LXXX sermons preached at the parish-church of St. Mary Magdalene Milk-street, London whereof nine of them not till now published / by the late eminent and learned divine Anthony Farindon ... ; in two volumes, with a large table to both.

The Eighteenth SERMON. (Book 18)

PART II.

1 COR. XII. 3.

Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God, calleth Jesus accursed; and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the holy Ghost.

WE have hitherto detained you in the Lesson; Which is indeed a short one, but in it is comprised the whole Gospel. For when we have let loose our phansie, and sought out many inventions, when we have even wearied our selves in the uncertain gyres and Meanders which our imaginations cut out, when we have laid out that time in following that we cannot overtake which we should have imployed in that work which is visible and put into our hands, when our Curiosity hath even spent it self, this is all, Jesus is the Lord. And to profess him to be the Lord, whom we must obey in all things, who hath power in heaven and in earth, a power to command our Understandings to bow to the Truth, and our Wills to imbrace it, is compendium Evan∣gelii, the sum of Religion, the whole intent and scope of the Gospel of Christ. This is the Lesson. And I told you in the next place, we must learn to say it, that is, first, to Profess it. But that is not enough. All Nations have said it, and the Devils have said it: And what Religion is that in which the sons of perdition and the Devils themselves may joyn with us? What a Profession is that which may be heard in Hell? What a poor progress do we make towards happiness, if the cursed Spirits go along with us and reach as far as we? There is then, secondly, verbum mentis, a word conceived in the mind, a perswasion of the Truth. And this also may come too short. For many times there is not so much Rhe∣torick and power in this to move us to our duty as there is in a piece of money or a painted face to carry us from it; but it lieth useless and of no efficacy at all, suffering our members to rebel, our flesh to riot it, our pas∣sions to break loose and hurry us into by-wayes and dangerous precipices; speaking to us for the Lord, whilst we despise and tread him under foot. For if we consider that intimacy and familiarity that many men have with

those sins which cannot but present to the mind so much monstrosity as might fright them from them, if we behold with what eagerness and delight men pursue that which is as loathsome as Hell it self, how they la∣bour and dig for it as for treasure, how they devote both body and mind to its service, how every trifle is in esteem above Grace, and every Ba∣rabbas preferred before Jesus the Lord, we might easily be induced to conclude that they do not believe that there is a God, or that Jesus is the Lord, but as the Heathen in scorn did ask, Ecquis Christus cum suâ fabulâ? count the Gospel and Christianity as a fable. For it is not easie to conceive how a man that is verily persuaded in his heart that Jesus is the Lord, and that to break Christ's command is to forfeit his soul, that for every wilful sin he loseth Paradise, and for a moments brutish pleasure he shall find no better purchase then an irreversible state in hell, should dare to do that which he doeth every day in a kind of triumph and Jubilee, or dip but the tip of his finger in the water of bitterness which he drinketh down greedily as an oxe. But upon a review and more mature consideration we may observe that Sin is not alwaies the effect of Infidelity, but some∣times of Incogitancy; and because we do not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, stoop and look intentively, upon this truth, that we have indeed learned this lesson, but, when we should make use of it to restrain us, are willing to forget that Jesus is the Lord. We believe that we shall die, but so live as if we were eternal. We believe there is hell-fire; but stoln waters are sweet, and quench those flames. We believe that there is a heaven; but every tri∣fle is a better sight. We believe that Jesus is the Lord; but the object that next smileth upon us becometh our Master. We believe, but are willing to forget what we believe, Heaven and Hell, the Law and the Gospel, and the Lord himself. In a word, we believe that Death is the wages of sin, but the pleasures and vanities of the world come towards us in a gaudy and triumphant march, and swallow up this faith and this persuasion in victory, detain it and put it in chains, that it is not able to do its office, not to move and work by Charity. For if Hea∣ven did display all its glory, and Hell breathe forth all its terrour, yet if we do but look upon it, and then turn away our eye, our persuasion will soon shrink back, and withdraw it self, and leave us naked and open to every temptation, weak and impotent, not able to struggle and resist it, and we shall laetari in rebus pessimis, rejoyce in evil, sport and delight our selves at the very gates of hell, as an intoxicated thief may laugh and jest at the ridge of the gallows. Be not then too well persuaded of every persuasion: For if it be but the word and the language of the mind, it may soon be silenced. And therefore we must nourish and so∣ment it, stir it up and enliven it, that, in the last place, it may be of force to move the Tongue and the Hand; that as the Heart doth speak to the Lord by a sincere belief, Lord, I belive, so we may speak it with our Hands and Eyes and Feet, and sound it out with every member that we have, and together make that glorious report which may enter the high∣est heavens, Lord, we are ready to do whatsoever thou commandest; that we may pray in his ears, and weep in his ears,* 1.1 that our Alms may speak loud∣er then our Trumpet, and our Fasting and Humility may houl unto him, and not our exterminated face; that he may hearken to our thoughts as well as to our words; and that an universal Obedience may declare our Faith, as the heavens do his glory. This is the language of Canaan, the celestial dialect, and not, as some of late have been ready to make it, the language of the Whore of Babylon; as if Faith onely did make a Protestant, and Good works were the mark of a Papist. What mention we Papist or Protestant? The Christian is the member of this Body and Common∣wealth;

