XXVIII sermons preached at Golden Grove being for the summer half-year, beginning on Whit-Sunday, and ending on the xxv Sunday after Trinity, together with A discourse of the divine institution, necessity, sacredness, and separation of the office ministeriall / by Jer. Taylor.

[ A] Sermon. I.* 1.1 [ B] VVHITSVNDAY OF THE SPIRIT OF GRACE. (Book 1)

[ C] 8. Romans. v. 9. 10.

But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God, dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. * And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life, because of righteousnesse.

[ D] THe day in which the Church commemorates the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles was the first beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This was the first day that the Religion was pro∣fessed: now the Apostles first open••d their com∣mission, and read it to all the people. [The Lord gave his Spirit] or [the Lord gave his word] and great was the company of the Preachers. For so I make bold to ren∣der that prophesie of David. Christ was the word of God, verbum [ E] aeternum but the Spirit was the word of God, verbum Patefactum: Christ was the word manifested in the flesh; the Spirit was the word manifested to flesh, and set in dominion over, and in hostility a∣gainst the flesh. The Gospel and the Spirit are the same thing; not in substance; but the manifestation of the Spirit is the Gospel of Jesus Christ; and because he was this day manifested, the Gospel was this day first preached, and it became a law to us, called* 1.2 the

law of the Spirit of life, that is, a law taught us by the Spirit, lead∣ing [ A] [ 1] us to life eternal. But the Gospel is called the Spirit, 1. Because it contains in it such glorious mysteries which were revealed by the immediate inspirations of the Spirit, not onely in the matter it self, but also in the manner and powers to apprehend them. For what power of humane understanding could have found out, the incarnation of a God; that two natures [a finite, and an in∣finite] could have been concentred into one hypostasis (or person): that a virgin should be a Mother, that dead men should live again, that the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the ashes of dissolved bones should become bright as the Sun, blessed as Angels, swift in motion as thought, [ B] clear as the purest Noone: that God should so love us, as to be willing to be reconcil'd to us, and yet that himself must dye that he might pardon us: that Gods most Holy Son should give us his body to eat, and his bloud to crown our chalices, and his Spirit to sanctifie our souls, to turn our bodies into temperance, our souls into mindes, our mindes into Spirit, our Spirit into glory: that he who can give us all things, who is Lord of Men and Angels, and King of all the Creatures should pray to God for us without intermission: that he who reigns over all the world, should at the day of judgement give up the Kingdom to God the Fa∣ther, [ C] and yet after this resignation, himself and we with him, should for ever reign the more gloriously: that we should be justified by Faith in Christ; and that charity should be a part of faith; and that both should work as acts of duty, and as acts of relation: that God should Crown the imperfect endeavours of his Saints with glory, and that a humane act should be rewarded with an eternal inheri∣tance: that the wicked for the transient pleasure of a few minutes should be tormented with an absolute eternity of pains: that the waters of baptisme when they are hallowed by the Spirit shall purge the soul from sin: and that the Spirit of a man shall be nou∣rished [ D] with the consecrated and mysterious elements: and that any such nourishment should bring a man up to heaven: and after all this, that all Christian People, all that will be saved must be par∣takers of the Divine nature; of the Nature, the infinite nature of God, and, must dwell in Christ and Christ must dwell in them, and they must be in the Spirit, and the Spirit must be for ever in them; these are articles of so mysterious a Philosophy, that we could have inferred them from no premises, discours'd them upon the stock of no naturall, or scientificall principles; nothing but God, and Gods spirit could have taught them to us: and therefore the Gospel is [ E] Spiritus patefactus,* 1.3 the manifestation of the Spirit ad aedificatio∣nem (as the Apostle calls it) for edification and building us up to be a Holy Temple to the Lord.

[ 2] 2. But when we had been taught all these mysterious arti∣cles, we could not by any humane power have understood them,

[ A] unlesse the Spirit of God had given us a new light, and created in us a new capacity, and made us to be a new creature, of another definition. Animalis homo, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, that is, as S. Jude expounds the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the animal, or the naturall man, the man that hath not the Spirit cannot discern the things of God,* 1.4 for they are spiritually discerned, that is, not to be understood but by the light proceeding from the Sun of righteousnesse, and by that eye whose bird is the Holy Dove, whose Candle is the Gospel;

[ B] Scio incapacem te sacramenti, Impie Non posse coecis mentibus mysterium* 1.5 Haurire nostrum: nil diurnum nox capit.

