Notion concerning your Way then thus represented is this or to this effect That God Christ the holy Spirit do by immediate Illumination of your minds and without external teaching by the Scriptures or by men shew you or reveal to you what you ought to believe and do and by their immediate motion or operation draw or perswade you to believe and practise accordingly Which Illumination or Operation you call The Light within or the Holy Anointing which teacheth all things This I take to be your sence when you say you own Scripture but not as your Teacher and that such have no need of the Scripture to teach them and that all the Children of God are taught of God and need not any other Teacher And again that God's pure Spirit is put into the inward parts to be the Rule and Guide of Life in all things and that the only perfect Rule of Conscience in the exercise to God is the Spirit of Christ and not any other thing That the Scriptures are so far from being the Rule of Faith and Practice as that the Light within is both your Warrant and Rule That the Spirit of Truth alone leads into all Truth And that the infallible Spirit of Christ gives Infallibility of judgment and discerning into all Cases and Things This then is your Method and Way Now I will shew you what is God's Method and Way which is quite different from yours The Gospel plainly declares That there shall be a Resurrection of all men after Death and a State of everlasting weal or wo in another world and that as many as believe Christ to be the Son of God and Saviour of the world and repent them of the evil they have done and sincerely obey his Laws shall by his Death which he suffered for sin receive Remission of sin and Eternal Life but that those that do not shall be punished with everlasting Destruction This Gospel this Doctrine being not knowable by men by any Natural Light in them without Divine Revelation from God Jesus Christ who came from the Bosom of the Father he revealed it himself to his Apostles and others by his Doctrine and after his Ascension into Heaven he by sending them the Holy Spirit immediately inspired them with a clear knowledge and understanding of it and so by the gift of speaking divers Languages accompanied with boldness and utterance enabled them to reveal and publish it to the world and to procure Credit to it by many Signs and Wonders which were done by them And ever since that God's way and method of bringing men to Salvation that live where the Gospel comes hath been by making known this Gospel to them by word or writing and so by the mighty Motives contained in it such as the Manifestation of God's Love in the Gift of Christ the Hopes of Eternal Life and the Fears of Eternal Death in concurrence with the Operation of his Grace and good Spirit together with the rational Evidence of the Truth of it to perswade men to believe and embrace it and to live according to it So that according to this Representation compared with that made of your Way God's Way and Method and yours greatly differ Yoū holding that the Holy Spirit directs and perswades men what to believe and do by his own immediate working without outward teaching whereas as we say he doth it by outward teaching It is God Christ the Holy Spirit that works the saving change in men but he doth it still by the Word of the Gospel as communicated to mens minds by the Scriptures or by mens teaching the same Doctrine which is contained in the Scriptures and it is this Doctrine that is the Rule of Faith and Practice And this I doubt not to make very plain to you in opposition to your way if you will not shut your eyes And this I shall endeavour gradually step by step in certain Propositions § 3. First In the Apostles days in which there was the greatest effusion of the Holy Spirit on them and other Christians that ever hath been yet even then God's way of bringing men to believe the Gospel and to live according to it was by publishing it to men by men either by Word or Writing and evidencing it to be from God The Apostles indeed had the Gospel from Christ himself immediately as he himself had it from the Father who gave him Commandment what he should say and what he should speak It at the first began to be spoken by the Lord himself and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him as 't is said Heb. 2. 4. But after Christ's Ascension others at the first received the Knowledge and Faith of the Gospel by the Ministry of the Apostles who were his Ambassadors to the world by them he made known his Salvation to the Ends of the Earth When our Saviour prayed for all other good Christians that should be in the World besides his Apostles he describes them thus viz. Such as should believe through their Word John 17. 20. Neither pray I for these alone but for them also which shall believe on me through their Word And it pleased God by the foolishness of Preaching to save them that believe 1 Cor. 1. 21. And so Faith cometh by Hearing saith he Rom. 10. 17. By hearing of what and of whom Why by hearing the Gospel preached by such whom God sent to preach it of which mention is made in the precedent Verses The Doctrine which the Apostles preached which is the Gospel is said to be the Power of God to Salvation Rom. 1. 16. And the Reason is given in ver 17 18. Because thereby the Righteousness of God is revealed from Faith to Faith That is God's method of justifying men upon condition of their believing and obeying of it and because thereby the eternal Wrath of God from Heaven is revealed against all Ungodliness and Unrighteousness of men This Revelation being from God and the things the Motives revealed being powerful Arguments to prevail with men to receive and obey the Gospel upon their doing of which they shall be saved thence it is that 't is called The Power of God to Salvation not excluding the concurrent Operation of God's Spirit upon the heart by it This being so your Leaders manifest a strange degree of Vnlearnedness in the things of the Gospel when they deny saving Grace to be wrought by the outward Administration of the Word or Teaching by man as they do when they attribute it to God alone as his immediate Work and all because the Scripture attributes it to God to Christ to the Holy Spirit Whereas nothing is more common than to attribute the same Effect sometimes to one Cause sometimes to another when there is the Concurrence and Co-operation of several Causes to the producing of the same Effect as there usually is in God's working savingly upon men As men are said in Scripture to be born of God to be born of the Spirit so
