehend not the matter believed p. 71 Is the Instrument of Sanctification as well as of Justification p. 72 Fundamental Of Fundamentals p. 2 The ignorance of them lamentable p. 2 Reduced to several Heads p 14 Are easie p. 15 Knowledge of them necessary ibid. Foundations Foundations in Religion carefully to be laid p. 125 Four unquestionable Scripture Foundations I. The Matters to be believed viz. The Scripture is the only Foundation of our Faith p. 125 126. How carefull Ministers should be to build truth upon that Foundation p. 141 Four rotten Foundations The Authority of the Church Magistrate Enthusiasme Meer humane Reason p. 127 II. The Worship and necessary Service of God p. 129 How necessary it is ibid. It must have a Divine Command p. 131 Three rotten Foundations in Worship ibid. III. The things to be done by us p. 125 This Foundation of Practice consists in 1. It 's Directory Gods Word 2. The Justification of our Persons 3. A receiving power from Christ 4. A renewed and sanctified Nature p. 133 The necessity of this Foundation p. 134 Four rotten Foundations that men build upon in reference to practice p. 135 How Christ is the Foundation p. 145 c. How the Apostles the Foundation p. 145 c. Fool. Wise men after the flesh are fools p. 229 G Glory THe Degrees of Glory p. 101 105 Of Glorying in men The sinfulnesse of this sinne p. 261 And how many waies that is done ibid. See Boasting Godly Their Characteristical Priviledges p. 155 265 Of Godlinesse in the power of it p. 42 105 Grace Free Grace to be exalted and praised and how p. 121 Why the godly are so sensible of free Grace p. 123 Impediments of this duty p. 124 Gospel Gospel how great a mercy to a people p. 79 Government Of Government in the Church p. 120 Growth in Grace Growth in Grace and Knowledg pressed p. 1â— 91 Intensive Extensive ibid. Grounds of Religion See Principles and Fundamentals H Hay OF building Hay and Stubble p. 161 Hell Of Hell p. 222 Heresie Heretiques How God will punish Heretiques p. 220 Hide How vain and sinfull to Hide our sinnes p. 166 c. Holy Ghost The Holy Ghost is God and a Person p. 201 c. Why called a Spirit ibid. Heaven Heavens
Of the Holinesse of the Material Temple p. 199 226 See Church Thoughts Thoughts not free p. 166 Evil thoughts shall be brought to light p. 166 Truth Truth of Christ precious p. 157 Compared to Gold c. ibid. Truth two-fold Increated and Created p. 182 The Effects of Divine Truths p. 183 V Vanity VAnity How the word used in Scripture p. 158 Unity Union Disunion Unity not a sure mark of a Church p. 41 In Ministers pressed in Doctrine fections p 98 The sad Effects of the contrary in Ministers p. 99 What people should do when Ministers are divided ibid W Watering WAtering by the Word what p. 82 Wisdome Wisdome Humane an enemy to the things of Christ p. 230 But a shadow compared with Scripture Wisdome p. 247 Contemptible folly before God ibid. True Wisdome but folly in the worlds account p. 239 Things to be believed hoped for and to be done are foolish to humane Wisdome p. 239 True Wisdome only in the Church or Christianity p. 243 Wise men Wise men How God delights to take wise men of the world in their own craft p. 254 The best of their thoughts vain p. 257 Wicked Wicked people spoken to p. 8 19 20 46 47 70 77 104 166 167. Wicked works though never so secret shall be brought to light p. 165 Workes All should do good workes p. 102 Doing good workes two-fold ibid. What to do a good work that God will accept and reward p. 103 Workers How Ministers are Workers with God p. 110 Why God will make use of them ibid. Worship Of the Worship of God p. 129 Word Word of God how that reclaims from sinne and errour p. 179 Of a durable nature p. 182 World World How it is the godly mans p. 275 Z Zeal FAlse Zeal p. 15 FINIS A CATALOGUE Of the Chiefest of those Books as are Printed FOR THOMAS VNDERHILL By Col. Edw. Leigh Esquire A Treatise of the Divine Promises in Five Books The Saints Encouragement in Evil Times Critica Sacra or Observations on all the Radices or Primitive Hebrew words of the old Testament in order Alphabetical Critica Sacra or Philological and Theological Observations upon all Greek words of the New-Testament in order Alphabetical By Samuel Gott Esquire Novae Solymae Libri sex Sive Institutio Christiani 1. De Pueritia 2. De Creatione Mundi 3. De Juventute 4. De Peccato 5. De Virili Aetate 6. De Redemptione Hominis Essayes concerning mans true Happiness Parabolae Evangelicae Latinè redditae Carmine Paraphrastico varii generis Morton His Touchstone of Conversion Mr Hezekiah Woodward Of Education of Youth or The Childs Patrimony The