He that shall discourse Euclids elements to a swine, or preach (as Venerable Bede's story reports of him) to a rock, or talk Metaphysicks to a Bore, will as much prevail upon his assembly as S. Peter, and S. Paul could do upon uncircumcised hearts and ears, upon the indisposed Greeks, and prejudicate Jews. An Ox will relish the tender flesh of Kids with as much gust and [ C] appetite, as an unspirituall, and unsanctified man, will do the discourses of Angels, or of an Apostle, if he should come to preach the secrets of the Gospel. And we finde it true by a sad experience. How many times doth God speak to us by his ser∣vants the Prophets, by his Son, by his Apostles, by sermons, by spirituall books, by thousands of homilies, and arts of coun∣sell and insinuation; and we sit as unconcerned as the pillars of a Church, and hear the sermons as the Athenians did a story, or as we read a gazet: and if ever it come to passe that we tremble as Felix did, when we hear a sad story of death, of righteousnesse, [ D] and judgement to come, then we put it off to another time, or we forget it, and think we had nothing to do but to give the good man a hearing, and (as Anacharsis said of the Greeks, they used money for nothing but to cast account withall; so) our hearers make use of sermons and discourses Evangelical, but to fill up void spaces of our time; to help to tell an hour with, or with∣out tediousnesse: The reason of this is a sad condemnation to such persons; they have not yet entertained the Spirit of God, they are in darknesse: they were washed in water, but never baptized with the Spirit; for these things are spiritually discerned. [ E] They would think the Preacher rude, if he should say they are not Christians, they are not within the Covenant of the Gospel: but it is certain that the spirit of Manifestation is not yet upon them; and that is the first effect of the Spirit, whereby we can be cal∣led sons of God, or relatives of Christ. If we do not apprehend, and greedily suck in the precepts of this holy Discipline as aptly

as Merchants do discourse of gain, or Farmers of fair har∣vests, [ A] we have nothing but the Name of Christians; but we are no more such really, then Mandrakes are men, or spunges are li∣ving creatures.

[ 3] 3. The Gospel is called Spirit, because it consists of Spiri∣tual Promises, and Spiritual precepts, and makes all men that em∣brace it, truly to be Spiritual men: and therefore S. Paul addes an Epithete beyond this,* 1.6 calling it a quickening Spirit, that is, it puts life into our Spirits, which the law could not. The law bound us to punishment, but did not help us to obedience, because it gave not the promise of Eternal life to its Disciples. The Spirit, that is, the [ B] Gospel onely does this: and this alone is it which comforts affli∣cted mindes, which puts activenesse into wearyed Spirits, which inflames our cold desires, and does 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 blows up sparks into live coles, and coles up to flames, and flames to perpetual burn∣ings: and it is impossible that any man who believes, and considers the great, the infinite, the unspeakable, the unimagi∣nable, the never ceasing joyes, that are prepared for all the sons and daughters of the Gospel should not desire them; and un∣lesse he be a fool, he cannot but use means to obtain them, ef∣fective, hearty pursuances. For it is not directly in the nature [ C] of a man to neglect so great a good; there must be something in his manners, some obliquity in his will, or madnesse in his in∣tellectuals, or incapacity in his naturals that must make him sleep such a reward away, or change it for the pleasure of a drunken feaver, or the vanity of a Mistresse, or the rage of a passion, or the unreasonablenesse of any sin. However; this pro∣mise is the life of all our actions, and the Spirit that first taught it is the life of our soules.

