the Author say it was the Preaching simply considered that had the saving efficacy in it without the Spirit so that the Spirits operation added nothing thereunto I suppose few will believe so gross an assertion for if so then the Minister of the Letter is as good as the Minister of the Spirit and he who hath only the words is as good a Preacher as he who hath the Spirit and Words both but how contrary is this to the mind of Paul who said I will know not the words of them who are puffed up but the power And our Gospel came not in words only but in power and in the Holy Ghost and he hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit for the Letter killeth by the Letter he doth understand the words which any preach without the Spirit but the Spirit giveth life And surely that which giveth life hath a sanctifying Vertue in it and is of a moral and holy nature And doth not sad experience prove it sufficiently that men who preach barely from the Letter of the Scripture have not success in their Ministry to the Conversion of Souls else why is it that so many having the name of Christians yet want the true nature of Christianity and come short of many Heathens and when God shall be pleased to pour out his Spirit more abundantly and to inspire men to be Preachers of his holy Mind and Will shall not Christianity more prevail in the World than now it doth is not the great want the want of the Spirit among the greatest part of those called Christians or rather indeed a want of a right belief concerning the necessity of the Spirits help and of the great bounty and Grace of God how willing he is to bestow plentifully of his Spirit upon men if they would not reject and resist it and with their prejudice against so excellent a Gift exclude themselves from the enjoyment of it And whereas the Author saith But thou canst cry Abba Father without Inspiration and thou mayest make Prayers Supplication and Intercession and giving of Thanks for all men without Inspiration which if thou hadst it would not make thy Prayers more excellent in themselves or more acceptable in the sight of God These are such gross assertions that as seemeth to me to have repeated them is Refutation enough to any spiritually minded man Were not Davids Prayers the more excellent that they were inspired Do not all Christians value and esteem of Davids Prayers and Psalms and the Prayers and Psalms of other Saints recorded in Scripture as being Divinely inspired Do they not favour of that sweet and precious Life and Spirit which inspired them Or have the made and conceived Prayers of others without all Divine Inspiration the same excellency and worth with Davids Inspired Prayers and Psalms This were to equal the Words and Writings of men no wise inspired with the Scriptures a Crime which our Adversaries but unjustly seek by consequence to fix upon us But the Author still supposeth that men may preach and pray by the help of the saving Graces of the Spirit without Inspiration which maketh him conclude from all which saith he it appears how much more excellent and desireable are the saving Graces of the Spirit than all these pompous miraculous Gifts in which there is no intrinsecal excellency But I say the Author still beggeth the great thing in Controversie viz. That there are any saving Graces of the Spirit without Inspiration which we altogether deny For we affirm that saving Faith Hope and Love and all other Evangelical Vertues are wrought in Believers by the Spirits Inspiration Nor can we reach the Authors subtilty to distinguish the inward saving operation of the Spirit from Inspiration as if they were distinct things For suppose all sorts of Inspirations be not saving or necessary to Salvation it doth not follow that none are necessary in that respect and although all Inspirations be not saving Graces yet all saving Graces are Inspirations even as though all animals be not men yet all men are animals Or let the Author if he can clearly distinguish betwixt these two and prove them to be so distinct from some better authority than his bare affirmation viz. That no saving Grace is any Divine Inspiration but of a differing nature therefrom the which if it were true then none of all the Saints had any saving Graces inspired into them in any age of the World which I judge is contrary to the belief of most Christians who generally believe that the Prophets at least had the saving Graces of the Spirit inspired into them To conclude this Authors whole Discourse tendeth only at most to prove if all his Premisses were granted That the miraculous Gifts of the Spirit are not necessary to Salvation and consequently are not of a necessary continuance in the Church which we do not affirm and I know not any who do so affirm so that the Author had better saved his Labour than spend his Breath and his Time to prove an assertion which I know not any that doth call it in question for who is it that saith he hath the Gift of Tongues or other miraculous Gifts of that sort I know not any Or who pleadeth for the absolute necessity of them But as we do not plead for such Gifts so we cannot be so peremptory to conclude that all these miraculous Gifts have universally ceased or expired since the primitive times or that none of them at any time hereafter shall again appear And I judge divers of his Premisses on which he buildeth his Conclusion of the Universal Expiration of those miraculous Gifts are defective and none of them sufficient to demonstrate his assertion it would require too much time and Paper to examine every thing he saith but something I cannot well let pass His first and main Reason he taketh from the Infancy of the Church which required these miraculous Gifts during her Infant-state and to this he applyeth these two following Scriptures Eph. 4. from v. 8. to v. 14. and 1 Cor. 13. from v. 8. to the end But surely these two Scriptures seem to me to be very impertinently brought to confirm his assertion and his Application of them I believe is contrary to the mind of most Teachers And first that he supposeth all these Gifts which God gave to the Church at Christs Ascension to have been the miraculous and extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit and not one of them the ordinary and saving Gifts of the Spirit But why are not the saving Gifts of the Spirit common to all true Christians as really the fruit and effect of Christs Death Resurrection and Ascension as those miraculous and extraordinary Surely this is a very unnatural separation and seemeth very injurious unto the purchase of Christ as if all the saving Graces of the Spirit were excluded from being any of these Gifts which Christ hath purchased to
neglect and lay aside the reading of the Holy Scripture and Meditation thereon and the use and exercise of other good means as Preachings or Declarations of Truth in the Assemblies of the Faithful through Holy Men who speak by the Holy Ghost and also prayers and supplications and giving of thanks unto God both in publick and private or the Pious and Christian Admonitions Exhortations and Reprehensions of their Brethren and Elders where they are needful how much sover they make a pretext of the Spirit yet they live not in the Holy Spirit of God and they may pretend to have a name to live with those of the Church of Sardis but they are very dead carnal rude and ignorant whereas the humble meek and faithful Servants of God in the first place they imbrace love and receive with great respect the Holy Spirit of God and watch and attend unto the same and then duely and chastly they regard the Holy Scriptures as the Instruments means organs and vessels of the Holy Spirit as the same useth them and appeareth in them and so frequently and daily make use of them and of all other means ordained and appointed of God and in their so doing find their great profiting to the praise of God and to the increasing in them Divine knowledge and vertue for they do well know and consider that it is a peculiar work and office of the Holy Spirit to expound the Holy Scriptures unto them explain and unfold their mysteries prophecies and hidden things and reveal their deep sence and that sometimes by the means of others preaching unto them and at other times by silent and solitary meditation within themselves which doth not hinder the immediate operation and communication of the Holy Spirit but is altogether made effectual thereby as is showed at large in this following treatise And how can they reject the Holy Scriptures or their use to read and hear them and meditate upon them who believe that the Holy Spirit is given them for that very cause that he may expound unfold and reveal the Scriptures unto them the Holy Scripture therefore is not to be rejected nor laid aside by any however so much inlightned and replenished with the Holy Spirit but greatly to be esteemed and improved according to their great worth The Apostle Paul exhorted Timothy who had that excellent gift of the Holy Spirit to read the Holy Scripture and praised him that from his Childhood he had known them and been exercised in them his faithful parents to wit his Mother and Grandmother procuring and moving him unto the same also the Apostles did exercise themselves in reading the Scriptures of the Prophets and did bring many excellent places out of them as the Holy Spirit taught them and opened them in their Preaching Christ and his Gospel and Faith to convince the unbelieving and in their Epistles unto the faithful they did frequently cite the Scriptures of the Prophets and did also meditate in them for the nourishing their hope and consolation as Paul hath expresly affirmed Whatever said he is written for our cause it was written whereby he includeth both himself and all the Apostles as well as other Saints that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures may have hope and if they be writ for the Saints as well as for others therefore they are to be read and heard and meditated upon by the Saints as well as others by Men and Women Old and Young and by young Children also that as it were with their Mothers Milk they may draw and suck in the most wholesome precepts institutions and examples of the Scripture and the most profitable Histories thereof for the begetting and forming them unto a good life by the assistance of the grace of the Holy Spirit which shall not be wanting to them who sincerely wish and desire it for all Scripture Divinely inspired and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness that the Man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto every good work 2 Tim. 3.16.17 Daniel who was a great Prophet of God understood some things out of books and especially out of Jeremiah his Prophecy as he himself did testifie John saith the things he did write concerning Christ were writ unto men that they might believe and by believing may attain everlasting life John 20.31 and therefore the Scriptures are given also in order to work or beget faith into Christ in mens hearts to wit as a means or instrument thereof in the hand of the Spirit and finally Paul saith that the mistery to wit of the Gospel of Christ which was kept secret since the World began but now is made manifest is by the Scriptures of the Prophets according to the Commandment of the everlasting God to be made known to all Nations for the obedience of faith Rom. 16.25 26. And although neither in the age of the Apostles nor unto this day the outward Testimony of the Scripture in the declaration of the Gospel is come to all and every one of Mankind yet it shall most certainly come into all before the end of the World and the Gospel as Christ hath declared shall be preached to all Nations both inwardly and outwardly for a Testimony to the Salvation of them that believe and to the greater condemnation of these who believe not And surely the time is near wherein God is to visit all Nations with his Spirit Light Life and Grace in a larger measure than in many ages by-gone and by the virtue and efficacy of his Spirit he will sanctify and bless unto the people the outward testimony of the Scriptures that with spiritual fruit and encrease they may read them and hear them and meditate upon them diligently and this my testimony as concerning the worth and use of the Scriptures and of all other true means appointed of God the Holy Spirit assisting I desired to have published ERRATA PAge 18. line 4. read tast p. 20. l. 27. r. airy p. 29. l. 24. r. where p. 41. l. 26. r. is Christ p. 75. l. 10 11 r. Books which they contain in so many words p. 78. l. 10. f. primitive r. intimate p. 78. l. 28. r. implanted and ingrafted p. 79. l. 9. r. worthy of belief p. 81. l. 17. r. at least p. 82. l. 14. r. antient writings p. 84. l. 29. r. refuted The Second Treatise Page 89. l. 16. r. was induced p. 93. l. 8. r. restricted p. 95. l. 23. f. acknowledge r. actually l. 24. r. absent p. 97. l. 6. r. to the Holy Ghost p. 98. l. 1. r. assentiendi p. 104. l. 9 13 18 r. Students l. 12. r. them p. 105. l. 2. r. pretend p. 109. l. 25. r. doth only conclude p. 110. l. 10. r. inspired l. 21. r. supposed p. 114. l. 13. r. inspiration p. 138. l. 19. r. Revelations p. 139. l. 4. r. within p. 145. l. 6. r. at most l. 26. r. partly p. 160. l. 24. r.
