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 18.48 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
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 St. 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 Faoher 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 Loosness in the Profession of Christianity But if we consider upon what occasion these words are here brought in and compare them also with what we find in some other Scriptures it will be no hard matter to understand the Apostles scope in them He
had observed to them in the 18. v. that even then there were many Antichrists And in ver 19. that they those many Antichrists went out from them And his scope in the rest of the Chap. is to fortify and antidote them against the poysonous pretensions of those Antichrists who as he describes them in ver 22 did deny that Jesus was the Christ That this was here his scope and design appears by ver 26. where he saith these things have I written unto you concerning those that seduce you Now the means he makes use of to preserve them under this danger and to establish them is by putting them in remembrance by what means they at the first came to be perswaded of the truth of that Doctrine by which they were taught that Jesus is the Christ and that was by pouring out the Holy-Ghost in visible effects upon the Apostles that taught it and upon those that believed it and consequently upon themselves by which the truth of it was abundantly confirmed to them as coming from God For that doubtless is meant by the anointing here spoken of Jesus Christ himself in respect of the Spirit of glory that appeared in him by his Doctrine and Miracles was said to be anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power Act 10.38 As it was foretold by Isaiah the Prophet saying the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the Poor Isa 61.1 Luke 4.18 and so in like manner the pouring out of the Holy Ghost in miraculous gifts both upon the Apostles and believers for the confirmation of the Doctrine the one preached and the other believed is elsewhere called their being anointed by God as here also it is called the Unction of the holy one which is the same thing 2 Cor. 1.21 22. Now he that establisheth us with you into Christ and hath anointed us is God who hath also sealed us and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts By this it appears that both Apostles and other believers were established into Christ by the anointing of God upon them which anointing was his pouring out of the holy Spirit Ye have an unction from the Holy one and ye know all things Not that by this Unction the common Christians were immediately inspired with the knowledge of all truths but that by it they were assured of the truth of all things which the Apostles had taught them and consequently must needs know thereby that Jesus was the Christ because that was one of the principal Doctrines which they taught and taught all they did teach in the name of him as such As they were induced at the first to believe the Doctrine to be from God because they perceived the anointing of God to be upon them that preached it so they were afterwards confirmed in the truth of it because upon their receiving of it they themselves also received of the same anointing It is not said that this anointing did teach them all things but that it did teach them of all things that is of or concerning the truth of all things to which it was a witness or evidence as I have shewed it was to the Apostles Doctrine from Heb. 2.4.5 Mar. 16.20 and other places When then this Apostle says ye have an Unction from the holy one and ye know all things he did not intend thereby to tell them that all things they were to beleive and do were revealed to them by it but that the Doctrine by which they were taught all things necessary to their salvation was thereby attested to be from God appears evidently by that which he perswades them to by it in v. 24. and that was that the Doctrine which they had heard from the beginning might therefore be retained and held fast by them that had been so ratified and confirmed to them by the Unction they had from the Holy one Let that therefore abide in you which you have heard from the beginning if that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father Agreeable to what he says also in his second Epistle verse 9. He that abideth in the Doctrine of Christ he hath both the Father and the Son And therefore when he says again 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 he doth not thereby mean that they needed no farther teaching by man for their establishment and building up in the Faith for if he had he had contradicted himself in what he was now doing in this Chap. and all along in this Epistle And therefore his meaning must be that they needed not from him or any other man any teaching that could or could reasonably pretend to give them greater assurance of any thing than that anointing gave them of Jesus his being the Christ and of the truth of that Doctrine which they had heard from the beginning for that anointing saith he is truth and is no lie but such as could not deceive them it being God's witness from Heaven And from thence concludes saying that as it hath taught you ye shall abide in him As if he should have