I may the more clearly manifest to this great Assembly what my understanding is in this weighty matter give me leave to preface foure particulars which may prevent mistakes as if any private or particular designe were aimed at in such a Doctrine as this First Man as a reasonable Creature is the subject of Christian Doctrine Man doth not throw away his mind and understanding when hee comes to be proselited into the Truths of Christ When God undertaketh to informe a man with heavenly doctrine hee doth not deale with him as hee would deale with a stone which he would raise up to be a child to Abraham for he findeth man already endowed with a minde and will upon which account Hee is capable to heare further from his God Mans understanding is of very good use in Christian Religion for by that is man able to communicate much of his sence in heavenly things unto others as also to plead for and by argument to back the Truth received against the Cavils and contradictions of such as oppose themselves I must confess freely what I apprehend That in the moment of a mans conversion when the grace of God powerfully ceizeth upon his spirit to turne him from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God those acts that he doth then performe are the most rationall acts that ever he did performe in all his life The acts of Repentance Faith and Selfe-denyall the act of turning from sin unto God which are the acts that appear in the first motion of the soule unto God these are in themselves and to the soule most reasonable equitable just and right yea in the further progress of the grace of God in mans minde when it growes up into sanctification and holiness the understanding of a man doth act and acteth understandingly The truth is This minde and understanding of a man is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as the great Philosopher calls it the very flower of a mans soule which is not blasted and withered by the Truths of the Gospell but it is thereby reformed rectified repaired and restored to its primaeve perfection with great advantage So that I think in a sober sence what the Apostle speaks of the Law That it is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a School-Master to Christ may be sayd of mans naturall knowledge and understanding In which sence one of the Antients calleth true Philosophy {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} an inferiour Schoole or a fore-teaching to Christ as it is that which renders a man capable and fit to receive the impressions of a divine spirit For certainely a man in his witts and not a mad distracted man is the subject of Gods grace of his converting and sanctifying grace Secondly The written word of God in the Scriptures of Truth is the onely outward rule of faith and manners This is the norma fidei morum According to this rule must every man order his conversation Isai. 8. 20. To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because they have not so much as morning-light in them This is the royall Standard of Truth unto which we must bring all mens dogmata their assertions and opinions which are vended for Truth in the world Hereby may we examine and judge of all that which men would obtrude upon us I recommend to evry one that heartes me the constant studying of the holy Scriptures as being the Oracles of God It was that for which the Holy Ghost doth so highly commend the Beraean Christians That they received the word with all readiness of mind and searched the Scriptures daily whether those things were so and upon this account they were called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} more noble as being better borne better bred better educated then those of Thessalonica I will onely adde this That the Letter of the Scriptures is but dead without a divine power joyned with it and a spirit moving mans mind without a word is very questionable and dangerous Thirdly The Holy Spirit which is understood by this anointing is no private spirit or particular impulse no singular perswasion or extraordinary inspiration but a generall and universall sense in all regenerate minds Holy men doe all agree by common consent in those Truths which the New Creature doth chiefly resent and rellish The Apostle to this purpose useth two expressions 1 Cor. 12. 13. and 2 Cor. 4. 13. By one spirit are we all baptized into one body and have been all made to drinke into one spirit and wee have the same spirit of Faith Where the Apostle considers the community of Christians under the notion of a body made up of severall members which must have a soule and spirit to informe animate quicken and enliven it This is that spirit of Jesus Christ which doth live in the soules of holy men and distinguish them from the common Herd of Infidels and Beastly sinners Although we may be ignorant of that which the Philosophers meant by their Anima mundi the soule of the world yet me thinks every gracious heart should easily apprehend what is that spirit and soule of the regenerate world But here I must acknowledge also That the eternall spirit of God doth sometimes come downe as from Heaven and particularly move upon a regenerate minde whereby it doth {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} blow off the ashes and stir up those heavenly sparkes which lay in the soule as buried under some clouds of sadness and hereby the frozen and benumined spirit of a precious saint doth finde it selfe thawed into a vivacious fitness for any service This is that which the spouse calls for in Song 4. 