all Churches must be infallible or none especially all that are able to derive their succession from any Apostle or Apostolical men that were once Bishops and presided there And if so then the Church of Jerusalem must be infallible because S. James the less was appointed their Bishop either by our Saviour himself as some say or else immediately by the Apostles as others The Church of Alexandria because this was the Bishoprick of S. Mark must become as infallible as that of Rome That of Constantinople because founded by S. Andrew That of Ephesus because S. John was seated there Nay those also of Smyrna Pergamus Thyatira Sardis Philadelphia and Laodicea because this Apostle laid the foundations of them Nay and our own Church of Britain too which our adversaries will hardly yield infallible because Simon the Zelot preached here wrought many Miracles and at last suffered Martyrdom for the Faith of Christ and our Native Soil has the honour of his Bones if the Greek Menologies may obtain any credit amongst men But to bring this business nearer to an head If this infallibility will not be allowed to all Churches of the Apostles planting nor to those over which they more especially presided as they certainly will never yield it whose interest it is to keep it unto themselves Yet why should not Antioch become infallible which was a Church of S. Peter's planting at least seven years before he came to Rome Must the elder Sister become a fool that the younger may appear infallible Or must we deny the priviledge of Antioch because it would invalidate that of Rome The latter seems their most probable conjecture though 't is easily proved S. Peter was at Antioch but eagerly disputed whether ever he was at Rome But allowing S. Peter to have been at Rome and not only so but to have been Bishop there and the present Pope to be his Successor which yet is hard for them to prove especially when the Succession is to be traced through their Anti-Popes and Pope Joan must become an Holy Father too How came this promise of infallibility to be fixed only upon S. Peter when it was spoken to the whole Apostolical College If you will say that the infallibility can be fixed but in one and that we may as well discourse of many Omnipotents as many Infallibles and certainly 't is to be proved with equal success were the infallibility not capable of restraint Yet why must it be fixed upon S. Peter and not on any other of the Apostles S. Paul though a later Apostle has as much to plead for a settlement of it upon the Gentiles as ever S. Peter to fix it upon the Jews Nay the Romanists themselves have greater reason to derive it from S. Paul than ever they had for deriving it from S. Peter Unless they acknowledge themselves to succeed the Circumcision of which S. Peter was only Bishop But perhaps they will plead Infallibility from Supremacy and afterwards if occasion serves plead Supremacy from Infallibility again Yet still S. Paul will bid as fair for the Supremacy too if we take time to examine his Plea Saint Paul was not only designed to his Apostleship by the Grace of God before he had any merit in himself being a chosen Vessel to bear Christ's Name amongst the Gentiles when he was appointed to his Office from his Mothers Womb Gal. 1.15 But his Conversion was attended with Miracles and from a Persecutor when the design was laid and his malice big against the Christian Church he was struck down with a dart from Heaven and convinced by that Light which made him blind He was brought to this Religion with Pomp and Ceremony and ushered into the Church with a train of circumstances that were Heralds to his honour and proclaimed him great Acts 9. Nor was he greater in his Apostleship than in his sufferings For after a large Catalogue of his miseries 2 Cor. 11. he made the Tragedy compleat by his death He was thrown into Prison with S. Peter And if Baronius may be credited the Pillars are yet remaining at which they were both bound and scourg'd And had he not been a Roman he might have been crucified with S. Peter But being such like a Person of Honour he was beheaded In the time he lived he laboured more abundantly than the rest of the Apostles 1 Cor. 15.10 Nor was he in any respect behind the very chief of them 2 Cor. 11.5 He neither yielded to the argument of interest when he received his first conviction nor did he when he was baptized or illuminated from above and by inspiration had received a sufficient Commission to preach the Gospel go to derive his authority from the Apostles as if he had been inferiour unto them But he straightway preached Christ in the Synagogues though to the amazement of all that heard him Acts 9.20 21. He was not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ though his former zeal another way might be and was objected to him And that he might sufficiently evidence the truth and the honour of his Apostleship he went into the untrodden paths of the World where none had adventured to preach the same Doctrine before him For so sayes he have I strived to preach the Gospel not where Christ was named lest I should build upon anothers foundation Rom. 15.20 All this we have drawn into a narrow compass Gal. 1.16 17. But it pleased God who separated me from my mothers womb and called me by his grace to reveal his Son in me that I might preach him among the heathen Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood neither went I up to Jerusalem to those which were Apostles before me As he was most justly stiled The Apostle of the Gentiles For the care of all their Churches lay upon him and I hope the Romans were not then Jews let them be whatever they will since and came more upon him every day 2 Cor. 11.28 He opposed the principal Officers of the Church at Jerusalem and gave no place by subjection no not for an hour since they that seemed to be somewhat added nothing in conference to his knowledge but perceived him to be appointed the Apostle of the Gentiles as well as S. Peter was the Apostle of the Jews when they came to Antioch he withstood Peter to the very face because sayes he he was to be blamed for that both he himself had dissembled with the Jews and had perswaded James and Barnabas into the same compliance And upon the whole neither of them walked according to the truth of the Gospel And all this difference was upon no smaller point than this that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but by the faith of Jesus Christ Gal. 2. 'T is plain S. Paul had here in a proper sense the right hand of fellowship not only in that they admitted him into the society of the Apostles but they gave him the preheminence among them And S. Peter
A DISCOURSE Concerning the TRIAL OF SPIRITS WHEREIN Inquiry is made into Mens Pretences to Inspiration for publishing Doctrines in the Name of God beyond the Rules of the Sacred Scriptures In opposition to some Principles and Practices of Papists and Fanaticks As they contradict the Doctrines of the Church of England defined in her Articles of Religion established by her Ecclesiastical Canons and confirmed by ACTS of PARLIAMENT By THOMAS PITTIS D.D. one of His Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary London Printed by B.W. for E. Vize at the Bishop's Head over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil 1683. To the Right Worshipful Sr. Edward Worseley Knight Colonel of one of the Regiments of the Country Militia and Deputy Governour of the ISLE of WIGHT Honoured Sir HAving an unexaminable opportunity of publishing such Tracts as this And having formerly by your Father been presented to the Rectory of the Parish of Gatcomb in the Bounds of which your Mansion House is seated and in which you live having the right of Advowson undoubtedly in your self I cannot but present these Papers to you as being the Inheritor of your Fathers Estate and Vertues too and of his great kindness to me in particular which you yet on all occasions continue and increase by succeeding heaps of favours I need not relate the Loyalty of your Family it bearing date with its Antiquity and has been so manifested to the present World that a Memorial of mine would be its disparagement and upbraid the memory of mankind All know whose brains are not sunk into Oblivion how you would have redeemed King Charles the First that most Pious Martyr of ever blessed memory when he was a Prisoner in Carisbrook Castle from the present insolence of the worst of men to whom by violence he was enthral'd and the designed mischiefs that were likely to befal him from persons that thirsted after Royal Blood who were most monstrous and irreconcileable enemies to mankind and Caesar You had prudently laid your design and were honestly ready accoutred and prepared and at your Post at the appointed hour But alas all miscarried through the base treachery of other men to your misfortune and much bigger grief After this you were forced to wander and exile your self And 't was happy for us that survive your misfortune that you came off so Since the return of our present and most gracious Sovereign with whom you were also expell'd by the rage and malice of a Pack of unreasonable and malicious men your great modesty and unalterable affection to the Island in which you make so considerable a Figure in which I have the priviledge and honour of a Native has been the only cause of your not being removed into a larger Sphere But now your age and the greatness of your Merits together with your old Protestant Church of England Principles to which you are honestly and severely addicted will hardly permit you to suffer an exchange in this World though I alwayes wish'd it 'till you advance to the Glory of the next I dare not any longer be thus burdensome to your modesty and contentment that covet retirement in defiance of all your very large capacities But yet Sir give me leave to pray from the true resentments of a grateful mind that the great God who is far exalted above all Beings would continue to preserve your most Loyal and exceedingly devout self Your most Vertuous and extraordinarily pious and modest Lady and the two Gentile and excellent Branches happily sprung and nourished too from You who are the root of both much longer than I in this World shall be capable of remaining Dear SIR Your most affectionate and most humble Servant Tho. Pittis London Nov. 1. 