Chapter II
Of communion with the two persons of the Godhead, Father and Son ; and
how a believer, in Ids several ages, hath suitably communion sometimes mor& with the one, sometimes more with the other%
In successive times of a Christian s course he doth come to have more eminent communion with one of the persons than with the other, as with the Father more than with Christ, or with Christ more than the Father, in
vicissitudes. This shall be treated and explained in several gradual pro posals, with the reasons and uses thereof.
That which is common to both these ages of Christians is to have known
either, or both of these persons ; and to know is not a literal doctrinal
knowledge only, that floats aloft in the understanding, and rests there, but which takes and overcomes the heart Prov. ii. 10, When wisdom enters into thine heart and is that knowledge which the apostle calls the
excellency of the knowledge of Christ, Philip, iii. 10. And in our John
here, chap. iv. 7, 8, it is a knowledge wrought by regeneration and being born again : Every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God ; and ver. 8,
* He that loveth not, knoweth not God : for God is love ; and
chap. iii. G, Whoever sinneth (whose whole heart is in some sin or other) hath not seen him, nor known him. So as to know either the Father or the Son, is to have our dearest affections and desires after, our love to,
delights, and rejoicings drawn forth to them ; to have faith on them, They that know thy name will trust in thee, Ps. ix. 10, to have the multitude of our thoughts running still upon them : How precious are thy thoughts to me ! So David, I am continually with thee. Also, it is to have our wonted special recourse unto that person we know, in all wants and needs : John iv. 10, Jesus answered, and said to her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. Also, to hold an intimate converse, communion, familiar fellowship with these persons in our treatings with them about our salvation, for the obtaining of it, upon those considerations which are most proper to that person whom we treat withal about it ; as either according to what his person is, or his special work and hand in our salvation is ; according to what he hath done for us, and the relations he bears to us of God as the Father, and Christ as the mediator for us. Which latter, in the former chapter, the apostle had
expressed in one word, to have fellowship ; and that fellowship mutual between us and them, one with another, ver. 7. For thereby he means not the communion other saints have one with another, as the fruit of that
fellowship with God ; he is not speaking of that there at all ; but it is a communion of God with us, and of us with God ; and of Christ with
* one with another. And of that he had spoken immediately before,
us,
ver. 3 and 6.
Obs. The height and prime of Christian religion lies in fellowship and communion with the persons of God the Father and Christ. This the
CHAP. II.] IN FAITH AND OBEDIENCE. 481
apostle openly professeth to have been the top of his own and his fellow-
apostles religion ; for in their names he speaks it and commends it to us, in saying, Truly our fellowship is with the Father and the Son. And therewith (as their religion) commends it to all Christians to the end of
the world. In that word our fellowship, he speaks of themselves, the
apostles, who also were those ice who have heard, &c., ver. 1, 2. And cer
tainly what was the top of the apostle s religion must be accounted the height of our Christianity in this life. And therefore the apostle also proposeth it
at the beginning of his epistle as the ultimate scope thereof, and thereby to draw on all sorts of believers to make it their mark also, and to bring them
to such fellowship as themselves had.
The height of popish religion, and of many others also, is to converse with maxims and articles of faith ; and take we the soundest of those
truths they profess, yet their faith of them is but a fellowship as with so many propositions theological, with a general knowledge of and assent to them. And this faith they set up instead of faith justifying, which first draws our souls unto a communion with the person of Christ and to the
Father, and to seek his grace and face through Christ to justify us, as
persons that are in ourselves ungodly. This first brings us into fellowship with the Father. This faith is the first occasion of, and begins our
acquaintance with either of them. But that other general faith is that which they cry up as the catholic faith, as they call it, without drawign our hearts unto the persons themselves ; and our applying ourselves to both
or either, leaves us without intimate acquaintance with them at all, which
that justifying faith, as we teach it, doth ; and it is the nature and property of it so to do. But to believe on the pope, and on the church, as the judge and formal ground of all their faith, which they term believing as the church believes; and so they finally issue in fellowship with the pope as
their head. And the utmost end they have of exacting this kind of general faith is to bring men into, and retain them to hold communion (forsooth) with their church ; and that is the main they drive at. And then in their worship also, whom have they communion with but
saints departed ? whom they pray to more than to Christ or the Father ; and in prayer is exercised our highest communion ; and theirs with God and
Christ is conveyed mediately through them. And which falls lower yet, this communion in this worship is with the images of those saints ; and
accordingly they have but a dead, lifeless communion ; for their images are
dead, and their worship of them is like unto them, and at best but the
image of what is true worship and fellowship with the person of the Father and the Son.
Others, ask them their religion ; they declare it to be a belief of what
the Scriptures say to be true, and to give assent to them (which we do also, and receive with all acceptation all the sayings and truths delivered in the word of God), as to believe that there is a God; that Christ is the Saviour
of the world, and died to save sinners ; and unto which general faith they add a devotion (which is in all naturally towards a deity) out of which they worship him; having this good hap, to be cast upon the true God and
Christ as the objects of that devotion. And then they stir up the prin
ciples of virtue that are in them naturally, edged by gospel motives oi heaven and hell, which, with the aids of the Spirit assisting these prin
ciples in the will, is the whole of their religion. But to have persona
communion with the Father and Christ, and to keep such ado aboul
getting Christ, and to hold and preserve communion with God the Father
VOL. vii H h
482 THREE SEVERAL AGES OF CHRISTIANS [CHAP. II.
and Christ, and to make them the great aim and work of faith ; this they think to be at least needless.
But let them and all the world know, that the top and sumniity of our
religion is to obtain, and then to retain and hold, fellowship with the person of God the Father and of Christ ; and that hereunto we exercise ourselves
night and day, that though the general faith is our faith also, and that we make use of that great principle of faith as the great engine, instrument, and means whereby to have communion with these persons, and that to
live in a converse with them as persons ; yet our faith rests not, can no
way content itself with the belief of the things, truth or propositions, though about Christ and God the Father, or the Spirit, that is, those
divine truths or maxims about them. For our communion is not with
propositions, but the persons, and aspires and carries us still to come at and to the persons. We seek continually to have their love manifested,
their hearts won to us, and behold the glory of God in the face and person of Christ ; as the apostle speaks, Phil, iii., That I may win Christ, and
have the Father and Christ made ours; they are our rest, the centre of
our souls. We make use indeed of the faith and belief of the things or
truth aforesaid, to affect our hearts to the persons the more whom they are spoken of; as that, It is God that justifieth, it is Christ that died: and therefore the love of God constrains us, because we thus judge, that
Christ died for us, who were all (in ourselves) dead, and condemned to
death of soul and body ; and this affects us, and draws forth love out of
us, to live to him who died for us. But the objects that ultimately terminate our faith are the persons of the Father and Christ themselves,
to find and obtain their loves to our souls. They are_ not the things, abstracted from communion with their persons, that satisfy us, or which we live upon. Our faith makes use of them as helpers and inducers, and
the bringers of our souls to them ; and then soul and person plead together, and we plead and urge those things spoken of them persons in the Scrip ture in our treatings with them. But it is their persons, and their hearts
or their desires to be towards us, as the spouse speaks in the Canticles,
that we seek. Also, w, pray and are conversant in all ordinances of
public and private worship, serving God night and day ; we seek, we pour out our souls, we repent, and turn from sin, and set ourselves to all known
duties ; but these are not our rest, no, not in this life. But all we do is
in a tendency to arrive at an acceptable access and reception by those
persons, even before we come to heaven, and thereby to keep up com munion with them; as holy Jude, ver. 20, 21, But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep
yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus
Christ unto eternal life. If God would send angels down to us, or Mary
the mother of God to converse withal, whom the papists make their great
est object of converse, and would not vouchsafe a gracious intercourse with
his person, that would not satisfy our hearts ; yea, if God should take us
up to heaven itself, and there are many glorious things and privileges to
be had there : rest, felicity, joy, the best company of all the angels, and
the spirits of men made perfect ; we profess that our souls in the midst of
the enjoyment of all these, if looking about us we should not spy out
Christ and the glory of the Father, we should cry out, Oh, but where is
Christ ? we see not him yet ; we should be at a loss for want of him.
