He so takes care of all as of every one, and of every one as if he were the only one under his care. Id. He is the first-born among many brethren; and as that imports dignity, so it doth employment; it being his part as such to provide for the good state of the family: which is all named from him, both that part in heaven, and that on earth, Eph. iii. 15. Yea, and he may in a true sense be styled the Pater-familias, the Father of the family: though to the first in Godhead he is the Son, to us he is styled the everlasting Father, Isa. ix. 6. Therefore he is under obligation hereto, by his Father's appointment, and his own undertaking. God; according whereto we may expect them to be con- | diffusion, nor more particular distribuuon, signifying him tinued and increased, or fear they shall be withheld. But to be greater or less, in all, in every one. now, because all do more or less resist, and thereby deserve they should cease, or commit a forfeiture of them: and sometimes this forfeiture is taken, sometimes it is not; but the grieved Spirit returns and re-enforces his holy motions, even unto victory; where or when he shall do so, we have no certain published rule, whereby to conclude this way, or that. The Son of God (by consent with the Father) here acts as a Plenipotentiary, and Sovereign, quickening whom he will. The Spirit (by consent with him) breathes, in order to the vital production of temples, as the wind-where it listeth; or for regeneration, which is the thing there discoursed of in all that context, and even in the next following words, which apply that similitude; "so is every one that is born of the Spirit," John iii. 8. And we are therefore, elsewhere, warned to "work out our salvation with fear and trembling," (Phil. ii. 12, 13.) because God worketh in us, to will, and to do, of his own good pleasure; being under no tie, not quite to desist, and forsake us, at the next opposition he meets with. At least, they that are not within the compass of his covenant (once sincerely entered) can lay no claim, in such a case, to his continuance, or return. CHAPTER VII. The sixth head proposed before, now insisted on. That for the purpose of And that which he hath obliged himself to, is to give the Holy Spirit, or take continual care that it be communicated from time to time, as particular exigencies and occasions shall require. It was a thing full of wonder, that ever he should be so far concerned in our affairs! But being concerned so deeply as we know he hath been; to be incarnate for us; to be made a sacrifice to God for us, that he might have it in his power to give the Spirit, having become a curse for us, that he might be capable of conferring upon us this blessing; 'tis now no wonder he should oblige himself to a continual constant care that his own great and kind design should now not be lost or miscarry. After he had engaged himself so deeply in this design for his redeemed, could he decline further obligation? And his obligation creates their right, entitles them to this mighty gift of his own Spirit; concerning which we shall consider-The dueness, and the greatness, or amplitude, of this Gift: or show, that, as their case is now stated, upon their regeneration, they have a pleadable right to this high privilege, the continued communication of the Spirit. And next show, of how large extent this privilege is, and how great things are contained in it. I scruple not to call it a Gift, and yet at the same time to assert their right to it, to whom it is given; not doubting but every one will see, a right accruing by free-promise (as we shall show this doth) detracts nothing from the freeness of the gift. When the promise only, with what we shall see is directly consequent, produces or creates this right, it is unconceivable that this creature, by resulting naturally, should injure its own parent or productive cause. We shall therefore say somewhat briefly, II. 1. Of the dueness of this continued indwelling presence of the blessed Spirit to the regenerate: (intending to speak more largely of the amplitude and extensiveness of it, on the account afterwards to be given :) And, (1.) It is due (as hath been intimated) by promise. It is expressly said to be the promise of the Spirit, Gal. iii. 14. But to whom? To the regenerate, to them who are born after the Spirit, as may be seen at large, chap. iv. These (as it after follows) are the children and heirs of the promise, which must principally mean this promise, as it is eminently called, Acts ii. 38. "Repent," (which connotes regeneration,)" and ye shall receive the Holy Ghost; for the promise is to you, &c. and to as many as the Lord shall call:" which calling, when effectual, includes regeneration. When (Eph. i. 13.) this blessed Spirit is called the Spirit of promise, what can that mean but the promised Spirit? I. FOR the other purpose of inhabiting this temple, when by regeneration it is thus built and prepared, the Redeemer gives the Spirit upon other terms, viz. according to the tenure of a certain rule declared and published to the world, and whereby a right thereto accrues unto these regenerate ones. The unregenerate world, especially such as by frequent resistances had often forfeited all gracious communications of that