Gal. 5.22 Not only that they are the fruits of the Gospel which is sometimes phrased by the word Spirit in opposition to those legal observations which being carnal ordinances are called flesh But they are so the fruits of the Spirit that as he first dictated the Rule so does he also concurr to the actions If the Evil Spirit could carry Christ to be tempted in the Wilderness Shall we not think the good Spirit could relieve him too If the Prince of the power of the Air can be a Spirit working in the children of disobedience Ephes 2.2 Shall we conclude the Holy Ghost less active or powerful to work in those who resign their wills by the direction of his Laws to his most sacred and safe conduct The promise of life and eternal salvation is made to us upon this condition that through the Spirit we mortifie the deeds of the body Rom. 8.13 And though many things concur with the influences of the holy Spirit to effect so great and victorious triumphs Yet all causes act with a dependence upon this glorious power which works in us both to will and to do when we prepare our selves for its reception by endeavouring what in us layes to work out our salvation with fear and trembling Philip. 2.12 13. Preaching Prayers Meditation and hearing the word of God are ordinary means to convert a sinner from the error of his way And yet S. Paul though he sufficiently magnifies the Preachers Office sayes that we are only workers together with God 2 Cor. 6.1 And 't is well for us all when God assists and blesses our endeavours And God grant that those who attend such sacred institutions being swift to hear may never be so swift also as to depart without a blessing Having thus both asserted and explained the coming of the holy Spirit to influence men the certainty of its operation and the necessity of its influence which makes up this Chapter of my discourse I shall close it with a brief request to all who desire so to approve themselves to God here that they may not be rejected by him hereafter That they would use all possible diligence to obtain and keep the blessing and influence of this holy Spirit which gives them such great assistance in sanctifying their minds and ordering all the actions of their lives That they would well use the grace they have received that so they may be capable of more in the hour of trial and at the day of temptation That they would pray frequently for new supplies of aid and assistance And that they would never by a vicious and unholy life grieve the Spirit and cause it to desert them lest through too much confidence in themselves they at last prove both Cowards and Apostates CHAP. XI HAving in the former Chapter in some measure proved that the Holy Spirit of God descended according to the predictions of the Prophets and the promise of our Saviour I shall now enquire into his work and business in this world amongst men who were rational and intellectual Beings Who might as some men are apt to think have well enough propagated Christian Doctrine when they had heard it from our Saviours own mouth and had for some time daily conversation with him Without any other new assistance besides the miraculous gift of tongues And what employment the Spirit of God could possibly have among other men As they will not be Religious enough to know So truly they are yet very much to seek However I shall adventure without calling any men names to shew according to my steady and long continued though mean thoughts what the sacred Spirit of God has done and yet does to guide men into the wayes of truth In the promises where Christ who was truth it self engages for the Spirits corning into the World in a more plentiful manner than in foregoing periods He seems to be described as a person different from the Father and the Son And I shall instance in one eminent promise to this purpose John 16.13 Howbeit when he the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth Now that our great and most blessed Redeermer of men speaks of a person here And not of what is said to be an afflatus divinus only as some have interpreted this place to void the Doctrine of the most glorious Trinity Which is the great and I had almost said the distinguishing Article of the Christian Faith is plain from the terms of this Text Because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is prefix'd to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He the Spirit of truth And this latter part which is a Periphrasis does but acquaint us who the Person was Even the Holy Ghost the third Person in the most Glorious Trinity God blessed for evermore Now this profound mystery of the Trinity however inexplicable it may seem to be in all particulars to the understandings of men who are loth to think that any Beings are above their great capacities and reasonings Yet it has been alwayes believ'd by the Orthodox through all the Ages of the Christian Church And it is a point sufficient if there were no other to baffle the Heathen Objection against our Religion viz. That it cannot be Divine because there is no Mystery in it But I design not to treat in this discourse with any that own not Christ to be the Messiah The great King and Saviour of the World And therefore shall only acquaint the Reader That Jesus himself seems to take great care to insinuate and fix this fundamental point in the particular promises of the Holy Ghost Lest any persons mighty in reason and wonderful in argument should refuse to believe such a Mystery as this when apparently revealed because their own reason is not able to conclude the thing or their language cannot fully explain it In the fourteenth of Saint Johns Gospel the sixteenth Verse our blessed Saviour acquaints his Disciples for their comfort and encouragement with this great promise I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever Even the Spirit of truth Here is one praying another sending and a third given So is it also at the twenty sixth Verse of the same Chapter But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you Here is the Father sending in the Sons name or upon his account the Holy Ghost to teach the Apostles those things which our Saviour had more briefly hinted to them And such things also which the Apostles through prejudice could not then receive And to bring those parts of the Christian Doctrine to their remembrance which they through human frailty might forget That so they might be fitted to be the publishers and the sacred and infallible Pen-men of the most excellent Principles of the Christian Religion And that
when rightly understood to make the man of God perfect And if they are able to furnish the Minister certainly they are sufficient to instruct the people Nay to make them throughly furnished to all good works and are able to make them wise unto salvation through faith which is in Jesus 2 Tim. 3.15 16 17. Hence is it that these are so far from being taken from the adult that they are to be exposed to Childrens Learning Or else it would not have been Timothy's commendation that from a child he had known the Scriptures And if such Elogiums were made in the honour of the Old Testament much more praises must be given to the New which shews us a way to be justified from those things from which we could not be justified by the Law of Moses Acts 13.39 and brings life and immortality to light 2 Tim. 1.10 The Doctrines in the Gospel preached by Christ and enlarged upon by the Apostles through the powerful inspiration of the Holy Spirit are sufficient accompanied with those means appointed for their delivery and the ordinary assistances given to those that attend them with humility to guide men into all those truths requisite to be known in relation to their eternal welfare And therefore blessed are they sayes our Saviour that hear the word of God and keep it Luke 11.28 From hence draw we the water of life and these are the fresh springs of salvation at which mankind may satisfie themselves Here have we directions to demean our selves in all our various conditions in the World that we may endure both the Sun-shine and the Storms that prosperity may neither swell nor adversity consume us S. Paul's advice therefore to Timothy must be attended by us also To continue in the things which we have learned and have been assured of knowing of whom we have learned them and that because evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived 2 Tim. 3.13 14. Let the infallible men of mystical and unintelligible demonstration endeavour to prove what they cannot defend but by their old argument of force and fire Let them blaspheme the Holy Ghost in the Apostles whilst yet they pretend to its inspiration themselves Let those argue against the Scriptures being a Rule when rightly understood that can defend their Doctrine only by a counterfeit tradition Having no greater argument against the sufficiency of the Scripture but because it consumes their Hay and Stubble And that they can there neither fetch Wood to burn us nor Stones to destroy us But let us who are of the day be sober and be wise to that which is good And then as God formerly subjected Sathan to the seed of the Woman for that by the Serpent he deceived their simplicity and stain'd their innocence so though now he endeavours by subtile impostors to beguile soft and ignorant minds he shall not alwayes triumph in his villany But the God of peace shall bruise him under our feet shortly Rom. 16.20 The Providence of God is a great deep the reason of man is not able to fathom it And though he may for the punishment of our sins the tryal of our vertue or to make our adversaries ripe for destruction permit some to erect their Plumes and lead captive unwary souls in triumph yet though he that standeth must take heed lest he fall let us according to S. Paul's advice hold fast the form of sound words 2 Tim. 1.13 and contend earnestly for that faith which was once delivered unto the Saints Jude ver 3. and withdraw from every brother that walketh disorderly and not after what has been delivered 2 Thess 3.6 And if we walk according to this rule peace shall be upon us and mercy Gal. 6.16 We need not then be afraid of the winds and storms nor yet of him that kills the body if we truly fear him that can destroy the soul Which none but God himself can do For sayes our Saviour whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doth them is like a wise man who built his house upon a rock and though the rain descend the floods come and the winds blow and beat upon that house it falls not Matth. 7.24 The God of truth having now given us a standing rule by the glorious inspiration of his Holy Spirit expects that it should be the general measure of our actions And as no sign would be given of our Saviours death and resurrection besides that of the Prophet Jonas so no rule can be expected by us besides the Gospel to the universal period and general Conflagration Hence is it that S. Paul puts all under the severest curse that pervert this or preach another Gospel And he does not only anathematize men but passes the same sentence upon Angels if at any time they should prove so bold and impious Nay he doubles the curse to testifie his faith and proclaim the irrepealable duration of the Gospel But though we or an Angel from heaven preach any other Gospel unto you let him be accursed Gal. 1.8 What was indited by the inspiration of the Spirit is certainly true and we may confide in it What is added by the wit of men may possibly be false and therefore it is not to be be looked upon as infallible any farther than it can be proved either directly or by consequence from the Scriptures themselves This is the rule which the ancient Fathers disputed against the Hereticks by and this must be the measure and rule of our faith it being so full and plain that no new Article must be added to our Creed nor any other rules of duty contradictory to these all necessary things being so easie that any person of any ordinary capacity using the methods of Gods own institution may soon arrive at knowledge enough to save him if his will does not rebell against his understanding and he faithfully practises what he knows Nor could the end of Gods Law ever be obtained or men be left inexcusable if it were so obscure that it could not unriddle it self For the end of all Laws being the obedience of those that are bound by them How can men obey that which they cannot by any means understand And if it cannot by the ordinary helps of the learned in it interpret it self there must then be a new inspiration to interpret what was inspired before And then there will be two inspirations where one would have served Because he that can interpret a Law plainly to the World might have made it plain at its first delivery Unless perchance we may think it wiser to do any thing with toil and pains which may be performed with ease and pleasure 'T is true indeed that many men by ignorance or wilfulness when they forsake the Guides of Gods appointment heaping Teachers to themselves having itching ears may be and are led into divers errors under the specious pretence of truth And thus those amongst the Galatians who in those early dayes
