Unity of the Body of Christ to encrease our knowledge in the Christian Doctrine and prevent our being deceived and led into error Hence was Timothy's Office which he had received by the Ordination of S. Paul stiled a gift 2 Tim. 1.6 And lest these appointments should not be accounted the products and designation of the Holy Spirit These gifts are attributed to the Spirit Who is in himself one uniform Being though these were divers according to the variety of times and seasons And they are all such manifestations of the Spirit as are given to men to profit withal 1 Cor. 12. Now as Gods Providence Rules the World though we can neither discover his Councels nor are able to account for the manner of his operation As he disposes of Crowns and Kingdoms determines our dayes and disposes our Habitations though these things are accomplished by an order and train of second Causes severally designing and concurring to the end So does the Holy Spirit dispose the way of the Education of some and incline their minds to the Office of Ministers in the Church of Christ that Gods people may not perish for want of knowledge But there may be some alwayes to preach the Word and to convey Christs Doctrine from Generation to Generation That his Church being built upon the true confession of an Holy Faith as on a firm and well fixed Rock the gates of Hell may never be able to prevail against it Matth. 16.16 and 18. Now a sufficient number of such men distinguished by their Education and manner of living from those that are more encompassed with the noise and disturbing affairs of this life being prepared by a previous train of circumstances and having the advantages of their own parts and understandings And being by such means able to see into the notions of those that have gone before them having been used more to reading consideration and retirement than other men and to weigh the just consequences of things They must needs attain a competent ability in the matters of Religion to which they most apply themselves And they may be capable through the assistance of that Spirit who calls and gives them Authority in their Office to become instruments in his hands to guide men into the wayes of truth In all the Arts and Mysteries of the World we deem it a natural way to learn by obtaining one that is skilful himself to teach us the Principles and Grounds of his Knowledge And we more certainly and easily obtain our design when we have such a one to instruct us So is it in matters of Religion 'T is a natural way to inform our selves in those things that concern our Salvation when we have not only an an inspired Rule But men Educated into the knowledge of those things that prepare them for the understanding the Mysteries of Religion and are afterwards appointed by due Ceremony and the direction of the Holy Ghost to guide us into all truth Especially if in the last place we consider that the Spirit of truth confirms those truths contained in the Scriptures unto the minds of men by co-operating with the external appointed Ministrations by an internal work upon the understanding and affections That there is such a thing as a Divine illumination yet continued amongst Christians as our Church owns it by her Prayers so no man can reasonably contradict it Not that it does render any man infallible as the Romanists affirm Nor inspire men with any new Doctrine or Rules of life besides what it has revealed in the Scriptures as some Enthusiasts adventure to determine Yet we must not to avoid the extreams forsake so useful an Article of belief that gives God the glory of his power and keeps us dependent upon him and is so great a foundation of our prayers and praises Truth is not to be forsaken by the Jews because the Samaritans may be of the same opinion Nor shall I like the Jews in Barbary refuse to eat of that Meat which is dress'd by one of a different perswasion Or to drink in the same Cup with a Moor when he is a person of a wholsome Constitution until it has undergone the Ceremony of Washing Truth in this World will be blended with error and 't is the prudence as well as piety of a Christian to make a separation of the Wheat from the Chaff and not to slight and refuse the one because the other has been mix'd with it 'T is true indeed as Mr. Hales expresses it The Promise of the Spirit to the Apostles which should lead them into all truth was made good unto them by private and secret informing their understandings with high and heavenly Mysteries which never entered into the conceit of man And to us this promise is made good because what was written by Revelation in their hearts for our instruction they have written in their Books But yet this is not all the assistance the Spirit gives us For though he does not inspire us with any new Doctrine you he opens our understandings to the apprehension of the old I am far from admitting the conceit of an impulse to be the rule and measure of our lives because we know what mischiefs have overspread the World when propositions have been vailed with such a pretence and it may be our own as well as S. Austin's observation Tanto sunt ad seditionem faciliores quanto sibi videntur spiritu excellere Men are the more prone to sedition by how much the more they seem to excell in their inspiration yet there cannot appear the same danger where the Spirit only assists our understandings to apprehend those truths which are already deliver'd and inclines our wills and affections to embrace them when according to the direction of S. John we are not so credulous as to believe every Spirit but to try the Spirits whether they are of God or no 1 John 4.1 Now then only may we reasonably conclude our understandings to be influenced by the Spirit