Doctrine declared by the external words or signs is the formal object of the Saints Faith To which seeing the Adversary doth plainly consent I know not how he doth affect to show himself here opposite unto us when in the thing it self I see no difference betwixt both unless he meaneth that the outward words or signs doth also pertain to the formal object of Faith as he seemeth to explain himself Parag. 22. The which also R. B. hath granted after a sort having brought a distinction of the formal object into quod i. e. which and quo i. e. by or for which or betwixt that which is believed and the formal principal cause or reason of believing the which distinction the Adversary ought to grant as applicable to the present matter if he will firmly stand to his first concessions For he doth acknowledge that the outward Revelation as he calleth it of words and signs is not simply believed by the faithful for it self but because of God inwardly inlightning and moving and therefore God thus inwardly inlightning and moving is the formal object Quo i. e. by or for which they principally believe And yet we deny not but that the words are the formal object Quod i. e. which is believed or as some perhaps would rather say the material object But if any controversie doth here remain it doth consist rather in a logical subtlety or ambiguous signification of words and terms than in the truth of the thing or matter it self which ought to have no place among sober men professing the simple and plain Truth of Christ. There remaineth only one difficulty with the Adversary whether these inward Illuminations are to be called Immediate which I judge R. B. hath sufficiently proved in his Apology and I also in this my answer We grant indeed that this term or expression of Immediate Revelation is no where to be found in Scripture and therefore it would be hard to prove against a froward and wilful Adversary that any of the Prophets or Apostles had Immediate Revelation For it did suffice unto the Prophets and Apostles to express the word or term Revelation simply so called and that God revealed himself and his mind and will unto them that he did inlighten and inspire them that they had the Spirit of God and Christ inwardly teaching and instructing and moving them Those simple and plain Men did not think of that subtle and nice distinction of Immediate and Mediate Revelation feigned and invented by the School-men and Sophisters of this world whereby the truth of this mistery is veiled and darkned For to speak plainly and in propriety of speech following the common Phrase of Scripture all Divine Revelation is Immediate even as all Vision is immediate and all outward sensation is Immediate and doth regard and respect its immediate object and as it is immediately proposed Which yet doth not hinder but that the outward words by a metonimy or figure of the sign for the thing signified may be called Revelations or Visions But there is oft a great hurt in that when figurative Speeches are once allowed that at length it comes to that that they are thought proper Iohn his Treatise is called his Revelation when yet it is most certain that that Book or Treatise was not the Revelation it self which he had in his Mind and Spirit but only a sign and outward declaration of it Also the Prophets at times called the words which they published by voice or writing their Vision when yet they were not the Vision it self but a sign and declaration of it as any man of a sound Judgment as I believe will easily grant Moreover as to the outward Apparitions made by God at times to the Fathers and Prophets if they be granted to be Revelations they were also in their kind and manner Immediate either to the outward Senses or Imagination But that is most properly the Revelation of God which is presented to the Mind Spirit and Understanding of Man For seeing God is a Spirit he is not to be seen by the outward eyes nor is he perceptible by any outward or mortal senses but is only seen and known in Spirit and therefore only by the Spirit is he properly revealed to the alone Spirit and spiritual Eye and Sense of Man But it is not to great purpose to dispute much of those outward Apparitions made unto some of old seeing they do not touch the thing that is mainly in controversie which is of Gods inward appearances for which only we contend as necessary for the begetting true and saving Faith and Knowledge in mens hearts We do not plead for outward Apparitions And it is plain enough they did not properly reveal God himself but rather were a Veil wherewith God covered himself because of humane weakness For if any had judged the outward Apparition to have been God himself certainly he should have fallen into grievous Idolatry But that R. B. did affirm that there were divers Administrations under which the Spirit of God revealed himself doth not prove what the Adversary would that God only did mediately reveal himself unto some men for the divers Administrations are well enough to be considered as well in the Inward and Immediate Revelations as in those which are outward And also that God spoke unto the Fathers by the Prophets of old proveth not that God revealed himself only to them outwardly and mediately for this doth contradict our Adversary his own belief who doth equally contend with us that all the believing Fathers were inwardly Inlightned by the Holy Spirit and that Inward Illumination is Immediate where ever it is found as I have above sufficiently made appear Again That in his Fourteenth Paragraph citing R. B. his words Parag. 13. he saith he denyeth and not without cause That which R. B. thought no man would deny viz. That God all along from Adam to Moses had revealed himself to his Children inwardly by his Spirit I think strange the Adversary should deny this for by so doing he doth openly contradict his former concessions For did he not grant that God doth always inwardly Inlighten his Children and that with an Illumination both effective and objective and that no outward Revelation or Preaching doth suffice unto Salvation without a Divine inward Operation and Illumination And therefore why he should now deny it I do not understand but that he hath forgot himself Nor doth it hinder which he laboureth much to prove in this whole Paragraph that some were outwardly instructed by Preaching but that they were also gifted and endued with inward Inspiration and Revelation for these two do not fight one with another but very well agree But it will be too hard an undertaking for him to prove that most men in all those Ages were taught by outward Preaching For although Enoch Preached the doctrine of Truth he could scarce do it to the whole world and the like is to be said of Noah who only with these
but mediately beside that such a distinction cannot be proved from scripture being altogether a mere invention and fiction of mans brain they who had the Spirit immediately did oftentimes obtain it by means of the preaching of others unto them And the gift of Prophecying or speaking immediately by the Spirit was continued in the Church in the times of Iustin Martyr and Tertullian as they themselves do testifie the which continuation of so excellent a gift was by means of preaching so long as the Preachers did preach purely by the Spirit and also did purely and chastly live and walk in the Spirit But when the Preachers left off or ceased to preach by the Spirit and to live in the Spirit and to put their own spirit in the room and place of the Spirit of God and of Christ that Spirit and gift of Prophesie the which is greatly to be lamented did cease in great part What the Adversary disputeth against R. B. in his following Paragraphs to the end of his dissertation and answereth to R. B. his solid and firm arguments taken from scripture doth altogether lean upon that false foundation sufficiently refuted by me to wit that because the faithful both under the new and old covenant received the Holy Spirit by means of outward Preaching ordinarily and commonly that therefore they were not immediately endued and inspired with the same the which consequence I have already over and over again showed to be most false although it were granted that all the faithful had always received the Spirit by means of outward Preaching or using of the scriptures the which I will never grant unto him And if I shall grant unto him that the faithful received the Spirit of Christ in some degree by means of the doctrine outwardly preached while as yet they were as children and Infants he can never prove from this that when they were more advanced into a spiritual and holy life and come unto the state of men that they did always receive the further measures and degrees of the Spirit by means of outward Preaching For it doth not follow that because at sometime they received the Spirit by means thereof that they always did so receive it in the fuller and larger measures and degrees thereof even as it doth not follow that because a Child or Infant needeth the ministry or means of a Nurse or Servant to feed it in that weak state that therefore it always needeth the help of that Nurse or Servant when it is come to a mans Age and growth I shall not therefore stay to answer to every thing of his Dissertation by giving still new answers seeing one answer doth suffice to them all and if I should still repeat that one Answer I should both lose my time and labour and also should weary the Reader and beget a loathing in him and therefore with this one Answer I reply unto all he hath objected against R. B. That he departeth from the state of the question and still beggeth the thing in controversie and so falleth into that error commonly called in the Schools Petitio principii i. e. a taking for granted the thing in controversie while he doth continually oppose and set at variance the immediate communication of the Holy Spirit and the means of outward Preaching and other the like helps which are not to be opposed but do well agree And it is so far otherwise that the Spirits immediate communication doth not only not hinder or make void the use of any means appointed of God as of Preaching Reading and Hearing the scriptures and meditating upon them that on the contrary it doth truly and solidly establish them sanctifie them and maketh them all effectual But that the Adversary doth continually bind up or tye the operation of the Holy Spirit to the outward letter of the Scripture either as read or heard or meditated upon is too rashly done in him and he hath not in all his Dissertation so much as once essayed to prove it And however his common and too credulous Hearers and Disciples in the School may easily receive his bare Affirmations without Proof yet they cannot find place with us nor with others we know better things and whose inward and spiritual eyes God out of his abundant Grace hath opened to discern the Truth But suppose which yet is not at all to be granted that the Illumination of the Holy Spirit is continually bound up or tyed to the outward Sign or Letter yet it doth not thence follow even upon that absurd principle that the Illumination of the Holy Spirit is not immediate or is not immediately perceived by us Even as if it were granted that the outward Illumination and Light of the outward and visible Sun is never seen by the eyes of men separated from all other visible objects but always joyned and united with them and always shining upon some one or other of the visible objects and reflecting its beams upon them though such who have Eagles eyes can look strait upon the Sun himself yet it will not from thence follow that the outward Illumination or Light of the outward Sun is not immediately received and seen or perceived by us CHAP. VIII ANd here I might well enough by right make an end of my Answering but because he doth affirm divers things in his other Paragraphs following which partly need correction and partly conduce to manifest the truth therefore I shall not be unwilling to take notice of them in a few particulars In his Twenty Second Paragraph he erreth in saying universally and without making any distinction that there is no substantial difference but only accidental and circumstantial betwixt mediate and immediate outward and inward Revelations according to the different kind of the signs under which God doth manifest himself For although this may be granted in those inward Revelations made in the Imagination yet not in these which have place in the highest faculty or power of the Soul which is the intuitive aforementioned For the Revelation which is given to this supreme or highest power of the soul that is intuitive and which is opened and awakened only in those who are sanctified and spiritually renewed doth not consist of signs but God himself and the Divine Things of his Kingdom in their own proper light and evidence discover themselves in the souls and hearts of the faithful without all signs And therefore however the outward Revelation may be called accidental because it doth but contain the signs which are accidents yet the inward Revelation which hath place in the Souls intuitive power and respecteth the Divine Things themselves without signs is to be called substantial In his Twenty Fourth Paragraph he hath these notable words When our men saith he affirm that at sometimes the outward Revelation is the formal object of the Saints Faith the meaning is not that the Faith of the Saints doth precisely lean or rely upon that which is outward in that Revelation or
adversary doth fain or devise a wonderful strange sort of indwelling of God and the Holy Spirit in the Souls of the faithful without all Immediate speech or concern Certainly to speak after the manner of men it is hard to think how two intimate Friends can dwell together in one house and follow the same manner of life in many things and yet the one speak nothing to the other immediately or by word of mouth all the whole time of their living so nearly But indeed the indwelling and habitation of God and Christ by the Holy Spirit in the hearts of the faithful is a thing far more sweet and joyful then this adversary doth imagine the which as it is most inward or Primitive and Immediate in them so it doth import likewise an Intimate and Immediate familiarity converse and communication And as concerning the habits of arts and sciences whereof he made mention which are in the minds of men and yet are given not Immediately but by means of the outward teaching of the Master I say the seeds and principles of all these arts and sciences are Immediately planted and sowed in our minds as the purest and truest Philosophy doth teach and all arts and sciences do Immediately sprout and spring forth from these seeds and principles Immediately planted in us as the Flouers and fruits of Herbs and Trees do spring and grow from their Seeds and Roots Nor is such an Immediate production hindered but rather much helped by the external culture of means applyed both to the Seeds and Roots of the Earth and also to these unplanted and ungrafted notices and principles of natural knowledge and of this the aforesaid Seneca doth discourse very well lib. 4. de benef cap. 6. The seeds of all ages and of all arts are implanted in us saith he and God the inward or secret Master brings forth Engines or knowledges and cap. 7. thou will say nature doth these things unto me Dost thou not understand saith he when thou sayest this that thou changest the name of God for what else is nature but God and Divine reason infused into the whole World and all its parts and Tertullian discoursing of the innate witness in the Soul worthy of behalf some calling it natural the more natural saith he the more divine In his 34 parag Because R. B. did argue from the nature of the new Covenant that all the faithful under the Gospel were Immediately taught of God the adversary doth infer against him that then it doth follow that the faithful under the Old Covenant were not Immediately taught which is against his first assertion But this is easily answered in few words that all the faithful under the Old Covenant were Immediately taught of God yet not by virtue of the Old Covenant but of the New which New Covenant in some degree had place in the time of the Old and was to be further revealed in Gospel days after the coming of Christ in the flesh and I think strange that this Doctor or Teacher did not advert to this being so obvious a thing Again that he thinketh R. B. understandeth by the phrase of Scripture in those Gospel promises of God his putting his Spirit in his people and his words in their mouths as that Isaiah 59. that all using of means is excluded he is much described for R. B. doth not understand an exclusion of means but doth abundantly acknowledge a necessary use of them Only he doth plead that over and beside the outward testimony of the letter God hath promised to speak himself to the Soul which two things are not to be opposed but both are to be granted Again that he affirmeth God his putting words in the mouths of his people to design that the word is outwardly to be preached we grant it is but so that those words be put in the mouths of those speakers by God himself Immediately as he put words in the mouths of the Prophets and Apostles Immediately to preach unto others and outwardly to instruct them But if God put not his words in the mouth of any since the Apostles days certainly the Church ever since should be in a worse and more abject condition now under the Gospel then it was under the Law for in all ages under the Law God raised up some Prophets and Ministers to whom he spoke Immediately and in whose mouth he put his words Immediately to speak them forth And if nothing of this kind now be given to the Church instead of her being nearer unto God and more familiar and partaking more abundantly of the life and light of God and Christ she shall be further removed and more estranged from him and receive much less of these his Divine Gifts and blessings now under the Gospel then formerly under the Law Moreover as to what he writeth of the Scripture being a Canon so filled up as if nothing since the days of the Apostles to the end of the World either by Word or Writ it to proceed Immediately from the Spirit of God conform to the Doctrine of the Scripture already delivered and declared in Scripture he affirmeth this indeed very confidently but proveth it nothing at all and the authority of Iustine Martyr Ireneus and Tertullian doth contradict him who expresly writ that the gift of prophesying or speaking in the Church by Immediate Inspiration were continued unto their times In his 35 Parag. he saith the Christians are the more happy viz. then the Jews although the Christians want altogether Immediate Revelation which some of the Jews at last had because the Christians may know the mind of God out of the Scripture that is made publick and obvious unto all whereas the Jews were to take long Journeys from home to consult the Priests and to solicite and wait for the respouses of the High Priests which were rare to be obtained But what for a refuge and evasion is this instead of answering more becoming some Socinian or Pelagian then our Adversary who at other times doth so much profess the indwelling and inward Illumination of the Holy Spirit its being necessary to all the faithful But was it not a great glory and ornament to the Church of the Jews and which was greatly to the advantage of it to have their Prophets to whom God spoke immediately and were they not in this more happy than other Nations that the gift of Prophecy did flourish among them and when Devils and unclean Spirits gave forth their Oracles unto the Nations God most Holy and most Pure gave his Immediate Oracles unto the Jews and his Holy Spirit unto the Prophets that they might declare them and unto the People that they might believe and understand them without which holy Spirit its being given to the people the Oracles themselves could not be understood as is manifest in the Jews at this day who although they have these ancient Preachers to wit the Scriptures of the Old Testament yet they do not understand them