that they should read natural Philosophy to the World He did not intend to teach them to call the Stars by their names or that they should by virtue of his instruction know their several motions distances or altitudes He did not intend Aphorisms in Physick Or to give to them Geometrical proportions Nor to breed them curious and expert Artificers though some of these have made themselves Apostles Nor to teach them the numbers of Arithmetick Or the Astrological signatures of things or times and seasons For these were not for them to know because the Father had put them into his own power Acts 1.7 And therefore as they were never so proud and bold so neither were they so unlucky as the Pope who must needs condemn a point in Geography and the tenet of Antipodes for a destroying Heresie So little did he know the universal Empire he pretended to that he did not understand the extent of it nor the Figure or Bounds or Inhabitants of that Earth over which he yet pretended an Authority The Holy Ghost therefore guided the Apostles into those truths only in Divinity which included the full Doctrine of the Gospel which our Saviour delivered that they might be able to preach them to the present age and commit them to writing for the use of all succeeding Generations The Spirit was not given to them to make them great Historians or Philosophers but Christians and to capacitate them to be the planters and founders of Churches not the posts and standards of dispute Or to be the leaders of Sects and Factions in Philosophy They were to erect a Pillar of truth setled upon a firm foundation Christ himself supporting the Building and this neither for Pasquins or Poetry but for a Rule and directory of standing Religion and Devotion CHAP. XII THE souls of men whilst hous'd in these bodies of clay are darkned and obscured notwithstanding all the windows of sense to let in the light of external objects to an intercourse with the mind For supposing our senses could alwayes make true and exact representations to our souls which yet we know are often deceived yet these could only convey such things as are the proper objects of the souls of men Those of an higher and more exalted nature that are not capable of an image must needs escape the perception of our outward senses and if reason it self when most disentangled from those fetters which our senses too often impose should endeavour to make propositions and inferences about the essences of those things whose spiritual natures evade our sense our notions could not be adequate to the things themselves nor could we fully comprehend what is infinite nor have a positive Idea of spiritual Beings though reason might conclude their existence Hence is it that all our definitions and descriptions of these are therefore imperfect because negative and though we may conclude what they are not we never could by humane power yet resolve compleatly what they are which makes Divine Revelation necessary and that we should have faith beyond our reason though we never believe without reason to assure us of the authority we confide in This being therefore our state and condition in this World we must as well praise Gods Goodness as admire his Power for sending us that Spirit of Truth which guides us into all truth that is necessary to conduct us to eternal happiness Now this Promise I told you I would consider two wayes 1. As it related to the Apostles and first Disciples of our Lord and Saviour 2. As it concerns the whole Church of Christ that is or shall be militant on the earth The first of these is already dispatched And therefore I now proceed to the second To view the Promise of the Spirits guidance as it concerns the Church throughout the several Ages and Periods of the Christian World I have already proved the divine influence on the minds of men though its immediate operation is too difficult to be explained as to the manner of its energy and work and that we have no reason to disbelieve the thing for that we know not the manner of its operation What therefore is now to be discoursed supposing the truth of its influence in general and that extraordinary assistance he gave unto the Apostles is How the Holy Spirit of God possesses the minds of those with truth who make themselves by holy dispositions and a due exercise of their rational faculties capable to receive it and what truths those are that the Spirit of God guides men into As to the first supposing that which has been already proved That the Apostles were inspired from above to receive a full revelation of those truths by opening their understandings and quickning their memories that concern the salvation of mankind and that they committed them to writing faithfully recording them for the use of posterity and that these are to be standing rules for all ages and generations to come I cannot find any other method the Spirit has used or does continue to guide the ages succeeding the Apostles into all truth but what is contained in these three particulars 1. By those Scriptures which he inspired the Apostles to publish and deliver 2. By inclining the hearts of some men to continue that Ministry which must endure to the end of the world And 3. By confirming those truths contained in the Scriptures unto the minds of men by co-operating with the external ministration by an internal work upon the understanding will and affections of those who are inclinable in the day of his power First then The Spirit of truth guides us into all truth by those Scriptures Christ and his Apostles delivered to be the standing rules for posterity These are those lively Characters in which we may read the Nature of God and the directions of our lives These are such an infallible rule of truth that they certainly guide those into it who soberly and conscientiously apprehend and follow them They convey peace of conscience here which is a thing valuable above Crowns and Kingdoms and hereafter give us such possessions as infinitely transcend the power of our thoughts and exceed all humane expectations These Holy Scriptures contain such a compleat body of Doctrine that they need not any additions to be made to them Let their own sense be but sufficiently explained and if they are permitted to speak their own mind they will neither want Apocrypha nor Traditions nor any new Revelation neither to render them a compleat System of Divinity Mens own Doctrines and not Christs want Traditions to confirm them and 't is the pride and covetousness of a Sect of men that would make all Christians groan with their burden and void Gods Word with their own pretensions however they are varnished with the plausible Epithets of ancient and Apostolical that make such additions to the Scriptures But the Holy Scriptures which were at first given by inspiration of God are able of themselves
renders our notions more clear and durable We use the means that are within our power and set our reason and faculties on work and then the Spirit by a secret operation enlarges our minds and blesses our endeavours Thus Paul must plant and Apollo water although it is God that gives the increase 1 Cor. 3.6 And thus the Lord opened the heart of Lydia to embrace the Gospel whilst she attended to it as it was spoken by S. Paul Acts 16.14 When the Apostles were yet diffident concerning the truth of our Saviours resurrection though they had the Books of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms by them in which these things were sufficiently predicted yet Christ himself opened their understandings before they could apprehend the meaning of those Scriptures Luke 24.45 As we may do all things through Christ strengthning us Phil. 4.13 So separated from him we can do nothing John 15.5 The Spirit of God has put much of our duty into our own power yet has still reserved something to himself that we may be kept humble depend upon him and beg his aid For the animal man that is not possessed with the Divine benediction and influence of the Spirit who admits not of propositions prov'd only by Miracles receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God because they appear foolishness unto him neither can he know them whilst he remains in that condition because they are spiritually discerned are proved by Miracles not Logick 1 Cor. 2.14 Hence is it that S. Jude describes sensual men to be such as have not the Spirit ver 19. of his Epistle Now upon the view of all this As we have no reason by our unbelief to deprive our selves of what is promised and to shut out those assistances from our souls which bless and facilitate our endeavours so we have no cause to say that our safety is beyond our power and that Heaven is too high for our reach since if we solemnly prepare our hearts and devoutly petition the assistances of the Spirit we may obtain it and God will not be wanting to us if we are not first wanting to our selves This is what S. Austin sayes Facienti quod in se est Deus non deneg at gratiam That God does not deny his grace to him who does what is in his power And that promise of our Saviour may relieve and encourage us That our heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him Luke 11.13 Let us act then with the dependence of creatures and yet not relinquish the reason of men Let us not think to be drawn into an understanding and belief of those truths contained in the Scripture by the strength of a Miracle and upon the wheels of an extraordinary Providence to be snatched out of the pit of ignorance by an irresistible force and informed by an Apostolical illumination But let us use those means that are now put into our own power for the full apprehension of all divine and necessary truth and walk according to what we have already attained the knowledge of that our obedience according to what we have received may attest the sincerity of our minds And then if any thing yet remains which is necessary farther for us to know God will use some method or other to inform us and by his Spirit dispose our understandings to receive it For God shall reveal even this unto us and we have S. Paul's word for it Phil. 3.15 16. And thus I have now at length considered this promise of leading men into truth both as it concerned the Apostles and as it also relates unto our selves I have shewed how it guided them and how it does still lead us into Truth There is now but one thing more that will want only a brief reflection before I arrive at some practical Inferences from the whole discourse and that is the latitude of this Promise in relation to its object which as it hath been already discoursed on with reference to the Apostles so must it be explained in relation to our selves For this universal all truth must not be understood in the utmost extent it is capable of no more than it was with reference to the Apostles but it must be limited in these following particulars First The Spirit guides us into all truth which may be necessary for the ordering our conversations in this World suitable to the Religion we are baptized into There are directions published in Sacred Writ for our Christian deportment in all our various states and conditions From whence S. Paul in the general exhorts that our conversation be as it becometh the Gospel of Christ Phil. 1.27 Which would be a strange and insufficient direction were there not in it a compleat rule for our lives The duties of a Christian are either concerning God others or our selves As to the first we are commanded to worship God in spirit and in truth The devotion we pay him must be suitable to his being and the general rules given in the Gospel John 4.24 And we must love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind Matth. 22.37 As to the second we have this direction To do to others as we would have them do unto us Mat. 7.12 And to love our neighbours as our selves Matt. 22.39 And as to our selves we must walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness not in strife and envying Rom. 13.13 Nay our whole duty is comprehended in one Text of S. Paul who tells us that the Gospel teaches us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in the world Tit. 2.12 Piously towards God Righteously towards our Neighbours and soberly in relation to our selves Nor have we only these general directions but those also that are so particular that we may hence take the measure of our duties and such prudent advice is given in all the conditions that may happen to us That we are neither left without proper counsel nor yet without comfort and relief Secondly The Holy Spirit of Truth guides us into all those Divine Truths which we ought to believe and of these he has given us so exact an account that no new Article is to be added to that Faith which has been already delivered to the Saints The Apostles Creed in which are contained all things necessary to compleat our belief is in every Article revealed in the Scripture And men that go too far beyond it are apt to be wise over much and to think and conclude beyond sobriety and therefore Thirdly The Spirit thus guides us into all truth that concerns our future happiness and salvation It has informed us that there is such a state by bringing life and immortality to light in the Gospel and it has laid out and smooth'd the way that leads to it It has given some description of the state it self as far as
therefore it must remain doubtful to those that will not believe the Gospel is it not more reasonable to receive this Revelation so well attested and to renounce others that are not so than to leave things of such an infinite concernment at so miserable an hazard Nay since there can be no other than probable proofs of future things when Arguments are taken from their own nature without the admission of Divine Revelation Is there not greater reason even when two things seem uncertain to adhere to that which is more probable And to that which gives us some hopes rather than to that which affords us none at all In this there can be no danger to believe there is a future state there may be great in the denial of it If it be not true it makes us yet live with more comfort and die with less trouble and reluctancy But perhaps all may now be willing to believe the Scriptures to be true Yet such Faith alone will not gain the prize though we finish our course in fighting for it Therefore let mens belief of a future immortality and a joyful state evidence it self in endeavours to obtain it For that faith is only fancy that thinks to be crowned without obedience And to believe the History of the Resurrection of our Saviour and not raise our selves to newness of life will leave us still dead in our sins Credere se in Christum quomodo dicit sayes S. Cyprian de unitate Ecclesiae qui non facit quod Christus facere praecepit How can he be said to believe in Christ who does not do what he commands him And a little before in the same Tract Immortalitate potiri quomodo possumus nisi ea quibus mors expugnatur vincitur Christi mandata servemus How can we enjoy eternal life unless we keep those Commands of Christ by which death is assaulted and overcome S. John tells us He that doth righteousness is righteous And though men pretend other signs which are as easily confuted as they are made Yet If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandments sayes our Saviour Matth. 