blessed Spirit, have nothing to assure them he will ever regenerate them. But, being now regenerate, and thereby formed into living temples, they may, upon known and certain terms, expect him to inhabit them as such, and to be statedly their Emmanuel; and that as God, even their own God, (Psal. lxvii.) he will bless them, and abide with them, and in them, for that gracious purpose. Why else hath he conquered all their reluctancy, and made them his temples? It was against their (former) will, but according to his own. He at first herein, by rough hewings, might displease them, but he pleased himself, and fulfilled, hereby, "the good pleasure of his own goodness," 2 Thess. i. 11. Nor will now leave his people, because it pleased him to make them his people, 1 Sam. xii. Neither is he now the less pleased that he is under bonds, for he put himself under them, most freely, and his "gifts and callings are without repentance," Rom. xi. But being under bonds, he now puts on a distinct capacity, and treats these his regenerate ones under a different notion from that under which he acted towards other men, or themselves before; not as an absolute, unobliged Sovereign, that might do or not do for them as he would; but as a trustee, managing a trust committed to him by the Eternal Father; as the Oeconomus, The proposal of it is in very general terms, "Ho, every the great Steward of his family; the prime Minister, and one that thirsts"-Isa. lv. 1. "Incline your ear-and I will Curator of all the affairs of his house and temple, which make an everlasting covenant with you"-v. 3. And so it they are, (1 Cor. iii. 17.) all and every one. a For as vast gives a remote, future right to such as shall enter into it. as this temple is, where it is made up of all; and as mani-But only they have a present actual right to what it confold as it is, when every one is to him a single temple; neither is above the comprehension, nor beneath the condescension, of his large and humble mind. Neither larger a Ilujus enim Templum, simul omnes, et singuli. Templa sumus.-Omnium Concordiam, et singulos inhabitare dignatur, non in omnibus, quam (2.) Their right is the more evident; and what is promised the more apparently due, in that the promise hath received the form of a covenant, whereby the covenanters have a more strongly pleadable right and claim; to which the rest of men have no such pretence. It is true that we must distinguish of the covenant,-as proposed, and entered. tains, that have entered into it: and their plea is strong, having this to say; "I have not only an indefinite, or les determinate, promise to rely upon; but a promise upon in singulis major. Quoniam nec mole distenditur, nec partitione minuitur. Aug. de Civ. Dei, lib. 18. cap. 45. terms expressed, which I have agreed to; and there is now a mutual stipulation between God and me: He offered himself, and demanded me; I have accepted him, and given myself. And hereupon I humbly expect and claim all further needful communications of his Spirit, as the principal promised blessings of this covenant." "Such a one may therefore say, as the Psalmist hath taught him, Remember thy word to thy servant, in which thou hast caused me to hope, Psal. cxix. 49. I had never looked for such quickening influences, if thou hadst not caused me, and been the Author to me of such an expectation. Now as thou hast quickened me by thy word, v. 50. so quickening me according to thy word. "I will put my Spirit within you," is a principal article of this covenant, Ezek. xxxvi. 27. And this expression of putting the Spirit within, must signify not a light touch upon the soul of a man, but to settle it as in the innermost centre of the soul, in order to a fixed abode. And how sacred is the bond of this covenant! it is founded in the blood of the Mediator of it. This is, as he himself speaks, the new testament (or covenant) in my blood, Luke xxii. 20. Therefore is this, in a varied phrase, said to be the "blood of the covenant;" and therefore is this covenant said to be everlasting, Heb. xiii. 20. referring to a known maxim among the Hebrews: Pacts, confirmed by blood, (sanguine sancita,) can never be abolished. "The God of peace-by the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work;" which must imply a continual communication of the Spirit; for it is also added, to do always what is well-pleasing in his sight; which, who can do without such continual aids? "Coming to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, we come to the blood of sprinkling," Heb. xii. 24. He could not mediate for us upon other terms; and upon those, obtains for us the better promises, "spiritual blessings in heavenly things," Eph. i. 3. And further, this covenant is ratified by his oath who formed and made it. "My covenant will I not breakOnce have I sworn," Ps. lxxxix. 