like unto him in this viz. in that he as Mediator gave forth the Evangelical Law at his Appearance in the world as that which was to be the standing Rule unto Christians throughout the whole duration of the Kingdom of the Messias as Moses who also was a Mediator in that respect had delivered a standing Law to the Jews by which they were to govern themselves throughout their Generations and the Administration of the Mosaical Covenant By what hath been said touching the plentiful effusion of the Spirit upon the first setting out of the Gospel into the world you may see if Prejudice do not blindfold you that what was done in that kind is so far from giving any countenance to your Opinion of the Spirit 's being given to teach men immediately by internal Illmination and Operation without outward Ministry and Teaching that it is an evident proof of the quite contrary For the Spirit was thus given to the Apostles and others that they might propagate the Christian Faith in the world being enabled thereby to make it known to them of other Languages in their own Tongues and to embolden them to run all hazards in so doing for they being filled with the Holy Ghost spake the Word of God with all boldness Acts 4. 31. And likewise to convince the World that Christ and his Apostles and their Doctrine were all from God All which was done by Vocal Teaching and Visible Signs not excluding the Inward Assistance of divine Grace All which would have been needless if God had chosen to teach men by the Light of Christ within only as you speak So that either your Enthusiastical Notion overthrows God's Method of proceeding to teach men the Christian Religion or else his Method overthrows your Notion for doubtless they are contrary one to another and whether it be better to follow God or man judge you § 15. Another place misunderstood and misapplied by you is John 16. 13. When the Spirit of Truth is come he will guide you into all Truth Which is not a Promise of sending the Spirit to guide all Christians by its immediate motions but a Promise to his Apostles for they only were then present with Christ at the Passeover just before his Apprehension and Suffering And this and other like Promises of sending the Spirit were made to them to encourage them the better to bear his departure from them giving them to know thereby how they should be enabled when he should be taken from them to carry on the great work of Apostleship to which he had chosen them And this he did first by giving them to understand that this Spirit should bring all things to their remembrance which he had spoken unto them while he was yet with them 2. That this Spirit of his should teach them all things in which Christ himself had not instructed them while he was with them inasmuch as they were not then able to bear them 3. That this Spirit to wit in his miraculous Gifts should concur with them in testifying of Christ John 14. 26. But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my Name he shall bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you John 16. 12 13. I have yet many things to say unto you but ye cannot bear them now Howbeit when he the Spirit of Truth is come he will guide you into all Truth and he will shew you things to come Chap. 14. 26. He shall teach you all things Chap. 15. 26 27. But when the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father he shall testifie of me and ye also shall bear witness because ye have been with me from the beginning This agrees exactly with what he said again to them after he was risen Acts 1. 8. Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you and ye shall be Witnesses unto me c. And that these Predictions and Promises of sending the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles the better to qualifie them for their great Work and Office began to be made good to them in those extraordinary Gifts which were poured out on them on the day of Pentecost and that Christ's Prediction of the coming of the Holy Ghost did refer to that appears by what Sr. Peter said in his Sermon upon that occasion Acts 2. 33 Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear the Spirit in its sensible effects Compare herewith Acts 1. 4 5. Wait for the Promise of the Father which saith he Jesus which ye have heard of me ye shall he baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence The giving of the Spirit thus was purposely reserved for the honour and evidence of Christ's Exaltation in Glory but the Spirit to sanctifie was given before The Holy Ghost was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified John 7. 39. But the sending of the Holy Ghost to these ends is greatly remote from the end you assign thereof as hath also been shewn before and which you may easily see by what hath been here represented to you if the Light which was once in you be not become Darkness Your applying Promises as if made to all Christians as Christians and to common and ordinary cases which were made to the Apostles only or to them and some others in extraordinary cases peculiar to persons extraordinarily qualified and extraordinarily sent hath led you and some others into very dangerous errors that have made very bad work in the Church of God § 16. Another Scripture which you are wont frequently to produce in defence of this Opinion of yours touching the Spirits inward Teaching without outward Teaching by man is 1 John 2. 20. But ye have an Vnction from the Holy One and ye know all things And again ver 27. But the Anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and ye need not that any man teach you but as the same Anointing teacheth you of all things and is Truth and is no Lie and even as it hath taught you ye shall abide in him Whatever the right sence of this Scripture is 't is certain your Notion of the Holy Spirit 's teaching men that live under the Gospel as those did to whom these words were written whatever they ought to believe and do without any outward Teaching by Speech or Writing cannot be the sence of it because such a sence of the place is inconsistent with what is manifestly proved in my Propositions before laid down and because it would render the design of St. John in this Epistle and other Writings of his needless in which he labours to settle and firmly establish the Christians in the Belief and Practice of what they had heard and by hearing had been taught from the beginning against all Temptations to Apostacy from or
and Philadelphia were much favoured and highly commended and applauded by Christ when the rest of the Churches in Asia were rebuked and yet whâ—â— he would make his mind known to them and the rest of the seven Churches he doth not do it immediately by himself but first acquaints an Angel with it and by that Angel makes it known to John and by John to the Churches and yet not by him in person neither but by his writings Rev. 1. Christ could have taught Paul himself when he appeared to him as well as to have sent him to Ananias to be told what he should do He could have told Cornelius by himself or by the Angel that he sent to him those words by which he and his house should be saved as well as to direct him to Peter to learn them of him God could have revealed the same things to the World by immediate inspiration of his Spirit which he made known to it by Prophets by Christ himself by Apostles Evangelists Pastors and Teachers but he chose rather at sundry times and in divers manners to speak unto the Fathers by the Prophets and at last by his own Son which he sent into the World in our nature to teach the way of Salvation And when he left the World again and ascended up on high he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the Body of Christ These things are so plain that it is a matter of great astonishment that ever Christians that have read these things and that have not a design to undermine the Gospel and to Paganize the World again as I hope you have not should be ever tempted to think much more that ever you should be brought to believe it your selves and teach it others