that man, Deut. xxix. 19. "What, will he take up such contemptuous thoughts of me? I will make him pay dear for that very thought, and my jealousy shall smoke against him."

ing nothing that hath life in it; as not being born or connatural to the new creature; it will then soon be a withering and vanishing thing. As Job speaks of the hypocrite; Can a rush grow without mire ? Job viii. 11. Can there be verdure and greenness, and fair appearance, and 3. By this attempt to impose upon the blessed God by nothing at all to maintain it? A mere spider's web, such false appearances, we bring in very pregnant convictive a thing is the best pretence of the hypocrite; why, how testimony against our own souls. Hypocrisy always does soon is it swept away! It is very apparent, that the living that. There is no man who plays the hypocrite, but that root being wanting, that which is merely external of a which he counterfeits, and whereof he puts on the appearperson's religion, will in tract of time become tiresome, ance, he doth thereby proclaim it to be good, and valuand he will be very well content to throw it away himself, able; otherwise why doth he imitate or counterfeit ? when he finds it to be for convenience. So we find Job People are not wont to put on a false appearance, to make speaking again concerning the hypocrite, chap. xxvii. themselves seem worse than they are, but to make them10. Will he delight himself in the Almighty? Will he selves appear better: and their very practice in this thing always call upon God? That is, he will not be always carries this testimony with it against themselves, that they religious; for calling upon God there, is only a synech-judge that to be better, and yet decline it. They judge dochal expression for religion in general. Will he always that to be a good whereof they thought fit to clothe themcall upon God? No, surely; for he doth not delight him- selves with the show; they practically acknowledge it to self in the Almighty, and hath not a temper of spirit suited be a good, and thereby give a mighty testimony against to God; the habitual disposition of his soul is opposite themselves. Thou thoughtest it a good and desirable and averse; God is one in whom he can take no pleasure; thing to be a Christian; otherwise why didst thou seem and then you may be sure he will not call upon him one to be sincere; otherwise why didst thou pretend to always; his religion will have an end, and he will soon it? And if thou dost think so, why didst thou not aim to grow weary. And how absurd a thing is it to take up be such a one? Beside, and wear a while a disguise, and have afterwards a kind of an unhappy necessity come upon me to have it made appear, I did but act a part, and no more! That is the first thing. But,

2. It is without any valuable design. For what is there to be got by it, for a man to pretend himself to be a loyal subject of God's kingdom, who never had his heart changed and renewed, and made suitable to the laws and constitutions of it? Why certainly nothing worth designing, whether you consider the matter with reference to God or man. In reference to man; him indeed you may deceive; but that is to no purpose. In reference to God, though that were to never so great a purpose, yet him you can never deceive. 'Tis true you may deceive man; but what is to be got by it? What is the hope of a hypocrite though he gain, when God takes away his soul? Job xxvii. 8. Alas! what a pitiful little will the greatest gain dwindle into, when God comes to take away his soul! What is he the better for it then?

But as to God, what rational design can a man form to himself, in reference to him, by pretending to be what in

this case he is not ?

4. They hereby lose the opportunity which they might otherwise have had of becoming what they seemed to be. The moralist speaks about the business of wisdom, Multi ad sapientiam pervenissent, nisi se ad sapientiam pervenisse putarant: Many had attained to be wise, had they not thought themselves to be already so. If they had not cozened themselves with the appearance of it, many might have come to have been sincere. And 'tis a miserable thing to please oneself with the shadow, all that time wherein one should have been getting the substance, till the time is expired and gone.

