discourses, if they know how to bless God, and to bless all them that are God's instruments in doing them benefit, will, I hope, help to procure blessings to your person and family, and say a holy prayer, and name your Lordship in their litanies, and remember that, at your own charges, you have digged a well, and placed cisterns in the highways, that they may drink and be refreshed, and their souls may bless you. My Lord, I hope this, even because I very much desire it, and because you exceedingly deserve it, and above all, because God is good and gracious, and loves to reward such a charity, and such a religion as is your's, by which you have employed me in the service of God, and in the ministries to your family. My Lord, I am, most heartily, and for very many dear obligations, Your Lordship's most obliged, Most humble, and most Affectionate Servant, TAYLOR. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of 6. And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and SERMON XII, XIII. Page Despiseth thou the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and long- suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to Of Growth in Sin: or, the several States and Degrees For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or, what shall a man gain in exchange for his soul? The Serpent and the Dove: or, a Discourse of Christian MAT. X. latter part of 16th verse. SERMON I. WHIT-SUNDAY. OF THE SPIRIT OF GRACE. ROM. viii. 9, 10. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead, because of sin; but the spirit is life, because of righteousness. THIS HIS day, in which the church commemorates the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the apostles, was the first beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This was the first day that the religion was professed: now the apostles first opened their commission, and read it to all the people. [The Lord gave his spirit] or [The Lord gave his word,] and great was great was the company of the preachers. For so I make bold to render that prophecy of David. Christ was the word of God, Verbum aeternum; but the Spirit was the Word of God, Verbum patefactum: Christ was the Word manifested in the flesh; the Spirit was the word manifested to flesh, and set in dominion over, and in hostility against the flesh. The gospel and the spirit are the same thing; not in substance; but the manifestation of the spirit is the gospel of Jesus Christ: and because he was this day manifested, the gospel was this day first preached, and it became a law to us, called the law of the spirit of life;* that is, a law taught us by the Spirit, leading us to life eternal. But the gospel is called the spirit; 1. Because it contains in it such glorious mysteries which were revealed by the immediate inspirations of the Spirit, not only in the matter itself, but also in the manner and powers to apprehend them. For what power of human understanding could have found out the incarnation of a God; that two natures [a finite, and an infinite] could have been concentered into one hypostasis, (or person;) that a virgin should be a mother; that dead men should live again; that the out, the ashes of dissolved bones should become bright as the sun, blessed as the angels, swift in motion as thought, clear as the purest noon; that God should so love us, as to be willing to be reconciled to us, and yet that himself must die that he might pardon us; that God's most holy Son should give us his body to eat, and his blood to crown our chalices, and his spirit to sanctify our souls, to turn our bodies into temperance, our souls into minds, our minds into spirit, our spirit into glory; that he who can give us all things, who is lord of men and angels, and king of all the creatures, should pray to God for us without intermission; that he who reigns over all the world should at the day of judgment give up the kingdom to God the Father, and yet after this resignation, himself and we with him should for ever reign the more gloriously; that we should be justified by faith in Christ, and that charity should be a part of faith, and that both should work as acts of duty, and as acts of relation, that God should crown the imperfect endeavours of his saints with glory, and that a human act should be rewarded with an eternal inheritance; that the wicked, for the transient pleasure of a few minutes, should be tormented with an absolute eternity of pains; that the waters of baptism, when they are hallowed by the spirit, shall purge the soul from sin; and that the spirit of man shall be nourished with the consecrated and mysterious ele |