19.17 And S. Cyprian will vouch the application if I suppose this to be the condition to obtain it For though the Christian Law be a Law of liberty yet it is a Law still that commands us to act like Religious men and not think to be drawn to Heaven upon the wheels of an extraordinary Providence and craned up to Paradise by an irresistable Power We ascend to Heaven by gradual advancements of virtue and devotion nor can we think that all mankind are perpetually to be saved like the Thief upon a Cross We must not think to mount above the Clouds through the vapours of repeated Debaucheries to rend the Skies and make Heaven open by louder Oaths and thundering Execrations Or to jump out of Dalilah's lap into Abraham's bosome No surely they that have done good shall go into life everlasting But they that have done evil into everlasting punishment Thirdly We learn from this discourse to praise God for giving us the Gospel and to admire and extol the Holy Ghost himself who in such an eminent manner assisted the Apostles to commit so excellent a systeme of religion to writing that we of the latter ages of the World may read what we could not hear And by the ordinary conduct of the Spirit of truth be guided to the knowledge of those things which they were extraordinarily inspired to deliver Not to commemorate so great a favour must be the highest ingratitude imaginable Let us be as thankful then as we are knowing and as we increase daily in the one let the other run parallel in the enlargement God is pleased to own himself glorified by our praises This we do when we praise him with our tongues But then does it become most glorious when it is followed with an holy and Religious life The former may proceed from hypocrisie But attended with the latter it makes the whole Trinity to rejoyce and secures to our selves those Graces we already have and engages God to give us more as our future conditions shall want supplies To him that hath shall be given saies our Saviour Nay this in an especial manner rejoyces the holy Spirit of God whose proper work it is to sanctifie And a vicious life is said to grieve him And how acceptable a Sacrifice the whole is appears in what he sayes by the Psalmist Psal 50.23 Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me And to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God Praises and thanksgivings are the natural results of a sense of mercies and favours impress'd upon the minds of men And we conclude those to be unworthy of a benefit that will not acknowledge the goodness of their Benefactors And the proportions of thanks must take their measures from the benefits received How much therefore the sending the Holy Ghost to inspire the Apostles and by them to convey light unto the World to conduct mankind to glory and immortality exceeds all the temporal favours we do enjoy By so much the more must our hearts be lifted up and our lives express our gratitude to him that sent him and to him who by his merit and intercession procured him Fourthly Did the Spirit of truth guide the Apostles into all truth necessary to the Salvation of men And does he still influence our minds and promote our endeavours in making enquiry after the things that conduce to our peace Then let us pray frequently to Almighty God for this influence and benediction of the Spirit Prayer was that which prevail'd with God to send him in so eminent a manner and for such glorious designs into the World and prayer will still continue him here I will pray the Father says Christ and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of truth Joh. 14.16 Prayer has not only an influence upon our selves as it fixes our minds and makes our holy resolutions steady but mightily prevails with God himself who will crown what he has commanded with success In this therefore lies our greatest strength in the performance of which duty soberly and with a suitable devotion and intention of mind we may be said to wrestle with God Nay it conveys to us those assistances of the Spirit that are useful to us for the sanctifying our natures and carrying us through the hazards and various circumstances of our lives For if ye being evil sayes our Saviour know how to give good gifts unto your children how much more shall your heavenly Father give the holy Spirit to them that ask him Luke 11.13 Let us not then be wanting to our selves in this duty of Prayer since so great an advantage attends its devout and hearty performance and to publick Prayer whereby God is most glorified the pains are only presence and devotion Fifthly If God sent his Spirit upon the Apostles to
A DISCOURSE Concerning the TRIAL OF SPIRITS WHEREIN Inquiry is made into Mens Pretences to Inspiration for publishing Doctrines in the Name of God beyond the Rules of the Sacred Scriptures In opposition to some Principles and Practices of Papists and Fanaticks As they contradict the Doctrines of the Church of England defined in her Articles of Religion established by her Ecclesiastical Canons and confirmed by ACTS of PARLIAMENT By THOMAS PITTIS D.D. one of His Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary London Printed by B.W. for E. Vize at the Bishop's Head over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil 1683. To the Right Worshipful Sr. Edward Worseley Knight Colonel of one of the Regiments of the Country Militia and Deputy Governour of the ISLE of WIGHT Honoured Sir HAving an unexaminable opportunity of publishing such Tracts as this And having formerly by your Father been presented to the Rectory of the Parish of Gatcomb in the Bounds of which your Mansion House is seated and in which you live having the right of Advowson undoubtedly in your self I cannot but present these Papers to you as being the Inheritor of your Fathers Estate and Vertues too and of his great kindness to me in particular which you yet on all occasions continue and increase by succeeding heaps of favours I need not relate the Loyalty of your Family it bearing date with its Antiquity and has been so manifested to the present World that a Memorial of mine would be its disparagement and upbraid the memory of mankind All know whose brains are not sunk into Oblivion how you would have redeemed King Charles the First that most Pious Martyr of ever blessed memory when he was a Prisoner in Carisbrook Castle from the present insolence of the worst of men to whom by violence he was enthral'd and the designed mischiefs that were likely to befal him from persons that thirsted after Royal Blood who were most monstrous and irreconcileable enemies to mankind and Caesar You had prudently laid your design and were honestly ready accoutred and prepared and at your Post at the appointed hour But alas all miscarried through the base treachery of other men to your misfortune and much bigger grief After this you were forced to wander and exile your self And 't was happy for us that survive your misfortune that you came off so Since the return of our present and most gracious Sovereign with whom you were also expell'd by the rage and malice of a Pack of unreasonable and malicious men your great modesty and unalterable affection to the Island in which you make so considerable a Figure in which I have the priviledge and honour of a Native has been the only cause of your not being removed into a larger Sphere But now your age and the greatness of your Merits together with your old Protestant Church of England Principles to which you are honestly and severely addicted will hardly permit you to suffer an exchange in this World though I alwayes wish'd it 'till you advance to the Glory of the next I dare not any longer be thus burdensome to your modesty and contentment that covet retirement in defiance of all your very large capacities But yet Sir give me leave to pray from the true resentments of a grateful mind that the great God who is far exalted above all Beings would continue to preserve your most Loyal and exceedingly devout self Your most Vertuous and extraordinarily pious and modest Lady and the two Gentile and excellent Branches happily sprung and nourished too from You who are the root of both much longer than I in this World shall be capable of remaining Dear SIR Your most affectionate and most humble Servant Tho. Pittis London Nov. 1. 1683. A DISCOURSE Concerning the TRIAL OF SPIRITS CHAP. I. THE Third Person in the Sacred Trinity one God blessed for ever is frequently abused by the pretences of men to such Revelations as are inconsistent with the truths of the Gospel and many Doctrines of the Christian Religion which the Holy Ghost at first inspired men to deliver And though this began in the Apostles days when the mystery of iniquity by the Gnostick defection began to work Yet it has continued and improved men in their villanies throughout the several Ages of the Church Nay so far that Treason and Murder and open Rebellion are consecrated by those that pretend to be inspired and they blasphemously make the Holy Spirit of God that breaths forth peace and quietness upon the World to become the Patron of the greatest and most disturbing impieties that ever infested the Societies of mankind This though we have been loth to believe it we are now convinc'd of by a woful experience an experience which had been purchased by our utter ruine unless Gods Providence assisting and favouring the wisdom of our Superiours encouraged by some Loyal and unwearied resolutions had happily prevented it We have two sorts of men both pretending to an infallible inspiration though on different grounds that ruine and destroy the Principles of Christianity under a shew to advance them And though we were unwilling to think that men who seem'd at so great a distance from each other should ever reach to join hand in hand and that the same principle should reconcile such different pretensions Yet as Samson's Foxes were joined together by their Tails though their heads looked away from one another So now we see those that breath inspirations from the Pope and they that boast more immediate ones from Heaven confederating though before expected by the most observing and considerate men to house the corn and tares together that Gods Harvest may become their own and they may reap where they never sowed And certainly when such attempts both by a separate and united force are made against all Order and Religion intitling God to the Patronage of a lie making the Spirit of Truth to contradict himself and crucifying Christ under a pretence to exalt him when our own Kingdoms are ready to be destroyed by cheating us out of our Properties and our Lives with a specious shew of advancing the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and to lift up his Scepter our Soveraign's must first be broken in pieces when disorders tending to subversion and ruine are plainly legible in the affairs of men coals are blowing to set all our Houses on fire and we tread those paths that will lead us to confusion and all this while men profess to be serving a God of Order when multitudes pretend to be sent from God that speak contrary to his written word and have no other Miracle to prove their Principles but the strangeness of their villany in rooting up the Laws of Nature and Society when so much brass is currant amongst us instead of gold and our silver is every day exchang'd for dross and we are ready to be made the companions of Owls or what is worse of Thieves and Murderers 't is high time to bring forth the Touchstone to enquire into the
value of things before we receive them that counterfeit coin may not claim the same priviledge with what is instamp'd with Caesar's Image nor an enterance opened for the Pope of Rome riding in a Kirk born on the backs of those that know not what they carry that they may bring Popery in triumph to us like the Grecians lodged in the belly of that Wooden and insensible Horse that entred Troy and sacked the City and so gain'd that by an easie strategem which ten years siege could not effect For these and such like reasons if men will now hearken to any I have chosen this Subject to Discourse on that if possible we may separate the chaff from the wheat distinguish betwixt the Doctrines of Apostles and those of Devils and mark out the Spirit of Antichrist that it may be known from that of our Saviour that names may no longer confound things nor Satan be received by any of us though he transforms himself into an Angel of light lest we mistake that for Samuel in his Mantle which only the Witch of Endor raises And therefore let us not believe every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they are of God because many false Prophets are gone into the world And from these words I shall raise my Discourse In this Epistle S. John endeavours to confirm Christians in the profession and practice of the Christian Religion notwithstanding all Objections to the contrary and therfore gives them sufficient caution to beware 1. Of such Heresies as destroy the foundation such as interfer'd with the great Doctrines and Authority of the Messiah such as under some great pretences of purity and preciseness might introduce Factions and Schisms and dissolve that strict love and union which ought to be among the Professors of the Gospel These things some were prone unto in the first and early times of Christianity As soon as the Church had put forth leaves the Caterpillars were ready to devour them 2. Because the Church of Christ was planted in the midst of Jewish Superstition and Heathen Idolatry and a Sect was now sprung up in the world that under the names of Christians had provided Principles which in times of danger might equally suit with both or either and so could shelter themselves from one storm and raise another if the wind blew from either quarter The Apostle therefore bids men to beware of Idolatry this being a plain renunciation of their Religion as Heresie would both maim and wound it Little children sayes he keep your selves from Idols and what he closes his Epistle with is what we all close our prayers with And that we may be also delivered from the insinuations or Society of both these sorts let all the people say Amen From the consideration of this design of our Apostle we may plainly see how suitable this whole Epistle is to the present humours and distractions among us and how soon were the advice imbraced it would cure us of those languishing distempers under which we seem to faint and die The extremities of disease vex and torture us and no sooner have we got off a cold fit which makes us almost shake and shiver into ashes but the hot one comes on which fires and almost is ready to consume us Nay a strange mixture of both encounter us rather than we shall recover and live and those things which the vigour and strength of our constitution is able to baffle whilst separate and apart being conjoined create a new disease which troubles the Physician and puts him to the utmost of his skill though I hope it will never be able to baffle him or leave us to be a prey to vermine or the great disease and pest of men Let us follow the rules of this Apostle that what ever injuries our bodies may suffer which in too many are Martyrs already by the great fears and uncertainties of their minds our souls may be safe and secure and kept unblameable to the coming of the Lord Jesus Let us be united in our common profession not staggered with the high pretences of others nor let us yet relax our diligence from the discourses of any that will at all adventures be secure among our selves But whatever notions of infallibility on the one hand or present and particular inspiration on the other shall be presented to us to debauch us from our Principles Let us well examine before we believe receive nothing that may contradict natural Religion or what is superadded in the word of God that publick and plainly declared revelation to which there need no additions to make the man of God wise unto salvation But let us follow the Apostles advice and try the Spirits whether they are of God because many false Prophets are gone out into the world By the word Spirit here is plainly meant any one that under a pretence of Inspiration or assistance from the Spirit publishes any new Doctrine to the world in the age of the Gospel and so includes both Papists and Enthusiasts The one tying the Spirit to the Chair of the Pope the other to their own Dreams and Phancies And this interpretation as it is generally assented to is plain and open to every man that will either consider the scope of the Epistle or the reason of this advice of the Apostle why we should not believe every Spirit because many false Prophets are come forth into the world and therefore we are to examine the Doctrines which any pretender to the Spirit teaches lest we are led by the authority of any into snares that may captivate and destroy our souls Now although this caution of Saint John primarily relates to the Gnostick defection yet it is a direction to all Ages and may guard us from all the pretensions of men that under a specious authority from the Spirit of truth vent false Doctrines to the World in any period of the Christian Religion Because both the Duty and the Argument to inforce it will be of a perpetual concernment as long as false Prophets come forth into the world Yet because the Gnosticks are most immediately reflected on as being the Antichrist so early appearing in the Christian world to defeat this Religion under a denomination from it boasting some extraordinary knowledge when they were men both ignorant and vile we must enquire into the particular reason why the Apostle in this place cautions men to beware of these whose faults were so scandalous that they seem manifest to all The reason of this next to that which is more general the proneness of men to any error that may gratifie themselves and become either their security or pleasure is the same why the sin against the Holy Ghost shall neither be forgiven in this world nor in the world to come because the Gnosticks plainly destroyed the Gospel although by a different Argument from the former The former against whom that severe though deserved Sentence was pronounced invalidated all our Saviours Miracles which proved