Lives and Acts of the good and bad Kings of Judah A Treatise of Fear A Thank-offering Mr Samuel Fisher A Love-Token for Mourners being two Funeral Sermons with Meditations preparatory to his own expected Death in a time and place of great Mortality Mr Herbert Palmer and Mr Daniel Cawdry A Treatise of the Sabbath in 4 parts Memorials of Godliness and Christianity in seaven Treatises 1. Of making Religion ones Business With an Appendix applied to the Calling of a Minister 2. The Character of a Christian in Paradoxes 3. The Character of visible Godliness 4. Considerations to excite to Watchfullness and to shake of spiritual Drowsiness 5. Remedies against Carelesness 6. The Soul of Fasting 7. Brief Rules for daily Conversation and particular Directions for the Lords-day His Sermon entituled The Glass of Gods Providence toward his faithfull ones His Sermon entituled The duty and Honours of Church-Rest Mr William Barton His Psalms His Catalogue of Sins and Duties implied in each Commandement in verse Mr Vicars Chronicle in four parts Mr Samuel Clark A general Martyrology or A History of all the great Persecutions that have been in the world to this time Together with the Lives of many eminent Modern Divines His Sermon as the Warwickshire mens Feast entituled Christian Good Fellowship Mr Kings Marriage of the Lamb. Mr Shorts Theological Poems The French Alphabet Jus Divinum Ministerii by the Provincial Assembly of London Mr Thomas Blake His Answer to Blackwood of Baptism Birth-Priviledge Mr Cook His Font uncovered Dr John Wallis His Explanation of the Assemblies Catechism Mr Austin's Catechism Mr Vicar's Catechism Mr Pagit's Defence of Church-Government by Presbyterial Classical and Synodal Assemblies Mr Tho. Pagit A Demonstration of Family-Duties Mr Anthony Burgess Vindiciae Legis or A Vindication of the Law and Covenants from the Errors of Papists Socinians and Antinomians A Treatise of Justification in two Parts Spiritual Refining Part 1. or A Treatise of Grace and Assurance Handling the Doctrine of Assurance the Use of Signs in Self-examination how true Graces may be distinguished from counterfeit several true Signs of Grace and many false ones The Nature of Grace under divers Scripture Notions viz. Regeneration the New Creature the heart of Flesh Vocation Sanctification c. Spiritual Refining the Second Part or A Treatise of sinne with its Causes Differences Mitigations and Aggravations specially of the Deceitfulness of the heart of Presumptions and Reigning Sinnes and of Hypocrisie and Formality in Religion All tending to unmask Counterfeit Christians Terrifie the ungodly Comfort doubting Saints Humble man and Exalt the Grace of God His CXLV Sermons upon the whole 17th Chapter of St John being Christs Prayer before his Passion The difficulty of and Encouragements to Reformation a Sermon upon Mark. 1. verse 2 4. before the House of Commons A Sermon before the Court Marshal Psal 106.30 31. The Magistrates Commission upon Rom. 13.4 at the Election of a Lord Maior Remes Cruelty and Apostasie upon Revel 19.2 preached before the House of Commons on the 5th of November The Reformation of the Church to be endeavoured more then the Common-wealth upon Judg. 6.27 28 29. preached before the House of Lords Publique Affections pressed upon Numb 11.12 before the House of Commons Self-judging in order to the Sacrament with a Sermon of the Day of Judgment A Treatise of Original Sinne. An Exposition with Practical Observations on the third Chapter of the first Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians The Godly mans Choice compared with the Natural mans and found to be transcendently the best and both being Characterized by their Desires and Delights this is clearly evinced That the Godly man is the only happy man even in this world Held forth in XIII Sermons upon Psal 4. vers 6 7 8. Mr Richard Baexter Plain Scripture-proof of Infant Baptism The Right Method for getting and keeping Spiritual Peace and Comfort The unreasonableness of Infidelity in four Parts 1. The Spirits Intrinsick witness to the truth of Christianity with a Determination of this Question Whether the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles do oblige those to believe who never saw them 2. The Spirits Internal witness of the truth of Christianity 3. A Treatise of the Sinne against the holy Ghost 4. The Arrogancy of Reason against Divine Revelation repressed The Christian Concord
