BookJI. THE HOLY SPIRIT COMPARED TO A RIVER. 49S 6. Doth ·not thy Heart condemn thee, for allowing thyfelf in any known Sin, or for living in the continual NegleCt of any one knowp Dmy? 'l'he. Spirit .witnejjeth with our Spirits, that we are the Children of God. Where It IS a fealmg Spmt, It IS a Wlt– neffino Spirit. It compares the Heart and Life of a Man with the R ule of the Word": And if the Bent and Stream of the Soul be Heaven-ward, and his Cincere De!ign is after God, and to live to him in this World, as well as to live with him in the World to come; to .be holy here, as well as to be happy hereafter; then the Spirit witnelfes for him : But 'if otherwife, it witnelfes againit him, and his own Bpirit condemns him. IV. Moreover, this may inform Cincere Chriftians to their unfpeakable Joy, how firm and fure the Covenant ofGrace is to them. They are f ealed with the Holy Spirit unto the Day of Redemption ; they are marked for Heaven, and cannot lofe their Title to the eternal Inheritance, becaufe they cannot lole the Seal of it : As they have received the Earneft of it, (o they have the Witnefs and Seal of it, that it might be ·every way firm and fure to them. V. Let all who profefs the Gofpel, and pretend to the Spirit, fl:rive to get this Seal. .It is not enough to read of the Covenant of God, and to have fome external Knowledge of it, and difpute about it; bm labor to get it fealed to you by the Holy Spirit.. VI. If the Spirit be the Earneft and Seal of this blelfed Inheritance, do not grieve ·it; this is the Counfel the Apoftle gave to the Ephiftans. Do not quench the Motions of it, nor tmn a deaf E ar to the tender and gracious Reproofs it daily gives you. Do not give way to Sin or Satan; negleCt not your Duties ; pray often, and hear the Word, and be fo.und in your Places where the Word and Spirit hath direCted you: Live in Love, and let all Bitternefs, Wrath, Anger, Clamor, and Evil-fpeaking be put away from you, with all Malice; and be kind one to another, and tender-hearted, f orgiving one another, as God for Chrift's fake bath forgiven )'OU: And hereby you will not grieve the Holy Spirit, whereby you are fealed unto the Day of Redemption. L a)lly, Take·heed Slltan does .not deceive thee with a counterfeit Seal. Many are confident they have the Spirit, Light, and Power, when .it is all meer DeluGon. The Spirit always leads and di"CI:s according to the written 'Word: Hejhall bring my Word, faith Chrift, to your remembrance. Some Men boaft of the Spirit, and conclude they have the Spirit, and none but they, and yet at the fame Time cry down and vilify his blelfed Ordinances and lnftitutions, which he hath left in his Word, carefully to be obferved and kept, till he come the !econd Time without Sin unto Salvation. THE HOLY SPIRIT COM·PARED TO A RIVER. '!'here is a River, the Streams whereof make glad the City of God, Pfal. xlvi. +· He that believeth, out of his Bellyjhalljlow Rivers of living Water, John vii. 38. .And he jhewed me a pure Rh·er of Water of Life, as clear as Chryjlal, proceedmg out of the 'l'hrone of God, and the Lamb, &c. Rev. xxii. r. METAPHO~ PARALLEL !l. EVERY River hath a proper I- THE Holy Spirit is faid to proceed from Head or Fountain, from the Fathei·: But "vhe;z the Comforter is 'whence it doth proceed. come, whom I will fend unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth, wbich proceedeth from the :Father, be jhall tejlify of me, .John xv. 26. It proceeds out of the 'l'hrone of God, and .the Lamb, Rev. xxii. I- · I!. A River hath much \Vater .in it, a Ciftern or Velfel will con– .tain but [mall ~anrities; fome .Rivers contain Abundance, and can never ·be emptied. It The Holy Spirit is called a·River, not a Ciftern, not a Velfel, to .denote that Fulnels of the Water of Life which is in it, the Abundance of heavenly Bleffing> that flow from it; all the Godly in all Ages, from the Beginning of the World, have been fupplied from this River: Thoufands, and ten Thoufands, have drawn out of it, have been fiiled with it, have had their Meafures of it, as God in his V/ifdom faw good to communicate it to them; yea, and our blelfed Savior received it without meafure: And yet the River is as full as ever in itfelf, there is no emptying of it_ Ill. The
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