34, 35. By these two immutable things, (even to our apprehension,) 'tis impossible for God to lie, Heb. vi. 17, 18. Regeneration is the building of this temple; covenanting on our part contains the dedication of it; and what then can follow but constant possession and use? (3.) The regenerate, as such, are sons, both by receiving a new nature, even a divine, 2 Pet. i. 4. in their regeneration; and a new title, in (what is always conjunct) their adoption. Now, hereupon the continual supplies of the Spirit in this house (or temple) of his are the children's bread, Luke xi. 13. Because they are sons, therefore God sends the Spirit of his Son into their hearts, Gal. iv. 6. and he is styled the Spirit of adoption, Rom. viii. 14, 15. Therefore have a right to the provisions of their Father's house. (4) The Spirit is given unto these children of God upon their faith; which must certainly suppose their previous title for the ground of it. They receive "the promise of the Spirit by faith,” (Gal. iii. 14.) as by faith they are God's children, v. 26. Receiving the Son, who was eminently so, and to whom the sonship did primarily or originally belong; and believing in his name, they thereupon have power or right to become the sons of God, John i. 12. being herein also regenerate, born not of flesh and blood, but of God. And thus, by faith receiving him, by faith they retain him, or have him abiding in them, as he abides in them: for the union is intimate and mutual, John xv. 5. They first receive him upon the gospel offer, which, as was said, gave them a remote right, and now retain him, as having an actual right. He dwells in the heart by faith, Eph. iii. 17. But what he doth, in this respect, his Spirit doth; so he explains himself, when, in those valedictory chapters of St. John's gospel, xiv. xv. xvi. he promises his disconsolate disciples, he would come to them, he would see them, he would manifest himself to them, he would abide with them, within a little while they should see him, &c. intimates to them, that he principally meant all this of a presence to be vouchsafed them by his Spirit, ch. xiv. v. 16, 17, 18, 19. And he concerns the Ο εξουσίαν. Father also with himself in the same sort of commerce; (v. 20.) " At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you;" as also v. 21, and 23. Thus in another place, we find the Spirit promiscuously spoken of as the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of Christ; and the inbeing or indwelling of Christ, and of the Spirit, used as expressions signifying the same thing; when also the operation of God is spoken of by the same indwelling Spirit, Rom. viii. 9, 10, 11. Which an eminent father observing, takes occasion to speak of the joint presence of the several persons of the Trinity, with such with whom any one is present, because each bears itself inseparably towards the other, and is united most intimately therewith, wheresoever one hypostasis (or persons, as by the Latins we are taught to speak) is present, there the whole Trinity is present-Amazing thing! that the glorious Subsistents in the eternal Godhead, should so concentre in kind design, influence, and operation towards a despicable impure worm! But this conjunction infers no confusion; breaks not the order, wherein each severally acts towards one end. But that, notwithstanding, we may conceive from whom, through whom, and by whom, what was lately a ruinous heap is become an animated temple, inhabited by the Divine presence, wherein we ought not to forget, how eminent and conspicuous the part is of our Lord Christ, and upon how costly terms he obtained, that the blessed Spirit should so statedly, and upon a right claimable by faith, employ his mighty agency in this most gracious and wonderful undertaking! being (as hath been observed) made a curse for us, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit by faith, Gal. iii. 13, 14. Whence also it is said, that after our believing we are sealed with the Spirit of promise; (Eph. i. 13.) i. e. by that seal, by which God knows, or owns, or acknowledges, them that are his, (2 Tim. ii. 19.) though they may not always know it themselves. Hereupon also our Lord hath assured us, from them that believe in him, shall flow (as out of the belly of a conduit) rivers of living water, which it is said he spoke of the Spirit, which they that believed should receive, John vii. 37. Much more might be alleged from many texts of the Old and New Testament to evince the right which believers, or they who are God's more peculiar people, have to the abiding indwelling presence of his Spirit, as the inhabitant of that temple which they are now become. III. But that matter being plain, we shall proceed to what was next proposed; to show, (2.) The ample extent and comprehensiveness of this privilege, which I shall the rather enlarge upon, that from thence we may have the clearer ground upon which afterwards to argue;-how highly reasonable and congruous was it, that so great a thing, and of so manifest importance to God's having a temple and residence among men, should not be otherwise communicated than in and by Emmanuel, the Founder and Restorer of this temple. And we cannot have a truer or surer measure of the amplitude and extensiveness of this gift, than the extent and comprehensiveness of the covenant itself, to which it belongs. To which purpose, let it be considered that this covenant of God in Christ, of which we are now speaking, may be looked upon two ways; i. e. We may view it abstractedly, taking the frame and mode of it, as it were in actu signato, to be collected and ga thered out of the Holy Scriptures. Or we may look upou it as in actu exercito, viz. as