when our notions agree with the written Word For to the Law and to the Testimony sayes the Prophet if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no morning or light in them Isa 8.20 There are divers means natural in themselves and rationally appointed by Almighty God for the informing men in the truths that concern them Reading meditation and hearing the Word are proper methods to inform our understandings and to guide us into the way of truth But prayer is therefore wont to be superadded not only to compose our minds and make them fit for Divine Contemplation by a sequestration of our thoughts from those external objects that by intermixing themselves with those that are more spiritual confound our Idea's and notices of things and render our minds more loose and extravagant But because Prayer supplicates those aids and assistances of the Spirit that facilitate our apprehensions of truth by removing objects that crumble and disorder them and it
argue some superiour operation And we must attribute them to God or the Devil Accordingly have men used to difference them as they tend to a good or a bad design Hence we find in the Old Testament two characters of a false Prophet and consequently as many of a true as I have hinted immediately before 1 If the sign or wonder that he gives for confirmation of what he pretends in its design destroys natural Religion i. e. what proceeds from the common reason of men For if there arise among you a Prophet or a dreamer of dreams and the sign or wonder come to pass which he gives thee If this be wrought to draw men from the Worship of the only one God to pay Divine homage to a false one or to many The sign was permitted only to prove them And such a Prophet was not only to be accounted false But to be put to death for his villany and imposture Deut. 13. at the begining 2. When the Prophecy was not true and the thing foretold followed not 't was a sign that the Prophecy was bold and presumptuous and what he that is a God of truth never commissioned the Prophet to deliver Deut. 18.22 When signs therefore and wonders were really effected that tended to the advancement of Religion establishing what was written in mens hearts and destroying all that God had forbidden and fixing nothing contradictory to what had been confirmed to the Jews but what did prefigure this new method and at such a particular period of the World was predicted that it should be destroyed They must needs confirm the truth which those men delivered who had sufficient power and authority to work them Miracles were things rationally acknowledged to be sufficient signs of the Divine Commission of those who were permitted to work them when they carried especially such characters of a Divine Power in their nature or in their frequency and continuation as no Devil could be supposed to have granted to him Nor any man could possibly effect to do mischief in the World Thus when Moses delivered the Law his Speech was followed with Thunderings and Lightnings and the noise of the Trumpet and the smoaking of the Mountain Deut. 20.18 Which sufficiently confirmed the Divinity of the Moral and prepared the people for an obedient reception of the Judicial and Ceremonial Law And thus was it also at the delivery of the Gospel When S. John the Baptist sent two of his Disciples unto Christ to know whether he were the true Messiah that was to give Laws unto the World Our Saviour returns this answer Tell John what things ye have seen and heard how that the blind see the lame walk the lepers are cleansed the deaf hear the dead are raised Luke 7.22 These Miracles so full of goodness and Divine influence were a sufficient attestation of his Doctrine Hence he makes the same reply also to the Jews when they proposed the same question The works that I do in my Fathers name they bear witness of me John 10.25 And therefore sayes he of the same persons If I had not done among them the works which none other man did they had had no sin If I had not done Miracles far beyond Moses and the Prophets whom yet upon the authority of what these did they believe they might reasonably have pleaded their Law against me Which then had been bless'd with as noble an establishment as what I now pretend to deliver But now that I do such works which no man ever yet did before me they have no cloke at all for their sin nor any excuse for their unbelief John 15.24 Now as Miracles argued the truth and Authority of our Saviours Doctrine So they led his Disciples into the same truth For from those Miracles which they saw him do in confirmation of his Doctrine they might reasonably be induced to believe what he delivered to them and when the power was yet continued to themselves they might well inferr that they were still guided into the truth Since the Holy Ghost thus sealed it to themselves and others and they had so powerful and Divine a testimony to what they apprehended and delivered Thus when they had received that Commission from our Saviour to go into the world and to preach the Gospel to every creature They went forth and preached every where the Lord working with them and confirming the word with signs following Mark 16.20 The same is attested by the Authour to the Hebrews that God bare the Apostles witness with signs and wonders and divers miracles and distributions of the Holy Ghost according to his will Heb. 2.4 This is the testimony he gave unto the truth by the Miracles which were wrought by those who published and owned the Doctrine of our Saviour evidenceing its Divinity to themselves and others For we say the Apostles are witnesses of these things and so is also the Holy Ghost whom God hath given to them that obey him Acts 5.32 Lastly The Holy Spirit guided