this is his language,* 1.2 the pure language. When Hand and Tongue, Faith and Good works, a full Persuasion and a sincere Obedience are joyned together, then we shall speak this language plainly, and men will understand us, and glorifie God; the Angels will understand, and applaud us; and the Lord will understand, and crown us: We shall speak it not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, faintly and feignedly, ready upon any allurement or terrour to eat our words, but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, we shall make it plain by an Ocular demonstration. And this is truly to say, JESUS EST DOMINUS, Jesus is the Lord. This is the Lesson, our first Part. And thus far we are gone.

And we see it is no easie matter 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, to speak but these three words, JESUS EST DOMINUS, Jesus is the Lord. For we must com∣prehend,* 1.3 saith the Apostle, the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of this Divine mystery, the breadth, saith S. Augustine, in the expansion and dilatation of my Charity; the length, by my continued perseverance unto the end; the height, in the exaltation of my hope to reach at things above; and the depth, in the contemplation of the bottomless sea of God's mercies. These are the dimensions: And if we will learn these Mathe∣maticks, because we see the Lesson is difficult, we must have a skilful Ma∣ster. And behold, my next Part bringeth him forth, bringeth us news of one who is higher then heaven, broader then the sea, and longer then the earth, as Job speaketh. It is the holy Ghost. For no man can say that Je∣sus is the Lord, but by the holy Ghost. And indeed good reason that he should be our Teacher. For as the Lesson is, such should the Master be. The Lesson is spiritual; the Teacher, a Spirit: The Lecture is a lecture of piety; and the Spirit is an holy Spirit: The Lesson proposeth a me∣thod to joyn Heaven and Earth, God and Man, Mortality and Immorta∣lity, Misery and Happiness in one, to draw us near unto God, and make us one with him; and the holy Ghost is that consubstantial and coeternal Friendship of the Father and the Son, nexus amorosus, as the Schools speak, the essential Love and Love-knot of the undivided Trinity. Flesh and blood cannot reveal this great mystery; it must be a Spirit. And the Spi∣rit of this world bringeth no news from Heaven, we may be sure: It must be SPIRITUS SANCTUS, the holy Ghost; SPIRITUS SAN∣CTUS for JESUS DOMINUS, the holy Ghost for Jesus the Lord; that by the grace of the holy Spirit we may learn the Power of the Son, and by the inspiration of his Holiness learn the mystery of Holiness. For it is not sharpness of wit, or quickness of apprehension, or force of elo∣quence that can raise us to this Truth, but the Spirit of God must lead us to this tree of Knowledge. Therefore Tertullian calleth Christian Religion commentum Divinitatis, the invention of the Divine Spirit; as Faith is called the gift of God, not onely because it is given to every believer, but because the Spirit first found out the way to save us by so weak a means as Faith. O qualis artifex Spiritus sanctus! What a skilful Artificer, what an excellent Master, is the blessed Spirit, who found out a way to lift up Dust it self as high as Heaven, and clothe it with eternity; whose least beam is more glorious then the Sun, and ma∣keth it day unto us; whose every whisper is as thunder to awake us; cu∣jus tetigisse, docuisse est, whose every touch and breathing is an instructi∣on! 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, saith Nazianzene; For this Spirit is wise, and can, he is loving, and will teach us, if we will learn. He inspireth an Herdsman; and he straight becometh a Prophet: He calleth a Fisherman, and maketh him an Apostle. Et non opus est mo∣râ Spiritui Sancto; He standeth not in need of any help from delay. Without him Miracles are sluggish and of no efficacy; but upon his breathing our Saviour shall appear glorious in his ignominy, and the

Thief shall worship him on his cross as if he had been in his Kingdom; in whom he wrought such an alteration that, in S. Hierom's phrase, mutavit homicidii poenam in martyrium; he was so changed, that he died not a thief or murtherer, but a Martyr.