it is now transacted and entered into by the blessed God, and this or that awakened, considering, predisposed soul. Now here, 1. Take it the former way, and you find this article, concerning the gift or communication of the Holy Ghost; standing there as one great grant contained in the gospelcovenant. And it is obvious to observe, as it is placed there, what aspect it hath upon both the parts of the covenant, I will be your God-you shall be my People. Which will be seen, if, 2. You consider this covenant as actually entered into, or as the covenanting parties are treating, the one to draw, the other to enter, this covenant. And so we shall see that ο Οπου γαρ η μια της τριάδος υποςασις παρή πάσα παρεσιν η τριας, Christ. in Epist. ad Roman. sanctuary or tabernacle, that should be with them for evermore?) And why is this his constant inhabiting presence to be with them? The emphatical yea, with what follows, informs us: Yea, I will be their God: q. d. I have undertaken to be their God, which I cannot make good unto them, if I afford them not my indwelling presence. To be to them a distant God, a God afar off, can neither answer my covenant, nor the exigency of their case. They will but have a God, and no God, if they have not with them, and in them, a divine, vital, inspiriting, inactuating presence, to govern, quicken, support, and satisfy them, and fill them with an all-sufficient fulness. They would soon, otherwise, be an habitation for Ziim and Ochim, or be the temple but of idol gods. our consent, both that God shall be our God, and that we | 16. And could it be meant of an uninhabited, desolate will be his people, with all previous inclinations thereto, and what immediately results from our covenanting, do all depend upon this communication of the Spirit; and otherwise, neither can he do the part of a God to us, nor we, the part that belongs to his people towards him. By all which we shall see the vast extent of the gift. It is the Mediator's part to bring the covenanting parties together. He is therefore said to be the Mediator of the new covenant, Heb. xii. 24. He rendered it possible, by the merit of his blood, that the offended Majesty of heaven might, without injury to himself, consent; and that the Spirit might be given to procure our consent, which, as Mediator or Emmanuel, he gives. When he gives it in so copious an effusion, as to be victorious, to conquer our aversion, and make us cease to be rebellious, then he enters to dwell, Ps. lxviii. 18. Till then, there is no actual covenanting; no plenary consent on our part to what is proposed in the covenant, in either respect: we neither agree that God shall be our God, nor that we will be of his people. This speaks this gift a great thing and of vast extent, looking for the present upon the two parts of the covenant summarily; and afterwards considering what each part more particularly contains in it. But if in practice it be so far done as is requisite to a judicious and preponderating determination of will, (which may yet afterwards admit of higher degrees,) how great a thing is now done! Their state is distinguished from theirs who are strangers to the covenant, who are without Christ, and without God in the world. From hence results, 1. An express reconciliation between God and thee; for this is a league of friendship, enmity ceasing. 2. A fixed special relation: (Ezek. xvi. 8.) "I entered into covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine." How great and high a privilege! Relations are said to be of minute entity, but great efficacy. All the Divine Being related to me a worm! IV. And that all this may be the plainer, let us but consider, more distinctly, what the great summary of God's part of this covenant contains; what is the most principal promise of it; the dependence of our part thereon; upon what terms that which is distinct is promised; how far what is distinctly promised, is coincident with this gift of the indwelling Spirit, both in respect of this present, and the future eternal state. 1. The known and usual summary of this covenant, on God's part, is, "I will be their God;" as it is set down in many places of both Testaments. Now, what can be meant, more principally, by his being their God, than giv- | ing them his indwelling Spirit? Wherein without it can he do the part of a God to them? By it he both governs and satisfies them: is both their supreme and sovereign Lord, in the one regard, and their supreme and sovereign good, in the other. Doth being their God intend no more than an empty title? or, what would be their so great advantage, in having only a nominal God? Yea, and he is pleased himself to expound it of his continued gracious presence, (2 Cor. vi. 16.) "I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God;" alluding to his continuing his tabernacle among them, as is promised, Lev. xxvi. 11, 12. “I will set my tabernacle among you, and my soul shall not abhor you; and I will walk among you, and I will be your God," &c. And what did that tabernacle signify but this living temple, whereof we speak, as a certain type and shadow of it? Agreeably whereto his covenant is expressed, with evident reference to the days of the gospel, and the time of the Messiah's kingdom, (plainly meant by David's being their king and prince for ever,) Ezek. xxxvii. 