make it your business to understand it but think your business is rather to sit still and to expect the immediate teachings of the Spirit and then conclude your conceptions which first offer themselves to you to be his teachings And on the other hand conclude all rational opposition that is made against you by such as have taken pains to consider the scope and coherence of Scripture to be the issues of fleshly wisdom and carnal reason So that I know not which is more to be pitied your ignorance or your confidence but certain it is that you are to be pittied for both It is observable that when Solomon a man wiser in his generation than any of you are in yours had a promise from God of being made wise above all that were before him did not therefore think himself unconcerned in labour and diligent search to attain it but said I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdome concerning all things that are done under heaven this sore travel saith he hath God given to the Sons of men to be exercised therewith Eccles 1.13 And as he saith the blessing of the Lord maketh rich in one place so he saith the diligent hand maketh rich in another from which may fairly be collected that the blessing of God in the diligent use of due means is the way to prosper in the world And it is as true in the course of attaining to spiritual riches in understanding and grace as it is in temporals And therefore he saith again in reference to that if thou cryest after knowledge and liftest up thy voice for understanding if thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid Treasures then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God for the Lord giveth wisdome out of his mouth proceedeth knowledge and understanding that is he gives such wisdome unto men usually upon those terms forementioned Prov. 2 3 4 5 6. But your rare notions like Jacobs Venison are usually too soon too easily come by tobe right § 17. But because I would not be too tedious I shall I think in reference to the business in hand consider but one or two places of Scripture more at which you stumble unless others fall in upon occasion of discussing those And one of them is Rom. 8.14 As many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God And you suppose this comports with your wild notion of mens being guided by the internal teachings of the Spirit without outward teaching But why I pray you without outward teaching Do you not know that the whole Gospel preached by Christ and his Apostles and afterwards written is the Issue or product of the Spirit Is not all the Holy Scripture given by inspiration of God Did not the holy men of old the Prophets speak and write as they were moved by the Holy Ghost and do not you your selves say that the Scriptures cannot be understood but by the same Spirit that gave them forth by which you suppose and grant that they were given forth by the Spirit And for what end did the Holy Spirit inspire the Apostles first to preach and after that to write the Holy Doctrine of the Gospel but to teach men thereby what to beleive and how to live that they might be saved And if so are not all those who are led and guided by this Gospel which is the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit led by the Spirit of God There 's no doubt but that the Spirit by its inward operations upon the minds of men doth concur with that teaching of his which is from without by the Scriptures and by men from the Scriptures But methinks it 's wonderful I mean wonderfully absurd that you should divide the Spirits teaching and leading and oppose his inward to his outward teaching Whereas the Lord hath declared expresly that his word outwardly and Spirit shall be so conjoyned in carrying on his design of grace towards the world under the Gospel as that they shall never be separated Isa 59.21 As for me this is my Covenant with them saith the Lord my Spirit that is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy Seed nor out of the of mouth thy Seeds Seed saith the Lord from hence forth and for ever Prov. 123. By which and by other Scriptures I know assuredly that whatever inward teaching by the Spirit you pretend to yet the Holy Spirit never taught you to believe or to say that the Spirits inward teaching only without any outward teaching by the Scriptures or by men is the rule of Faith and Practice whatever other Spirit it is that taught it you the which it concerns you more than me to examine For the Spirit having said thus much by this holy man of God in this Place for he as all other Prophets spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost I am sure he hath said nothing to the contrary in any other for the word that proceeds from the Spirit of truth is not yea and nay When St. Paul said Gal. 5.18 if ye are led by the Spirit ye are not under the Law he did not mean if they were led by the inward guidance of the Spirit without the outward conduct of the Gospel but under the word Spirit here he opposeth the Gospel to the Law And his meaning was that if they gave up themselves to the conduct of the Spirit by the Gospel they should not need to make conscience still of the Ceremonies of Moses's Law as Circumcision or the like as some among them did from which he had been