And such a powerful Teacher we stood in need of, to raise our Nature, and that corrupt, unto so high a pitch as the participation of the Divine Nature. For no act (and so no act of holiness or spiritual knowledge) can be produced by any power which is not connatural to it, and as it were a principle of that act: So that as there is a natural light, by which we are brought to the apprehension of natural principles, whe∣ther speculative or practick, by which light many of the Heathen pro∣ceeded so far as to leave most of them behind them who have the Sun of righteousness ever shining upon them; so there must be a superna∣tural light, by which we may be guided to attain unto truths of a higher nature: Which the Heathen wanting did run uncertainly, as S. Paul speaketh, and beat the air; and all those glorious acts by which they did out shine many of us, were but as the Rainbow before the Floud, for shew, but for no use at all. The Power must ever be con∣natural to the Act. Nature may move in her own sphere, and turn us about in that compass, to do those things which Nature is capable of: but Nature could not make a Saint or a member of Christ. To spiri∣tualize a man, to make him Christi-formem, to bring him to a confor∣mity and uniformity with Christ, is the work alone of the Spirit of Christ: Which he doth sweetly and secretly, powerfully characterizing our hearts, and so taking possession of them. The Apostle telleth us that Christ dwelleth in us by his Spirit, by his power and efficacy,* 1.4 which work∣eth like fire, enlightning, warming, and purging our hearts;* 1.5 which are the effects of Fire. First, by sanctifying our knowledge of him; by shewing us the riches of his Gospel, and the beauty and majesty of Christ's Dominion and Kingdom, with that evidence that we are forced to fall down and worship; by filling the soul with the glory of it, as God filled the Tabernacle with his,* 1.6 that all the powers and faculties of our soul are ravished at the sight, that we come willingly, and fall down willingly before this Lord; in a word, by bringing on that Truth which our heart assenteth to, with that clearness and fulness of demonstration, that it passeth through all the faculties of the soul, and over-ruleth them; that it moveth our soul, as the soul doth our body. For such a Know∣ledge (and such a knowledge is onely meant in Scripture) doth ever draw with it Affection and Practice, that we may love the Lord, and call him Lord, and make it the crown of our rejoycing to be subject to his Dominion. Secondly, by quickening and enlivening and even actuating our Faith. For this Spirit dwelleth in our hearts by faith,* 1.7 maketh us to be rooted and grounded in love, enableth us to believe with efficacy. For from whence proceed all the errours of our life? From whence ariseth that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as Basil speaketh, that irregularity, those contradi∣ctions and consequences in the lives of men, that to day they wash, and to morrow wallow; to day bow, and to morrow exalt themselves; now mourn like doves, and anon rejoyce, and vaunt as giants; now sigh, and anon curse; now sin, and by and by repent, and then sin again; like wanton lovers, quarrel, and embrace; love, and hate almost in the same moment; from whence is this double-mindedness and wavering, but from hence, that we admit not the Spirit in his office, nor suffer him to quicken and enliven our faith, but vex and grieve him, and drive him away by our vain and carnal imaginations, as Bees are driven a∣way with smoke? If we did not inquietare Spiritum tenerum & deli∣catum,

as Tertullian is bold to style him, disturb and disquiet this tender and gentle Spirit; if we did handle him with humility and peace and quietness, and not with choler and anger and grief and other carnal passions, which he will not come near; if we made not our selves such vultures, when this Dove is ready to descend, he would certainly draw near unto us, even into our hearts, and do his office, and fill us with all spiritual knowledge, and seal us up to the day of redemption.

A Teacher then he is. But great care is to be taken that we mi∣stake him not, or take some other Spirit for him. For indeed the world is too Spirit-wise, and there were never greater Pneumatomachi, Fighters against the Spirit, in the Church of God, then in these our dayes. The Eunomians, the Sabellians, they who questioned his Divinity, they who made him 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, an inferiour, a servant, yet never entitled him to Profaneness, to Sacriledge, to Murther. Now whatsoever we say of Jesus; whatsoever we do to Jesus, the Spirit is the Teacher. We say, he is the Lord, by the Spirit; and we say this Lord looketh for nei∣ther knee nor hand, nor any reverence, by the same Spirit. That he hath Dominion over us, and must have our service, we say it by the Spirit; but we are bold upon it, that we must serve him out of pure love, but by no means out of fear, by the same Spirit. Each Dream must go current for an Inspiration; and men think themselves enlight∣ned with Illusions. The fanatick Anabaptist, though the Devil be in the vision, thinketh he seeth a glorious Angel, and boldly concludeth that the Spirit teacheth him: And then, quicquid dixerit, legem Dei putat; whatsoever Text he meeteth with, he will commend his gloss and interpretation for the dictate of the holy Ghost. Doth S. Paul preach Christian Liberty? What then doth the Magistrate with the sword of Justice in his hand, the Judge on the tribunal, or the King on his throne? Will you hear them in their own dialect? An Hezekiah is no better then a Sennacherib, a Constantine as insufferable as a Julian; every King is a Tyrant, and every Tyrant a Devil. MEUM ET TUUM, Mine and Thine, are harsh words in the Church. They are almost of the wind of the Carprocrations in Clemens, who, because the Air was common, would have their Wives so too. Mundus senex & delirus, said Gerson of the like; The world is now grown aged, and beginneth to dream dreams. And if we prodigally lend our ears to every one that upon presumption of the Spirit will stand up and prophesie, we may hear news as from Hea∣ven indeed, but such as the Devil was the father of. Whatsoever the Text be, the Interpretation is, Jesus is the Lord, thus to be feared, that is, such a Lord as we will make him, a Lord that must countenance us to do our own wills, and send his Spirit to truck and traffick for us, to be our Minister to advance our lusts, our Conduct to bring us to that end we have set up, to be ready at hand when our Ambition or Cove∣tousness will call for him, that we may hold him up against himself, and bring him in as an auxiliary for his enemy. If we murther, the Spirit moveth the hand; if we pull down Churches, it is with the breath of the Spirit; if we would bring in a Parity, the pretence is, The Spirit, can∣not endure that any should be Supreme, or Pope it, but our selves. Our Humour, our Madness, our Malice, our Violence, our implacable Bit∣terness, our Railing and Reviling are all the Inspirations of the Blessed Spirit. Simeon and Levi, Absalom and Ahithophel, Theudas and Judas, the Pharisees and Ananias, they that despite the spirit of grace, they that grieve the Spirit, they that resist him, they that blaspheme him, they that draw him down to their carnal ends, and entitle him to their several pur∣poses,

