SUMMARIES OF SERMONS

PREACHED AT GOLDEN GROVE.

SERMON I.

WHITSUNDAY.-OF THE SPIRIT OF GRACE.

ROMANS, CHAP. VIII. VERSES 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 righteousness.

PART I.

THE day in which the Church commemorates the descent of the Holy Ghost on the Apostles, was the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ; the first day that his religion was professed; when the Apostles opened their commission, and read it to all the people. The Lord gave his Spirit (or his word), and great was the company of the preachers. Observations on this change of spirit for word. The gospel is called the Spirit.

1. Because it contains such glorious mysteries, which were revealed by the immediate inspirations of the Spirit, not only in the matter, but also in the manner, and powers to comprehend them. This point explained and illustrated.

2. But when we had been taught all these mysteries, we could not, by any human power, have understood them, unless the Spirit of God had given us a new light, created in us a new capacity, and made us to be new creatures: this topic enlarged on.

3. The gospel is called Spirit, because it consists of spiritual promises and spiritual precepts; making all that embrace it truly, to become spiritual men: and therefore St. Paul adds an epithet, and calls it a quickening Spirit, &c.

4. But, beyond this, is the reason which is the consummation of all the faithful. The gospel is called the Spirit, because by it God has given us not only the spirit of manifestation, but the Spirit of confirmation, or obsignation, to all that believe and obey; that is, the power of God is come on our hearts, by which we are made sure, in the nature of the thing, of a glorious inheritance: this topic enlarged on and explained.

Meaning of the phrase, in the Spirit, given, viz. to be in the power of the Spirit: this explained and illustrated excellent state

of a person who is thus in the Spirit, or in subjection to the Spirit. They that strive to be quit of this subjection love the liberty of outlaws, and the licentiousness of anarchy, &c. He that is in the Spirit, is under tutors and governors, until the appointed time of the Father, just as all great heirs are; only the first seizure which the Spirit makes is on the will. He that loves the yoke of Christ and the discipline of the gospel, is in the Spirit; that is, in the Spirit's power. On this foundation the Apostle has built two propositions : 1. Whosoever hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his, &c. : 2. Whosoever is in Christ is dead to sin, and lives to the Spirit of Christ, &c.

I. All that belong to Christ have the Spirit of Christ. Immediately before the ascension, our Saviour bid his disciples tarry at Jerusalem, till they should receive the promise of the Father. Whoever stay at Jerusalem, and are in the actual communion of the Church of God, shall certainly receive this promise; for it is made to as many as God shall call. Manner in which the Spirit was formerly given described. But in the gospel, it is given without measure, &c.; so that Moses's wish is fulfilled; and all the Lord's people are prophets in some sense or other.

In the wisdom of the ancients it was observed, that there are four great cords which tie the heart of man to vanity and corruption; viz. pleasure, pain, fear, and desire: so that men are tempted, 1. To lust by pleasure; 2. To baser arts by covetousness; 3. To impatience by sorrow; 4. To dishonorable actions by fear: and this was the state of man by nature, and under the law, and for ever, until the Spirit of God came, and, by four special operations, cured these four inconveniences.

1. God gave us his Spirit, that we might be insensible to worldly pleasures, having our souls wholly filled with spiritual and heavenly relishes. A man that hath tasted of God's Spirit, can instantly discern the madness that is in rage, the folly and disease that are in envy, the anguish that results from lust, &c.; and he understands things truly as they are; that is, that charity is the greatest nobleness in the world, temperance the best security of health, and that religion has the truest pleasures. And all these relishes are but the antipasts of heaven, &c.

And

And when once we have tasted of the Spirit of God, no food but that of angels, no cup but that of salvation is agreeable to us. there is no greater external testimony that we are in the Spirit, and that the Spirit dwells in us, than if we find joy and spiritual pleasure in the greatest mysteries of our religion: this subject fully enlarged on.

2. The Spirit of God is given to all who truly belong to Christ, as an antidote against sorrows, against impatience, against the evil accidents of the world, and against the sinking of our spirits under the cross. There are noted in Scripture two births, besides the natural: the first is, to be born of water and of the Spirit; the second is, to be born of the Spirit and of fire: to these may be added a third, or an operation of the new birth, but the same spirit, the Spirit

PART III.

Y

of rejoicing. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, &c. There is a certain joy and spiritual rejoicing that accompanies them in whom the Holy Ghost dwells; a joy in the midst of sorrow, given to allay the pain of secular troubles, and to alleviate the burthen of persecution. This topic dilated on to the

end.

PART II.

3. The Spirit of God is given to us as an antidote against evil concupiscences and sinful desires; and is then called the Spirit of prayer and supplication. Ever since the affections of the outer man prevailed on the ruins of the soul, all our desires grew sensual, and therefore hurtful for ever after our body grew to be our enemy. In the looseness of nature and ignorance of philosophy, men used to pray, with their hands full of rapine, and hearts full of malice; and they prayed accordingly.

The Jews were better taught; but God gave the Spirit to them only in single rays: this subject enlarged on. But God hath poured his Spirit into our hearts, the Spirit of prayer and supplication. And now,

1. Christians pray in spirit, with sighs and groans; and know that God, who dwells within them, can as clearly distinguish those secret accents, as he knows the voice of his own thunder.

2. Likewise the Spirit helpeth our infirmities; for we know not what we should pray for as we ought it hath taught us that happiness cannot consist merely in freedom from afflictions, but in patience, resignation, and noble sufferance, &c.