dehorttng them in the begining of this Chapter This Gospel is called the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus which frees those that walk after it and not after the Flesh from the Law of Sin and Death Rom. 8.1 2. And where this Gospel is received into the heart so as that it is predominant there there Christ dwells and the Spirit dwells by that word of the Gospel And thus Christ is in men the hope of Glory and thus Christ dwells in the heart by Faith by Faith in his word and those live and walk in the Light that live and walk according to this word and thus they abide in Christ that have his word abiding in them and those that abide in the Doctrine of Christ have both the Father and the Son and they are spiritually minded whose minds are powerfully influenced by the Gospel and they resist the Holy Ghost who resist that word which hath been declared by motion and inspiration from him So inseparable are the Word and Spirit in the conduct of Christians to happiness St. Paul exhorted the Ephesians to be filled with the Spirit in order to their speaking to themselves in Psalms and Hymnes and Spiritual Songs Eph. 5.18 19. and the Colossians that they
p. 115. Many may run into the practice of several outward things mentioned in the Scriptures to have been the practice of Saints in former Ages and yet not be led into the Truth for all that is but Will-Worship Imitation and Vnwarrantable Your Notion concerning your Way then thus represented is this or to this effect That God Christ the holy Spirit do by immediate Illumination of your minds and without external teaching by the Scriptures or by men shew you or reveal to you what you ought to believe and do and by their immediate motion or operation draw or perswade you to believe and practise accordingly Which Illumination or Operation you call The Light within or the Holy Anointing which teacheth all things This I take to be your sence when you say you own Scripture but not as your Teacher and that such have no need of the Scripture to teach them and that all the Children of God are taught of God and need not any other Teacher And again that God's pure Spirit is put into the inward parts to be the Rule and Guide of Life in all things and that the only perfect Rule of Conscience in the exercise to God is the Spirit of Christ and not any other thing That the Scriptures are so far from being the Rule of Faith and Practice as that the Light within is both your Warrant and Rule That the Spirit of Truth alone leads into all Truth And that the infallible Spirit of Christ gives Infallibility of judgment and discerning into all Cases and Things This then is your Method and Way Now I will shew you what is God's Method and Way which is quite different from yours The Gospel plainly declares That there shall be a Resurrection of all men after Death and a State of everlasting weal or wo in another world and that as many as believe Christ to be the Son of God and Saviour of the world and repent them of the evil they have done and sincerely obey his Laws shall by his Death which he suffered for sin receive Remission of sin and Eternal Life but that those that do not shall be punished with everlasting Destruction This Gospel this Doctrine being not knowable by men by any Natural Light in them without Divine Revelation from God Jesus Christ who came from the Bosom of the Father he revealed it himself to his Apostles and others by his Doctrine and after his Ascension into Heaven he by sending them the Holy Spirit immediately inspired them with a clear knowledge and understanding of it and so by the gift of speaking divers Languages accompanied with boldness and utterance enabled them to reveal and publish it to the world and to procure Credit to it by many Signs and Wonders which were done by them And ever since that God's way and method of bringing men to Salvation that live where the Gospel comes hath been by making known this Gospel to them by word or writing and so by the mighty Motives contained in it such as the Manifestation of God's Love in the Gift of Christ the Hopes of Eternal Life and the Fears of Eternal Death in concurrence with the Operation of his Grace and good Spirit together with the rational Evidence of the Truth of it to perswade men to believe and embrace it and to live according to it So that according to this Representation compared with that made of your Way God's Way and Method and yours greatly differ You holding that the Holy Spirit directs and perswades men what to believe and do by his own immediate working without outward teaching whereas as we say he doth it by outward teaching It is God Christ the Holy Spirit that works the saving change in men but he doth it still by the Word of the Gospel as communicated to mens minds by the Scriptures or by mens teaching the same Doctrine which is contained in the Scriptures and it is this Doctrine that is the Rule of Faith and Practice And this I doubt not to make very plain to you in opposition to your way if you will not shut your eyes And this I shall endeavour gradually step by step in certain Propositions § 3. First In the Apostles days in which there was the greatest effusion of the Holy Spirit on them and other Christians that ever hath been yet