said as this anointing did at the first prevail with you to receive Jesus as the true Messias so for the same cause I am confi-you will as you have the greatest reason still abide in him notwithstanding all pretences of Seducers to take you off This then being the scope and drift of the Apostle in this place to which the several expressions here used are accommodated and by which they are to be interpreted and understood how I pray you will you find your opinion here of the Spirits inward teaching of all things without any outward teaching You are wont to say that the Scriptures are not to be understood but by the same Spirit that gave them forth And the Spirit doubtless is not wanting to assist the sincere endeavours of men in searching after the sence of the Scriptures in order to practice But truly if we should judge of mens having the Spirit by their understanding the Scriptures I think there would be as little reason to think you have the Spirit as any sort of men that have read the Scriptures for doubtless there are scarce any sort of men if any at all that do more grosly misunderstand and misapply and so abuse the Scriptures than you do and that under the greatest confidence too of being guided in your sence and notions of them by the Spirit of God You take the sound of words in Scripture which as you fancy comport with 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 giveth wisdome out of his mouth proceedeth knowledge and understanding that is he gives such wisdome unto men usually upon those terms forementioned Prov. 2 3 4 5 6. But your rare notions like Jacobs Venison are usually too soon too easily come by tobe right § 17. But because I would not be too tedious I shall I think in reference to the business in hand consider but one or two places of Scripture more at which you stumble unless others fall in upon occasion of discussing those And one of them is Rom. 8.14 As many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God And you suppose this comports with your wild notion of mens being guided by the internal teachings of the Spirit without outward teaching But why I pray you without outward teaching Do you not know that the whole Gospel preached by Christ and his Apostles and afterwards written is the Issue or product of the Spirit Is not all the Holy Scripture given by inspiration of God Did not the holy men of old the Prophets speak and write as they were moved by the Holy Ghost and do not you your selves say that the Scriptures cannot be understood but by the same Spirit that gave them forth by which you suppose and grant that they were given forth by the Spirit And for what end did the Holy Spirit inspire the Apostles first to preach and after that to write the Holy Doctrine of the Gospel but to teach men thereby what to beleive and how to live that they might be saved And if so are not all those who are led and guided by this Gospel which is the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit led by the Spirit of God There 's no doubt but that the Spirit by its inward operations upon the minds of men doth concur with that teaching of his which is from without by the Scriptures and by men from the Scriptures But methinks it 's wonderful I mean wonderfully absurd that you should divide the Spirits teaching and leading and oppose his inward to his outward teaching Whereas the Lord hath declared expresly that his word outwardly and Spirit shall be so conjoyned in carrying on his design of grace towards the world under the Gospel as that they shall never be separated Isa 59.21 As for me this is my Covenant with them saith the Lord my Spirit that is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy Seed nor out of the of mouth thy Seeds Seed saith the Lord from hence forth and for ever Prov. 123. By which and by other Scriptures I know assuredly that whatever inward teaching by the Spirit you pretend to yet the Holy Spirit never taught you to believe or to say that the Spirits inward teaching only without any outward teaching by the Scriptures or by men is the rule of Faith and Practice whatever other Spirit it is that taught it you the which it concerns you more than me to examine For the Spirit having said thus much by this holy man of God in this Place for he as all other Prophets spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost I am sure he hath said nothing to the contrary in any other for the word that proceeds from the Spirit of truth is not yea and nay When St. Paul said Gal. 5.18 if ye are led by the Spirit ye are not under the Law he did not mean if they were led by the inward guidance of the Spirit without the outward conduct of the Gospel but under the word Spirit here he opposeth the Gospel to the Law And his meaning was that if they gave up themselves to the conduct of the Spirit by the Gospel they should not need to make conscience still of the Ceremonies of Moses's Law as Circumcision or the like as some among them did from which he had been dehorttng them in the begining of this Chapter This Gospel is called the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus which frees those that walk after it and not after the Flesh from the Law of Sin and Death Rom. 8.1 2. And where this Gospel is received into the heart so as that it is predominant there there Christ dwells