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
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
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.
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
Miracle nor do we read that he spoke any Tongue but that which was common to the Iews And it is yet more unreasonable and unequal not to believe us unless we have all the miraculous Gifts of the spirit as if some were not sufficient if so we had them Surely few Churches or Persons had all the miraculous Gifts of the spirit even when they were most common And though we pretend not to those miraculous Gifts of the spirit such as speaking with Tongues healing the sick raising the dead c. yet the absence or not having any of these miraculous Gifts cannot prove that we are not otherwise divinely inspired for there are common divine Inspirations necessary to all true Christians which are of a saving Nature where they are received in Faith and Love whose peculiar and proper quality is to sanctifie those who are inspired with them and consequently are of a moral Nature the which sort of Divine Inspirations being of a different kind from these which were Miraculous that is easie to understand how the miraculous and peculiar sort of Inspirations ceasing those other of a Moral consideration do remain the which though outwardly they are not Miraculous yet inwardly they are as performing the greater Miracles for to raise the soul from Death to Life and to heal the Diseases of the soul is a greater Miracle than to raise or heal the Body A third Condition he requireth of us before we can be believed to have the spirit is That we receive what the Apostle hath written in particular that a Woman should not speak in the Church as the Commandments of God To this I answer that we do receive what the Apostle hath written as the Commandments of God when it doth appear that what he writeth is such But some things he said he wrot by permission and not by commandment And as concerning Womens speaking in the Church he doth not deliver it as an Universal Commandment that did admit no Restriction or Limitation otherwise he had contradicted his own words elsewhere in prescribing an Order to Women that their Heads be covered when they did Pray or Prophesie which to be sure was in the Church for as to private or mental Prayer no such Order is required 1 Cor. 11.5 And whereas Paul said I permit not a Woman to speak in the Church it is easie to be understood in what case that was viz. to dispute or ask Questions in the Church which was permitted unto Men and Children both among the Jews and primitive Christians but not unto Women yet did not this restrain Women to speak either in Prayer or Prophesie when they were divinely inspired so to do for both the Scripture and Church-History informs us how Women did Prophesie and Pray in the Church But this being a digression which the Author introduceth to little purpose here I shall not insist on it CHAP. III. AND now as to his Arguments or rather one bare Argument to prove that Divine Inspiration which he calleth Enthusiasm is ceased in the true Church and among true Christians I shall first produce what he saith in his own words pag. 21 22. which is the sum of all he hath said in his whole Sermon Now this reason saith he is to be taken from the wants and necessities of the Primitive Church whose Infant-state required that God should assist her with the Miraculous Gifts of the Spirit till the Gospel was sufficiently Preached about the Empire the Scriptures of the New Testament compleated the Temple-worship abolished among the Jews Idolatry destroyed among the Gentiles and both were united together under Christ into one Communion or Catholick Church And this is the sum of all the Reasons or Reason he giveth why Divine Inspirations were given to the Church in the Apostles days and for some time after and why they are ceased since as being necessary to the Churches of former times but not to the Churches of the later Now the whole force of all this Argument if all were conceded which he layeth down in the Premisses doth not conclude as concerning the Miraculous kind of Divine Inspirations wherewith they who were so miraculously inspired did spake with strange Tongues cure Diseases and the like But nothing of all this Authors Reasons doth conclude against the other sort of Divine Inspirations which were not for working any outward Miracles but were of a Moral Nature whose direct Tendency and service was to beget the true Knowledge Faith and Love of God and other Evangelical Vertues in the hearts and souls of the Ispired and also to preserve and nourish them in order to a perfect growth And that there were such Inspirations of the Spirit of God which were of a Moral Nature is clear not only from the Scripture-Testimony in abundant places but also from the Common Prayer of the Church of England already cited And seeing the Author himself granteth the necessity of saving Gifts and Operations of the Spirit in all true Believers how can these Operations of the Spirit be understood without Inspiration for how can the Spirit be suppose to operate or work