his Doctrine to be Divine and himself the Messiah sent from God by attributing them to the power of the Devil but the Gnosticks did in effect the same thing by retaining upon occasion the Ceremonies of the Jews which our Saviour had abolished if he were owned as a person sent from God to void the old Law and establish a new So that those who embraced what he came to vacate in effect denied him to be come in the flesh and consequently destroyed the obligation of the Gospel by renouncing the Messiah whose authority established this new Law as a Rule to the World Nay by this rejection of the Son they disowned the Father who by a voice from Heaven and giving him power to work Miracles gave a testimony to his Person and his Doctrine And therefore our Apostle reflecting upon these men saies Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ He is Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son whoso denieth the Son the same hath not the Father but he that acknowledgeth the Son the same hath the Father also 1 John 2 Chap. 22.23 And in the 4 th Chap. 3. v. Every Spirit or teacher that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God and this is that Spirit of Antichrist whereof ye have heard that it should come and even now already is it in the world CHAP. II. HAving thus given an account of part of this Epistle of S. John together with those of whom the Apostle cautions men to beware I shall farther explain and illustrate the words to render them yet more useful to our selves by considering in them 1. A Caution 2. An Exhortation 3. The reason of both The Caution is Not to believe every Spirit The Exhortation To try the Spirits whether they are of God The Reason both of this Caution and Exhortation is because many false Prophets are gone out into the world I begin with the Apostles Caution Beloved believe not every Spirit If all that men utter pretending to be inspired were without any severe consideration to be entertain'd and what they deliver were to be believ'd there would no more need the Apostles caution than our own care But when we live in an Age in which Propositions and Doctrines are delivered that too plainly contradict each other some of which are impious and abominable others at first audit foolish and ridiculous and a third sort that tend to disturbance and ruine wasting Property making our Kingdoms large Aceldama's and our Cities the places of dead mens sculls and are apparent enemies to human Society When under the pretence of a Catholick Religion Doctrines of purity proposals to advance the Scepter of Christs Kingdom Principles shall be insinuated that if pursued with that furious zeal which they require will effectually destroy those things indeed which men endeavour to maintain in words If our blessed Saviour may thus be fought under his own Banner the cause of God cover abominations murder be acted for the glory of our Maker Blasphemy be spoken by the assistance of the Spirit and the method to render Princes glorious shall be by stabbing or beheading If the most horrid wickedness shall be palliated under the cloke of Religion a new Commandment shall be pretended for breach of the old and the Moral Law shall daily be violated by inspiration If men under pretensions to the guidance of that Spirit which inspired the first deliverers of the Gospel to be a Rule to succeeding Ages and Generations shall hang out new lights to the world that take away all the glory of the old and preach to us another Gospel bearing their Christ only pictured on their Standards and Banners and their Gospel to us on the points of Swords Nay when the Spirit in the propagation of the Gospel neither prescribed nor used such methods but quite contrary those of faith and patience humility and self-denial which did not interfere with the Government of Princes but made men actively or passively to obey And when the same Spirit has expresly declared that in the latter times there would be such a falling away from the faith that men would so far depart from the standing rules of the Gospel as to give heed to seducing Spirits and doctrines of Devils 1 Tim. 4.1 Nay when the great Lord and Authour of our Religion has acquainted the world that many false Prophets should arise with such earnest pretences and strong delusions that should almost shake the very Elect those whom he had chosen to put his Name and Character upon with Lo here is Christ or lo there exalting several though false Messiahs It will become us to consider any new pretensions beyond the rule we have already learned and not to receive Opinions at adventure but to make a more strict and considerate enquiry and not to believe every Spirit And that 1. Because we have already entertained a standing Rule of Faith and Manners by which all Christians ought to be directed to the final period and consummation of Ages And though this great and Characteristical Principle of Protestants is contradicted both by the Papists and Enthusiasts whilst the former equal their Traditions with the Scriptures and the latter their own fancies and dreams both upon occasion bestowing such ignominious titles on the Bible that they would think it uncivil if they should be given to any of their own writings Yet S. Paul tells us that the Scriptures are able to make us wise unto Salvation and being given by inspiration from God cannot be false without supposing him a liar Nay the Apostle goes on in their commendation that they are profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness that the man of God much more the people may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works 2 Tim. 3.15 16 17. The design of that Gospel which we have embraced sufficiently declares it to be a full and compleat rule of life that which if followed brings peace and welfare to us here and eternal happiness in that life which is to come For it teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in the world and to look for a blessed hope and immortality for which the former way of living prepares us Titus 2.11 12 c. Nay so perfect and compleat is this rule and so designed to direct us to the end of the world that the Apostle denounces a Curse against any that teach another Gospel or Rule of life different from or contradictory to this though an Angel from Heaven should prove to be the deliverer And repeats it twice in the same Chapter that it may be sufficiently declared and stand as a memorial to all Ages Gal. 1.8 9. And Saint John in the close of his Revelations sufficiently reproves all new pretensions by telling the world that if any man shall make additions to this which was compleat before God shall add unto
to endeavour to imprint Characters on the Air you may inscribe more durable Divinity on the dust which every wind drives to and fro or impress more lasting footsteps on the Shore which the next Tide washes away S. Jude tells us at the 12 th Verse of his Epistle that they are Clouds without water without any weight to ballance them and are not only light as the Air but as inconstant too S. Peter sayes that they are Wells without water Clouds that are carried with a tempest but yet such to whom the midst of darkness is reserved for ever 2 Pet. 2. ch 17. Certainly such men must needs be wrong who by frequent shifting declare to the world that they do not know which opinion is right but like sticks and straws are carried with the stream and alwayes swim down with the River Their faith must needs stagger who thus expose it to every stroke and certainly he must dye and perish that with a naked breast is willing to receive all the wounds that his adversaries will give him If such men are to be deem'd religious sober men would become prophane and if these are they that make a Church the more rational part will enter into a Conventicle or any place distant from these What! must a man be a Fool to become a Prophet or cannot he be spiritual unless he be mad Must Religion that brings peace to the world be the only bone of contention among men which they cast at one anothers heads Shall that which teaches us self-denyal patience humility and obedience be pleaded for a breach of all these Shall our Saviour's Kingdom be of this World notwithstanding his own protestation to the contrary Or those that are zealous for the Doctrine of S. Paul propagate it by that Sword which yet S. Peter was rebuked for using Will men be bold to assume to themselves the names of Christians and yet act more cruelties than the Turks Or call the holy Jesus their Master and yet openly violate all his Laws Can they bow their knees to him and yet presently carry him away to be crucified Can men think it reasonable that a faith should be manured with the blood of others that was planted at first in the Martyrdom of Believers Or can any be supposed to have received power from on high to constitute our Saviour a divider of inheritances when he himself has refused the Office and gave the person a rebuke that desired him to accept it by asking him that question Luke 12.14 Man who made me a judge or a divider over you In vain is it for men designing disturbances in the World to pretend that they follow the commands of Heaven when they knock the Crown of our Saviour against their Sovereigns or fight withone Scepter against the other unless they can reach high enough to pull the Sun and the Stars from the Firmament that no light may shine upon the World Or void the Gospel by inspiration The Protestant world is too wise now to be again thus fool'd Men must chuse a night for such designs as these and stay yet a little longer if they intend to meet with Bats and Owles The age is not dark and melancholy enough to bring in Monkery among these nor has ignorance that Mother of Popish devotion yet sufficiently prepared our minds to receive the Doctrines of Papists or Enthusiasts Nor are the brains of rational and sober men yet beat out that there may be room for Dreams and Visions Nor have we so forgotten the Scriptures as to be guided only by pretended inspiration or to be frighted out of our Faith and Principles by every new and unexpected apparition Nor are we so ignorant of mens devices as to be baffled out of our Religion by those that are deceived themselves Or to accomplish designs of malice or ambition would subtily endeavour to impose on others We know the difference betwixt virtue and vice and have a Rule to judge Doctrines and Preachers by and know how to judge of those that now pretend to present inspiration and those that follow such pretenders And we well hope that we shall not twice in the same age be catch'd and entangled in the same snare To prevent which dismal and fatal ruine permit me in the last place to exhort you to what I cannot command with the sacred Apostle though the World was then also to be gain'd by intreaty as appears by his kind compellation Beloved A word that is used I will not say practised too by men that love fornication in Religion and too often without a metaphor by those who are far differrent from the spirit and life of our Apostle Yea so often that it takes up time in their discourses fills the room of sence and is therefore worn out and as they manage it is grown ridiculous Yet let me exhort men that are beloved of the Lord and not without reason by me also and all honest Christians not to believe every Spirit not to be so soft and easie when you have received a standing Rule so well proved and conveyed to the world to admit of new Doctrines that contradict it or to attend persons that boldly assume as if they were inspired with an equal confidence as if all were Apostles There are many in the world that from S. Paul's advice to prove all things keep themselves in the midst of doubts and perplexities and never love to travel long but where Clouds cover the face of Heaven and attend only to such Doctrines whose darkness keeps them in perpetual ignorance and so the sound is grateful only when it is uncertain And thus with them to prove all things is only to hear without examination and never to hold fast that which is good At this rate a ravening Wolf may be received though he has not so much as sheeps cloathing and to be real Worshippers of an Asses Head with which both Jews and Primitive Christians were falsly charged would be a thing of great merit and honour But shall the cause of God be any longer a cloak for the malice of the Devil the infernal Lake be placed in the Skies or men that have their wits about them mistake the flames of Hell for Heaven Shall the Devil lead us with as good assurance as if he were an Angel of light Or any walk by so loose a principle as cannot distinguish betwixt false Prophets and true Many men are such strange fatalists that they become altogether indifferent in their Choice and concluding their Fortunes to be written on their foreheads they care not whether they make any at all This is an Opinion which when in its consequence pursued will make those that really espouse it and with equal reason to be as regardless of temporal welfare as they are of their eternal and take a great deal of pains and care either to do ill or nothing at all to any purpose Then indeed men might as securely go into a Pest-house as
