Another thing which is a full proof that the seal of the Spirit is no revelation of any fact by immediate suggestion, but is grace itself in the soul, is, that the seal of the Spirit

solation, you cannot avoid the condemnation of the word. You say the Spirit has spoken peace to you; but do you love Christ? I look not to that, but to the Spirit. Why, the word saith, He that loves him not, let him be Anathema. So is the league between your sins and your souls broken? Ans. I look not to that. Why, John saith, he that committeth sin is of the devil. Are you new creatures? I look not. to that. Why, the word saith, unless you be born again you cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Pag. 176, 177. "A man saith, I have Christ; and so have not they. I ask, where is the Spirit? You have the deed; where is the seal? You have the testator; where is the executor? the Spirit in you? Yes, I have it; it has witnessed Christ is mine. Ans. It has witnessed; but what has it wrought? where is the power of his death, killing thy lusts? where is the life of the Spirit of Jesus in you? where is the oil in your vessel? Truly I look for the Bridegroom; but I regard not that; neither are others to regard it in the way of evidence. Then I say, the chief evidence is destroyed in the churches. I have known many that have had assurances; yet never saw them prove right, until it witnessed this was here. What should be the causes of this, and that men should make blusters in the churches because of this, as though it was building on works? In several men they are several. 1. An aptaess to out-run the truth, and to fall from one extreme to another 2. The apostacy of eminent professors, who have been deceived in their evidencing thus.3. Corrupt experience—4. A heart that never felt the bitterness and bondage of sin, as the greatest evil." Pag. 215, 2 6. The peace, and joy, and assurance of that glory, which eye never saw, in the saints, it is from the witness of the Spirit of glory; not only because that God is their God, but because they are his people. It is, I say, from the witness of God in his word; not from themselves, nor from man only, that they approve me; nor from dreams and diabolical breathings: but from the Spirit of God; he brings tidings of it; and from such a spirit (that you may know it) that not only shews you God is your God, and so you rejoice because of this; for thus it is with many a carnal heart, and he hath peace, being in horror, from this, the Lord loves me; but he makes you to rejoice, because you are the Lord's people, because "he hath changed your heart: now the peace is sound, and joy is right: and here I would try the peace of any man." Part II. p. 168, 169. "All the heirs of the promises, as heirs that have legacies left them, they go to the will of the deceased father; and that conforts, that they hold to, that is sure; such an one shall have it, if his name be there. But if one shall say, such a one hath promised me such lands: Is it in his will? No; but since he died, as I was taking a pipe, he came to me: Oh be not deceived!"

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Again, in his Soond Believer, there is a long discourse of sanctification as the chief evidence of justification, from p. 221, for many pages following; I shall transcribe but a very small part of it. "Tell me, how you will know that you are justified? You will say, by the testimony of the Spirit. And cannot the same Spirit shine upon your graces, and witness that you are sanctified, as well? I John iv. 13, 24. 1 Cor. ii 12. Can the Spirit make The one clear to you, and not the other? Oh, beloved, it is a sad thing to ar such questions, and such cold answers also, that sanctification possibly

is called the earnest of the Spirit, in the scripture. It is very plain, that the seal of the Spirit is the same thing with the earnest of the Spirit, by 2 Cor. i. 22. Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. And Eph. i. 13, 14. In whom, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheri tance, until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory. Now the earnest is part of the money agreed for, given in hand, as a token of the whole, to be paid in due time; a part of the promised inheritance, granted now, in token of full possession of the whole hereafter.But surely that kind of communication of the Spirit of God,

may be an evidence. May be! Is it not certain ? Assuredly to deny it, is as bad as to affirm that God's own promises of favour are not true evi dences thereof, and consequently that they are lies and untruths."