24, 25, 26, 27. Ďavid, | my servant, shall be king over them," (spoken many an age after he was dead and gone,)-" and their prince for ever. Moreover, I will make a covenant of peace with them, it shall be an everlasting covenant with them, and I will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them; yea, I will be their God." That yea, the exegetical note, is observable, "my sanctuary and tabernacle shall be with them." (i. e. "I wi.l dwell in them,” as it is expounded before, 2 Cor. vi. Templum Dei ædificatum per Testamentum Novum lapidibus vivis gloriosior quam illud quod a Rege Solomone constructum est, &c. Aug. de Civ. Dei. 1. 18. c. 45. It is therefore evident that this summary of God's part of his covenant, I will be their God, very principally intends his dwelling in them by his Spirit. V. And the restipulation, on their part, to be his people, (which is generally added in all the places, wherein the other part is expressed,) signifies their faith, by which they take hold of his covenant, accept him to be their God, dedicate themselves to be his people, his peculiar, his mansion, his temple, wherein he may dwell. Now this their self-resigning faith, taken in its just latitude, carries with it a twofold reference to Him, as their sovereign Lord, as their sovereign Good; whom, above all other, they are to obey and enjoy. But can they obey him, if he do not put his Spirit into them, to write his law in their hearts, and " cause them to walk in his statutes?" Ezek. xxxvi. 27. Jer. li. 35. Or can they enjoy him, if they love him not as their best good? which love is the known fruit of his Spirit. Whereupon, after such self-resignation and dedication, what remains, but that "the house of the Lord be filled with the glory of the Lord ?" as 2 Chron. vii. 2. 2. Let us consider what is the express, more peculiar kind of the promises of this covenant, in the Christian contradistinct to the Mosaical administration of it. It is evident, in the general, that the promises of the gospel covenant are in their nature and kind, compared with those that belonged to the Mosaical dispensation, more spiritual; therefore called better promises, Heb. viii. 6. They are not promises of secular felicity, of external pros perity, peace, and plenty, as those other most expressly were. It is true indeed that the covenant with Israel, with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their seed, was not exclusive of spiritual good things. For the communica tion of the Spirit was (as hath been noted) the blessing of Abraham, (Gal. iii. 14.) and that, as he was the father of that people, the head of a community, now to be much more extended, and take in the Gentiles, the time being come, when all nations were to be blessed in him, which is said to be the gospel that was preached to Abraham, Gal. iii. 8. But in the mean time, the Spirit was given less generally, and in a much lower measure; wherefore, in that purposed comparison, 2 Cor. iii. between the legal and the evangelical dispensation; though a certain glory did attend the former, yet that glory is said to be no glory, in respect of the so much excelling glory of this latter, v. 10. And the thing wherein it so highly excelled, was the much more copious effusion of the Spirit. That whereas, under the former dispensation, Moses was read for many ages, with little efficacy, a veil being upon the people's hearts, signified by the (mystical) veil wherewith, when he conversed with them, he was wont to cover his face; that comparative inefficacy proceeding from hence, that little of the light, life, and power of the Spirit accompanied that dispensation: now, under the gospel dispensation, the glory of the Lord was to be beheld as in a glass, with unveiled face, so as that, beholding it, we might be changed (so great an efficacy and power went with it) into the same likeness, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord; which is the scope of the latter part of that chapter, from v. 10 to 18. d How great was the splendour and magnificence of Solomon's temple, yet how much more glorious is that which is built of living stones! And as the whole frame of that former economy was always less spiritual, a lower measure of the Spirit always accom panying it; so when it stood in competition, as corrival to the Christian dispensation, being hereupon quite deserted by the Spirit, it is spoken of as weak, worldly, carnal, and beggarly, Gal. iv. 9. Col. ii. 20. Heb. ix. 2, 10. Therefore the apostle expostulates with the Galatian Christians, verging towards Judaism; "Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh?" Gal. iii. 2, 3, and ch. iv. from v. 22 to 32. Speaking of the two covenants, under allegorical representation, he makes the former, given upon Mount Sinai, to be signified by Agar the bondwoman, and by the terrestrial Jerusalem, which was then in bondage, with her children, as productive but of a servile race, born after the flesh only, as Ishmael was, destitute of the Divine Spirit; (which where it is, there is liberty, 2 Cor. iii. 17.) the other by Sarah, a freewoman, and by the celestial Jerusalem, which is free, with her children, all born from above, of the