1683. A DISCOURSE Concerning the TRIAL OF SPIRITS CHAP. I. THE Third Person in the Sacred Trinity one God blessed for ever is frequently abused by the pretences of men to such Revelations as are inconsistent with the truths of the Gospel and many Doctrines of the Christian Religion which the Holy Ghost at first inspired men to deliver And though this began in the Apostles days when the mystery of iniquity by the Gnostick defection began to work Yet it has continued and improved men in their villanies throughout the several Ages of the Church Nay so far that Treason and Murder and open Rebellion are consecrated by those that pretend to be inspired and they blasphemously make the Holy Spirit of God that breaths forth peace and quietness upon the World to become the Patron of the greatest and most disturbing impieties that ever infested the Societies of mankind This though we have been loth to believe it we are now convinc'd of by a woful experience an experience which had been purchased by our utter ruine unless Gods Providence assisting and favouring the wisdom of our Superiours encouraged by some Loyal and unwearied resolutions had happily prevented it We have two sorts of men both pretending to an infallible inspiration though on different grounds that ruine and destroy the Principles of Christianity under a shew to advance them And though we were unwilling to think that men who seem'd at so great a distance from each other should ever reach to join hand in hand and that the same principle should reconcile such different pretensions Yet as Samson's Foxes were joined together by their Tails though their heads looked away from one another So now we see those that breath inspirations from the Pope and they that boast more immediate ones from Heaven confederating though before expected by the most observing and considerate men to house the corn and tares together that Gods Harvest may become their own and they may reap where they never sowed And certainly when such attempts both by a separate and united force are made against all Order and Religion intitling God to the Patronage of a lie making the Spirit of Truth to contradict himself and crucifying Christ under a pretence to exalt him when our own Kingdoms are ready to be destroyed by cheating us out of our Properties and our Lives with a specious shew of advancing the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and to lift up his Scepter our Soveraign's must first be broken in pieces when disorders tending to subversion and ruine are plainly legible in the affairs of men coals are blowing to set all our Houses on fire and we tread those paths that will lead us to confusion and all this while men profess to be serving a God of Order when multitudes pretend to be sent from God that speak contrary to his written word and have no other Miracle to prove their Principles but the strangeness of their villany in rooting up the Laws of Nature and Society when so much brass is currant amongst us instead of gold and our silver is every day exchang'd for dross and we are ready to be made the companions of Owls or what is worse of Thieves and Murderers 't is high time to bring forth the Touchstone to enquire into the
will yet remain in our selves and our very travail becomes our punishment till at last we die and perish in a Wilderness which becomes the enterance to greater darkness Alas the Christian Religion though much debauched by the corrupt intermixtures and disgraced by the vicious lives of men is not now to be revealed to the world nor are its Records so hidden or lost that the Principles of it are no where to be found nor are men yet so blockish and unlearned that they cannot read so as to understand them If men were so blind those that are as blind might lead them into the ditch But the principles of Christianity besides what was revealed in the Old Testament are now above sixteen hundred years standing and have been handed down from age to age with their original records And therefore this Religion becomes matter of fact not invention And all the question must now be What was at first delivered The wise and grave reason of men must not controll the Wisdom of God nor make another thing of that which God sent his Son to declare to the World and has been conveyed to us with as great a certainty as any thing antecedent to the time we live in We are not now by discourse or inspiration to make to our selves another Gospel under the notion or pretence of the old This is not a thing subject to the Maxims of every squirting and half-witted Philosopher nor to be moulded according to the intrigues and designs of a subtle and projecting Statesman It is not to be spued out of the mouth of the Leviathan nor cunningly to be fleered out of the Works of Plato nor blended with any Doctrines of Epicurus that may prepare men for an indulgence to their vice or perswade them to disbelieve some of the greatest and most substantial points of Christianity Our Religion is now too old to be made new nor must we model that which has run through so many Ages by any tricks or devices of our own nor must it be servant to any mens ambition as if their secular interest or opinion were to be their guide or phancy putting on the name and garb of conscience were to be a Rule for such as call themselves Christians To the Law and to the Testimony sayes the Prophet if any speak not according to this rule it is because they have no light in them Isa 8.20 And we have a more sure word of Prophecy sayes S. Peter Epist 2. Chap 1. ver 19. whereunto you do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place If we forsake therefore the tryal of the Doctrines and Pretences of men by the Scriptures which rightly understood are our only safe Rule we have no way to distinguish a bold pretender from him who is inspired from above If such persons were now to be expected after the Canon of Scripture the Rule for mens lives have been so long ago compleated For by inclining to believe any new revelation beyond the Scripture we suppose that an insufficient Rule the sufficiency of which true English Church Protestants have alwayes defended with success And if the revelation be contrary unto it it makes that Spirit that dictated the first a lyar if the latter be received and supposed true But grant what men of such an easie belief and such speedy resolutions that admit of as speedy changes would without any proof have yielded to them Yet I would fain know how men in their circumstances are able any way to satisfie themselves concerning the proposition which they pretend to be inspired in and thereby authorized to deliver unto others I am afraid confidence will be their only argument to recommend it to others and opinion interest and a strong presumption or what is worse Atheism and Knavery to themselves For 1. supposing the Spirit of God in its Dictates unto men alwayes uniform and consistent with it self how can there be different inspirations to prescribe various Rules opposite to each other at the same time for men to guide their belief and conversations The Apostle tells us that as there is but one God and one Lord with undoubted authority over the whole World so there is but one Spirit to influence the minds of men one Baptism that enters them into the Church of Christ and but one Faith to be embraced by them And therefore the Church is but one Body Eph. 4.4 5 6. How then can we reasonably admit the pretence of any mans inspiration that avers he speaks from the Dictates of the Spirit which is within him to publish any Rules of Religion different from what we have received before And if such a pretender means only his own Spirit the soul which acts within the body we can understand no more than his judgement and opinion Though phrases by such canting are rendered equivocal to startle the infirm but are foreign to our purpose when reflected on by considering men We well know that the design of Christianity was to unite the World under one profession and in religious affairs to subject it to the same rules of life How then can any with Religion or modesty pretend another inspiration for new directions when the former if they were ever true are sufficiently in the New Testament declared to be perpetual and obligatory till Christs coming to judgement when he shall pass sentence upon the whole World and deliver us into our everlasting states no less than his Mediatory Kingdom back unto the Father These are such inconsistent things that none but mad men can now expect any inspirations to deliver new Doctrines to the World 2. I would fain learn of any bold man that publishes under a pretence of inspiration new Doctrines different from the old how he knows himself to be inspired We find those that were formerly so besides some certain token to themselves which neither we nor our pretenders can now give a certain account of though we may some probable conjectures could work Miracles for the settlement of belief both in themselves and others But no such things appear now though lying wonders are published to the World carrying only the testimony of those that invent the story or others that are hired to sacrifice the truth to the confidence of an impostor and therefore one would think such things as these should at the utmost only deceive the simple whilst they that ensnare them having other designs beyond their reach vent what they do not believe themselves that they may accomplish their own carnal ends by the religious easiness and simplicity of others For upon the view of those various Sects visible either abroad or among our selves that any way pretend to be inspired to what they deliver to others we find them publishing by this authority doctrines to be believed and Rules of life quite different nay opposite to one another and pursue each other according to the advantages they receive with a greater eagerness and hotter