(as the Popish Priests give the names of several Saints to one I∣mage, for their advantage, and to multiply their oblations) these Sca∣rabees bred in the dung, these Impostors, these men of Belial, must go no longer for a generation of vipers, but the Scholars and Friends of the holy Ghost. May we not now make a stand, and put it to the question, Whether there be any holy Ghost, or not? or, if he be, Whether he teacheth us? Indeed these appropriations and violent ingrossings of the Spirit have, I fear, given growth to conceits almost as dangerous; That the Spirit doth not spirare, breatheth no grace into us; That we need not call upon him; That the Text that telleth us the holy Ghost teacheth us, is that holy Ghost that teacheth us; That the letter is the Spirit; and the Spirit, the letter; An adulterate piece new-coined, an old Heresie brought in a new dress and tire upon the stage again: That he is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, an unheard of Deity, and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, an ascriptious and supernumerary God. I may say, more dangerous then those that quite take him away. For to confess the Spirit, and abuse him; to draw him on as an accesso∣ry and abettor, nay a principal, in those actions which Nature it self ab∣horreth and trembleth at, is worse then to deny him. What a Spirit, what a Dove is that which breatheth nothing but gall and wormwood, but fire and brimstone? What a Spirit is that which is ever pleading and purveying for the Flesh? Petrarch will tell us, Nihil importunius e∣rudito stulto, That there is not a more troublesome creature in the world then a learned fool: So the Church of Christ and Religion never suffer∣ed more then from carnal men who are thus Spirit-wise. For by ac∣knowledging the Spirit they gain a glorious pretence to work all wick∣edness, and that with greediness; which whilest others doubt of, though their errour be dangerous and fatal, yet parciùs insaniunt, they cannot be so outragiously mad.

But yet it doth not follow, because some men mistake the Spirit and abuse him, that no man is taught by the holy Ghost. The mad Athenian took every ship that came into the harbour to be his; but it doth not follow hence, that no wise and sober merchant knew his own. To him that is drunk things appear in a double shape and pro∣portion; geminae Thebae, & gemini soles, two cities for one, and two Suns for one: Can I hence conclude that all sober men are blind; Be∣cause I will not learn, doth not the Spirit therefore teach? And if some men take Dreams for Revelations, must the holy Ghost needs loose his office? This were to run upon the fallacy non-causae pro causâ, to de∣ny an unquestionable and fundamental truth for an inconvenience, to dig up the Foundation because men build hay and stubble upon it, or, be∣cause some men have sore eyes, to pluck the Sun out of his sphere. This were to dispossess us of one evil Spirit, and leave us naked to be invaded by a Legion. To make this yet a little plainer; We confess the opera∣tions of the Spirit are in their own nature difficult and obscure, and, as Scotus observeth upon the Prologue to the Sentences, because they are quite of another condition then any thought or working in us whatsoever, imperceptibiles, not to be suddenly perceived, no not by that soul in which they are wrought. In which speech of his, doubtless, if we weigh it with charity and moderation, and not extremity of rigour, there is much truth. Seneca telleth us, Quaedam animalia, cùm mordent, non sen∣tiuntur; adeò tenuis illis & fallens in periculum vis est, The deadly bi∣tings of some creatures are not felt; so secret and subtle a force they have to endanger a man: So, on the contrary, the Spirit's enlightning us and working life in our hearts can at first by no means be described; so admi∣rable and curious a force it hath in our illumination. Non deprehendes quem∣admodum