Logia p. 170. l. 16. r. and yet I love p. 206. l. 2. r. Antoninus OF DIVINE Immediate Revelation AND INSPIRATION CHAP. I. MY Friend and Brother in the Truth and Country Man R. B. being much taken up with another affair when the dissertation of Io. W. Bajer against his Apology came to his hand did earnestly desire me to answer it as God should give me freedom and assistance so to do unto which I found great Liberty and clearness of Mind given me of God in defence of the truth of God and while as I was reading and weighing the things I had read in the said dissertation many things did occurr unto me one after another wherewith to answer And here I give the Reader to Understand that I delayed my answer for some small time until I should see if any other dissertations of the same Author should be made Publick and come out against us as the title of this his first dissertation gave us occasion enough to expect more shortly to follow For I thought it would be best to see his other dissertations that so either I or R. B. might answer them altogether then to spend the more time and Labour in answering now one and then another but as yet I have heard of no other dissertations of his Published against us As to the matter it self I propose this Method in answering so as to observe whatever is said by the Adversary whether well or ill that toucheth the main thing and hinge of the controversie passing by other things Superfluous or less Necessary and to every one of those to answer distinctly In the first place this Writer is to be Commended above many of our Adversaries for his greater Moderation of stile and Mind and because he writeth soberly and fairly of those things which he imputeth to us as false and Erroneous I shall in Charity impute these his mistakes not to flow from Hatred or Malice of Mind which is but too frequent in many others but from some defect of right reason and judgment and an Errour of humane weakness That in his first Paragraph and title of his dissertation he calleth us Enthusiasts I would know whether this Name or term Enthusiasts be in all respects rejected by him and these of his profession or what Crime or Vice or thing unworthy of a Christian Name is contained therein For having searched both Greek and Latine Dictionaries and Vocabularies I can find nothing to make me or any other true Christians justly ashamed of the same For Enthusiast if we consider aright the Etymology or English Signification of the word is one divinely Inspired or Breathed upon moved and acted Or one in whom God is in whom God speaketh whom God teacheth enlightneth instructeth leadeth moveth and acteth and what I pray is unworthy of a Christian Man in all these things yea what can befall to a Christian that is more worthy or desireable for I am greatly Mistaken if our Adversary will not allow all those things to belong to a true Christian in a sound and sober sense agreable to Scripture And although some Heathens abused this term in their false Inspirations received from unclean Spirits as they did also abuse the name of God this ought not to hinder but that it may be at last turned to a right use We know how the Papists did throw this same term upon Luther and other well minded Men for preaching up the necessity of the Spirits teachings and leadings in those days by way of derision and made it a crime I have also observed that the Socinians and such as they call all others in derision Enthusiasts who in any wise plead for the grace and Illumination of the holy Spirit its being necessary to the begetting in Men true Faith Hope and Charity And I have both read and oft heard the teachers of the Episcopal Church here in Britain brand the Presbyterians and Calvinists with the same Let any sober Man therefore be ashamed to impute that as a crime to another which is no crime if taken in a right sense in which only we take it and which may be as well imputed to him as unto us according to his own Concessions laid down by him in his dissertation as may be afterwards seen in its due place But because this term Enthusiast is not contained in the Scripture although I find it used by Clemens Alexandrinus and Origen in a right sense viz. for true divine inspiration we shall not contend for it nor affect to have it given to us yet we would not have it in derision cast upon us for affirming that all true and sound Christians are inspired and indued with the holy Spirit according to their several Measures and degrees Moreover that he saith in his first Paragraph the chief controversie betwixt us and our Adversaries lyeth in that of inward and immediate Revelations is very true for this most noble Principle of inward and Immediate Revelation being once received and acknowledged many other excellent Doctrines and Principles of Christian Religion are by necessary consequence deduced there from and all things belonging to the Christian Religion whither of Theory or Practise by the Light and vertue of the said Principle of inward and Immediate divine Revelation do shine and become clear and receive their native and lively beauty and lustre But the said Principle being denyed many other excellent Principles are denyed also and all things belonging to the Christian Religion and Church of God and Christ are obscured and clouded and as it were involved in most thick night darkness And hence it is that we confidently affirm that the one only true Foundation of the Christian Church is God and Christ by the Holy Spirit speaking and shining in the hearts of the Faithful and inspiring them and communicating unto them his inward and Immediate divine Revelations and by the same opening the Scriptures and Mysteries of the Christian Religion and sanctifying all the means both outward and inward as of Reading Hearing Meditation and Prayer and of our whole obedience unto God in all our services whether inward or outward Upon this Rock which flesh and blood hath not revealed but the Heavenly Father hath made Manifest in the hearts of the faithful the true Church is built And whatsoever Society or Congregation of People is not built upon the same is not the true Church of Christ but false and Anti-Christian because it is not built upon Christ as well inwardly revealing himself in their hearts as appearing in Heaven before the Father and interceeding for them What he addeth in the same Paragraph needeth much Correction Although saith he they have many and diverse errours yet it is manifest by experience if that one errour of Immediate Revelation be admitted it is to no purpose to dispute against their other errours for men being once perswaded that they have within them a divine and Immediate Light of Revelation they will most pertinaciously adhere to all
things which they think to be immediatly revealed unto them by God whatever can be objected to the contrary For first that we have many and diverse errours he saith it but doth not prove it but secondly suppose that any of us did err in some one thing or another which is possible if we be not duely watchful for we are Men and do not judge our selves above the reach or possibility of tentation yet it is not manifest by experience that a Brother who erreth may not be reclaimed from his errour unto truth yea the Contrary is manifest by experience For we have at diverse times seen our weaker brethren if at any time they have through humane frailty been tempted and overcome by the spiritual adversary and have fallen into Errour happily reclaimed and restored by the pains and labours of others more perfect and more enlightned the grace of God assisting and concurring with the same And supposing that any one should Imagine his errour to be the Truth and under the Notion of Truth should impute it to inward divine Revelation for no man who hath the least degree of a sober and sound mind will impute errour as such to the holy Spirit yet very good and seasonable means and arguments shall not be wanting to reclaim him unto Truth For we can readily suggest unto him that it is not always divine inward Revelation which hath an appearance so to be for Satan doth oft transform himself into a false likeness of an Angel of Light Therefore he who so erreth is to be admonished that neither lightly nor carelesly but weightily and with great diligence he prove and examine that which is presented unto him under a shew of truth and that he use all means both inward and outward and especially apply his mind to the true divine Illumination of the spirit of God which never errs that is in him to discover the said errour For no Man hath any errour if he hath the least grain of Piety but frequently an inward divine Illumination or Revelation contrary unto the said errour doth present it self unto his understanding revealing it and expelling it if duely attended even as the Light expelleth or driveth away the Darkness or as the day doth the Night Nor are Men at this day exposed to greater danger who profess to follow inward divine Revelation then those of Old in the days of the Prophets and Apostles Now we read in Scripture of a certain Young Prophet who was deceived by an Elder I ask our Adversary could he not be undeceived Again let him tell me why are they more in hazard to be deceived who profess to follow inward divine Revelation then others are who profess to follow the outward divine Revelation of the Scripture for he will not deny that many do fouly err who confidently boast that they follow the outward Revelation of the Scripture Many also embrace error for Truth in natural things professing to follow the guidance of sound natural reason can they not therefore be convinced of their errour and yet no man will confess that he hath erred in that wherein he believeth that he hath followed the conduct of right reason What the Adversary writeth in his second and third Paragraph concerning the things in the controversie agreed on by both sides I have little to answer or which seem to need any answer This only I take notice of that our a dversary doth grant that that divine Revelation whereby God and the things of his worship are sufficiently and savingly known doth come unto men not by the natural power of humane understanding but by the supernatural operation of God for so saith he our Men do profess on Luthers lesser Catechism on the third Article of the Creed I believe say they that I cannot confide or trust in the Lord Iesus Christ my Lord or approach or come unto him any away by the power of my own reason but the Holy Ghost by his Gospel hath called me with his gifts hath enlightned me c. The which words if some Socinians or Pelagians did read it is a wonder if they should not put on them the brand of Enthusiasm yea of Quakerism For the foresaid words seem to differ little or nothing from our Faith who in scorn are called Quakers which may be more clearly made apparent afterwards CHAP. II. IN his fourth Paragraph he propounds the state of the question thus Whether inward and Immediate Revelation be the common and ordinary way which God used not only to some men of old but which he doth always use even to our very times unto all men Manifesting unto them the things which are necessary for them to know in order to their Salvation And a little after he mentions a twofold divine Revelation the one inward and Immediate for which we contend the other outward and mediate viz. the Scripture by which he saith men attain to the knowledge of things Necessary to Salvation the holy spirit working in them by that very Doctrine But yet he seems not to me to state the matter of the controversie clearly enough for in the former Paragraph as it seemeth he called the supernatural operation of God and the holy Spirit which is necessary unto all believers and that absolutely Divine Revelation the which because it is distinct from the outward and mediate as he calls it of the Scripture although not contrary unto it I know not how he can refuse to acknowledge that the Revelation Illumination and Operation of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of the faithful is both inward and Immediate For first that it is inward he will not deny secondly nor will he as I judge deny that it is Immediate in that sense wherein both he and all sound and right thinking Christians contend against the Socinians and Pelagians or any other adversaries of Gods grace that the holy Spirit doth Immediately most nearly and identically by a Supernatural Operation concurr in every holy man as well to the forming of every good thought or conception within mans heart as to the bringing forth every good work outwardly or without Yea and all the most sound teachers in the Schools do affirm against Durandus that not only in supernaturals but even in all natural Productions of effects God Almighty doth concurr with all his Creatures Immediately most nearly and as many say identically or in the sameness of operation Nor doth this Immediate concourse of God the first Cause hinder or stop the influence operation and use of second Causes or of the means but doth rather establish Corroborate and confirm them For Example When a Man is cured and restored to health out of a Fevour or any other Sickness by the application of certain outward means God hath wrought Immediatly with those means but if the immediate operation of God had been wanting the man had not been cured it is therefore piously believed by all pious men both according to Scripture and Right reason that
the habit of their mind because these are rules of righteousness but it is manifest their minds are unrighteous note where then are these rules writ where he who is unjust knoweth what is just where he understandeth that he ought to have that which he hath not Where are they therefore writ but in the Book of that Light which is called the Truth whence every just Law is described and is transferred into the Heart of Man who worketh Righteousness not by motion as from one place to another but by impression as the Image passeth from the Seal into the Wax and yet leaveth not the Seal Thus Augustine Again In this same Paragraph he blameth R.B. for saying That the General Revelation doth suffice unto Salvation although the Special doth not come nor be adjoyned thereunto But granting that he who hath faithfully obeyed and followed the General Revelation be in a safe state as to the present and hath a firm and sure hope of future happiness yet this doth not hinder but in order to obtain a more perfect state through Christ of Eternal Life the Special Revelation is necessary as is plain in the example of Cornelius to whom the Apostle Peter behoved to be sent who was to Preach unto him words concerning Christ by which as the Angel said Acts 11.14 He and his House were to be saved CHAP. IV. IN his Seventh and Eighth Paragraphs he saith little or nothing more than what he had formerly delivered concerning the state of the Controversie to wit whether Immediate Divine Revelations be the Principle of knowing God and Divine Things in respect of all men and for all times But divers other things remain as necessary to be opened for the more clear stating the Controversie First as to the Principle of Knowledg which is either Primary or Secundary or which is to the same effect Principal or Subordinate Now as concerning the Subordinate and Secundary Principle we deny not but that the Scriptures are a subordinate and secundary Principle of knowing Divine Doctrines and Truths as concerning God and Christ but still we contend for the Holy Spirit Inlightning Inspiring and by its Life giving Vigour and Vertue effectually working in the souls of men as the Principal or Primary And let the Adversary tell me seeing he doth acknowledge that the inward illumination and operation of the Holy Spirit is absolutely necessary to the obtaining any Saving Knowledge of God whether he doth not believe that the Holy Spirit inwardly operating and inlightning the Minds of Believers is the Primary Principle of Divine Knowledge Or will he say that the Scriptures are the Primary Principle and that the Holy Spirit is but the secundary and subordinate which last as being too absurd and offensive to Christian ears I hope he will abhor to affirm Secondly As concerning the term of inward Revelation the strife or controversie is to be removed for why should we contend in meer words if we be agreed in the same sence as to the verity of the thing First he