Doctrines upon the World as Rules for all to submit unto without any farther examination And if they must be examined at all it must be by something of greater credit and authority in the World Now that the Prophets of old were to be tryed whether true or false is plain to any that will give themselves leisure to consider not only that otherwise there could be no such thing as a false Prophet in the determination of men true and false having the same evidence but that God himself gave directions under the Old Testament how to know the one from the other Deut. 13.1 and chap. 18.22 which rules had been vain and insignificant if by these men were not to try them Hence is it that those that attribute great authority to Christian General Councils do not think their Canons obligatory unless the things included in them bind antecedently by their own nature or a superiour Law till they are received in those Nations and Churches to which they are sent 2. As the Doctrines of the Prophets were to be examined so were also those of the Apostles Hence was it that S. Paul who was extraordinarily called to be an Apostle God himself supplying him with Unction and Ordination by giving him authority from Heaven and our Saviour descending by an apparition from the Clouds to invest him with dignity and power Hence it was I say that this great Apostle in his Call dignified beyond his Brethren commends the Bereans Acts 17.11 because they searched and examined his Doctrines whether they were true or false by those Scriptures they had already received and by comparing his Doctrines with the Natural Religion of Mankind with what our Saviour and other Apostles preached and most probably with the Scriptures of the Old Testament that they might be assured that what he delivered was consonant to that which was there exhibited concerning the Messias And therefore these were of more pliable and ingenuous and gentile tempers than those of Thessalonica who were more regardless of these concerns as S. Chrysostom comments upon this Text. 3. The Doctrines even of our Saviour himself though never man spake like him were lyable to examination by those that heard before they entertain'd them And certainly if any might recommend propositions upon his own authority he might who was the Wisdom of the Father in whom all fulness dwelt Nay the fulness of the Godhead was as it were inclosed in his own body Yet he bids the Jews to search the Scriptures and to consider how well his Person and his Doctrines agreed with the antient Predictions in relation to him and accordingly either to receive or reject him For these sayes he are they which testifie of me And in them ye think ye have eternal life John 5.39 So that it is plainly evident from the beginning that no Doctrines under pretence of what inspiration soever were to be received by men without examination But as those of the Apostles were to be compared with what our Saviour delivered his again to be measured not only by his own divine authority but this also was to be proved by the Law and the Prophets and the Prophets themselves by those Rules which God had given to the Jews to judge by So is there not reason that the doctrines of men pretending to Christianity under what authority soever they are published should still be examined by a superiour Rule even by what the primitive Planters of our Religion have left for our perusal and direction viz. the doctrine of Christ and his holy Apostles which priviledge whatever Romanists plead for themselves to hide from or deny to others is the greatest cruelty and irreligion Enough it is to render any doctrine suspected that thus hides and runs to corners and avoids all the tryals of men And we have great reason to mistrust those who take away mens judgement of discretion valuing them only like Beasts that perish whilst they are not perswaded but whip'd to their work and many times cripled under their burden when yet they know not what they carry Thus I have though more largely than my first thoughts designed not only stated the use and authority of the Church in her Synods and Councils in the examination of Doctrines and Opinions but shewed you withal that as their Decrees are not infallible so neither are they the highest Rules by which we judge of the Doctrines of men Had it been otherwise when our Saviour came to plant his Gospel the infallibility of the Jewish Sanhedrim had justly condemned him for an Impostor and all the Christian Religion deliver'd and authorized by him had proved only a Fable and a Dream CHAP. VII THe most considerable Adversaries that oppose this way of stating the Churches Authority in determining points of Faith seem to many to be the Romanists and therefore this Chapter will briefly confute their high pretences to a strange Infallibility by which they have introduced as strange Doctrines into the Christian Religion And indeed there was never a Law yet so plainly penn'd but that the inventions of men who make it their business to render Laws both Divine and humane subservient to their Secular interests will blunt its edge and endeavour to make it their own property by altering or over-urging its design The same use has been made of Texts of Scripture by the two Opponents of the Church of England enlarging or diminishing the Infallibility promised to the Apostles that it may the better countenance their own pretences Some restraining the promises expressing the holy Spirits miraculous assistance in the guiding the Sacred Pen-men of the Gospel to the Roman Church And others extending it to every man of their own persuasion or at least to the Ministers and Elders of their Churches I shall here therefore spend a few leaves to shew that the Papists can have no ground in the Scripture to build their infallible determinations on nor any reason at all to maintain their infallibility I know not how it comes to pass that other Churches must forfeit their interests in the promises of the Gospel that the Romanists may proudly arrogate them to themselves Or any reason why the right of others must sneak or stoop to their bold usurpations As if their Church could not well be Head of the World unless we allow it to have all the Brains too and dash them out of the Sculls of others to fill their head till their understandings become incomprehensibly infallible that all the race of Christians in the world may receive Rules only from them and give up the natural freedom of their minds to enlarge the Pope's Empire and Authority As if they only were like the Jews of old to whom were committed the Oracles of God And these they might either keep to themselves or allow them to others as they see occasion This makes a reproof to them like Rebellion against a Prince a crime so great that nothing but death can sufficiently expiate Among them
an evasion is a palpable error is apparent from the institution of our Saviour as recorded by all the Evangelists that mention it in all the Gospels where this is repeated For as the essential parts are always set down so we have prescribed Bread and Wine which by a solemn consecration are blessed and separated from common uses to signifie Christs Body and Blood and in a separate manner to represent Christ dead and not united under one Symbol And to whomsoever he gave the Body represented by the Bread the same person received the Blood signified by the Wine contained in the Cup As it appears upon the view of Christs own institution If it be Objected upon the grant of this which none can deny that the Apostles then only received And that the Romanists themselves allow it to the Priests It may from thence with a greater colour be argued that the whole Sacrament ought only to be continued to the Clergy And that the Laity should not receive so much as a part And then the argument will sooner deprive them of all than any one part of it But that I may totally invalidate this scruple and at the same time prove the Papists to be erroneous Let us view the institution as repeated by S. Paul who has in this proved Rome to have err'd and clearly frees us from their imposture Though S. Peter sayes nothing of it 1 Cor. 11.23 I have received of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he brake it and said Take eat this is my Body which is broken for you this do for a remembrance of me After the same manner also he took the Cup when he had supped saying This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood This do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me Now the whole design of this repetition of the first Institution is to rebuke those disorderly practices of the whole body of the Church of Corinth and to regulate all by the Institution of our Saviour And all together as well people as Clergy are told that as often as they eat this Bread and drink this Cup they shew forth the Lords death till he come If this then is to be continued in the Church as a Memorial of Christs Death till his coming again to judge the World which the Church of Rome will not deny It must be an error thus to depart from the first Institution of Christ and the succeeding practice of his blessed Apostles to say nothing of other Ages of the Church to give to the people an half Communion which the Priests will not be contented with themselves and to deliver them only a part of the Sacrament This certainly is such an error as does not only void their infallibility but a crime too Unless the greatest Sacriledge be a vertue And in plain language it certainly concludes that either the Scriptures or the the Romanists are not infallible Secondly I instance in their Prayer in an unknown tongue I mean a language unknown to the people I cannot but wonder if we had no directions in the Book of God concerning this matter that any persons should be so stupid as to petition from God they know not what and to offer that under the notion of a reasonable service which they do not understand For how can that be presented with Faith which they know not whether it be such as God will accept and as becomes them to offer The Priest here may curse the people in the name of the Devil when they think they are bless'd in the name of God But not to prosecute any absurdities consequential to this irrational practice besides what the Scriptures mention designing not at present to handle these things at large 'T is a direct contradiction to that of S. Paul 1 Cor. 14. Chap. 14 15. and 16 Verses For the Apostle having laid down this general direction that all things in the publick Worship should be done to edification He affirms that praying and blessing in unknown tongues did not accomplish this end vers the 12 th and 17 th 1. Because he that prayes in an unknown tongue though he understands it himself becomes unprofitable unto others v. the 14. 2. Because no man that understands not can give his assent or breath forth a wish by saying Amen to a Prayer or Blessing in an unknown tongue ver the 16 th And the Apostle from the whole inferrs this as a rule unto himself That when he prays with the Spirit i. e. in an unknown tongue which was then an immediate gift of the Spirit he would pray with understanding also i. e. so as he understanding it himself might become fruitful unto others by giving them its just interpretation that they who understood not divers languages might be able to say Amen when they were rendered into their own So that it must be an error in the Church of Rome to enjoyn their publick Prayers to be made in an unknown tongue Unless they will invalidate the Scriptures of S. Paul by a blind and unwritten authority from S. Peter Lastly They have lost their pretended infallibility by determining that monstrous and absurd Doctrine of Transubstantiation It cannot be expected when I introduce this point as a proof of another that I should expatiate upon all the absurdities that attend so prodigious a determination As that the same Body may be in a thousand places at once that there may be admitted a penetration of dimensions That a Body may be somewhere where it was not before without changing its place That the whole Body of Christ may be contain'd within the small compass nay in every little part of a Wafer That it may be eat every day yet remain the same still That an irrational creature a Mouse for example may feed upon the Body of our Lord That one thing may be chang'd into another thing which did exist before That a Body may be in a place after the manner of a Spirit Nay that Christ may give his own Body to be eaten by his Disciples whilst yet he remained alive and entire at the Table These and such like are the absurd consequences of Transubstantiation which men must swallow with the substantial Body and Blood of Christ in the Roman Sacrament of the Lords Supper And they require too large a discourse for me to expatiate upon each severally and apart I shall therefore instance in one absurdity or rather a foundation of great impiety such as destroys the authority of the Gospel if this Doctrine of Transubstantiation proves true and is not an error And that is That it destroyes all the certainty of our senses For if that which has the colour and appearance of Bread That which my taste informs is such That which by touching and handling of it seems to be Bread by as great an evidence as can appear to