But here now a question may perhaps arise, by some such person or other, who may fear himself not yet to be sincere, and may therefore say, “What am I to do in this case? while I think I am not sincere, and while perhaps that really is my case? Am I to throw away all my profession? Or am I to profess enmity against God? Being not yet regenerate, and therefore not yet a subject, must I therefore profess myself a rebel?" It would be very easy to discover what is duty in this case, if we do but consider and fasten upon what is only faulty in it. Now wheresoever there is hypocrisy there must be some good wanting; 1. It is plain he can never deceive God by that pretence. and there must be the present appearance and semblance "Be not deceived, God is not mocked." You do but de- of that good which is wanting. Thus it is in the present ceive yourselves, as if he had said, by attempting to de- case. This good is wanting, a real subjection of heart ceive him. Every man shall reap as he sows; he who and spirit to the laws and constitution of God's spiritual sows to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption; he kingdom, which is only brought about by the new birth. who sows to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life ever- Well, but here is the appearance of it too, else there could lasting, Gal. vi. 8. You do but deceive yourselves, and not be hypocrisy. Now let us consider where the fault not at all impose upon God, if being flesh you look for any lies in this case: the fault cannot lie simply in the apbetter issue of things, than what is suitable to your state pearance, but only as it is untrue; for there are true apand temper; and if not being spiritual you have any ex-pearances, as well as false. The appearance therefore is pectations of that state of blessedness, which is only agreeable to such a temper. That puts the matter quite out of doubt, you cannot deceive God in the case. But,

2. You will highly provoke him, even by an attempt of it, or admitting an imagination in your own hearts, that you can do it. For what higher an affront can we put upon the infinite and eternal God, than to suppose him like one of the idol gods of the nations, who hath eyes to sees, and sees not? Who would ever worship him as a deity, whom we think we could impose upon by a lie, or a false appearance? Indeed there cannot be a greater absurdity, and no man can act more inconsistently with himself, than at once to profess homage to an object, and think it possible at the same time to impose a cheat upon it. It is truly to deface my own act: I give him worship; that carries the face and appearance of very high thoughts which I have of him, and as if I took him for a very excellent being; but to think to impose upon him by a piece of falsehood, that carries the appearance of the meanest and most despicable thoughts of him which can be imagined. And therefore we find with what severity the holy God speaks, in that case, of any man, who does but say in his heart, I shall have peace, though he walks after the imaginations of his heart: My jealousy shall smoke against

upon no other account faulty, but as it is false; for if the good were there, whereof there is the appearance, the appearance would not only be lawful, but a duty. We are to hold forth the word of life, by which we have been made to live; as the apostle directs, Phil. ii. 16. Now therefore inasmuch as the fault here is, that while there is such an appearance, that good doth not subesse, there is not that good underneath which there ought to be; so the thing now to be done, is not to throw away the ap pearance, but to have the good supplied; that is, in this case, to be restlessly intent to obtain that Spirit, and the vital influences and operations of it, by which that great transforming work may be done. And how great encouragement is there for this at his hand, who hath told us, that if earthly parents, who are evil, will give good gifts to their children; bread rather than a stone; a fish rather than a scorpion; how much rather will our heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them who ask it! It is not because this Spirit is out of our power, and not at our command, that we have not the influences and operations of it, according to our need; but because we apprehend not, and will not admit the serious apprehension, of our need. It is a kind of contempt of this blessed Spirit that these pleasant vital influences are so little valued by crea

of no value, if this don't run through it, and is only the body and carcass of it, but not the soul and spirit. This is not understood, that in reference to every part of duty which is enjoined, there is a disaffection in the spirits of men, and they are to every good work reprobate: i. e. they don't know how to make proof of themselves, or approve themselves in any work they undertake which is truly good; and cannot accordingly be approved of God in what they do or go about.

tures lost in darkness and death; that we rather content | be in that regard an act of religion; and that religion is ourselves to be desolate, and seem careless whether we live or die for the present; or are happy or miserable to all eternity. It is upon such accounts as these that the blessed Spirit, though the Author and Fountain of all love, and goodness, and benignity, and sweetness, retires; and that resolution seems taken up, "My Spirit shall no longer strive." It is no wonder if it don't, when there is so little apprehension of our need of him, so little dependance upon him; so little craving, and seeking, and solicitude, whether it be an indweller in our souls, or no: as if the doctrine of the Holy Ghost were a strange and new thing to our ears; or we had not yet heard whether there was a Holy Ghost or no.