doth acknowledge that the inward Illuminations of the Holy Spirit are absolutely necessary to beget the saving knowledge of God and Divine Things in Mens minds Secondly He granteth that these inward Illuminations of the Holy Spirit are not only effective but also that they are objective as being real objects proposed to the Mind and moving it to the assent of Truth For so he doth in his Thirty Second Paragraph expresly affirm That God or the Spirit revealing doth not only work efficiently on the Intellectual Faculty to bring forth or produce the Act of Believing but doth also move the Mind objectively or by a formal representation of an object determine the Vnderstanding to assent Thus He. Wherein so far as I can understand or reach he doth acknowledge that the inward Illumination of the Holy Spirit is Revelation properly so called For by inward Revelation we do not understand any other thing than that the Holy Spirit works not only efficiently or as an Efficient Cause upon our Understanding to beget in us True Divine Knowledge and Faith but that he also moves objectively or by a formal representation of the Object determines our Understanding to Assent For what is it in general to Reveal but to propose the Object revealed to our perceptive Faculty and so in particular he who doth propose the outward visible Objects to my sight he is properly enough said to reveal unto me these Visibles and the same is to be understood of the Objects of the other outward Senses And surely according to Scripture phrase the inward illustrations and illuminations of the Holy Spirit produced in the hearts of the faithful are called Revelations in respect of which the Holy Spirit in Scripture is called The Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation Eph. 1.17 as he doth illustrate and illuminate the hearts of the Faithful And Paul writing of the state of his Conversion affirmeth that God had revealed his Son in him the which in some manner and degree may be said of every converted man As yet therefore we agree well enough as I suppose in forming the state of the Controversie It remaineth then Thirdly that we discuss or consider this term Immediate a little more fully wherein alone almost the strife of the Controversie seemeth to be placed the which although at first view it may seem great yet afterwards laying aside prejudice it may appear to be little if any That it may therefore be more clearly understood what is signified by this term Immediate I desire the Reader to take notice that Immediate doth signifie two very different things One is the absence of all means or medium's in the producing any effect Hence God the Great Creator is rightly said to have produced or created his creatures immediately because there was no medium or mean existing save only his Word and Spirit whereby to create them But this signification of the word or term Immediate is too strait and narrow and perhaps agreeth to no other operation than to the Creation and Conservation of the World by God that infinite and supreme Cause unless we add those Divine Miracles and other marvellous things which God did of old and yet doth without the use or concurrence of means The second or other signification of the word Immediate doth not import the absence of the mean or medium but the intimate application or concurrence of the principal and primary Cause unto the secundary together with the mean or means in the operation Again the medium or mean is either continued or discontinued The continued mean I call that mean which is continued or continually and closely is conjoyned in working with the Cause both principal and subordinate But the discontinued mean is that which is not continued or conjoyned in the working with the primary and principal Cause but either works nothing at all or worketh only with the secundary Cause while as the principal and primary Cause worketh nothing with the
of his small Family was found just upon earth For how many thousands of mankind lived then on earth far separated asunder And how unlikely is it that this one man could sufficiently instruct the whole world Surely we no where read in all the Scripture that Noah Preached to all mankind in the old world but we find expresly that God by his Spirit did strive in those men which most plainly sheweth that they had some inward teaching given them from the Spirit of God For against what did they sin but that Law published by the Spirit of God in their hearts seeing they had no written Law nor can the Adversary ever prove that they had it delivered to them all by word of mouth But they had that inward Law which as Paul affirmed the other Gentiles had Rom. 1. For Paul did not recur to outward Teachers speaking of the Gentiles but to that which was known of God which he had revealed to them the Book of the Creation assisting or concurring with the said inward Teacher But surely in many Ages outward teachers were but few and the Word of God was rare in respect of its being outwardly Preached yet it was near and within in the hearts both of Jews and Gentiles as Paul did affirm Rom. 10. compared with Deut. 30. CHAP. VII IN his Fifteenth Paragraph the Adversary doth wrest some words of R. B. unto a sence far differing from his Mind whose words were that in the time of the Law God did no other way speak unto his Children than he spoke unto them in that time from Adam to Moses From thence the Adversary concludeth that R. B. denyeth that God used the outward Preaching of his Servants unto his People all the time of the Law which surely never came into R. B. his mind so to think For he doth plainly acknowledge that there were outward Ministeries of Preaching unto the People in the time of the Law but R. B. did understand this that God who is faithful and unchangeable did never change his way or manner of Teaching and Inlightning his People and Children by his Spirit inwardly working in them but that he continued the same in all Ages as well before the Law as after the Law and also after the coming of Christ whether the outward Preaching was much or little or none at all For to some it was much to some little and to some none but always the inward Preaching Speaking and Illumination of God by his Spirit did remain in some degree more or less in the true Church and in all its members For if at any time the outward Preaching was little or none as might happen to some God did supply that outward defect inwardly by his Spirit and when the outward Preaching was much God did sanctifie it to the Faithful and made it effectual by the inward operation of his Holy Spirit For the inward presence and assistance of the Holy Spirit is no less necessary that one Preach aright than it is necessary unto the Hearers that they may know and believe aright what is Preached unto them and indeed men both Preach and Hear aright when both Preachers and Hearers are touched by the same Spirit and are both together Inlightned and Inspired For even as when a Philosopher discoursing unto his Hearers of the things of Natural Reason requireth that there be a Spirit of Natural Reason or a Reasonable Spirit in them as necessary whereby they may understand his Reasons so the Theologue or Minister of Divine Things while he Preacheth those Divine Things unto the Hearers doth no less require a Divine Spirit in them as necessary whereby they may understand the said Divine Things for there is the like Reason in both And therefore if in all Ages from Adam unto Moses and from Moses unto Christ God raised up some excellent Prophets and Preachers whom his Spirit inspired and moved to Preach with the same Spirit he did inspire and endue the faithful to hear For the Holy Spirit is equally necessary both to teach and to hear or learn profitably and savingly what is taught the Teacher and Learner being united or joyned together in the same mind and hearty affection through the effectual working of the same Spirit And hence it was that R. B. in his Apology cited Nehem. 9. v. 20. Thou gavest thy good Spirit to instruct them or give them understanding to prove that the people of Israel was in some measure endued with the Spirit of God To which our Adversary doth answer If saith he we say that the Spirit of God was so given unto them that it did exert or show it self forth by Moses who did enjoy immediate converse with God and Preached to them by word of mouth and sometimes did write to inform the People it doth not appear what R. B. hath to object or bring against it But such an answer might rather be expected from some Socinian or Pelagian than from any coming out of Luther's School or professing the Spirit of Grace to be necessary to every one of the faithful For were there not many faithful and true children of God among that people Had they not therefore the same Spirit with Moses because they had the same Faith Seeing Paul saith that as there is one Faith so one Spirit of which all the faithful are partakers unto salvation and even they who are unfaithful by the same Spirit are inwardly admonished and convinced But how far as it seemeth hath our Adversary forgot himself and his Doctrine who did formerly grant that all the faithful had the Holy Spirit given them to inlighten and assist them savingly to know God and believe in him and consequently all the faithful among the people of Israel had the same Spirit with Moses as well as he which Spirit was one both in him and them and was as necessary unto them to learn what he taught as it was unto Moses for to teach And therefore it is worthy of observation what was said Nehem. 9.20 that God gave his good Spirit unto them to give them understanding which is as much as to say that the people might understand the things which Moses and the other Prophets did Preach unto them for the same spirit is of equal necessity both to the Teachers and to them who are taught In his Nineteenth Paragraph he answereth to the words of David cited by R. B. Psal. 51.13 Cast me not away from thy presence or face and take not thy holy Spirit from me And Psal. 139.7 Whither shall I go from thy Spirit and whither shall I flee from thy presence The words saith he do not say take not away the holy Spirit from me which is immediately given me nor whither shall I go from thy Spirit that doth immediately speak unto me but they only make mention of the Spirit and do not define or determine the manner of its communication or way of speech But if this his answer hath any force against the
immediate communication of the Holy Spirit given commonly to the Saints it shall also exclude David himself an excellent Prophet who said these words from the immediate communication of the Spirit Then as seemeth unto me the Adversary wonderfully forgetting himself within a few lines he confesseth that David was immediately inlightned by God and gifted with the Spirit of Prophecy Lo how he hath mortally wounded and killed his own cause as it were with his own hands For because the words of David above cited do not say take not away thy holy Spirit immediately given me therefore he argueth that these words of David do not prove an immediate communication of the Spirit But I no where find it said in the whole scripture that the Holy Spirit was immediately given to David or to any of the Prophets and Apostles for the scripture hath not the term Immediate which is enough to demonstrate that when it is said the Spirit was given to any man doth sound or signifie as much as that the Spirit was given him immediately But for that distinction of the Spirits being given immediately to some and only mediately or remotely to others the scripture is wholly silent of it neither can it be gathered from scripture by any good consequence And let this answerer tell me if some stubborn and cross grain'd Adversary should deny that any of the Prophets or Apostles were immediately inspired how could he convince him of his error For whatever places of scripture he shall bring to convince him he shall be ready to answer with this our Adversary that all these places of scripture say nothing of the Holy Spirit his being immediately given to any either of the Prophets or Apostles But if he answer that the scripture-words which say that the Prophets and Apostles had the Spirit of God inwardly teaching inlightning leading moving and acting them although they do not express the term immediate yet they do sufficiently signifie and import the immediate communication of the Holy Spirit therefore it shall be equally lawful unto us to conclude because all the faithful and true children of God are said in scripture to have the Spirit of God which dwelleth in them doth inwardly teach them inspire inlighten lead move and act them and that it is one spirit which is in all the faithful whether they be Prophets or Apostles or any other true members of Christ because the phrase of the scripture is the same concerning the communication of the Holy Spirit as well to all the faithful as to the Prophets and Apostles therefore it hath the same sence in both to wit that both the Prophets and Apostles and all the faithful servants and children of God have one and the same Spirit of God immediately communicated unto them Nor is this to make all Prophets or Apostles for although the communication of the Spirit be immediate unto all yet it doth not produce in all the same gifts and functions but one sort in the Prophets and Apostles and another sort in ordinary Christians Even as the same soul or spirit of man is immediately communicated to the whole body and all its members yet it doth not follow that every member is the Head or Eye for notwithstanding that the same spirit is immediately communicated to all the members yet there remaineth a clear distinction of the members and of their offices one from another Again whereas he affirmeth Parag. 19. that the Prophets and Apostles received the Spirit immediately but all others of the faithful but only mediately He saith his without any proof and playeth on the ambiguous or various signification of the word or term immediate and mediate which I have above explained and so he departeth and goeth aside from the true state of the controversie altogether For although it be granted that many received the Holy Spirit by means of the outward preaching that doth not hinder but that they had it immediately and most nearly communicated unto them of God for beside other reasons and examples formerly brought by me cap. 4. the following example shall demonstrate the thing abundantly We see by how many various means a Husbandman or Gardiner doth ingraft a Twig or Branch upon the stock of a Tree the using of which means notwithstanding doth not hinder but on the contrary doth greatly conduce and further or help that the said branch may cleave immediately unto the stock on which it is ingrafted and may draw and derive life and a vital influence from the said stock or root immediately and most closely no less than if it had been a natural branch of the said Root Again Herbs and Trees are planted in the earth by using many means which afterwards taking root in the earth do derive from it immediately life and a vital or lively influence and vertue Granting therefore that the faithful are commonly ingrafted into Christ by means of the outward Preaching do they therefore derive nothing of the Spirit of Christ immediately Are not the Faithful as immediately joyned or united to Christ as the branches are to the Vine or the Twigs to the Stocks on which they are ingrafted Shall they not therefore immediately partake of the spirit of Christ seeing as Christ himself hath said He is the Vine and the faithful are the Branches grafted into him Moreover How can the Adversary prove that the Prophets and Apostles who as he confesseth had the Spirit immediately had it not derived and given unto them commonly by means of outward Preaching For the younger Prophets did commonly and for most part hear the elder Prophets preach unto them and by means of their Ministry and preaching they also received the same Spirit which dwelt in them immediately and moved them immediately to speak as it did the Elder Prophets Hence it is that we read of the Schools of the Prophets and of their Sons and Disciples in the scripture And did not Elisha the Disciple of Elijah by means of his Master immediately receive the Holy Spirit And the Apostles also received the Holy Spirit in some degree immediately before the day of Pentecost by means of Christs preaching outwardly unto them Nor can it be questioned but that when they received the same Spirit more abundantly on the day of Pentecost they were much helped and assisted or prepared for such an excellent dispensation by means of Christs doctrine which he preached unto them while he was yet conversant with them in the flesh upon Earth And the faithful did commonly receive the Holy Spirit and many excellent gifts of it immediately and yet by means of the Apostles preaching and laying on of their hands I spoke before of Cornelius who received the Spirit immediately and yet obtained it further by means of Peter's preaching Timothy also received that excellent gift which was in him by Prophesie with the laying on of the hands of the Eldership If therefore it be said that some of the faithful received the Spirit immediately and others only