aut quando tibi profuit; profuisse deprehendes: That it hath wrought; you shall find; but the secret and retired passages by which it wrought are impossible to be reduced to demonstration. We read that Mark Antony, when with his Oration he shewed unto the people the wounded coat wherein Caesar was slain, populum Romanum egit in furorem, he made the people almost mad: So the power of the Spirit, as it seemeth, wrought the like affection in the people, who, when they had heard the Apostles set forth the passion of Christ,* 1.8 and lay his wounds open before their eyes, were wrapt as it were in a religious fu∣ry, and in it suddenly cryed out, Men and brethren, what shall we do? 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, saith the Text, They were stung, and as it were nettled, in their hearts. Now this could not be a thing done by chance, or by any artificial energy and force in the Apostles speech; this, I say, could not be. For, if we observe it, Christ was slain amongst them; and what was that to them? or why should this hazard them more then the death of many other Prophets and holy men, who through the vio∣lence of their Rulers had lost their lives? And what necessity, what co∣active reason was there to make them believe that He was to save and redeem them, who not long since had cruelly crucified him? Dic, Quin∣tiliane, colorem. What art was there, what strong bewitching power, that should drive the people into such an ecstasie? Or what could this be else but the effect of the operation of the holy Spirit, which evermore leaveth the like impressions on those hearts on which he pleaseth to fasten the words of the wise,* 1.9 which are like unto goads, quae cum ictu quodam sentimus, saith Seneca; we hear them with a kind of smart; as Pericles the Oratour is reproved to have spoken so that he left a sting behind in the minds of his Auditory? And this putteth a difference betwixt natu∣ral and supernatural and spiritual Truths. We see in natural Truths either the evidence and strength of Truth, or the wit and subtilty of conceit, or the quaintness of method and art, may sometimes force our Understanding and lead captive our Affections; but in sacred and Divine Truths, such as is the knowledge of the Dominion and Kingdom of Christ, the light of Reason is too dimme, nor could it ever demon∣strate this conclusion, Jesus is the Lord, which the brightest eye that e∣ver the world had could of it self never see. Besides, the art by which it was delivered was nothing else but plainness; and by S. Paul him∣self, the worthiest Preacher it ever had except the Son of God himself, it is called the foolishness of preaching. But as it is observed that God in his works of wonder and his miracles brought his effects to purpose by means almost contrary to them; so many times in his persuasions of men he draweth from them their assent against all rule and prescript of art, and that, where he pleaseth, so powerfully that they who receive the impressions seem to think deliberation, which in other cases is wisdom, in this to be impiety.

But you will say perhaps that the holy Ghost was a Teacher in the Apo∣stles times, when S. Paul delivered this Christian axiom, this principle, this sum of Christianity, when the Church was in sulco & semine, when the seeds of this Religion were first sown, that then he did wonderful∣ly water this plant, that it might grow and increase: But doth he still keep open School? doth he still descend to teach and instruct us on whom the ends of the world are come? Yes certainly, he doth. For if he did not teach us, we could not vex him; if he did not work in us, we could not resist him; if he did not speak unto us, we could not lie unto him. He is the God of all spirits to this day: And uncti, Christians, we are: And an anointment we have, saith S. John; and whilest this abideth

in us, we need not that any man teach us: for this unction, this discipline, this Divine grace, is sufficient. And though this oyntment flow not so plenteously now as of old, yet we have it, and it distilleth from the Head to the skirts of the garment, to the meanest member of the Church. Though we be no Apostles, yet we are Christians; and the same Spirit teacheth both. And by his light we avoid all by-paths of errour that are dangerous, and discern, though not all Truth, yet all that is necessary. They had an Ephah, we an Hin; yet our Hin is a measure. They had a full harvest, we our sheaf; yet our sheaf may make an offering. Though our coyn be smaller, yet the same image and stamp is on them both; and the Spirit will own us, though we weigh less.