have been need of any standing Rule so the Apostle would not have commended these Jews for comparing the New Testament with the Old nor for searching the Scriptures to know whether the Apostles Doctrine was true since he came to preach by virtue of inspiration Fourthly 'T is our duty to try the Spirits that is to examine the Doctrines and Opinions of those who pretend to be guided and acted by the Spirit Because there are several advantages that accrew to men by a diligent examination of these things As 1. It is the only way to avoid the insinuations of those who under this pretence captivate and enslave the affections of many leading them into a false Religion and deceiving them of the priviledges and rewards of the Gospel And so their peace and happiness is dissolved here and they purchase eternal misery hereafter The taking away this liberty of enquiring from men is what supports the Church of Rome when having deprived men of their sight they lead them which way they please and spirit them into the chambers of death when they think they are going to the land of the living This is what causes many to believe the Priests gain to be their own godliness whilst ignorance begets a strange devotion and instead of being lead by the Spirit of God they are hurried away by that of delusion And then Egypt or a Wilderness will be as pleasant as the Land of Canaan and the Night become as glorious as the Day to such as have no eyes to see it The want of tryal and examination of these things makes the Sects among our selves to be catched and halter'd by the subtilty of others till they are betrayed into the hands of those who use them as Stalking horses to catch others till the Jesuits cast their Net over them and then the Romans come and take away our Kingdom To forbid this tryal and judgement of things is to render the faculties of a man useless to degrade him into the nature of a Beast and to bring a strange Metempsychosis amongst us by transplanting mens souls into other creatures whilst their bodies live and act in the world Or to make them in religious affairs which are the greatest concernments they have here to forsake the Law of God and the Testimony to seek unto them that have familiar Spirits Or unto the Wizzards that peep and mutter when a people should seek unto their God and not for the living to the dead Isa 8.19 2. By a serious tryal and examination of the Doctrines of men that pretend to inspiration we shall in all probability keep our faith sound and entire For there being among Christians but one true Faith as well as Baptism and one God the Father of our Lord Jesus Since there may be many Articles of Belief exhibited to men different from the true It must needs become the only means to keep our faith sound and blameless by examining things before we receive them and trying men that pretend to inspiration before we entertain their Doctrines in our minds or make them the objects of our belief A Ship that equally spreads her Sails to all the Storms and contrary Winds must not only lengthen her Voyage and be toss'd in the midst of the Waves and Tempest But frequently be in danger of a Wreck if it be not lost and overwhelmed There is no less hazard in the matters of our faith If we permit it without care to lay open to every wind of doctrine we may then not only be toss'd to and fro but at once make shipwrack of faith and a good conscience The Devil is both a Thief and a Murtherer so he was from the beginning and still walks about as a roaring Lyon seeking whom he may devour And how easie is it for him to enter the minds of men and to steal away their faith or hinder it from a vital influence upon their actions if the doors of their souls continually are open and are not at all lock'd or barr'd He may then come to us in his own shape without transforming himself into an Angel of light and both solicite and enslave our minds whilst we let him pass without examining And yet in Ports subject to invasion and Garrisons that may be capable of surprize we allow continual Watch and Ward and Orders to them are so strict in time of danger that none who is not publickly known to be a friend may enter without a strict examination lest he betray the place and let in the enemy No less advantage is it to the mind to preserve our faith spotless and unblemish'd to have a Sentinel alwayes at our Senses through which our souls make their sallies lest the adversary again enters with them and they are destroyed by the same way in which they hoped to preserve themselves We must guard our minds and have a watchman alwayes upon the Tower that our understandings themselves which govern both our choice and affections be not ensnared into false principles which will defile our actions and ruine our souls This is the way to keep our selves harmless and undefiled the sons of God in the midst of that crooked and perverse generation amongst whom we live and hereafter to shine like Stars in the midst of the Firmament for ever This is the design of Saint Paul's exhorting men to hold fast the form of sound words 2 Tim. 1.13 and of his thanking God that the Romans then though since they have departed from it obeyed from the heart the form of doctrine delivered to them Rom. 6.17 and of S. Jude's exhorting all Christians to contend earnestly for that faith which was once delivered unto the Saints in the third Verse of his Epistle For whatever any men boldly say we have as much reason to examine our belief as our actions and to take as great care of the principles as we do in the practice of our Religion For not only our reason concludes this because the understandings are the principal faculty of our souls But for that these direct our wills and influence all the actions of our lives And God will not accept of those who exchange their Creed for any publick faith that betrayes those Articles men should believe Safety or ruine depends upon it Because not only Baptism and the outward Ordinances of our Saviours institution are required to the ordinary salvation of men But he that believeth not shall be damned Mark 16.16 Hymeneus and Alexander not minding these things put away Faith and a good conscience and shipwrack'd their belief in the midst of error and for this they were delivered unto Sathan 1 Tim. 1. 19 20. If the Orthodoxy of mens judgments and opinions of things were not of great and eternal concernment in the times of the Gospel the old statutes might be still embraced or the Law of Nature remain the only direction unto men without any farther revelation But S. Peter tells us of errors that are damnable which entitle men
their Governours Opinions enacted into Laws for the true dictates of the Holy Ghost inspiring the Pope or presiding at their Councils and infallibly assisting in their determinations But none of these things taken as they are propounded can possibly be a safe Rule much less the highest conduct in matters of Religion When we shall consider that though they may be helps to judge upon the view of the Rule Yet phancy and opinion may frequently be mistaken for reason illumination Conscience nay the dictates of the holy Spirit it self and according to the common inferences about these matters are so concluded and believed by men that consult their own faculties But this will yet be more evident if we consider 1. That the holy Spirit of God does not in any ages since he inspired those that delivered the Scriptures to be the rule of life either illuminate or direct mankind in the things relating to their eternal peace in any other manner than 1. By those Scriptures allowing the faculties of human nature and the general propositions of Religion among mankind which he inspired the Sacred Pen-men to record 2. By inclining as well as authorizing some men being prepared by education and study to continue a succession of that Ministry which our Saviour appointed to endure to the end of the World to explain the difficulties in Religion unto others And 3. Confirming by a secret and inexplicable operation which is easily believed by all that affirm Gods Grace or Providence and in consequence his Being the propositions contained in the Scriptures unto the minds of men and inclining their faculties to believe and embrace them Which influence is obtained by prayer to him that is of a docil disposition as well as given in our Sacred Baptism till such time as we either resist or renounce it all which shall be more evident before I make an end Now none of these though great priviledges can intitle any to that illumination or immediate guidance which wild men make the rule of their faith and conductor of their actions But they may mistake and be confident in it their own phancy and high opinion proceeding either from thoughtfulness or disposition for immediate motions from the Spirit of God And 2 As for the consciences of men if they mistake them not for phancy opinion or a strong persuasion of their own minds they are nothing but the agreement of our judgements with Gods word for thus much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports which is knowledge with another and includes the relation of our understandings to a Rule These are so far therefore from being a rule themselves that they are to be governed by another and cannot be proper consciences without it Being therefore guided by a Superiour Rule they cannot be safe conductors themselves and if conscience as taken by those that plead hardest for it were once allowed its full latitude phancy interest and the humours and impious mistakes of men would pass for conscience and a safe guide and introduce such a medly and mixture in Religion that every one under the covert of this would do what is good in his own eyes even as when there was no King in Israel The Church of Christ would be turned into a Babel and our houses of Prayer into dens of Thieves being fill'd with nothing but Sacriledge and confusion Thirdly Some make such Providence as crowns their opinions with success to be an argument that their opinions are true But to evince the invalidity of this needs no other than this observation That when the same things are covered with a Cloud their Authors punished or the propagation of their tenets becomes improsperous the same men will not admit of the same argument Nor permit others to defend their opinions by the same medium with which they prov'd their own When the Sun for a season shines upon them and the Heavens smile then behold the hand of the Lord is with them But when a prosperous ray refreshes others and they receive not the countenance they had before but have the frowns and discouragements of Superiors Behold now wickedness is seated in high places The holy Seed are led into the Wilderness and persecution attends the Elect of God and Canaanites possess the Holy Land But if success were an argument for inspiration and smiling Providences a rule to judge Doctrines by Numa Pompilius might have had an argument for the inspirations from his Nymph Aegeria and for the truth of his Religion he establish'd among the Romans The Jews might have been lost in the Wilderness and have justified the making their Gods to go before them They had ceased to have the marks of a Church and would not have been the people of the Lord when they were carried into Egypt or Babylon Nay by this they might have justified their condemning the great Messiah and Pilate and the Roman Guards might have had an argument for executing him The Primitive Christians must be condemned and the Apostles inspiration be proved an imposture if a dark Providence be that by which the Doctrines of men are to be judg'd Mahomet must have been deemed a true Prophet when he gathered so many Proselytes in the East And the great Turk be yet as holy as he has been for the most part prosperous in the World Nay Popery it self must then be embraced if the glory and prosperity of opinions must prove them true and success becomes the measure of Religion This is a way to justifie all lucky Usurpations To determine right and wrong by combate and the longest Sword may justly measure out the largest Possession and the property of mankind must submit to power A Rebel then may lawfully possess his Sovereings Throne if he has strength enough to force the brightest Majesty to an exchange And if this principle be fully pursued the men that own it may bow the Knee and say to an Usurper God save the King This will make many times the greatest Villany to have more Authority than Virtue and Innocence and force true Religion to be vanquished by a false Nay he that by this rule is taken for a Prophet to day may be an Impostor to morrow though he continues in the delivery of the same Doctrine Because a man may receive Hosanna's from the multitude and their cry shall shortly be Crucifie him Crucifie him These things are the subject of common observation It was holy Davids long ago And it will be so to the end of the world whatever Jews or Millenaries may dream That the wicked will sometimes be in great power when the righteous hang down their head like a bulrush When the Psalmist spake of the prosperity of the wicked He observ'd for some time that there were no bands in their death but their strength was firm and sound They were not in trouble like other men but plagued less than those that were better Therefore pride compass'd them as a chain and violence covered them as a garment their
eyes stood out with fatness and they had more than heart could wish Psal 73. And Solomon observes that as to the changes of prosperity and adversity all things come alike to all there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not As is the good so is the sinner and he that sweareth as he that feareth an oath Eccles 9.2 This indeed may prove that there shall be a future account But neither can the goodness or wickness of a party be evidenced by such external characters much less the truth or falshood of opinions confirmed from the smiles or frowns of Providence But I need not at present argue this point farther since those that when prosperous invented it as a rule to walk by and as an argument to confirm their party and a bait to draw Proselytes and Abettors to them are now confuted by their shameful overthrow And it would sink them more should it be used with any severe enlargement since their honour layes in the dust and I hope it will never rise again I shall leave this therefore as a term of Religion and a fallible rule only taken up to serve a turn and proceed to those methods and ways by which we may discern true Doctrines from false inspirations CHAP. IX ANd First As to the Trial of the Doctrines and Opinions of those that vent them with great confidence and zeal as if they were divinely inspired we must consider that those to whom these Doctrines are propounded are reasonable creatures And this will be yielded without any reasoning about it unless we have a mind to degrade our selves as well in speculation as many do in practice to the beasts that perish nay any objection formally framed against this supposal would prove what the Objector endeavours to deny that men had discursive faculties and his own confutation would be included in his Objection whilst that would prove him able to syllogize and reason Secondly Men being rational and intelligent beings it follows that they are able to discern the truth or falsehood of propositions sufficiently propounded to their consideration in terms that exceed not the expressions of the sense of one man to another and in matters that are not elevated above humane capacities our discourses otherwise to one another would be no more than the chirping of Birds the speech of Parrots or the jabbering of Monkeys to each other and would be nothing more than an uncertain distinct sound without any signification Thirdly We must consider too that it is not suitable to the Nature of God to impose upon the faculties of men so as to delude and cheat them with any equivocal and false propositions especially when he designs them as a Rule to men to guide them in their concerns and actions in this World or in the way to their everlasting peace Because the notion men have of him the truth of which he has evidenced to the World renders him a Being of all possible perfection otherwise we should suppose God to be liable to the common frailties and infirmities of men Now if he be supreamly perfect he must according to our own reason and those faculties that are implanted in us be one of infinite Truth and Goodness If he be the first he will not deliver propositions unto men that are plainly or more obscurely false And if he be a good Being he will not give Rules that may deceive us if we use those faculties he has bestowed on us to find out their meaning and intention The contrary to this would cheat the World and then he would make creatures or at least seem to do it that he might with great circumstance and solemnity subtilly lead them into eternal ruine Which to suppose is as great blasphemy against the Divine Nature as can be invented by the worst of creatures that have made themselves malicious And as foul an infamy as can be cast upon Gods being by the worst of men since he desires not the death of sinners themselves but rather that they should return from their wickedness and live This is confirmed by those threats he denounces against them to frighten them from eternal ruine by all those promises he has annex'd to repentance by all his exhortations to them to amend their lives by all the instruments and helps to Religion which he has graciously afforded them by all that sorrow and trouble he expresses whilst men remain in that state of sin which entitles them to eternal misery And by sending his only Son into the World to offer himself a Sacrifice for them that Divine Wrath and Justice being appeased they might be capable according to the Rules and Directions he proposed and the Aids and Assistances he has given them to recover themselves out of those snares in which they were entangled and to guide themselves into the way of peace Fourthly From hence it follows that there are sufficient Means and Wayes afforded us by which we may as reasonable creatures judge of true directions and false so that we may not spend our time in uncertainties in matters of such vast and infinite concernment Gods promise of Heaven and eternal bliss would be to as totally insignificant if it were made either upon such conditions as we knew not or had not sufficient abilities with his influence to perform them And to what purpose would it be to tell the World that in keeping Gods Commandments there is great reward if we knew not what the Commandments were We could not make sense of that Thanksgiving of our Saviour Matth. 