The Types Unveiled, Chapter 13
CHAP. 13. The next thing that we are to take notice of is their bunch of Grapes, which was brought them from the good Land by the hands of their Spies; yet notwithſtanding they could not believe.
THis bunch of Grapes which were brought out of Canaan by the Spies might lead us to the ſheddings abroad of the Holy Spirit of God upon our hearts if we truly believe: for the end why God ſent the Grapes of Canaan to the Iſraelites while they were in the Wilderneſs, it was to aſſure their hearts to the making good thoſe promiſes which God before made to their Fathers concerning their certain arrival at the Land of promiſe; and ſo it was to be an earneſt or pledge to them which believed of their right to the Land of promiſe, that aſſuredly as they did eat of that bunch of grapes which came from …ana…n, ſo aſſuredly if they would believe, the Lord would bring them ſafe home to the full vintage. Now of the ſame uſe is the Holy Ghoſt, which God ſends down into the hearts of the faithful
You may call the breathings of the Spirit of God in the hearts of the godly, the fore-running bunch of Grapes of the eternal Canaan, which doth yield forth his bleſſed, refreſhing, comforting, chearing juyce into the hearts of the people of God.
God gives out the holy Spirit to aſſure the godly that the Land is a good Land unto which they are a travelling. God gives his people the ſweet ſenſible taſtes of glory to come before-hand.
O how hath God drenched the ſouls of his people with draughts of this ſalvation ſometimes, when in an ordinance of God. This made David prize ſo much the houſe of God, Pſalm 27 4. It was the coming down of thoſe heavenly Grapes, or ſpiritual Dews from the Spirit of God, which did ſo much draw and atttact his heart thither-ward ſo much, Pſalm 36 8. For thou ſhalt abundantly ſatisfie them with the fatneſs of thy houſe, and make us to drink of the Rivers of thy pleaſures.
The work of which heavenly dews of the Spirit is to witneſs to, and in our hearts about the great right we have by free Grace to the good Land of promiſe, which is Heaven, Rom. 8. 16 The ſpirit it ſelf beareth witneſs with our ſpirit, that we are the people of God: ſo 1 John 4. 13. Hereby we know that we dwell, in him, and he in us, by his Spirit which he hath given us. That is, the Holy Spirit is given us to aſſure us of the right we have to heaven; the Father gives it to his as the imagining pledge that by it we might hold God to his promiſe or bargain, that ſo heaven might be good to believers in law; for you know in Law a penny given upon bargain or ſale as an earneſt of that bargain, gives ſtrength to the bargain, as that the party cannot ſtart from it, but in Law is tied by it to make good the ſame: therefore in 2 Co…. 1 22. the Holy Spirit of God is called the earneſt ſent down into our hearts; yet notwithſtanding as Iſrael could not believe they ſhould come to the good land, although God ſent them the grapes of the Countrey, as the aſſuring earneſt of it: ſo is it likewiſe with the Lords people in this life, notwithſtanding they receive from God thoſe many ſecret witneſſings of the Spirit, and many bleſſed refreſhings which have been ſealed home upon the heart by the bleſſed Spirit of God. Yet how hard a matter doth the ſoul finde it to bear up with God in a way of believing: how doth the Devil labour daily to make the ſoul to call in queſtion his greateſt enjoyments of the Spirit of God: thus it was with the good man in the Pſalms, Pſalm 73. 25. My fleſh and my heart faileth me: ſo Paul, though he could ſay ſometimes he was full of the bleſſings of the Goſpel of God, and that he had been caught up into the third heavens, where his enjoyments of the Spirit were ſo large, as that he hardly knew whether he were in the body or no, yet at another time under the ſentence of death, in his own eſteem, even as deep as hell, 1 Cor. 2 9. Therefore ſoul, if it be ſo with thee, remember that its the condition which is proper to the Wilderneſs ſtate in which thou art; and though thou canſt not alwayes believe, Yet God abideth faithful, and cannot deny himſelf, 2 Tim. 2. 13. And that the foundation of God ſtandeth ſure, having this ſeal, The Lord knoweth who are his, ver. 19. And for thoſe men and women which do not experience theſe ebbings and flowings (inwardly) of the Holy Spirit of Faith and Comfort upon their ſouls, but boaſt of the conſtant, ſound, abiding comfort, which they have of heaven, and of the love of God in the fence of it upon their ſouls, as ſome have done in my hearing; let them profeſs what they will, yet to me the ſoudneſs of their conditions is highly to be queſtioned: I do except ſome ſtrict, cloſe walking, humble ſouls.