which reacheth to the outward Senses but that it leaneth or doth rely upon God himself inwardly exerting or showing his power in the Mind by an inseparable or undivided operation through that which is outward and determining or moving the Vnderstanding to elicit or bring forth the act of knowledg whence we deny not saith he the inward testimony in the hearts of those who have the outward Revelation Thus he But let the impartial Reader judge if he doth not here act the Enthusiast and plainly give up unto us the chief thing in controversie for which we contend For this concession of his being once granted the controversie betwixt him and us so far as concerneth Immediate Revelation as seemeth unto me is almost none at all In his Thirty Second Paragraph he doth again plainly act the Enthusiast agreeing with us and saying That God or the Spirit which revealeth note doth not only work effectively upon the intellectual Faculty to produce the act of believing but also doth move objectively or by way of object and formal representation of the same doth determine the Vnderstanding to assent And a little after in the same Paragraph That God when he saith or revealeth any thing by the outward voice of the Preacher or by the holy Scriptures doth concur with that saying or Revelation and as the principal moving cause doth effect it that men from an inward and supernatural motion or witnessing made within their minds but which doth exert it self by the outward act of Divine Revelation and reflecteth on God the speaker as its cause may understand that it is God himself who saith it whether by the voice of the Preacher or the Scripture what that Revelation saith or manifesteth But this is it which the Teachers and Preachers in Britain and many other places among the Protestants do commonly object unto us for Enthusiasm because indeed we say that this objective Illumination or that which is by way of object no less than the effective is given to all the faithful for which principally we believe the Scriptures Now there is this only difference betwixt the Adversary and us that he doth continually tye or bind up the operation of the Holy Spirit to the outward signs but we do not so although we do affirm that the Illumination of the Holy Spirit is frequently joyned by an undivided operation with the holy scripture and that it doth exert it self in the hearts of the faithful through the same And whether the inward operation of the Spirit be continually tyed to the holy scripture or left free though we do still affirm it is not so tyed it is all one as to the state of the Controversie concerning Immediate Revelation for in both cases the Illumination and Communication of the Spirit is immediate as I have oft already made appear In his Paragraph Twenty Three he seemeth to blame R. B. that he doth render the outward Revelations to be fallacious and uncertain and more lyable to delusion than the inward But R. B. hath not affirmed that outward Revelations are fallacious for these which are true and come from the God of Truth cannot deceive but R. B. doth plead that the outward Revelations however true and certain they are in themselves yet they are not clear and evident of themselves to be Divine Revelations but that they principally derive their clearness and evidence from the inward Revelations witnessing to them and therefore these inward Revelations are more clear and evident having a self-evidence and clearness in themselves And there is this difference betwixt our outward Senses which perceive the outward Revelation and those Divine inward Senses supernaturally formed in us that our outward Senses may be deceived at sometimes and in some cases but these inward Divine Senses Divinely begot and formed in us can never be deceived For although a mans imagination and inward thought may deceive him yet that Sense which a man hath inwardly begot in his heart by the Lord can no wise deceive him In his Twenty Fifth Paragraph he alledgeth that R. B. doth contradict himself while he teacheth that the outward Revelation of the Scriptures is the formal object of the Saints faith and yet not the formal cause or reason of believing But if the Adversary had carefully considered R. B. his words following in his Apology he had not imputed unto him such a contradiction For R.B. saith that the secret testimony of the Holy Spirit is the principal object of the Saints faith and the original and consequently unto this that the Scripture is the secundary and subordinate And therefore when R. B. saith that the outward Revelation of the Scripture is not the formal cause or reason of believing he did clearly enough signifie his mind to wit that the Scripture was not the principal and original cause of believing and therefore if it be granted that the outward Revelation of the Scripture doth contain in it self some secundary reason of believing for this cause it may be called a secundary formal object of faith but the primary formal object is the inward Revelation which distinction of the formal objects is expressed by R. B. in other words into the formal object quod i. e. which to wit the secundary and the formal object quo i. e. for or by which to wit the primary But because these terms of the formal object into quod i. e. which and quo i. e. for which are borrowed from Logicians and the simple and plain truth can be easily enough explained without these terms I shall not stay any more to explain or defend them For the substance of the thing is clearly enough confessed by the Adversary to wit that Saving Faith doth not stay or rely on the meer naked outward Revelation of the Scripture but reacheth beyond that unto God himself inwardly moving and objectively or by way of object witnessing by his Spirit to the truth of the Scripture And because that inward objective testimony of the Spirit is somewhat really distinct from the outward testimony of the scripture although not contrary unto it nor separate therefrom as the Adversary saith therefore he holdeth of necessity a two-fold object to wit the one outward the other inward and whether of these he holdeth to be the primary he hath not in words expressed although it may be said consequentially enough to his Principles that the inward object is the primary and the outward secundary wherein he doth very well agree with R. B. and us Moreover Seeing he granteth a two-fold object of Divine Faith and Knowledge one outward of the Letter another inward of the Spirit joyned together and inseparate because they are really distinct I suppose he will not deny but they may be separate one from another if God so pleased Let it then be supposed only upon a possible supposition that the inward be separate from the outward so that the outward being removed the inward object may remain which is proposed by the
Holy Spirit alone to the Heart and Soul of the Faithful I inquire if in this case the inward presentation of the object were not to be called an Immediate Revelation The which if he grant therefore I say it is now immediate when the outward object is adjoyned to it for that inward illumination and Revelation doth not change its Nature in the absence and presence of the outward object having all entirely in it self that belongs to an Immediate Revelation but remaineth the same whether it be joyned to the outward or separated therefrom Even as the soul of man whether joyned to the Body or separated therefrom yet it still retaineth its own Nature that it is the immediate Principle of its operations both in the Body and out of the Body And indeed by a certain Analogy as the Soul is to the Body so is the Spirit of God inwardly operating and illuminating to the outward testimony of the Letter And because the Soul doth many things by the means of the Body yet that doth not hinder but that it is the immediate principle of its operations But the Soul doth many things in respect of its most inward and intellectual operations without the means and help of the Body even when it is in the Body and therefore why may not that Divine Spirit as it doth many things in the Saints by means of the Letter of the scripture do or work some other things and not use the means of the Letter Yea how many things doth the Holy Spirit reveal and open in Men as belonging to the special and particular acts of Vertue and Vice that do far transcend and go beyond the straitness and narrow compass of words of which Seneca the Gentile and an Heathen so called doth Write well Lib. 2. De Ira. How narrow Innocency is that saith he to be good according to the Law He understandeth a Law writ or contained in words How much more doth the Rule of Duties extend than that of Law How many things doth Piety Humanity Liberality Iustice and Faithfulness require which are not in the publick Tables or Records to wit all written Laws Thus Seneca For as he who describeth some Kingdom as of Germany or England with Words or Mapps cannot describe it in as great largeness as it doth contain in it self but in much narrower bounds And although he describe all the Cities Towns and Villages of the said Kingdom yet he doth not describe all the houses of every City and Village or all the Fields and Orchards belonging to it much less all the Rooms and Chambers of each House or all the Acres and Roods of the Corn Fields or all the particular Ears of Corn that grow in those Fields or all the Trees and Fruits of these Orchards particularly one by one And even so they who describe the Kingdom of God which is within us to wit the Writers of the Holy Scripture they could not describe all the particulars contained in that Kingdom the which particulars are yet very necessary to be known unto the Saints and therefore the Holy Spirit revealeth unto them those particular things which are not contained in the Scripture And the same is to be understood of the Kingdom of Vices and of Satan that it containeth many more particular vices and sins than can be described by any words And as concerning the glory of Gods Kingdom in the Saints it may be well said in the words of the Queen of the South concerning Solomon's Glory that the same or report of the Glory was true but the half of it was not told the which cannot be told by any words And therefore the Scripture it self calleth the joy of the Lord in the Saints a joy unspeakable and that the Peace of God which is in them doth not only surpass all words but all to wit discursive understanding Moreover R. B. showeth in his Apology from pag. 39. to pag. 43. to which the Adversary hath answered nothing that there are many particular things very necessary to be known unto every one of the faithful which are no where revealed in the Scripture and are therefore immediately to be revealed unto them by the Spirit such as especially concerning the Souls inward state and those inward calls of God unto the soul to the discharging or performing of its particular services In his thirtieth parag he saith it is one thing that the Spirit is within a man and another thing that the said Spirit is given not mediately but Immediately by a meer inward operation without an outward mean surely saith he the habits of arts and sciences are within in the mind of man and yet for most the part they are given to men not Immediately but mediately or by means of the outward teaching of the Master and a few lines after he saith we not only grant but we earnestly plead for the indewlling of the Holy Spirit as altogether necessary to Christians That he doth acknowledge and plead for the indwelling and inbeing of the Holy Spirit to be altogether necessary to Christians it is well but that he doth absolutely deny the Immediate Operation and Revelation of the indwelling Spirit of God he doth badly for although that this inward teacher and Master doth frequently teach his Disciples by means of the Scripture shall he therefore teach them nothing by word of mouth or his own living voice Immediately shall he not expound open to them what they read in the Scriptures with his living voice or shall he sit and remain in them always as one dumb which God forbid that we should so imagine speaking or saying nothing nay not so much as one small sentence but what is in express words contained in the Scripture and borrowed from them surely such an assertion is too rash and without all ground from Scripture and is most unworthy of God immortal our most excellent Master and Pastor yea our Bridegroom and Husband to fain any such things of him which no Mortal or Earthly School-Master would do to his Disciples and if he did so all would judge him a Fool and unfit for such an affair if to wit he should say nothing unto them but what is contained in the Book which they became in so many words and which he takes out of the Book and should speak nothing to them Immediately by word of mouth What disciple would bear such a School-Master or rather would not turn him off and chuse another more friendly and familiar unto him or what woman would not take it very unkindly and unworthy if her Husband did not speak to her any one small sentence immediately and by word of mouth but did leave all that is to be said to letters or epistles writ by him of old or what servant would willing serve such a Master who being presently with him in the same house did not speak to him at any time not one word by word of mouth immediate whither he did well or ill please him Surely this
because they have departed and Apostatised from that Holy Spirit given of old unto their Fathers And therefore was it not also a great glory and honour to the ancient Christian Church to have in it the gift of prophecy or speaking by Immediate Inspiration and would it not be now a great glory and honour to the Church if that gift of prophecy which did anciently flourish in the Church for some Ages after the Apostles days should flourish and spring forth again was not this gift with many others lost by the apostacy of the professors of the Christian Religion and therefore when the apostacy goeth out and people doth return to the sincere worship and obedience of God shall not this excellent gift be restored together with many others Had not the ancient Christian Church after the Apostles days all the Books of Scripture of the Old and New Testament as well as we The Jews also had the Scriptures of the Old Testament which contained all the heads of Christian Doctrine in respect of the substance of Religion a people therefore having the Scripture but wanting the Spirit Immediately teaching leading and inspiring them which both the Jewish Church had and also the Christians after the Apostles days shall be more happy then both these because they want the said Holy Spirit Immediately inspiring teaching and leading them This is a wonderful paradox but most false for the Christians are not more happy than the Jews because out of the Scripture barely they could know the will of God for the Jews had the Scripture also containing all the heads of the Doctrine of their Religion clearly enough But for this cause true Christians are more happy than those Jews that whereas the Jews for all their having the Scripture did need to take long Journeys to consult the Priests to solicite wait for the respouses of the High Priests all true Christians because they partake more largely of the Holy Spirit they need not make these Journeys or travels to consult either Priests or High Priest because they have a most excellent Priest yea an High Priest more high then the Heavens or the Angels that dwell in them to wit Jesus Christ dwelling in their hearts who by his Spirit teacheth them all things and doth clearly and without all doubtfulness answer them iâ— all things needful to be known by them and who doth also clearly and infallibly expound the Scripture unto them And therefore true Christians have no need to run to these Jewish Priests and High Priests nor unto these Doctors so called and preachers at this day who do not so much as profess to have any thing of the Divine Inspiration and inward Revelation with which the Prophets and holy men of God were of old endued and do not pretend to have any infallible sense or understanding of the holy Scripture or to have received any infallible Judgment of its meaning And so true Christians may spare both their labour and their mony and not spend it nor give it away to such Doctors and Preachers but leaving them all behind as unprofitable let them go unto Jesus Christ the Lord the eternal Priest who liveth for ever by whom they shall be well and sufficiently taught and instructed and that freely without either labour or mony And lastly as to these notable testimonies of the ancients and reformers in Luther's times cited by R. B. in his Apology because the Adversary endeavoureth to elude or evade the form of them after the same manner as he doth the testimonies of the holy Scripture therefore he is the same way refused in both and the answers given in the one will serve in the other the which if I have effectually given I leave unto the â—qual and impartial Reader for to Judge THE Pretended EXORCIST DETECTED In a Brief REPLY TO A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE The University of Oxford by George Hicks stiled Doctor of Divinity in the Month called Iuly 11. 1680. the which Sermon is called The Spirit of Enthusiasm Exorcised CHAP. I. UPon my reading of this Authors Printed Sermon which is called the Spirit of Enthusiasm exorcised I find the said Author very unskilful and unacquainted with the true notion of Enthusiasm as it is owned and received among the People called in derision Quakers with all possible moderation And though he hath been pleased to cite my Book of Immediate â—evelation and R. B. his Apology and Theses yet I can hardly believe he hath been at any pains to read and consider throughly what is said by us on that Subject for had he but read and well considered what we have said or writ in that matter he would have â—â—â—â—e fairly and genuinely stated the controversy betwixt us and our opposers as to this particular In my answer to Io. Bajer the Lutheran Doctor in Iena so much is already said as less needs be added for a reply to what this Author hath brought against us As for the word or term Enthusiasm as I have already said in my answer to the Lutheran Doctor we do not plead for it or affect such a name or title for it being no Scripture phrase or expression we can and do very well declare our Faith in the thing we intend without it Yet we cannot altogether reject the term when thrust or cast upon us by opposers on purpose many times to render us odious because the Etimology of the word Enthusiasm according to the best and most approved Greek Lexicons signifieth Divine Inspiration And whereas it hath been used by heathenish writers to signifie the inspirations or inward suggestions of Daemons and evil Spirits yet this hath rather been an abuse and improper signification of the word then a true and genuine acceptation of it and notwithstanding of this abuse of the word among heathenish writers and Poets yet divers of the Fathers useâ— it in a good sense and as applicable to good and sincere Christians Yea this Author himself with respect to the Prophets and Apostles and others their successors for 3 or 4 hundreds of years owneth the term Enthusiasm and that in the Apostles times and downwards to the 4 or 5 Century there were some real and sincere Christians who had Enthusiasms and were enthusiastically acted and moved by the Spirit of God for thus he saith Pag. 12. Edit 3. of this sort of Enthusiastical confidence with which the Spirit filled the minds of men is that place to be understood Math. 21. vers 21. and Pag. 14. he saith prophecy may be taken as it is often in the Old and New Testament for praising of God by inspired Hymns and Psalms for inspired persons did usually spend their Enthusiasm in composing of Hymns and Spiritual Songs And Pag. 16. he saith the groanings wherewith some inspired persons prayed in the Apostles days according to Rom. 8. were the effect of those supernatural raptures and Enthusiasms with which the Spirit filled the souls of those inspired Orators so we see how this Author
