we must try the Scriptures by the Spirit, and not the Spirit by the Scriptures.

Anfo. Alas, how pittifully ignorance beweildreth men! 1. It is the fame Spirit which was in the Apoftles, and is in the weakest Christian: But he worketh not in the fame degree: He infpired them to infallibility; being promised to lead them into all truth, and to bring all things which Chrift bad spoken to their remembrance; and he enabled them to prove this by manifold miracles: Doth he do all this by you? or had you the fame promises? 2. The fame Spirit in them was given to one end, and to you for another. To them it was given to cause them by his infpiration to deliver all that Christ had taught them, and to leave it on record to all generations, as his infallible Word and Law, to be the Rule of doctrine and praetice to the end of the world. But to you the fame Spirit is given, to cause you to understand, and love, and obey this Law which is already written, and not to write or know another.

3.

The Spirit indited the Scriptures before you were born: and we are fure that that is the Word of God; and we are fure that Gods Spirit contradiceth not it felf: Therefore your after-pretended revelations, muft be tryed by the certain ancient Rule, which had the seal of miracles which yours hath.

not.

Obj. But bow shall I know what application to make of Scripture to my felf, but by the teaching of the Spirit of God?

Anfw. But you must not take every thought and fuggeftion or remembrance, to be the Spirits application. Gods Spirit teacheth men by the light of found evidence, which may be proved,and wit hold good in tryal:He teacheth you by exciteing you to rational ftudies and argumentation, and by bluffing you in fuch fober ufe of Gods means: But he doth not teach you to know your ftate, by the bare remembring of a text. Direct. 9. Take heed alfo of misunderstanding what is the witness of the Spirit, that we are Gods children.

Many think it is like fome voice, or fuggeftion, or infpiration within them, faying, Thou art the Child of God. And fo many Chriftians languish in terrours, that feel no fuch per(wading Spirit in them. And many Hypocrites are deluded

by

by the perfwafions of their own imaginations. But in Scripture, the word witness is oft taken for [evidence] or an objellive teftimony: And the Spirits being a witness, and being a feal, an earnest, a pledge, a white ftone, a new name, c. are all of the like fignification: And the meaning is, By this we know that we are the children of God, or that be abideth in us, by the Spirit which he bath given us, 1 John 3. 10. 24. & 4. 13. And if any one bave not the Spirit of Chrift, the fame is one of bis, Rom. 8. 9. As if he should fay, have you the Spirit of Chrift, or have you not? if you have, that is a feat, an earnest,a pledge of Gods Love, and of your heavenly inheritance, and a certain evidence or witness that you are his children, Gal. 4. 6. He that loveth God as his Father in Chrift, and is fan&titied to God, hath the Spirit. Shew this Love, and this Sanctification, and you produce the true witness that you are the heirs of life. Holiness, and Heavenlinefs, and Love, is the witness, feal and earneft; and not chiefly an inward perfwafion that we are Gods children.

2. Yet this much more the Spirit doth; when it hath fan. dified us, and given us the witness or evidence in our felves, (1 John 5. 10, 11.) He alfo helpeth us to fee and know that grace which he giveth and actuateth in us.

3. And alfo to conclude from that evidence, that we are Gods children: And alfo to feel the inward comfort of that conclufion. But all this he doth by these means in a discursive or rational way, and by bleffing such reafoning to our comfort.

4. Alfo he comforteth the soul in another way, diftin& from the way of coucluding from evidence; and that is by exciting the Love of God and bis praifes in us, which are of themselves delighting alts: But of this anon.

Direct. 10. Take heed of Heretical Seducers, who use to fish in troubled waters, and to fall in with fuch perplexed confeiences, to perfwade them that all the caufe of their trouble is their opinions, and unfound Religion, and not in them; and that the only way to comfort, is to change their Religion, and to come over unto them.

No perfon fitter for a Quaker, a Papist, or any Secary, to work upon, than a troubled mind. For fuch are like the ignorant

Country

Country people in their fickness, who will hearken to any one who putteth them in hope, and promiseth them cafe, and molt confidently tells them, that he can cure them, and faith, I was juft in your cafe, and fuch, or fuch a thing cured me: fo will the Formalift, and the Fanatick, the Papift,and the Quaker fay, I was juft in your condition, [I was troubled, and could get ro peace of confcience, no joy in the Holy Ghoft, but was alwaics held in fears and doubting, till I changed my Religion; and ever fince that I have been well, and O what joyes I have to boaft of!] And if it be an unfound Hypocrite that is thus tempted, perhaps God may give them over to find abundance of Bedlam joy, in the fudden change of their opinion: And falfbood may comfort that man, whom the truth which he was falfe to, would not comfort. But if it be a weak fincere Believer; if God fhew him not fo much mercy as to rescue him from the temptation,he will do as the forefaid Country patient ; he will try one mans medicine, and another womans medicines, and hearken to every one that can speak confidently, and promife him a cure, till he hath tryed, that their cafe and his were not the fame, and that they were all but ignorant deceived deceivers, and when all fail him, he will come back again, to the faithful experienced directors of his foul.

