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that first change, without any more changes so great, and notable as that was, and therefore we have forgotten what once we were, and live as if God had never changed us as to the comfortable apprehensions of the mercy. But cannot you remember, when it was much otherwise with you; and that once God made a great alteration on you? And doth it not still remain? Remember how little savour you had once of the things of the Spirit; how little mind to Christ, or holiness; how wholly you were given up to the pleasures of the flesh, or the profits of the world, and what a mastery your lusts had over you? Was it not a work of power, and love, and wisdom, and holiness, and therefore a work of the Spirit of Christ, by which all this is altered in you, and you are not now the persons that you were? Who else could have so changed your minds and

ways?

Quest. 6. Do you not look for a greater measure of this testimony, and the comfortable effects of it, than you have reason to expect on earth? Or, at least, till you have done more in attending the conduct of grace, and in resisting and conquering the enemies of your peace? And do you not thereupon conclude, that you have not the Spirit, because you have not so great a measure of the Spirit, as you expect? There is a great difference between having not the Spirit, and not having so much of the Spirit.

Quest. 7. If none of these be your case, then diligently inquire whether you have not wronged and grieved the Spirit, and by some stubborn untractableness, or wilful disobedience and yielding to your lusts, occasioned the Spirit to leave you in the dark, and so far to withdraw his operations and manifestations of himself, as to let you feel more of your lusts than of his graces, and to doubt whether you have the Spirit within you or not?

These questions I would have those Christians considerately to answer, that have the witness in themselves, but know not that they have it.

Sect. XI.

Obj. But we see so many pretend to the Spirit that are conceited of their own opinions and ways, and some of them on that pretence, maintaining the vilest doctrines and practices, and the more heretical or mad they are, the more strongly and confidently do they pretend to have the Spirit, that we cannot

believe that any have it at all: for the one are as confident of the Spirit, as the other.

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Answ. 1. The conclusion of this objection is unjust and unreasonable unjust, for it condemneth one man for the fault and folly of another, and takes one man to have an ill title because another man's evidences are nought. If two men shall have a cause before you as their judge, about a title to lands or goods, and you find the plaintiff to be a deceiver, and his title bad, will you say to the defendant, Thy title is bad too, because he was as confident that his was good as thou art of thine? And it is unreasonable, too, not only to judge of one man's pretences by another's, but to judge his pretences to be false who evidenceth at least the probability of their truth, because another man's are false, who manifesteth their falsehood. Suppose you discourse with a wise man and a fool or madman; and the one is as confident that he is a wise man, as the other; will you, therefore, judge that neither of them are wise, when you hear the words of wisdom from the one as you do the words of folly from the other? If you have two neighbours who would both be taken for honest men; and one lives honestly, and the other dishonestly; will you conclude, that neither of them are honest because both are not? So is it here. Some men pretend to a spirit of holiness and heavenliness, and withal do live holy and heavenly lives; others boast more confidently of the same spirit, while they hate the doctrines and ways of holiness, and maintain the most impure opinions and practices will you judge, that either both these must have the Spirit which they pretend to, or neither? One showeth you his faith by his works, and the spirit within him by the fruits of the Spirit, while the other shows you his delusion or dissimulation, by the fruits of the flesh.

2. It is the ordinary way of the deceiving spirit, to do his works by an apish imitation of the Spirit of Christ. His chief means to resist Moses, and harden the Egyptians in their unbelief, was by imitating him as far as he could in his wonders, that the Egyptians might say, 'Our magicians can do this as well as you;' and so might think that the cause was equal, by the effects, till God showed that he permitted them but for a fuller discovery of his power in vanquishing them. About the time that Christ came in the flesh, the devil stirred up many false Christs, to seduce the poor Jews, that while they said Lo here is Christ, and lo there,' he might be the less regarded; and by raising up many to lay claim to the same dignity, Christ's own claim might be

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the more questionable in the eyes of the world. When the apostles went out with a spirit of power and wonders, to convince the world of the doctrine of Christ, the chief resistance they had was by the imitating spirit, who would do wonders too. Simon Magus was the head of the heretics, who would contend against the apostles by his wonders, till he was vanquished by the Spirit of Christ : his successors, Menander, Ebion, Cerinthus, Valentinus, Basilides, Carpocrates, and Marcion, with their sects, were animated by magical works. By the same way did the pagan Apollonius resist the truth, more successfully than he could do by his philosophical disputations: the same course doth Satan take in our times. . He raiseth up heretical, impious men to boast of the Spirit, and cry up 'The Spirit,' 'The Spirit,' that thereby he may disgrace the Spirit, and make men believe that all pretences to the Spirit are as false as theirs: he stirs up the quakers, ranters, and others that pretend to communion with angels, appearing to them in visible shapes, that by seeming to be acted by an extrinsic power, by their motions, frenzies, ecstasies, and strange speeches, he may draw men to question whether the Spirit of the apostles and Christians of old were not some such diabolical possession or deceit. This being the known and ordinary artifice of the deceiver, to seek by an imitation of the Spirit of Christ, to shake men's faith, and make them believe that it is the same Spirit that causeth the one and the other: we have little reason to be shaken by such palpable and old deceits.

