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

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

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

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

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

Sect. XIII.

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

Christ?

1. The Spirit of Christ And one of God's attri

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

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

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

VOL. XX.

zealously devoted to his will. The spirit, therefore, that is impure, and encourageth men in sin, and cries up carnal liberty, and draweth not the heart to God, but from him, is certainly none of the Spirit of Christ. By this many carnal pretenders of our times may be convicted.

4. As God is love, so is Christ's Spirit a Spirit of love, by which we are taught to love God, and our brother, yea, and our very enemy: and so to dwell in God, by dwelling in love, and God also dwelleth in us. (1 John iv. 10—16.) “They that learn of Christ, are meek and lowly." (Matt. xi. 28, 29.) "They that keep his commandments do love one another." (John xv. 17.) "The wisdom from above, is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy, and good fruits." (Jam. iii. 17, 18.) "They are taught of God, by this Spirit within them, to love one another." (1 Thess. iv. 9.) The most of the heretical spirits of these times do hereby show that they are not of Christ; their very religion lieth in railing at ministers, and reproaching those that are not of their way, and bearing down all that resist their designs; by how much injustice or unmercifulness, they do not much regard. How full are all places of the effects of this spirit? Men's selfishness, and cruelty, and envious zeal, and spleen against their brethren that are not of their minds, doth tell us that too many among us do little know what spirit they are of.

5. As God is almighty, so is Christ's Spirit a Spirit of power: though it will not do all that it can, yet it will do that which none else can do: though it do not here perfect us, nor subdue our sins absolutely, yet doth it make us conquerors, and more. (Rom. viii, 37.) Itrooteth up the strongest and deep rooted lusts; it prevaileth against prejudice, custom, and nature; it conquereth corrupted sensuality, and keepeth the ordered senses in subjection; it mastereth the nearest interest of the flesh, and self; and the highest interest of the greatest on earth, or of our nearest carnal friends, that do oppose it; it levelleth high imaginations, and taketh down all within us, which exalteth itself against God. (2 Cor. x. 4, 5.) If the Spirit in the word be thus mighty and powerful in making the first change on a carnal heart, how much more easily may we see that it must be so with the Spirit in the soul, which it hath possessed. This Spirit doth not only strive against sin, but conquer it, nor suffer a man to spend his days in fruitless resistances, but doth give sin its death wound; so that in whomsoever this abideth, sin shall

not have dominion over him. (Rom. vi. 14.) You see, then, how you may know that you have this Spirit.

Sect. XIV.

If all true believers have the witness in themselves, then it follows, that when Satan would tempt them to infidelity, they should not only have recourse to their Bibles, but also to their hearts. Here, therefore, I come to the second part of the application before promised, to show you what use we should make of this testimony, and how to improve it, for the confirmation of our faith. O what an excellent help is here, that the poorest Christian hath against such temptation, beyond all the furniture of the most learned that want it! This advantage will furnish us both against temptations to infidelity in general, and against temptations to any error that is plainly contrary to the essentials of Christianity.

1. If the devil, or any seducer, would draw you to doubt, whether there be indeed a Christ or not, and whether he did rise again, and be now living, what an excellent advantage is it against this temptation, when you can repair to your own hearts, and there find a Christ within you, I mean, his Spirit possessing you, and ruling you for him; and his very nature and image in you, and such workings of his upon you, which none can imitate. O, saith the sanctified soul, have I felt Christ relieving me in my lost condition, binding up my broken heart, delivering me from my captivity, reconciling me to God, and bringing me with boldness into his presence, whom I had offended, and saving me from God's wrath, and law, and my own conscience; and now, after all this, shall I doubt whether there be a Christ, or whether he be alive! Have I felt him new creating me, and making all things new to me, so strangely opening my darkened eyes, and bringing me from darkness into his marvellous light, and from the power of Satan to God; binding the strong man, and casting him out, and bringing down the strongest holds in my soul; and yet shall I question, whether there be a Christ or not? Hath he made me love the things which I hated, and hate that which I loved? Hath he given me such a taste of the powers of the world to come, and possessed me with the hopes of glory with himself, and given me a treasure and portion in God, and set my heart where my treasure is, and caused me in some measure to have my conversation in heaven; and yet shall I doubt again, whether

he be the Christ? What an impudent spirit is it that would tempt me against so much experience? As Athanasius saith to the heathens in his time, "If Christ be not alive, how doth he yet destroy your idols, and cast out devils, and convert, and subdue the world to himself. Are these the works of a dead man?" Though you see him not, yet by these you may see that he yet liveth; so may the true Christian say, Is it the work of a dead man to make me alive? To bring such a clod so near to heaven? To set up a new kingdom, and laws within me? Sure, he that did all this in me, is alive. He that every day helps me to pray, and hears my prayers, and plainly shows me in the accomplishment that they are heard, he is not dead but alive; or else I should not have these benefits of his life. Because he lives, therefore do I live also, and therefore am I in hope of living with him for ever; whereas, if he were dead, my hopes would die, and justice would have caused me to die ere now. My very life confirms me, that there is a Christ, to keep off the penalty which justice would else inflict. It is because God is merciful to me in his beloved, and pleased in him, in whom he was well pleased; and because in him his compassions fail not, therefore it is that I am not consumed. Thus may a true believer argue, from the testimony that is within him, against this temptation.

If deceiving infidels get abroad among us, and seek to turn men from the faith of Christ, they may prevail with those that gave Christ no deeper room, than in their fantasy, and that never did heartily close with him in love. If you out-reason these men, yea, if you can turn the scale of fleshly interest to be against the profession of Christ, they will be easily drawn to let him go; but for those that have the Spirit of Christ within them, it is not so with them? If they cannot answer the cavils of an infidel, yet they can hold fast the ground of faith. Christ hath deeper room and interest in them. He is held faster by the heart than by the head alone. Love will hold Christ when reason alone would let him go. If you will draw such a soul as this to infidelity you must draw him out of the arms and embracement of Christ. His ear is, as it were, nailed to his door: because he loveth him, he will not leave him. If a sinner will the hardlier leave his lusts, or worldly profits, because he loveth them, blame not a Christian, if he be loth to leave Christ, who hath so loved his soul, and whom his soul so loveth. "Who shall separate him from the love of Christ? Shall tribu