11.25 I thank thee O Father Lord of heaven and earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent the Rabbies amongst the Jews and the Philosophers among the Gentiles and hast revealed them unto babes to persons of a more inferiour rank and capacity if those whom he here calls Babes had not means to know the certainty of the Revelation and to arrive at compleat and distinct notions of the things that were revealed And in vain would it have been for S. Paul to have spoken the hidden things of God in a mysterie the Doctrine of Christs coming into the World hid under Jewish Types and Shadows and obscurely treated of by the Prophets in comparison to the Light which then appeared or to have treated of such Doctrines of the Gospel which discovered things which neither eye had seen nor ear heard nor did they ever enter into the heart of man when God revealed them by his Spirit 1 Cor. 2. and not by any Logical demonstration which blinded the Governours amongst the Jews and confounded the Philosophers among the Greeks who according to their accustomed way of proof expected another method of probation than the demonstration of the Spirit and of power It had been notwithstanding an impossible attempt for the Apostle to have endeavoured to reduce any of these or other men that knew themselves to be endued with
reason to the belief of the Gospel which was proved Divine by the testimony and revelation of the Spirit if sufficient means were not afforded them to know and distinguish Divine Revelation from imposture and pretences The things delivered were above the reach of humane reasonings and Philosophy then gave check to their belief and custom and education had impress'd them with different nay contrary notions of things It must be supposed therefore antecedently to their reception of the Gospel that as S. Paul was able to give them evidence that those Doctrines he delivered to them were revealed from Heaven so there were some Methods and Rules by which they might be able to know the revelation and not receive it upon his bare testimony Nay to what purpose would it be for S. John to direct men to try the Spirits if we had not sufficient means to know whether they were from God or no Fifthly This must be granted too that there are false Pretensions and Doctrines of men vented in the World under the notion of true And true and false under the same pretence of inspiration The Apostle tells us that many false Prophets are gone out into the world And our Saviour to prevent a rash belief and thereby an Apostasie from the Gospel or trusting in another Messiah acquaints the World that there would arise false Christs and false Prophets Mark 13.22 And therefore they should not believe and entertain them although according to their different principles and designs they should cry out Lo here is Christ or Lo there And S. Peter tells us that as there were false Prophets formerly amongst the people so there should be false Teachers among the Christians who should privily bring in damnable heresies denying the Lord that bought them and that many should follow their pernicious wayes 2 Pet. 2.1 2. Nay S. Paul tells us of those who in a voluntary humility and worshipping of Angels intruded into those things which they never saw being vainly puffed up in their fleshly minds who yet departed from the head Christ himself who is the head of the Church making the coming to God by the Mediatory application to an Angel a demonstration of their humility and so rejecting the intercession of our Saviour the only Mediator betwixt God and man Col. 2.18 But our own Age is so fruitful in examples of this kind that the possibility of mens false pretences to revelation and of their venting corrupt Doctrines to the World needs no other argument to prove it than our own experience Nor need we rake in the dust of false Prophets in past Ages when we have to our great grief and trouble living monuments on which these things are to be read and seen Yet Sixthly Notwithstanding all this we must maintain that there is such a thing as true inspiration This is plainly implied by S. John to whom I must adhere For it would be ill Logick to infer that because the Apostle adviseth us not to believe every Spirit therefore we should give credit unto none But rather that some are to be believed Especially when we take in his direction with it Try the Spirits whether they are of God This argues that some Doctrines came from Heaven and some men were inspired from above although many false Prophets were gone abroad into the world Should the contrary be held by any among us it would not only invalidate the Doctrine of Moses and the Prophets under the Old Testament But of Christ and his Apostles under the New it would conclude the intercourse betwixt God and men to be an impossible Chimera and turn all Divinity into a Fable And at once render our time mis-spent and lost whilst I am writing and others reading such Doctrines as these and all disputes concerning any positive and instituted Religion the foolish talkings and inventions of men that busie themselves to deceive others and give trouble to their own flesh When mans reason might supply all But such a phancy I suppose to be too wild and extravagant to be admitted in such an age of the world as this Especially among those who have frequented Christian Assemblies and have heard discourses proving the truth of the Old Testament or the New That have read the Jews Arguments for their Law or the Christian Fathers Apologizing for the Religion of the Gospel Nor indeed can any deny the truth of Gods conversing with men that reject not his Omnipotence or else doubt of the nature and capacity of their own souls To be sure they must deny the Scriptures to be the Word of God and affirm all his appearances to men to be a fable Since from them we are assured that all Scripture was given by inspiration from God 2 Tim. 3.16 And therefore to men that acknowledge this I must be supposed to direct this discourse as well as S. John does in the Text so frequently recited who supposes that there is a Divine inspiration before he advises men to separate the pretences of false Prophets from the Doctrines of those that are true 'T is in vain otherwise to perswade men to exercise their faculties assisted by Rules or to make any discrimination at all where there is no foundation for the conclusion of a difference Seventhly Therefore The trial of the Doctrines and Rules of men pretending inspiration having thus far been brought on towards a conclusion The determination of our assent and choice in matters of such huge and vast moment on which the welfare of our souls depends must be directed by what sufficiently without fallacy evidences those Doctrines which we receive from others or are led into the belief of from our own reasonings are certainly such as came from God and that we are not imposed upon by our own temperament or the subtilty of others The evidence therefore for a Divine revelation must be greater and stronger than any argument framed to the contrary Because in all the discoveries of truth my belief is to be determined according to evidence and the greatest probability guides the rational choice of men And all that act suitably to themselves embrace the proposition that comes nearest to truth and certainty But where two things seem equal in their proof a rational man only hesitates and doubts and gives up his assent to neither And therefore had the Magicians of Egypt equall'd the Miracles Moses wrought in the presence of Pharaoh as well as they did in turning rods into Serpents and Rivers into blood and causing Froggs to come up before him They need not at that time have acknowledg'd Moses's power disproportionable to their own nor distinguished their own Miracles from his by saying This is the finger of God And Pharaoh himself might have had an equal argument to detain the Israelites as they had for the command of God to depart out of the Land of Egypt But when the Miracles on their side far exceeded the Wonders on the other his own resolution became his Law and Pharaohs
end of the Mosaick Constitutions and such a compleat System of Divinity as is sufficient to make a man perfect throughly furnished to every good work and thereby to prepare him for that eternal inheritance that fadeth not away And thus I have now considered all the chief parts of what I design and with all faithfulness according to my knowledge discharg'd my self The discourse on such a point has been long but I hope it will not prove unuseful in such times as these in which truth is blended and beset with error Strange Doctrines have insinuated into the minds of men And we are now sailing betwixt Sylla and Charybdis and God knows which may swallow us When truth like pure and clean Wheat is put betwixt two Mill-stones that seem to joyn to grind it in pieces And Religion like our Saviour upon the Cross is almost crucified betwixt two Thieves But blessed be God his Providence is over all his works and through his help we hope for deliverance from all our troubles For vain is the help of man without him CHAP. X. HAving hitherto for the most part treated concerning False Spirits and argued against the pretences to inspiration among Papists and Fanaticks and given some directions by which we may be able to discern what inspiration is true and what false That it may not be objected against the body of this Discourse that I have left neither Soul nor Spirit to animate it but have hinted only some operation of the Divine Spirit and restrained that to the first Age of the Christian Religion as if it were not needful for future Generations to guide men into all truth I shall spend some Sheets to prove That as there were Promises that the Holy Spirit of God should conduct men after our Saviours Ascension so that these Promises were made good by the apparent Descent of the Holy Ghost And to shew in what manner the Sacred Spirit informed the Apostles and the first Publishers of the Christian Doctrines And how he still influences the minds of men in the understanding and receiving them The Wilderness of this World is very thick of Briars and Thorns that scratch and tear the Church of Christ in her passage through it And since the most who profess themselves to be Christians agree in the design and end of their journey Yet because we are apt to fall out by the way and differ about the determination of the paths that lead thither Hence is it that I have hitherto endeavoured to hinder men of good intentions and different judgements from entertaining a delusion by reason of any shortness in their sight that they may not be deceived by their own fancies or the suggestions of others and so miscarry in their greatest concernments and fall short of eternal happiness hereafter And lest we should complain as if we were in this errable state of life left without sufficient means to conduct us to the great end of all our Religion And in the glorifying of God to save our souls I shall now shew some things before hinted more plainly and openly That we are not left without sufficient conduct from the Holy and true Spirit of God But that he was in the World at the first delivery of the Doctrines and Rules of life expressed in the Writings of the New Testament and still continues to influence the minds and actions of men In order to the discharging this that I am now to engage in I shall first prove That the Holy Ghost did come according to the Predictions of the Prophets and the Promise of our Saviour For 1. He came upon our Saviour himself 2. He inspired and comforted his Apostles and the first Planters of the Christian Religion And 3. He still influences the hearts and minds of those that seek and do not resist him First That this Holy Spirit rested upon our Saviour accompanying him throughout the actions of his life none that pretends to the embracement of Christianity can possibly contradict For his Miracles attest this Divine residency and loudly proclaim it to Ages and Generations And if there had not been this irrefragable testimony yet that there was such a Divine impression upon his mind the purity of his Doctrine and the holiness of his life sufficiently attested and that the Divine Spirit inspired and did assist him As his Conception was by the power of the Holy Ghost so did it continually breath upon him through all the periods of his whole life It gave a visible attestation to his Person and Doctrine and witnessed his Commission to the World when at his Baptism it descended in the shape of a Dove and lighted upon him Matth. 3.16 And this was seconded by an audible voice loudly thundering from the very Skies This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased In his life he had the Spirit without measure John 3.34 He was not limited to the same proportions of power and assistance with S. John who preached the Doctrine of Repentance and by this prepared the way for the Messiah Nor with those Prophets of old who were inspired at sundry times and in diverse manners to whom divine and unaccountable impulses were neither constant in their method or continuance But the Holy Spirit accompanied our Saviour throughout the several stages of his life so that he could upon any emergent occasion make discovery of it to others and alwayes knew it to be resident in himself he carried it with him to his Cross and Death to support him in his misery and to cause him to triumph over his temptations and enemies It hovered as it were over his Grave guarding his body with a security beyond the Souldiers power and at last raised him with triumph from the dead Rom. 8.11 and thus baffled the arguments for infidelity Secondly This Spirit promised came also upon the Apostles of our Saviour In the second of the Acts at the beginning It descended with noise and a glorious splendor and came with such a train of solemnity and its appearance was so gay and pompous that it amused Nations and confounded the multitude It shook the great place of their assembly and sate gloriously in the shape of a Cloven Fiery Tongue upon the head of each Apostle giving them at once a character to distinguish them from others and ability to execute that Commission which our blessed Saviour had before given them They were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other Tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance Here was the Prophecy of Joel accomplished that God would pour out his Spirit upon all flesh when the Holy Ghost thus descended with power in the lap of a Cloud with a rushing wind to blow open the doors of mens hearts that the King of Glory might come in It came with Cloven Fiery Tongues to teach the Apostles to sound forth the Gospel to all the World with a becoming zeal and warm affection The Tongues were Cloven that
