discerners of Spirits gave to the Church whereby to try the Spirits was this that every Spirit which wrought Miracles to prove that Jesus was the Christ was of God but every Spirit that wrought wonders to prove that he was not Christ or that another was the Christ was a lying Spirit that Spirit of Antichrist which our Saviour foretold his Disciples should come and which was in the world in the time of St. John as you may read in the place I cited before as also in his 2 Epist ver 7. Conformably to this St. Paul in the verse before my text lays down the same infallible rule that no man that calleth Jesus Anathema as many Infidels and Apostates did can speak by the Spirit of God Another rule whereby to try the Spirits was submission and obedience to the Governours of the Church We are of God saith St. John 1 Ep. 4.6 he that knoweth God heareth us he that is not of God heareth not us hereby we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error And If any man among you saith St. Paul 1 Cor. 14.37 pretend to be a Prophet or inspired by the Holy Ghost as a sign that he is truly so let him acknowledge that the things I write unto you are the Commandments of God I question not but they had other tests besides these by which to try the spirits as that every spirit which wrought signs to confirm any doctrine which was inconsistent with a pure and peaceable life or the sober use and rules of moral reason must needs be a diabolical Pseudo-prophetical spirit as I think I could demonstrate if I had but time From whence I come to speak of the two last kinds viz. of the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost in 1 Ep. ad Cor. 12. c. Hom. 29. Gift of Tongues and which was as wonderful as that the gift of Interpreting thereof To the understanding of which be pleased to take notice that the gift of strange tongues was usually accompanied with such strong Enthusiasms and Raptures that the affected person could not use his understanding in an ordinary way so as to ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys ib. interpret and explain his inspirations in the audience to which he spoke which was the reason that the spirit did usually reveal to * 1 Cor. 14.4 28. others who stood by and understood not the inspired Languages the matter which the gifted Oracles spoke or else by a * 1 Cor. 14.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys in 1 Cor. 12.10 new inspiration revealed unto them the things which they had spoken in the unknown tongue but through the violence of the Enthusiasm had forgot Which latter Gift because it was more profitable for the Church the Apostle in the 14th chap. prefers before the former which the vain Corinthians did so much affect These are the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost which as it appears from the 28. ver of this chap. God gave to the difference of Ministeries or Ministers i. e. to the Apostles Prophets Teachers Helps and Governments of the Primitive Church To the Teachers i. e. to the more profound and solid sort of Doctors who answered to the Scribes in the Synagogue and wholly devoted themselves to Preach and expound the Scriptures which was an excellent Gift or Talent and always esteemed the most useful way of instruction especially of the ‖ Luke 23.27 Acts 2. ch 28.23 Jews in the Primitive Christian Church To the Helps i. e. to the helpers or assistants such as the Evangelists were to the Apostles as Silas to Paul Mark to Barnabas or such as the Deacons were to the Bishops and Presbyters and the whole Church And they are called helps by an Hebraism in Greek as the Levites were called in the Jewish Church and Language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 helps to the Priests By Governments are to be understood Governours for in the Hellenistical style the abstract is often put for the concrete according to the custom of the Hebrew and Syriack tongues and by Governours are meant the Apostles and * So Rev. 2.2 The Angel of the Church of Ephesus is commended for trying them which say they are Apostles and are not Bishops to whom the Gift of discerning Spirits seems to have belonged in a peculiar manner because the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is here put for Government is used by the Septuagint to render the Hebrew word Tachbuloth which signifies discerning Wisdom Prudence or Counsel wherein the spirit of Government doth consist Thus in the first of Proverbs v. 5. where we say a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsel the Septuagint saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of understanding shall attain unto Government The like may be seen Prov. 11.14 and 14.6 There were other Miraculous gifts under the New Testament which are not mentioned in this Chapter and which though properly speaking they did not proceed from the Holy Ghost yet in a large sense may be called spiritual gifts These were the voice from Heaven which the Jews called Bath col and the appearance of Angels those holy messengers of God and Ministring Spirits who sometimes acted as Gods Vice-gerents and * Galat. 