[ 4] 4. But beyond this, is the reason which is the consummation of all the faithful. The Gospel is called the Spirit, because by, [ D] and in the Gospel, God hath given to us not onely the Spirit of manifestation, that is, of instruction and of Catechisme, of faith and confident assent; but the Spirit of Confirmation or obsignation to all them that believe and obey the Gospel of Christ; that is, the power of God is come upon our hearts, by which in an admirable manner we are made sure of a glorious inheritance; made sure (I say) in the nature of the thing; and our own persuasions also are confirm∣ed with an excellent, a comfortable, a discerning and a reasonable hope: in the strength of which, and by whose ayde, as we do not doubt of the performance of the promise: so we vigorously pur∣sue [ E] all the parts of the condition, and are inabled to work all the work of God, so as not to be affrighted with fear, or seduced by va∣nity, or oppressed by lust, or drawn off by evil example, or abused by riches, or imprison'd by ambition and secular designes: This the Spirit of God does work in all his Servants; and is called

[ A] the spirit of obsignation, or the confirming spirit, because it confirms our hope, and assures our title to life eternall; and by means of it, and other its collateral assistances, it also confirms us in our duty, that we may not onely professe in word, but live lives according to the Gospel. And this is the sense of [the Spirit] mention••d in the Text: ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you: That is, if ye be made partakers of the Gospel, or of the spirit of manifestation, if ye be truly intitled to God, and have received the promise of the Father, then are ye not carnal men; ye are spirituall, ye are in the Spirit: if ye have [ B] the Spirit in one sense to any purpose, ye have it also in another: if the Spirit be in you, you are in it: if it hath given you hope, it hath also inabled and ascertain••d your duty. For the Spirit of mani∣festation will but upbraid you in the shame and horrours of a sad eternity, if you have not the Spirit of obsignation: if the Holy Ghost be not come upon you to great purposes of holinesse, all other pretences are vain, ye are still in the flesh, which shall never in∣herit the kingdom of God.

In the Spirit] that is, in the power of the spirit; so the Greeks [ C] call him 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 who is possessed by a spirit, whom God hath filled with a coelestial immission; he is said to be in God, when God is in him: and it is a similitude taken from persons encompassed with guards; they are in custodiâ, that is, in their power, under their com∣mand, moved at their dispose, they rest in their time, and receive laws from their authority, and admit visiters whom they appoint, and must be employed as they shall suffer; so are men who are in the Spirit, that is, they beleeve as he teaches, they work as he in∣ables, they choose what he calls good, they are friends of his friends, and they hate with his hatred; with this onely difference, [ D] that persons in custody, are forced to do what their keepers please, and nothing is free but their wils; but they that are under the com∣mand of the Spirit, do all things which the Spirit commands, but they do them cheerfully; and their will is now the prisoner, but it is in liberâ custodiâ, the will is where it ought to be, and where it de∣sires to be, and it cannot easily choose any thing else, because it is extreamly in love with this: as the Saints and Angels in their state of Beatific vision, cannot choose but love God: and yet the liberty of their choice is not lessen••d, because the object fils all the capaci∣ties of the will, and the understanding. Indifferency to an object is [ E] the lowest degree of liberty, and supposes unworthinesse, or defect in the object, or the apprehension; but the will is then the freest and most perfect in its operation, when it intirely pursues a good with so certain determination, and clear election that the contrary evil cannot come into dispute or pretence: Such in our proporti∣ons is the liberty of the sons of God; it is an holy and amiable cap∣tivity to the Spirit; the will of man is in love with those chains,

which draws to God, and loves the fetters that confine us to the [ A] pleasures and religion of the kingdom. And as no man will com∣plain that his temples are restraind, and his head is prisoner when it is encircled with a crown: So when the Son of God had made us free, and hath onely subjected us to the service and dominion of the Spirit, we are free as Princes within the circles of their Diadem, and our chains are bracelets, and the law is a law of liberty, and his service is perfect freedom; and the more we are subjects, the more we shall reign as Kings; and the faster we run, the easier is our burden, and Christs yoke is like feathers to a bird, not loads, but helps to motion, without them the body fals: and we do not pity [ B] birds when in summer we wish them unfeathered and callow, or bald as egges, that they might be cooler and lighter: such is the load and captivity of the soul when we do the work of God and are his servants, and under the Government of the spirit: They that strive to be quit of this subjection, love the liberty of out-laws, and the licentiousness of anarchy, and the freedom of sad widows and distressed Orphans: For so Rebels and fools and children long to be rid of their Princes, and their Guardians, and their Tu∣tors, that they may be accursed without law, and be undone with∣out control and be ignorant and miserable without a teacher and [ C] without discipline. He that is in the Spirit is under Tutours and Governours, untill the time appointed of the Father, just as all great Heirs are; onely, the first seizure the Spirit makes, is upon the will. He that loves the yoke of Christ, and the discipline of the Gospel, he is in the Spirit, that is, in the spirits power.