they might be sure to divide the Word aright and Glorious like the streams of Fire not only to represent the Majesty and Divinity of the Holy Ghost or to signifie the clearness and perspicuity of the Gospel but to enflame the zeal and warm the devotion of these Apostles Nay they were both Fiery and Cloven that their zeal might not be divorced from knowledge but one might administer to the other and both to him who influenced them with this Spirit This made them at once the admiration and envy of the World This made their Doctrine glorious and triumphant and confirmed it with Miracles beyond the force of malice and contradiction This caused the Church to spring from the Blood of Martyrs made it live in the midst of spight and flourish on the tops of Crosses and Gibbets to shine gloriously in the midst of flames and triumph over death it self though its members were killed all the day long This gave the Apostles the prevision of those things which in our Saviours life they were not able to bear at the same time giving them a prospect of their misery and their comforts too This brought to their remembrance what their Master had before taught them and inspired them to the instruction of others that they might build the Christian Church upon that Corner-Stone which though rejected of men was in it self elect and precious Thirdly The Holy Spirit came also upon the hearts of believers The Samaritans that believed received the Holy Ghost Acts 8.17 and whilst S. Peter was preaching occasion'd by the conversion of Cornelius the Holy Ghost fell on those that heard him Acts 10.44 And though as to those glorious effects of that power which at first was frequent in working Miracles and inspiring men to speak divers languages for the proof and early propagation of the Gospel it now withdraws its force and operation yet it still continues that necessary influence which impresses the minds of devout men and assists them in the performance of their duty and arms them with patience and resolution This Doctrine of the Spirits working upon the minds of men is too frequently contradicted even by such as seem to want the assistance of some strength superiour to their own whilst to avoid one Rock they run upon another To escape that Enthusiasm which has too much disturb'd the World and led men into darkness and error they reject the conduct of Gods Holy Spirit when he would lead them into the way of truth Men are so cautious lest they should infringe the uncontroulable liberty of their own wills that they intrench upon the Divine Providence and endeavour to bind their God in chains that he may sit fast in Heaven to very little purpose If there were no such thing as a Divine influence and benediction from above to what purpose would our prayers be Why should we petition for those things which we are assured we shall never receive Or how can any pray in faith for what they believe will never come We mock our Maker to his very face when we say Turn thou us O good Lord and so shall we be turned if God has no hand in the conversion of a sinner and it would be prophane and ridiculous to pray for the being or increase of grace if God did not influence our minds Nay he that rejects this principle boldly pleads the cause of Epicurus against Christ and the Philosophy of an Heathen countermands the Divinity of a Christian For how can God rule the world exercise his Empire over the Powers of the Earth how can he controll the purposes of men and rebuke their actions when they contradict the counsels of his Will and the designs of his Providence if he does not immediately influence their wills as well as propose objects to their senses I know we are too apt to disbelieve those things which we do not fully understand and to expunge that out of our Creed which is not plainly evident to our reason But can it appear to be just and equal to reject a Being because we understand not the manner of its existence Or to deny such effects as we see because we have not a view of the Cause which is invisible If so then farewel the sublimest Articles of the Christian Faith And not only so but the first Principle of all Religion the Being of a God which no mortal eye ever saw nor can a finite Being frame a compleat Idea of him Shall I deny the Creation of the World because I know not the manner of its Makers operation when he sent forth his Fiat Nor how so rare a Systeme of things could be produced out of nothing pre-existent Must I reject Spirits because I cannot see them or all the operations of immaterial Beings upon the corporeal substances of this World because motion amongst bodies is made by contact and I cannot apprehend how a Spirit can work upon a body when none but bodies can touch one another Who can tell how our souls work upon our bodies And yet none is so senceless as to deny it Nay who can describe the manner of our souls union to our bodies And yet no man will refuse to own the thing or will any one deny the parts of bodies to be united to each other because the term of their union was never yet so fully resolved as to baffle all objections to the contrary Why should we then doubt of the holy Spirits influencing the minds of men because the manner of operation is intricate and inexplicable When we find it by the independence of our thoughts and those good suggestions crowded into the midst of some evil contrivances where no other reason can be given of them but that they are injected from above that we may fully convince our selves by our own experience that God works by his Spirit and concurs with the motions of rational beings when they incline to comply with his operations The wind bloweth where it listeth sayes our Saviour and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth so is every one that is born of the Spirit John 3.8 We all believe that the wind blows when it becomes obvious to our senses And yet the causes of these different winds and the reason of this swift motion of the Air have puzled the wisest and most inquisitive Philosophers God is therefore said by the Prophet to bring the winds out of his treasures Jer. 51.16 And in the Book of Job we find that they break out of the chamber and secret places So we discern the fruits and effects of the Spirit though we cannot account for the manner of producing them And therefore 't is not unreasonable to believe the influence of Gods Spirit upon the minds of men For 1. 'T is possible 2. Necessary 3. From the Scripture infallibility certain First The operation of the Holy Ghost upon the souls of men is possible Our Saviour to rebuke the
fervency and devotion for them For if ye being evil sayes our Saviour know how to give good gifts unto your children how much more shall your heavenly Father give the holy Spirit to them that ask him Luke 11.13 And since God is so bountiful to us let us not be wanting to our selves For when we shall with retirement consider how numerous and potent our sins are which must all in their habits be mortified and subdued how many turbulent or inticing temptations we have to oppose that are ready every day to conquer us and steal invisibly to our most secret entertainments how many passions we have to calm and moderate which upon every suitable and tempting occasion endeavour to make an insurrection against our reason How many personal and relative duties we are to perform in a wise and pious ordering our conversation how the suggestions of our own flesh the injections of Sathan and the malice and defilements of the world will endeavour to oppose and obstruct our progress When we consider the black passage of death and the grave and God knows what dismal encounters we may meet with in our way to them What fears will then suddenly arise to baffle our hopes and make our faith ready to expire And upon the whole when we reflect upon our weakness and miserable infirmity In a word When we consider how much work we have to do how little time to perform it and what great disproportion there is betwixt our duty and our power It will not only appear that it is high time to awake out of sleep to rise and be doing But to take the Armour of God for our defence and to pray to Heaven for the assistance of the Spirit Since this appears to be so necessary in relation to our weakness and our duty And certainly what is so necessary for our safe conduct to that Haven where we would be and which God designs for our eternal rest and shelter from all tempests and future storms There is no reason why we should distrust the Spirits influence and operation Nor to make our selves uncapable of the favour by testifying our unwillingness to receive it by perpetually opposing and disputing against it For Lastly this influence of the holy Spirit upon the minds of holy and good men is from the Scripture infallibly certain to those that at once both want and beg it and do prepare themselves for the reception of it Why otherwise should our Saviour give this assurance to his Disciples that God gives the holy Spirit to those that ask him Nay what becomes of those promises in the Scripture that engage Gods truth and faithfulness to assist good men in the discharge of their duty and to support them under all their misery and misfortune if we were altogether left to our selves to pursue the dictates of our own reason and to stand only upon our own leggs without any superiour help or influence The Apostle tells us that the Spirit does help our infirmities Rom. 8.26 But this would be false if we had either none that required his assistance Or that he would not condescend to supply our wants S. John makes this vinculum unionis this bond of union betwixt Christ and us the Spirit of God to be a character by which we may distinguish our selves Because he has given us of his Spirit 1 John 4.13 And S. Paul fully agrees with S. John For sayes he if any man has not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Rom. 8.9 I know with what great industry these and other Texts have been restrained to that Divine temper of mind by which we know and discern our condition This indeed being the gracious effect of the holy Spirits co-opperating with our endeavours is by no means to be separated in our judgment upon our selves And we have no other way to judge of the cause but by this Divine and glorious effect But yet where this is visible in an holy life and virtuous actions we have no reason to exclude the cause Especially when it is principally included in the expression For the Apostle supposes this Spirit that Christians have to be the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead Nay a branch also of that power which shall hereafter raise us too For it follows He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwells in us Because our Bodies are here the Temples of the Holy Ghost God will not suffer them to remain eternally in their ruiues But will hereafter re-edifie and raise them because they were once the habitation of his Spirit Hence are Believers said to be sealed with the holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of their inheritance Ephes 1.13 And therefore they are advised in the same Epistle not to grieve this holy Spirit of God whereby they are sealed unto the day of their redemption Eph. 4.30 Now though we may be said to be sealed up for Heaven by a Divine temper of mind upon Earth that this prepares us for future glory and that if this disposition be not in us we are none of Christs Yet it would be as harsh a speech as can be admitted in any language to say that this holy temper of mind shall raise us up at the last day Since the wicked are then raised too Or to say that any man voluntarily grieves this Divine temper and disposition of mind when the man then grieves himself These expressions therefore must certainly intend more than this And they can scarcely admit of a fair interpretation without expounding them of the holy Spirit of God which now co-operating with our faculties produces in us divine tempers and dispositions and so prepares us for that inheritance which he shall raise us up from our graves to possess The Holy Ghost was first promised to the Apostles and Christian Disciples under the names and notion of a Comforter and the Spirit of truth and how could he be both or either if he did not influence their minds with joy and knowledge The Spirit it self sayes the Apostle bears witness with our Spirits that we are the children of God Rom. 8.16 It did not only testifie unto others by those Miracles that did confirm their Religion and consequently proved those that did sincerely embrace it to be born of God as well as their Religion But it evidenced these things also to their own consciences by a sacred benediction and a Divine and more immediate concurrence with them when they compared their lives with the Rules of their Religion And consequently proves to them that they were heirs of God and coheirs with Christ which is the argument the Apostle is there prosecuting to give them comfort in the midst of tribulation and to animate their courage and resolution against the sufferings of that present time The graces and virtues visible in a Christians life are said in Scripture to be the fruits of the Spirit