All this is true: But yet I must still remember you, that, whilest I build up the power of the Spirit, I erect no asylum or sanctuary for illusions and wilful mistakes; and when I have raised a fort and strong∣hold for sober Christians, I mean it not a shelter or refuge for mad-men and phantasticks. God forbid that Truth should be banished out of the world, because some men by false illations have made her factious; or that Errour should straight be crowned with approbation, because per∣haps we read of some men who have been bettered with a lie. The teaching of the Spirit, it were dangerous to teach it, were there not means to try and distinguish the Spirit's instructions from the suggestions of Satan, or the evaporations of a sick and loathsome brain, or our own private Humour, which is as great a Devil. Beloved,* 1.10 saith the Apo∣stle, believe not every spirit, that is, every inspiration; but try the spi∣rits, whether they be of God; for many false prophets are gone out into the world, that is, have taken the chair, and dictate magisterially what they please in the name of the Spirit, when themselves are carnal. And he giveth the rule by which we should try them,* 1.11 Every spirit that confes∣seth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God; that is, Whosoever striveth to advance the Kingdom of Christ, and to set up the Spirit a∣gainst the Flesh, to magnifie the Gospel, to promote and further men in the wayes of innocency and perfect obedience, which infallibly lead to happiness, is from God, that is, every such inspiration is from the Spi∣rit of God. For therefore doth the Spirit breathe upon us that he may make us like unto God, and so draw us to him, that where he is we may be also. But those inspirations which bring in God to plead for Baal, which cry up Religion to gain the world; which call their own disci∣pline Christ's Discipline, which he never framed, and spurn at his, to main∣tain their own; which tread down Peace and Charity and all that is in∣deed praise-worthy under their feet, to make way for their unguided lust to pace it more delicately to its end; which sigh out Faith and Grace and Christ, like mourners about the streets which attend a funeral, when the World and Satan hath filled their hearts, and thus sow in tears that they may reap the profits and pleasures of this present world with joy; which magnifie God's will, that they may do their own; these men, these spi∣rits, cannot be from God. By their fruits ye shall know them: For their hypocrisie, as well and cunningly wrought as it is, is but a poor cobweb∣lawn, and we may easily see through it; even see these spiritual men sweating and toiling for the Flesh, these Saints digging in the minerals, labouring for the bread that perisheth, and making haste to be rich. For though many times their wine be the poison of dragons, and their milk not at all sincere, yet they are not to be bought without money or money-worth. Though GLORIA PATRI, Glory to God on high, be the Prologue to the Play; (for what doth a Hypocrite but play?) yet the whole drift

and business of every Scene and Act is, chearfully to draw altogether in this, From hence we have our gain. The Angel speaketh the Prologue, and Mammon and the Flesh make the Epilogue. Date manus. Why should not every man give them his hands? Surely such Roscii, such cunning Actors, deserve a Plaudite. By their fruits ye shall know them. For what though the voice be Jacobs? Ye may know Esau by his hands. What though the Devil turn Angel of light? Ye may know him by his claws, by his malice and rage. For how can an Angel of light tear men in pieces? By their fruits ye may know them. So ye see this inconveni∣ence and mischief, which sometimes is occasioned by the Doctrine of the Spirit's Teaching, is not unavoidable. It is not necessary, though I mi∣stake, and take the Devil for an Angel, that the holy Ghost should be put to silence. Though Corah and his complices perish in their gainsayings, yet God forbid that all Israel should be swallowed up in the same gulf. Samuel runneth to Eli,* 1.12 when the voice was God's; but was taught at last to answer, Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth. Though there were many false Prophets, yet Micaiah was a true one. Though there be many false Prophets come into the world, yet the Spirit of God is a Spirit of truth, and is not onely 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, our chief, but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, our sole In∣structor; Our last Part; In which we shall be very brief.

We are told in the verse next after the Text, There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And we may say, There are diversities of teach∣ers, but the same Spirit, because; be the conveyances and conduits ne∣ver so many, through which the knowledge of our Lord Jesus is brought unto us, if the Sririt move not along with it, it may be water indeed, but not of life. Because all means are but instrumental, but He the prime Agent, we may well call him not onely the chief, but the sole Instructor. The Church of Christ is DOMUS DOCTRINAE, the House of learning, as it is called in the Chaldee Paraphrase; and COLUMNA VERITA∣TIS,* 1.13 the Pillar of the truth, because it presenteth the knowledge of Christ, as a Pillar doth an Inscription, and even offereth and urgeth it to every eye, that it may not slip out of our memories; and SCHOLA CHRISTI, the School of Christ, in respect of his Precepts and Discipline. Such glorious things have been spoken of the Church. But now me∣thinks this House is ruinous, this Pillar shaken, this School broken up and dissolved, and the Church, which bore so great a name, standeth for no∣thing but the walls. A Jesuite telleth us that at the very name of the CHURCH hostis expalluit, the Enemy, that is, such as he called Here∣ticks, did look pale and tremble. But what is it now amongst us? No∣thing, or but a Name; and in truth a Name is nothing. And that too is vanishing: for it is changed into another: And yet it is the same: for they both signifie one and the same thing. So prevalent amongst us is that Phansie and Folly which is taken for the Spirit. A Church no doubt there is, and will be; but we onely see it, as we do the Church Trium∣phant, through a glass, darkly. Or she may be fair as the Moon, clear as the Sun; but sure she is not terrible as an army with banners. Second∣ly, the Word is a Teacher: And Christ by open proclamation hath com∣manded us to have recourse unto it. The treasures thereof are infinite, the minerals thereof are rich, assiduè pleniùs responsura fodienti; The more they are digged, the more plentifully do they offer themselves, that all the wit of men and Angels can never be able to draw them dry. But even this Word many times is but a word, and no more. Sometimes it is a killing letter. Such vain and unskilful pioneers we are, that for the most part we meet with poisonous damps and vapours instead of treasure. I might adde a third Teacher, Christ's Discipline; which, when we