3. Whereas only a Moses or a Samuel, a John or the Messias himself, could describe and indite forms of prayer to the accent of Heaven; now every wise and good man is instructed perfectly by the Scriptures what to ask for, &c.

4. The Spirit of God hath made our services to be spiritual, holy, the effects of choice and religion, the consequence of a spiritual sacrifice, and of a holy union with God. The prayer of a Christian is with the effects of the Spirit of sanctification and this is by St. James called the prayer of faith, which is said to be certain to prevail.

5. The Spirit gives to us great relish and appetite for prayers: and this St. Paul calls serving of God in his Spirit; that is, with a willing mind and they who pray from custom only, or with trouble and unwillingness, &c. give a great testimony that they have not the Spirit of Christ within them; that Spirit which maketh intercession for the saints.

6. The Spirit of Christ and of prayer helps our infirmities, by giving us confidence and importunity; for as is our faith and trust in God, so is our hope, and so is our prayer; weary or lasting, long or short, not in words, but in works and in desires; for the words are no part of the spirit of prayer: this consists in holy desires and holy actions.

7. Some men have thought of a seventh way, and explain our praying in the Spirit by a mere volubility of language; which is directly to undervalue the Spirit of God and of Christ, to return to the materiality and imperfection of the law, to retire from Christ to Moses, from real graces to imaginary gifts: this topic fully dilated on.

Thus have been described the effluxes of the Holy Spirit on us in his great channels. But the great effect of them is this; that as by the acts of the spirits of darkness and our own malice our souls are rendered carnal, that is, servants to the passions and desires of the flesh; so, on the other side, by the grace of God, and promise of the Father, and influences of the Holy Ghost, our souls are recovered from that degradation, and transformed into a new nature: this subject is next to be considered.

II. As soon as the tyrant sin is overcome, and a new heart is put into us, instantly we have a new name given us, and we are esteemed a new creation, having a new nature within us. This may seem

strange; but it is one of the great mysteries of the gospel. Every man naturally consists of soul and body; but every Christian man who belongs to Christ, has more; for he has body, soul, and spirit. The text is plain on this head; if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his. And by Spirit is meant not merely the graces of God and his gifts, enabling us to do holy things; but the Spirit of adoption, through Christ, by which we are made sons of God, capable of a new state, intitled to another mode of duration, &c. this subject fully dilated on.

This very mystery itself is the greatest possible encouragement to us in our duty, and by way of thankfulness. He that gives great things, ought to have great acknowlegements. If the fire be quenched, the fire of God's Spirit, God will kindle another in his anger that shall never be quenched but if we entertain God's Spirit with our own purities, employ it diligently, and serve it willingly, then we shall be turned into spiritual beings.

If this be a new principle, and be given us in order to the actions of a holy life, we must take care that we receive not the Spirit of God in vain, and remember that it is a new life. Every man hath within him either the Spirit of God or the spirit of the devil: this topic enlarged on and illustrated. Here is a greater argument for a holy life than Moses had when addressing the children of Israel; Behold I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: this said Moses: but by this Scripture is set before us the good Spirit and the bad, God and the devil: we have to choose unto whose nature we will be likened, and into whose inheritance we will be adopted this topic enlarged on.

The purport of this discourse stated to be, that since the Spirit of God is a new nature, we are thereby taught and enabled to serve God, by a constant course of holy living, without the frequent returns and interventions of such actions as men call sins of infirmity. Whosoever hath the Spirit of God, lives the life of grace; the Spirit of God rules in him, and is strong, and allows not such

sins which we think unavoidable: this topic enlarged on, and the question more particularly considered.

1. No great sin is a sin of infirmity, or excusable on that score: though indeed every sin may be said to be a sin of infirmity, in some sense or other. When a man is in the state of spiritual sickness or death, he is in a state of infirmity, a prisoner, a slave, weak in his judgment, impotent in his passions, &c.: but he that is thus in infirmity cannot be excused; for it is the aggravation of the state of his sin such a one is the servant of sin, a slave to the devil, and heir to corruption; that is, he hath not the Spirit of Christ in him; for where the Son is, there is liberty: this topic enlarged on.

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2. Sins of infirmity, as they are small in their instance, so they put on their degree of excusableness only according to the weakness or infirmity of a man's understanding: this enlarged on.

3. The violence or strength of temptation is not sufficient to excuse an action, if it leaves the understanding still able to judge; because a temptation cannot have any proper strength, but from ourselves, &c.

4. No habitual sin, which is repented of and committed again, is excusable under a pretence of infirmity; but that sin is certainly noted, and certainly condemned, and therefore returns, not because of the weakness of nature, but of grace: the principle of this is an evil spirit, an habitual aversion to God, a dominion of sin: this topic enlarged on. Concluding remarks.

SERMON II.

THE DESCENDING AND ENTAILED CURSE CUT OFF.

EXODUS, CHAP. XX. VERSES 5, 6.

I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

PART I.

A MAN would not think it necessary that a commonwealth should hire orators to dissuade men from running into houses infected by the plague; yet God has hired servants to fight against sin, and advocates to plead against it; has made laws against it, and established a peculiar order of men to give an alarm at every approach of it. God hath edged sin about with thorns; and sin of itself too brings thorns, &c. Moreover, it moves God first to jealousy, which takes off his friendship towards us; and then to anger, which makes