3.19 Hebr. 2.2 assumed his person in speaking to men But though the Apostle take no notice of them here because they were not intrinsecal and inherent gifts yet I thought fit to mention them because they were extraordinary and relate to some passages in the following part of this discourse Thus having given you an account of the number and diversities of these gifts of the Holy Ghost together with the difference of Ministeries to which they belong'd I proceed in the Third place to shew the reasons why they were given by God to the Primitive Churches and not to the Churches of latter times Now this reason is to be taken from the wants and necessities of the Primitive Church whose infant-state required that God should assist her with the Miraculous Gifts of the Spirit till the Gospel was sufficiently Preach'd about the Empire the Scriptures of the New Testament compleated the Temple-worship abolished among the Jews Idolatry destroyed among the Gentiles and both were united together under Christ into one Communion or Catholick Church It had been impossible for God to bring to pass all these stupendous things in a way consistent with his own Wisdom and the freedom of humane nature without making use of these or other fitting means as wonderful as these to publish the Gospel and confirm the truth thereof How should the Jewish and Gentile world have believed without Apostles and * 2 Cor. 8.23 Phil. 2.25 Apostolical Preachers and how should the Apostles and Evangelists have preached unless they had been inspired for their Saviour left them like Orphans or rather like Scholars of the third Classe before he had revealed all the Gospel unto them and therefore it was necessary for God to send his
delivered up to Satan in an * 1 Cor. 5.3 4 5 Ecclesiastical meeting at Corinth although he was not there And such a tender regard had God for the Order and Discipline of the Church that he concurred with the Apostles in the execution of this power not only against those who continued obstinately in ‖ 1 Cor. 5.3 4 5 incest * 1 Tim. 1.20 2 Tim. 2.17 blasphemy heresies and such like sins but against those also that were prating malitious Schismaticks opposers of the Bishop and disturbers of the peace and order of the Church Such an one was Alexander the Copper-smith and Diotrephes in the Church of Ephesus whom S. John assured the Church he * 3 Epist would remember i. e. censure when he came for his evil deed We cannot imagine that our Lord who came not to destroy mens lives but save them would have given the Apostles such a power over mens lives but in order to such a considerable end It was necessary that they their assistants and Successors the Bishops who are likewise called Apostles 2 Cor. 8.23 Gal. 1.19 Phil. 2.25 should be invested with this power to preserve their Authority as Governours and thereby secure the discipline and government of the Church which as such is a Spiritual body politick consisting of Magistrates and Subjects and so ought to have its proper laws Therefore God who in his infinite wisdom could not erect a Society without Governours nor constitute Governours without investing them with a sufficient power of casting contumacious transgressours out of their Government thought fit in the Churches minority to execute judgment upon those whom they ejected in which concurrence I conceive consisted their miraculous power of inslicting supernatural diseases and death A power more than Imperial and greater than Caesar could shew which made their Ecclesiastical subjects reverence their persons and dread their displeasure and by consequence shews that it was put into their hands in that exigence as the Sword is put into the hand of the Secular Magistrate that they might be a terror to evil doers and assert their Spiritual government over the Church This is plain from the story of Ananias and Sapphira whose sudden miraculous death was a terror to the rest for as the text tells us great fear came upon all the Church and plainly shews that the Church was not a mere voluntary Society nor the Apostolical authority precarious but the undoubted Ordinance of God From all which I hope it is plain that the necessities of the Primitive Church were the reason why God gave these gifts of the Holy Ghost to Her and not to the Churches of later times And this is apparently asserted by the Apostle in the 4th chap. of his Epist to the * Chrysost in ep ad Eph. c. 4. Hom. 11. Ephesians where after he had spoken of the ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theophyl upon the place gifts which our Saviour gave in different measures to the several Ministers of the Church to the Apostles Prophets * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id Evangelists ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id Pastors and Teachers saith that it was for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministery for the edifying the body of Christ till they came in the unity of the Faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ From * August Quaest ex Evang whence it is evident that as the Gospel increased and the Church grew up God like a wise nurse weaned her by degrees from these miraculous gifts till at last having arrived at her full stature in Christ he left her as Parents leave their children when they are grown to be men to subsist without extraordinary helps and supplies And therefore as the Scriptures increased God ceased by degrees to discover the doctrines of the Gospel by Inspiration to the Ministers of the Church and by that time the writings of the New Testament were made up and the Scripture-canon as it were Sealed the Successors of the Apostles in the time of Clemens Polycarp and Papias the Disciples of S. John and of Justin Martyr pretended to no other way of revelation or coming to the knowledge of the Christian Religion than by the ‖ Apostolorum Successores Discipulisacrorum Evangeliorum libros iis qui fidei sermonem nondum audivissent tradebant word of God And then as the Gospel began to be Preached in Latin and Greek and native Romans and Graecians were admitted to be Ministers of the Word the Gift of tongues which was the first of the gifts of the Spirit began to grow useless and cease Till at last Churches being gathered in all Provinces of the Empire and every Nation having Ministers of its own the Gospel was Preached without Inspiration in all languages of the world The gift of Prophecy properly so called continued somewhat longer in the Church because in these times of danger and persecution it was necessary for Christians as I shewed before to be forewarned of future events * Lib. 3. hist c. 37. Eusebius tells us that Quadratus and ‖ Hist lib. 5. c. 17. Ammius Philadelphensis who lived in the beginning of the Second Century together with the daughter of Philip the Apostle had the gift of foretelling things to come and cites a passage out of the dialogue of Justin Martyr with Trypho the Jew wherein he asserts that Prophecy was still to be seen in the Church Irenaeus also lib. 2. c. 57. reckons the Prophetical influx in Visions and predictions among the spiritual gifts which he saith the Disciples in that age received in different measures for the good of the Church Origen also in his Seventh Book against Celsus mentions this among other miraculous gifts which were then extant But though at that time the Prophetical spirit was still in being yet it was very extraordinary and soon after ceased altogether in the Church We read of the power of raising the dead in the forecited passage of Irenaeus who speaking of his own time saith And now the dead are raised and have lived among us many years But the gift of healing being so beneficial to mankind continued longer in the Church as is evident out of * Epâ—ad Donatum Cyprian and ‖ Lib. 1. contra Cels Origen but little or no mention is made of it after till the latter end of the Fourth and beginning of the Fifth Century when God was pleased to work that and many other * Chrys Hom. 37. in S. Jul. Hom. 43. in S. Mach. de S. Bab. contr Gentiles Aug. Ep. 137. ad elerum pleb Hippon Chrys Hom. 69. En. com Mart. Aegypt Aug. l. 22. de civ dâ—i c. 8. lib. 1 â—etract c. 23. Miracles at the tombs and by the Reliques of Martyrs which were the last Miracles in the Church As for Miracles specially so
all which it appears how much more excellent and desirable the saving Graces of the Spirit are than all these pompous miraculous gifts in which there is really no intrinsecal excellence nothing why we should desire or expect them further than as they may be useful for the Church instruments of Religion and motives to Faith and Repentance in defect of ordinary means and acquired gifts All which I would have those especially to consider whose Enthusiastical tempers or educations encline them first to admire and then to conceit these miraculous gifts till by insensible degrees they impose upon their own imaginations and commence within themselves illuminated men Secondly I proceed to shew what little reasons the Romish Doctors have to make miracles a sign of the true Church For Miracles were formerly wrought for signs to confirm the Authority of the Apostles and their Assistants and Successors and to seal the truth of that new doctrine which they were to preach about the world Therefore to suppose that the Church stands always in need of Miracles is to suppose her to be still in a state of Minority and her doctrine to be always a publishing to the world or else to suppose that infinite wisdom may become impertinent and seal the same truths ten thousand times over Indeed as they argue in the Church of the Jews there were always miracles to be found because their Theocratical constitution of Church and State was miraculous God as their King being obliged to make known his pleasure in Civil and Military as well as in Ecclesiastical matters unto them by Voices from heaven Oracles and Prophecies as other Princes do by Proclamations and messages and their Prophets were always to work signs and wonders to prove the Truth of their mission and sometimes