choice that if they will sin it may be their own act and deed Why should we think that he has chained them so fast one to another that they cannot err or wander out of the way unless they break that link which ties them all to an Infallible Chair But alas such is our condition here that we may as well expect to free mankind from the commission of sin as to restrain all men from error Nay there is as great a necessity that the lives of men should be void of the one as there is that they should be free from the other As much reason there is for men to be holy in all manner of conversation as there is for all to be sound in the faith since if we have faith we may have it to our selves but the actions of our lives have an influence upon others Why therefore should there not be an irresistible power set up to restrain men from vice as well as a standing infallibility to keep them from error Since God then who will judge men hereafter for those things which are properly their own has not thought it fitting to set up the one I cannot but suspect that he never designed to fix the other but to leave men to their own faculties to which he has added sufficient assistances to judge and to chuse fairly for themselves And therefore methinks 't is more reasonable to believe that since men cannot pretend to both it would be more modest to pretend to neither especially since we have no authority whatever power any have gained or usurped among us from reason or revelation to advance any among the Race of men to be an infallible Judge in Religion farther than his sentence proceeds according to the Laws of the Gospel And by this I cannot find that he has done any more beyond the faculties we have received as we are men than to give us a Rule sufficient to judge Doctrines by and Laws by which we are to govern our practice together with some superadded means to help our judgments and direct our Opinions by the Authority of Magistrates who are an Ordinance of God by the instructions of his Ministers who are also of Divine institution and the common assistances of his Holy Spirit to guide us into all necessary truths which tend to the promotion of our eternal happiness And so the final success is left to our own liberty and choice either in a refusal or compliance with them Because I cannot believe but that God acts suitable to the nature of human creatures in all his general dispensations to men that so he may in our future state with equal justice inflict punishment or give us a reward according to his promise And indeed to write strictly to be sound in the Faith would not be praise worthy if it were so ordered that we could not err Nor need S. Paul have so carefully exhorted to this if we might have been so easily preserved from all diseases and deviations in Religion by the infallibility of S. Peter and those who plead their Title from him I am sure that an Apostle acquaints the Church of Corinth that there must be also Heresies among them that they who are approved may be made manifest 1 Cor. 11.19 By which he proves and fore-tells matter of fact though he does not signifie Gods approbation but only his permission of them And the reason why he suffered error and division to be introduced among them by the perverseness or curiosity of any was that such as united in the true Faith might brighten and shine forth with the greater glory and like the Sun in the Firmament might triumph over Clouds and darkness There is no foundation therefore to erect the Popish infallibility on nor for any Church to set up such a Tribunal among themselves Having thus as I hope cleared my self from any great and unpardonable miscarriage in this point I shall briefly proceed in reflecting upon some mistakes of others that are false Rules to judge Doctrines and Spirits by Wherein private Enthusiasts are most notoriously guilty These smell Popery at a distance and can hardly promote any design without pretending that it is suddenly to be introduced into the most Protestant and best established Church in the World But they too publickly discover themselves to be Popishly affected who are very apt to spie errors in the Pope and yet so transfer them to themselves and steal them away that they may have the Monopoly of them and retale them to others under new names when they are in the possession of another Master These will not allow the Pope to be infallible but are apt to conclude themselves to be so And thus they fetch Candles from Romes Altars that they may set them up in their own Breasts As if there were no difference betwixt the holy Spirits guiding men into truth and walking by the light of their own fires What either a disease and weakness in their bodies or their minds has made a representation of to their phancies so long till their brooding thoughts have at last produced something which they may justly call their own These things they are apt to think or at least to say are the dictates of the Spirit and accordingly they will adventure to guide themselves and impose their own enjoyed phancies upon other men But if every thing of this nature and mens wild discourses the effect of this were to receive the stamp of Divine Authority and become infallible guides of action So strange a confusion would be made among us and such a monstrous Babel would be erected that Trowels would be call'd for instead of Morter and men would cry out for Bricks before they had gotten Straw to make them Their tongues would be so various and unintelligible that a Teutonick language could never reconcile them nor be able to discover them nor give marks to know the first Builders by when they are dispersed into divers Countries But every mans head would still tilt against another and bring a kind of damnation upon the World The Society of Devils would be more regular than men who must live without God or Beelzebub The births of reason would be deem'd abortive and the fruits of madness would receive the characters of sobriety and discretion The greatest Lunaticks would be most Religious and we should pay the greatest veneration to a Fool. But since things are not come to this pass yet I shall briefly examine a very few false Rules by which some among us satisfie themselves in the tryal of Spirits and guidance of themselves First There are some that build much on what they stile the Return of prayer when they have made a Fast the Prologue to contention and a long Prayer has been the Breakfast when they resolved to dine upon Widows houses yet they have too frequently thought or at least endeavoured to cause others to believe that what has happened after their prayer has been the return from
end of the Mosaick Constitutions and such a compleat System of Divinity as is sufficient to make a man perfect throughly furnished to every good work and thereby to prepare him for that eternal inheritance that fadeth not away And thus I have now considered all the chief parts of what I design and with all faithfulness according to my knowledge discharg'd my self The discourse on such a point has been long but I hope it will not prove unuseful in such times as these in which truth is blended and beset with error Strange Doctrines have insinuated into the minds of men And we are now sailing betwixt Sylla and Charybdis and God knows which may swallow us When truth like pure and clean Wheat is put betwixt two Mill-stones that seem to joyn to grind it in pieces And Religion like our Saviour upon the Cross is almost crucified betwixt two Thieves But blessed be God his Providence is over all his works and through his help we hope for deliverance from all our troubles For vain is the help of man without him CHAP. X. HAving hitherto for the most part treated concerning False Spirits and argued against the pretences to inspiration among Papists and Fanaticks and given some directions by which we may be able to discern what inspiration is true and what false That it may not be objected against the body of this Discourse that I have left neither Soul nor Spirit to animate it but have hinted only some operation of the Divine Spirit and restrained that to the first Age of the Christian Religion as if it were not needful for future Generations to guide men into all truth I shall spend some Sheets to prove That as there were Promises that the Holy Spirit of God should conduct men after our Saviours Ascension so that these Promises were made good by the apparent Descent of the Holy Ghost And to shew in what manner the Sacred Spirit informed the Apostles and the first Publishers of the Christian Doctrines And how he still influences the minds of men in the understanding and receiving them The Wilderness of this World is very thick of Briars and Thorns that scratch and tear the Church of Christ in her passage through it And since the most who profess themselves to be Christians agree in the design and end of their journey Yet because we are apt to fall out by the way and differ about the determination of the paths that lead thither Hence is it that I have hitherto endeavoured to hinder men of good intentions and different judgements from entertaining a delusion by reason of any shortness in their sight that they may not be deceived by their own fancies or the suggestions of others and so miscarry in their greatest concernments and fall short of eternal happiness hereafter And lest we should complain as if we were in this errable state of life left without sufficient means to conduct us to the great end of all our Religion And in the glorifying of God to save our souls I shall now shew some things before hinted more plainly and openly That we are not left without sufficient conduct from the Holy and true Spirit of God But that he was in the World at the first delivery of the Doctrines and Rules of life expressed in the Writings of the New Testament and still continues to influence the minds and actions of men In order to the discharging this that I am now to engage in I shall first prove That the Holy Ghost did come according to the Predictions of the Prophets and the Promise of our Saviour For 1. He came upon our Saviour himself 2. He inspired and comforted his Apostles and the first Planters of the Christian Religion And 3. He still influences the hearts and minds of those that seek and do not resist him First That this Holy Spirit rested upon our Saviour accompanying him throughout the actions of his life none that pretends to the embracement of Christianity can possibly contradict For his Miracles attest this Divine residency and loudly proclaim it to Ages and Generations And if there had not been this irrefragable testimony yet that there was such a Divine impression upon his mind the purity of his Doctrine and the holiness of his life sufficiently attested and that the Divine Spirit inspired and did assist him As his Conception was by the power of the Holy Ghost so did it continually breath upon him through all the periods of his whole life It gave a visible attestation to his Person and Doctrine and witnessed his Commission to the World when at his Baptism it descended in the shape of a Dove and lighted upon him Matth. 