pure Worship because 1. God is greatly provoked by the contrary God may be provoked by sinfull worship three waies 2. Corrupt worship â—ends to the breach of Union between God and his Church 3. God looks upon corrupt worship as done to Devils 4. Men are prone to invent new worship Reasons to prove that all acceptable worship must have a Divine Command Quest Answ Of the foundation of practice The parts are 1. It 's directory Gods Word 2. The justifion of our persons 3. A receiving power from Christ 4. A renewed and sanctified nature Why we should be carefull of laying these foundations for every good action The â—oâ—ten foundations that men build upon in regard of practice Observ Of Ministers praising themselves In what cases Ministers may magnifie their Work and Office Observ Ministers are not to preach any new Doctrine The use of Preaching notwithstanding the fulness of the Scripture Observ Of Ministers building upon the foundation of Scripture by their preaching Gal. 3.15 A two-fold building upon the foundation Both the words of Scripture and the sense of Scripture must be attended unto Why Ministers must take heed how they build upon the true foundation 1. On Gods part 2. On the peoples part 3. On the Ministers part Directions to Ministers and people how to build aright upon the foundation Observ Of preaching Jesus Christ as the foundation How many waies Christ is to be preached as a foundation Reasons why Ministers are to lay no other foundation but Christ Object Answ Object Answ The great advantages which those people have who are built on Christ Observ What is implied by comparing the truths of Christ to gold and precious stones 1. In respect of the matter 2. In respect of the way and manner of preaching them Observ Errors not fundamental are hay and stubble Propositions to amplifie this point Why errors are called hay and stubble Wickedness in practice the fruit of errour in judgement Observ What secret sins shall be brought to light The aggravation of secret hidden sins Observ Hidden and secret wayes of false doctrine shall be made manifest What concerning errours shall be made manifest 1. The causes of errour shall be manifest 1. Pride 2. Ignorance 3. Hypocrisie 4. Ambition and affectation of high places 5. Discontent and imparience 6. Envy 7. Contemplative delight in a mans own notions II. The nature of errour shall be manifested III. The cunning subtilty in divulging them shall be manifested Observ That God hath his time for the discovering of errour Errors are spiritual judgements What is meant by fire The way God takes to bring people out of errour By the word and afflictions Which are both helpfull but differently in these respects How wandering sheep are reduced by the Word Object Answ How afflictions may help to reduce men from errour Observ Of the durable nature of Gods Truths Truth two-fold Increated and Created Created truths of two sorts Scripture truths reduced to four heads Truth willing to be tryed They grow more illustrious by the fiery Tryal The effects of truth also upon the heart will abide this tryal Object Qu. Whether any Ministers or Churches are quite free from building hay or stubble Observ Every man shal be a loser by what error soever he maintaineth Wherein they shall be losers Observ Errours in judgment may damn a man as well as a wicked life The several corruptions of the understanding that endanger a mans salvation The difference between errour and heresie The grounds of the Doctrin Observ The difficulty of salvation even to a godly man The Church is Gods Temple Observ Church Priviledges and Relations are great Obligations to Holinesse How the word Temple is used in Scripture What it doth signifie Of Gods spiritual Temple What there is in the Church alusively to the Temple Of Gods presence with his Church The significa of the word Spirit when attributed to God That the Holy Ghost is God and a Person That he is a Person That he is God Arguments Why the holy Ghost is called Spirit Of the Spirits dwelling in us What to have the Spirit dwell in us implieth The special works and effects of the holy Spirit in his Church Doubt Resolution Observ Of defiling Gods Church with errours Why errors are said to defile Gods Church How God will punish Heretiques A godly maâ—n may fall into a damnable heresie How a godly man erring differeth from a wicked man Errour and erroneous persons distinguished Why God is so provoked with corruptions in Doctrine and Worship Observ Of Eternal Damnation The punishment of losse The pain of sense The aggravations of this destruction Eternal Universal Inevitable Observ Of the Temple of God Of the Jewish Tabernacle and Temple Believers joyned in a Church way according to Scripture are Gods temple Observ Of humane wisdome what an hinderance it is to the things of