owneth the words Enthusiasm Enthusiast and Enthusiastical as applicable to some Persons who were true and sincere Christians and divinely inspired And yet the Title of his Printed Sermon presumeth to Exorcise the Spirit of Enthusiasm without making any distinction as if the said Spirit were some Devil or unclean Spirit universally But if he say he meaneth not the Spirit of Enthusiasm as it was in the Primitive times but as it is now in the following ages since the true Divine Spririt of Enthusiasm did universally cease or expire To this I answer it is more than he hath proved or can prove that the true Spirit of divine Enthusiasm hath universally ceased among Christians and as for his reasons or proofs I hope with Gods assistance sufficiently to discover their weakness and invalidity and that he layeth a too weak and unsteddy foundation for so great and weighty superstructure But how this Author presumeth to Exorcise the Spirit of Enthusiasm without the least measure of the Spirit of Divine Enthusiasm I am at a loss to understand for if the Spirit of Enthusiasm be such a Devil as he supposeth it generally to be how can it be Exorcised or cast out but by a measure of the Divine Spirit of Enthusiasm for the Author will readily as I suppose acknowledge that all the Exorcists in the Apostles times who had power to Exorcise and cast out evil Spiritsâ— were Enthusiastically inspired so that by the Spirit of God and Christ inspiring them as being the stronger they did cast out evil Spirits who were the weaker But if the Author think that without some divine Enthusiasm or inspiration he can cast out or Exorcise any devil or unclean Spirit only by the strength of his parts or humane Spirit or barely naming the words of Scripture and of Jesus and Paul let him call to mind and consider what happened unto them who presumed to Exorcise a certain unclean Spirit with the names of Jesus and Paul without having that divine Spirit which was in Jesus and Paul To whom the Spirit answered Iesus we know and Paul we know but who are Ye and the Man in whom the evil Spirit was leapt on them and overcame them and prevailed against them so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded read Acts 19.13 14 15 16. I no where find in Scripture or any credible History that any ever had power to Exorcise the Devil or any unclean Spirit unless he was in indeed with the Spirit of God for the weaker must be overcome by the stronger but whither the Author thinketh himself by his meer natural parts and humane Spirit stronger then the Devil let him see to it Another thing he should greatly advert to lest he hath called the Operation of the Spirit of God and Christ in his Children the work of the Devil which to do is a great iniquity and yet is pardonable through repentance if not committed knowingly and willfully which I hope this Author hath not done therefore I can heartily pray unto God that he may be forgiven and his eyes may be opened to see and acknowledge the Truth But to pass from the name of word Enthusiasm for which being no Scripture word we shall not contend let us come to the thing it self to wit true divine inspiration Vision and Revelation and true divine inward teaching and leading and moving of the holy Spirit Immediately whither in some measure or degree it be not the common priviledge of all Gods people and of all sincere and true Christians I take notice of the Authors distinction pag. 4. of two sorts of spiritual gifts Common and Special By the common gifts of the Spirit he saith he meaneth all those that all Christians are bound to pray for and expect and that are given by God in common to all those who sincerely desire them and labour after them and that are necessary for the Salvation of the Soul and of this sort he saith are all the saving gifts and graces of the Spirit called in the Schools gratiae gratium facientes which the Spirit helps to work in mens hearts as Faith Hope Charity Purity Humility and all other gracious habits of the Mind which the Apostle calls the fruit of the Spirit and wherein the image of God the power of Godliness and the Spirit of Christianity truly do consist By special gifts he understandeth those which men are not ordinarily bound to expect and which unless it be in some few circumstances that seldom happen would be vanity and presumption to beg of God and which by consequence are not necessary for the Salvation of the Soul Of this sort he saith are all the Miraculous unctions of the Holy Ghost called by the Schoolmen gratiae gratis datae such as the gift of tongues power of working Miracles signs and wonders the Spirit of prophecy c. But these sorts of gifts saith he agree in this that they are supernatural and freely given by God to men This distinction brought by the Author I willingly own and acknowledge But the thing that remains for him to prove is that no sort of Immediate divine Revelation and Inspiration and Immediate divine teaching is any of those common and ordinary gifts given freely of God to all true and sincere Christians Now that the inspiration of the holy Spirit is one of these common gifts of the Spirit doth plainly appear from the Common Prayer of the Church of England according to this very difinition of a common saving gift of the Spirit given here by the Author to wit that it is such as all Christians are bound to pray for and expect but such is the inspiration of the Holy Spirit according to the Common Prayer of the Church of England for thus she prayeth in the Collect on the first Sunday after Easter Lord from whom all good things do come grant us thy humble Servants that by thy Holy Inspiration we may think those things that be good and by thy merciful guiding may perform the same through our Lord Iesus Christ Amen Again in the first prayer at the Communion immediately after our Father c. it saith Almighty God unto whom all hearts be open cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy holy Spirit that we may perfectly love thee and worthily magnifie thy name c. Again in the 4 Prayer which hath this Title for the whole state of Christs Church Militant here on Earth it saith thus beseeching thee to inspire continually the universal Church with the Spirit of Truth Vnity and Concord Thus we see how at three several times the Church of England prayeth for the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and if she pray for it she ought certainly to expect it and not believe it is ceased or expired which makes me think it the more strange that one of her own members and that a Doâ—tor also should deny this so excellent and precious a gift and condemn it as some Devil
or evil Spirit and undertake to Exorcise it before the face of the University of Oxford where Common Prayer is so frequently read and that without any distinction But possibly he may say he is not against divine inspiration as it is a common saving gift of the Spirit necessary to all the Church and every member of it but as it is some peculiar and extraordinary thing as the gift of tongues power of working Miracles signs and wonders the Spirit of prophecy c. To this I answer 1. He ought then in the first place to have told so much what sort or kind of Enthusiasm or divine inspiration for both these words are of one signification he was for and what sort he was against and not have promiscuously condemned Inspiration or Enthusiasm altogether in the Lump 2. The people called in derision Quakers do not plead for those extraordinary Enthusiasms or Inspirations which the Apostles and some others had in the primitive times as the gift of tongues the power of working Miracles c. and as the Spirit of Prophecy is restructed to signifie a peculiar gift of forfeiting future events we do not plead for its absolute necessity in the Church far less do we Judge it necessary to every true Christian And this I did sufficiently declare in my Book of Immediate Revelaion cited by the Author the which Book if he had taken a little pains to read and consider might have saved him the labour of saying so much against the Quakers without any just ground or provocation It is like that we and our Books are esteemed so meanly of by such as this Author as that they think it not worth their time or labour to read our Books But in case it be so that we are so mean in their eyes yet they ought not to judge or condemn us until they have good knowledge or information of what we hold which they are not likely to have without taking some time and pains to read or hear what we say for to condemn any principle we hold before they do well know it is as unjust as to condemn a man before he be heard CHAP. II. BUt there are other two or three things which I suppose this Author or some other may answer in the Case The first is that the Inspirations which the Church of England doth hold pray for and expect are subordinate to Scripture and do acknowledge the Scripture as superiour and more noble and that they are to be tryed by the Scripture as the greater and more principal rule and not the Scripture by them whereas some of the Quakers have writ and particularly R. B. in his Theses that this Spirit of Immediate Revelation is not to be tryed by the Scriptures and reason but that both of them are to be tryed by it for so doth the Author cite R. B. his Theses as so affirming pag. 38. To this I answer the Author doth manifestly wrong R. B. in his Citation for R. B. no where saith in his Theses or Apology that the Spirit or its Inspiration is not to be tryed by the Scripture or Reason simply Only he saith that those inward divine Revelations are not to be examined and tryed by the Scriptures as the more noble and certain rule Yea in the 3 Thesis R. B. doth plainly acknowledge that the Scriptures are and may be esteemed a secondary rule subordinate to the Spirit from whom they derive the excellency and certainty they have it is not therefore affirmed by R. B. as this Author upon his own mistake as seemeth doth alledge nor yet by any Quaker so called that I know of that the Scripture or right reason in no respect are a rule and may not be profitably and safely used as a rule whereby to try inward Divine Revelations as the Scripture or right reason is used or applyed for a rule by the help of the Spirit and in subordination unto the Spirit But the state of the question lyeth here whither the external testimony of the Scripture used and applyed as a rule without the Spirit as too many do be a more noble and greater rule and more certain or giving to the mind of man more assurance of truth than the inward Immediate Testimony of the Spirit of God in the soul or mind which as a ray of the Sun shineth with its own Light and hath a self evidencing power and vertue in it as every other true light hath This is one branch of the state of the question Another branch is this whither when both the Spirits inward testimony and the Scriptures outward testimony do acknowledge co-operate and concur to produce or work a persuasion or essent to some Gospel doctrine or principle of Christian Religion in the soul or heart of a true Believer I say whither in this case the inward testimony or witness of the Spirit is not the greater the stronger and more clear and certain as to us and the more effectual and as having the greatest stroak and share in the begetting or producing the said assent to truth or persuasion of it in the mind of man Now the pople called in derision Quakers are not ashamed but bold in the Lord to say that the Inward Testimony Operation and Revelation or Inspiration of the Spirit of God is the greater and hath the greatest stroak and efficiency in this work and that the holy Spirit is not the subordinate instrument or rule of the Scripture but the Scripture is the subordinate rule and instrument of the Spirit And this I prove first from the express words of the Apostle Iohn 1 Iohn 5.9 10. If we receive the witness of men the witness of God is greater for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son he that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself Now it is clear that Iohn by the witness of men doth mean the Scripture as being the witness of the holy Prophets and Apostles who were men and by the witness of God the inward witness of the Spirit which he who believeth hath in himself not as if the Scripture were not also the witness of God and a divine witness far above all bare humane Testimony but yet the Scripture being compared with the inward Immediate witness of Gods Spirit in the soul may be without any derogation called the witness of men to wit of the Prophets and Apostles who were holy men for what other men Iohn doth mean I do not understand but faithful and holy men who did bear a true record to Divine Truth as they had it inwardly revealed unto them And to this same effect the Apostle Paul declared that his Gospel came unto the Thessalonians not in words or speech or discourse only but in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much Assurance where he annexeth the much assurance to the Power and at the Holy Ghost and not simply nor principally to the words and elsewhere he said The
Kingdom of God standeth not in words but in power And seeing a Christians Faith is a part of Gods Kingdom in his Soul the said Faith stands not in the words even of the Apostles by Pauls own Testimony but hath a greater and more noble and excellent Foundation to wit the Power and holy Spirit of God in the Heart of the Believer as that doth inspire and inwardly operate move and act upon the intellectual Faculties of the Soul And here possibly some will grant that the Spirit hath the greatest efficiency or stroke in working this spiritual assent or Perswasion to the Doctrine of the Gospel as an efficient Cause in the Souls of Believers but perhaps they will say as this Author saith of the common saving Graces of the Spirit that they are Moral Virtues insensibly wrought in our Hearts by the Holy Ghost and that therefore any Divine Assent or Perswasion which the Holy Ghost works in our Hearts is wrought insensibly and that the Holy Ghost in his Inspiration and Operation is incognitum quid as some Popish Schoolmen and others have affirmed the Spirits operation to be medium incognitum assentiendum i. e. an unknown medium or mean that worketh in us insensibly or without all perception on our part whose footsteps this Author seemeth to follow And seeing the Spirits Influence or Operation is altogether unperceptible to the Soul as having no objectve evidence whereby to make it self known as they affirm and that the Soul or Mind of man cannot assent to Truth without some objective evidence of truth The Scripture therefore is that medium or mean which alone as they say giveth this objective Evidence of truth to the Soul and moveth it objectively to assent to the truth Hence they distinguish betwixt subjective and objective Illumination and the Subjective and objective Influence and Assistance saying that the Spirit indeed giveth us the Subjective illumination and Assistance but the Scripture only giveth us the objective Illumination and Assistance But this distinction I have sufficiently at length refuted in my Book of Immediate Revelation above cited so that I need not insist to make a new Refutation of it here until the Author or some else disprove the Arguments I have brought there to evince that the Holy Spirit worketh sensibly and perceptibly in the hearts of Believers and giveth unto them an objective Assistance and Illumination as well as subjective or effective that both can be known and is known to be a divine assistance and to proceed from the Holy Spirit in them who have it and whose minds are well prepared and disposed to receive and observe it for the Spirits inward Operation and Inspiration or Influence is sufficiently observable and reachable enough by the inward and spiritual Senses of the Soul when excited and awakned by the power of the Holy Spirit as I can appeal to all who have the least measure of experience in the case and whose spiritual senses are awakned and duly exercised to discern betwixt Good and Evil. Such by an inward spiritual divine sensation are able to discern and distinguish betwixt a good motion and Inspiration that cometh from the Spirit of God and an evil motion and Inspiration that cometh from the Devil or some evil Spirit Again seeing by the Inspiration and Illumination of the Spirit of God we are principally inclined moved and perswaded to assent to the truth of the Scripture-Testimony and are made to believe that the Scriptures are no cunningly devised Fable but the Holy Oracles and Sayings of God by men divinely inspired as all good and sound Protestants do acknowledge we must needs consequentially affirm that the spirits illumination is the more noble Rule and preferable to the Scripture And thus we evite that fallacious Circle that some run into and for which they are derided by some of the Church of Rome because they say they believe the Scriptures for the spirits inward Testimony and to go round again they say they believe the spirits inward Testimony for the Scriptures This say the Romanists is a fallacious Circle and not to be allowed according to the Rules of right Disputation But say we as we own the Scriptures Testimony as a good secondary Confirmation to induce or move us to believe the spirits inward Testimony so we beleive the Spirits inward Testimony being chiefly moved or induced so to do by the spirit of God himself inspiring us and inwardly moving and inclining us thereunto and we principally believe the Scriptures for the spirit but the spirit we principally believe for himself or his own immediate Testimony in our hearts which is secondarily confirmed to us by the Scriptures Testimony And I see not how any true Protestant or sober rational man who owneth a necessity of the spirits Inspiration to produce saving faith in the soul can blame us for so doing And thus the Romanists have no occasion to deride or blame us for running into a vicious Circle in giving the reason of our Faith And we judge it no derogation to the Scripture to prefer the spirit of God and Christ as he doth immediately bear witness in our Hearts to the external Testimony of the Scriptures For as Iohn and all the Prophets and Apostles gave the preference to Christ as more worthy so no doubt the Scriptures which are their Words and Writings prefer the holy spirit of Christ whose servants and Instruments they are And here I give the Reader a necessary Caution which I desire him well to observe that when the Question is stated betwixt the inward and immediate Testimony of the spirit in the soul of a true Christian and the outward Testimony of the Scripture we affirm the inward is the more noble the greater and the more preferable even as the soul is the more noble part of a man and of greater value than the Body however so excellent or beautiful as being that which giveth life to the Body for as the soul quickneth the body and useth it as its Instrument so the holy spirit inspiring the Heart of a true Christian quickneth the Scriptures Testimony and maketh it to live and bring forth Fruit in the soul yet when the Question is stated betwixt the Scriptures and any Revelation Vision or Inspiration externally brought forth in Words or Writing that in this case we most willingly prefer the Scripture words and writings to any words and writings of ours how much soever inspired or proceeding from Inspiration and do most willingly submit all our Words and Writings to the publick standard Test and Touch-stone of the Scriptures to be tryed by them and not otherwise to be received than as agreeing with them A second thing which possibly this Author or some other may answer in the case is That though the Church of England according to the Common Prayer owneth the Inspiration of the holy spirit as necessary to saving Faith and to the begetting a saving and spiritual knowledge of God and the Scriptures yet