Upon this foundation, the Apostle hath built these two propo∣sitions. 1. Whosoever hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his, he does not belong to Christ at all: he is not par∣taker of his Spirit, and therefore shall never be partaker of his [ D] glory.

2. Whosoever is in Christ, is dead to sin, and lives to the Spirit of Christ, that is, lives a Spirituall, a holy and a san∣ctifyed life. These are to be considered distinctly.

1. All that belong to Christ have the Spirit of Christ, Immedi∣ately before the ascension, our blessed Saviour bid his Disciples tarry in Jerusalem till they should receive the promise of the Father, Whosoever stay at Jerusalem, and are in the actuall Communion of the Church of God shall certainly receive this promise. For it is made to you and to your children (saith S. Peter) and to as many [ E] as the Lord our God shall call, All shall receive the Spirit of Christ, the promise of the Father, because this was the great instrument of distinction between the Law and the Gospel, In the Law God gave his Spirit, 1. to some; to them 2. extraregularly, 3. without solennity, 4. in small proportions, like the dew upon Gideons

[ A] fleece; a little portion was wet sometime with the dew of hea∣ven, when all the earth besides was dry: And the Jewes calld it filia•• voois, the daughter of a voice, still, and small, and seldom, and that by secret whispers, and sometimes inarticulate by way of enthusiasme, rather then of instruction, and God spake by the Pro∣phets transmitting the sound, as thorough an Organ pipe, things which themselves oftentimes understood not. But in the Gospel, the spirit is given without measure; first powred forth upon our head Christ Jesus; then descending upon the beard of Aaron, the Fathers of the Church, and thence falling like the tears of the [ B] balsam of Judea upon the foot of the plant, upon the lowest of the people. And this is given regularly to all that ask it, to all that can receive it, and by a solemn ceremony and conveyed by a Sa∣crament: and is now, not the Daughter of a voice, but the Mo∣ther of many voices, of divided tongues, and united hearts, of the tongues of Prophets, and the duty of Saints, of the Sermons of Apostles, and the wisdom of Governours; It is the Parent of bold∣ness, and fortitude to Martyrs, the fountain of learning to Doctors, an Ocean of all things excellent to all who are within the ship, and bounds of the Catholike Church: so that Old men and young [ C] men, maidens and boyes, the scribe and the unlearned, the Judge and the Advocate, the Priest and the people are full of the Spirit, if they belong to God: Moses's wish is fulfilled, and all the Lords people are Prophets in some sense or other.

In the wisdom of the Ancient it was observed, that there are four great cords which tye the heart of Man to inconvenience and a prison, making it a servant of vanity, and an heir of corruption 1. Pleasure and 2. Pain. 3. Fear, and 4. Desire.

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 [ D] 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

These are they that exercise all the wisdom and resolutions of man, and all the powers that God hath given him.

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. said Agathon.

These are those evil Spirits that possess the heart of man & mingle [ E] with al his actions; so that either men are tempted to 1. lust by pleasure, or 2. to baser arts by covetousness, or 3. to impatience by sorrow, or 4. to dishonourable actions by fear: and this is the state of man by nature; and under the law; and for ever till the Spirit of God came, and by four special operations cur••d these four inconveniences and re∣strained, or sweetned these unwholesome waters.