Col. iii. 1, Seek those things which are above ; and so we profess to do ;
but how? Because Christ is there, to whom our hearts run: Where
3HAP. II.] IN FAITH AND OBEDIENCE. 483
* sits on the right hand of the Majesty on high. It is ho draws our hearts upwards to the things above. And if he would continue
Christ, says he,
(as now to our faith) being hid in God, when we come thither, we should be damped ; but if he appear once, who is our life, our hearts would live, and we should appear in glory with him. All the things there would not
* Whom have I in heaven but thee ? You know who said it. And not Christ only, but . God also, is the object of our aspirement
content our souls were he not there :
: ver. 3, Your life is hid with^Christ in God. Even
Christ s life is in God, and therefore ours much more; and to them by faith we go for it, even to their persons continually. And our apostle John puts the reason for this upon the very same account
that Paul doth there in that third of the Colossians. For having termed
* the Word of life, chap. i. 1 (and in verse 2, that eternal life which was manifested, and who was with the Father ; that is, who himself had
Christ
his life in, and personal converse with the Father, during all eternity), hence, therefore, our eternal life also lies in communion with these persons of Father and Son : and therefore Christ in his last prayer to his Father, to move him towards us, proposeth this as the summary end of that errand, of his being sent by him into this world : John xvii. 2, 3, As thou hast
given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know
thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. And this
life is not enjoyable only in that life to come, but this fellowship is begun and attained, for so it may be, in this life, and hath a
* fulness of joy, aa
* And these things write we unto you, having of this fellowship, that your joy may be full. I say, to be enjoyed in this
the product of it ; verse 4,
life ; for to that end it is, he says, he directeth them to these things which he wrote, whilst in this life ; even whilst we walk with God here, as ver. 6. And our apostle expressly says, Christ who is our life, Col. iii. 4. And
these persons are always living, for us by faith to have access unto : Eph.
ii. 18, For through him we both have an access by one Spirit unto the
Father. And we find them to be alive, and to give forth that life to our
hearts when we come and make our addresses to them ; and it is the converse with their persons, which puts life into the truths we believe, as without which they would be but dead things to our souls.
Let our opposites content themselves with their general faith for faith, and despise that faith of application and recumbency, and cry up their moral virtues, of which they boast that they are the principles and seeds
gracious actings which are found in any ; and that the whole and main
their salvation in this life, is but the restitution of them by Christ unto
that state of holiness which Adam was created in ; unto which by the
improvement of those virtuous dispositions left in corrupt nature, through an aid of the Holy Ghost, which is but external to the soul, they hope by their own endeavours, with imperfect steps, to attain unto. And in their
catechisms, let some of them give this account why they omitted consulto
to have put in the doctrine of the three persons, because forsooth they wrote a practical catechism ; as if the notion of the three persons in-
fluenceth not at all the practice of a Christian ! No ; that is with them no part of their active exercise, but a mere contemplative speculation. Whereas we profess, with the apostle in this epistle, that the knowledge of and communion with these persons, is both that which is the ultimate end and tendency of all the other part of our practic religion ; as also which all along quickens and gives life to our souls, in all that is of practice
484 THREE SEVERAL AGES OF CHRISTIANS [CHAP. II.
whatsoever, and also into all other the doctrines that are found in that our
religion. And observe but the scope and procedure of this holy man in
this epistle, whose method in our religion and practice we profess to follow. Now he proposeth this fellowship as the supreme end of his writing, at the
very beginning ; and therewith propounding the doctrine of the Father and
Son, against all errors then extant, chap, ii., he then exhorts to holiness, and keeping the commandments, as the means to obtain, and keep our
souls in, this communion. We profess we can no longer enjoy this fellow
ship with either Father or Son, than that thus we walk ; even as he thus
* If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth. And chap,
expressly, chap. i. verse 6, affirmeth,
iii. 8-6, Hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his command ments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments,
is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected ; hereby we know that we are in
him. He that saith he abideth in him, ought himself also so to walk, even
as he walked. I need refer to no more passages, for you meet with this
doctrine of his up and down the whole epistle ; and this is the order and method of the practice which we profess in our religion.
I only add, to the end none may be discouraged, that Christians either
enjoy this communion, or have their spirits restlessly carried on to seek it, and cannot sit down quiet short of it ; and so are of that generation that
seek his face, as Ps. xxiv. G, which must necessarily proceed from God
the Father s or Christ s having first made himself known to them ; and so
it is affirmed, God (first) said, Seek ye my face ; and my heart said, I will
seek thy face, Ps. xxvii. 8. And the constant seeking of communion with him is sanctified effectually to cause such souls to keep his commandments,
as well as to rejoice in the sensible enjoyment of that communion.
Obj. It is a property common to all the saints, to have had from the
first some knowledge of, and to hold and maintain some fellowship, in some measure and degree, with both these two persons, God the Father, and the
Son. This is in common to all more or less, plainly or obscurely, either
implicitly or explicitly ; therefore John in this epistle is not only peremptory that those who shall deny the one of them, doth consequently deny the
other, chap. ii. 23, Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the
* Whosoever shall confess
Father ; but on the positive too : chap. iv. 15,
that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. He
that confesseth, that is, believes on Christ, and receives him as a Saviour,
treateth of his salvation with God in and through him, according to that
in Kom. x. 9, 10, If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness ; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation, and then it fol
* the Father (as in the verse
lows in that of John, that God, that is,
before), dwells in him, and he in God ; which dwelling, in John s wonted
phrase, notes such a mutual fellowship, as two that dwell in one and the same house, and under the same roof together, use to have one with the
other ; and therefore, he that knows the Son, knows also the Father ; and vice versa. And truly when these two persons are in the heart, the
Spirit must be also ; read the verse before that last, verse 13, Hereby we know that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his
Spirit. It is not therefore, nor can it be, that any true Christian should
be utterly a stranger unto either, but if he knows the one, he must know
ClIAP. II.] IN FAITH AND OBEDIENCE. 485
the other ; although with Philip they may not so distinctly reflect upon that knowledge. God the Father to save through Christ, and Christ to save as sent by the Father, are those fundamental points of New Testa ment faith ; and both comprised by Christ in that summary, the famous and ordinary sanctuary of believers : John iii. 16, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoso believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life : unto which the 14th verse of our John the fourth chapter answers ; And we have seen and do testify, that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. And the mind of that speech,
* Whosoever believeth on him, in that third chapter, verse
16, is thus to be understood of Christ as sent and given, out of such a love, by the Father ; and therefore Christ joins both : John v. 23, 24,
l He that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father that sent him. Yerily,
verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation ; but is passed from death unto life. So then both Father and Son are the
objects of our faith, if we be saved ; and therefore some knowledge of both is requisite in every believer ; as if their faith be chiefly or more
explicitly carried forth to God the Father, yet it is God the Father in Christ. God was in Christ reconciling the world, is the substance of the
gospel ministry ; and in Christ comes in, and must come in, as God s instru ment, sent to merit our salvation.