That the Light within without being taught by man or by the Scripture is the Rule of Faith and Practice But doubtless the inward Pride the over-valuing of your selves which I have been admonishing you of hath had a great hand in bringing you to it And if ever you be recovered from this snare of the Devil it must be by being brought to a sight and sence of your own injudiciousness and ignorance and altogether groundless confidence And if you were but well awakened out of that Spirit of Slumber into which your intoxication hath cast you and out of that pleasant Dream in it which hath so tickled your fancy you would be ashamed and confounded before God and Men that ever you should be so strangely deluded and prevailed upon as you have been to trouble the World with your whimsies and fancies and thereby to bring a scandal upon the Christian Religion and make sport for them that have no mind seriously to consider the things of the Gospel and to encourage Romish Agents in their design against the Reformation Be perswaded then by the Reason of the matter it self to become modest and humble and sober-minded and be not only content to receive your teaching from God by the Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures as all good Christians do and ever since the Primitive times have done but count it also as a high favour from him that he hath given us the Scriptures and sent the Gospel among us when so great a part of the World are at this day without it Remember how the Psalmist when he was therein assisted by the Spirit of God was affected with a less favour than that which you make little of when he said he sheweth his Word unto Jacob his Statutes and his Judgments unto Israel he hath not dealt so with any Nation and as for his judgments they have not known them Praise ye the Lord Psalm 147. 19 20. And if it be so great a favour to us that have the Scriptures above what is vouchsafed to the Infidel and Pagan World which have them not then you cannot but be guilty of high ingratitude to God whilest you give the Precedency to that Light within which you say every man coming into the World hath and so the Pagans themselves and speak of the Scriptures as if they were but a Declaration of that which was in you and which you knew without them and which you might have known if you had never heard of them By all which you teach them that have so little Wit or Grace as to believe you to have a low esteem of the Scriptures and to think that men may as well be saved without them as with them And how then can you possibly free your selves from that horrid guilt which God charged upon the Jews of old saying I have written to him Ephraim the great things of my Law and they were esteemed as a strange thing Hos 8. 12. You have no doubt thought your selves more sublime and spiritual than others upon account of your new Notions and new affected Modes and Phrases And not only so but there is great reason to think that an affectation of being esteemed so did insensibly lead you or at least the Leaders among you from one novel conceit to another until you have exceeded all bounds of Sobriety of mind and become perfectly Drunk though not with Wine as the Prophet speaks Whereas alas the Spirituality of Christians doth not lye in high-flown Notions and Speculations nor in uncouth Phrases and expressions different from what are common among Men but in the inward frame and temper of their Spirits and conversations when these are conformable to the Doctrine of the Gospel which is of and from the Holy Spirit and thereby become partakers of the spiritual and Divine nature or likeness to Christ Jesus in purity in lowliness huroility and meekness and in love to God and Charity to Men in patience and gentleness in contempt of the World in contentation and self-resignation to God in Zeal to honour God and to do all the good we can in the World Upon account of which Spiritual qualifications Christians are said to be one Spirit with Christ and by this Spirit and temper when given us we know that we dwell in him and he in us and if any Man have not the Spirit of Christ in some measure he is none of his Such as in whom are found the fruits of the Spirit they are the spiritual Christians such as is Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance as they are enumerated by St. Paul in Gal. 5. 22 23. And as these do more or less abound in Christians in the degree and measure of them so they are more or less Spiritual And who-ever they be that do estimate themselves to be Spiritual Christians upon account of any sublime Notions or Speculations or affected Phrases or by their being for or against any form way or party or which is more by their being in the constant use and exercise of God's own Ordinances farther than they are bettered in the frame
and temper of their Spirits thereby and made more like Christ Jesus they take wrong measures of their Spirituality And if there were nothing else to make us suspect your new-taken-up way to be not Spiritual but carnal this would do it in that it hath according to common observation made you since you came into it or were looking towards it moreself-conceited proud and disdainful slighting and setting at naught all others that differ from you and more desperately censorious and more bold and confident in reviling than you were before which are no signes of Spirituality I am sure But if there were more of that Spiritual qualification in you forementioned by which Christians are denominated Spiritual indeed it would take down your high conceits of your high attainments and rather make you say inwardly to your selves and to your own Souls I am less than the least of all Saints and make you afraid to think or speak ill of others lest in doing so you should judge your selves being perhaps not comparable to them in true worth But if you would become spiritual Christians indeed and not in fancy and conceit only Then let it be your care to observe and do these things First converse constantly and intimately in your thoughts with the Laws of Christ in their Spirituality as reaching to the Government of the thoughts and motions of the mind and affections of the Soul in reference to their various objects as God his Word Worship and Works Man as diversly related to us the things of this World and pertaining to this present life and the things of the World which is to come And in doing this compare the bent disposition and operation of your Souls in reference to these Objects with those Laws of Christ thereby to discover not so much how far you have attained as to know and discern what is wanting and how far you fall short of coming up close to your Rule Christs precepts and imitable example And if this were well done it would make you little in your own eyes and to say with Paul not as though I had attained or were already perfect Then next in the sence of your defects be diligent and constant in the use of God's appointed means for Spiritual growth such as is the hearing and reading of Christ's Holy Doctrine in the Scriptures touching the great motives as well as directions to obedience accompanied with frequent meditation and serious consideration of it and of your own concern therein And then still have in your eye the end for which these and other means are or ought to be used by you and that is for the bettering the frame and temper of your Spirits the moral habit and constitution of your Souls and never divide the means from the end in your intention nor satisfie your selves in the use of the means but in reference to the end and in all the means be still sincerely endeavouring to mend that which is amiss and to fill up and supply what is lacking in the degrees of Grace and all divine Vertue And then in and together with all this do you in a due sence of your own weakness and insufficiency and of the great need you have of the constant assistance of God's Holy Spirit in all make instant and importunate supplication to God for it And then without all doubt you shall be assisted and enabled by that Spirit of his in the use of the foresaid means by degrees to become Spiritual Christians indeed For our faithful Lord Jesus hath assured us that our Heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to those that out of a sence of its value and worth and of their own want of it do importunately ask it of him Luke 11. 