and the Spirit dwells by that word of the Gospel And thus Christ is in men the hope of Glory and thus Christ dwells in the heart by Faith by Faith in his word and those live and walk in the Light that live and walk according to this word and thus they abide in Christ that have his word abiding in them and those that abide in the Doctrine of Christ have both the Father and the Son and they are spiritually minded whose minds are powerfully influenced by the Gospel and they resist the Holy Ghost who resist that word which hath been declared by motion and inspiration from him So inseparable are the Word and Spirit in the conduct of Christians to happiness St. Paul exhorted the Ephesians to be filled with the Spirit in order to their speaking to themselves in Psalms and Hymnes and Spiritual Songs Eph. 5.18 19. and the Colossians that they
that refers but to the same thing the qualifying of persons to prophesie For the Prophets of old did usually receive the matter of Prophesie by Dreams or Visions Numb 12.6 If there be a Prophet among you I the Lord will make my self known unto him in a Vision and will speak unto him in a Dream Hos 12.10 And it was not unusual for Prophets then to fore-tell Evangelical Events in an Old-Testament Dialect And when 't is said the Spirit should be poured out upon all flesh it is not meant of all persons in the world without exception for it was never given unto all persons to prophesie taking all in so large a sence but to persons of all sorts both for Sex and Age Sons and Daughters old men and young yea Servants and Handmaids also as they are particularly exprest in the Text and these not of the Jews only but on the Gentiles also as the Event shews which was new to the world 2. The Application of this Prophesie to the Event plainly shews that the End for which a Promise of this pouring out of the Spirit was made was to enable some to teach others For the event of this Prophesie in which it received its completion was the pouring out of the Spirit in extraordinary and miraculous gifts upon the Apostles and Disciples on the day of Pentecost and for some time after This appears by St. Peter's application of that Prophesie to this very Event Act. 2.16 This is that saith he which was spoken by the Prophet Joel c. And that those miraculous Gifts were poured out on some to enable them to teach others will appear in these two things not to instance in more First the Gift of speaking divers Tongues which was one of them was to enable them to declare the things of the Gospel to people of all Nations Tongues and Languages in their own Mother-Tongue wherein they were born Upon the use of this gift those of every Nation under heaven then resident at Jerusalem said We do hear them speak in our Tongues the wonderful works of God Acts 2.11 By this Gift the Apostles were prepared to preach the Gospel to all Nations to every Creature as Christ afterwards commissioned them to do Secondly As by this Gift of Tongues they could and did propagate the Knowledge of the Gospel to them that never heard of it before so by this as by other miraculous Gifts of the Spirit was Belief of the Gospel procured from them to whom it was made known For hereby they knew or had reason to believe that persons thus qualified were sent of God and the Doctrine they brought was from God John 3.2 We know that thou art a Teacher come from God for no man can do these Miracles that thou dost except God be with him In which respect this and other miraculous Gifts were called signs and signs of what but that the persons so qualified and their Doctrine were of God Tongues saith St. Paul are for a sign to those that believe not 1 Cor. 14.22 They were teaching Signs they taught those to believe the Gospel who did not believe before Signs and Wonders done by the Apostles and others were those things by which God gave testimony to the Word of his Grace as it is Acts 14.3 These signs said our Saviour shall follow those that believe in my name in my name they shall cast out Devils they shall speak with new Tongues c. Mark 16.17 And in v 20. They the Apostles went forth and preached every where the Lord working with them and confirming the Word with Signs following And Heb. 2.4 God also bearing them witness with Signs and Wonders and divers Miracles and Gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will Truly saith St. Paul the Signs of an Apostle were wrought among you in Signs and Wonders and mighty Deeds 2 Cor. 12.12 These were teaching Signs by which the Apostles were known to be Apostles Messengers sent by God and their Word and Doctrine to be the Message which God sent by them These miraculous powers of the Spirit of God visible in the Apostles and those that received their Doctrine were that which procured such wonderful success to the preaching of the Gospel notwithstanding the fiercest opposition of Adversaries The very first day in which the Gospel set out armed and attended with these powers it brought in of Converts no less than 3000 Souls and so went forth conquering and to conquer from Jerusalem and throughout all Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the Earth I will not dare saith St. Paul to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me to make the Gentiles obedient by word and deed by the word preached and