this is such an Inspiration as is commonly obtained in the use of the ordinary means of salvation as of reading the Scriptures hearing them preached expounded and opened also meditating upon them with frequent Prayer unto God to give the Understanding of them and his gracious Assistance rightly to use and improve them and so is not an immediate Inspiration or Revelation that cometh unto the Saints without the use of the means as it did come unto the Prophets and Apostles whereas the Inspirations and Revelations which the people called Quakers pretend unto are immediate and come as they say unto them immediately as unto the Prophets and Apostles of old without all use of the means But this I have so abundantly answered to the Lutherian Doctor in the aforesaid Treatise that little here needeth to be added where I have sufficiently shewed That though we own and plead for immediate Revelation and Inspiration of the Spirit yet this Revelation and Inspiration is ordinarily obtained by us and all true Christians in the diligent and frequent use of all the true means of Salvation appointed of God according to the direction of Gods Holy Spirit And we readily grant That reading and hearing the Scriptures also true and right Preaching and Prayer with Meditation are special means in the right use whereof the spirits Inspirations and Revelations are ordinarily obtained Nor doth this hinder the Inspirations of the spirit to be immediate because they are conveyed and given to true Christians in the use of these aforesaid means or any other not named as I have in the above named Treatise largely made apparent which I need not here repeat And it is a great mistake in them who think that the Inspirations and Revelations of the holy spirit which came unto the Prophets and Apostles were commonly obtained by them without all use of means the contrary whereof I have also clearly proved in the aforesaid Treatises And indeed this Author himself doth save me the Labor of further insisting upon the Proof of so clear an Assertion For in the last page of his Printed Sermon he saith Among the Jews themselves there were Schools of the Prophets in which as the Jewish Writers agree the Youth were trained by study and discipline for the reception of the Prophetical Spirit which according to Maimonides whom the Jews call the second Moses rarely came but upon persons so qualified and prepared Thus we see according to this Authors acknowledgment the Prophetical Inspirations which were immediate came ordinarily unto the Prophets being prepared and qualified by the use of means in study and discipline And thus indeed Christ prepared his Apostles before-hand for the more abundant reception of the holy spirit by his Preaching and Labouring among them during the time of his Ministry and Preaching before his Crucifixion which continued about three years and a half But whereas the Author addeth That he dare boldly say were it not for the two Schools of the Prophets in our Israel the Nation would soon be over-run with Ignorance c. I suppose the Author knoweth that the Schools of the Prophets whose Masters were divinely inspired and the Schools of Oxford and Cambridge are very unlike and have little in common but the name In the Schools of the Prophets by study and discipline and especially by vertuous and godly Education in a holy Life the minds of the Studients were prepared and qualified to receive the spirit of Prophecy and the divine Influences and Inspirations thereof and accordingly so did receive they which the Studients in your Universities are not like to receive while they are taught to believe that all such Prophetical Inspirations are expired and that the spirit of Enthusiasm or Inspiration where-ever it is now found is the Devil or some unclean spirit But surely the Studients in the Schools of the Prophets were of another belief A third thing which possibly this Author or some may alledge is That the Inspirations or Revelations which the People called Quakers own pretend to discover and introduce new Doctrines into the World and impose them on people as new Articles of Faith and as a new Rule of their Belief and Manners for so much the Authors words imply when he saith And lastly when with all this they to wit the Quakers shall Preach no other Doctrine than what the Apostle hath Preached and the Catholick Church received then we will believe if they be lawfully Baptized that it is the Spirit which is speaking in them But in Answer to this I say we pretent to no new Doctrine nor do we believe that any Doctrine not already delivered in the Scriptures and sufficiently Preached by the Prophets and Apostles is revealed to us by Divine Inspiration nor do we expect the Revelation of any new Doctrine or any other Articles of Faith or Precepts of holy life but what are already declared in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament only we say that we need the Inspiration of the holy Spirit to work in us a right Faith and Understanding of the Doctrines and Precepts declared in the Scriptures and to enable us rightly to use and apply them the which is according to the Common Prayer of the Church of England as is sufficiently made apparent from what is abovesaid What the Author saith of our being lawfully Baptized as one of the Conditions requisite to have us to be believed that we have the spirit of God I shall not insist upon seeing it tendeth to lead us into a new Controversie only this much in short by the way I query 1. Why may we not have the spirit supposed not Baptized with Water seeing Cornelius and his Friends received the spirit before they were Baptized with Water 2. Whether in the Primitive Church when many delayed their Baptism with Water till death or old Age they were deprived of the spirit all that time wherein they were not baptized with Water and whether all who have died without Water Baptism have died without the spirit and so without salvation 3. Whether many of us have not been as lawfully Baptized with water as the Author himself if that did or could contribute any thing to the receiving the spirit 4. Whether he can prove from Scripture That Infant-sprinkling with Water is the Lawful Baptism or ever was 5. Whether he can prove that Christ hath commissioned all or any of those who sprinkle Infants on the Forehead so to do or why some more than others why the Teachers of the Church of England more than Papists or Presbyterians But there are other two Conditions he requireth in order to our being believed that we have the spirit the one is That we work Miracles and together with the gift of Tongues have all other miraculous Gifts But surely this Condition is very unreasonable and unequal for by the same Law he would have excluded Iohn the Baptist who was a great Prophet and yet as it is said expresly of him he wrought no
new and spiritual Life in it so is that which slayeth Antichrist whom as the Scripture saith Christ shall destroy or slay with the Breath of his mouth and the brightness of his coming I need not be at pains I hope to prove that the Breathing and In-breathing of the Holy Spirit which is to say his Inspiration is all one thing for all the breathing of the Spirit on men is within in the Hearts and inward parts of men and therefore is properly Inspiration And according to Solomons words in the Song it is the Breathing or Inspiration of the Holy Spirit which like the South-wind blowing upon the Garden maketh the spices thereof to send forth a sweet and fragrant smell The which Spices are nothing else but the Christian Graces wherewith God indueth his Church which he maketh as a Garden and which Graces are made to operate and send forth-their Divine Smell as the Spirit of God doth breath or inspire upon the Souls of those in whom these Sacred and Heavenly Spices grow and according to Elihu in Iob the Inspiration of the Almighty giveth understanding And thus in brief we see the great necessity of Divine Inspiration both to the Church in general and to all the Members of it in particular though not in respect of those Miraculous and extraordinary Gifts of Tongues and Healings of bodily Diseases yet in regard of more Noble and Divine Effects as the Souls Regeneration and quickning and both for the planting and nourishing the Divine Graces of Gods Holy Spirit in the Hearts of all true Believers And notwithstanding of all this as it seemeth the Author of this Sermon hath a marvellous prejudice and antipathy at the word Inspiration as not applicable to any sort of the Spirits Operation in our days For though he granteth the necessity of the Spirits Operations yet I no where can find that he owneth the Word or Term Inspiration in any respect as applicable to any Operation of the Spirit at present in any Believer And the same prejudice he seemeth to have against divers other Phrases and Terms all which are either expresly found in Scripture or fully agreeable to the sense of Scripture which yet he hath the confidence to call invented and uncouth Terms as the Spirit of Preaching and Prayer the In-comings Out-lettings and In-dwellings of the Spirit How like is his Discourse in this particular to the Socinians and Pelagians who deny the necessity of any Supernatural and Divine aid or Assistance of the holy Spirit to perform our acceptable Service and Obedience unto God He saith further That the Spirit of Preaching or Praying ought to signifie no more than the skill or habit of Preaching or Praying But if he mean only a natural and acquired habit he joyneth with the Socinians and contradicteth his own former Concessions wherein he did acknowledg the necessity of the saving Gifts of the Spirit and that these were Supernatural such as Faith Love Humility Now every one that Preacheth and Prayeth either acceptably unto God or profitably for himself or his Neighbours he must Preach and Pray with Faith and Love and Humility so that these and other Divine Graces must be exercised in his Preaching and Praying which require more than even a spiritual habit to wit a present actual assistance of the Divine Spirit otherwise a man who hath the habit of Preaching and Praying according to this Author needeth not any dependance upon any new assistance of the Spirit and so it is in vain for him to pray for the same which yet is contrary to the common practice of most Preachers But whereas the Author taxeth some for pretending to the Spirit of Preaching and Praying and make as if their extemporary Prayers were the effect of Ispiration I acknowledge they are worthy to be blamed when in the mean time these very persons deny all Inspiration or Preaching and Praying by it in our days and are as great Opposers to the Principle of Immediate Revelation and Inspiration as any men in the World And it is indeed a great Error to imagine that all extemporary Prayers are the Effect of Divine Inspiration for some are and some are not and they who pretend to pray extempore by the Spirit and as with the same breath deny the very Principle of Inspiration fall into a great inconsistency which yet very many do for which they are justly taxable But to return to the Author he confesseth That in the Primitive Church in the days of the Apostles many Preached and Prayed and did sing by Inspiration and being Enthusiastically moved or acted and that this did continue in the Church for some time And first as concerning singing and praising God by inspired Hymns and Psalms He saith pag. 14. For inspired persons did usually spend their Enthusiasm in composing of Hymns and spiritual Songs And again concerning Preaching and Praying he saith pag. 15. In the Apostles time there was a miraculous Gift of Praying as well as Preaching when the spirit used to seize upon the souls of men in Publick and affect them in such an extraordinary way as to make them Pray for such things and in such a due manner as in those times when as yet the Church had composed no Liturgies Persons not inspired could not do And here he citeth a Testimony out of Chrysostome Ep. ad Rom. cap. 8. hom 14. which I thought worthy to translate into English and here insert Moreover together with all these Gifts there was the Gift of Prayer the which was called the Spirit and he who was endued with it he did pray for the whole multitude for seeing we are ignorant of many things which are profitable to us and that we ask things that are no wise profitable the Gift of Prayers did come unto one of them who standing for all the rest did pray for what was usually convenient to the whole Church and also did teach others Therefore he viz. Paul Rom. 8. calleth the Spirit both such a Gift and also that Soul which did receive it and which did intercede with God and sigh For he who is favoured with such a Grace standing with great compunction or Contrition of mind and with many sighs being humbled in mind before God asketh the things which are profitable unto all of which now is a Symbol the Minister offering Prayers unto God for the people Therefore Paul feeling this said The Spirit himself intercedeth for us with groans unutterable To the same purpose speaks Theoph. and Oecumenius upon the place But now the thing which the Author of this Sermon should have proved is That this Gift of Preaching and Praying and Singing by Divine Inspiration was of the same sort and nature with the Miraculous and extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit and equally Miraculous and Extraordinary with them which he not having done nor so much as once essayed to do from any Scripture Authority he had as good done nothing at all And the words of Chrisostome cited by