13. § 22. I might yet farther shew you that in all probability your great uncharitableness towards other good men against whom you had taken up undue prejudices had also a great hand in bringing you into this Wilderness of odd conceits wherein you have so wonderfully lost your selves For prejudice against and uncharitableness towards men is a great temptation upon them in whom it is to differ and depart from them in opinion as well as in affection and to study opposition against things they hold in an uncharitable opposition to those that hold them And so truth no doubt hath many times suffered for the sake of those that have held it After you had entertained undue prejudices against the Ministers of the Gospel upon one account or other whom in derision and contempt you are wont to call the Priests you were then soon induced to think it meet to differ from them in your Notions about Religion lest otherwise you should not seem more Spiritual than those whom you thus despised And by this doubtless among other things were you led into your gross errors under the Notion of higher attainments and more Spirituality in the Christian profession For such and so great was your prejudice against the Ministers and those that adhered to them that you disliked almost every thing they did and the Notions they had of Evangelical Truths and points of Doctrine And therefore lest you should be thought too like them you fell to differencing your selves from them in Habit in modes of Speech and in your Notions of the parts of revealed and instituted Religion And thereupon applyed your selves to spiritualizing your Notions of Gospel-Truths in your way of Spiritualizing till you had made them or many of them quite other things than in Truth and reality they are or were ever made by the Author of them And if ever you recover your selves it must be by coming to have better thoughts of others and meaner of your selves a thing greatly necessary to mens keeping in the way of Truth For he that loveth his Brother abideth in the Light and there is no occasion of stumbling in him But he that doth not is in darkness and walketh in darkness and knows not whither he goes because darkness hath blinded his eyes 1 Joh. 2. 10 11. Besides uncharitableness being a sin so contrary to God's dealing with us in the New-Covenant and so contrary to the great and affecting example of Christ's Love to us and so contrary to the scope and design of the Gospel for the end of the Commandment is Charity that it is a great and sore provocation to God to give up uncharitable men to an injudious mind and ridiculous conceits and such as shall render them ridiculous among all sober and wise men Which is matter of good caution to men to take heed how they take up uncharitable prejudices against good men upon account of their holding or doing such things which they dislike but not understanding or not fairly weighing the grounds on which they hold and do them But I have already so far exceeded the intended bounds of an Epistle that I shall not farther enlarge upon this but shall draw towards a conclusion with a word of advice to such as
hath both the Father and the Son And again 1 John 2. 24. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father § 12. 10. That in Christ Jesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Uncircumcision but a new Creature is a most important Doctrine declared in writing by St. Paul Gal. 6. 15. And when he saith in the next Verse As many as walk according to this Rule peace be on them it is most evident he was not of your mind and way who hold that the Holy Scriptures or Doctrine contained in them which is the same are not a Rule of Christian Faith and Practice This written Doctrine of the Gospel we see is a Rule for Christians to walk by as the written Law and Testimony was to the Jews and as it was said of those that walked not according to that Word or Rule that it was because there was no Light in them Isa 8. 20. Even so and for the same reason it may now be said of you that if you walk not according to this Rule it is because in truth there is no Light in you how much soever you vainly boast of it and censure others for want of it that yet make it their daily care and endeavour to walk according to the Light and Guidance of that Rule that hath its seat in their Conscience And now Sirs by this time methinks you should not but perceive that I have given you proof in good measure heaped up shaken together pressed down and running over That Gods way and method of directing men what to believe and do as necessary to their Salvation and of perswading them to believe and do accordingly is and hath been by that teaching which comes from God into the Soul by outward means such as is his Word written or by mens teaching the same Doctrine which is contained in the Scriptures and if so then not by his immediate teaching and operation without such outward teaching which yet is that which you hold and teach in opposition to God's Method The Proof of this is so evident and convincing that if you will but give your minds and Consciences Liberty seriously to consider it I cannot imagine how you should possibly persist in your way without offering some violence to the reason of your Minds § 13. But since you have strengthened your selves in this your perswasion out of an Opinion you have that some Scriptures are on your side in it I shall yet add something farther to convince you of Error and Mistake therein You seem to ground your selves much upon John 1. 