the Apostles and Primitive Disciples into all truths of the Gospel by an extraordinary support in the midst of great and raging persecutions Both Scripture and Ecclesiastical History informs us what trials and conflicts these had for the profession of their Faith and a firm adhesion to the Christian Religion Their whole lives were a continued tragedy which did not end but in blood and death The state of the Church was such in those dayes that All that would live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution 2 Tim. 3.12 Nothing but cruelties from their severe Adversaries attended the profession and publication of the Gospel Which was the principal foundation of that Argument of S. Paul to prove the hopes and certainty of the Resurrection If in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable 1 Cor. 15.19 Hence the Apostle argues the Hebrews to patience and courage in the midst of sufferings from the reflections upon what they had already overcome That they might not by a future cowardize lose the reward of their former adventures Call to mind sayes he the former dayes in which after ye were illuminated ye endured a great fight of afflictions By having their Estates made a prey to their enemies by being made a gazing stock to the world by bearing reproaches and tortures themselves and being companions to those who were so used Heb. 10.32 They gat their bread with the peril of their lives As the expression is Lament 5.9 And for the sake of Christ they were killed all the day long and no more accounted of than as innocent sheep appointed to the slaughter As S. Paul applies that of the Psalmist Rom. 8.36 And if we view the ends of their lives we shall find nature alwayes anticipated and they snatched away by a violent fate still swimming to Heaven in their blood One is crucified another beheaded a third is stoned a fourth has his brains beat out with a Club Another
when rightly understood to make the man of God perfect And if they are able to furnish the Minister certainly they are sufficient to instruct the people Nay to make them throughly furnished to all good works and are able to make them wise unto salvation through faith which is in Jesus 2 Tim. 3.15 16 17. Hence is it that these are so far from being taken from the adult that they are to be exposed to Childrens Learning Or else it would not have been Timothy's commendation that from a child he had known the Scriptures And if such Elogiums were made in the honour of the Old Testament much more praises must be given to the New which shews us a way to be justified from those things from which we could not be justified by the Law of Moses Acts 13.39 and brings life and immortality to light 2 Tim. 1.10 The Doctrines in the Gospel preached by Christ and enlarged upon by the Apostles through the powerful inspiration of the Holy Spirit are sufficient accompanied with those means appointed for their delivery and the ordinary assistances given to those that attend them with humility to guide men into all those truths requisite to be known in relation to their eternal welfare And therefore blessed are they sayes our Saviour that hear the word of God and keep it Luke 11.28 From hence draw we the water of life and these are the fresh springs of salvation at which mankind may satisfie themselves Here have we directions to demean our selves in all our various conditions in the World that we may endure both the Sun-shine and the Storms that prosperity may neither swell nor adversity consume us S. Paul's advice therefore to Timothy must be attended by us also To continue in the things which we have learned and have been assured of knowing of whom we have learned them and that because evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived 2 Tim. 3.13 14. Let the infallible men of mystical and unintelligible demonstration endeavour to prove what they cannot defend but by their old argument of force and fire Let them blaspheme the Holy Ghost in the Apostles whilst yet they pretend to its inspiration themselves Let those argue against the Scriptures being a Rule when rightly understood that can defend their Doctrine only by a counterfeit tradition Having no greater argument against the sufficiency of the Scripture but because it consumes their Hay and Stubble And that they can there neither fetch Wood to burn us nor Stones to destroy us But let us who are of the day be sober and be wise to that which is good And then as God formerly subjected Sathan to the seed of the Woman for that by the Serpent he deceived their simplicity and stain'd their innocence so though now he endeavours by subtile impostors to beguile soft and ignorant minds he shall not alwayes triumph in his villany But the God of peace shall bruise him under our feet shortly Rom. 16.20 The Providence of God is a great deep the reason of man is not able to fathom it And though he may for the punishment of our sins the tryal of our vertue or to make our adversaries ripe for destruction permit some to erect their Plumes and lead captive unwary souls in triumph yet though he that standeth must take heed lest he fall let us according to S. Paul's advice hold fast the form of sound words 2 Tim. 1.13 and contend earnestly for that faith which was once delivered unto the Saints Jude ver 3. and withdraw from every brother that walketh disorderly and not after what has been delivered 2 Thess 3.6 And if we walk according to this rule peace shall be upon us and mercy Gal. 6.16 We need not then be afraid of the winds and storms nor yet of him that kills the body if we truly fear him that can destroy the soul Which none but God himself can do For sayes our Saviour whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doth them is like a wise man who built his house upon a rock and though the rain descend the floods come and the winds blow and beat upon that house it falls not Matth. 