1. God gave us his Spirit that we might be insensible of worldly [ A] pleasures, having our souls wholly fil••d with spiritual and heavenly relishes. For when Gods Spirit hath entred into us and possessed us as his Temple, or as his dwelling, instantly we begin to taste Man∣na, and to loath the diet of Egypt; we begin to consider concerning heaven, and to prefer eternity before moments, and to love the pleasures of the soul, above the sottish and beastly pleasures of the body. Then we can consider that the pleasures of a drunken meet∣ing cannot make recompence for the pains of a surfet, and that nights intemperance; much lesse for the torments of eternity: Then we are quick to discern that the itch and scab of lustful appetites is [ B] not worth the charges of a Surgeon, much lesse can it pay for the disgrace, the danger, the sicknesse, the death, and the hell of lustfull persons; Then we wonder that any man should venture his head to get a crown unjustly; or that for the hazard of a victory, he should throw away all his hopes of heaven certainly.

A man that hath tasted of Gods Spirit can instantly discern the madnesse that is in rage, the folly and the disease that is in envy, the anguish and tediousnesse that is in lust, the dishonor that is in break∣ing our faith, and telling a lie; and understands things truly as they are; that is, that charity is the greatest noblenesse in the world; that [ C] religion hath in it the greatest pleasures; that temperance is the best security of health; that humility is the surest way to honour; and all these relishes are nothing but antepasts of heaven, where the quintessence of all these pleasures shall be swallowed for ever; where the chast shall follow the Lamb, and the virgins sing there where the Mother of God shall reign; and the zealous converters of souls, and labourers in Gods vineyard shall worship eternally where S. Peter and S. Paul do wear their crown of righteousnesse; and the patient persons shall be rewarded with Job, and the meek per∣sons with Christ and Moses, and all with God; the very expectati∣on [ D] of which proceeding from a hope begotten in us by the spirit of manifestation, and bred up and strengthened by the spirit of obsignation is so delicious an entertainment of all our reasonable appetites, that a spirituall man can no more be removed, or intied from the love of God, and of religion, then the Moon from her Orb, or a Mother from loving the son of her joyes, and of her sorrows.

This was observed by S. Peter,* 1.7 [As new born babes desire the sin∣cere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby; if so be that ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious] When once we have tasted the grace of God, the sweetnesses of his Spirit; then, no food but the food [ E] of Angels, no cup but the cup of Salvation, the Divining cup, in which we drink Salvation to our God, and call upon the Name of the Lord with ravishment and thanksgiving; and there is no greater externall testimony that we are in the spirit, and that the spirit dwels in us, then if we finde joy and delight, and spirituall pleasures in the greatest

[ A] mysteries of our religion; if we communicate often, and that with appetite and a forward choice, and an unwearied devotion, and a heart truly fixed upon God, and upon the offices of a holy worship. He that loaths good meat is sick at heart, or neer it; and he that de∣spises, or hath not a holy appetite to the foo•• of Angels, the wine of elect souls, is fit to succeed the Prodigal at his banquet of sinne and husks, and to be partaker of the ta••le of Devis; but all they who have Gods Spirit, love to feast at the supper of the Lamb, and have no appetites but what are of the spirit, or servants to the spirit. I have read of a spiritual person who saw heaven but in a dream, [ B] but such as made great impression upon him, and was represented with vigorous and pertinacious phantasmes, not easily disbanding, and when he awaked he knew not his cell, he remembred not him that slept in the same dorter, nor could tell how night and day were distinguished, nor could discern oyl from wine, but cal••d out for his vision again, Redde mihi campos meos floridos, columnam auream, co∣mitem Hieronymum, assistentes Angelos; Give me my fields again, my most delicious fields, my pillar of a glorious light, my companion S. Jerome, my assistant Angels; and this lasted till he was told of his duty, and matter of obedience, and the fear of a sin had disincharm∣ed [ C] him, and caused him to take care lest he lose the substance, out of greedinesse to possesse the shadow.