9. Where it is said of Christ This is the true Light which lightneth every man that cometh into the world That Christ doth one way or other lighten every man that comes into the world is a great truth here declared But that which you are wont to alledge it for and which you are to prove hence if you would have it do your business is That Christ lighteneth every man that comes into the world with the knowledge of what he ought to believe and do in order to his salvation without learning it from or by any Outward Means That no such thing as that Christ so lightens all men without Outward Teaching can be proved either from this or any other Scripture I shall easily shew you Christ doth enlighten all whom he doth enlighten in one or more of these three ways either 1. By Natural Light Or 2. By Supernatural Revelation Or 3. By outward Teaching by Speech or Writing or Example in conjunction with the inward assistance of his Spirit 1. Christ indeed as God Creator as he is described in the beginning of that Chapter doth enlighten every man that comes into the world with the faculty of Reason and Understanding by which he may know that there is a God and that he is to be worshipped and that he is placable and the difference between moral good and evil in many things But however this may possibly be a Light sufficient to direct the Heathen to as much as God expects from them if they live up to it to whom he affords no other Light yet this Natural Light is not sufficient to direct those that live under the Gospel to believe and do what they are bound to believe and do upon pain of Damnation They that live under the Gospel are bound to believe Jesus to be Christ the Son of God and Saviour of the world and that upon pain of damnation If ye believe not that I am he ye shall die in your sins said our Saviour to them to whom the Gospel came Jo. 8. 24. Every Spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God but is the Spirit of Antichrist 1 John 4. 3. He that believeth not the Son of God shall not see Life but the wrath of God abideth on him Joh. 3. 36. Now that no man can know Christ know him to be the Son of God and Saviour of the world by his Natural Light without Supernatural Revelation from God or Instruction from without derived from them that had such Revelation is most evident When Peter said to Christ Thou art Christ the Son of the Living God our Saviour told him Flesh and Bloud had not revealed that unto him but his Father Mat. 16. 16 17. And the Natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned that is they are knowable only by means that are purely spiritual and supernatural as the revelation of the Gospel at first was And it may well be that in this respect 't is said that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost 1 Cor. 12. 3. For no man could know that he was so but by that Revelation and discovery which the Holy Ghost several ways at the first made concerning him He shall glorifie me for he shall receive of mine and shall shew it unto you said Christ to his Apostles concerning the Holy Spirit John 16. 14. And Christ is said to be justified in or by the Spirit to be what he himself said he was and his Apostles witnessed him to be 1 Tim. 3. 16. All this shews that though Christ do enlighten all men with Natural Light yet this is not sufficient without somewhat else to enlighten all men particularly those that are under the Gospel with the knowledge of what is necessary for all such to know and believe in order to their Salvation For to whom much is given of him much shall be required Luke 12. 48. Then secondly Another way by which Christ enlightens men with the knowledge of himself and of what is necessary for mens Salvation is by immediate and supernatural Revelation and thus he enlightened the Apostles that they might be able infallibly to teach the way of Salvation by Christ through Faith in him and
Obedience to him For God saith one of them who commanded the Light to shine out of Darkness hath shined into our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ to give that is to give it forth to others 2 Cor. 4. 6. And again in 1 Cor. 2. 12 13. Now we have received not the Spirit of the World but the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God Which things also we speak not with the words which mans wisdom teacheth but which the Holy Ghost teacheth And besides this of internal and immediate Revelation there is no way imaginable for men to come to the knowledge of Christ as Mediator but by external and mediate Revelation So that by the process of this Discourse you are brought to this either to say that all men to whom the Gospel comes are enlightned by Christ with the knowledge of his being the Son of God the Christ of God and Saviour of the world by immediate and supernatural Revelation as the Apostles were or else to grant that some men in the world are not enlightened by Christ without being â—aught by outward means to know what they are bound to believe upon pain of Damnation For I have shewed before that all men and women to whom the Gospel is preached are bound to believe Jesus to be the Christ the Son of God upon pain of Damnation and that there is but these two ways imaginable by which they can come to know it that they might believe it immediate and mediate Revelation or Instruction If being reduced to this straight you shall be so absurd as to chuse to say that all those under the sound and outward teaching of the Gospel that shall be damned for not believing on Christ as the Son of God and for not obeying him had that knowledge of him by immediate and supernatural Revelation as the Apostles had for the sinning against which they shall be damned as knowing their Masters Will and not doing it yet the Scriptures as well as all Experience will detect your Folly in so saying For I have proved in my Propositiions to which I refer you that God's way method of proceeding with men in justifying or condemning them will be according to their Obedience to or Disobedience against that Doctrine of the Gospel which they had heard preached by men to them Go preach the Gospel to every Creature said our Saviour He that believeth not shall be damned that believeth not that Gospel so preached and made known to them by preaching Mat. 16. 16. And the Apostle supposeth it impossible for the generality of men to believe that have not heard of Christ in the way of preaching the Gospel to them and concludes that those that do believe are brought to it by hearing it preached and that is not by way of immediate inward teaching of God's Spirit without the teaching by man Rom. 10. 14 15 16 17. How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard And how shall they hear without a Preacher saith St. Paul Yes might it have been said by immediate Revelation and inward teaching of God's Spirit or the Light within if that had been the common way of bringing men to believe the Gospel But you see Paul knew of no such way to propagate the Faith after it was once set on foot in an extraordinary way If he had he would not have put such Questions nor have made such a Conclusion as he doth in v. 17. So then Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God And do you know more and better than he did And for your selves it is not to be imagined that ever you could have known that ever there was such a one as Christ in the World any more than the poor Indians or Pagans that never heard of him had you not been beholding to the Scriptures or Oral Tradition for it as God's means for all your great talk of your Light within you If Christ Jesus then doth not savingly enlighten all those who yet are savingly illuminated neither by Natural Light nor by Supernatural Revelation in an immediate way then it follows that such are enlightened by Supernatural Revelation mediately or instrumentally by the Scriptures and Ministration of men unless there can be another way of saving Illumination assigned different from the three before mentioned which none pretend to do so far as I have heard These things are so plain and full of Evidence and so easie to be understood and in their Nature so apt to prevail with all such as do not deny but that the Scriptures are true that after you have considered them I cannot but think you will be convinced by them if there be that love to Truth in you which you pretend to that you have unawares all this while abused that first Chapter of John v. 9. and abused your selves and the world by a misrepresentation of it whereas Christ is the Light of the world divers ways and in several respects as by his Spirit by his Word and by his Works both Miraculous and Exemplary it cannot but be very great weakness or waywardness in you to limit his being so to one of these only § 14. Another Scripture which you alledge as favouring your foresaid Opinion is that Prophesie of Joel 2. 