him do not say That the Gift of Praying by the Spirit was expired in his time and though Chrysostome had said so I suppose the Author himself doth not think that all Chrysostoms words are infallibly to be believed Yea the reason given by Chrysostome why God was pleased to give that Gift of Prayer doth still remain viz. Because without the spirit we know not what to pray for as we ought and therefore there is as great necessity for the spirit of Prayer now as then But it hath no weight what the Author saith Pag. 29. That the Christians might learn what to pray for and how out of the Scriptures which are an excellent Rule of Devotion as well as Faith and since that Gift was also rendred useless by the early general use of Liturgies I say this hath no weight to prove that the spirit of Prayer or praying by Divine Inspiration is expired for in the Apostles days the Scriptures were extant as much as now and therefore if the spiritual Gift of Prayer is made void by having the Scriptures in the room of it that Gift should have ceased in the Apostles days Surely it was not Gods design to give us the Scriptures that he might take away his spirit from us and leave us only the Scripture-words in his room but he promised that his spirit should remain or abide with his people for ever whose abiding and presence was necessary unto all true Christians to give them the inward and spiritual sense and understanding of the words of Prayer contained in the Scripture and to teach them what words to use at one time and what at another seeing they could not use them all at once And as for the early general use of Liturgies which this Author saith was in the Church to be sure there was none in the Apostles times as the Author confesseth and if there had been any need of them for the succeeding Ages the Apostles had been the fittest persons to have composed them which yet we do not find that ever they did It is too apparent that when the spirit of Prayer began to be lost composed Liturgies came to be set up and that the loss and decay of this spirit or spiritual Gift of Prayer was caused by the carnality and apostacy of the far greatest part of those called Christians though we have cause to believe it remained in the Hearts of a remnant all along CHAP. IV. BUT whereas the Author saith as for the Gift of Praying and Preaching by the Spirit there is no mention made of it in the Ecclesiastical Writers even where they enumerate the rest of the spiritual Gifts unless Irenaeus comprehended it under the Gift of strange Tongues with all sorts of which he saith many of the Brethren spoke in his time by the Holy Ghost Surely this the Author doth too confidently affirm for as concerning Praying by the Spirit Tertullians Testimony is clear who lived about the end of the second Century who discoursing of Prayer and the manner how the Christians used it said expressly That they prayed ex pectore siue monitore per spiritum sanctum i. e. out of the Heart without one to go before them and by the Holy Ghost And both Tertullian and Iustine Martyr and Eusebius make mention of the Gift of Prophesie by the Spirit remaining in the Church in their time And the Author himself acknowledgeth that under Prophesie Preaching and praising God by the Spirit is understood frequently in Scripture and why not also in the Ecclesiastical Writers Yea even Bernard who lived above a thousand years after Christ did say tepida est omnis oratio quam non prevenit inspiratio i. e. All Prayer is dead or lukewarm which Inspiration doth not prevent But it is easie to apprehend why when the Ecclesiastical Writers did mention the miraculous Gifts of the Spirit then remaining in the Church they said nothing commonly of Preaching and Praying by the Spirit because they did not reckon Preaching and Praying by the Spirit any of that sort of miraculous and extraordinary Gifts but judged it as a common and necessary Gift and therefore did not mention it among those that were miraculous and singular which is an argument rather against the Authors assertion than in favour of it And since the Author doth acknowledge that divers miraculous Gifts of the Spirit did remain in the Church for some hundreds of years after the Apostles it is strange he should suppose the Gift of Preaching and Praying by the Spirit to have expired before the rest but his prejudice against the Principle of Inspiration maketh him to fall upon such an absurd supposition Now when I say the Gift of Preaching and Praying by the Spirit was none of the miraculous and extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit I mean it had nothing of any external or outward Miracle in it any more than Faith Love Hope or any other of the Evangelical Vertues all which being supernatural were internally miraculous as much or rather more than the outward And whereas the Author pleadeth that none of these miraculous Gifts were of a moral consideration as having any immediate influence to sanctifie the persons so inspired consequently not necessary to remain in the Church If then it can be proved that Preaching and Praying by the Spirit are of a moral consideration and have a sanctifying Influence upon the persons inspired it will necessarily follow that they do and must remain in the true Church And first as to Praying by the Spirit that is a Moral Duty and of a moral Consideration which is a Gospel-precept but Praying by the Holy Ghost is a Gospel-precept see Eph. 6.18 Praying always with all Prayer and Supplication in the Spirit and Iud. 2. Praying in the Holy Ghost And as concerning all true Worship which is to be given to God Christ hath expresly taught that it is to be performed in Spirit and in Truth And I ask the Author whether he doth not think that Davids Prayers and Psalms which were by the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit had not a sanctifying Influence upon David himself And also whether the Prayers of those in the primitive times who prayed by Inspiration and brought forth such deep inward sighings with great contrition of Heart by the help of the Holy Spirit had not a sanctifying Influence going alone with them and were not those Prayers holy Prayers and those sighings holy sighings which left some holy Impressions both upon the Speakers and Hearers the which if they did as most certainly they did unto all sincere Christians who heard them then Prayers by Inspiration have a moral and intrinsecal excellency in them and consequently were to remain in the true Church to the end of the World Next as to Preaching by the Spirit it is clear that it had a sanctifying and converting power going alone with it so that many thousands were converted unto the Lord and became truly sanctified by means of such Preaching But if
his other Brethren to Paul and all the other Apostles as if the Apostles because of their Inspirations and Revelations knew but in part and as Children having little use of their rational Faculties whereas this Author having attained to the adult state he is become perfect in Knowledge and like Moses converseth with God face to face and that without all Revelation or Inspiration immediately from God But how did Moses converse or speak with God face to face to whom the Lord said Thou canst not see my face and live was it without all manner of immediate Revelation or Inspiration I trow not but rather after a more noble and higher sort of Divine Inspiration than was commonly given to other Prophets But how much more sutable and agreeable to truth is that exposition of Pauls words that is commonly given that Paul compareth his highest attainments in this Life even by Vision and Revelation or Inspiration with what he did expect and wait for after death so as the highest attainments of Divine Knowledge by Revelation or Inspiration belonging to this life are but as the attainments of Children in comparison with what the Saints are to expect after death in the life to come But whereas the Author thinketh that the highest Revelations given in this life are but by symbolical Representations upon the phansie as in a Glass he is much mistaken There is a Revelation of God which God pleaseth at times to give to his Children far beyond all symbolical Representations or Similitudes of things whereby God in Christ and the pure Glory of God is seen and enjoyed by the highest and noblest faculty of the Soul which is an earnest and first Fruits of Eternal Life Nor is the Author more dexstrous in expounding all that diversity of Gifts mentioned 1 Cor. 12.4 8 9 10. to have been the miraculous and extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit for why might not some of them have been the common and ordinary and others of them miraculous and extraordinary By common and ordinary I mean not here such as were given to all and every one in particular but such common ministerial Gifts as God gave in common to all ordinary Teachers and Preachers and Ministers of the Lords fitting and sending for of these ministerial Gifts the Apostle is here principally to be understood And whereas the Author here doth argue that the Gifts mentioned in this place cannot be the saving Gifts of the Spirit because these God bestoweth joyntly on those who have them or not at all whereas the Gifts mentioned here are given some to one and some to another But to this I answer although the Gifts here mentioned in the foregoing Verses be not the saving Universal Gifts mentioned by him which are given to every one of the Faithful yet it doth not follow that therefore they are all miraculous and extraordinary for some of them might be of a third and middle sort to wit given in common to all Teachers and Preachers and may be called saving in such a sense or respect as the Preaching of the Gospel and distinct Offices of the Ministry may be called saving as being instrumental to the Salvation of Souls as it is said in Scripture That it pleased God by the foolishness of Preaching to save them that believe And if according to the Author all the Gifts here mentioned be miraculous and all ceased within some few ages after the Apostles days then according to him there is no word of Wisdom nor of Knowledge in the Church which how harsh it will sound to Christian ears I leave the spiritual to judge But that the Author taketh this place of Scripture viz. 1 Cor. 12.4 for his Text and Foundation of his whole Discourse to prove that all the Gifts here mentioned were miraculous and consequently expired within some few Ages to the Apostles times is meerly asserted by him but not at all really proved And he might as well say that Faith Hope and Charity were miraculous Gifts of the Spirit and consequently expired with those other for of them also he discourseth a little after and compriseth them with the other sorts under the diversity of Gifts mentioned v. 4. whereas the Spirit is one So that in this whole Discourse of Pauls concerning the diversity of Gifts Chap. 12.13 14. he mentioneth no less than three several sorts one miraculous and extraordinary another sort common and ordinary to the Teachers in the Church and peculiar unto them a third sort viz. Faith Hope Charity common to all true and sincere Christians so that this diversity of Gifts extendeth it self to all the Church one way or another all having some although every one had not all even as the precious Ointment that ran down from Aarons beard unto the lowest skirts of his Garments And though when the Apostle doth treat of Faith Hope and Charity it is in the thirteen and fourteenth Chapters yet the Discourse is still one and the same as one intire piece and all the Gifts mentioned in all the three Chapters are contained under the diversity of Gifts viz. Spiritual Gifts mentioned v. 4. of Chap. 12. and all proceed from one Spirit so that it may and ought to be said of them of all Now there are diversities of Gifts but the same Spirit and the best of these Gifts are Faith Hope and Love and the greatest of these is Love or Charity And thus I have answered to every thing that seemed material in his Sermon to prove that Divine Inspirations which he calleth Enthusiasms are ceased in the Church and though I have not observed strictly the method of his Sermon so as to answer to every thing in his order because the Nature of my answer required to put several things together that lay scattered in his Sermon and sometimes to take that last which he putteth first yet I hope the diligent and impartial Reader will find that the whole substance of his Sermon against Divine Inspirations is sufficiently answered And now in the Close I shall only take notice of some Reflections of his on the people called Quakers and some few other particulars and then make an end CHAP. V. IN his page 37. Edit 3. he undertakes to show what a dangerous damnable and precarious Principle that is which asserts that Immediate Revelation or Inspiration is not ceased c. But the Instances he bringeth to prove what he saith are wholly precarious and false as 1. That it differs only from the Popes Infallibility in this That that makes only the Bishop of Rome but this makes every private Christian a Pope This I say is altogether a false charge as to us For we place not an absolute Infallibility upon any person or persons whatsoever but we say the Spirit of God in all his Leadings Teachings and Motions is infallible and men only conditionally so far as they receive and are in unity with these Leadings and Teachings are Infallible We say further That every true Christian hath
imployed and exercised who attend to his inspirings and find advantage in so doing much more than by all the much pratling of men who presume to Preach or Teach without the Spirit In pag. 37. he saith The Popes Infallibility must be resolved into this Enthusiastical Principle of immediate Inspiration I answer not but a most into a false pretence thereunto which yet argueth nothing against the true Principle itself And though some of the Popish Schoolmen resolve it into a pretence of Immediate Revelation yet many more do otherwise and particularly the University of Paris as I have showed at more length in my Book called Quakerism no Popery They resolve it only into a blind insensible assistance of the Spirit which they call subjective or effective illumination but not objective the which Popish distinction many Protestants and as it seemeth this Author apply to their Faith with this difference that these Protestants make the assistance of the Spirit fallible but the Papists make it as in the Pope and his Council infallible Pag. 29. he saith The Churches Hieroms Augustines Chrysostoms like us were not inspired but studied Divines I answer why might not Hierom Augustine and Chrysostome and such as they be both to wit parly inspired and partly studied as he termeth it seeing there is no inconsistency as he supposeth betwixt the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit and the frequent and diligent use of all right and lawful means such as reading the Scriptures Meditation and Prayer with other Religious Exercises which this Author calleth studying But studying without all Divine Inspiration makes but poor Divines or rather dead and dry Vines And here I give the Reader to understand that in the very beginning of his Sermon this Author for all his prejudice at Enthusiasts distinguisheth betwixt them and Impostors saying Impostors on one hand and Enthusiasts on the other c. What then are the Enthusiasts no Impostors One thing I like well in the Author as to what he saith and do therein cordially-agree with him pag. 39. The first Apostolical Ages of Wonder were utterly ignorant of killing impulse and zeal which I could not but observe to the utter detestation of Christians Assassines c. I could here cite divers Testimonies of the Ancients for the verity of Divine Inspiration as still remaining among and in the true Christians but to avoid prolixity I shall only cite two Testimonies one of Augustine another of Origene Augustine saith Tract Epist. Ioh. 3. There is an inward Master who teacheth Christ teacheth his Inspiration teacheth where his Inspiration and Anointing is not the words outwardly make but an empty sound Origines contra Celsum lib. 7. circa med 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. Mat. 11. Verbum autem Dei divina quadam gratia non athea existente anima sed cum quodam Enthusiasmo demonstrat cognosci Deum The word of God citing Mat. 11. No man knoweth the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son reveals him demonstrateth that God is known by a certain divine Grace the Soul not being Atheistical but indued with a certain Enthusiasm Where note that he setteth in opposition Atheism and Enthusiasm or the Atheist and Enthusiast as if whosoever is not Enthusiast or indued with a Divine Enthusiasm were a downright Atheist which is very agreeable to a Title of a Friends Book called Enthusiasm above Atheism writ some years ago by G. W. There is one passage more in this Authors Sermon which I cannot well let pass pag. 32 33. Suppose saith he thou knowest the Gospel like the Apostles by Inspiration what then another Minister who knows it by reading and study is as capable to edifie the Church as thee And besides if thou art like a vain Corinthian ambitious of Inspiration know that it will add nothing to the Reputation of thy parts for an inspired man is but the Vessel to the Treasure the very Instrument and Machine of the Holy Ghost who can ordain strength out of the mouths of Babes and Sucklings and make a Child or an Ideot preach as well as thee To the first I answer according to this Authors assertion the bare Minister of the Letter is as good a Preacher and as useful in the Church as Paul or any of the Apostles which is so gross as nothing needs to be said unto the spiritually minded for its Refutation Did then the Scribes preach with the same Authority that Christ did is it not said expressly that Christ preached as one having Authority and not as the Scribes and what was the Reason of this so great a difference was not a main Reason of it that the Scribes preached barely from the Letter without Divine Inspiration but Christ preached by Divine Inspiration wherewith he was exceeding richly endued above all other men And if it should please God to send Preachers who should preach with Divine Inspiration should they not better open and expound the Scriptures and the Mysteries of the Christian Religion being inspired divinely so to do than those who presume to expound them meerly by the strength of their natural parts and human Learning Or why is it that great Schollars so accounted give so contrary Expositions to the same places of Scripture so frequently but that they want the Inspiration of the Spirit that gave them forth For as Hierome saith Epist. Paulin. 103. The Law is Spiritual and needeth Revelation that it may be understood To the second I answer 't is not Pride nor Vanity to desire the saving Inspirations of the Holy Spirit for Christ hath encouraged us to ask the Holy Spirit which is the same to our Souls as bread is unto the Body or the most nourishing Food And whereas he saith that Inspiration will add nothing to the Reputation of a mans parts who hath it I answer yea the Divine Inspiration that we plead for which is of a moral and saving Nature doth add exceedingly to a mans parts whether acquired or natural and consequently to their true and just Reputation for Grace which is a Divine Principle inspired and infused into the Soul doth sanctifie both the Soul of man and all its faculties and parts and healeth all the Souls Diseases and Disorders and consequently doth greatly improve assist and enlarge the mans parts and rational faculties who is so inspired as abundant Experience can be given both of latter and former Ages And tho' Inspiration of the Spirit of God may make Children and Ideots such as some of the Apostles were to preach or speak well yet it leaveth them not still to be Children and Ideots but by degrees doth largely replenish them both with spiritual and sometimes with a great natural understanding And doth not the Author think that Paul had a greater and nobler enlargedness of his rational faculties and the use of them in Preaching Disputing and Writing on the account of his being divinely inspired and although the inspired Man is but the Vessel to the Treasure yet