SERMON VIII.*

SEVERAL inferences have been recommended to you already, and others remain to be added. As,

But besides that the extent of this wretched case is not understood by such as don't consider, that a total depravation is now befallen the nature of man; so that is waived and overlooked which is the special thing in respect both of the object and subject, wherein the misery of their case doth more principally lie: that is, in respect of the su ject, the principal depravation is in the heart; in respe of the object, the principal is towards God himself. True it is indeed that by the corruption which hath spread itself through the world, men are become hateful to God, and haters of one another; very ill-tempered towards one another; but we may observe that men are a great deal more easily brought to civility, than religion; and are with 5. Inference, That the depravation of a man's nature much less ado, whatever their tempers and dispositions in the state of apostacy is total.-Being born denotes a are, brought to be kind one to another, than to take up total production, and the thing produced is only somewhat loyal and dutiful affections towards God, and deport themsubstituted in the room of the nature depraved: and what selves suitably towards him. Nothing is more plain than was corrupted and what is substituted instead of it, must that this depravedness which is in the spirits of men, an necessarily be commensurate and proportionable to one which this begetting them of the Spirit is to cure, hath for another. If a man should have a leg or arm perish, he its principal subject and seat, the heart; and for the prinwould not say, the production of that arm was a being cipal object, the blessed God. That is, the heart, as that born; for being born is the production of all the parts to- doth contain within the compass of it, the judgment, will, gether, not of this or that single part alone. And hence and affections of the soul, will by no means endure to be it is that that which is corrupted, and that which is anew exercised about God. Notional thoughts men can tell how produced, are in Scripture spoken of under the name of a to employ about him, without any great trouble to themman; an old man, and a new man. The frame of graces, selves; they regret it not; but deeply to consider, and that impress of holiness, wherein the new creature doth with a design to choose him as their God; to desire after consist, must be understood to be a whole entire body of him, to love him, and delight in him, and fear before him graces; as the sins which meet together originally in the as such; therein the great disaffection of the spirit of a nature of man, are called by the name of the body of the man towards God doth especially discover itself. This sins of the flesh, which is to be destroyed; and elsewhere, men will not understand, while they apprehend not that the body of sin. It is therefore a forlorn miserable state the thing to be effected by regeneration, is to make them that men are antecedently in to their being born spirit of new at the heart; and to renew the heart principally tospirit. And it is of no small consequence, that it be dis-wards God: "Create in me a clean heart, O God; renew tinctly understood, and sink into our hearts, that this depra- a right spirit within me." When once that work is done, vation is total, and that we need to be made new through- then this becomes the sense and posture of the soul; out. As we have it in 2 Cor. v. 17. If any man be in Christ the heart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul he is a new creature; old things are passed away, and all after thee, O God." A renewed soul presently turns itself things are become new. Where this is not understood, it to God, and hath a bias put upon it, which inclines it tois of most unhappy consequence in these two respects-1. wards him: "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there Men take not up right thoughts of the distressedness of is none on earth I desire in comparison of thee." He is their own case; and, 2. By consequence they never apply singled out as the one Good, in which the soul doth centre themselves to the proper business of the redress of it. and rest; "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord for ever:" i. e. dwell in the Divine presence, and be always nigh to God.

1. They never take up right thoughts of the wretchedness of their own case. They understand neither the extent of it, nor wherein it doth especially consist. They understand not how extensive it is in a twofold respect, that is, to the subject disaffected, and the object whereunto they are disaffected. There is a twofold totality to be considered in this matter, both subjective and objective. The subject is disaffected universally in every faculty; the mind, and judgment, and will, and conscience, and affections, and executive powers; and by a kind of participation, the whole outward man. The apostle applying passages out of the Old Testament, runs over the several parts; Their throat is an open sepulchre, the poison of asps is under their lips, their feet make haste to shed blood, &c. Rom. iii. This is little apprehended by them who consider not the work to be wrought under the notion of a birth, which supposes the antecedent corruption, which always leads the way to generation, to have been universal and total.