any Divine effect in the Souls of Believers but as he inspireth them with his Light and Life and other divine Vertues To Inspire signifyeth nothing else but to in-breath or to breath into the Soul any Divine Vertue whatsoever and therefore that Operation or Motion of the Divine Spirit whereby he quickens the Soul that once was dead and makes it alive unto God is very properly called Inspiration or In-breathing yea from this sort of operation it is that the Spirit hath its name whether in Latin Greek or Hebrew and signifieth a Breathing so that Spiration or Inspiration may well deserve to be the common and general name of all the various kinds of the Spirits Operations in the Souls of men and especially in Believers according to the words of Christ Iohn 3.8 The Spirit breatheth or inspireth where he willeth for so the words may be translated and so did the Fathers so call'd generally understand them And we know that the occasion of Christs speaking these words was his Discourse with Nicodemus about the Regeneration or spiritual new Birth as intimating plainly unto us that the Spirits Inspiration or in breathing into the Soul is necessary unto its Regeneration This is that breath or breathing of the Spirit which Ezekiel saw come upon the dead and dry bones which made them to live the same that made Adam a living Soul of whom it is said that God breathed into him Nismah Chaim the Breath or Inspiration of life and he became a living soul and indeed it is the Inspiration of life that maketh the Soul of any man that truly liveth unto God a living soul is as necessary to the Souls spiritual Life as the breathing of the Air is unto the Life of the Body And as the Breath or Inspiration of the Spirit of God and Christ quickneth the dead Soul and raiseth a
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
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
DIVINE Immediate Revelation AND INSPIRATION Continued in the True CHURCH Second Part. In Two TREATISES The First being an Answer to Io. W. Bajer Doctor and Professor of Divinity so called at Iena in Germany Published first in Latine and now in English The Second being an Answer to George Hicks stiled Doctor of Divinity his Sermon Preached at Oxford 1681. and Printed with the Title of The Spirit of Enthusiasm Exorcised where this pretended Exorcist is Detected Together with some Testimonies of Truth Collected out of diverse Ancient Writers and Fathers so called By G. K. The Second EDITION London Printed in the Year 1685. A PREFACE To the Friendly and Well-wishing READER THE thing which I principally treat of in this my Answer to John W. Bajer c. is of Divine Immediate Revelation and Inspiration its continuance in the Church of God in all Ages and of the good Consistency and Harmony of it with the frequent and diligent use of the Holy Scriptures and all other true means The which is a Theme or Subject very necessary and profitable to be handled And therefore I have somewhat more largely treated of many things belonging to my intended purpose than a particular Answer to the foresaid Writer did require regarding herein a more general profiting of the people into whose hands by Divine Providence this Treatise may come Although nothing I hope is omitted which shall seem needful to a particular Answer But the common Advantage and Benefit of many to whom I might be serviceable by this kind of Writing was more before myeyes than a striek Method of answering to every particular For to overcome an Adversary in particulars doth little contribute to the Victory or gaining the Cause that is in Controversie if at any time he be overcome it will be said that he hath badly defended his Cause and nevertheless of his fall or overthrow the Cause is still judged to stand and remain untouched I have therefore more regarded the Cause or thing in Controversie than the Adversary And therein by the Grace of God assisting me I have laboured to show and demonstrate the good and excellent consistency and Harmony of Divine Immediate Revelation and Inspiration with the frequent and diligent use of the Holy Scriptures and of all other true means For I did observe that this was the greatest and almost the only prejudice and impediment that did prevail in the minds of many against Divine inward and Immediate Revelation and Inspiration that this principle being once granted and believed the use of the holy Scripture and other means shall be abandoned and laid aside and so by this stratagem or device the people under the pretence of Spiritual Illumination and Revelation shall be led into gross and extream ignorance This is that therefore for which I chiefly labour in this Treatise that I may remove and lay aside and quite take off that great prejudice of mind that is in many people and that both Divine Immediate Revelation and Inspiration may be established and the frequent and diligent use of the Holy Scripture whether in Reading or Hearing or Preaching or Meditating or Praying or Thangksiving and of all other true means truly appointed of God may be Confirmed And indeed true Divine Immediate Revelation and Inspiration of the Holy Spirit is so far from