3.16 And this was seconded by an audible voice loudly thundering from the very Skies This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased In his life he had the Spirit without measure John 3.34 He was not limited to the same proportions of power and assistance with S. John who preached the Doctrine of Repentance and by this prepared the way for the Messiah Nor with those Prophets of old who were inspired at sundry times and in diverse manners to whom divine and unaccountable impulses were neither constant in their method or continuance But the Holy Spirit accompanied our Saviour throughout the several stages of his life so that he could upon any emergent occasion make discovery of it to others and alwayes knew it to be resident in himself he carried it with him to his Cross and Death to support him in his misery and to cause him to triumph over his temptations and enemies It hovered as it were over his Grave guarding his body with a security beyond the Souldiers power and at last raised him with triumph from the dead Rom. 8.11 and thus baffled the arguments for infidelity Secondly This Spirit promised came also upon the Apostles of our Saviour In the second of the Acts at the beginning It descended with noise and a glorious splendor and came with such a train of solemnity and its appearance was so gay and pompous that it amused Nations and confounded the multitude It shook the great place of their assembly and sate gloriously in the shape of a Cloven Fiery Tongue upon the head of each Apostle giving them at once a character to distinguish them from others and ability to execute that Commission which our blessed Saviour had before given them They were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other Tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance Here was the Prophecy of Joel accomplished that God would pour out his Spirit upon all flesh when the Holy Ghost thus descended with power in the lap of a Cloud with a rushing wind to blow open the doors of mens hearts that the King of Glory might come in It came with Cloven Fiery Tongues to teach the Apostles to sound forth the Gospel to all the World with a becoming zeal and warm affection The Tongues were Cloven that
it might by their means be in its purity free from mixture delivered to all the succeeding generations of mankind And now by the way what a slender plea have any Enthusiasts of this age for any new revelations of Doctrine beyond what Christ preached to the World Since the Holy Ghost himself was never promised to the very Apostles to any such end and purpose For it cannot with any reason be supposed but that Christ whilst he was preaching in the world delivered a compleat Body of his Doctrine And had he not whatever becomes of a jus divinum for the government of the Church He had certainly been less careful than Moses And yet the Author to the Hebrews says He was faithful to him that made or appointed him as also Moses was faithful in all his house Heb. 3.2 But not to endeavour to work Miracles and restore sight to such as are resolved to be still blind and to shut their eyes against the light of the Sun because it will discover that their deeds are evil when darkness does at once as well increase as inspire wilfulness or melancholy To leave also any farther explication of the Doctrine of the Trinity Which I have hinted to you as well to mind you of the solemnity of a necessary Festival of our Church as to cause men to adore what they cannot understand to admire that with which they cannot be familiar to praise what they cannot comprehend and to believe that Mystery which is plainly revealed Though they cannot unriddle the thing it self To come more closely therefore to the business I have in hand The Holy Ghost promised is said to be the Spirit of truth And this not only 1. Because he is Spiritus verax as Slichtingius would have it to comport with his endeared notion of afflatus divinus Nor only is he a true Spirit either in original or operation in opposition to what is gross and sensual Nor 2. because he truly and really proceeds from the Father And consequently has Authority enough to produce a faith in us which must be Divine Nor 3. because being in unity with that Father and Son from whom he does proceed he must be truth it self as S. John stiles him 1. Epist 5. Chap. 6. and consequently cannot be guilty of a falshood unless we suppose that God may lie which the Apostle assures us is impossible Heb. 6.18 And reason also concludes such a Being to be void of this to whom we ascribe all possible perfection But Lastly he is called a Spirit of truth in relation to his Office and Employment Because he guides others into truth Though from the precedent acceptations and account given of his appellation we may reasonably infer his capacity to instruct and guide others into all truth And that the Apostles who were so miraculously guided delivered nothing to be the rule of mens lives but what was true and came from God and therefore what they delivered is to be both believed and obeyed And thus I am come to the last and principal particular that I aim at in this Part of my Discourse in which is contained the Office of the Holy Ghost in this particular and the substance of this promise viz. He will guide you into all truth Now this Conduct of the Spirit of truth must be considered two wayes 1. As it related to the Apostles and first Disciples of our blessed Saviour 2. As it concerns the whole Church of Christ that is or shall be Militant in this World First Let us consider the holy Spirit of God as influencing and directing the Apostles and first planters of Christianity to whom this promise was principally made And as it did concern all so was it promised to all to guide them into all those truths that compleated the Articles of the Christian Faith or were to be left as standing directions for the lives and actions of those who should embrace this Religion He does not call S. Peter out and make this promise of infallibility to him excluding all the rest from this advantage Nor does he here accost him in the name of the other Apostles as he does in that other Text on which the Pope superstructs his Supremacy We find indeed S. Thomas S. Philip and S. Jude interrupting his discourse by proposing questions for him to explain But the last time he spake to Peter we find him at once rebuking his confidence and fore-telling his sin Nay a crime so great as to deny him John 13.38 And therefore all the rest of his intervenient discourse can concern him no more than it did his Brethren And 't is well if at present it did as much which if others would be contented with we might easily grant it and must do so if we would not prove his Epistles to want an inspiration from above This promise then concerning the Apostles and primitive planters of the Christian Doctrine so far as it was useful to their extraordinary conduct we must examine and enquire what assistance the Spirit gave them to guide them into all truth And this he did in five particulars First By an improvement of their understandings Ordering and directing the Ideas of their minds that they might be able to frame adequate conceptions of the truths which they were to deliver to the World And as he that created the eye can see and he that formed the ear can hear So he that made the Soul it self and endued it with all its faculties and powers must needs be able to impress the understanding with any notions he is pleased to infuse by the powerful operations of his Holy Spirit Now that he did exert such an influence had we no testimony from the Scriptures themselves will easily appear to any sober and considerate inquirer that shall compare the education and condition of the Apostles with those admirable Doctrines which they delivered unto the world Though S. Paul was bred at the feet of Gamaliel yet his learned Education made him but the greater persecutor of the Christians and more prejudiced against the Doctrine of our Saviour 'Till he was converted by a Miracle and a light had first dazled his eyes and struck him blind whilst a greater did illuminate his understanding and by its brighter glory darken and blot out those prejudicate notions that seemed before to irradiate his mind Though S. Luke was born and bred in an University the City of Antioch the Metropolis of Syria a place furnished with Schools of literature Though he had applied himself to the study of Physick to which Philosophy was a necessary preparative Though be had studied in the Schools of Greece and Egypt and seasoned his mind with learned accomplishments so far improving the abilities of his nature And though to all this he was a Jewish Proselyte and so far prepared for the Kingdom of God Yet all this signified but little and would certainly have opposed Christianity with the greater strength and more subtilty had he not been first
