Englands duty under the present gospel liberty from Revel. III, vers. 20

First, From the presence of Christ by his Spirit, the Ordinances and Churches derive their beauty and glory, Psal. 27. 4. To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary. Look as the beauty of the Body is a result from the Soul that animates it; and when the Soul is gone, the beauty of the Body is gone also; so the beauty and glory of all Ordinances comes and goes with the Spirit of Christ which is the very Soul of them. The Churches are indeed golden Candlesticks, but the Candlestick hath no light but what the Candle gives it; hence that magnificent description of the new Temple is closed up in this expression, Ezek. 48. ult. The name of that City shall be, The Lord is there.

Secondly, From this Spiritual Presence of Christ, all Gospel Ordinances derive all that Power and Efficacy which is by them exerted upon the Souls of Men; either in their Conversion or Edification. This power is not inherent in them, nor do they act as natural, necessary ⟨p. 29⟩agents, but as instituted means, which are successful or unsuccessful, according as Christ by his Spirit co-operates with them, 1 Cor. 3. 7. He that plants is nothing, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase; that is, they are nothing to the purpose, nothing to the accomplishment of Mens Salvation without the concurrence of the Spirit of Christ. For when the Apostle makes himself and Apollos, with all other Ministers, nothing, we must understand him speaking not absolutely, but comparatively, and relatively; they are necessary in their places, and sufficient in their kind, for what they are appointed to, else it would be a reflection upon the Wisdom of God that instituted them; but singly in themselves, and disjunctively considered, they are nothing; as a Trumpet or wind Instrument is nothing, as to its end and use, except breath be inspired into it, and that breath modulated by the art and skill of the inspirer; like Ezekiel's Wheels that move not but as the Spirit that was in them moved and directed their motions. If Ordinances wrought upon Souls naturally, and necessarily as the fire burneth, then they could not fail of success upon all that come under them: But it is with them as with the Waters of the Pool of Bethesda, whose healing virtue was only found at that season when the Angel descended and troubled them.