7.24 The God of truth having now given us a standing rule by the glorious inspiration of his Holy Spirit expects that it should be the general measure of our actions And as no sign would be given of our Saviours death and resurrection besides that of the Prophet Jonas so no rule can be expected by us besides the Gospel to the universal period and general Conflagration Hence is it that S. Paul puts all under the severest curse that pervert this or preach another Gospel And he does not only anathematize men but passes the same sentence upon Angels if at any time they should prove so bold and impious Nay he doubles the curse to testifie his faith and proclaim the irrepealable duration of the Gospel But though we or an Angel from heaven preach any other Gospel unto you let him be accursed Gal. 1.8 What was indited by the inspiration of the Spirit is certainly true and we may confide in it What is added by the wit of men may possibly be false and therefore it is not to be be looked upon as infallible any farther than it can be proved either directly or by consequence from the Scriptures themselves This is the rule which the ancient Fathers disputed against the Hereticks by and this must be the measure and rule of our faith it being so full and plain that no new Article must be added to our Creed nor any other rules of duty contradictory to these all necessary things being so easie that any person of any ordinary capacity using the methods of Gods own institution may soon arrive at knowledge enough to save him if his will does not rebell against his understanding and he faithfully practises what he knows Nor could the end of Gods Law ever be obtained or men be left inexcusable if it were so obscure that it could not unriddle it self For the end of all Laws being the obedience of those that are bound by them How can men obey that which they cannot by any means understand And if it cannot by the ordinary helps of the learned in it interpret it self there must then be a new inspiration to interpret what was inspired before And then there will be two inspirations where one would have served Because he that can interpret a Law plainly to the World might have made it plain at its first delivery Unless perchance we may think it wiser to do any thing with toil and pains which may be performed with ease and pleasure 'T is true indeed that many men by ignorance or wilfulness when they forsake the Guides of Gods appointment heaping Teachers to themselves having itching ears may be and are led into divers errors under the specious pretence of truth And thus those amongst the Galatians who in those early dayes
him the Plagues that are threatned in it And if any shall take away from it his part shall be taken out of the book of life Rev. 22.18 19. The perfection of the Scriptures is a point which Protestants have alwaies held as that which as it is most true so it is their most sure defence against all the assaults of Rome and others And this is what the Ancient Fathers tried Doctrines by of old and reprov'd Hereticks by what was written Although according to the Education or disposition of those that opposed them they wanted not but made use of Arguments from Reason and Philosophy and the natural Religion of mankind Now the Scripture being a safe because it is a true Rule and true because given to us by Authority from God who gave sufficient testimony to it by inspiring and encouraging the deliverers of it and farther it is attested by signs and wonders and divers Miracles And a safe rule it is because it has all that tends to the perfection of our natures and the saving of our souls and is compleat in the delivery of all the Articles of the Christian Faith and all the necessary Rules of life And is declared to be standing and perpetual as well to abolish the old Law to the Jews as to open a door of hope to the Gentiles and to obviate all the contradictions of either Nay it sufficiently becomes its own interpreter when men are assisted by those ordinary advantages which Education and the grace of God gives them If they consult their Guides diligently compare one place with another and are humble and modest in their enquiries How then can we believe every Spirit Rashly receiving Opinions at adventure since this standing Rule may be contradicted by them or opposed under a seeming shelter of its own whilst men wrest it to others ruine as well as to their own destruction Secondly To believe every Spirit is to unman our selves render us ridiculous and expose us to the contempt and scorn of all considering men in the world For since not only S. John but continual experience assures us that there are false Prophets in the world and that they vent contrary Doctrines to those that are true To attempt to believe every Spirit is to attempt impossibilities And this is not only foolish but unreasonable since no man can possibly believe contradictory Opinions to be at the same time true But suppose they are received successively to one another Yet it argues great levity and inconstancy in men to be carried about with every wind of Doctrine want of judgment to be so easily persuaded and that they were careless in their first choice who are so readily prevailed upon for a second That they never were setled upon the old foundation who on all occasions remove to a new and were not true to their first Love who cannot be constant upon the sight of another but alter their affections upon every view of a new face and are pleased with all the parts of variety Now these are blemishes in the minds of men