And it is as little considered, that this disaffection, as it hath spread itself through the whole subject; so it refers to the whole object, which they ought to be otherwise affected to: that is, the whole law of God, or the entire sum of their duty. They make nothing of it, considered as a duty and enjoined by God, and whereby they pay a respect and homage to him; and indeed every act of duty should

* Preached Feb. 6th, 1677, at Cordwainer's Hall.

"As

But this great disaffection of the heart towards God, is still overlooked by the generality of men, as if they did not need to be cured in this respect. And herein they are very much confirmed, because it is become so customary a thing never to make such kind of reflections upon themselves which may naturally and probably lead to the discovery of their case, in this regard. Men don't compare themselves with the rule, and what it requires the dispo sitions of men's spirits to God should be. It summarily saith, "Love the Lord thy God with all thy soul, and al thy strength, and all thy mind." And they don't compare themselves with the examples of holy men; for such they can't but read of, if they consult their Bibles; and such they may possibly sometimes converse with, who can say somewhat of the disposition of their spirits towards God; how pleasant it is to be conversant with him; how they can entertain themselves in solitude, and what a solace it is to a vacant and leisure hour, wherein they can be entirely taken up in conversing with God. They don't compare themselves with the rule, or with other holy men; but they compare themselves, as the apostle speaks, with themselves, (2 Cor. x. 12.) and so they are not wise, or never come to understand themselves. They only compare themselves with themselves; and they find they agree

2dly, Hence also they apprehend not wherein their redress must lie. They are apt either to think that some partial reformation is sufficient, and if they are reformed a little in this or that particular thing, then matters will be right and good, and will be well with them. If the drunkard take up and become sober, he thinks concerning himself, that he is a new man. If an unjust person admit a conviction, or it may be, is taught little prudence by ob-ever comes to be taken up as an artificial thing, it is taken serving how much any thing of that kind reflects upon his reputation, and so he orders his affairs with more exactness, he is ready to look upon himself as regenerate. But if it were considered that there must be a being born, and that I am in a total corruption; surely another cure would be thought of than that, and it would appear no more proportionable to the case, than a man whose body was all over leprous, and full of sores, would acquiesce in the cure of a slight scratch in his little finger.

nature, by which they are connaturalized to one another, and to their common Lord and Head: He who sanctifieth, and they who are sanctified, are all of one, (Heb. ii. 11.) or make one entire piece. Wherefore now what there is of disagreement among Christians, must needs be preternatural, and beside nature. And hence it is consequent, that it must needs proceed from ill designs: that is, from the devil and his instruments, who make it their business, what they can, to act persons diversely; when if these things be left to their natural course, and the new nature in men is permitted to act undisturbedly, and according to its genuine tendency, it would all run one way. It is needful to be well aware of this, whatever there is of disagreement is accidental to it, and certainly proceeds from a foreign enemy, and somewhat without it, which sets such things on foot, and keeps them on foot, with an ill design towards this kingdom. If the new nature did run its course, and were not accidentally disturbed, by what is not of the constitution of this kingdom, it would certainly run the same way. It is one thing to say what is the constitution of the persons; and another, what is the constitution of them as members of this kingdom and born into it. The corruption of their own hearts, is extrinsical to the constitution of this kingdom; for 'tis only so far as they are new born that they are members of this kingdom. The sphere and verge of this kingdom doth properly and directly take in only the spiritual part. It is a sphere of spirituality; and what there is in it opposite thereunto, is alien to the constitution of it, and doth not belong to it. It is a great thing to be well possessed with this apprehension, that the great enemy of this kingdom does certainly foment whatever there is of disagreement among them who are born the vital members of it; and it must be understood to proceed from an ill design. And,