even then God's way of bringing men to believe the Gospel and to live according to it was by publishing it to men by men either by Word or Writing and evidencing it to be from God The Apostles indeed had the Gospel from Christ himself immediately as he himself had it from the Father who gave him Commandment what he should say and what he should speak It at the first began to be spoken by the Lord himself and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him as 't is said Heb. 2.4 But after Christ's Ascension others at the first received the Knowledge and Faith of the Gospel by the Ministry of the Apostles who were his Ambassadors to the world by them he made known his Salvation to the Ends of the Earth When our Saviour prayed for all other good Christians that should be in the World besides his Apostles he describes them thus viz. Such as should believe through their Word John 17.20 Neither pray I for these alone but for them also which shall believe on me through their Word And it pleased God by the foolishness of Preaching to save them that believe 1 Cor. 1.21 And so Faith cometh by Hearing saith he Rom. 10.17 By hearing of what and of whom Why by hearing the Gospel preached by such whom God sent to preach it of which mention is made in the precedent Verses The Doctrine which the Apostles preached which is the Gospel is said to be the Power of God to Salvation Rom. 1.16 And the Reason is given in ver 17 18. Because thereby the Righteousness of God is revealed from Faith to Faith That is God's method of justifying men upon condition of their believing and obeying of it and because thereby the eternal Wrath of God from Heaven is revealed against all Ungodliness and Unrighteousness of men This Revelation being from God and the things the Motives revealed being powerful Arguments to prevail with men to receive and obey the Gospel upon their doing of which they shall be saved thence it is that 't is called The Power of God to Salvation not excluding the concurrent Operation of God's Spirit upon the heart by it This being so your Leaders manifest a strange degree of Vnlearnedness in the things of the Gospel when they deny saving Grace to be wrought by the outward Administration of the Word or Teaching by man as they do when they attribute it to God alone as his immediate Work and all because the Scripture attributes it to God to Christ to the Holy Spirit Whereas nothing is more common than to attribute the same Effect sometimes to one Cause sometimes to another when there is
sort poured out on them that believed their Prophesie likewise as now it was upon those that received the Apostles Doctrine And therefore such a thing as this was foretold by the Prophets as peculiar to the coming of the Messias and as that by which he might be known to be come when the event of such Predictions took place even as it came to pass here The Prediction Joel 2.28 was that in the last days the Spirit should be poured out upon all flesh in the last days that is in the last days of the Jewish State or Common-wealth as may be evinced by the Context in which Christ came as was foretold by his Prophets in which time also the Spirit was poured out in miraculous gifts and operations as a testimony that the Messias was come The Holy Spirit in the effects of it in these extraordinary gifts and operations is called the testifying of Christ or the witness which he bore touching his being the true Messiah and Saviour of the world John 15.26 27. But when he the Comforter is come even the Spirit of Truth he shall testifie of me and ye also Apostles shall bear witness because ye ye have been with me from the beginning And again 1 John 5.6 This is he that came by water and blood and it is the Spirit that beareth witness because the Spirit is truth John 16.8 And when he the Comforter is come he will convince the world of sin because they believe not on me saith Christ of Righteousness because I go to my Father was taken up into heaven and of Judgment because the Prince of this world is judged the Devil dethroned and cast down as he was when the Mouths of his Oracles were stopped and the Idol-Temples shut up and his Kingdom and Rule demolished by the preaching of the Gospel among the Heathen accompanied with these Miraculous Effects of the Spirit which bore down all before it as it were and therefore this is called the Demonstration of the Spirit and Power as opposed to Humane Oratory among Heathen Philosophers and the way of Humane Demonstration 1 Cor. 2.4 This wonderful effusion of the Spirit in miraculous Gifts was that Baptism of the Spirit we read of which you with some others have in these days vainly pretended to under another Notion of being baptized with the Spirit But if you will but compare Mat. 3.11 and Acts 1.5 with Act. 2.3 4. and 11.15 16. you may easily discern your Error in applying it to any thing but to that extraordinary and miraculous effusion of the Spirit By all this you may see how one Scripture falls in with and explains another if you will but take hold of a right Notion of the end for which the plentiful effusion of the Spirit was foretold and promised Which was not to guide all Christians by its inward motions without outward teaching but to enable some to teach the right