The fourth assertion from the words of the text is, that although it is common to all New Testament Christians to have a true, distinct, saving knowledge both of the Father and of the Son Christ, in some measure or
degree, yet that then the knowledge of the one may abound more than of the other ; but specially that in their growing up into acquaintance and
fellowship with both, it may and doth fall out, that in successive times of
their lives, through God s dispensations therein, they are led into, and have, and enjoy a more intimate fellowship, free and open-hearted, and enlarged converse with some one of these three persons more than they find to be with the other of them ; that is, both on those persons part whom they converse with, they find one of them more accessible, more free and openhearted towards their souls, more ready to entertain them, and receive them graciously ; and also on their own part, as they find themselves more disposed, according to their various ages, to treat with one more than another.
Now to the end I may explain this point of successive communion with the several persons thus at times and in this manner indefinitely to be
understood, I shall continue to have recourse for help and light unto the
third and fourth verses of the first chapter, which I have already made so much use of, and joined with this my text of chap, ii., and shall give those animadversions upon those words, comparing them together with these words of my text, as will conduce to this my proposed aim.
1. That it is that fellowship and communion (which I term the after-
fellowship) which Christians hold after conversion, that this interchangeableness I intend falls out in, in the course of the whole of their Christianity
till death. I am not inquiring now into what falls out, as to the inequality of the knowledge of Father or Son at first conversion ; for it is this after-
jellou ship the apostle intends, and which he here exhorts those he wrote to, when he says,
* That you may have fellowship with us, and truly ours is with
the Father and Christ ; that is, the same fellowship which himself and his
fjllowapostles, whereof some were yet alive (in whose names, or at least in
486 THEEE SEVERAL AGES OF CHRISTIANS [CHAP. II.
his own, he speaks), who had heen long since converted, and had grown up into a high and steady continued converse and fellowship with both
persons, in which they had lived to that day, and now enjoyed. And that
is the fellowship he invites all unto (as being capable of it), being already
believers, as he supposeth them he wrote to ; and it is such a fellowship which in process of time would produce in the course of it a fulness of
joy, ver. 4, which at first conversion usually falls not out. Lastly, it is
that fellowship which Christians have in their walkings, that is, their course
of Christianity, which he speaks of; for in ver. 7, If we walk in the light, that is, in holiness, &c.,
* we have fellowship, &c., having oppositely refuted
: ver. 6, If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth. The mind
and discovered false professors
of his invitation therefore is, that all you that have an entrance (which is
Solomon s word in the Proverbs) or a beginning of the knowledge of God
and Christ, set your hearts and endeavours, with your whole might, by and
with holy walking, to grow up into a further and higher fellowship and
acquaintance with these persons, and then your joy will at length be full when your communion comes to be with both.
X 2. The second animadversion from these words is, that our apostle John
and the rest of the holy apostles had attained unto a fulness, so far as in
this life men are capable, of this equal or like fellowship with both the
Father and Christ in their daily walkings, and therefore it is attainable at
once in this life by us Christians ; for else he would not have proposed his
and their example to provoke us to communion with both. And when he
speaks of himself and them he speaks indifferently, you see, of his fellow
ship with both, not mentioning either with any pre-eminence of one above
the other. And his adding, that their joy may be full, confirms it; for
unless it be with both unto a like fulness, it would be but joy in part, not
full joy. We find also the apostle Paul prays for the Thessalonians, for
their communion with both, in 2 Thes. ii., that both Father and Son
might comfort their hearts : ver. 16, 17, Now our Lord Jesus Christ
himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your
hearts, &c. And to them that are grown up into much holiness in the
diligent and faithful keeping the commandments, Christ promiseth, John
xiv. 23, If a man love me, he will keep my words : and my Father will
love him, and will come unto him, and make our abode with him. Hence
therefore Christians, in their future course of walking, are capable of inti
mate communion with both (as to the Thessalonians), through the distinct
manifestation of the love of both to their souls, as that in John shews.
3. Yet, thirdly, de facto, or in the event, it so falls out, that in the long
progress of God s more slow and ordinary dealings with Christians by reason of, and through their* like uneven, unequal, and imperfect walkings with God, they attain not to a full enjoyment of fellowship with God and
Christ in an eminency, in a constancy, and at once together ; for unless it be
thus with both, their fellowship ariseth not to a full joy here spoken of,
which ariseth not unless an eminency of fellowship be held with both. But God with great intermissions vouchsafes it imperfectly ; and what he doth
is by turns and vicissitudes ; sometimes more with one, sometimes with
another. One time Christ doth personally more openly visit the soul with
his presence and love, sometime the Father, and that singly. This seems
plain to me from comparing this text and that other, chap, i., that whereas
in the first chapter he utters this as a general maxim, These things I
CHAP. II.] IN FAITH AND OBEDIENCE. 487
write to you, meaning all, that you may have fellowship with the Father and Son, which is a general encouragement given unto, all Christians, and
belongs to all to entertain it, as that which they were all capable of, and was their duty to seek ; yet mark it here in this place, coming to the
particular sorts of Christians severally and apart considered, that then he should in such a severed manner say of babes, I write to you, for you have known the Father ; and of fathers singly, I write to you, because you have known Christ the Son. This his attributing it specially to babes to have known the Father, without mentioning their knowing of
Christ, again in a special manner to fathers to know Christ, omitting the mention of their knowing the Father, argues that in the course and pro gress of the communion which Christians ordinarily do enjoy, it proves usually that babes do specially know the Father, and fathers Christ the Son ; and that, de facto, it had so fallen out in the apostle s observation
ordinarily. The apostle writes thus out of experience, and upon a survey of Christians in his days, which were patterns of the like ordinary dispen sations in after ages. However, I acknowledge, there might and may be some special exceptions, and more frequently in such as live not many years after conversion, and so are ripened thereby for their complete com munion with all the three persons in heaven, growing up unto much holiness in a short space ; as also in such whom God out of his good pleasure vouchsafes extraordinary dispensations of grace unto, above what he does to many others.
This assertion thus stated, and for the present indefinitely only proposed, as to particular times and seasons, without defining that communion with the Father unto babes, or with Christ to old Christians, or confining the one and the other to either of these ages, I shall endeavour to prove by instances.
1. Take a view of God s general economy, or dispensation to his whole
church, comprehensively taken in one prospect and set together, that is, of
his church in the Old and New Testament, from the first to the end of the world ; and perhaps it may serve aptly to represent unto you some image or pattern of his dealing with particular souls, the members of that church, and afford some semblance at least of the various manifestations of himself and his Son unto them. In the Old Testament you know how God mani
fested himself as the Father, far more abundantly and clearly than he did Christ his Son ; and their common, frequent converse with him did
accordingly far more exceed that of theirs with the promised Messiah, whom they yet all looked for to come into the world. Their thoughts,
affections, hearts, prayers, addresses, and recourse, ran out to God under the title of Father ; yea, and directly, and plainly, and expressly to him as such by name, and under that notion ran out unto the Father with a
full and open stream. Moses speaks it of him as a relation that was commonly known and taken for granted among those in his times : Deut.
xxxii. 6, Do you thus requite the Lord ? is he not thy Father, that bought thee and made thee ? thus speaking to the whole people. A Father by a double title : of creation, that made thee ; of redemption, that bought thee, which in the type is New Testament language. And they had it by tradition, for Moses speaks it as generally received. And so it follows, ver. 7,
* Ask thy father, and he will shew thee ; thy elders, and they will
tell thee as much. It was the common profession of that nation: Mai.