16. Awake O North winde and come thou South blow upon my Garden that the spices thereof may flow out This discourse I conceive may shew us the difference between the good spirit of God which sober minds converse withall and that fanatick and exstatick spirit which vaine men pretend unto and are deluded with This spirit in both the senses that we have spoken of may not be condemned as a groundless Enthusiasme for as the learned Cameron observes Enthusiasmus est ubi quis est merum organum sine omni usurationis judicij Then is a man acted by such a spirit when he uttereth Revelations without the use of his understanding and reason as sometimes the Prophets of old did who were but as a trunk or instrument through which the spirit conveyed those secrets which God would declare unto the world Fourthly The spirit of Christ signified by this anointing is first received in the way of his Ordinances and is thereby maintained and carryed on and doth live with great delight in the use of those Ordinances where it was first received He who hath received the anointing from the Holy one knows where he hath received it and he knowes also that
THE SAINTS SECURITY AGAINST Seducing Spirits OR The Anointing from the Holy one The best Teaching Delivered in a Sermon at Pauls before the Lord Major Aldermen and Commonalty of the City of London upon the Fifth of November 1651. BY WILLIAM AMES M. A. Sonus verborum aures percutit Magister intús est Cathedram in Caelo habet qui corda docet Aug. LONDON Printed by M. Simmons for William Adderton and are to be sold at his Shop at the three Golden Falcons in Duck-lane 1652. TO The RIGHT HONOURABLE IOHN KENDRICK Lord MAJOR and the Right Worshipfull the Aldermen of the City of LONDON Honourable and Beloved SOme who have been judicious Spectators of those uncharitable quarrels which have broken forth in these Latter dayes amongst Professors have been ready to conclude That either Men have not understood that thing which Religion signifies or else they have abused the Name of Religion making it serve to advance themselves and promote some worldly designe And if they shall consider the power of unmortified lusts in the hearts of wicked men emboldened by the Advantage of such generall dissentions it will not be so great a wonder to see many cast off God and Holinesse as to see any keeping the Faith and cleaving unto Christ in such an houre of Temptation One great snare that the Devill hath layed to intangle soules hath been To put them upon it to call every thing into Question which hath been the more dangerous because such enquirie doth pretend to Ingenuity and is like that Tree of knowledge a Tree to bee desired to make one Wise and certainly it is farre better to be humbly and modestly inquisitive then Popishly and Sottishly ignorant for the Wise mans eyes are in his head but the Foole destroyes himselfe by a strange implicit faith and blind obedience But when a Proud and Deboyst Spirit shall become one of those {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} those haesitating Questionists how will he Vaunt and Triumph in his conceits as if he had Posed and Non-plust Truth it selfe When such a one is gotten into this strong hold what will not his bold confidence dare to Question And although hee might consider that a Foole may aske more questions then ten Wise men can answer yet still he persisteth in vaine Interrogatories And such is the disturbance of his minde occasioned by the pride and wickednesse of his heart that lett the most cleare and pertinent Reply be made to his Demands yet is Hee wholly indisposed to receive satisfaction Thus is the poor but proud and insulting Sceptick at once Really the Devils Bondslave and conceitedly his owne freeman When I was by your Order called to this publique service many things of this kind did presse in upon me And the greatest impression that I could perceive 〈◊〉 my spirit was To speake something that 〈◊〉 by the blessing of God tend to the Vindication of the Truth of Religion from the Malicious but Frivolous affronts of Prophane yet Cunning men and I could not finde out a more Direct meanes to this end then by an appeale to the Common sense of all Regenerate soules which I have done in the following discourse according to the measure of the gift received the effects whereof I heartily desire may be these two First For ever to silence that Machiavilian Blasphemy that Religion is nothing but a Politique Engine and that there is no such thing indeed anywhere to be found There are those in the world who in a true spiritual sense have heard with their eares and seen with their eyes and handled with their hands of the word of Life And it is to be feared that those soules which deny that there is any Religion abroad are wholly devoid of it within themselves Religion is not a Chimaera or Notion but a real thing in the hearts and lives of good men Secondly To stirre up and awaken Professors that they rest not satisfied in any Outward forme without the inward life and power of Religion Oh! Bee not contented to serve in the Oldnesse of the Letter but in the Newnesse of the spirit Wee have raised