mutable tempers without any considerable reason being blots and a disparagement to mankind whose rational souls give them the priviledge of thinking and enable and admonish them to consider well before they chuse And when thus they have by argument and judgment made their choice They are not to be easily moved from it Unless upon as wise and deliberate thoughts and stronger reasons than those by which they yielded to the truth of the first Opinion they remove from it and chuse another He that is unsetled in his mind or no longer fix'd than another object is presented creates such disturbances to himself that he makes his life troublesom and tragical and is much to be pitied if his unquietness will permit him to stay at home and not make others share with him and lamented by all those who know the sweetness of settlement and resolution that have considered what they can upon fitting circumstances part with And what they are resolved to adhere to with all the hazards of their lives and Fortunes Alas the wavering man has no peace though for his own reputation he may often pretend it But as S. James saies he is like a wave of the Sea driven with the wind and toss'd Jam. 1.6 Like a diseased sick man upon his Bed he tumbles about from place to place and carries always a Wind-mill in his head which grinds him according as the wind veers and turns He neglects his Calling if he has any Or if he has none better employments to drive with a strange Phanatic fury about the world ready to overturn all he meets with to enquire concerning news and projects that he may embrace all and be true to neither And so the man renders himself unfit to be either a friend or a Christian and becomes a fool by those methods by which he would yet be accounted wise But he that has well measured his principles by the rule of Gods word and has distinguished betwixt what is fundamental and what is circumstantial who has bound his life to a stake dyed daily in his own thoughts and resolved well when it is Religious to suffer decently How far he is able upon just occasion to comply with the commands of men vested in lawful Authority and where the points and limits are beyond which he must not step a foot But if he perish he will perish there that so he may not eternally perish This man stands unmoved at tempests and storms does his duty according to his station and the just commands of his lawful Superiours And if the Heavens fall justice shall alwayes be done by him He can be otherwise than his place requires unconcerned at seeming tempests that threaten or that thunder which begins the storm He knows when his life or estate or liberty must be Sacrificed when by lawful Authority willingly and when by unlawful it must be by force taken And therefore goes on cheerfully and faithfully as far as he can on the side of Law and just Authority putting it in Execution and stops when an higher Rule will permit him to go no further And certainly as this prevents all anticipation of evil so is it such a steady and well considered resolution that is more manly and rational than to be driven like the Clouds in the Air and to be alwayes like the Sea in motion sometimes forward and sometimes backward without any fixed rest or quiet Or by being so ready to believe every Spirit to entertain none kindly as we ought Thirdly We must not believe every Spirit because if we give our selves too great a liberty it will be difficult indeed impossible to discern those that are true from the false If we once get into the Wilderness we may travel forty years there and neither know when we are in or out of the way and wander about God knows whither We may murmure and repine and blame each other whilst the fault
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
persecution than we at any time oppose them all And if the Holy Spirit be but one as yet I hope I may without much assuming or confidence affirm he is if it be alwayes consistent with it self there can be but one inspiration at one time true and the rest that pretend differently from this make at once themselves and God a Liar whilst they suppose him to contradict himself and they become the publishers of such contradictions Besides if the Spirit these wild men pretend to does inform their minds of the principles they deliver by an immediate illumination or impulse upon their spirits either they feel the stroke made upon them by this invisible power so that they can tell the time as the Prophets of old when the Word of the Lord comes to them or else they are raised by degrees into a presumption that they have this Spirit which thus forces them to declare new Doctrines to the World If they pretend to know when the stroke and impulse is made why does not one immediately of a Fisherman become an Apostle without any study or former gradual practice without being bred in the Schools of the Jesuits or by long hearing the Cant at home by which he is educated and trained to it why does he not on a sudden rise up and publish such consistent Doctrines as may be suitable to the reason of those whom he would perswade to embrace them or at least not thwarting and contradicting the natural Religion of mankind But since we find this impossible among them or the utmost of their skill to be by some mechanick operation or perhaps by an unaccountable influence from the Prince of the Air Why should any be startled at or give credit to new Apostles when our Rules are compleated by those that were commissioned of old If we search into the bottom of these things we shall find them either voluntary Cheats when those that own them make them subservient to bad designs or such as men being deceived themselves by a bad constitution a corrupt education or a