Divine Spirit; (John iii. 3, 5, as there signifies;) which spiritual seed, signified by Isaac, are said at once to be born after the Spirit, and by promise, v. 23, 28, 29. And this can import no less than, that the ancient promise, (given long before the law, upon Mount Sinai, viz. four hundred and thirty years, Gal. iv. 17, and expressly called the covenant of God, in Christ: most eminently to be made good in the days of the gospel; after the cessation of the Mosaical institution, as it was made before it,) must principally mean the promise of the Spirit. Which is most plain from that of the apostle Peter to his convinced, heart-wounded hearers, Acts ii. 38, 39. "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost; for the promise is unto you, and your children, and to all that are afar off," (this promise not being to be confined to them and their children, but to reach the Gentiles also, as Gal. iii. 14.) even as many as the Lord our God shall call." And surely that which is, by way of excellency, called the promise, must be the more principal promise of this covenant; which it is also signified to be, in that account given of it by the prophets, Isa. xliv. 3. and lix. 20, 21. Jer. xxxi. 33. quoted Heb. viii. 10. (where though the Spirit be not expressly named, yet those effects of it are, which manifestly suppose it,) and Ezek. xxxvi. 25, 27. Joel ii. 28. This new covenant is distinguished from the former, by the more certain, more general, and more efficacious communication of the Spirit promised in it, as is plainly implied, Jer. xxxi. and (which refers thereto) Heb. viii. 9, แ 10, 11. | tinguish :) but the former is in order to the latter, and the 1. As to what is manifestly not promised besides; it is plain, there is not promised in it a part and portion in a particular land or country on earth, as there was in the old covenant (contra-distinguished to this new one) to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their seed, which land was, we know, called the "land of promise;" and unto which the body of that people had so certain a title, upon the condition of their continued obedience, that they were sure never to be removed out of it; or if they had made a general defection, and were thereupon forsaken of God, and given up to invading enemies, that should dispossess them, they were as sure, upon their general repentance, to be restored, and settled there again; as may be seen in Solomon's prayer, at the dedication of the temple, and God's most gracious and particular answer thereto, and in divers places of the Old Testament besides. If particular persons brake this covenant, by grosser transgressions, they were to be cut off from this good land, and, by Moses's law, at the mouth of two or three witnesses, to die without mercy; and so, by such execution of justice, the body of the people was kept safe from Divine displeasure; the land was not defiled, so as to spew out its inhabitants. But if the people did generally revolt, so as that the ordinary methods of punitive justice could have no place, God took the matter into his own hands, and did justice upon them himself, by casting them out. This is the covenant which, it is said, they brake, Jer. xxxi. and Heb. viii. The new gospel covenant is apparently of no such import, or hath no such additament to the spiritual blessings of it.. Nor again doth it promise, more indefinitely, temporal blessings of any kind, with certainty, upon any condition VI. 3. It will further tend to evidence, that the Spirit whatsoever, even of the highest faith, the most fervent love is given as a settled Inhabitant, upon the known terms of to God, or the most accurate obedience, and irreprehenthis covenant: if we consider upon what terms it is pro-sible sanctity, attainable on earth; as if the best and mised, what is distinctly but however most conjunctly holiest men should therefore be any whit the more assured promised therewith, viz. all the relative graces of justifi- of constant health, ease, opulency, or peace in this world. cation, pardon of sin, and adoption. These are promised, We know the ordinary course of providence (which canas is apparent, in the same covenant, and upon faith, not justly be understood to be a misinterpreter of God's which is our taking hold of and entering into the cove- covenant) runs much otherwise; and that such things as nant, our accepting God in Christ to be our God, and giv- concern the good estate of our spirits, and inward man, ing up ourselves to be his people; and is (according to that are the only things we can, upon any terms, be sure of, latitude, wherein faith is commonly taken) inclusive of by this covenant; the tenor of it not warranting us to look repentance. For a sinner, one before in a state of apostacy upon external good things, as otherwise promised, than so from God, cannot take him to be his God, but in so doing far as they may be subservient to these, and to our better he must exercise repentance towards God. His very act serving the interest and honour of God and the Redeemer; of taking him, in Christ, is turning to him through Christ, of which things he reserves the judgment to himself. And from the sin by which he had departed and apostatized unto Him, by this covenant, we