making void or rendring useless and unprofitable the use and exercise of the Holy Scriptures or of any other true means that on the contrary it is the only thing that makes the use of them effectual and profitable For why is it that so much Reading Preaching Hearing Praying c. in the use and exercise of the Holy Scripture is so altogether unprofitable unto the greatest part of men but because they have departed from that Divine and Holy Spirit of God that where it is received doth inwardly and immediately Inlighten and Inspire them and have rejected it as unnecessary and unprofitable And hence it is that such gross ignorance of God and Divine things even in the daily use and exercise of the Holy Scriptures doth almost every where reign and prevail among those called Christians But on the other hand they who imbrace this principle of Divine Inspiration and inward Immediate Revelation with true and sincere faith and according unto their faith duly and carefully attend and watch unto or wait for the Holy Spirit to inlighten and inspire them and sincerely do study in all things chastly and purely to obey his holy Precepts and Admonitions and Divine Motions they do abundantly witness the said Holy Spirit to open and inlighten their understanding to understand the Holy Scriptures when they hear them or read them or meditate upon them and exercise their reason or rational faculties in a sober and moderate way under a due subjection to the Spirit of God in these or any other profitable things and also they feel and perceive their hearts and affections led and drawn by the Holy Spirit yea kindled and inflamed thereby to love the Testimonies and Oracles of the Holy Scriptures and to value or esteem them above all the Riches Delights and Honours of the World whereby it comes to pass that in reading or hearing them and meditating on them when they are not reading nor hearing they find great delight and profit themselves very much in the frequent and diligent use of the Scripture the Holy Spirit leading them unto the same and inlightning them in order to the increasing and promoting holiness of life Now many fall into dangerous and damnable extreams some on the right and some on the left hand On this hand these fall who seem to imbrace the letter of the Scripture but reject and cast off the Spirit of God which only and alone maketh it effectual and profitable and on this side most of these called Christians at present do miserably transgress and deceive themselves and are miserably deceived by their blind Teachers and Guides who depreciate and cry down this most holy and most profitable gift of the Divine Spirit and Light and labour to render it among the People as a vile and hurtful thing But wo wo to these blind Guides and Teachers whosoever in the day of the Lord unless they timely and seriously repent And on the other hand too many although fewer in number then the former under a pretence of following the Spirit inwardly do either altogether or at least too much neglect and lay aside and cast off the use and exercise of the Holy Scriptures and of other good and true means appointed them of God And this neglect doth not at all proceed from the Holy Spirit as if that could or did in the least move them unto the same but cometh from their ignorance and want of knowledge and also from loftiness of mind and Spiritual Pride of all which they must also repent that they may be saved and come to walk in the way of Salvation but they who under the specious pretext of the Spirit
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
said mean but suspendeth and withdraweth its concourse and influence that is requisite to the producing the effect aright Now the continued mean or medium hindereth not that the action or operation of the principal and primary Cause be said to be immediate Hence Immediate is as much as to be in medio i. e. in the mean and therefore when God is said to be in the midst of the faithful so that by his presence in the midst of them or he mediating and intervening they perform all their works he is rightly and properly said immediately to work in them and to inspire and inlighten them Now that the continued mean hinders not the immediate operation of the principal Cause many examples might be produced to show it I shall give an instance in some few which follow The Sun doth immediately inlighten our eyes and shine upon the visible objects and yet it doth this by means of the Air and sometimes by means of the Chrystal or Glass of the Window But because the Air and Glass or other diaphanous and transparent mediums are continued with the Suns illumination the said illumination is immediate and is commonly acknowledged so to be Again when the Husbandman laboureth in his field using many means as Ploughing Digging Sowing Watering or Reaping and Gathering his Corn the Sun doth immediately inlighten him and shine upon his labours by vertue and assistance of which illumination he still laboureth Here we see the making use of many means doth not hinder the immediate illumination and operation of the Sun upon the Husbandman and his labours but all these means and the use of