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thing doth suppose it to be, for that which is not, cannot be hid; so far is it from carrying a supposition or an inference that it is not. We ought therefore to possess our souls of this apprehension (think men of this matter what they will) there is really a certain sort of life which doth distinguish a holy man from a mere man, as truly, as there is a natural life which doth distinguish a mere man from a carcass, from the deserted trunk and body of a man, And when we consider so, how can we forbear to lay our hands upon our hearts, and ask ourselves the question; "Do I live this life, yea, or no? Do I feel my

self to live? Do I feel an inclination and bent of heart towards God some principles of life, springing up from that divine root, which carries my soul towards that blessed object : that I am acted from God to God in my ordinary course?" We cannot have a greater question or of more concernment in all this world, to deal with our souls about, and therefore let it be seriously thought of.

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SERMON X.*

WE E are upon the first act of the Holy Spirit in reference to souls born of it, held forth to us in this scripture, namely, in the supposition, from whence we have observed-That the blessed Spirit of God doth by its own influence maintain the life, whereof it hath been the Author unto regenerate souls.

And here we propounded to speak, of the life to be maintained, and of the influence which maintains it. Of the former we have spoken already and are now to go on

2. To the latter. Concerning which we shall-shew what kind of influence it is; and-how it is ascertained unto regenerate souls. Or, give you some account of the nature and of the certainty of it.

(1) Of the former you may have some account by considering such properties of it as those that follow, namely,

[1.] It is a most free and arbitrary influence. It is a most gracious influence you know, in the very notion whereof the purest liberty is implied, wherein it has first to do with souls, as is subjoined to the Scripture before discoursed of in John 3 8. It is represented as "the wind that bloweth were it listeth." In operations of this kind the Spirit delights to discover and magnify a kind of sovereignty and royalty. It is a very awful word which hath reference, as we find, unto that consideration, Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, in Phil

Preached February 26th. 1677. at Cordwainer's Hall.

2. 12. The consideration is immediately added, that "God worketh in us to will and to do of his own good pleasure." And I conceive there are two things hinted to us in that expression, namely, that whatsoever he doth of this kind, he doth with delight, taking a complacency in it, and enjoying, as it were, his own act; "he exercises loving-kindness in the earth," and in no kind or manner of operation so as in this, because herein he doth delight. And it also intimates, that what he doth herein, he doth upon no obligation; he doth at the rate of most absolute liberty, so as that he might do, or might not do. Liberum est quod potuit non fuisse, that is free which might not have been. "He works of good pleasure," having no other tie upon him than what he takes on and lays upon himself; and therefore "work out your salvation," saith the apostle, "with fear and trembling." He works now, you do not know whether he will by and by, if you neglect him now. Therefore is the blessed Spirit mentioned with that distinguishing title of the free Spirit, Uphold me with thy free Spirit, Psal. 51. 12. It is not only efficiently so, as the great Author of liberty unto those souls upon whom it works effectually, and with saving operations, as is the sense of what we find said in 2 Cor. 3. 17. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, liberty communicated by it unto those, who by the Spirit of the Lord, as it after follows, beholding as in a glass his glory, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory. Whilst it refines them, it enlarges them, defecates them, makes them capable of ascending, and renders them some way adequate to a large, universal, all comprehensive good; it is not, I say, only so a free Spirit, but it is in itself free, a Spirit that so works as was not to be expected, and that cannot be prescribed unto. Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or, being his counsellor, hath taught him? Isa. 40. 13.

[2.] It is a very various influence, in the degrees of its communication and operation. It may well be so, as being most free. It is not communicated alike unto all who have been born of this Spirit, nor to all those, nor to any of them, alike at all times. Some have more light and joy, more strength and vigour than others have; and the same persons have themselves their more lucid and turbid intervals, and in their time there is often a very quick succession of night and day; there is sorrow in the night, and a calm in the morning, and quick interchanges of such darkness and light, as in 30. Psalm. 5. Which variations do proceed partly, from sovereignty, as hath been said; but partly also from paternal justice. From sovereignty we may suppose, in great part, this Spirit comes and goes, even as it will, as to its more observable communications,