absolutely devote ourfrom him before. Therefore must the indwelling Spirit selves to serve and glorify him in his own way, and in be given, upon the same certain and known terms as is whatsoever external circumstances his wisdom and good also expressed in (the before-mentioned) Gal. iii. 14. Eph. pleasure shall order for us; being ourselves only assured 13, &c. Acts ii. 38, 39. of this in the general, That all things shall work together for good to us, if we love him, &c. but still esteeming it our highest good (as we cannot but do, if we love him as we ought) to be most serviceable to his glory, and conformable, in our habitual temper, to his will. Spiritual good things, then, are by the tenor of this covenant our only certainties. Other things indeed cannot be the matter of absolute universal promise. Their nature refuses it and makes them incapable. They are but of a mutable goodness; may be sometimes, in reference to our great end, good for us; and sometimes, or in some circumstances, evil and prejudicial. And being in a possibility to become 4. Now faith and repentance being first given in forming God's temple, consider, how coincident the gift of the Spirit, is an Inhabitant, is with remission of sin, or with whatsoever relative grace as such, is distinct from that which is inherent, subjected in the soul itself, and really transmutative of its subject. But we are to consider with al, how manifestly the latter of these is involved in the former. Giving the Spirit (the root and original of subjective grace) implies two things: 1. Conferring a right to it: 2. Actual communication. The former belongs to relative grace, the latter to real; (as they commonly dis evil in that relative sense, (as what hinders a greater good, is then an evil,) if they ever be actually so; they are then no longer matter of a promise. The promise would in that case cease to be a promise; for can there be a promise of an evil? It would then necessarily degenerate, and turn into a threatening. VIII. But it may be said of those good things that are of a higher kind and nature, that respect our souls and our states Godward, there seem to be some vastly different from this of giving the Spirit. Therefore, 2. We are next to inquire what they are, and how far they may be found to fall into this. Remission of sin is most obvious, and comes first in view, upon this account. And let us bethink ourselves what it is. We will take it for granted, that it is not a mere concealed will or purpose to pardon, on the one hand, (for no one in common speech takes it so; a purpose to do a thing signifies it not yet to be done,) nor mere not punishing, on the other. If one should be never so long only forborne, and not punished, he may yet be still punishable, and will be always so, if he be yet guilty. It 's therefore such an act as doth, in law, take away guilt, iz. the reatum pœnæ, or dissolve the obligation to suffer punishment. It is therefore to be considered, what punishment a sinner was, by the violated law of works and nature, liable to in this world, or in the world to come; and then what of this, is, by virtue of the Redeemer's sacrifice and covenant, remitted. He was liable to whatsoever miseries in this life God should please to inflict; to temporal death, and to a state of misery hereafter, all comprehended in this threatening, "Thou shalt die the death;" if we will take following scriptures and providences for a commentary upon it. Now the miseries to which the sinner was liable in this world, were either external, or internal. Those of the former sort, the best men still remain liable to. Those of the inner man were certainly the greater, both in themselves, and in their tendency and consequence; especially such as stand in the ill dispositions of men's minds and spirits Godward, unapprehensiveness of him, alienation from him, willingness to be as without him in the world. For that the spirits of men should be thus disaffected, and in this averse posture towards God, in whom only it could be possible for them to be happy, how could it but be most pernicious to them, and virtually comprehensive of the worst miseries? And whence came these evils to fall into the reasonable, intelligent spirit of man? Was it by God's infusion? Abhorred be that black thought! Nor could it be, if they were not forsaken of God, and the holy light and influence of his Spirit were not withheld. But is more evil inflicted upon men than either the threatening or the sentence of the law contained? That were to say, he is punished above legal desert, and beyond what it duly belonged to him to suffer. Experience shows this to be the common case of men. And had that threatening and sentence concerned Adam only, and not his posterity, how come they to be mortal, and otherwise externally miserable in this world, as well as he? But how plainly is the matter put out of doubt, that the suspension of the Spirit is part (and it cannot but be the most eminent part) of the curse of the law, by that of the apostle, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, that this blessing-might come upon us," (even the Gentiles, as well as Abraham's seed,) that we might receive the promise of the Spirit," Gal. iii. 13, 14. But now what is there of all the