them doth very well agree with the Suns immediate illumination and as it were Revelation and the one is perfited and established by the other For as the labouring and using these outward means cannot be rightly performed and do not profit or avail without the Suns influence and operation so unless the said Husbandman doth labour in his Field Plow Dig Sow and perform other necessary actions for the labouring his ground the Suns illumination or operation although immediate shall little avail him Another example I shall give in the daily mutual conversation of men one with another When one man speaks to another face to face they both hear and see each other immediately and yet this hearing and seeing of one another is not without the use and intervening of many means or mediums for both the voice and image of those men immediately so conversing are conveyed from one to another not only by means of the Air but also of many Organs of the Eyes and Ears It now remaineth to apply these examples or similitudes to the present purpose of Immediate Revelation and the Illumination of the Holy Spirit Do not our Adversaries grant that God doth so inlighten the minds and inward eyes of the Faithful with his Light and Illumination who is the inward spiritual and invisible Sun of the Soul as the outward and worldly Sun doth inlighten our outward eyes I suppose this they will grant Again Is not God who is the light and life of the Faithful as closely and intimately present or rather indeed much more present with his people as the outward Sun is to our Body and outward Man Doth not the Spirit of God which is of a most subtle and penetrating nature and his Light Life and Virtue more perfectly go through and penetrate all means than the outward illumination of the Sun can penetrate or pierce through the Air or most clear and transparent Glass or Chrystal Is not God most inwardly present in all his Creatures and most near and close unto them Is he not more near unto us than all means however so near But it may be answered that God worketh in us using many and various means as reading of the Scriptures Preaching Hearing Meditation Prayer sometimes one and sometimes another and at other times divers joyned together This is granted but all this hinders not that the operation and illumination of God in the use of those means is immediate For if the use of all means in every respect be taken away in Gods instructing teaching inspiring and inlightning men I know not if it can be proved clearly that any man whether Prophet or Apostle was immediately inlightned or inspired by the Holy Spirit with special Revelation For besides that many of the Prophets were taught of God by the means and ministry of Angels and that Iohn the Apostle had his Visions of the Revelation when he was banished into the Isle of Patmos by means of an Angel sent by Christ unto him what Prophet or Apostle ever was of God or of Christ but made use of means Was not Prayer sometimes both Mental and Vocal sometimes only Mental a general and universal Mean which both Prophets and Apostles used and that frequently to obtain their Divine Inspirations and Revelations Do we not read how Moses besought the Lord that he might see his glory the which most sweet and blessed Vision he obtained by means of his prayer and the same is to be understood of the other Prophets And did not the Apostles continue with one accord in prayer at a certain place betwixt the time of Christ his ascending into heaven and the giving of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost And did they not obtain that most excellent gift of the Holy Spirit by means of their prayer And did not Cornelius and his Friends receive the Holy Spirit by means of Peter his Preaching and the like did frequently come to pass to the Primitive Disciples by means of the Apostles Preaching and laying on of their hands Did not Christ inspire the Apostles immediately before his Ascension by means of his outward Preaching unto them and laying his hands on them Did not the Apostles Minister one to another after they had received the Holy Spirit of the word of Life and did edifie and build up one another Had not the Prophets of old Schools and there did Prophesie and Preach and Pray and by using these means the Gift and Spirit of Prophesie came upon many Hearers immediately Surely few or none of the Prophets or Apostles but at times were outwardly taught Adam the first Prophet instructed Abel and Seth Seth instructed his Children and they again their children at least some of them until Noah and Noah instructed some of his Posterity and they again of theirs until Abraham for without all controversie both Abraham and Moses learned some things by outward teaching from their Forefathers of God and Divine Things which yet did not hinder but that they also were immediately inspired and taught of God themselves yea the outward teaching did further them and by its virtue did prepare their minds to receive their Divine Inspirations But put the case that some of them did not hear any thing taught them outwardly by mans voice as in the case of Adam when he was alone Did he or they therefore use no means