And if it were given to any of us to see Paradise, or the third heaven (as it was to S. Paul) could it be that ever we should love any thing but Christ, or follow any Guide but the Spirit, or desire any thing but Heaven, or understand any thing to be pleasant but what shall lead thither? Now what a vision can do, that the Spirit doth certainly to them that entertain him. They that have him re∣ally and not in pretence onely, are certainly great despisers of the things of the world. The Spirit doth not create, or enlarge our ap∣petites [ D] of things below: Spirituall men are not designd to reign up∣on earth, but to reign over their lusts and sottish appetites. The Spirit doth not enflame our thirst of wealth, but extinguishes it, and makes us to esteem all things as l••sse, and as dung so that we may gain Christ; No gain then is pleasant but goal••nesse, no ambition but longings after heaven, no revenge but against our selves for sinning; nothing but God and Christ; Deus meus & omnia; and date nobis am∣mas, caetera vobis tollite (as the king of Sodom said to Abraham) Secure but the souls to us, and take our goods. Indeed this is a [ E] good signe that we have the Spirit.

S. John spake a hard saying, but by the spirit of manifestation we are also taught to understand it.* 1.8

Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

The seed of God] is the spirit which hath a plastic power to efform us in similitudinem filiorum Dei, into the image of the sons of God; and as long as this remains in us, while the Spi∣rit

dwels in us We cannot sin; that is, it is against our natures, our re∣formed [ A] natures to sin: And as we say, we cannot endure such a po∣tion, we cannot suffer such a pain; that is, we cannot without great trouble, we cannot without doing violence to our nature: so all spi∣rituall men, all that are born of God, and the seed of God remains in them, they cannot sin; cannot without trouble, and doing against our natures, and their most passionate inclinations. A man, if you speak naturally, can masticate gums, and he can break his own legs, and he can sip up by little draughts, mixtures of Aloes and Rhubarb, of Henbane, or the deadly Nightshade: but he cannot do this natu∣rally, or willingly, cheerfully or with delight. Every sin is against a [ B] good mans nature he is ill at case when he hath missed his usual pray∣ers; he is amazd if he have fallen into an errour; he is infinitely asha∣med of his imprudence; he remembers a sin, as he thinks of an ene∣my, or the horrors of a midnight apparition: for all his capacities, his understanding, and his choosing faculties are filled up with the opinion and perswasions, with the love, and with the desires of God: and this I say, is the Great benefit of the Spirit, which God hath given to us as an antidote against worldly pleasures: And therefore S. Paul joynes them as consequent to each other [For it is impossible for those who were once enlightned,* 1.9 and have tasted of the [ C] heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, &c.] First we are enlightned in Baptisme, and by the Spirit of manifesta∣tion, the revelations of the Gospel: then we relish and taste interi∣our excellencies, and we receive the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of con∣firmation, and he gives us a taste of the powers of the world to come; that is, of the great efficacy that is in the Article of eternall life to perswade us to religion and holy living: then we feel that as the be∣lief of that Article dwels upon our understanding and is incorpo∣rated into our wils and choice, so we grow powerfull to resist sin by [ D] the strengths of the Spirit, to desie all carnall pleasure, and to sup∣presse and mortifie it by the powers of this Article: [those are the powers of the world to come.

2. The Spirit of God is given to all who truly belong to Christ as an anidote against sorrows, against impatience, against the evil accidents of the world, and against the oppression and sinking of our spirits under the crosse. There are in Scripture noted two births besides the naturall; to which also by analogy we may adde [ 1] a third. The first is to be born of water and the Spirit. It is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 one thing signified by a divided appellative, by two substantives, [ E] [water and the Spirit] that is, Spiritus aqueus, the Spirit moving [ 2] upon the waters of Baptisme. The second is to be born of Spirit and fire, for so Christ was promised to baptize us with the Holy Ghost and with fire; that is, cum spiritu igneo, with a fiery spirit, the Spirit as it descended in Pentecost in the shape of fiery tongues. And as