28 29. Cited by St. Peter in Acts 2. 17. Behold the days come saith the Lord that I will poure out my Spirit upon all Flesh and your Sons and your Daughters shall prophesie and your young men shall see Visions and your old men shall dream Dreams and on my Servants and on my Handmaids I will poure out of my Spirit in those days and they shall prophesie But that this Scripture also is impertinently alledged to prove that in the days of the Gospel every one is immediately directed and moved by the Spirit of God without outward teaching in what they are to believe and do will appear by two things The one from the Nature of the thing here predicted The other by the Application of this Prediction to the event 1. From the Nature of the Subject-Matter of this Prophesie It is not that the Spirit should be poured out upon all flesh so as to direct every one what to believe and do without outward teaching but to qualifie persons extraordinarily for outward teaching it is to enable them to prophesie for that is twice mentioned in the Prophesie fore-cited as the end for which the Spirit should be poured out upon all flesh And prophesying is for the instruction of others it is a means of conveying knowledge of the Divine Will from one man to another He that prophesieth edifieth the Church saith St. Paul 1 Cor. 14. 4. This of Prophets was a Second Order in the Evangelical Ministry God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secondarily Prophets 1 Cor. 12. And although seeing Visions and
your notions and opinions and then apply them to your purpose and then are confident the Holy Spirit hath guided you therein When-as alas you do not understand the intent or design of the Writer in the places where such expressions are no nor as is to be feared do you make it your business to understand it but think your business is rather to sit still and to expect the immediate teachings of the Spirit and then conclude your conceptions which first offer themselves to you to be his teachings And on the other hand conclude all rational opposition that is made against you by such as have taken pains to consider the scope and coherence of Scripture to be the issues of fleshly wisdom and carnal reason So that I know not which is more to be pitied your ignorance or your confidence but certain it is that you are to be pittied for both It is observable that when Solomon a man wiser in his generation than any of you are in yours had a promise from God of being made wise above all that were before him did not therefore think himself unconcerned in labour and diligent search to attain it but said I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdome concerning all things that are done under heaven this sore travel saith he hath God given to the Sons of men to be exercised therewith Eccles 1. 13. And as he saith the blessing of the Lord maketh rich in one place so he saith the diligent hand maketh rich in another from which may fairly be collected that the blessing of God in the diligent use of due means is the way to prosper in the world And it is as true in the course of attaining to spiritual riches in understanding and grace as it is in temporals And therefore he saith again in reference to that if thou cryest after knowledge and liftest up thy voice for understanding if thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid Treasures then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God for the Lord giueth wisdome out of his mouth proceedeth knowledge and understanding that is he gives such wisdome unto men usually upon those terms forementioned Prov. 2 3 4 5 6. But your rare notions like Jacobs Venison are usually too soon too easily come by to be right § 17. But because I would not be too tedious I shall I think in reference to the business in hand consider but one or two places of Scripture more at which you stumble unless others fall in upon occasion of discussing those And one of them is Rom. 8. 14. As many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God And you suppose this comports with your wild notion of mens being guided by the internal teachings of the Spirit without outward teaching But why I pray you without outward teaching Do you not know that the whole Gospel preached by Christ and his Apostles and afterwards written is the Issue or product of the Spirit Is not all the Holy Scripture given by inspiration of God Did not the holy men of old the Prophets speak and write as they were moved by the Holy Ghost and do not you your selves say that the Scriptures cannot be understood but by the same Spirit that gave them forth by which you suppose and grant that they were given forth by the Spirit And for what end did the Holy Spirit inspire the Apostles first to preach and after that to write the Holy Doctrine of the Gospel but to teach men thereby what to beleive and how to live that they might be saved And if so are not all those who are led and guided by this Gospel which is the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit led by the Spirit of God There 's no doubt but that the Spirit by its inward operations upon the minds of men doth concur with that teaching of his which is from without by the Scriptures and by men from the Scriptures But methinks it 's wonderful I mean wonderfully absurd that you should divide the Spirits teaching and leading and oppose his inward to his outward teaching Whereas the Lord hath declared expresly that his word outwardly and Spirit shall be so conjoyned in carrying on his design of grace towards the world under the Gospel as that they shall never be separated Isa 59. 21. As for me this is my Covenant with them saith the Lord my Spirit that is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy Seed nor out of the of mouth thy Seeds Seed saith the Lord from hence forth and for ever Prov. 123. By which and by other Scriptures I know assuredly that whatever inward teaching by the Spirit you pretend to yet the Holy Spirit never taught you to believe or to say that the Spirits inward teaching only without any outward teaching by the Scriptures or by men is the rule of Faith and Practice whatever other Spirit it is that taught it you the which it concerns you more than me to examine For the Spirit having said thus much by this holy man of God in this Place for he as all other Prophets spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost I am sure he hath said nothing to the contrary in any other for the word that proceeds from the Spirit of truth is not yea and nay When St. Paul said Gal. 5. 