the mighty deeds that did accompany it through mighty Signs and Wonders by the power of the Spirit of God so that from Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum I have fully preached the Gospel of Christ Rom. 15.18 19. That which made the Gospel the more credible as coming from God and the more successful in bringing in multitudes of new Converts and in confirming and establishing those who were already converted was in that the holy Spirit was shed abroad in those Miraculous Gifts not only upon the Apostles that preached that Doctrine but also upon those that received it and believed it afterwards as well as on the day of Pentecost And that the more credit might be thereby procured to the Apostles in their Message from God to men the holy Ghost in extraordinary gifts was given to the Disciples after they believed by the laying on of the Apostles hands Thus at Samaria the Believers converted by Philip received the holy Ghost not by the laying on of his hands but of the hands of Peter and John Acts 8.17 And that they received the holy Ghost in some visible effects appears in that it is said that when Simon saw that through the laying on of the Apostles hands the Holy Ghost was given he offered them Money for the like power What to confer inward spiritual Grace No that was not the thing which he saw or could see the Apostles do nor is it probable that he desired it Likewise those Believers at Ephesus when Paul had laid his hands on them the Holy Ghost came on them and they spake with tongues and prophesied Acts 19.6 Thus it is said of them that after they believed they were sealed with the Holy Spirit of Promise as the earnest of the future Inheritance and purchased possession they continuing in the belief and practice of that Gospel that came thus confirmed to them Eph. 1.13 14. At the very first indeed it should seem the Holy Ghost fell on the Believers thus without laying on of the Apostles hands as in Acts 2. 10.44 But afterwards we have seen how it was The Spirit in some extraordinary gifts was poured on some of the Prophets of old but we never read that it was in such
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 he 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 humility 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 more self-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 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 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
THE Grand Errour OF THE QUAKERS Detected and Confuted Shewing how they contradict God's method of directing men to Salvation by following that Light within which comes by outward Teaching by their directing them to seek it by following that Light within which is wrought without external teaching by the Scriptures or by men WHEREIN Those things are considered likewise which have betrayed them into delusion By W. A. Rom. 10.14 17. How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard And how shall they hear without a Preacher So then Faith cometh by hearing LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishops-Head in St Paul's Church-Yard 1680. AN EPISTLE TO THE ENTHUSIASTS Or the People called QUAKERS Sirs I Have cause to think that your unmeasurable Confidence of the Truth and Goodness of your own Way in opposition to the best men that differ from you and the scornful entertainment the best Endeavours of men have met with to convince you of Error and Mistake have discouraged many of those from attempting it who are best able herein to serve you But my Love to your Souls and Desires of recovering you to a sound mind being stronger than my hopes of effecting it by any Endeavours of mine have prevailed with me to offer a few things to you however whether you will hear or whether you will forbear not being without all hope but that it may have such effect upon some among you or inclining to you as may be worth my Labour § 1. You know it was said by our Blessed Saviour That straight is the Gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto Life and few there be that find it And I little doubt but that an Appearance at the first of a greater Strictness and Narrowness in your way than in theirs that differ from you was a Temptation to some injudicious persons I have known and probably to many other such to strike into it as supposing it must be the best and safest because the narrowest and fewest of it Which Snare I presume they would easily have escaped had they been but wise enough to have considered these two things First That that Narrowness and Strictness consisting in outward Austerities and Incivilities wherein you differed from other Sober Christians was no Narrowness or strictness of God's appointing but a piece of Superstition of your own devising when you placed Religion in it And you are not the first that have been deceived with such Appearances several Orders among the Papists have been built upon the same Bottom long before your way was heard of in the world And we read of others long before them also who subjected themselves to like Ordinances of men such as touch not taste not handle not Such things having a shew of wisdom in Will-worship and Humility and neglecting of the Body not in any honour to the satisfying of the Flesh as the Apostle speaks Col. 2.20 23. In respect of