suggestion from the Devil under the form of an Angel of Light endeavour either through ignorance or subtilty to impose upon easie believers For 1. There is no promise for such immediate inspirations to dictate new Rules of life made to any but to Apostolical men in the first Age of the Gospel who were to deliver what was to be the standing Law to all succeeding Generations And therefore there is no ground of hope for such things as these in the present Age wherein we live Because inspiration being an immediate influence from God himself his Will enlarges or restrains this power to us and whenever men expect with reason any thing from him it must be grounded upon a promise on which we may hope and rely because all Gods Promises are as certain as his Truth and that equally certain with his Being There being therefore no promise of this made beyond the Age and Lives of the Apostles as no men can now rationally expect any inspiration to confirm their pretensions so neither can others with sobriety believe them 2. Inspirations to prescribe new Rules to the World are so needless after a compleat Law is already given that is to be so lasting and perpetual as the Gospel that were they now to be found amongst men if they should be contrary to it they would abolish and destroy the Gospel But if the pretenders are inspired only to the propagation of the same truths revealed there this second inspiration will appear needless and so tax the wisdom of God to do so great and extraordinary a thing to no purpose because there are the same rules already reveal'd written down in the first age and by the special providence of Almighty God notwithstanding the diligent and furious attempts of the powers of the Earth to interrupt the conveyance handed down from age to age and yet remaining publick and open amongst our selves in our own language that all may read and understand The continuance of men distinct from the multitude who by a different manner of living and Education are enabled and bound by a special duty to read and interpret these Scriptures to the people renders a new inspiration useless to deliver these things to the world which art and human industry can do God might indeed if he had so pleased have continued his Doctrines and Rules of life by writing them daily in every mans breast and inspiring every individual amongst us But if he had done so at first there had been no need of the Twelve Apostles nor our Saviours own preaching to the world but only to be born and die and rise again and if it were afterwards continued it would render preaching and reading a written word useless ease us of much pains and toil and all our inspired and blown up men of giving themselves or others the trouble to come to preach or to hear them at a Conventicle And so inspired men compendiously preach away their own Office Yet our Saviour constituted a standing Ministry whom he has promised to be with to the end of the world Mat. 28.18 19. And S. Paul tells us that when our blessed Lord ascended up on high he constituted in his stead to continue his Office of teaching and presiding over his Church some Apostles some Prophets some Evangelists some Pastors and Teachers several orders and degrees of men suitable to Ages and various Imployments to preserve the Institutions Doctrines and order of the Gospel for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ To remain so long till all that should be gathered out of the successive ages and generations of men might come in the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Ephes 4 th from the 8 th to the 13 th Verse Now the establishment of such a standing Ministry throughout the ages of the Christian Church which is to endure until the Judgement of the Great day sufficiently baffles all expectations of any particular and continued inspirations to effect the same which the Ministry assisted by the received Rule and ordinary conduct of Gods Holy Spirit can well accomplish The constitution of the one is so opposite to and inconsistent with the other that none but madmen can believe both and none but those that are diseased and Lunatick can expect inspiration to such purposes that ever considered the constitutions of Christianity it evacuating all the Oeconomy of the Gospel 3. Suppose there were such an impulse or inspiration to be expected Yet how should those who are to be guided by what they that pretend to it deliver know that they are really inspired who so confidently conduct and lead the people since they do no real Miracles nor use such convincing arguments either from the nature of those Principles they propound
their Governours Opinions enacted into Laws for the true dictates of the Holy Ghost inspiring the Pope or presiding at their Councils and infallibly assisting in their determinations But none of these things taken as they are propounded can possibly be a safe Rule much less the highest conduct in matters of Religion When we shall consider that though they may be helps to judge upon the view of the Rule Yet phancy and opinion may frequently be mistaken for reason illumination Conscience nay the dictates of the holy Spirit it self and according to the common inferences about these matters are so concluded and believed by men that consult their own faculties But this will yet be more evident if we consider 1. That the holy Spirit of God does not in any ages since he inspired those that delivered the Scriptures to be the rule of life either illuminate or direct mankind in the things relating to their eternal peace in any other manner than 1. By those Scriptures allowing the faculties of human nature and the general propositions of Religion among mankind which he inspired the Sacred Pen-men to record 