ii. 10, Have we not all one Father? of that whole church, which there
fore our translators in their margin parallel with that in the New Testa-
488 THREE SEVEKAL AGES OF CHEISTIANS [CHAP. II.
ment : Eph. iv., One body, one Spirit; one Lord Christ, one God and Father of all, &c., ver. 4-6. And upon that account God, as owning it, urgeth them with it for obedience from them : Mai. i. 6, A son honoureth his father : if I be a Father, where is my fear ? And when they or any of them were in any distress, they used to urge that same upon God for
: Jer. iii. 4-6, Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My Father, thou art the guide of my youth ? Will he reserve anger for ever ? will he
help
keep it to the end ? Behold, thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldest. The Lord said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done ? She is gone up upon every high mountain, and under every green tree, and there hath
played the harlot. This the wickedest hypocrites had learned ; but the truly godly, when they began to repent, and tarn truly and in reality to God, their conversion is set out by this, that they avouched him to be their Father indeed ; and in another manner, renouncing all their sins, and
cleaving to him as a Father ; for in the same chapter, ver. 19, But I
said, How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations ? And I said, Thou shalt
call me my Father, and shalt not turn away from me. They cried Abba, Father, as well as we, and in the same sense that we ; this was the foun dation of their turning to him. And again, on God s part, he avowedly declares that to be the ground and motive in his heart, why he did work a saving work upon them, even that he was their Father Jer. xxxi. 9, They shall come with weeping, and with supplication will I lead them : I
will cause them to walk by the rivers of water in a straight way, wherein
they shall not stumble ; for I am a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born who from everlasting had loved them : ver. 8,
* The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an
everlasting love ; therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee ; and
that, I am sure, is the Father in the New Testament language, Eph. i. 4, &c. And unto these passages in that chapter of Jeremiah do our trans
* And I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty ; the same person God the Father intended in both, which I observe to prevent an objection, that God as God is only so called in the Old. And after
lators refer that promise, 2 Cor. vi. 18,
conversion, their converse and fellowship with God was maintained, as with a Father to them, they claiming an interest in him, knowing him to be such, and pleading it with him: Isa. Ixiii. 16, 17, Doubtless thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not : thou, Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer ; thy name is from
everlasting. Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear ? Eeturn for thy servants sake, the
tribes of thine inheritance. Their hopes of mercy and forgiveness lay therein, Ps. ciii. 12, 13. And the mercies of God (which are so specially attributed to the Father, and he as the Father of them) are more often and more largely dilated on and set forth unto us in the Old Testament, as the other attributes of the Godhead are, than in the New. And unto those in God they mostly had recourse, as exposed to them in the promises and large declarations thereof to them ; and conversed with God under the apprehen sion and faith thereon. It was a current character of an Old Testament
saint, one that hoped in his mercy, trusted in his mercy, and you find the pleas of it in every eminent prayer almost; as by Moses, Num. xiv. ; David in the Psalms, and others of the prophets ; read Neh. ix., Ezra ix.,.
CflAP. II. J IN FAITH AND OBEDIENCE. 489
Dan. ix. ; also in their thanksgivings we know the constant song of praise in the temple was,
* For his mercy endures for ever, &c., and of Isaiah the
prophet, Isa. Ixiv. 1. And in this manner was their communion with God,
distinctly and by name the Father, managed and transacted, and God s with them. Mercy s gates had all the suitors, the addresses went this way. All flesh came to him, because there was mercy with him, that he might be feared ; whereas Christ the Son was rarely in a plain, explicit manner named, that is, by his name spoken of, and his redemption was involved most in obscure types, which though they pointed their faith towards him as to come, yet their fellowship and converses with him were rare, as his also with men were extraordinary, and vouchsafed but to extraordinary persons upon extraordinary occasions : as to Abraham, in the case of Sodom; to Jacob, when Esau came with four hundred men to seek his life; to Joshua, under the title of captain of the Lord s hosts, to encourage him
to those wars with the Canaanites. Nor did they put up their petitions in his name unto the Father ; none that I remember of them, unless Daniel in his for the Lord s sake, chap. ix. ; and David (as some interpret it), for thy Word s sake, 2 Sam. vii. 21. Or unless that in the sacrifices
they offered, when they worshipped, which was a converse with Christ at second hand, and but in outward shadows and figures, as in the Epistle to the Hebrews, types of Christ s sacrifice, and hiddenly signified thereby, which the carnal Jew understood not, and but as something understood by the godly themselves remotely, but not so clear and professed as the Father.
There may perhaps an objection start up in some men s minds, which I
preoccupated even now, by paralleling some of those scriptures alleged at
first in the Old Testament with others out of the New.
Obj. The objection is, that it was the Godhead, or God in the three
persons, was he whom, as so considered, the Old Testament saints had recourse unto under the relation and title of Father ; but not with the Father as in the New Testament sense Christ revealed him, the first person of the Trinity, the Father of Christ, and in him our Father ; and therefore
this instance will not hold, as to the present argument in hand.
And besides what I animadverted to prevent this, I further answer, Ans. 1. That it is one and the same person bore the relation of Father in the Old, and whom Christ came more clearly to reveal under the New : John i. 18, No man hath seen God at any time ; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. It is God, as the Father of Christ the Son, who is especially spoken of there ; and it was he, one and the same, who bore the title of God and Father under the Old. There is but one God and Father under both, as Eph. iv., who had been honoured with that title commonly (and no other person commonly but he) by the Jews ; unto which Christ gives testimony in saying, John
v. 23, That all men should honour the Son, as they had honoured the Father. He speaks it to Jews of the Old Testament, who had all along in an open profession honoured the Father, who was the Father of Christ
as the Son, and had committed all authority to him ; that now under the New Testament they should honour the Son as professedly and knowingly as the Jews had done the Father.
Ans. 2. That under the Old he was known as the Father of the Son, and so as distinct from the Son, as the Father of him. To this assertion two scriptures, Ps. ii. and Prov. xxx., give witness. Prov. xxx. 4,
* What
is his name, and his Son s name, canst thou tell? And the same is evidenced by promise to Solomon, 1 Chron. xxii. 10, which in the type
490 THREE SEVERAL AGES OF CHRISTIANS [CHAP. II.
was God the Father s speech, spoken to his Son, Heb. i. 8 ; and as a
distinct person, as the Father is from the Son, the like to which see in Ps. Ixxxix. 26.
2. The other instances of some primitive Christians that, long after the
apostles had diffused the knowledge of Christ upon the world, and it had taken root, and brought forth fruit over all the world, there yet continued
upon divers Christians of these times, a very dim and obscure knowledge of Christ, through their being addicted to the Old Testament way ; and
this not only upon the Jews converted to Christianity, which the apostle Peter insinuates, when writing to his countrymen, Jewish Christians, his second epistle, as he had also done his first, chap. i. 1. And it was in the
latter end of his days too, when the gospel had long been preached by himself and his fellows, as in the 2d Epistle i. 14, he declares,
* Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus
* When thou
Christ hath shewed me. And Christ s words to him were,
* they did well to
art old. He thereupon tells them, ver. 19, that though
take heed unto that word of prophecy, viz., the Old Testament prophesy
ing of Christ, unto which they were so addicted, that they would entertain no more of Christ than they found fore-prophesied concerning Christ therein, as Paul before Agrippa testified of himself, Acts xxvi. 22, that he
* said none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come ; yet that that word, Peter tells them, was but
* as a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts ; and that day-star is Christ, Rev. xxii. 16 ; and the day dawn is
the clear manifestation of the gospel, revealing Christ, as it had been
preached in its full brightness, by himself and other his fellow-apostles. And the reason of their shortness herein was the want of an inward light of the Spirit, and manifestation of him that was yet further to arise and
* God, who commanded
visit their hearts, whereby (as in 2 Cor. iv. 6)
light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in the apostles hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ ; whilst yet the knowledge of God as Father, shining more brightly in that Old Testament, which they attended more unto, must needs accordingly be ascendant to them, in comparison of their knowledge of Christ from thence.