the difference can't be so great as many times it is thought; but then consider the difference between those who are Christians in truth, and those who are only so by profession; and there the difference, for the same reason, must be greater than it is commonly thought to be; for there the difference is between a living thing and a dead; as much as between a piece of nature and art, a man and a statue. So that it is a very vain kind of confidence which such pretend to, who because they have made a shift to imitate and resemble a Christian, they think the case is well with them, when as yet they may as much differ from them whose case is truly good, as a living man doth from a dead carcass.

8. Inference. That love to God cannot but be characteristical to every regenerate person-For every such a one is a child of God, and born of him; and certainly it ought to be looked upon, as the property of a child, to love the Father. If you love him who begat; that is supposed and taken for granted, as a thing not to be doubted, 1 John v. 1. And therefore to have a heart destitute of the love of God, and having no love to him, is a most unreasonable and unnatural thing; and a certain argument, that one is not his child, and hath not been born spirit of spirit. 'Tis very true there may be so great a degeneration in the old decayed nature of man; but in the new nature, there can never be such a degeneration, as that a person born of God should not love him. It would be the greatest inconsistency imaginable; and therefore a certain argument, that such were none of God's children. For though it is very true indeed, as it is commonly observed, that love doth descend, more than ascend; from him who begets, to them who are begotten; so love in this case more especially doth a great deal more descend from God to them who are born of him, than ascend from them to him. But though it descends a 2. It must argue an evil state, and the prevalency of a great deal more, yet it doth really and truly ascend to him, contrary principle. If there be divisions among you, are though not indeed so much. There is nothing more conyou not carnal? 1 Cor. iii. 3. They who are of this king-natural to the new creature than the love of God. The dom are spiritual; they are born into it spirit of spirit; so very heart and soul of the new creature is love to him prithey come into it. Therefore so far as there is a prevail-marily, and therein lies the end of the new creation, to ing disagreement and dividedness in the state of things in form a person to God. "God is love," and every soul who the church of Christ; so far the persons who are of that is begotten anew by him, is turned into a like nature, and state are in a decay, and lapsed into carnality, and things becomes love, as God is love. "He who dwells in love, grow worse and worse, as the church grows more divided. dwells in God; for God is love." There can't but be a That spiritual principle which agrees to every member of love-commerce, more or less, between God and every newthis kingdom, as he is born into it, drives all to oneness. It born soul. As the true mother, in that great proof of proceeds from God, and tends to him; all are children of Solomon's wisdom, was distinguished by her love to her the same Father, and they are all begotten to one and the child; so we may proportionably say, that a child of God same great and lively hope of an eternal and undefiled in- is distinguished by that love which works towards God. heritance. The primordia of the new creature necessarily We find some whom it never toucheth to have God disleads to unity, among all who are of this kingdom. honoured and disgraced; but it goes to the heart of a true child of God, when his Father is struck at, his name reproached and torn, or any thing done against his interest. 9. Inference.-How great is the obligation upon all the regenerate to the love of one another. If you love God, how can it be but you must have a love for them who love God; who have all one parent, all partake of one and the same nature, all expecting the same inheritance; who have one and the same spirit, the same hope and calling? Upon the consideration of their being new born, 'tis evident they must have the same Father and inheritance: If children, then heirs; and joint-heirs with one another, as well as with Christ, Rom. viii. 17. And every one who loveth him who begat, loveth him also who is begotten of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, &c.