2. By inclining as well as authorizing some men being prepared by education and study to continue a succession of that Ministry which our Saviour appointed to endure to the end of the World to explain the difficulties in Religion unto others And 3. Confirming by a secret and inexplicable operation which is easily believed by all that affirm Gods Grace or Providence and in consequence his Being the propositions contained in the Scriptures unto the minds of men and inclining their faculties to believe and embrace them Which influence is obtained by prayer to him that is of a docil disposition as well as given in our Sacred Baptism till such time as we either resist or renounce it all which shall be more evident before I make an end Now none of these though great priviledges can intitle any to that illumination or immediate guidance which wild men make the rule of their faith and conductor of their actions But they may mistake and be confident in it their own phancy and high opinion proceeding either from thoughtfulness or disposition for immediate motions from the Spirit of God And 2 As for the consciences of men if they mistake them not for phancy opinion or a strong persuasion of their own minds they are nothing but the agreement of our judgements with Gods word for thus much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports which is knowledge with another and includes the relation of our understandings to a Rule These are so far therefore from being a rule themselves that they are to be governed by another and cannot be proper consciences without it Being therefore guided by a Superiour Rule they cannot be safe conductors themselves and if conscience as taken by those that plead hardest for it were once allowed its full latitude phancy interest and the humours and impious mistakes of men would pass for conscience and a safe guide and introduce such a medly and mixture in Religion that every one under the covert of this would do what is good in his own eyes even as when there was no King in Israel The Church of Christ would be turned into a Babel and our houses of Prayer into dens of Thieves being fill'd with nothing but Sacriledge and confusion Thirdly Some make such Providence as crowns their opinions with success to be an argument that their opinions are true But to evince the invalidity of this needs no other than this observation That when the same things are covered with a Cloud their Authors punished or the propagation of their tenets becomes improsperous the same men will not admit of the same argument Nor permit others to defend their opinions by the same medium with which they prov'd their own When the Sun for a season shines upon them and the Heavens smile then behold the hand of the Lord is with them But when a prosperous ray refreshes others and they receive not the countenance they had before but have the frowns and discouragements of Superiors Behold now wickedness is seated in high places The holy Seed are led into the Wilderness and persecution attends the Elect of God and Canaanites possess the Holy Land But if success were an argument for inspiration and smiling Providences a rule to judge Doctrines by Numa Pompilius might have had an argument for the inspirations from his Nymph Aegeria and for the truth of his Religion he establish'd among the Romans The Jews might have been lost in the Wilderness and have justified the making their Gods to go before them They had ceased to have the marks of a Church and would not have been the people of the Lord when they were carried into Egypt or Babylon Nay by this they might have justified their condemning the great Messiah and Pilate and the Roman Guards might have had an argument for executing him The Primitive Christians must be condemned and the Apostles inspiration be proved an imposture if a dark Providence be that by which the Doctrines of men are to be judg'd Mahomet must have been deemed a true Prophet when he gathered so many Proselytes in the East And the great Turk be yet as holy as he has been for the most part prosperous in the World Nay Popery it self must then be embraced if the glory and prosperity of opinions must prove them true and success becomes the measure of Religion This is a way to justifie all lucky Usurpations To determine right and wrong by combate and the longest Sword may justly measure out the largest Possession and the property of mankind must submit to power A Rebel then may lawfully possess his Sovereings Throne if he has strength enough to force the brightest Majesty to an exchange And if this principle be fully pursued the men that own it may bow the Knee and say to an Usurper God save the King This will make many times the greatest Villany to have more Authority than Virtue and Innocence and force true Religion to be vanquished by a false Nay he that by this rule is taken for a Prophet to day may be an Impostor to morrow though he continues in the delivery of the same Doctrine Because a man may receive Hosanna's from the multitude and their cry shall shortly be Crucifie him Crucifie him These things are the subject of common observation It was holy Davids long ago And it will be so to the end of the world whatever Jews or Millenaries may dream That the wicked will sometimes be in great power when the righteous hang down their head like a bulrush When the Psalmist spake of the prosperity of the wicked He observ'd for some time that there were no bands in their death but their strength was firm and sound They were not in trouble like other men but plagued less than those that were better Therefore pride compass'd them as a chain and violence covered them as a garment their
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