18. if ye are led by the Spirit ye are not under the Law he did not mean if they were led by the inward guidance of the Spirit without the outward conduct of the Gospel but under the word Spirit here he opposeth the Gospel to the Law And his meaning was that if they gave up themselves to the conduct of the Spirit by the Gospel they should not need to make conscience still of the Ceremonies of Moses's Law as Circumcision or the like as some among them did from which he had been dehorting them in the begining of this Chapter This Gospel is called the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus which frees those that walk after it and not after the Flesh from the Law of Sin and Death Rom. 8. 1 2. And where this Gospel is received into the heart so as that it is predominant there there Christ dwells and the Spirit dwells by that word of the Gospel And thus Christ is in men the hope of Glory and thus Christ dwells in the heart by Faith by Faith in his word and those live and walk in the Light that live and walk according to this word and thus they abide in Christ that have his word abiding in them and those that abide in the Doctrine of Christ have both the Father and the Son and they are spiritually minded whose minds are powerfully influenced by the Gospel and they resist the Holy Ghost who resist that word which hath been declared
have already seen their error and are come off from you and to others that shall follow them therein § 23. I know 't is a very hard thing for such to get quite rid of all their confused and Enthusiastical Thoughts Notions and Phrases but that some reliques of their old Disease will still hang on them and cleave to them and so encumber them that they can very hardly come quickly to any clear and distinct apprehensions of Evangelical Verities To such I would give this short advice that laying aside all thoughts and conceits of high attainments in the things of God they would repent and do their first works and begin as it were again at the first Principles of the Doctrine of Christ and so lay their Foundation a new in the beginning work of Christians Also that they would frame their Notions and apprehensions of things absolutely necessary to Salvation according to that plainness in which they are expressed in Scripture not affecting nor entertaining Mystical Notions of them More particularly that they would furnish their minds with right apprehensions of the person of Christ as Son of God and Son of the Virgin Mary and of the Nature of his Mediatory Office That as Priest he offered himself in Sacrifice to expiate Sin by his Death and in vertue thereof makes continual Intercession for us That as Prophet he revealed and declared the New Covenant of Salvation That as King he hath given Laws to the World and that he doth Rule and Govern his Church through his Spirit by those Laws and that at last he will try and judg all men by them that have lived under them and that he will reward all with eternal happiness or endless torments according as they have been obedient or disobedient to them That they be careful also that their Notions of the New Covenant be according to the plain Doctrine of the Gospel in the Scriptures Particularly That it consists of two parts of Promises and of conditions of those Promises Also that the Promises of it are made upon account and for the sake of Christ his undertaking as Mediator That the great and special Promises of it are pardon of sin or justification the assistance of God's Spirit in our endeavouring to perform the condition and eternal Life That the condition on which these Promises are made are Faith in Christ Repentance sincere Obedience and the craving of the assistance of God's Spirit in the use of appointed means and our endeavours to perform the condition That they be careful also to form right Notions of the nature of the condition on our part on which the Promises of the New-Covenant are made As that no Faith short of such a belief in Christ and of his Doctrine as worketh unfeigned Repentance and sincere Obedience is justifying and saving That no Repentance short of a desire resolution and endeavour to forsake all known sin is saving Repentance That no Obedience short of a desire resolution and a continued endeavour to observe all the Laws of Christ without baulking any one of them when known to be such is sincere That no Faith no Repentance no Obedience short of these as thus described is a fulfilling of the condition of the Promises of Salvation in the Covenant of Grace As these great things of the Gospel are in Scripture expressed in great plainness so great care must be had to keep close to and to hold fast the form of sound words according to which they are so declared not affecting any Notion Phrase or Expression which makes them more hard to be understood by common capacities than they are by the very Letter of the Scriptures but when other expressions are used than what are in the Letter of the Text as its necessary there should sometimes especially in explaining metaphors and Idioms of Speech proper to the times and places in which the Scriptures were written they should be such and so used as may give a clearer insight into the Nature of the things themselves than without them can well be had carefully avoiding to take words properly which are spoken metaphorically or to be led by the meer sound of words but to take the measure of the sence of them by the scope and design of the Author since words of the same sound are not always of the same signification § 24. And now after I have laid things before you which are very apt in their own Nature to rectifie you in one of your grand and fundamental mistakes especially if invincible prejudice hinder not I should be very sorry to think or suspect that what is done herein should turn to no better account than to be a witness against you in that great day in which every mans work will be tryed of what sort it is And therefore to prevent that I cannot for your sakes and for the longing I have after your salvation but earnestly perswade you to give things purposely prepared to serve you a due consideration in your minds and not to pass over such things slightly as wherein your eternal Estate is much concern'd Remember that Heresie is one of those works of the Flesh which shut Men out of the Kingdom of God Gal. 5. 20 21. And considering the Nature and bad influence of several of your opinions and with what pertinaciousness you persist in them it s greatly feared not to say confidently believed by such as are jealous over you with a Godly jealousie that many of you at least lye under no less guilt than that of grand Heresie And do you not then owe all seriousness of consideration to what is offered to rescue you from so great a danger Doubtless you do Let not then the height of your confidence to the contrary deceive you For it is not the greatness of your confidence that will in the least alter the nature of things or make them bend to your humour You are not the first that have been as confident as confidence it self could make them that they had fast hold of Truth when all the while it hath been but a lye they have had in their right hand But the more confident you are in your way you are like to be so much the more surprized with amazement when in another World you shall find yourselves to have been mistaken in that of which you are now so strongly confident in this if you should be so unhappy as to carry such mistaken confidence with you thither without a pardon Which that you may not is I assure you all the hurt that is designed you in this Address And therefore let me tell you again that it will be your wisdom much rather to bestow your thoughts and pains in labouring to find out whether you be not indeed under a delusion than in darkning of words without knowledge in labouring to obscure to your selves and others the evidence of Truth offered which clearly tends to your conviction FAREWEL THE END POSTSCRIPT THere being some vacant Leaves