3. Where there is any departure from this said oneness, there is so much of the decay of the spiritual nature, by the communication whereof men are said to be born into this kingdom. So much disunion as there is, so much carnality; and the church is then in a languishing state spiritually, when it is in a divided state. The not considering this is attended with a double mischief very obvious; that is, that in different respects, the differences and disagreements among Christians, are thought greater and less than indeed they are. They are thought greater than they are, because it is not considered how the nature which is every where communicated among the true members of this kingdom, doth make them substantially one, in the great and main and more principal things. There is a greater stress put upon the differences of those who are Christians indeed, than there ought, or can be, in comparison of the small things wherein they differ. And they very much mistake who think them to be great; for they necessarily agree in one common, new, spiritual, divine nature and principle of life: and it is impossible they should disagree in any one thing, comparatively to so great a thing as this. Whatsoever other differences there are, they are comparatively little, in respect of their agreement in this. They cannot differ so but they are all one in Christ Jesus; whoever is in Christ is a new creature, they all come in him under one mould and stamp by their new

creation.

But then, in another respect, the difference is thought a great deal less than indeed it is among Christians. Consider Christians who are truly and sincerely such, and so

10. Inference. We further infer, that the reason is evident, why the proper means of their regeneration, or spiritual birth, are very dear to renewed souls. There is a spiritually-natural reason for it. There are those in the world, who cannot believe otherwise, but it must be folly and fanaticism, or a mere humour and affectation, that any should discover that love to the word of the Gospel, or the ministry of the Gospel, which they do. But if men would consider this, it would give them a natural account of this love. For is it not natural to love the means by which even my very nature itself hath been communicated to me, and by which I am what I am? The apostle gives us the reason why we should love the word; As new-born babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby, (1 Pet. ii. 2.) i. e. as those who by it are

new-born. It is a violence to the new nature of the children of God, to withhold from them the word of the Gospel, and the ministry of it, which hath been instrumental to their new birth; and can't but infer pain and anguish, to be abridged and deprived of what was so conducive to their spiritual beings.

Last inference, we collect,-That this same kingdom and church of God, which is truly and really so, must needs be a growing thing. All who are of it are born into it, and so become as it were naturally subjects; there is a new nature communicated to all who are in it; and therefore, it being made up of the spiritual nature and life, will grow, till it comes to its maturity. Never fear but it wil | grow, behold it never so languishing, never so assaulted struck at, and contested against. For all who are born i into it consist of spirit and life; and therefore it is impossible, but it must become a mature thing, worthy both of the great Author and Founder of it, and of the great design for which he formed it; namely, that he might have a people to be eternally governed by a placid, gentle empire, and a delightful, easy sway; who should be ruled by a beck and a nod; and to whom every intimation of his will should have the force of a perfect command, without any the least regret; and that all the subjects of this kingdom should partake in the glory of it. And so it will be a living kingdom, and will be a growing thing, till it come to that glorious maturity, which will answer both the greatness of the Undertaker, and the excellency of the design, for which this new nature and life was given to it.

SERMON IX.*
Gal. v. 25.

modern philosophy itself, that creation and conservation are not diverse acts, but the latter only the former continued; and that God doth by the continual communication of the same influence, by which he created and made this world, keep it in the state wherein it is, that it doth not relapse back into its old nothing; that there would not need a positive act of God to destroy the world, if he would turn all things to nothing again, but only to suspend and withaold the influence by which every thing comes to be what it is: so it is in the new creation, or in the new creature, too. The very suspension of that influence by which it began to be, or to live, (which is all one,) must certainly infer the failure and extinction of the whole.

Think therefore what it would be if all vital influence were suspended and withheld on a sudden from this material and sensible world in which we converse. You might hereupon frame the apprehension within yourselves, of the face of the earth all on a sudden bestrewed with the dead carcasses of men and beasts, the beauty and pleasant verdure of it all vanished and gone, and nothing left in time but a great clod of dirt! This great temple of the Deity, which he inhabits by a vital presence, that diffuses life up and down every where, all turned into a ruinous heap. II, I say, there were a suspension of vital influence, supposing an influence continued by which this material world should still be. Why, so it must be, proportionably, in reference unto the new creature too. There is the substratum to be considered, which is a part of the natural creation, the soul or the man himself; but, that vital influence being suspended by which the new creature was made to be what it was, there is nothing left but a dead man, a dead soul! The temple of the Holy Ghost (as we must suppose it to have been, beautified and adorned with the Divine image on every side, in every part) laid waste and desolate! Nothing Low but darkness and confusion, and misery and death, there where God dwelt! So the case would be, if we could suppose such a thing as the suspension of that influence, by which the life of the new creature first began to spring up.