Religion which is a special Religion more perfect and excellent than the General and perfiting the said General Religion in true Christians are made known unto us by the Scripture means the Holy Spirit inwardly inlightning and inspiring us that we may understand the Doctrines declared in the Scripture and may savingly apply them with true and sincere Faith to the salvation of our souls And what more any can require of us to establish the due use of the Scripture or of any other means I do not understand And as concerning the aforesaid experimental and sensible knowledge of God that is only manifest or obvious to the inward and supreme sences and powers of the Soul as they are opened and awakened in us by the work of Regeneration and Renewing of the Holy Ghost although the Scripture words do not immediately concur in the formal act of such a Divine and Intuitive Knowledge as the words of a mans name do not make me see the man yet the Scriptures do witness abundantly concerning such an experimental and spiritually sensible knowledge of God which is perceived in a most inward union and communion of the Soul with God and in a certain Intellectual or spiritual contact or touch of which not only Plato and Plotin and others among those called Philosophers but the Apostles among the Christians have largely made mention And after the Apostles Athanasius Gregory Nazianzen Clemens Alexandrinus Origen and many others among the Grecians and Augustine and Ierome with many others many Ages ago among the Latines and in latter Ages Bernard Thauler and Thomas a Kempis and the Author of the German Theology unto whose Book Luther did write a Preface and did much commend it All these and generally these called Mysticks and Writers upon Mystick Divinity so called do Preach and hold forth a certain Knowledge of God which is received without all words by a certain inward gust taste and touch and inward feeling of God and Divine Things in the souls and hearts of those who have attained unto that due state and degree of purity and holiness requisite in order to such a knowledge and enjoyment And hence it is that they distinguish Theology or the knowledge of God into discursive on the one hand and mystick or intuitive and contemplative on the other and they say the former is had or received by words and verbal discourses syllogisms propositions premisses and conclusions gathered and collected from Scripture which yet without the Spirits inward illumination and operation is not effectual to the salvation of those who have it but that this latter is obtained by a naked and simple perception and intuition of God and Divine Things as the mind is purified and cleansed and denuded as it were from all images and similitudes or signs of words or outward things whatsoever That we may therefore put a conclusion to the forming the state of the controversie aright which is the most principal thing if the question be made concerning doctrinal and discursive Theology or knowledge which require words propositions definitions reasons arguments and conclusions we shall readily grant that the Scriptures are a General Principle of the same but Secundary the Holy Spirit inwardly inlightning and inspiring mens souls and hearts being still the Primary and Principal and that by means of the Scriptures in reading and hearing and meditating upon them and as they are preached and opened and used by men spiritually gifted and fitted of God we attain to the knowledge of the said discursive and doctrinal Theology and most especially the Scriptures are of service unto us when we turn or convert the words of them that do most nearly respect Holiness of Life and Manners such as the precepts and examples of Christian Vertues into good works and deeds and into a good and Christian Life But in the experimental and mystick or intuitive and contemplative Theology not the Scripture words but the things themselves signified by the words to wit God Christ the Holy Spirit the Life Light and Power of God the Love Peace and Joy of God and the Kingdom of God which Christ did testifie to be within us reveal and demonstrate themselves to the souls and hearts of the faithful by themselves nakedly in their own proper and native light glory and evidence without words even as the outward things and riches of this visible world and the beauty glory and vertue of them reveal and discover themselves unto our outward senses without words and far beyond the force or reach of words And if outward things without words are continually presented to our outward senses it followeth that inward things to wit the things of the Divine and Heavenly Kingdom which is in us are presented to our inward and spiritual senses without words seeing these inward and spiritual things are as near to our souls yea much nearer ' as those outward things are to our bodies And thus the state of the Controversie being rightly framed and brought to a period I shall have little difficulty to answer the following Paragraphs or Sections of the Adversary seeing in all things almost he goeth without or beyond the state of the Controversie and so contendeth not