Christ Carnal wisdom an enemy to the Scripture Carnal wisdom an enemy to Christian duties Observ Humane wisdome nothing to Scripture-wisdome Scripture-wisdome excels speculative wisdome Scripture wisdome excels the moral or practical wisdome of the world Observ True wisdome is but folly in the worlds account The things to be believed have these seeming follies The hope of a Christian foolish in the judgment of the world The duties of Christians foolish in the judgement of the world Observ That true wisdom is only in the Church of God demonstrated Observ All worldly wisdom is folly before God And that whether considered actively or passively I. Active foolishnesse How worldly wisdome is foolishnesse in a passive sense God turning all their wisdome into folly A two-fold humane wisdome viz. good evil Observ How God takes the wise men of the world in their own craft Object Answ Observ Of vain thoughts In what sense the Scripture useth the word vain Observ Of glorying in men How many wayes we may be said to glory in men in the general How many wayes we may be said to glory in Doctors and Teachers Observ All things are the Saints In what respects all things may be said to be the godly mans Why God made all things for the godly Object Answ Object Answ Doubt Answ Object Answ Observ All Offices are for the Church In what sense the Ministers are not servants to the Church against Brownists In what sense they are the Churches The end for which they are the Churches Observ In what sense the world is said to be a godly mans Object Answ Observ Godly men only live In what respects it is true that the wicked do not live Observ The generation of death In how many particulars death is a godly mans Observ Observ Observ In what respects a godly man is Christs Characters of such as are Christs In what sense Christ can be said to be Gods Observ Of the Natures and Person of Christ and of the hypostatical Union How Christ as a man and as a Mediatour is Gods The general Character of the godly and the wicked All good the creature affords should lead us to God the universal good All naturally desire felicity The perswasiâ— of what is the best good and which is chiefly to be desired is wonderfully diversifyed according to the several inclinations humours and conditions of men How hardly this sin is discerned untill a man be enlightned by Gods Spirit All have lost the Image of God which alone did elevate the soul And Original corruption is come in the room of it If the godly man is yet conflicting with this sinne then it must needs reign in an unregenerate man The common gifts and graces of Gods Spirit never cures this evil The point is proved from the nature of Conversion And from the restlesse and unquiet heart of every natural man Their very approaches to God demonstrate that they prefer something before him The creature is unable to help us in our greatest exigencies Immoderate love of the creature is inconsistent with the love of God Is's a wofull snare and temptation The Word is unprofitable to a man while he preferres the creature It is a tormenting sinne All the things thus affected are vanities It 's direct Idolatry It 's a debasing of a man Such as prefer the world before God cannot Pray The heart is too noble for the creature Consider that all that have over-loved the creature have experienced the vanity of it Consider the reâ—sâ—â— why God mingles gall with the Honey of every creature Consider how insufficient they are of themselves to help and comfort us Heaven and glory cannot be obtained without a preement and transcendent affection to all other things Consider how â— some Heathens and superstitious persons have trampled upon earthly things to attain a notable end What this phrase to lift up the light of Gods countenance upon a man implyeth I. Riches II. An untroubled Conscience is no Argument of Gods countenance 1. An untroubled Conscience may be a stupid seared Conscience 2. And may be accompanied with grosse sinnes 3. And without taking Gods way for the obtaining and preserving of it Causes of the eclipse of Gods face to the godly The nature of this joy How it exceeds all worldly Joy The wonderfull Effects of Faith in quieting the soul in Afflictions The Doctrine xplain ed. The Arguments by which Faith quieteth the Soul The Stoical Security The Mirth and jollity of most wicked men under Gods Judgements How it differs from a gratious Confidence God alone preserveth in safety I. II. God preserveth principally And by creatures instrumentally 1. Irrational 2. Rational men Angels III IIII. The several waies by which God preserveth his people in safety