[ A] the watry spirit washed away the sins of the Church, so the spirit of fire enkindles charity and the love of God, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (sayes Plutarch) the Spirit is the same under both the titles, and it enables the Church with gifts and graces: And from these [ 3] there is another operation of the new birth, but the same Spirit, the spirit of rejoycing,* 1.10 or spiritus exultans, spiritus laetitiae. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in beleeving, that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. There is a cer∣tain joy and spirituall rejoycing, that accompanies them in whom the Holy Ghost doth dwell; a joy in the midst of sorrow; a joy [ B] given to allay the sorrows of saecular troubles, and to alleviate the burden of persecution.* 1.11 This S. Paul notes to this purpose. [And ye became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much af••liction with joy of the Holy Ghost.] Worldly afflictions and spirituall joyes, may very well dwell together; and if God did not supply us out of his storehouses, the sorrows of this world would be mere and unmixt, and the troubles of persecution would be too great for naturall considences. For who shall make him re∣compence that lost his life in a Duel, fought about a draught of wine, or a cheaper woman? What arguments shall invite a man [ C] to suffer torments, in testimony of a proposition of naturall Philo∣sophy? And by what instruments shall we comfort a man who is sick, and poor, and disgrac••d and vitious, and lies cursing, and de∣spairs of any thing hereafter? That mans condition proclaims what it is to want the Spirit of God, the Spirit of comfort. Now this Spirit of comfort is the hope and confidence, the certain ex∣pectation of partaking in the inheritance of Jesus. This is the faith and patience of the Saints, this is the refreshment of all wearied travellers, the cordiall of all languishing sinners, the support of the scrupulous, the guide of the doubtfull, the anchor of timorous [ D] and fluctuating souls, the confidence and the staff of the penitent. He that is deprived of his whole estate for a good conscience, by the Spirit he meets this comfort, that he shall finde it again with ad∣vantage in the day of restitution: and this comfort was so mani∣fest in the first dayes of Christianity, that it was no infrequent thing to see holy persons court a Martyrdom with a fondnesse as great as is our impatience, and timorousnesse in every persecution. Till the Spirit of God comes upon us we are 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 inopis nos, atque pu∣silli finxerunt animi; we have little souls, little faith, and as little [ E] patience; we fall at every stumbling block, and sink under every temptation; and our hearts fail us, and we die for fear of death, and lose our souls to preserve our estates, or our persons, till the Spirit of God fills us with joy in beleeving: and a man that is in a great joy cares not for any trouble that is lesse then his joy; and God hath taken so great care to secure this to us, that he hath turn'd it into a precept,* 1.12 Rejoyce evermore; and Rejoyce in the Lord always, and

again,* 1.13 I say rejoyce. But this rejoycing must be onely in the hope [ A] that is laid up for us,* 1.14 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉; so the Apostle. Rejoycing in hope. For although God sometimes maks a cup of sensible com∣fort to overflow the spirit of a man, and thereby loves to refresh his sorrows; yet that is from a secret principle, not regularly given not to be waitd for, not to be prayed for, and it may fail us if we think upon it: but the hope of life eternall can never fail us, and the joy of that is great enough to make us suffer any thing, or to do any thing

—ibimus, ibimus utcunque praecedes, supremum [ B] Carpere iter comites parati

To death, to bands, to poverty, to banishment, to tribunals, any whither in hope of life eternall: as long as this anchor holds, we may suffer a storm but cannot suffer shipwrack: And I desire you by the way to observe, how good a God we serve, and how ex∣cellent a Religion Christ taught, when one of his great precepts is, that we should rejoyce and be exceeding glad? and God hath gi∣ven as the spirit of rejoycing, not a sullen, melancholy spirit, not the spirit of bondage or of a slave, but the Spirit of his Son, consigning us by a holy conscience to joyes unspeakable and full of [ C] glory: And from hence you may also infer that those who sink under a persecution, or are impatient in a sad accident they put out their own fires, which the Spirit of the Lord hath kindled, and lose those glories which stand behinde the cloud.

Notes

• * 1.1

  SERM. I.
• * 1.2

  Rom. 8. 2.
• * 1.3

  1 Cor. 12. 7.
• * 1.4

  1 Cor. 2. 14.
• * 1.5

  Prudent.
• * 1.6

  2 Cor. 3. 6.
• * 1.7

  1 Ep. 2. chap. ver. 5.
• * 1.8

  1 Ep. 3. 9.
• * 1.9

  Hebr. 6. 4.
• * 1.10

  Rom. 15. 13.
• * 1.11

  1 Thess. 1. 6.
• * 1.12

  1 Thess. 5. 16.
• * 1.13

  SERM. II.
• * 1.14

  Rom. 12. 12.