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to discover its liberty: but oftentimes it varies the course of its dispensation, and the state of the soul with whom it hath to do, in a way of paternal justice. For as we know that there is such a thing as economical justice as well as political, among us, so there is a justice too which the holy God doth exercise in his own family, and among the children which have been begotten and born of him, as well as towards those who are under his government upon a more common account: and it is very meet and reasonable it should be so. It were a most incongruous thing, if he should be equally indulgent unto the careless and vain, and wanton, and extravagant, and the negligent of him and their own duty; as to the serious, and watchful, and diligent, and those who are most studious to please him, and most in love with his presence. He doth in

his displeasure many times withdraw and hide himself, for the rebuke of negligences and undutiful deportments towards him; and he doth upon the account of the same justice shew, or manifest himself (as our Saviour's expression is in John 14. 21.) for the encouragement and reward of those that do more closely and faithfully adhere to him, and make it more their business and study to please and imitate him. The Spirit is often grieved, and in a degree quenched by the carelessness, and neglects and resistances even of its own offspring, or of those who have been born of it; and then the discipline of the family doth require that they should be put to rebuke; and sơ its influence comes to be an often varying thing.

[3.] Yet it is so far a continual influence as is necessary for the maintaining of the root of this life, that that may not totally wither; and therefore at the lowest ebb of those who are the offspring of this Spirit, there is still a sustaining influence upon them. As it was very low with the psalmist in the 73. psalm, when he was just ready to throw up all: Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, verse 13. He thought it was to no purpose to be any longer religious; he was become in the temper of his spirit so unlike a saint, that he judged himself, upon reflection, to be a great deal more like a beast. And yet he says in the 23rd. verse, that he had been ever with God, "Nevertheless I am continually with thee." Even all that while there was a presence of God continued, and he was even then held by his right hand. So are the souls of his held in life, which holdeth our soul in life, Psalm 66. 9. Though that might have another, yet it is probable enough to have a spiritual meaning, and there are passages in the context that may incline us to apprehend so.

[4.] It is a still, silent, a secret, and often an unobserved influence; such as by which no great noise is made, and many

times doth escape the notice of them who are the subjects of it. Their life is a secret kind of life, "hid with Christ in God," and by such a kind of influence it is maintained. God is near many times, when it is not known. He was in the very place (and we cannot think that Jacob meant it, by his essential presence, for that he very well knew, but by his gracious presence) and he says that he knew it not. As though he had said, "I little thought of God's being so nigh." Gen. 28. 16. And we may at least, allude to those words, in Hos. 11. 3. I taught Ephraim to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them. He deals so with those who are born of him, as even to teach them to go, and they know not that it is he that carries them all along. The operation of the Spirit doth very much imitate that of nature, it is in a very still and silent way that the sap is drained in by the root, and ascends up the trunk of the tree, and diffuses itself to every branch, so that we may see that it lives, but we do not see how. The case is with souls that are brought to live in the Spirit, as with very infirm and languishing persons, who have been consumed, and even next to death in a putrid and corrupt air; being removed into such as is pure and wholesome they revive, but in a very insensible way: so is this life preserved by a vital, spiritual influence, which is as pure air to them, a gentle, indulgent, benign and cherishing air; they live by it, and never a whit the worse, because it is not so turbulent as to make a noise.

[5.] As still and silent as it is, it is yet a very powerful and efficacious influence. The case requires that it should be so; for it is a great thing to maintain such a life upon such terms. A thing that is so purely divine, if it were not maintained by a strong hand, it were hardly to be thought how it should subsist in such a region as this, so every way unsuitable to it; it is a life continually assaulted, often struck at; a life employed in continual conflicts and crowned with many a glorious victory, and that implies a mighty power to be employed to preserve life and maintain it. When I am weak, then am I strong. 2. Cor. 12. 10. Sure he must be weak in one respect, and strong in another: weak, he must mean spiritually too weak, if you consider the principle in itself, absolutely; strong, if you consider it in reference to the continual aids and supplies that are given in. And it is plain that the exercises of this life require, that strength and might should be employed to maintain it through them. Very difficult and hard things they are, which those who live this life are exposed to the suffering of, and merely because they live this life, and hold it forth that they are, in this sense alive : as no body goes about to wound

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