which and other like little things that had no real worth or goodness in them the false Apostles pretended to more strictness than was in the Apostles of Christ themselves whom they represented but as men walking according to the Flesh in comparison of themselves 2 Cor. 10.2 And the Pharisees before them by reason of some Austerities they used about Fastings external Purifications and shunning the company of Publicans pretended to greater strictness in Religion than was in Christ's Disciples yea than in Christ himself whom they accounted to be but a Gluttonous person and a Wine-bibber a friend of Publicans and Sinners in compare with themselves By such appearance of extraordinary Zeal and Strictness though alas it be but in things that do not tend at all to the bettering or perfecting men in their Nature Deceivers are wont to procure to themselves a Reputation among people of weak minds by advantage whereof as of a Eait that covers the Hook they obtain a ready reception for their more dangerous Doctrines Again They would not so easily have been overcome with the aforesaid Appearances of Narrowness and Strictness if they had but well considered that in reference to those things wherein the Narrowness and Strictness of Christ's way to Life doth most consist and wherein he hath tied up his followers to strictness indeed ye have taken liberty to walk loosly and to cast off his Yoke and that is in not governing your Spirits Passions and Tongues according to the Laws of his Kingdom and Government He hath strictly enjoyned his Followers to be humble and lowly in heart to esteem others better than themselves to speak evil of no man but to shew all meekness to all men yea and in meekness to instruct even those that oppose themselves to bless those that curse them to overcome others evil with their good not to judge and the like But quite contrary hereunto your very Leaders and such as have been esteemed most eminent among you have by their examples taught you to rail on and revile if not bitterly to curse such as wished you no harm but sought your good and proudly to exalt and justifie your selves and to despise and set at naught yea to judge condemn and sentence to eternal destruction such whom ye ought to have honoured as probably much better than your selves What less signifies such Language as this Thou accursed thou Beast to whom the Plagues of God are due a Reprobate a Child of Darkness thou art thou disobedient one upon whom God will render vengeance in flaming fire thou dark blind Hypocrite thee man that is Cain with the Light of Christ thou art seen and with the Life judged and condemned thou Sorcerer thou dead Beast and so art not justified before God nor never shall be But such polluted filthy Beasts as thou Thou polluted Beast who art a Reprobate and thou shalt find him to be thine eternal Condemnation thou dark Beast and Conjurer thou dark sottish Beast Works of Edw. Burroughs p. 29 32 33 34. With abundance more in other of your Writings This truly is Language more like to proceed one would think from such presumptuous daring arrogant men whose mouth speaketh great swelling words as Peter and Jude describe than from men inspired with any of that Spirit of Meekness and Gentleness which was in Jesus Christ If Humility Charity and Modesty were the prevailing Constitution of these mens Spirits as it is of those who have been taught of Christ as the Truth is in Jesus and are made one Spirit with him I should think they would by no means speak at this rate And yet this and such like is not the Language only of some bold rash heady women or of men less considerable among you transported with furious Zeal but even of Ed. Burrough himself one of the Chieftains among you in his time And that not upon any sudden surprize of Passion but upon so much deliberation as men use in writing of Books and upon no other provocation than a bare propounding certain Queries touching
they may be with some But though the things necessary to salvation are in the Revelation of them accommodated to the capacities of the weak and simple whose Salvation is designed by them as well and as much as theirs of stronger and quicker apprehensions yet there are things under the New Testament that are hard to be uttered as the phrase is Heb. 5.11 and therefore hard to be understood as the phrase is again 2. Pet. 3.16 As there is milk for Babes who are unskilful in the Word of righteousness so there is meat for strong Men who by reason of use have their Senses exercised to discern both good and evil as 't is said Heb. 5.13 14. And mens differences about these points proceed at the best from their different measures of Light and understanding and sometimes are persisted in from that which is worse So it was in the Apostles time between the believing Jews and the blieving Gentiles Rom. 14. Which by the way would not have been if all good Christians then had been guided by an infallible Light within as you suppose they are now If they had they would not have needed to have been taught and re-taught which are the first principles of the Oracles of God as some of them were Heb. 5. But when men which are but poor in knowledge and yet rich in confidence undertake to manage and master these more difficult points and passages of Scripture they too often wrest them to their