so much against us or R. B. as his own shadow or thoughts CHAP. VI. WHat the Adversary saith in his Ninth and Tenth Paragraphs are of the same tendency with the things he had formerly mentioned belonging to the state of the Controversie In his Eleventh Paragraph he saith the Controversie is not of any sort of Revelation but that of Immediate And in his Twelfth he affirmeth that Revelation considered in it self doth prescind or abstract from that which is Immediate and Mediate And he assenteth unto R. B. his five Propositions pag. 9. of his Apology and that Divine Revelations remain to be the formal object of the Saints Faith but he denyeth them to be Immediate To whom I answer that he granteth with us That he inward illuminations and operations of the Holy Spirit are altogether necessary to beget true and saving Faith in men and that these inward illuminations are objective or by way of Object Par. 32. and Par. 34. So that the act of Faith is occupied or exercised and doth finally stay in God himself revealing as the Object And what he subjoyneth That God revealing as the formal Object in whom the Vnderstanding stayeth or resteth and the Divine Revelation consisting of the external signs are not to be opposed Because when God the revealer by outward words Preached or Writ moveth the Vnderstanding to acknowledge them to be as a Divine Revelation it cannot be denyed that the Vnderstanding doth so rest in God revealing as the formal Object So that it doth also regard these signs depending on God by which that Revelation doth consist meaning the words All this is granted both by me and R. B. yea that is it for which R. B. pleadeth viz. that God inwardly illuminating and moving the Understanding to the assent of 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
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
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
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
an Infallible Knowledge and Faith of all such things as are absolutely necessary to Salvation But as to other things he may err if he be not duly watchful to follow the infallible Guidance of Gods Holy Spirit But if this Author thinketh he has no infallible Faith or Knowledge of any part or Doctrine of Religion he is a meer Sceptick and Unbeliever for all true Faith is Infallible that which is fallible is but meer opinion and conjecture His second Instance is as weak and impertinent as the former viz. That the Principle of Immediate Revelation and Inspiration utterly overthrows the authority of the Scriptures and makes them an useless Rule of Faith But to this I answer nay but on the contrary the Doctrine of Inspiration and Revelation its remaining in the Church doth not overthrow but establish the authority of the Scriptures and maketh them most useful both for a Rule of Faith and Manners in subordination unto the Holy Spirit And surely had this Author well minded his former concessions he would not have made such an absurd Inference for he hath granted that Inspirations and Revelations did remain for several ages in the primitive Church after the Apostles days and that the Scriptures were written before that time and yet I suppose he will not say that the Revelations and Inspirations which the Christians then had did overthrow the Scriptures or render them useless He might with the same absurd way of Reasoning say That the Scriptures of the Old Testament their authority was overthrown by the Writings of the Evangelists and Apostles under the New Testament or that one Prophets writing did overthrow the Writing of another Prophet that did go before him which is most absurd Paul who had abundant Inspirations and Revelations did not despise the Scriptures but regarded their authority and used them both to his own and his Brethrens comfort and edification His third Instance is That it hath cashired the use of the Sacraments But this is like the Papists way of proceeding against the Protestants who to render them more obnoxious to the malice of the Ignorant cry out against the Protestants for cashiring no less than five or rather six of the holy Sacraments of the Catholick Church For whereas the Church of Rome holdeth that there are seven Sacraments she blameth the Protestants for cash ring five of them totally and the sixth almost if not altogether also to wit that of the Eucharist so called the Protestants making that which the Priest or Minister giveth to the people but a figure or sign which to be sure is not any Gospel mystery for the figures belonged to the Law and ceased with them and the substance is come in the room of them which we acknowledge And whether it is more dangerous and hurtful to say that a Figure Sign or Ceremony is ceased which was not appointed to continue till the end of the World or to say that Divine Inspiration whereby the Soul liveth unto God and Divine Revelation whereby it only knoweth God aright is ceased let all sober and impartial men judge But as to this debate of the Sacraments because it is a digression I shall not enlarge His fourth Instance is That it hath annulled the Ministerial Orders But this is as unjust a charge