such a Dust by our Disputes in lesser matters and by our espousing such triviall quarrels that we have almost lost our Christ and alienated our affections from our first Husband It is time for us now to call forth that Primitive spirit of Love and Purity if by any meanes wee might remove the Scandal of our contentions and exhort one another so much the more as we see the day approaching After you had patiently given this Sermon the Hearing you were pleased to importune the Publication thereof whereby your selves and others might the better Perpend and truly examine what is therein contained which request of your Honours I could not easily deny but have accordingly performed and do here tender it to your Christian Acceptance with hopefull confidence that seeing for the Truths sake it found such unexpected entertainment at your eare it shall not be despised at the more severe Tribunal of your Eye Now that good spirit of Jesus Christ open the eyes of your mindes that you may see and approve things that are excellent and perswade your hearts to receive the Truth in the Love of it and direct your steps to walke in the paths of Mercy and Truth that you may be Saved So prayeth Yours and the Churches Servant in the Gospel William Ames Imprimatur December 4. 1651. JOSEPH CARYL 1 John 2. 20. But yee have an Vnction from the Holy One and yee know all things THere hath been of old an irreconcileable feud between light and darkness between good and evill and wheresoever truth hath had it's dwelling there error and falshood have endeavoured to intrude themselves so that no sooner was truth incarnate in the Person of our Lord Iesus but Antichrist yea many Antichrists did arise and set themselves against it sed magna fuit Veritas praevalebat Truth was great and did prevaile But when error and falshood did perceive that Truth remained invulnerable in the Person of Christ they betake themselves to his posterity and the seed of the Serpent doth conflict and try it out with the seed of the Woman yet still the victory hath been given on the Saints side But such was the malice of Truths great Adversary the Prince of darkness that he would not onely not lay down the Tucklers but that he might appear to deserve the name of Apollyon and Abaddon Hee hath left no means unattempted and hath more curiously sought out and invented how Hee might yet if possible carry the day against the Truth and to carry on his undertaking hath projected two ways eminently whereby either to Bannish Truth wholly out of the world or to stop her growth and progresse in the world The one hath been by open force and violence to persecute the persons of those who have professed themselves to be Truth's subjects whereby he might at once
word but the power of it implanting the minde of Christ in our mindes and turning of us from the ways of sin into the love of God I do not here determine what those larger measures or higher degrees of this teaching may be in the latter dayes when the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters doe the Sea Secondly If the best way to a certainty of knowledge in heavenly things be by a spirituall anointing Then proud man must be humbled and bee willing to bee taught by a divine spirit Flesh and blood cannot reveal unto man the things of the spirit neither can any man call Jesus the Lord but by the Holy Ghost for the flesh profiteth nothing it is the spirit that quickneth and these things they are spirit and they are life All things that Jesus Christ spake and did they were spoken in parables and done in parables to those that are without that hearing they might hear and not understand and seeing they might see and not perceive but to his Disciples he saith Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdome unto you these things are revealed from the Father The Apostle tells us in 2 Cor. 10. 5 That the weapons of our warfare are not carnall but mighty through God to the pulling down of those {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} those strong holds and reasonings those insulting notions that lift up themselves against Jesus Christ After all the Inquisition that our carnall reason can make into the Scriptures of truth to finde out articles of faith we shall still remain unsatisfied and may perceive that we are still ready secretly to aske the same question that Pilate did What is Truth Many men doe sometimes think that they throughly understand spirituall Truths when alas all their knowledge amounteth to nothing more then a zealous or passionate arguing for them The whole Bible to a reasonable man not regenerated will be as that book was which the Prophet speaks of when it was delivered to the learned to read it he returns it and saith I cannot for it is sealed and when it was delivered into the hands of the unlearned to read it he saith I am not learned We carry Bibles in our hands and say we study the word of God wee do well but untill we have a spirit from God teaching of us inwardly and reforming us according to the Tenor of that word we shall be no great Proficients in that knowledge Hence it is that in the 19. Vers of the Epistle of Iude one that hath not the spirit and one that is sensuall are accounted to be the same person sensuall not having the spirit The truth is vaine man would be wise though he be like a wilde asses colt Men would not onely be Masters of reason and naturall knowledge but would also have dominion over other mens faith and would subdue the spirituall sense of the new Creature to the Soveraignty and supremacy of humane arguments But as the Apostle speaks {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} where is the wise where is the Disputer of this world hath not God made foolish the wisedome of this world These men indeed be those {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that would seem to be wise but is it not with them as the Apostle speaks in Rom. 1. 21. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} are they not become dark and vain in their imaginations yea doe they not cum ratione insanire even run madd with that which they call their reason though it be nothing better then a corrupt enmity against the honesty and simplicity of Christ Give me leave to speak freely in this point when the great mysteries of the Kingdome of Heaven such are Self-denyall reliance upon the grace of God revealed by the Messiah living by Faith in another and deriving strength from Christ through a promise I say when these things and the like are propounded to a naturall understanding and un unmortified heart will it not say that you doe lapides loqui speak stones unto it and offer that which is too hard to be received Me thinks when I offer such spirituall Truths to be judged at the Tribunall of naturall understanding which I call argumentative knowledge it is as when that which belongeth to one sense is presented to an other which cannot give a perfect judgement of it Hee that would make mee to understand what Musick is and the excellency of it must not bring mee to one that can with eloquence relate a story thereof and tell me in words what ravishing Harmony and rare delights it doth entertaine one withall and then bid me imagine how every note exceeded the other for this is not to touch upon the right string but he must bring me to a Consort where mine eare may receive a true impression from such musicall delights It is not enough to paint out the beauty of a Rose in the most lively colours and set it before mine eyes but I must smell to the rose it selfe and thereby come to know the sweetnesse of it Wee may thinke to make our selves great Doctors of the Law by a {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a forme of knowledge but thereby we deceive our selves attaining onely to a poor and beggarly understanding of the truths therein contained for the best way to know them is to obey and practise them He that hath his heart truly mortified to this world is crucified with Christ being made alive againe by that spirit of regeneration Hee alone doth attaine to the most quick and lively apprehensions of those Truths that are revealed by Christ in his Gospel Thirdly If they alone doe truly know the things of Christ who have received his anointing then certainly wicked men are no competent Iudges of Christian Doctrine Whatsoever their parts are or their acquired learing in arts and sciences yet as to heavenly things they are very darke and ignorant Perhaps this inference may provoke the great wits of the world to say as those Pharises did to Christ Are we blinde also But I am sure the Apostle tells us Hee that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his and he that is not one of Christs flock I doe not know how he should understand Christs voice The prophaner Jews had the magnalia legis the great things of the Law delivered to them and they accounted them as a strange thing for as the Apostle speakes Moses hath a veile lying upon his face and when that people shall be converted unto the Lord this veile shall be taken away There is the flesh of Christ covering his spirit there is the letter and shell of the word of Christ as it is printed in our Bibles which doth like a Masque cloude and hide the beautifull face of Truth so that a carnall heart cannot discerne the beauty or judge aright of the excellency thereof so that the preaching of
Christ crucified is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} an offence to the Jew and to the Greeks foolishness but unto them that are called both Jews and Greeks it is the power of God and the wisedome of God Great men are not always wise men and the men of the world are not fit to advise withall in the things of God Some there bee whom God hath given up {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to a Reprobate minde to an injudicious minde which hath no true judgement in heavenly things Would any one make a madd man his Counsellor No He would chuse one that is compos mentis one that is of a sober and discreet reason advise with him in a matter of difficulty He that is of a ranting spirit and given to the love of fleshly pleasures may verba conari may like a Parrot speake words which hee understands not but he is crazed in his intellectualls and knowes not the way of the spirit in the soule Let me heare one speake concerning the worke of Grace the actings of Faith the drawings of the spirit whose eyes have been opened as Baalam said of himselfe in another case one who hath had an internall sense and feeling of these things within himselfe for Hee is best able to unfold such hidden mysteries But let us cease from man for wherein is he to be accounted of The Day-dawning