own destruction as St. Peter speaks 2. Ep. 3.16 And this they either do or are in great danger of doing when they fasten upon some wrong sence and notion of hard and difficult places of Scripture and then pervert plain and easie places by interpreting them to their wrong sence of those that are more obscure and difficult especially when their interpretations are not mere speculations but such as influence men in their practice as becoming a rule to them therein Whereas the more wise and judicious never interpret hard places in opposition to the common sence of those that are plain and easie but explain those that are hard and difficult by those that are plain The use I would advise you to make of all this is to review the grounds you have gone on and to cease from your new notions and speculations of your being taught only by the Light within which you have taken up from some expressions in Scripture misunderstood by you and wholly disagreeing to the Scope of the places where they are found and contrary to the general current of the Scriptures in their plain and obvious sence Seek not a Knot in a bulrush seek not for Mysteries there where the Lord hath declared his mind plainly and in no parable But form your notions of God's method of proceeding with men to bring them to Salvation according to the plain and express Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles in the Scriptures and receive from and regulate by that Doctrine all your apprehensions perswasions affections and operations of your Souls together with all your words and actions So did the good Christians of Old they obeyed from the heart that form of Doctrine which was delivered to them Rom. 6.17 They purifyed their souls in obeying that Truth through the Spirit 1. Pet. 1.22 Yea the Apostles themselves were first taught by Christ's preaching unto them what to think and believe concerning Christ John 17.8 I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me and they have received them and have known surely that I came out from thee and they have believed that thou didst send me And just as the Apostles preached so the Christians believed they made their Doctrine the Adequate Rule of their notions of things the Rule of their Faith the Rule of their Life So we Preach and so ye believed saith St. Paul 1. Cor. 15.11 And those great plain known and commonly received Truths necessary to Salvation called the common Faith Tit. 1.4 the Faith once delivered to the Saints Jude 3. these I say were the Rule and Standard by which they were to try the Doctrine of such as only pretended to Inspirations from the Spirit Beloloved believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they be of God because many false Prophets are gone out into the World 1. Joh. 4.1 And then St. John in ver 2 3. commends to them one known fundamental Doctrine pertinent to his Case then in hand by which they might know the Teachers he cautioned them against were not inspired by God nor authorized by him Hereby know ye the Spirit of God every Spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the Flesh is of God And every Spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the Flesh is not of God And again verse 6. We are of God he that knoweth God heareth us adhered to and governed themselves by the Apostles Doctrine he that is not of God heareth not us hereby know we the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error And truly if you will not make the plain and express Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles in the Scriptures touching Faith and a good Life your Rule by which to try and to judge of the Truth and erroneousness of your conceptions perswasions motions and inclinations under the notion of the Light within and of all your words and actions consequent thereupon you are and will be in great danger to be like the wandring Stars and the clouds carried with a Tempest of which St Peter and Jude speak unfixed and unstable in your judgment Faith and Ways For it is certain and evident whatever you pretend to the contrary that the Light within you is not in your own account always a certain constant and infallible Rule to you for if it were you would not act so contrary to your selves as you have done under pretence of being taught of God and guided by the Light within One while crying up your former practice of shaking as the effect of God's work in and upon you and another while confessing it to be a delusion as Samuel Fisher one of note with you did to me saying it was so judged One while crying down all Ecclesistical forms of Government as tyrannical another while erecting one among your selves pretending to as much Infallibility in your Body representative in managing it as the Papists do in reference to the Pope One while owning the witnessing of a person to be from God and another while condemning the same for an error or delusion How often have those of your number thought they have been sent by God on messages who after have found themselves deluded By these and other like instances you may be convinced that if you do not make the Doctrine of Christ in the Scriptures the Adequate Rule of the motions and inclinations of your minds and the actions of your lives whereby to know when they are of God and when not you have then no certain Rule to