Direct. 11. If weakness of grace be the cause of doubting (which is of all other, the commoneft caufe in the world) the way to comfort is that fame which is the way to firengiben grace.

Such a one, if ever he will have joy, muft be taught how to live the Life of Faith, and to walk with God, and to mortifie the flesh, and get looic from the world, and to live as entirely: devoted to God; and efpecially how to keep every grace in exercife; and then grace will thew it felf, as the air doth in a windy feafon, or as the fire when it is blown up and flameth. There is no furer or readier way to comfort, than to get Faith, Repentance, Love, Hope and Obedience, in a vigorous activity, and great degree, and then to keep them much in action. Mountebanks and Sectaries have other waies; but this is the conftant certain way.

Direct. 12. If you perceive that trouble is caused by misunderBanding the Covenant of Grace, and looking at Legal Works of

merit, as the ground of peace, and over-looking the sufficiency of the Sacrifice, Meris, or Interceffion of Chrift, the principal thing to be done with fuch a foul, is, to convince him of the impoffibility of being juftified by works, on legal terms; and to fhew him the neceffity of a Saviour, and the defign of God in mans redemption, and that there is but one Mediatour between God and man, and one Name by which we can be faved; and that Chrift is the way, the truth, and the life, and no man Cometh to the Father, but by the Son; and that he was made fin for us who knew no fin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in bim, and that of God be is made unto us, wisdom, and righteousness, and fan&ification, and redemption; and that God barb given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son; and that he that bath the Son, bath life, and be that bath not the Son, hath ot life and that there is no condemnation to them that are in Chrift Fefus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit ; but be that believeth not is condemned already. Thús must Christ crucified, the propitiation for the fins of all the world, be preached to them, who are troubled as for want of a Saviour, or an attonement, a facrifice, or ransome, or propitiation for fin, or because they are not inftead of a Saviour to themfelves.

But to tell a man only of the facrifice and merits of Chrift, whe doubreth only of his intereft in him, and of the truth of his own Faith, Kepentance and Sanctification, is to prate impertinently, and to delude the finner, and to deal injuriously with Chrift

Dire&. 12. If Melancholy be the cause of the trouble(which is very ordinary) it will be necessary, 1. Well to understand it :: And 2. To know the cure: Of which, having spoken more largely chewhere, I fhall now give you only this brief information.

1. The figns of this Melancholy are,overstretched,confused, ungovernable thoughts; continual fear, and inclination to defpair, and to cry out, undone, undone; I am forfaken off God; the day of grace is paft; I have finned against the Holy Ghost, never auy mans cafe was like mine! And ufually their fleep is gone or broken, and they are enclined to be alone, and to be alwaics mufing, with their confounded thoughts and at

Ttt &

la

laft are tempted to blafphemous thoughts, againft the Scriptures, and the life to come, and perhaps urged to utter fome blafphemous words againft God; and if it go to the highett, they are tempted to famifh or make away themselves.

2. The cure of it lyeth 1. In fetting those truths before them, which tend moft to quiet and fatisfic their minds. 2. Ia engaging them in the conftant labours of a calling, in which. both mind and body may be employed. 3. In keeping them in fit and chearful company which they love, and fuffering them to be very little alone. 4. In keeping them from mufing, and that meditation or thoughtfulness which to others is most profitable, and a duty. 5. Keeping them from over-long fecret prayer (because they are unable for it, and it doth but confound them, and difable them for other duties ;) and let them be the more in other duties which they can bear. 6. And if the ftate of their bodies require it, Phyfick is neceffary, and hath done good to many (if rightly chosen.)

Dire. 13. Take heed of foolish, carnal, bafty expedations of comfort from the bare words of any man; but ufe mens advice only to direct you in that way, where, by patience and faithfulness, you may meet with it in due feafon.

Nothing is more ufual with filly fouls, than to go to this or that excellent Minifter, whom they defervedly admire, and to look that with an hour or twos difcourfe, he fhould comfort them, and set all their bones in joynt: And when they find that it is not done, they either defpair, or turn to the next deceivers, and fay, [I tryed the best of them: And if fuch a man cannot do it, none of them can do it.] But, filly foul, do Phyficians use to charm men into health? Wilt thou go and talk an hour with the ableft Physician, and fay, that because his talk doth not cure thee, thou wilt never go to a Phyfician more, but go to ignorant people that will kill thee? Thou haft then thy own deferving; even take the death which thou haft chofen, and drink as thou haft brewed. The work of a Minifter is not to cure thee alwaies immediately, by comfort able words. (What words can cure an ignorant, melancholy, or uncapable foul !) But to dire& thee in thy duty, and in the afe of thofe means, which if thou wilt faithfully and patiently practise, thou shalt certainly be cured in dye time: "If theu