Mr Flavel also much opposes this notion of the witness of the Spirit by immediate revelation. Sacramental Meditations, Med. 4. speaking of the sealing of the Spirit, he says, "In sealing the believer, he doth not make use of an audible voice, nor the ministry of angels, nor inmediate and extraordipary revelations; but he makes use of his own graces, implanted in our hearts, and his own promises, written in the scripture: and in this method, he usually brings the doubting trembling heart of a believer to rest and comfort." Again, ibid." Assurance is produced in our souls by the reflective acts of faith; the Spirit helps us to reflect upon what hath been done by him formerly upon our hearts; hereby we know that we know him, I John ii. 3. To know that we know, is a reflex act. Now it is impossible there should be a reflex, before there hath been a direct act. No man can have the evi. dence of his faith, before the habit is infused, and the vital act performed, The object matter, to which the Spirit seals, is his own sanctifying opera tion." Afterwards, ibid. he says, Immediate ways of the Spirit's sealing. are ceased. No man may now expect, by any new revelation, or sign from heaven, by any voice, or extraordinary inspiration, to have his salvation sealed; but must expect that mercy in God's ordinary way and method, searching the scriptures, examining our own hearts, and waiting on the Lord in prayer. The learned Gerson gives an instance of one that had been long upon the borders of despair, and at last sweetly a-sured and settled: he an swered, Non ex nova eliqua revelatione; not by any new revelation, but by subjecting my understanding to, and comparing my heart with the written word. And Mr Roberts, in his treatise of the covenants, speaks of another, that so vehemently panted after the sealings and assurance of the love of God to his soul, that for a long time he earnestly desired some voice from heaven; and sometimes, walking in the solitary fields, earnestly desired some miraculous voice from the trees or stones there. This was denied him; but in time, a better was afforded, in a scriptural way." Again, ibid." This method of sealing, is beyond all other methods in the world. For in miraculous voices and inspirations, it is possible there may sube:se falsum, be found some cheat, or impostures of the devil: but the Spirit's witness in the heart, suitable to the revelation in the scripture, cannot deceive us."

which is of the nature of eternal glory, is the highest and most excellent kind of communication, something that is in its own nature spiritual, holy and divine, and far from any thing that is common; and therefore high above any thing of the nature of inspiration, or revelation of hidden facts by suggestion of the Spirit of God, which many natural men have had. What is the earnest and beginning of glory, but grace itself, especially in the more lively and clear exercises of it ? It is not prophecy, nor tongues, nor knowledge, but that more excellent divine thing, charity that never faileth, which is a prelibation and beginning of the light, sweetness, and blessedness of heaven, that world of love or charity. It is grace that is the seed of glory, and dawning of glory in the heart, and therefore it is grace that is the earnest of the future inheritance. What is it that is the beginning or earnest of eternal life in the soul, but spiritual life? and what is that but grace? The inheritance that Christ has purchased for the elect, is the Spirit of God; not in any extraordinary gifts, but in his vital indwelling in the heart, exerting and communicating himself there in his own proper, holy, or divine nature; and this is the sum-total of the inheritance that Christ purchased for the elect. For so are things constituted in the affair of our redemption, that the Father provides the Saviour, or purchaser, and the purchase is made of him; and the Son is the purchaser and the price; and the Holy Spirit is the great blessing or inheritance purchas ed, as is intimated, Gal. iii. 13, 14. and hence the Spirit is often spoken of as the sum of the blessings promised in the gospel, Luke xxiv. 49. Acts i. 4. and ii. 38, 39. Gal. iii. 14. Eph. i. 13. This inheritance was the grand legacy which Christ left his disciples and church, in his last will and testament, John xiv. xv. xvi. This is the sum of the blessings of eternal life, which shall be given in heaven. (Compare John vii. 37, 38, 39. and John iv. 14. with Rev. xxi. 6. and xxii. 1, 17.) It is through the vital communications and indwelling of the Spirit that the saints have all their light, life, holiness, beauty, and joy in heaven : and it is through the vital communications and indwelling of the same Spirit, that the saints have all light, life, holiness, beauty, and comfort on earth; but only communicated in less measure. And this vital indwelling of the Spirit in the saints, in this less measure and small beginning, is, the ear.

nest of the Spirit, the earnest of the future inheritance, and the first-fruits of the Spirit, as the apostle calls it, Rom. viii. 22. where, by the first-fruits of the Spirit, the apostle undoubt edly means the same vital gracious principle that he speaks of in all the preceding part of the chapter, which he calls Spirit, and sets in opposition to flesh or corruption. Therefore this earnest of the Spirit, and first-fruits of the Spirit, which has been shown to be the same with the seal of the Spirit, is the vital gracious sanctifying communication and influence of the Spirit, and not any immediate suggestion or revelation of facts by the Spirit *.

see.