the certainty of what they foretold should come to pass But then besides the miracles which belonged to the nature of their Theocratical Government God wrought others for them and among them to render himself and that particular Church more conspicuous in the eyes of the Gentile world Hither we may refer their miraculous victories by single men or armies over their enemies which God wrought to convince them by sensible experiments of his Omnipotence that of all the divinity of the Eastern world he alone was the true God But had the Law been published among all Nations like the Gospel and Judaism become the Universal Religion of the world Miracles at length would have grown out of use as indeed they grew very rare after the Jews were dispersed among the Nations and their Law was translated into Greek which at the time of the Translation was become the most general Language of the world Thirdly I proceed to shew you how unreasonably the Church of Rome hath acted in verifying the Fanatical pretensions of so many gross Impostors and Enthusiasts as she hath done to Inspiration Prophesie Visions Dreams Familiar converses with God and the glorified person of our Saviour working of wonders Communion with Saints and Angels Raptures Impulses and all other sorts of Miraculous gifts that we read of in the Primitive Church Such as these were Dominic Francis of Assize Francis of Pole Francis Xaverius Ignatius the founder of the Jesuits Genvieve Tiresia Catherin of Siena Brigit and many more of both Sexes whom she hath not only Canonized for Saints but to the great scandal of the Christian Religion hath incorporated Religious Societies of men and women to live according to their pretended inspired rules For which not only the Common people and the Brethren and Sisters of the Orders but their Learned Doctors pretend to have as great and it may be a greater veneration than for the Gospel it self Fourthly I proceed to shew you what a sandy foundation the Popes Infallibility is grounded upon For it must be resolved into this Enthusiastical principle of immediate Inspiration which according to the doctrine I have now Preached neither he nor any other Bishop or Presbyter of the Church hath warrant from the Scriptures to pray for or expect I say it is a most dangerous and Fanatical pretension which is so far from having any ground in Scripture that it makes it a most imperfect and useless rule of Faith destroys the certainty of the Christian belief which was fixed above Sixteen hundred years ago and instead of being a means of ending controversies as Papists pretend it introduces everlasting Scepticism into all the parts of Divinity by making truth or falshood good and evil light and darkness sweet and bitter nay what shall I say by making right and wrong God and Belial Christ and Anti-christ depend upon the breath of a single man In the Fifth place let me shew you what a dangerous damnable and precarious principle that is which * George Reiths immediate Revelation Printed 1676. asserts that immediate Revelation or Inspiration is not ceased but is a standing and perpetual gift in the Church of Christ belonging to the very substance of the Gospel-Covenant and of indispensable necessity to the whole body and every member thereof And that this spirit of immediate Revelation or Spiritual light is not like the Spirits in Primitive times to be tryed by the * Barclay 's Theses or Apologia Theolog. Scriptures and reason but that both of them are to be tryed by it This doctrine differs from the preceding only in this that that makes only the Bishop of Rome but this makes every private Christian a Pope and as it utterly overthrows the Authority of the Scriptures and makes them an useless rule of Faith So hath it already cashiered the use of the Sacraments and annulled the Ministerial Orders contrary to the Precepts and Precedents of the Gospel and the practice of Gods Universal Church And when time shall serve it can as effectually convert the Professors of it into down-right Popery consistently with their own principles for they have nothing more to do than to say that the Spirit hath told them that the Church of Rome is the only true Church and that supra hanc Petram belongs to the Pope As this doctrine was first privately sowed among us by ‖ Foxes and Fire-brands pag. 15. c. Printed 1680. Popish Emissaries so hath it been published in our and other countries by those who were Papists as by Robert Barclay who was bred in the Scottish Covent at Paris and Labbade a Jesuit defrooqued In the next place to montion will be sufficient to confute the Pseudo-Prophetical Spirits of this age such as Nayler Venner and Muggleton with his companion Reeve who call themselves the Lords Two last Witnesses and Prophets and have framed many tracts and letters from Jesus and the Holy Spirit a collection of which may be had in Print I deny not but that God is free to send Prophets when he pleases and that he may do so when the exigence of the Church doth require it but then whensoever he sends them he will as he hath always