Faith and Life to others even to those of other Tongues in their own Language and to confirm their Doctrine thereby and by other operations of the Spirit to be from God And these extraordidary effects of the Spirit were greatly necessary to accompany the first promulgation and planting of the Gospel in the world to procure credit to it belief of it from the Jews who otherwise would not have been taken off from their old way of Levitical Ceremonial worship which they had received from God and from the Gentile-Nations who otherwise would not have been taken off from their Idolatrous and Superstitious way of Worship in which they had been deeply rooted by long and ancient Tradition received from their Forefathers And therefore St. Paul saith as was observed before that Tongues that is the gift of speaking divers Tongues on a sudden are a sign not to them that believe but to them that believe not 1 Cor. 14.22 As the giving of the Law by Moses was accompanied with Signs and Wonders which were wrought by Moses both before and after the first promulgation of it to procure belief from the Jews that he was sent of God and that the Law given by him was from God So it was as necessary that the first promulgation of the Gospel by the Son of God himself and by those that were immediately sent by him should be for the same reason accompanied with more and greater Miracles and Wonders than those wrought by Moses were as Christ himself was greater than Moses and as the abrogation of the Old and the giving of the New Law was more than the giving of the Law only when there was no promulgate Law before in being And therefore our Saviour said of the Jews that would not receive his Doctrine but still stuck to the Letter of the Law of Moses If I had not done among them the works which none other man hath done they had not had sin John 15.24 And as it was not necessary to continue those or the like Miracles and Wonders in the Jewish Church after the Law had been well established by them but that the Law being once committed to writing might be as it was their standing Rule of Worship and Conversation Even so after the Gospel had received a sufficient attestation to be from God by the continuance of those miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost in the Church for some time till the Doctrine and History of the Gospel were committed to writing and those Writings owned as Authentick Records every where by the Church in all known parts of the world it was then no more necessary as the event shews to perpetuate Miracles in the Christian Church for the confirmation of the Gospel than it was to perpetuate them in the Jewish for the ratification of the Law but that the Doctrine and History of the Gospel in Books of the New Testament should be of like use to Christians as the Law and Prophets in Books was to the Jews of old The Prophets of old who though they were extraordinarily inspired did all along in their time call the Jews to obedience to the written Law of Moses and to Repentance for transgressing that And when prophesying in this sence was to cease from among them for several Ages God by Malachy the last of those Prophets gave it in charge to that People to remember the written Law of Moses as that by which they were to govern themselves Remember saith he the Law of Moses my Servant which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel with the Statutes and Judgments Mal. 4.4 And it was foretold by Moses concerning Christ that a Prophet should be raised up by God like unto him Deut. 18.15 18. And although Christ that Prophet was unlike unto Moses in many other things wherein our Lord excelled him yet he was truly like unto him in this viz. in that he as Mediator gave forth the Evangelical Law at his Appearance in the world as that which was to be the standing Rule unto Christians throughout the whole duration of
all thoughts and conceits of high attainments in the things of God they would repent and do their first works and begin as it were again at the first Principles of the Doctrine of Christ and so lay their Foundation a new in the beginning work of Christians Also that they would frame their Notions and apprehensions of things absolutely necessary to Salvation according to that plainness in which they are expressed in Scripture not affecting nor entertaining Mystical Notions of them More particularly that they would furnish their minds with right apprehensions of the person of Christ as Son of God and Son of the Virgin Mary and of the Nature of his Mediatory Office That as Priest he offered himself in Sacrifice to expiate Sin by his Death and in vertue thereof makes continual Intercession for us That as Prophet he revealed and declared the New Covenant of Salvation That as King he hath given Laws to the World and that he doth Rule and Govern his Church through his Spirit by those Laws and that at last he will try and judg all men by them that have lived under them and that he will reward all with eternal happiness or endless torments according as they have been obedient or disobedient to them That they be careful also that their Notions of the New Covenant be according to the plain Doctrine of the Gospel in the Scriptures Particularly That it consists of