-And indeed the apostle, when in that, Rom. viii. 16. he speaks of the Spirit's bearing witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, does sufficiently explain himself, if his words were but attended to. What is here expressed is connected with the two preceding verses, as resulting from what the apostle had said there, as every reader may. The three verses together are thus, For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God: for ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father : · the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirits, that we are the children of God. Here, what the apostle says, if we take it together, plainly shews, that what he has respect to, when he speaks of the Spirit's giving us witness or evidence that we are God's children, is his dwelling in us, and leading us, as a spirit of adoption, or spirit of a child, disposing us to behave towards God as to a Father. This is the witness or evidence the apostle speaks of, that we are children, that we have the spirit of children, or spirit of adoption. And what is that, but the spirit of love? There are two kinds of spirits the apostle speaks of, the spirit of a slave, or the spi-rit of bondage, that is fear; and the spirit of a child, or spirit of adoption, and that is love. The apostle says, we have not received the spirit of bondage, or of slaves, which

"After a man is in Christ, not to judge by the work, is not to judge by the Spirit. For the apostle makes the earnest of the Spirit to be the seal. Now earnest is part of the money bargained for; the beginning of heaven, of the light and life of it. He that sees not that the Lord is his by that, sees no God his at all. Oh, therefore, do not look for a spirit, without a word to reveal, nor a word to reveal, without seeing and feeling of some work first. I thank the Lord, I do but pity those that think otherwise. If a sheep of Christ, oh, wonder net." Shepard's Par. P. I. p 26.

is a spirit of fear; but we have received the more ingenuous noble spirit of children, a spirit of love, which naturally disposes us to go to God as children to a father, and behave towards God as children. And this is the evidence or wit

ness which the Spirit of God gives us that we are children. This is the plain sense of the apostle; and so undoubtedly the apostle here is speaking of the very same way of casting out doubting and fear, and the spirit of bondage, which the apostle John speaks of, 1 John iv. 18. viz. by the prevailing of love, that is the spirit of a child. The spirit of bondage works by fear, the slave fears the rod; but love cries, Abba, Father; it disposes us to go God, and behave ourselves towards God as children; and it gives us clear evidence of our union to God as his children, and so casts out fear. So that it appears that the witness of the Spirit the apostle speaks of, is far from being any whisper, or immediate suggestion or revelation; but that gracious holy effect of the Spirit of God in the hearts of the saints, the disposi tion and temper of children, appearing in sweet child-like love to God, which casts out fear, or a spirit of a slave."

And the same thing is evident from all the context: it is plain the apostle speaks of the Spirit, over and over again, as dwelling in the hearts of the saints, as a gracious principle, set in opposition to the flesh or corruption: and so he does in the words that immediately introduce this passage we are upon, ver. 13. For if ye live after the flesh, ye die but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the flesh, ye shall live.

shall

Indeed it is past doubt with me, that the apostle has a more special respect to the spirit of grace, or the spirit of love, or spirit of a child, in its more lively actings; for it is perfect, love or strong love only, which so witnesses or evidences that we are children, as to cast out fear, and wholly deliver from the spirit of bondage. The strong and lively exercises of a spirit of child-like, evangelical, humble love to God, give clear evidence of the soul's relation to God as his child; which does very greatly and directly satisfy the soul. And though it be far from being true, that the soul in this case, judges only by an immediate witness, without any sign or evidence; for it judges and is assured by the greatest sign and clearest evidence; yet in this case, the saint stands in no need of multiplied signs, or any long rea