Sect. XII.

Quest. But when so many pretend to the Spirit, how shall we know which of them it is that are deceived, and who hath the Spirit indeed, and who not?.

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Answ. I will first lay you down some negative rules, to show you which is not the Spirit of Christ; and then I shall direct you to discern it in yourselves.

1. That spirit which opposeth God, or his nature and attributes, is not the Spirit of Christ: for it is the office of Christ to lead men to God, and for the honour of his Father did he come into the world. Justin Martyr saith, in Dialog. cum Tryphon,' "That he would not have believed Christ himself, if he had spoken against the Father." I am sure we have reason to believe that it is not Christ, nor his Spirit, that shall speak against him. Whatever spirit denieth the infiniteness, immor

tality, incomprehensibility, omnipotency, wisdom, or goodness of God, his holiness, faithfulness, truth, justice, or mercy, it is certain that spirit is not of Christ. For Christ is one with the Father as God, and the way to him as Mediator; and therefore cannot be the author of any blasphemy against him in his attributes.

2. Whatever spirit contradicteth the evident light and law of nature, is not the Spirit of 'Christ for Christ came to repair and perfect nature; and all truth is God's truth; and the light and law of nature is his light and law.

3. Whatever spirit shall contradict the Holy Scriptures, is certainly none of the Spirit of Christ for Christ is the author of Scripture, and confuted Satan himself by its authority; and Christ is not divided, nor against himself. The Spirit of God is not against the word of God; for God is not a contradicter of himself, because he cannot lie. We may well, therefore, try the spirits of our times, by the word which before our times was sealed by the Spirit. All the spirits of this age that contradict any doctrine delivered in the Scriptures, are certainly spirits that contradict Christ's Spirit, and therefore are deceivers, whatsoever they may pretend.

4. Every spirit that is against holiness and purity of life, is a spirit of uncleanness, and not of Christ: for Christ's Spirit is eminently a sanctifying Spirit, sent by him from the Father to make us holy as he is holy.

5. Every spirit that is against order, and is a friend to confusion, is against Christ, and is none of the Spirit of Christ. For God is not the God of confusion, but of peace, and commandeth that all things be done in order. (1 Cor. xiv. 33.) And hath established an order among angels, men, brutes, and inanimates, yea, some among the devils themselves. God hath set in his church, some prophets, some apostles, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the edifying of the body. (Ephes. iv. 11, 12.) And he hath appointed rulers under him in the commonwealth, and made it one of his Ten Commandments, that we shall honour our parents, and so our rulers; and made authority of parents a natural result. Those, therefore, that would level the powers in church or state, that God hath set up, and despise dominion and authority, which he hath commanded us to obey, are certainly possessed with an antichristian spirit, which is far unlike to the Spirit of Christ.

Sect. XIII.

Quest. But how then shall I know that I have the Spirit of Christ?

Answ. By the nature of its effects. 1. The Spirit of Christ doth renew the soul to God's image. And one of God's attributes is to be the living God. His being is the ground of the rest. The Spirit of Christ is no fancy, dream, or delusion, nor worketh an imaginary change on the soul, but a real change, making the soul alive that was dead in sin, and becomes a principle of life within us. To be really alive to God, and dead to the world, is the certain effect of the Spirit of God. Would you know whether a godly man be alive or dead; observe him in his desires and endeavours after God, and there you shall see by his action, and earnestness, that he is alive. But if you would try whether a carnal man be alive or dead, you must see by his desires and endeavours for the flesh, that he is alive; for by any that he hath after God, you cannot see it.

2. As wisdom is one of the attributes of God, so is the Spirit of Christ, a Spirit of wisdom. He teacheth men to know God from the creature, heaven from earth, holiness from sin; and what to choose, and what to refuse. He acquainteth them with duty and danger, and the reward that is before them: he maketh them wise to do good, to discern the methods and wiles of the devil, and escape them, and to manage their christian conversation in the world. Even those that are simple in worldly matters are thus far made wise by the Spirit of Christ ; without great wisdom, there is no escaping the snares of the deceiver, and getting safe to heaven. By this holy wisdom, which is foolishness in the eyes of worldly men, you may discern that you have the Spirit of Christ.

3. As God is holy, so is Christ's Spirit a Spirit of holiness, and given us on purpose for the destroying of our sins, the resisting and conquering the desires of the flesh, the healing of our diseases, the implanting the graces of God in our souls, and working our hearts and lives to an obedience to his will. If you have this Spirit, it striveth against the flesh; (Gal. v. 17;) and it inclineth your hearts to the things above, and is still mortifying your lusts, and bringing you nearer God. It is the business of this Spirit to bring back the creature to God, whom we did forsake; and, therefore, it must give us more of the knowledge of him, and love to him, and confidence in him, and make us more

VOL. XX.

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