Nor did this divine* knowledge of Christ, and an Old Testament spirit, abide upon these Jewish Christians only, but among many new converted
Gentiles also, which I have formerly shewn from the third chapter to the
Philippians (who were Gentiles converted), where the apostle having made
discovery of his own personal exercise of spirit in his daily communion and
* Yea doubtless, and I count
fellowship with Christ, from ver. 8 to the llth,
a)l things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord :
for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but
dung, that I may win Christ, and may be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but the righteousness which is by faith of Christ, even the righteousness of God which is by faith : that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of
his sufferings, that I may be conformable to his death ; if by any means I may attain to the resurrection of the dead. And how much his soul was
fired therewith, you may read in the verses that follow. But the close wherewith he shuts up that his discourse may seem strange
: ver. 15, As many therefore as are perfect, let us be thus minded : and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you ; which * Qu. dim ? ED.
ClIAP. II. J IN FAITH AND OBEDIENCE. 491
manifestly refers unto that whole foregone narrative, how and what his mind arid heart was, and had stood towards Christ and the excellent know
ledge of him, so as to win Christ and have fellowship with him, even in his
very sufferings ; wherein as many as were perfect and complete Christians, he says, were like minded with him herein, and were addicted and affected towards this knowledge of Christ and fellowship with him as himself was. But there were but few of these (as his complaints and usage of that speech in other epistles shews) ; and if in anything of what I have now professed, says he, of the excelling knowledge of Christ, ye be otherwise minded (not in opinion so much as in the affections and exercise of spirit), otherwise, as the word in Col. iii. 1 is used, addicted, affected, and. carried out, more towards other things revealed, so as that your minds should at present be diverted, the stream running in other channels more,
* God shall reveal even this to you. Now I could not, when I considered the coherence of
this text, and that how the occasion of the apostle s writing that epistle having been that the leaven of the doctrine of the circumcision, and thereby
cleaving to the Mosaicai law in force, had been urged by false teachers to be received by them ; the doctrine of which, though we read not that it had taken place in their opinions, yet there remained so much of an Old Testament spirit in them, and so much effect that noise of the circum-
cisionists doctrine had upon them as to draw their eyes to look more wishtly upon the Old Testament way in the moral parts of it, as to incline and
dispose their spirits more and more attentively that way. When I con
sidered these things, I could not, I say, put any fairer interpretation upon this passage and that in the following verse, or give any other account about these
* otherwise-minded, who were true Christians (for that he
plainly supposeth, and distinguisheth them from circumcisionists), but that au Old Testament spirit did so abide upon them, as they entertained not nor took in that excellent knowledge of Christ, as it shone in the gospel, in that eminent manner that the light that had shined about them did
require ; which though they had received and professed, yet in so remiss a
degree, as caused him thus to speak. Their spirits were addicted unto the way of the knowledge of God, and the exercise of the fear of God, and motives to his commandments, which they met with in the Old Testament, which damped much their practical light towards Christ ; and to live by the faith of the Son of God, and from being so kindly affected and acted
by the motives of the gospel drawn from Christ.
And the reason was, that although all truth belonging unto the whole of our common salvation was once for all delivered unto the saints, as Jude, ver. 3, even the whole body and system of faith by Christ his Son, Heb. i., and his apostles, as fully as ever it was to be, yet in respect to the setting
it on, and bringing home that faith unto their hearts (and we may say to ours of many to this day), in respect to such a sealing instruction (as Elihu in Job), and in some with a deeper impression than other some, and even those points of faith that are of necessity to salvation itself (as the
knowledge of God the Father and of Christ are), God is therein pleased to
go over them in some hearts with a slighter hand, and but as the first
draught of a picture, with dim colours and less bright, and so Jets them
abide for a while, though yet he makes a true resemblance, such as that
you may know the person by, whose image it is ; whereas in some other
hearts he goes over the same again and again, and ceaseth not, but works
ti up unto a far greater life and glory. God takes several pauses, so as we
msay ay of these teachings, that he doth it at sundry times ; even as well
492 THEEE SEVERAL AGES OF CHRISTIANS [CflAP. II.
as under the Old it is said he did. And herein God and his Spirit useth a
liberty to whom and when, and knows not a certain method. 1 Cor. xii. 8, For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom ; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit. And hence the apostle speaks of
* supplies of the Spirit, Philip, i. 19, yea, of perfecting what is lacking in our faith, 1 Thes. iii. 10.
2. I shall give the reasons of this disposition.
(1.) These two persons are both in themselves and in their works for us
distinct, and would therefore accordingly be known distinctly of us ; and to be so fully known as to be honoured by us in the most ample manner in which they are in the New Testament revealed to us : John v. 23, That
all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father ; from which place I observe ; 1st. That it is the design of the Father, that both himself and his Sou be honoured by all men, yea, and the Son as the Father ; and this is the
design of his sending his Son into the world, and of his committing that power of quickening, ver. 21, and of judging men, ver. 22, unto him.
2dly. I observe that this is yet effected at and by successive times, which is the point before me. The Father s being honoured by men, he
speaks of in the present time, as they honour ; as at that time when Christ
spake this, the Jews generally did ; but of the Son, as of that which was
< That they should honour the Son, even
yet more and more to be done :
as, &c.
(2.) If they come to be known as fully as they ought to be by us, and as
they are revealed in Scripture to us, there are a great many things con
cerning them, and belonging to either of them, to be known by us, which
for us to do fully and distinctly will require successive times and successive
impressions for either, and such as to have our thoughts to dwell upon them too ; as,
1st. For the Father.
* Father of glory, Eph. i., the fountain of the Deity, the begetter of so great a Son, and from whom the Holy Ghost proceedeth. This as to his person.
(1.) There is the person of the Father, as the
(2.) We ought to know the riches of his mercy, love ; for these are more
properly attributed to the Father, as in the same Eph. i. ; so 2 Cor. xiii. 14, The love of God, the Father, spoken with distinction from Christ and
the Spirit ; and Father of mercies, 2 Cor. i. 3, said of him who is the Father of Christ.
(3.) We should know the whole of his work and hand in our salvation, as
in choosing us in Christ, Eph. i., sending his Son into the world, which
Christ in John s Gospel so dilates on, and our John in this Epistle, chap.
iv. 8-10, He that loveth not, knoweth not God ; for God is love. In
this was manifested the love of God towards us, because that God sent his
only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein
is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to
be the propitiation for our sins ; and all spoken of the Father. And ver.
14, We have seen, and do testify, that the Father sent the Son to be the
Saviour of the world.
(4.) The bestowing on us all spiritual blessings ought to be known by us. It was he was the contriver, and is the donor of them all, Eph. i., whereof that one of sonship and adoption wherewith we have a right to
glor} , our apostle in this epistle also so admires, and sets out with a
behold, in chap. iii. 1-3 of this Epistle: Behold what manner of love
ClIAP. II. J IN FAITH AND OBEDIENCE. 433
the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God ! therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew not him.
Beloved, now are we the sons of God ; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be : but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him ; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him
purifieth himself, even as he is pure. There are multitudes of other things more like to these whereby the Father s part is set out, as in justifying us, Rom. iv.,
* drawing us to Christ, John vi., &c. And to know the Father in and by all these distinctly, and to have our minds to dwell upon them, will ask time and multitude of thoughts, both to take them in, and then to be answerably affected with them : to dwell in God in the intuition of all these, which is our John s phrase up and down his epistle ; but espe
cially upon this theme and argument of the Father s love, chap. iv. 16.