think of nothing but of Jesus, by his rod and afflictions putteth us in re∣membrance that he is the Lord. This Teacher hath a kind of Divine au∣thority, and by this the Spirit breatheth many times with more efficacy and power then by the Church or the Word, then by the Prophets and Apostles and holy Scriptures. For when we are disobedient to his Church, deaf to his Word, at the noise of these many waters we are afraid, and yield our necks unto his yoke. All these are Teachers: But their autho∣rity and power and efficacy they have from the Spirit. The Church, if not directed by the Spirit, were but a rout or Conventicle; the Word, if not quickned by the Spirit, a dead letter; and his Discipline, a rod of iron, first to harden us, and then break us to pieces. But AFFLAT SPIRI∣TUS; the Spirit bloweth upon his Garden the Church, and the spices thereof flow: And then to disobey the Church, is to resist the Spirit. INCUBAT SPIRITUS, The holy Ghost sitteth upon the seed of the Word, and hatch∣eth a new creature, a subject to this Lord. MOVET SPIRITUS, The Spirit moveth upon these waters of bitterness, and then they make us fruitful to every good work. In a word; The Church is a Teacher, and the Word is a Teacher, and Afflictions are Teachers; but the Spirit of God, the ho∣ly Ghost, is all in all.

I might here enter a large field full of delightful variety: But I for∣bear, and withdraw my self; and will onely remember you that this Spirit is a spirit that teacheth Obedience and Meekness; that, if we will have him light upon us, we must receive him as Christ did, in the shape of a Dove, in all innocency and simplicity. He telleth us himself, that with a froward heart he will not dwell; and then sure he will not enligh∣ten it. For as Chrysostom well observeth that the Prophets of God and Satan did in this notoriously differ, that they who gave Oracles from God gave them with all mildness and temper, without any fanatick al∣teration; but they who gave Oracles by motion from the Devil, did it with much distraction and confusion, with a kind of fury and madness: so we shall easily find that those motions which descend not from above, are earthly, sensual, and devilish; that in them there is strife and envying and confusion and every evil work: but the wisdom which is from above, from the holy Ghost, is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easie to be intreated,* 1.14 full of mercy and good fruits. Be not deceived. When thy Anger ra∣geth, the Spirit is not in that storm. When thy Disobedience to Govern∣ment is loud, he speaketh not in that thunder. When thy Zele is mad and unruly, he dwelleth not in that fiery hush. When the faculties of thy soul are shaken and dislocated by thy stubborn and perverse passions, that thou canst neither look nor speak nor move aright, he will not be in that earthquake. But in the still voice, and the cool of the day, in the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉; the calm and tranquility and peace, of thy soul, he cometh, when that storm is slumbred, that earthquake setled, that thunder stilled, that fire quenched. And he cometh as a light, to shew thee the beauty and love of thy Saviour, and the glory and power of thy Lord. And though he be sole Instructor, yet he descendeth to make use of means; and if thou wilfully withdraw thy self from these, thou art none of his celestial Auditory.

To conclude; Wilt thou know how to speak this language truly, that Jesus is the Lord, and assure thy self that the Spirit teacheth thee so to speak? Mark well then those symptoms and indications of his presence, those marks and signs which he hath left us in his word to know when the voice is his. For though as the Kingdom of heaven so the Spirit of God cometh not with observation, yet we may observe whether he be come or no. Remember then, first, that he is a Spirit, and the Spirit of God, and so is

contrary to the Flesh, and teacheth nothing that may flatter or counte∣nance it, or let it loose to insult over the Spirit. For this is against the very nature of the Spirit, as much as it is for light bodies to descend, or heavy to move upwards. Nay, Fire may descend, and the Earth may be moved out of its place, the Sun may stand still, or go back, Nature may change its course at the word and beck of the God of Nature: but this is one thing which God cannot do; he cannot change himself, nor can his Spirit breathe any doctrine forth that savoureth of the World or the Flesh or Corruption. Therefore we may, nay we must, suspect all those doctrines and actions which are said to be effects and products of the bles∣sed Spirit, when we observe them drawn out and levelled to carnal ends and temporal respects. For sure the Spirit can never beat a bargain for the world, and the Truth of God is the most unproportioned price that can be laid out on such a purchace. When I see a man move his eyes, compose his countenance, order and methodize his gesture and behavi∣our, as if he were now on his death-bed to take his leave of the world and to seal that Renouncement which he made at the Font; when I hear him loud in prayer, and as loud in reviling the iniquities of the times, wish∣ing his eyes a fountain of tears to bewail them day and night; when I see him startle at a mis-placed word as if it were a thunderbolt; when I hear him cry as loud for a Reformation as the idolatrous Priests did upon their Baal; I begin to think I see an Angel in his flight and mount, going up into heaven: But after all this devotion, this zele, this noise, when I see him stoop like the Vultur, and fly like lightning to the prey, I cannot but say within my self, O Lucifer, son of the morning, how art thou fallen from heaven? how art thou brought down to the ground, nay to hell it self? Sure I am, the holy Ghost looketh upward, moveth upward, directeth us upward: and if we follow him, neither our doctrine nor our actions will ever savour of this dung.