misery duly incumbent upon inan in this world, by the constitution of that law of works and nature, remitted and taken off by virtue of the covenant or law of grace or faith, from them that have taken hold of it, or entered into it? Who dare say, God doth not keep covenant with them? And we find they die as well as other men; and are as much subject to the many inconveniences and grievances of human life. And it is not worth the while to talk of the mere notion, under which they suffer them. It is evident that God doth them no wrong, in letting them be their lot; and therefore that as they were, by the law of nature, deserved, so God hath not obliged himself, by the covenant or law of grace, to take or keep them off; for then surely he had kept his word. That he hath obliged himself to do that which is more, and a greater thing, to bless and sanctify them to their advantage and gain, in higher respects, is plain and out of question; which serves our present purpose, and crosses it not. For upon the whole, that which remains the actual matter of remission, in this world, is whatsoever of those spiritual evils would be necessarily consequent upon the total restraint, and withholding of the Spirit. And that this is the remission of sin in this life, which the Scripture intends, is plain from divers express places, Acts ii. 37, 38. When the apostle Peter's heart-pierced hearers cry out, in their distress, "What shall we do?" he directs them thus: "Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, for the remission of sins, and ye shall (he adds) receive the Holy Ghost; for the promise is to you, and your children; ¿q. d. "The great promise of the gospelcovenant, is that of the gift of the Holy Ghost. It doth not promise you worldly wealth, or ease, or riches, or honours; but it promises you that God will be no longer a stranger to you, refuse your converse, withhold his Spirit from you; your souls shall lie no longer waste and desolate. But as he hath mercifully approached your spirits, to make them habitable, and fit to receive so great and so holy an intimate, and to your reception whereof, nothing but unremitted sin could be any obstruction; as, upon your closing with the terms of the gospel-covenant, by a sincere believing intuition towards him whom you have pierced, and resolving to become Christians, whereof your being baptized, and therein taking on Christ's badge and cognizance, will be the fit and enjoined sign and token, and by which federal rite, remission of sin shall be openly confirmed, and solemnly sealed unto you; so by that remission of sin the bar is removed, and nothing can hinder the Holy Ghost from entering to take possession of your souls as his own temple and dwelling-place." We are by the way to take notice, that this fulfilling of the terms of the gospel-covenant is aptly enough, in great part, here expressed by the word repentance; most commonly it is by that of faith. It might as fitly be signified by the former in this place, if you consider the tenor of the foregoing discourse, viz. that it remonstrated to them their great wickedness in crucifying Christ as a malefactor and impostor, whom they ought to have believed in as a Saviour; now to repent of this, was to believe, which yet is more fully expressed by that which follows; and be baptized in (or rather into) the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is in the whole plain, that their reception of the Holy Ghost, as a Dweller, stands in close connexion, as an immediate consequent, with their having their sins actually remitted, and that, with their repenting their former refusing of Christ as the Messiah, their now becoming Christians, or taking on Christ's name, whereof their being baptized was to be only the sign, and the solemnization of their entrance into the Christian state, and by consequence, a visible confirmation of remission of sin to them. They are therefore directed to be baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, iní τ ivóμari, or unto a covenantsurrender of themselves to Christ, whereof their baptism was, it is true, to be the signifying token for the remission of sins; which remission therefore must be understood connected, not with the sign but with the thing which it signified. And it was only a more explicit repentance of their former infidelity, and a more explicit faith, which the apostle now exhorts them to, the inchoation whereof he might already perceive, by their concerned question, "What shall we do?" intimating their willingness to do any thing that they ought; that their hearts were already overcome and won; and that the Holy Ghost had consequently began to enter upon them: the manifestation of whose entrance is elsewhere, as to persons adult, found to be an antecedent requisite to baptism, and made the argument why it should not be withheld, as Acts x. 47. "Can any man forbid that these should not be baptized, who have received the Holy Ghost, as well as we ?" Remission of sin, therefore, as it signifies giving a right to future impunity, signifies giving a right to the participation of the Spirit; the withholding whereof was the principal punishment to be taken off. And as it signifies the actual taking off of that punishment, it must connote the |