2dly. The like may be said of Christ, that we are to know and have
fellowship with him, viewed in the excellency of his person ; to know and have communion with him in his offices, priest, prophet, king ; also to con
template what he did for us, in that he took flesh, bore our sins, suffered
reproach, all sorrows, died, bore the curse and wrath of his Father, rose, ascended into heaven, and there appears for us, and brings us to God ; intercedes for us continually, pleads the fulness and oversufficiency of his
righteousness, his ability to save to the utmost ; then his mercy, grace, likewise in ail these, bowels to receive sinners ; his gentleness, meekness, lowliness of mind to converse with them after they come to him ; his long-
suffering to bear with them that come to him, his faithfulness to stand by them in all their needs ; his avowed resolvedness not in any wise to cast them out that come to him, but to raise them up at the last day.
I mention these on the persons parts, and proceed unto those on our
parts.
2. On our parts, we are in our capacities narrow-mouthed vessels, and cannot take in all at once all these things of either, which was seen in the
apostles, as Christ tells them : John xvi. 12, I have many things yet to
say unto you, but ye cannot hear them now ; even the knowledge of the
Father, wherein of the two they excelled in ; jet thereof he says, John
* These things have I spoken to you in proverbs ; the time cometh when I shall no more speak to you in proverbs, but I shall shew you
xvi. 25,
plainly of the Father. In proverbs ; that is, but obscurely. We in this
life are children, 1 Cor. xiii., and our capacity of being taught is but as of
children, here a line, and there a line, as the prophet saith ; and we say of the mind, Intuitio est tantum unius, as the eye looks wishtly but on one
thing at once ; so our minds. But these things, the mystery of God the Father and of Christ, are so great as the mind need go over them by parts, one piece of them to be presented and set on upon our hearts at one time, other of them at another ; as in your great optic glasses the eye is fain to
go travel over the body of the moon by parts and quarters. This scanti ness and clungness, that the intention of our minds is but upon some one
thing at once, we find in our knpwing and minding of other divine objects and duties or exercises. As in humblings for sin, our thoughts are swallowed up therewith abundantly at some times, and are as it were wholly in it ; then at another time we are all upon seeking for grace and holiness ; then at a third season, for faith and assurance, &c. We are as wholly intent on these by fits, if I may so speak, so as to be less on other duties and exercises. And so it may and doth fall out in our communion with the persons, as if we did cease to value the one as well as the other, or so
494 THREE SEVERAL AGES OF CHRIS1IANS [CHA.P. II.
as if we were wholly taken off from the other ; but our actual intentions for that present are lessened through our narrowness, whilst they are intended and heightened towards the other.
But this deficiency on our parts is not simply to be understood in respect of that disproportion of our understandings, only considered as naturally, unto these so transcending divine objects ; but from that dimness of true
spiritual light in us, without which supernaturally given, the natural man understands nothing at all of communion with these persons, nor any other divine objects. Concerning which dependence upon spiritual light I pro pose these few things to clear this point to us.
1. We must know that there is a double sort of knowledge of spiritual things in the hearts of men. There is, first, a true spiritual understanding (which is proper to the regenerate), as the apostle, Col. i. 9, by way of dis
tinction terms it : as likewise, in ver. 6, he calls it a knowledge in truth ; and either phrase is used with connotating a difference from another sort or kind of knowledge, namely, a literal speculative knowledge of them. The first spiritual understanding is to be understood, not in respect of the
object only, as because it is of spiritual things ; but further, from the man ner of knowledge, to know them spiritually ; and so the apostle accurately distinguished, to shew the difference of it from that knowledge of them that
is in natural man, 1 Cor. ii. 14, 15. And in like manner the second, knowing them in truth ; which is when the mind doth really attinge and
take in spiritual things, as they are in themselves, being represented by the Holy Ghost to the minds of spiritual men in their real nature and
excellency ; and that is only true knowledge. The same you have in
Eph. iv. 20, 21, to know the truth as it is in Jesus; even, as in Col. i., the knowing the grace of God the Father in truth ; both which import a
knowledge that is otherwise, and may justly be termed counterfeit, because
it reacheth not to the reality of the things, but only entertains pictures of them. And the differing character and truth of this spiritual knowledge is, that it is operative, and carries on the heart with it unto the things spiritual
it apprehends, and as they are represented and apprehended in their real
spiritual nature, and as such attracts and draws the heart to them ; which
is by a divine seed of light cast into the heart, that hath a formative virtue
accompanying it, and that forms Christ really in them ; whereas natural
light forms but false conceptions, as they are called ; whereof the wombs
that go with them do always miscarry in the end.
2. The second proposal is, that even in persons truly regenerated, espe
cially that are knowing, there may be and is much of such literal know
ledge of things that are spiritual, that yet is not true spiritual knowledge
(in that sense it was explained and stated), but mingled with what is
spiritual. This you may see in the Corinthians, 1 Cor. i., who were
1 saints, ver. 2, and sanctified in Christ Jesus ; of whom he gives this
eulogium for their knowledge of spiritual things, in verses 5 and 7 : In
every thing ye are enriched by him in all utterance and in all knowledge ;
so that ye come behind in no gift. And yet of those persons, of them he
thus sets out for gifts, he gives the true character of saints, waiting for
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And yet of these saints he, in
chap. iii. 1, speaks thus : And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as
unto spiritual, but as unto carnal ; even as unto babes in Christ ; which could
not have been, unless it be allowed that their knowledge in gifts and utter
ance about spiritual things far exceeded their true spiritual knowledge ; of
frhich spiritual knowledge he had discoursed in the latter verses of the
CHAP. II.] IN FAITH AND OBEDIENCE. 495
foregoing chapter, ver. 14, 15, which I even now cited. And then this immediately follows, and in respect thereunto he plainly says they were not
: which if that knowledge he speaks they had, had been such in the total of it, it would have made their hearts answerably spiritual ; which they were very far from, as if you read on in that chapter you will easily acknowledge. And the reason why and how it comes to pass it is so, is clear ; for as you all acknowledge that in a regenerate man there is in every faculty a great part that is unrenewed, a mixture of flesh and spirit, so by consequence it follows that there is such a knowledge of spiritual things as is common to other professors that yet remain unregenerate. Andthat
spiritual
part of understanding in men regenerated but in part, so far as it is unrege nerate in them, is yet capable of a knowledge of them by common gifts spiritual, as well as those that are not truly as yet renewed are. There fore the apostle distinguisheth in those believing Corinthians, spiritual gifts, and saving love and charity, 1 Cor. xii. 13.