that they should read natural Philosophy to the World He did not intend to teach them to call the Stars by their names or that they should by virtue of his instruction know their several motions distances or altitudes He did not intend Aphorisms in Physick Or to give to them Geometrical proportions Nor to breed them curious and expert Artificers though some of these have made themselves Apostles Nor to teach them the numbers of Arithmetick Or the Astrological signatures of things or times and seasons For these were not for them to know because the Father had put them into his own power Acts 1.7 And therefore as they were never so proud and bold so neither were they so unlucky as the Pope who must needs condemn a point in Geography and the tenet of Antipodes for a destroying Heresie So little did he know the universal Empire he pretended to that he did not understand the extent of it nor the Figure or Bounds or Inhabitants of that Earth over which he yet pretended an Authority The Holy Ghost therefore guided the Apostles into those truths only in Divinity which included the full Doctrine of the Gospel which our Saviour delivered that they might be able to preach them to the present age and commit them to writing for the use of all succeeding Generations The Spirit was not given to them to make them great Historians or Philosophers but Christians and to capacitate them to be the planters and founders of Churches not the posts and standards of dispute Or to be the leaders of Sects and Factions in Philosophy They were to erect a Pillar of truth setled upon a firm foundation Christ himself supporting the Building and this neither for Pasquins or Poetry but for a Rule and directory of standing Religion and Devotion CHAP. XII THE souls of men whilst hous'd in these bodies of clay are darkned and obscured notwithstanding all the windows of sense to let in the light of external objects to an intercourse with the mind For supposing our senses could alwayes make true and exact representations to our souls which yet we know are often deceived yet these could only convey such things as are the proper objects of the souls of men Those of an higher and more exalted nature that are not capable of an image must needs escape the perception of our outward senses and if reason it self when most disentangled from those fetters which our senses too often impose should endeavour to make propositions and inferences about the essences of those things whose spiritual natures evade our sense our notions could not be adequate to the things themselves nor could we fully comprehend what is infinite nor have a positive Idea of spiritual Beings though reason might conclude their existence Hence is it that all our definitions and descriptions of these are therefore imperfect because negative and though we may conclude what they are not we never could by humane power yet resolve compleatly what they are which makes Divine Revelation necessary and that we should have faith beyond our reason though we never believe without reason to assure us of the authority we confide in This being therefore our state and condition in this World we must as well praise Gods Goodness as admire his Power for sending us that Spirit of Truth which guides us into all truth that is necessary to conduct us to eternal happiness Now this Promise I told you I would consider two wayes 1. As it related to the Apostles and first Disciples of our Lord and Saviour 2. As it concerns the whole Church of Christ that is or shall be militant on the earth The first of these is already dispatched And therefore I now proceed to the second To view the Promise of the Spirits guidance as it concerns the Church throughout the several Ages and Periods of the Christian World I have already proved the divine influence on the minds of men though its immediate operation is too difficult to be explained as to the manner of its energy and work and that we have no reason to disbelieve the thing for that we know not the manner of its operation What therefore is now to be discoursed supposing the truth of its influence in general and that extraordinary assistance he gave unto the Apostles is How the Holy Spirit of God possesses the minds of those with truth who make themselves by holy dispositions and a due exercise of their rational faculties capable to receive it and what truths those are that the Spirit of God guides men into As to the first supposing that which has been already proved That the Apostles were inspired from above to receive a full revelation of those truths by opening their understandings and quickning their memories that concern the salvation of mankind and that they committed them to writing faithfully recording them for the use of posterity and that these are to be standing rules for all ages and generations to come I cannot find any other method the Spirit has used or does continue to guide the ages succeeding the Apostles into all truth but what is contained in these three particulars 1. By those Scriptures which he inspired the Apostles to publish and deliver 2. By inclining the hearts of some men to continue that Ministry which must endure to the end of the world And 3. By confirming those truths contained in the Scriptures unto the minds of men by co-operating with the external ministration by an internal work upon the understanding will and affections of those who are inclinable in the day of his power First then The Spirit of truth guides us into all truth by those Scriptures Christ and his Apostles delivered to be the standing rules for posterity These are those lively Characters in which we may read the Nature of God and the directions of our lives These are such an infallible rule of truth that they certainly guide those into it who soberly and conscientiously apprehend and follow them They convey peace of conscience here which is a thing valuable above Crowns and Kingdoms and hereafter give us such possessions as infinitely transcend the power of our thoughts and exceed all humane expectations These Holy Scriptures contain such a compleat body of Doctrine that they need not any additions to be made to them Let their own sense be but sufficiently explained and if they are permitted to speak their own mind they will neither want Apocrypha nor Traditions nor any new Revelation neither to render them a compleat System of Divinity Mens own Doctrines and not Christs want Traditions to confirm them and 't is the pride and covetousness of a Sect of men that would make all Christians groan with their burden and void Gods Word with their own pretensions however they are varnished with the plausible Epithets of ancient and Apostolical that make such additions to the Scriptures But the Holy Scriptures which were at first given by inspiration of God are able of themselves
troubled the Church perverted the Gospel of Christ Gal. 1.7 But this is no argument against the sufficiency or plainness of the Scripture in things necessary to our eternal salvation For they are usually more obscure Texts that are to exercise the more Learned and Critical part of men upon which Heresies are founded And this too frequently is occasioned by men that wrack and torture their understanstandings to conceive such things as are not here perfectly to be known Or if they are to be fathomed by other men yet are above the reach of those who thus ignorantly and erroneously apprehend them Thus S. Peter speaking of S. Paul's Epistles sayes that in them there are some things hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the other Scriptures unto their own destruction 2 Pet. 3.16 But another sort there are too that have too much subtilty to be accounted ignorant Who are some of he perverse disputers of the world that first suit their Tenets to their interest and then violently press the Scriptures to prove what they were never intended for We should never else have heard This is my Body brought to prove that absurd Doctrine of Transubstantiation Nor Feed my Sheep to prove the Popes Supremacy Nor He will guide you into all truth to prove his Infallibility Nor He shall be saved yet so as by fire to prove a Purgatory When all these Texts are capable of fairer and more plain interpretations to another and more coherent sense But that the ambition of some men would entitle themselves to the government of the rest And then frame others belief to render them tame for such a tyranny and to be subject to whatsoever they will impose when all this while they suit the Articles of the Churches Faith to the encrease of their own Wealth the better to support their Pride and Usurpation Nay on the other side we have those amongst our selves who call the Pope names and yet embrace his Doctrine And tie that infallibility which they rob the Roman Chair of to their own single and Enthusiastick determinations Who by misunderstanding some Texts of Scripture direct themselves by a private impulse and then muster these to defend it But the Flower is not the less fragrant for that the Spider thence will suck for poison Nor does the Scripture cease to be a safe and sufficient Rule to those who soberly apprehend and follow it Notwithstanding some may wrest and misapply it Nor does the Spirit at any time contradict it self He having therefore inspired some men to commit a Rule to writing for future Generations to read and understand and put forth a Law that is sufficiently plain and perspicuous And men having reason and understanding enough assisted by the Spirits ordinary directions to guide themselves by the measures of this Rule and Law into all truth He expects now that they should order themselves as they do by all human Laws That is to believe upon the Authority of the Imposer and live proportionably to so great a favour and labour to understand what he has put into their power to know Remembering that of wise Agur Add thou not unto Gods words lest he reprove thee and thou be found a liar Prov. 30.6 The authority God has given to the Governors of his Church empowers them to command or alter circumstantials that all things may be done decently and in order In these we are to obey them that have the rule over us and to submit our selves Heb. 13.17 But no men are authorized to usurp the Throne of God himself To create new Articles of Faith Or impose other primary rules of duty than what they find written in the Scriptures They are only to confirm and explain them For as we must not think of men so neither of Doctrines above what is written Our language and design must be the same with S. Paul To deliver that which we also received 1 Cor. 15.3 So may we be workers together with God And when the world in the wisdom of God that is by the works of God which demonstrate his wisdom knows not God it may please him by the foolishness of preaching i. e. what some men account folly to save them that believe 1 Cor. 1.21 And this leads me to the next particular in which the Holy Spirit of God guides us that are remote from the Apostles Age into all truth which they delivered By inclining the minds of some men to continue that Ministry that must have its succession unto the end of the World And this is the second way of the Spirits conduct That in all Religious Constitutions which have been in the World there has been a separate and appointed Ministry is more notorious than to spend words in the proof of it 'T is too deeply planted in the minds of men and it bears an equal date with the Law of Nature fix'd in us Without this publick Worship cannot have its constant and orderly Being And had not this been established with the constitution of Christianity it would not only have been in a worse condition than any Religion which has possessed the world But than any Trade or Occupation among us to the obtainment of which men must be learners before they become able Workmen Or are permitted to exercise their particular Callings amongst any well ordered and embodied Society The separation therefore of some men from the generality of Christians was first made by our Saviour himself When he called the Apostles and sent forth the seventy Disciples to preach the Gospel unto human creatures And when the time of his departure from the world was come When he was to be received into his Fathers Kingdom in such a triumph as became a Conquerour and one to whom all power was given He delivers his full Commission to his Apostles substituting them in his own stead to rule his Church and to ordain their Successors That like the Tribe of Levi they might be legitimate and by a continued and distinguishable descent they might be perpetuated to the end of the World As my Father sent me sayes Christ so send I you John 20.21 Or as S. Matthew describes it All power is given to me both in Heaven and in Earth Go ye therefore and teach all Nations Baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you And lo I am with you alway to wit in the exercise of this power by your selves and Successors to the end of the world Matth. 28.18 19 20. These are some of those gifts our Saviour gave unto men when he ascended upon high Ephes 4.8 For he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers For the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ This is to endure 'till we all come into the