If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. And there is not only a parity in the cases, but in some IN asserting the office of the Holy Ghost, or that work respects a sameness. For we must know that all Divine which it hath undertaken in reference to the spirits of influence is in one respect, that is, ex parte principii, one men, we have already spoken of one great act of that and the same, and only differs, or is diversified, ex parte office; i. e. the regenerating and begetting anew of souls termini, according as it doth terminate. We can't coninto God's kingdom, spirit of spirit. We have now two ceive the Divine influences to be distinguished in their other acts before us in these words; i. e. its maintaining Fountain, that is, in the Divine Being itself, the Almighty the life, and causing all the right motion, of regenerate Spirit, whence all proceeds and flows out. That Almighty souls. The former of these are contained in the supposi- Spirit, if you consider the operations of it, produces dision; "If we live in the Spirit :" the latter is intimated vers, but by an influence that is radically and in the Founin the inferred precept; "Let us walk in the Spirit." Both tain one and the same. As in reference to those diversiare alike imputed to the Spirit of God here, and it is re-ties of its operations that were performed to the church, as presented as the very element of life, and the spring of all holy motion to renewed souls; which fills the whole region, as it were, with vitality, in which they converse, and draw their continual breath. The case is, in this respect, much Like in the new creation as in the old, and in the sphere of grace as in that of nature. It is said concerning the natural world, that it doth, as it were, subsist in God; and it is spoken of the new creation here; and both in one form of expression: In him we live, and move, and have our being, Acts xvii. 28. And here we read of living in the Spirit; and walking or moving in the spirit. There is only this difference in the form of expression: that whereas we have three distinct phrases used to set forth the dependence of the natural creation upon God;-living, and moving, and having being in him; there are only the two former used here in reference to the new creation, living and moving; living in the Spirit and walking in the Spirit. The reason of the difference is obvious, that we have in reference to the former, that superadded expression, "and have our being;" because in this natural, material, sensible world, there are many things which are, that do not live: but with the new creation it is not so; here, to live and to be, are one and the same thing; and 'tis entirely and wholly a being of life. A collection of all vital principles compose and make it up what it is; and there is nothing in the new creation concerning which it can be said, it is, but lives not; for it is all life throughAnd as philosophy has been wont to teach, even

out.

* Preached February 13th, 1577, at Cordwainer's Hall.

divers as they were, they were all wrought by one and the same spirit. The spirit of prophecy was not one spirit, and of healing another, and of tongues another; but one and the same Spirit did thus diversify its operations, according as the products were divers which were caused by it, and which it was afterwards to continue in that being which it gave. To suppose a difference or diversity of influence in the Fountain itself, the Divine Being, were to suppose God to differ from himself, and to put somewhat in God that were not God; a thing most repugnant to the simplicity of the Divine Being. But the Divine influences may be diversified terminatively, according to the subjects in which it is received. Nature is various in this, and that, and the other creature; (speaking of the natura naturata, as, for distinction's sake, it is wont to be called;} and the influences are diversified according to those divers natures in which they terminate, and according to the different purposes which the exigency of those natures doth require should be served and complied with. And so that influence, which originally and in the Fountain is one and the same, according as it goes forth to beget and continue a variety of productions of this, or that, or another kind, is an influence that gives and that preserves being to things concerning which it can only be said, they are: it is a vital influence to things that live; it is a motive influence to things that move; it is an intellectual influence to things that are capable of understanding; it is a holy influence unto what is holy, to what it hath made holy,