2. By the law and covenant of innocency, the Creator eminently ruled omnipotently. And the Son ruled eminently sapientially, initially under the covenant of promise or grace from Adam till his incarnation and the descent of the Holy Ghost, and more fully and perfectly afterward by the Holy Ghost. And the Holy Ghost ever since doth rule in the saints as the Paraclete, Advocate, or Agent of Christ, and Christ by him, eminently by holy love; which is yet but initially: but the same Holy Ghost by perfect love shall perfectly rule in glory for ever; even as the Spirit of the Father and the Son. We have already the initial kingdom of love by the Spirit, and shall have the perfect kingdom in heaven; and besides the initial and the perfect there is no other. Nor is the perfect kingdom to be expected before the day of judgment, or our removal unto heaven; for our kingdom is not of this world. And they that sell all and follow Christ, do make the exchange for a reward in heaven; and they that suffer persecution for his sake, must rejoice because their reward in heaven is great: and they that relieve a prophet or righteous man for the sake of Christ, and that lose any thing for him, shall have indeed a hundredfold (in value) in this life, but in the world to come eternal life. We shall be taken up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord: and those are the words with which we must comfort one another, and not Jewishly with the hopes of an earthly kingdom. And yet "we look for a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness, according to his promise." But who shall be the inhabitants, and how that heaven and earth shall differ, and what we shall then have to do with earth, whether to be overseers of that righteous earth (and so to judge or rule the world) as the angels are now over us in this world, are things which yet I understand not.[434]
[433] John v. 21, 25; Prov. i. 20, 21.
[434] Matt. v. 11, 12; Luke xviii. 22, 23; Matt. x. 41, 42; Luke vi. 23; xvi. 20; 1 Cor. xii. 2, 3; v. 1, 3, 8; Matt. xviii. 10; 1 Thess. iv. 17, 18; Mark xii. 25; 2 Pet. iii. 11-13; 1 Pet. i. 4; Heb. x. 34; xii. 13; Col. i. 5; Phil. iii. 20, 21.
Quest. CLXII. _May we not look for miracles hereafter?_
_Answ._ 1. The answer to quest. clx. may serve to this. 1. God may work miracles if he please, and hath not told us that he never will.[435]
2. But he hath not promised us that he will, and therefore we cannot believe such a promise, nor expect them as a certain thing. Nor may any pray for the gift of miracles.
3. But if there be any probability of them, it will be to those that are converting infidel nations, when they may be partly of such use as they were at first.
4. Yet it is certain, that God still sometimes worketh miracles; but arbitrarily and rarely, which may not put any individual person in expectation of them.
_Object._ Is not the promise the same to us as to the apostles and primitive christians, if we could but believe as they did?
_Answ._ 1. The promise to be believed goeth before the faith that believeth it, and not that faith before the promise.
2. The promise of the Holy Ghost was for perpetuity, to sanctify all believers: but the promise of that special gift of miracles, was for a time, because it was for a special use; that is, to be a standing seal to the truth of the gospel, which all after-ages may be convinced of in point of fact, and so may still have the use and benefit of.[436] And Providence (ceasing miracles) thus expoundeth the promise. And if miracles must be common to all persons and ages, they would be as no miracles. And we have seen those that most confidently believed they should work them, all fail.
But I have written so largely of this point in a set disputation in my Treatise called "The Unreasonableness of Infidelity," fully proving those first miracles satisfactory and obligatory to all following ages, that I must thither now refer the reader.
[435] Luke xxiii. 8.
[436] 1 Cor. xii. 28, 29; Heb. ii. 3, 4; John x. 41.
Quest. CLXIII. _Is the Scripture to be tried by the Spirit, or the Spirit by the Scripture, and which of them is to be preferred?_
_Answ._ I put the question thus confusedly, for the sake of those that use to do so, to show them how to get out of their own confusion. You must distinguish, 1. Between the Spirit in itself considered, and the Scripture in itself. 2. Between the several operations of the Spirit. 3. Between the several persons that have the Spirit. And so you must conclude,
1. That the Spirit in itself is infinitely more excellent than the Scripture. For the Spirit is God, and the Scripture is but the work of God.
2. The operation of the Spirit in the apostles was more excellent than the operation of the same Spirit now in us; as producing more excellent effects, and more infallible.