and the day-star arising in our hearts will give us better light into that more sure word of the Prophets and Apostles then all the learned School-men or voluminous Commentators who have not plowed with Gods Heifer Fourthly If knowledge of Christian Doctrine must be received by spirituall anointing then to be instructed in the Letter of the Scriptures is not enough to make a Christian A man may by naturall understanding exercised upon the Letter of the Bible attaine to very great Orthodoxie in Articles of Faith and severall points of Religion for that which is true in Divinity is true also in Reason but notwithstanding all this litterall knowledge his soule may be like Pharaohs leane kine a starved and ill-favoured soule The generality of men in the world are exceedingly mistaken in this businesse for they have thought it to be Reformation enough if they might but purge their Articles of Faith and set forth in print that which might vindicate the truth of their opinions and wayes from the prejudice that they lye under in the World whereas in the midst of such reformation men shall be as carnall and devilish as they were before they shall inwardly be as full of pride and covetousnesse of envy and malice of hatred and revenge as ever and they shall have leave to study mischiefe and conceive evill will against their neighbour notwithstanding all the elaborate nicenesse of a reformed System Brethren Wee must not onely reforme our Bookes though that be very good but we must reforme our hearts and our lives the power of this anointing must eat out the proud flesh of our distempered hearts and quicken us also into a more pure and refined spirit Professors doe thinke they attain to a great measure of heavenly skill if they are but so well read in the Bible as to turne from one Scripture to anoother and compare one place with another whereby they may more strongly back that opinion which they would defend whereas all this while The Scripture is a thing without them and the minde of God is in their Bibles not in their hearts but the true Christian hath the word of God transcribed into himself and can say in his measure as Jesus Christ did I delight to do thy will O my God Yea thy Law is within my heart Eunapius in the life of Porphyrie speaking of his Master Longinus sayth Hee was such an excellent Schollar That hee was {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a living Library a walking Studie all his books were so well digested and their notions concocted in his minde that he did as it were give life motion to his Books in a requitall for that learning which he had received from them He is a Christian to purpose who hath the Bible transpirited into his minde who hath digested the sense of Scripture into practice and vitall blood Hee is not a Jew which is one outwardly neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh but he is a Jew who is one inwardly and Circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit whose praise is not of men but of God Fifthly Doth the Apostle bring in this anointing of the spirit as that which secures holy men from Antichristian impostures then here may wee see the ground of those great Apostacies that are abroad Doe wee at any time see some eminent professor come tumbling downe like Lucifer from the height of his profession and immerd himselfe in the dung of worldly wickednesse let us know the reason is because he had no root in himselfe They went out from us saith our Apostle for they were not of us They were leviter tincti sed non penitus imbuti they have had perhaps some sodaine and transient tasts of sweetnesse in the wayes of God but never did feed upon them with savour nor digest them They went out from us that it might bee manifest that they were not all of us There be some men in the world who have much of that which we call light in their understandings but have no grace nor honesty in their hearts and it is no wonder if they turne away from the Truth in a time of Temptation and day of Tryall it is the good ground that bringeth forth fruit and it is the honest heart that stands in a tempest being well bottomed and grounded upon a Rock Hee that is hurryed into any profession by the impulse of his worldly affections can not be setled and established in that profession but must turn about when those affections give the word Hee is like a ship whose sails are open to every gale of winde but hath neither Ballast nor Rudder to keep it steddy in its motion Many people thinke themselves so good Protestants that they should never turn Papists who yet I feare would fall from their owne stedfastnesse into the error of the wicked and casting off the Protestant Articles would easily entertaine for Faith the dogmata of Rome the reason whereof is Their souls are not converted to that Faith which they professe To an unregenerate man who gives up himselfe to licentiousnesse All Religion is alike for Religion doth oblige and command the soule into a diligent obedience to some Rule but such an unmortified heart cannot endure the beautifull bands of a Religious Law But where the Gospell of Christ cometh as it did to the Thessalonians not in word onely but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in power and much full assurance where the word of Truth is made manifest in mens consciences and becometh