by motion and inspiration from him So inseparable are the Word and Spirit in the conduct of Christians to happiness St. Paul exhorted the Ephesians to be filled with the Spirit in order to their speaking to themselves in Psalms and Hymnes and Spiritual Songs Eph. 5. 18 19. and the Colossians that they would let the word of Christ dwell in them richly in order to the same end Col. 3. 16. From both which passages compared it appears that the Word of Christ which is the Gospel and the Spirit do concur and co-operate in producing the same Spiritual effects in men Yea it seems they are so unanimous in their operation in reference hereto that when but one is named the other is to be understood or else that the variation of expression is but another word for the same thing These things being so plain throughout the current of the Scriptures your bold and confident assertion to the contrary discovers your very great unskilfulness in the nature of the Evangelical Dispensation and your utter insufficiency and unfitness to take upon you to teach others and that you need rather your selves to be taught the first principles of the Doctrine of Christ § 18. Heb. 8. 10 11. is another place which you would constrain to serve your turn and to make it evident that under the New Covenant God himself doth so inwardly teach men and write his Laws in their hearts that they need no outward teaching what to believe or do by any other means because it is there said I will put or give my Laws into their minds and write them in their hearts and they shall not teach every man his Neighbour and every man his Brother saying know the Lord for all shall know me from the least to the greatest But when you can but obtain of your selves seriously and impartially to consider for what end God hath set in his Church first Apostles and then Pastors and Teachers if not to teach men what to know believe and do that they may be saved I doubt not but you will then find it necessary to understand this place of Scripture so as that it may not run counter to and contradict the whole current of Scripture elsewhere as it will if your sence of it take place as I have already shewed at large And therefore seeing your sence of it cannot stand unless the general testimony of the Scriptures fall another sence of it must of necessity be accepted of These words then as noting the difference of the second Covenant from the first are a form of speech to set forth after a rhetorical way how plainly and easily to be understood the mind of God touching the Salvation of men shall be revealed and made known under the Gospel in comparison of what it was before Before and under the old Covenant it was but obscurely made known by dark Prophesies which are therefore said to be a light shining in a dark place 2. Pet. 1. 19. and under types and figures and literal representations so that the Children of Israel could not see to the end of those things which are now abolished they could rarely and not without much difficulty and uncertainty if at all understand the end or design of them or what was signified by them till the Gospel came and revealed them And therefore St. Paul saith before Faith came we were kept under the Law shut up unto the Faith which should afterwards be revealed Gal. 3. 23. So that by all the teaching they had though there were Precept upon Precept Precept upon Precept Line upon Line Line upon Line here a little and there a little as the Prophet speaks yet they had and could have but a dim and very imperfect sight and knowledge of what is now revealed in the Gospel And therefore it s said of the Prophets themselves who having their predictions by immediate revelation from God were like to know more in this kind than any other in those times yet it s said of them that when they Prophesied of the Grace that should come to them that are under the Gospel though they enquired diligently what as well as what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signifie when it testified before hand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow yet I say 't is said of them that not unto themselves but unto us they did Minister the things which are reported by them that have preached the Gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven 1. Pet. 1. 10 11 12. In this respect it was said though none of the Prophets were greater than John the Baptist yet the least in the Kingdom of God is greater than he This was their Case then But now by the Gospel the way of Salvation by Christ and the terms and conditions upon which it is promised are so nakedly plainly and clearly revealed and fitted to mens understandings and capacities that so much as is necessary to Salvation may very easily be understood by persons of very ordinary and common capacities and without much teaching as appears by those that were converted and baptized as the Jaylor and his Houshold and the three thousand in Acts 2. with little teaching Upon account of which clear revelation it s said we all with open face behold as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord the Glory of his Wisdome Goodness Grace and Mercy in the way of Salvation now exhibited in the Gospel 2. Cor. 3. 18. Upon account of this difference it is I conceive that St. John saith the darkness is past and the true Light now shineth 1 Joh. 2. 8. Besides the Laws and terms of the New Covenant are not only fitted to the understandings and capacities of all sorts of persons by the plainness of the Revelation of them but are such also in the very nature of them as that they commend themselves to every mans acceptation and choice and are every whit as worthy to be embraced by their wills as they are easie to be understood by the reason of their minds A great part of the Laws of the Old Covenant which were but figurative of the terms of the New had little or nothing in them to commend themselves to mens acceptation and choice so long as their Symbolical nature was not understood save what the authority of God in commanding them gave them Circumcision Sacrificing legal washings and Purifications and the like were in St. Pauls account but beggarly Elements when the command of God for the observation of them was taken off And not only so but they were a Yoke which as St. Peter said neither we nor our Fathers were able to bear a Yoke of Bondage as St. Paul calls them Whereas most of the Precepts of the Gospel the things commanded there are desirable in themselves if they had not been commanded by a promulgate Law To love and worship God to repent of that which hath been ill done to be sober chast