Remember again, that he is SPIRITUS RECTUS, a right Spirit, as David calleth him,* 1.15 not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, winding and turning several wayes, now to God, and anon, nay at once, to Mammon; now glancing on heaven, and having an eye fixed and buried in the earth. And that he is a Spirit of truth. And it is the property of Truth to be alwayes like unto it self, to change neither shape nor voice, but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, to speak the same things. He doth not set up one Text against another; doth not disannul his Promises in his Threats, nor recall his Threats in his Promises; doth not forbid Fear in Hope, nor shake our Hope when he biddeth us fear; doth not command Meekness to abate my Zele, nor kindle my Zele to consume my Meekness; doth not preach Christian Liberty to take off Obedience to Government, nor prescribe Obedience to infringe and weaken my Chiristian Liberty. Spiritus nusquam est aliud; The holy Spirit is never different from it self, ne∣ver contradicteth it self. And the reason why men who talk so much of the Spirit do fall into so gross and pernicious errours, is from hence, that they will not be like the Spirit in this; but upon the beck of some place of Scrip∣ture, which at the first blush and appearance looketh favourably on their present inclinations, run violently on this side, animated and posted on by those shews & appearances which were the creatures of their Lust & Phan∣sie, never looking back to other testimonies of Divine authority, that army of evidences, as Tertull. speaketh, which are openly prest out & marshalled against them, which might well put them to an halt & deliberation, which might stay and drive back their intention, and settle them at last in the truth, which consisteth in a moderation. O that men were wise, but so wise as to know the Spirit before they engage him, to look severely & imparti∣ally upon their own designs, & as seriously consider the nature of the blessed

Spirit, before they voice him out for their abettor, or make use of his name to bring their ends about! Not to do this, I will not say is the sin (though perhaps I might) but sure I am it is a great sin, even Blasphemy, against the holy Ghost.

But I must conclude, Let us then, as the Apostle speaketh, examine our selves, and bring our selves and our actions to trial. Prove your selves, and prove the Spirit. Are your steps right, and your wayes straight? Do your actions answer the rule, and still bear the same image and super∣scription? Are you obedient to the Church, and do you not think your selves wiser then your Teachers? Are you reverent to God's word, and receive it with all meekness, without respect or distinction of those persons that convey it? To come close to the Text; Do you not divorce Jesus from the Lord? riot it upon his mercy, and then bow to him in a qualm and pinch of conscience? Do you not fear the Lord the less for Jesus, nor love Jesus the less for the Lord? Are you as willing to be commanded as to be saved, and to be his subjects as his children? Are you thus qualified? And are you still the same, not making in your profession those 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, crooked and unsteddy bendings, those staggerings of a drunken man; now meek as Lambs, and anon raging like Lions; now hanging down the head, and anon lifting up your horn on high; at the altar forgiveness, and in your closet revenge; courting your brother to day, and to morrow taking him by the throat? Are you as ready to bow the knee in Devotion, and stretch forth the hand in Charity, as you are to incline your ear to a Ser∣mon? Are you in all things in subjection unto this Lord? Is this proposi∣tion true? and dare ye subscribe it with your bloud? JESUS IS THE LORD. Then have ye learnt this language well, and are perfect Lin∣guists in the Spirit's dialect. Then let the rainfall, and the flouds come, let the winds and waters of affliction beat thick upon us, and the waves of persecution go over our soul, let the windy sophisms of subtil disputants blow with violence to shake our resolution, in the midst of all temptations, assaults and encounters, in the midst of all the busie noise the world can make, we shall be at rest upon the rock, even upon this fundamental truth, That the Spirit is the best teacher, and That Jesus is the Lord. In which truth the Spirit of truth confirm us all for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Numb. 11.18.
• * 1.2

  Zeph. 3.9.
• * 1.3

  Eph. 3.18.
• * 1.4

  Rom. 8.11.
• * 1.5

  Matth. 3.11.
• * 1.6

  Exod. 30.
• * 1.7

  Eph. 3.17.
• * 1.8

  Acts 2.
• * 1.9

  Eccl. 12.11.
• * 1.10

  1 John 4.1.
• * 1.11

  Vers. 2,
• * 1.12

  1 Sam. 3. Vers. 9.
• * 1.13

  1 Tim. 3.15.
• * 1.14

  James 3.
• * 1.15

  Psal. 51.