unto the world their coherence with any thing already reveal'd their agreeableness to the nature of God or the welfare of men to persuade any reasonably to embrace them If it be pretended that the inspiration it self is a sufficient authority to him that delivers Principles to the world and reason enough for any to embrace them Yet however the inspiration must still be proved as it has alwayes been by Miracles And those not false but real Because otherwise every one that has confidence and wickedness enough to pretend to an impulse and Call from Heaven may impose what he pleases on the world and they must without examination believe it This indeed would be a ready way to render the reason of men useless and degrade them into the silly nature of a Beast that being bridled and sadled is turned which way soever the rider pleaseth Nay it would be an extraordinary and new method as miraculous nay more than the pretenders inspirations to make the parts of a contradiction both true if all those who presume that they are inspired are to be believed For nothing can be more apparent to us than that various Sects opposite to one another distant to a total separation pretend all to be thus inspired And if what upon this they presume to deliver is to be received by those to whom the message is directed And they pretend it is directed unto all How can we since their confidence is equal know which to adhere to since all come by the same authority And it is impossible to receive the opinions of all because they contradict one another 'T is true we find some men among us that have run through all the signs of the Zodiack and their want of constancy and resolution not being directed to the Pole has caused them to tremble and shake like a Needle through all the points of the Compass Yet this has been by degrees not at once but by succession But in the case we have now in hand many pretend to have things revealed that yet thwart and encounter one another and all at the same time To embrace at once these several propositions is plainly impossible and if we consider to make our choice we are either apparently obstinate and wilful when all come with the same authority or else we openly forsake the Argument of Inspiration and stand and examine these Doctrines by a rule and instead of believing every Spirit we try them But if men will notwithstanding these plain and palpable absurdities presume still to thrust such wild pretensions upon the world and the proof of their Doctrines shall be by confidence not argument I would willingly have them to consider as well as our selves what their pretended inspiration means and what that impulse usually effects upon their own minds that makes them so confident that they are inspired from above Can it be supposed or do they feel in themselves any thing more than their own melancholy or thoughts brooding to hatch an Opinion Do they find any more than their persuasions heightned and their assurance of what they were before willing to believe bold and strong and thus inflaming them with a zeal to maintain what inordinate thoughts have produc'd strong resolutions to propagate in the world If it be so as certainly it is every man who is thus raised will have the same authority with another and opposite opinions which is yet impossible must at once be embraced by men because the authority upon which their certainty is grounded is felt by all though understood by neither And to others there seems the same confidence and assurance in the teachers of these different Opinions Our own reason therefore without an inspiration will readily teach us that since the Holy Spirit of God to an inspiration from which all these several men pretend is but one and what it delivers alwayes consistent these men cannot be inspired But they take their dreams for a converse with Spirits their melancholy phancies for inspirations the diseases of their bodies for the accomplishments of their minds and their own thoughts to be Revelations And in short only think themselves awaked when they are indeed asleep Nay we may farther raise our distrust and boldness towards these men Because we know that confidence assurance and real belief of what has entred into the minds of men receive degrees of accession and strength as well by thought conversation and argument as by any impulse that can be imagined Nay many times subtility pride impudence and wilfulness will maintain a thing with as great eagerness and zeal as if men had been really inspired The Devil can do much to heighten mens persuasions and they may do much to heighten their own and arguments that men conjecture to arrive at a compleat demonstration of a point will make them as tenacious of an opinion especially where they may appear singular as any impulse or inspiration Now in the midst of such perplexing causes that are able to produce the same effect it will be difficult if not impossible for men that adhere not to a Rule of trial to come to a particular and exact determination and to satisfie either others or themselves to what cause they may attribute the effect If they pretend to be able to distinguish betwixt a good and a bad cause where the effect yet seems to be the same Or to know the cause by the different impressions variety of impulses make upon their Spirits by which an object is conveyed to their understandings and by a distinct method by which the images of things become figured in the brain This can be no conviction to others until it is explained Nor any to themselves unless they certainly know and understand it Which if they do they are as well able to express this as they are the proposition which as they pretend is revealed to them But I fear this attempt will be in vain Because I cannot find upon strict consideration and retirement but that the motions of the Spirits must be always alike and the same percussions upon and convulsions in the nerves to cause the soul to understand and believe whether it be truth or falshood that is represented if it be received under the notion of truth And if the object seems to be true it makes a like impression as if it were so Therefore it is impossible for the Enthusiast to distinguish an inspiration from God from a suggestion by the Devil if he forsakes thâ— Rule and the publick sentiments of good and evil Therefore we see how unreasonable it is either to be startled with the vain pretences of men or to give credit to every Spirit since upon such grounds the Devil may be entertained for an Angel of light and the discoveries we make may as well be by the flames of Hell as by beams darted from the Sun in the Firmament CHAP. III. NOw from the precedent Discourse upon the caution of the Apostle I inferr 1. The
unreasonableness of such men and their lamentable state who shutting their eyes against the Sun create a perpetual night to themselves and love to wander in darkness and error by being of such unsteady tempers such easie and unmanly resolutions shifting Churches and Opinions at every turn concluding every Apparition to be an Angel of Light and the dreams of men to be inspirations And though principles of various shapes and faces are presented by men with the same confidence and pretence of inspiration yet too many are so inconsiderate and easie as to admit all by a continued succession and live altogether in a circle as if they were fix'd like one of the Philosophers intelligences in an Orb turning it round and riding themselves about with it Or rather chained by some Magical charm that they are condemned to run about the circle and yet are never able to stand still long enough to disentangle themselves And what a dismal state of life is this never to possess rest and quiet How pitiable is the condition of a man that has his mind alwayes toss'd and ruffled who has got such a paralytical distemper as keeps his head alwayes jogging who entertains no principles long and yet Religion is his perpetual burden And well may it be so to him who loads himself with such variety These men put a veil over their own eyes and blindfold themselves that they may either be led by others or stumble on they know not whither These discern not truth from falshood nor make any difference betwixt opinion and demonstration who every day are intangled in the midst of snares and absurdity and wander about in a wild wilderness when they think they are travelling through an inhabited Countrey They are like Fowls flying in the air who are hamper'd in Nets which others have placed on Poles to catch them when they think they are mounted above hazard and danger 'T is a dreadful Judgement when God that gave men souls to discern shall for their own wilful blindness deliver them up to the power of delusion to believe a lye especially when we shall reflect upon what the Apostle informs us will be the consequence That they may be damned who believe not the truth 2 Thess 2.11 We find that this must naturally become the effect of such a wild principle And the experience which we have of the irregularities and crimes of such persons sufficiently informs us that their ways in this world lead down to the Chambers of Death and in the other to the Vaults of Hell Unless the greatest Villanies may be consecrated by such hallowed pretences and wickedness may change its nature by adding the highest degree to it when men make God