It is true that this difference of knowledge being most conspicuous in what is in the several persons of men regenerate and unregenerate, in that in the unregenerate there is no true spiritual knowledge at all, no, not in the lowest degree, but it is but notional and literal ; whereas in the rege nerate there is by regeneration a principle of this real knowledge inlaid ; and therefore we difference the spiritual estates of the one and the other by the difference of their knowledge, as well as by other characters : yet there
is a mixture of notional knowledge with spiritual in the same regenerate person ; which, though it prejudiceth not his being in the estate of grace, no more than his having sin in him, and darkness in his understanding doth, yet still that mixture is from a distinction and difference of the know
ledge itself that is in him. When, therefore, we difference the knowledge of a man truly regenerate from that which is in a common professor and temporary believer, our meaning is not as if all and the whole heap and bulk of knowledge of spiritual things, that is in a regenerate man, were in the total of it all of it holy and sanctifying, affective and effective, accord
ing to the full extent of that his knowledge of them ; whereas in the other, the common professor, it is wholly unsanctified. Nor is it that the height, breadth, depth of a regenerate man s affection towards those spiritual things he anyway knows, should be adequately answerable to the dimen sions of his knowledge, every way considered : no, but knowledge by gifts for the good of others and himself, and knowledge of saving grace, are dis
tinct in such a man regenerated
: and both being mixed and put together in his understanding, doth bear the name of knowledge, or the knowledge which that one man hath, and is the possessor of; we may as so con sidered in the general affirm, that his knowledge compounded of both, doth
far exceed his holy affections, and that his heart is not in a measure sanc
tified according to the measure of his knowledge. And to that Christian
that discerns by experience the difference of these two knowledges in him
self (which is a great and true sign of grace to discern it), it becomes the
greatest matter of humiliation to find that his knowledge of holy things
objectively, doth exceed the holiness of his heart affectionately and effectively, his life falling so short of it : yet still take it with this caution to be added, that their knowledge objectively considered, doth extend with some degree of spiritual affection accompanying it even unto all things which they know ; and which, in respect of the sincerity of their hearts, they have a respect and affection unto all which they know. But yet this is no more intensive, than according to that degree of true spiritual knowledge, more or less, that
4.QQ THREE SEVERAL AGES OF CHRISTIANS [CHAP. II.
is blended with that notional knowledge ; so as in respect of that addi tional of speculative and gilt knowledge, their hearts fall so much short, and are not adequate unto that knowledge.
If it be replied, But is not all the knowledge a godly man hath, sanctified to him ?
Am. Yes ; in that sense that all other things are sanctified to him, to be some way or other for his spiritual good. But it is not all of it sancti
fying knowledge, and directly operative ; and yet it hath this more near and appropriate tendency unto the sanctification of him than other things have, that it is in his heart as fit combustible matter, as tow and flax that
lie near sparks of fire, ready to be enkindled by that true spiritual know
ledge that is in him ; and his case is, as if we suppose as if tow and flax
encompass fire in the same hearth, and there wanted but a blowing up the
lire, and it readily inflames the tow presently, and assimilates it into fire ; and then both work together upon the heart. Yet this falls out but as the Holy Ghost shall vouchsafe a special assistance, and shut up the spiritual
light and fire in a man ; which similitude agrees with the apostle s phrase in his exhortation to Timothy, Stir up the gift that is in thee, which is done by the Holy Ghost s assistance. You have commonly heard that word
stir up is in the original, as you do a fire. And the gift that was in him was that additional knowledge, which is always larger than a man s gra cious knowledge, and lies in a great part of it like materials unkindled, yet laid upon the tire, to the end to be kindled by it ; and so that gift know
ledge becomes spiritualised and sanctifying knowledge together.
The use I put these premises to, and the corollary I draw from these two proposals, is to prevent a great objection which might be otherwise made against what was alleged in the former instances. The objection may be this, that the doctrine of Christ and his apostles having as fully discovered Christ as the Father, and the Father as Christ, unto their dis
ciples in the primitive times, and that they were affected in some degree to
either of the persons according to that doctrine, yet how should it come to
pass that their spirits should be carried forth and addicted to communion
with, and towards one, rather than the other?
The resolve of this appearing difficulty lieth in this, that though their
literal notional gift knowledge, by the doctrine of the one, might be equal with their knowledge of the other, yet the true spiritual knowledge, which
affects and turns the heart, was unequal ; the Holy Ghost did not blow the
fire to enkindle the one as much as the other. And so they came not to have that intimate, affecting, operative knowledge towards Christ as to wards the Father, and so their hearts were not drawn out to a like com munion with both of those persons at once. And then it was they were otherwise minded as to the knowledge of Christ (as the apostle s phrase is
in that Philip, iii.) ; that is, otherwise affected, addicted, &c., as I opened
it; unto which, the third proposal being added, will further clear.
3. The third proposal, that indeed the Holy Ghost doth direct, draw
out, and intend more or less that true spiritual knowledge in the actings of
it towards spiritual objects, that yet are of equal weight and moment,
according to his own good pleasure, and therefore an unequal communion
of believers with the Father and Son at one and the same time may and doth often fall towards them. This is certain, that the degrees of our
spiritual communion with either of them depends upon a more large or less
degree of spiritual knowledge, and that as it is at the instant time acted and drawn forth more or less by the Holy Ghost. And the Holy Ghost
CHAP. II.] IN FAITH AND OBEDIENCE. 497
may enlighten us with such an affecting and inflaming light, in a more intense degree to the one, whilst to a lesser degree towards the other. I added, when it is acted and drawn forth, &c., and the reason is, that though every regenerate man hath an inherent principle or habitude of
spiritual knowledge, capable alike of all and each of spiritual objects, yet that which makes them more or less manifest is a divine light which God causeth to shine into the heart, and hereby to actuate that principle
: It
is light, says the apostle, that makes things manifest. And as the
degree of light about them is, accordingly are our apprehensions of them ; and according to our apprehensions of them, our hearts and spirits are
affected, our communion with them is higher or less intense. We see in nature that it is not only the less or greater vigour in the eye, which is the
principle of seeing inherent in us, which causeth the difference in seeing, but it is the light also shining more or less doth actuate and bring forth
things to a visibility, to a greater or less degree, which, if wanting, the clearest
eye in the world, if in the dark, sees nothing ; or if the proportion of light be dim and small, it discerns less. Now, the vouchsafing of this spiritual light, and the degrees of it, doth depend wholly upon God s good pleasure, who takes a liberty to dispense it as he pleaseth ; and the reason of this is, because we of ourselves are not sufficient to think one good or holy thought. And that though we are not totally in habitual darkness, but have a spiritual principle of seeing spiritually, yet in respect of true actual sight, and the
degrees of it, in that respect we should be continually but men in the dark. And therefore in the same place the apostle says, 2 Cor. iii. 5, Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves ; but our
sufficiency is of God ; we are not to be able to educe one good thought. And chap. iv. 6, For God, who commanded the light to shine out of
darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It is not that God did at
first once shine into our hearts and enlightened us, or that we have an
abiding principle of light in us, but he must give us every moment light to see withal. And we are no wiser, nor spiritually know any more of things
spiritual, than at the instant he gives it, which is the apostle s phrase to the Ephesians, Christ shall give thee light, yea, command it, or create it
continually, as he did light out of darkness.
And, which is yet more to this purpose, whereas other light, of the sun, moon, or any other lightsome body, do alike irradiate all the objects that are near them in a house or other open place, this of spiritual light from God doth not equally enlighten all or any spiritual objects, but doth in a more especial manner irradiate some one particular divine object at once more than another, which he casteth light upon more than others, and terminates the eye of the mind thereto ; or, like as a hand that manageth the light in a dark lantern (and such is his spiritual light shining in our dark hearts), that he opens and shuts, as the phrase in the Revelation is, as he pleaseth. And the Spirit of God, who is given to reveal these deep things of God, is the freest agent in this, and takes a liberty, dividing to
every man as he will, 1 Cor. xii. 11. Even as in John iii. he is said as the wind to blow where he listeth, and as to what person he pleaseth, unto what light or degree thereof he pleaseth ; and hence also comes the un-
equality in the point in hand. These reasons are from what is on our
parts. I return again to such as concern the persons of the Trinity, to be now added after those that concern us, for I said I should sort and handle the one and the other intermingle dly.
VOL. VII. I 1
498 THREE SEVERAL AGES OF CHRISTIANS [CHAP. II.
There are these farther reasons that concern the persons, that move them
to this dispensation of this alternate communion with themselves.