as any of the former and doth much more justly reflect upon the Author himself who hath plainly said that not only the Orders of Apostles and Prophets but also of Evangelists Pastors and Teachers all which were Ministerial Orders mentioned Eph. 4. are ceased in the Church The which if so it may be fairly quered according to this Authors Hypothesis and Doctrine that all Inspiration is ceased which yet the Church of England and the Common-Prayer alloweth whether this Author hath not excluded himself from all the Ministerial Orders mentioned in Eph. 4. because he saith They are all ceased And that he cannot find any Ministerial Order mentioned in the New Testament but what was accompanied with Inspiration whereby they both Preached and Prayed And seeing he hath denied Inspiration which the Liturgy of the Church of England owneth and she prayeth for whether this Authors manner of Preaching and Praying be not more contrary to the Liturgy of the Church of England in this very respect than that of the people called in derision Quakers and so whether he hath not brought himself and his Hearers more deservedly under the censure of the Law than the Quakers in this respect have done These two Queries I desire the Author plainly and without all shifting or subterfuge to answer But to the matter in hand Divine Immediate Revelations and Inspirations cannot any more annul but indeed they do confirm all the Ministerial Orders appointed of God than they did in the primitive times For when Immediate Revelatiations and Inspirations did greatly abound in the Church as this Author confesseth the Ministerial Orders remained and were the more confirmed and therefore they are so still Next his Instances failing he proceedeth to sinistrous and unjust Insinuations against us as that the principle of Inspiration can effectually convert the Professors of it into downright Popery consequently with their own Principles for they have nothing more to do than to say that the Spirit hath told them that the Church of Rome is the only true Church To this I answer It is impossible the Holy Spirit whom with all true Christians we profess to guide us into all truth according to the Scriptures can ever tell us any such thing because both the Holy Spirit wihin and the Holy Scripture without doth plainly tell us that no Church holding such corrupt Doctrines and Practises is or can be a true Church and the Spirits testimony cannot contradict it self and as Paul said is not yea and nay but remains the same How much more justly may this be retorted upon many who are Enemies to Inspiration and have pretended the Church they were of was the true Church and yet by some motive of Gain or Fear have changed to another Church and way pretending that their Reason or Scripture hath told them their former way was wrong which yet is no just Reflection either on Reason or Scripture For as a false pretence to Reason and Scripture doth not make void their true use so no more doth a false pretence to the Holy Spirit if any should so do render the use thereof void or ineffectual His last Insinuation is as unfair and unjust as any of the former As this Doctrine saith he was first privately sowed among us by Popish Emissaries so hath it been published in our and other Countries by those who were Papists as by Ro. Barclay who was bred in the Scottish Covent at Paris and Labbade a Jesuit defrocquet That the Doctrine of Immediate Revelation was first privately sowed in England by Popish Emissaries we know to be a false Insinuation and as for his Proof which is a meer citation of the bare name and title of a
Book called Foxes and Fire-brands pag. 15. c. printed 1680. What ground of Proof can such a bare citation be without naming the Author or giving a sufficient Evidence of his Fidelity How many Lyes are to be found in printed Books If bearly to name the Title of a Book without regarding or giving sufficient Evidence of the Authors Fidelity be proof enough against a Doctrine or Person who shall or can escape Innocent It were easie to show how the Jesuits are as great enemies to Immediate Revelation and Inspiration as necessary to every true Christian for the foundation of their Faith as any people in the World or as this Author as doth clearly enough appear out of Bellarmin a great Jesuit who disputeth against this way of resolving or building our Faith and pleadeth for the Tradition of the Church in opposition to all inward Inspiration and calleth them mad men who lean to any Spirit within them which he saith is often fallacious and ever uncertain Nor were it a hard thing to prove that the Doctrine of Inspiration hath been preached and believed both in England and elsewhere before either the Name or Order of Jesuits was in the World And as to his Insinuation concerning R. Barclay unless he can prove that he remained a Papist when he did publish among many others that Doctrine he saith nothing to the matter It can easily be showed that divers Bishops and Teachers in the Protestant Church have had their Education at Popish Schools yea Luther himself was a Popish Monk and bred at a Popish University and some of the present Bishops