two parts of Promises and of conditions of those Promises Also that the Promises of it are made upon account and for the sake of Christ his undertaking as Mediator That the great and special Promises of it are pardon of sin or justification the assistance of God's Spirit in our endeavouring to perform the condition and eternal Life That the condition on which these Promises are made are Faith in Christ Repentance sincere Obedience and the craving of the assistance of God's Spirit in the use of appointed means and our endeavours to perform the condition That they be careful also to form right Notions of the nature of the condition on our part on which the Promises of the New-Covenant are made As that no Faith short of such a belief in Christ and of his Doctrine as worketh unfeigned Repentance and sincere Obedience is justifying and saving That no Repentance short of a desire resolution and endeavour to forsake all known sin is saving Repentance That no Obedience short of a desire resolution and a continued endeavour to observe all the Laws of Christ without baulking any one of them when known to be such is sincere That no Faith no Repentance no Obedience short of these as thus described is a fulfilling of the condition of the Promises of Salvation in the Covenant of Grace As these great things of the Gospel are in Scripture expressed in great plainness so great care must be had to keep close to and to hold fast the form of sound words according to which they are so declared not affecting any Notion Phrase or Expression which makes them more hard to be understood by common capacities than they are by the very Letter of the Scriptures but when other expressions are used than what are in the Letter of the Text as its necessary there should sometimes especially in explaining metaphors and Idioms of Speech proper to the times and places in which the Scriptures were written they should be such and so used as may give a clearer insight into the Nature of the things themselves than without them can well be had carefully avoiding to take words properly which are spoken metaphorically or to be led by the meer sound of words but to take the measure of the sence of them by the scope and design of the Author since words of the same sound are not always of the same signification § 24. And now after I have laid things before you which are very apt in their own Nature to rectifie you in one of your grand and fundamental mistakes especially if invincible prejudice hinder not I should be very sorry to think or suspect that what is done herein should turn to no better account than to be a witness against you in that great day in which every mans work will be tryed of what sort it is And therefore to prevent that I cannot for your sakes and for the longing I have after your salvation but earnestly perswade you to give things purposely prepared to serve you a due consideration in your minds and not to pass over such things slightly as wherein your eternal Estate is much concern'd Remember that Heresie is one of those works of the Flesh which shut Men out of the Kingdom of God Gal. 5.20 21. And considering the Nature and bad influence of several of your opinions and with what pertinaciousness you persist in them it s greatly feared not to say confidently believed by such as are jealous over you with a Godly jealousie that many of you at least lye under no less guilt than that of grand Heresie And do you not then owe all seriousness of consideration to what is offered to rescue you from so great a danger Doubtless you do Let not then the height of your confidence to the contrary deceive you For it is not the greatness of your confidence that will in the least alter the nature of things or make them bend to your humour You are not the first that have been as confident as confidence it self could make them that they had fast hold of Truth when all the while it hath been but a lye they have had in their right hand But the more confident you are in your way you are like to be so much the more surprized with amazement when in another World you shall find yourselves to have been mistaken in that of which you are now so strongly confident in this if you should be so unhappy as to carry such mistaken confidence with you thither without a pardon Which that you may not is I assure you all the hurt that is designed you in this Address And therefore let me tell you again that it will be your wisdom much rather to bestow your thoughts and pains in labouring to find out whether you be not indeed under a delusion than in darkning of words without knowledge in labouring to obscure to your selves and others the evidence of Truth offered which clearly tends to your conviction FAREWEL THE END POSTSCRIPT THere being some vacant Leaves and because I have not so plainly represented the nature of Faith which is the condition of the New Covenant as I have the other parts of it in my advice touching a right Notion of the Nature of the Mediatory Office and of the Covenant of Grace I shall for these and other Reasons add a short hint of the help which the Scripture doth offer us herein When St. John saith Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God 1 John 5.1 and again Who is he that overcometh the World