1. They are willing and content to take their turns and vicissitudes of
manifesting themselves, sometimes the one, sometimes the other, in our
narrow hearts, to the end that each of them may have in the issue the
fuller and more distinct manifestation of themselves, they are pleased to
give way one to the other in their communion. From hence it was, as we
said, that the Son suffered himself to be so much and so long concealed
during the time of the Old Testament ; and the Father had the vogue in
the church then. And under the New, although all judgment is originally the Father s, yet hath he committed all judgment to the Son, and judgeth no man but in and by the Son, to the end that all might honour the
Son, &c., John v. 22, 23. We may observe, likewise, the Spirit under
the New ; also the third person conceals himself, insomuch as though it
was he who indited all the epistles of the New, and therein wisheth grace and peace from God the Father and from Christ, not mentioning himself, from whom yet grace and peace do proceed equally with the Father and the
Son, and although it is true that both Father, and Son, and the Spirit also, be in some measure and degree known by every believer, which the words
* In the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit, as having a joint and equal interest in our salvation, yet are they content that our
of baptism shew,
intentions of mind and affections should run with a shallower stream at
times towards some one than they do towards another ; although appretia-
tive, or in the esteem of them in their judgments, all Christians value and
honour all three alike, as one God, three persons, blessed for ever. So
that it must not be understood as if I meant that our minds were quite taken off from the one, whilst they are carried forth to the other, whilst
thus our affections are more intentionally taken up with any one of them.
Yea, these persons are so far from jealousy in this case of one another,
lest one should have more of us than himself, that they do help forward
and advance the glorifying of one the other unto us. Jesus Christ the Son, when he hath once been thoroughly revealed and made known to any soul
himself, it is he, when once believed on by it, that reveals the Father unto
us: Mat. xi. 27, No man knows the Father, but the Son, and he to whom
the Son reveals him. And, vice versa, when Christ is revealed and made known to you, and your hearts drawn to him, and your hearts taken up with the communications of him, you must know it is the Father that
concealedly doth this : John vi. 45, It is written in the prophets, and
they shall be all taught of God : every man therefore that hath heard and
learned of the Father, cometh unto me ; so Gal. i. 15. And then Christ
taketh his turn afresh and anew to reveal the Father : John xvi. 25, The
time cometh that I will shew you plainly of the Father. And the Spirit is
as zealous and forward to glorify both : John xvi. 14, He (the Spirit)
shall take of mine and glorify me (and take of the Father s too, and glorify him also to your hearts), by shewing it to you. And I say, he glorifies the Father as well as Christ; for so Christ intends his speech: ver. 15,
All things that the Father hath are mine : therefore said I that he shall
take of mine, and shall shew it unto you. Herein they take their turns
also : John xvii. 1, The hour is come that thou, Father, shouldst glorify
thy Son, that thy Son may glorify thee ; in their courses to glorify one
another. And they, having an eternity of time to glorify themselves unto
us in, are not hasty for themselves ; they have time enough afore them
to do it in, and take their seasons. And, however, in heaven they will
CHAP. II.] IN FAITH AND OBEDIENCE. 499
be sure then to manifest themselves to us at once, to the full, and together.
2. Seeing that by reason of our great sinfulness that remains in us, and through want of growth to a perfect holiness, we are long a-growing to be
fit, prepared, and disposed to enjoy an eminency of fellowship with both at once, and together alike (which is yet attainable), yet till then each person is pleased to take a singular contentment in such sole, single, private visits with a soul by turns. And the very privacy, that is done alone, doth afford a special delight to the person ; and the privacy of them, in that they are
single thus alone, doth afford a special delight in the mean time to that person that communes with us, till we grow up to be meet company for both. This the whole book of the Canticles shews, wherein Christ hath those intercourses with his spouse, he and she alone. You may see how he caresseth her, and talks to her, and she again to him :
* I am my beloved s, and my beloved is mine, as if none s else; whenas yet she was the Father s as much as Christ s. But Christ was her husband, and by that relation having a special and appropriate interest in her, thence a peculiar private converse with her, came to have an answerable solace in it. The sweetness of a friend when alone enjoyed, hath some advantages in it in some respects, which a joint society of others with him, though friends also, hath not ; as that alone one can be more free and enlarged in expressions of mutual love one to the other, and more particularly direct his love to that one friend alone, and the like. As in the way of our friendship we often do ; when we would enjoy a special friend indeed, we invite him to supper alone, to have his company alone. And there is a resemblance of some such
thing, as affected, as it were, by Christ himself, in that overture of Christ s : Rev. iii. 20, If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. That reduplication, and he shall sup with me, denotes an aloneness of them two together, supping hand to hand, as we say. And he names no other but himself, to come with him in that eminent way that he himself came. It denotes also that it is mutual, that she entertains him, and he her, and each bring their cost with them. He sups with her, and she with him. He feeds her with his fruits and viands, and his love better than wine. Bead Cant. v. 1, I am come into my garden, my sister, nay spouse : I have gathered my myrrh with my spice ; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey ; I have drunk my wine with my milk : eat, 6 friends ; drink, yea, drink abundantly, beloved. And she again invites him to eat of hers : Cant. vii. 12, 13, 1 Let us get up early to the vineyards ; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grapes appear, and the pomegranates bud forth : there will I give thee my loves. The mandrakes give a smell, and at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, my beloved : there will I give thee of my loves. It is all of it her speech to him ; and thus this private intercourse of loves, proper to them two alone, doth, in the interim, serve to please, till the fulness of God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, come together in upon the soul.
3. They are alHhere in the mean while stayed and contented with private transactions during our narrowness and non-age ; even this, that when we have a more eminent communion with any one person, we have a secret under-communion with the other two, though implicitly with the other, and more distinctly with some one. And it is well it is so ; for otherwise we should be guilty of a forgetting the Holy Ghost in the most, whilst we have communion with the Father and the Son objectively ; that is, as the per-
500 THREE SEVERAL AGES OF CHRISTIANS [CHAP. III.
sons whom our souls are taken up with, as the subjects of our converse, whilst the Holy Spirit is content to be the revealer of both, and to have
the honour of that, as also that he knows he is honoured in their being honoured by us. And the reason is, because the foundation of our com
fort in our communion with any one person lies in this, that that person we have the joyful fellowship with is God; that is, it makes our joy
* a full
joy, as chap, i., in such a fellowship. That is the spring, the source of
all comfort, that in that person the fulness of the Godhead is, without which our converse would be empty, and but as with a shadow. Now if our fellowship with one of the persons be fundamentally with him as he is
God, and all three are but one and, the same God, then in having com munion with that one we have it with the rest. The common interests of
the Godhead (which is one and the same in all) is glorified thereby in us, to
us, and by us, and some give that as the full intent of the apostle s speech, 2 Cor. iv. 6,
* We beheld the glory of God in the face or person of Jesus
Christ. For why? Because both he is looked upon by us to be God, and
as in whom we apprehend, whilst we exercise our faith, &c., on him, and
that the fulness of the Godhead dwells personally in him, and so we have
communion with him as God, and in beholding him we behold the glory of God the Father also. Yet because this enjoyment of all three in some one is but impliedly, therefore hath God ordered a further special distinct
fellowship with each. And hence the love of the Spirit is made mention
of, Rom. xv., as well as of the Father or of Christ. The Spirit is God, and he that dwells in God dwells in love with any of the persons. And so, in having communion with the Holy Ghost in his love, or with any other
person in their love, we have communion with God. And therefore in this
case it is not a leaning to one person more than to another ; for they are
all but one God, and each one glorified as one God : I and my Father
are one, says Christ. Likewise in honouring the Son we honour the Father who hath such a Son ; a wise son is an honour to his parents, as
often in the Proverbs.