and Teachers in Britain have had a Popish Education which yet will not argue they are still Papists How many are quite of other Perswasions than what they had by Education And as for R. B. what Education he had among Papists was but when a Child or Boy where he learned only some Latin and Grammar and what he received of their Leaven even in his young and tender years while yet but a youth he renounced and the Lord opened his Eyes to see and acknowledge the Truth whereof I can give better Testimony having well known him from that very time than this Author can against him And I ask the Author Was it any prejudice or derogation to the Christian Religion that Paul a zealous Preacher of it was bred among the Pharisees if not the Authors Argument being of the same sort evanisheth As for Labbade as he was no Quaker so called so whatever formerly he was to be sure he was then no Jesuit but hated and persecuted by them In pag. 40. he falls on with a fresh assault to accuse the Doctrine of the Quakers so called concerning a Spiritual Ministry and Spiritual Worship for being blasphemous but if this be blasphemy to own a spiritual Ministry and Worship at this rate he may accuse the Apostles yea Christ himself as blasphemous which is most absurd and blasphemous so to affirm who were for a Spiritual Ministry Iohn 4. and Spiritual Worship but it seemeth by this that the Author himself is only for a carnal or literal Ministry and Worship And he saith they viz. the people called in derision Quakers pretend that the Holy Ghost now cometh down upon their Assemblies as it did in the Apostles time and moves them to Preach and Pray by Inspiration without any regard to Condition or Sex But here he doth not fairly nor truly represent our Doctrine for we distinguish betwixt the ordinary and miraculous Inspirations with both which the Apostles were indued and we say Although the miraculous and extraordinary be ceased yet the ordinary remain as being necessary to all right effectual Preaching and Praying Again it is false that he alledgeth we say the Spirit inspireth us to Preach or Pray without any regard to Condition for a regard there is had unto the Condition of persons so that the Spirit inspireth none to Preach or Pray but such as are first brought into some measure of a sanctified State and Condition As to other things he mentions here and especially that about calling for Signs and Miracles I have already answered him above and here I would have him to consider how Christ called them an evil and adulterous Generation that sought after Signs And what if we could show Signs and perform all the other Conditions he requireth of us that he may believe us to be truly inspired would he then in good earnest believe us to be divinely inspired hath he not called the very principle a blasphemous Doctrine And whereas he saith pag. 38. he denyeth not but that God is free to send Prophets when he pleases and that he may do so when the exigence of the Church doth require it Is not this a manifest contradiction to his calling the Doctrine of Inspiration and Immediate Revelation blasphemous Or is God free to send when he pleaseth any blasphemous Doctrine or Principle into the World as this Author termeth Immediate Revelatiation and Inspiration And suppose that God did send Prophets or men immediately inspired which this Author supposeth he may Can God send any thing that would overthrow the Authority of the Scriptures and annul the Ministerial Orders would not this be inconsistent with his Divine infinite Wisdom But thus we see what inconsistences this Author falleth into while he is carried with such a preposterous zeal against this so excellent a principle In pag. 40. he scoffingly taunts the people called Quakers with their Groanings in their Meetings saying that they groan sufficiently we grant for sometimes in their Meetings they do nothing else But if their Groaning or vocal Devotion be from the Spirit how comes it to pass that the Spirit never moves them as it did in the Apostles days to Pray and Prophesie in unknown Tongues To this I answer Many have both Groaned and Prayed by the Spirit who never spoke with unknown Tongues as I think the Author will confess for the Prophets prayed by the Spirit before Christ came in the flesh and yet all had not the Gift of Tongues But by this it plainly seemeth he disowneth all Groaning and Praying by the Spirit as applicable to him or any of his Brethren this I say again is far contrary to the Liturgy of the Church of England And how knoweth he that sometimes in their Meetings the people called in scorn Quakers do nothing else I must tell him they do more in every Meeting although to groan from the Spirit is of more value than all that the Author or any else can do without the Spirit viz. they meditate they wait they watch they sing and make a melody in their hearts unto the Lord. But here he seemeth to scoff at our silent Meetings where we wait to hear what God will speak unto us though perhaps no man at that time doth speak which is well enough consistent with our Principle of Divine Inspiration for if God inspire his people now as formerly they are well