the Author of it Then indeed the Government of Christ will quickly be inconsistent with that of our Soveraign the Kirk may beat the Throne in pieces and men may snatch away the Kings Crown to cover their own heads withal And it may be after a while an intrenchment on the Triple Crown to be the Sovereign of three Kingdoms The dismal consequences of such an unreasonable and loose opinion we have no cause yet to forget Or if they had escaped our memories and were buried in oblivion the Authors of them being afraid they should remain hid will cause them to revive by fresh instances that Charity it self may no longer cover them but their repeated crimes may at once renew and preserve their Principles God has permitted the pretenders to these new inspirations at once almost to make a plain discovery of themselves and yet he strengthens the hands of Authority to obviate the designs of both and has caused the Religion of his own Church taking its measures by the rules of the Gospel to shine when it was almost covered with a Cloud Lift up your eyes then and behold its glory Not to envy but to delight in it Always to profess such a Faith as is Primitive and Apostolical that delivers no other Principles to the world but what our Saviour did before what his Apostles commented on and a Faith that their followers liv'd by Principles that intrench not upon the rights of Secular Powers that do not interfere with the just and lawful Maxims of State that give no countenance to ambitious usurpations nor any disturbances to the peace of the world that are not wild and extravagant but teach men humanity and obedience that countenance no cruelties or murders but rebuke the inordinate appetites of men give a check to vice and incourage virtue that men passing the time of their sojourning here in the fear of God and justice and charity with their Neighbours thwarting neither the Prerogative of the King nor priviledge of the Subject may die with true peace of conscience in the favour of God and gain a compleat rest from their labours when their gracious dispositions and habits shall be rewarded with eternal glory Let us then having thus fixed our Rules and Doctrines attended with such ample rewards continue stedfast in the profession of this Faith and contend earnestly for it since it is what was formerly delivered to the Saints Let not novelties that drag such vice and irreligion after them that begin with Treason and end in Blood be any more named among us with delight But let every one that names the name of Christ depart from such iniquity as turns the world upside down and makes its proselytes the real and continued troublers of Israel as well as a sure plague to themselves who vex all that give ear to them with the perplexing passions of hopes and fears about their eternal happiness so much that they lose all temporal peace themselves and scare and disturb other men whilst they keep them by their pretended inspirations in perpetual doubts and uncertainties of mind For when they endeavour to believe every Spirit it is very certain they can believe none and so they abandon Gods Religion and their own peace and run a round of endless perplexities and contradictions 2. From the Apostles Caution and my discourse from it we may easily judge of those persons without the pretence of an extraordinary infallibility that run after every new Doctrine like weather-cocks are turned with every wind and follow after every Light though it be but Will with a Wisp or Jack in a Lanthorn that brings them upon Precipices or leads them into Boggs These men having vitiated their fight disposed their organs for all impressions and enlarged their eyes by frequent goggles beyond all proportion that no new object may escape them receive false representations of things with the same greediness that they receive true and so mistake a Paper-Kite for a wandering Comet and an enkindled Meteor for a true Star Hecuba is as acceptable to them as Helen and they embrace a Cloud instead of Juno To endeavour to fix Principles in them is but writing on the face of waters and to endeavour to digest the thoughts of these into standing propositions is
considered together brings the promise of the Spirit and infallibility to the Apostles under determinate restraints and limitations But 2. This will further appear if we compare the promise of guiding into all truth with that other relating to the Holy Ghost Joh. 14.26 where the Apostles are told that he should teach them all things more plainly those which our Saviour had delivered and bring those things to their memory which they might forget though before declared He shall teach you all things sayes he and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you So that it appears that the Apostles had not the Spirit without measure though they may be said to be filled with the Holy Ghost And that this promise of infallibility to them was made in a limited and restrained sense Secondly Supposing the promises of Infallibility were made in never so enlarged a sense yet they are to be restrained to the persons to whom they were at first made as to the unerring conduct and I might easily make it appear that they cannot in their full sence concern any but the Apostles themselves and the first Preachers of the Christian Religion Because the end of this extraordinary inspiration was to make them capable of prescribing to us an infallible and unerring rule Which being accomplished there is no farther occasion of an infallible inspiration For to what end should this be continued to one or a certain number of men unless they were upon new emergencies to deliver new Doctrine to the world If it be necessary to the understanding of what has been already prescribed the Laws of the Gospel will not only want one of the most excellent qualifications of a Law that it be plain and easily intelligible But the same necessity will argue infallibility useful to all which renders it thus necessary unto some For if it be therefore necessary to some that they may become Guides to others Since their conduct in relation unto others must consist in advice and declaring that sence of the Law which could not be understood without them all which must be expressed by word or writing every man has as much need of infallibility that he may not misunderstand the interpretation as any have to prevent their misapprehensions of the Law if there can be no peace without infallibility Now that all men have not infallibility is as readily yielded as it is to be proved that the Pope has none Thirdly If there were now this infallibility amongst men there must be a perpetual revelation For if the perfection of the humane nature could here render any men infallible we may well conjecture that many might have been in every age that might have been Directors to the rest Or if it had been founded in humane nature why should not an equal perfection render all mankind infallible Either of them being granted will invalidate the necessity of a Divine Revelation and turn the word of God into a story and do despight to the spirit of grace if rendering it useless and a fable will do it For to what end should any men be inspired when they were before infallible in themselves The infallibility therefore which we discourse of must proceed from a strong and certain inspiration And whatever is delivered by vertue of this is of equal authority with the Scriptures themselves And then none can be safe in his life or fortunes when ever any inspired man makes it his pleasure to take them away Nay if we are conscientious we must yield them up upon demand lest haply we may be found fighters against God And this appears in the Romanists themselves as well as others taught by them The more conscientious any of them are the more readily do they yield to the impositions of their superiours and they have reason for it if they think them to be absolutely infallible For no private evidence of a thing must subvert their faith in the Churches determination and so much the more triumphant is their faith by how much the more it captivates their understandings As it is so much the more meritorious by how much the less it has of evidence So the greater the Objections are that meet and encounter the Churches determinations their faith is rendered the more glorious and full of victory Let the Doctrine then be never so wicked in it self or consequences the conscientious believer of the point of Roman Infallibility must neither see the one nor the other But renounce all the evidence of his reason and if occasion be as there is sometimes of his senses too For what evidence can reasonably be attended to that bears a testimony against that which is infallible This then must be a ready method to change the nature of good and evil and the eternal Law instamp'd upon our minds if the mutation proceeds from the Roman Chair Nay the nature of things need not be changed if the Pope please to change their names Men may borrow then and never pay if he pleases to cancell the debt Ruining families and overturning Kingdoms will become noble and a glorious exploit Nay religious acts when he is at leisure to adopt them into the number Burning Cities and murdering Princes shall be accounted means of propagating the Gospel if he please once to determine that we may do evil that good may come of it And blowing up the Estates of Kingdoms is presently holy if he will but sanctifie the Powder and Canonize the man that has the courage to attempt it So powerful is this Doctrine of Roman Infallibility that it can change the Devil into an Angel of Light And let the Pope himself be never so wicked his determinations are all true and good and he may remain his Holiness still He may subvert by degrees or all at once the whole Doctrine of Christianity though from thence he receives his pretensions of authority if he pleases to declare it a Fable when it shall no longer comport with his advantage Nay he has already so blended it with the Religion of the Jews and practice of the Heathens that Christianity is so buried in an heap of rubbish that 't is an hard matter to gather it up out of such a great confusion of ruines The substance is lost in the midst of Ceremony internal devotion is interrupted by a pompous Scene of Pageantry and Shew and yet the evidence of our senses must be rejected in the Doctrine which they so much applaud in practice And yet Fourthly Notwithstanding all the Roman pretences to Infallibility If there are any promises made of it they do as well concern other Churches as themselves For if these promises were made to the Apostles in general as is very plain from the circumstances of their delivery if they were not terminated in them but reached also the whole succession of those by vertue of whom Christs promise was made good of being with the Apostles alwayes to the end of the world Then either