Unity of the Body of Christ to encrease our knowledge in the Christian Doctrine and prevent our being deceived and led into error Hence was Timothy's Office which he had received by the Ordination of S. Paul stiled a gift 2 Tim. 1.6 And lest these appointments should not be accounted the products and designation of the Holy Spirit These gifts are attributed to the Spirit Who is in himself one uniform Being though these were divers according to the variety of times and seasons And they are all such manifestations of the Spirit as are given to men to profit withal 1 Cor. 12. Now as Gods Providence Rules the World though we can neither discover his Councels nor are able to account for the manner of his operation As he disposes of Crowns and Kingdoms determines our dayes and disposes our Habitations though these things are accomplished by an order and train of second Causes severally designing and concurring to the end So does the Holy Spirit dispose the way of the Education of some and incline their minds to the Office of Ministers in the Church of Christ that Gods people may not perish for want of knowledge But there may be some alwayes to preach the Word and to convey Christs Doctrine from Generation to Generation That his Church being built upon the true confession of an Holy Faith as on a firm and well fixed Rock the gates of Hell may never be able to prevail against it Matth. 16.16 and 18. Now a sufficient number of such men distinguished by their Education and manner of living from those that are more encompassed with the noise and disturbing affairs of this life being prepared by a previous train of circumstances and having the advantages of their own parts and understandings And being by such means able to see into the notions of those that have gone before them having been used more to reading consideration and retirement than other men and to weigh the just consequences of things They must needs attain a competent ability in the matters of Religion to which they most apply themselves And they may be capable through the assistance of that Spirit who calls and gives them Authority in their Office to become instruments in his hands to guide men into the wayes of truth In all the Arts and Mysteries of the World we deem it a natural way to learn by obtaining one that is skilful himself to teach us the Principles and Grounds of his Knowledge And we more certainly and easily obtain our design when we have such a one to instruct us So is it in matters of Religion 'T is a natural way to inform our selves in those things that concern our Salvation when we have not only an an inspired Rule But men Educated into the knowledge of those things that prepare them for the understanding the Mysteries of Religion and are afterwards appointed by due Ceremony and the direction of the Holy Ghost to guide us into all truth Especially if in the last place we consider that the Spirit of truth confirms those truths contained in the Scriptures unto the minds of men by co-operating with the external appointed Ministrations by an internal work upon the understanding and affections That there is such a thing as a Divine illumination yet continued amongst Christians as our Church owns it by her Prayers so no man can reasonably contradict it Not that it does render any man infallible as the Romanists affirm Nor inspire men with any new Doctrine or Rules of life besides what it has revealed in the Scriptures as some Enthusiasts adventure to determine Yet we must not to avoid the extreams forsake so useful an Article of belief that gives God the glory of his power and keeps us dependent upon him and is so great a foundation of our prayers and praises Truth is not to be forsaken by the Jews because the Samaritans may be of the same opinion Nor shall I like the Jews in Barbary refuse to eat of that Meat which is dress'd by one of a different perswasion Or to drink in the same Cup with a Moor when he is a person of a wholsome Constitution until it has undergone the Ceremony of Washing Truth in this World will be blended with error and 't is the prudence as well as piety of a Christian to make a separation of the Wheat from the Chaff and not to slight and refuse the one because the other has been mix'd with it 'T is true indeed as Mr. Hales expresses it The Promise of the Spirit to the Apostles which should lead them into all truth was made good unto them by private and secret informing their understandings with high and heavenly Mysteries which never entered into the conceit of man And to us this promise is made good because what was written by Revelation in their hearts for our instruction they have written in their Books But yet this is not all the assistance the Spirit gives us For though he does not inspire us with any new Doctrine you he opens our understandings to the apprehension of the old I am far from admitting the conceit of an impulse to be the rule and measure of our lives because we know what mischiefs have overspread the World when propositions have been vailed with such a pretence and it may be our own as well as S. Austin's observation Tanto sunt ad seditionem faciliores quanto sibi videntur spiritu excellere Men are the more prone to sedition by how much the more they seem to excell in their inspiration yet there cannot appear the same danger where the Spirit only assists our understandings to apprehend those truths which are already deliver'd and inclines our wills and affections to embrace them when according to the direction of S. John we are not so credulous as to believe every Spirit but to try the Spirits whether they are of God or no 1 John 4.1 Now then only may we reasonably conclude our understandings to be influenced by the Spirit when our notions agree with the written Word For to the Law and to the Testimony sayes the Prophet if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no morning or light in them Isa 8.20 There are divers means natural in themselves and rationally appointed by Almighty God for the informing men in the truths that concern them Reading meditation and hearing the Word are proper methods to inform our understandings and to guide us into the way of truth But prayer is therefore wont to be superadded not only to compose our minds and make them fit for Divine Contemplation by a sequestration of our thoughts from those external objects that by intermixing themselves with those that are more spiritual confound our Idea's and notices of things and render our minds more loose and extravagant But because Prayer supplicates those aids and assistances of the Spirit that facilitate our apprehensions of truth by removing objects that crumble and disorder them and it
it was fit for us to know or our frail capacities can receive so that we may accommodate the words of the Psalmist to the Holy Spirit Thou shalt guide us with thy counsel and afterwards receive us to glory Psal 73.24 These are the truths the Holy Ghost still guides us into as far as our frailty is able to comport with his methods and influence He does not now come amongst men to cause them to speak divers Languages or to work Miracles amongst those who have the Records of the Gospel Nor yet to reveal such secrets as the Father has put in his own power and properly belong to God alone He does not help us to search into the Closets and Decrees of Heaven no more than he discovers the Councels of Princes nor does he elevate mens understandings to distract themselves with things that are above them But having given the Law of Life he guides our feet into the way of peace CHAP. XIII HAving thus far accomplished my design in confuting mens false pretensions to inspiration from the Holy Spirit of God upon due examination of others writings and mine own thoughts raised for ought I know to the contrary either by my converses with or observations from other men for I dare not call any thing mine own so as to be any first inventor Having no Common-Place-Book to direct me Or else from some Superiour benediction upon human endeavours which I have attempted in some part to prove and vindicate And to shew in this all that I believe or can at this time explain in any measure unto others That there may be some farther use made of this writing I shall conclude all with a few brief Observations and Inferences from the whole or some parts of this Discourse And First Every man ought to judge for himself in matters or Religion that are proposed to his belief or practice as far as he has abilities and capacity to understand Because S. John exhorts all men to try the Spirits whether they are of God And this will neither seem to be absurd or impossible when we shall consider that we are men endued with rational faculties that we have the use of the Holy Scriptures in which all things are plain that are universally necessary to the Salvation of mankind That we have Guides appointed to help us in the interpretation of what is difficult and the Holy Spirit promised to assist us in all Which God gives to every one who in earnest prayer devoutly asks it And which is present with him in all emergences 'till by a vicious life he strangely grieves him and by an obstinate continuance in the habits of sin he provokes it totally to withdraw from him Were there an human Throne of infallibility erected to which all others might appeal and rest satisfied with the determinations of him that possesses it There would be no occasion of an Apostles direction to try the Spirits But since we are exhorted to prove all things that we may hold fast that which is good And the Scriptures direct us to no such human infallibility but assure us that what is not of faith is sin As it produces the greatest satisfaction to every man to settle his own notions in Religion So it is his duty to examine the Doctrines and Opinions of men propounded to his belief or which are designed to guide his practice before he believes and entertains them Making Gods Word his rule in all things that are plain and evident And taking the assistance of those Guides and Teachers which God has appointed and set over him in those points that are more difficult and obscure And this if done with that humility devout prayer for Gods assistance and true industry which becomes a man in so great a concernment as that of Religion will either find out all truth Or if he remain in any error it will be such as God will never condemn him for Since the most gracious God will never expect from mankind that their apprehension of things should exceed the cacapacity of their reception and what the means of his appointment cannot help them to Nor that either their belief or actions should ever exceed the power of their Beings And those that so studiously and industriously endeavour to give a check to mens reasoning and examination about the Doctrines they propound render their opinions things to be very much suspected And will give us to understand that their deeds are evil when they hate the light And as for that peace among Christians that the pretended infallibility in the Church of Rome or any where else boasts an establishment and continuance of Whilst Protestants are crumbled into Sects and Divisions We may easily reply that they have their Controversies as well as we and parties among them that oppose each other with an equal heat and eagerness in dispute with other mortals and are distinguished by their several denominations Even as the Jesuits difference themselves from all being such sworn Vassals to the Court of Rome that they endeavour to support it to the ruine of the Church Let the Romanists and others therefore first pull the Mote out of their own eyes and then they may the better see to pull the Beam out of anothers But why may not such peace and order as are convenient and perhaps as much as can ever be obtained be preserved among men professing Christianity by the publick Authority checking the disorderly actions of men without imposing setters on their belief Which it is altogether impossible to compel or punish either if men were so wise as to keep it to themselves and not trouble others by discourse I doubt not but it may be done as well as Authority keeps men in a tolerable order in relation to the management of secular affairs though he that administers it is not infallible Nor do all that are Subjects still concur in Opinion with him Preserve therefore your judgement of discretion and use it too that you may not be led like blind men when you have eyes to see and helps to assist them when they wax dimm And then having setled your selves in the true Religion Secondly Let me exhort you to stand fast in it Not to be like waves of the Sea rolling to and fro with every tempest and carried about with every wind of doctrine Not to be pleased with every new appearance in the world because variety in other things different from Religion is so grateful to the generality of men For in such things they may have their choice and not be limited by a superiour power But our option in relation to Principles of Religion must be directed by a superiour rule and guide And having once found out this we must not vary upon new pretensions from what this prescribes to us Lest having left those paths that should direct us we wander about we know not whither Sathan gets great advantages upon unsteady minds And 't is easie to make a new impression
guide them into all truth that we might have safe and infallible Rules to order and direct our actions by Then see how God values soundness in the Faith however men too much disregard it If either any Creed or none at all could have carried men to their future bliss Christ need never have come into the World to deliver an universal Doctrine in the Gospel Nor sent this Holy Spirit of truth to guide the Apostles into all truth This necessity therefore of being sound in the Faith was the reason why our Saviour and his Apostles caution'd men against Prophetical pretenders and false Teachers to take heed what they hear Mark 4.24 To have a care that the light which is in them be not darkness Luke 11.35 And to take heed lest there be in any of them an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God Heb. 3.12 Hence is it because as S. Peter sayes there are damnable Heresies that the unsound Cretians were so severely to be reproved that they might be sound in the Faith Tit. 1.13 Hence is it that S. Paul commands Timothy to hold fast the form of sound words 2 Tim. 1.13 Which probably referr'd to some brief Creed or summary of the Christian Faith delivered to him by the Apostle Though we find them now Burlesqu'd and flouted at But alas with as little wit as reason From hence finally was it that S. Jude exhorted those to whom he wrote his Epistle to contend earnestly for the Faith which was once delivered unto the Saints 3. ver of his Epist We are not now to make our own Faith nor is it indifferent what we believe Let us receive therefore what has been delivered out of the Scriptures through all the several Ages of Christianity and endeavour to make our lives as pure as our Faith Lastly We may learn from this Holy Spirit of truth to speak truth and by no methods to impose upon one another That we may evidence to God our selves and the world that the Spirit of truth has still an influence upon our minds There are a generation of Vipers among men whose teeth are Spears and Arrows and their tongue a sharp Sword That ingross the whole trade of lying and yet pretend to be men inspired These receive false News in gross and then retail it out to others Their tongues indeed are very sharp and no wonder neither since they keep the Whetstone wholly to themselves These are your itinerant Historians that to consume our Corn carry alwayes firebrands at their tails Who lie so often that they can hardly believe themselves when they speak truth and give to all that have had the curse of their conversation a plain testimony who their Father is But let not any of our souls enter into their secrets But resolve to resemble the Spirit of truth in abominating all lies and hypocrisie and to qualifie our selves for our future ascent to Gods holy Hill by speaking the truth in our hearts Psal 15. Our Saviour had no guile found in his mouth And we must follow so good an example unless we think lying the Character of a Saint and perjury to put on a Martyrs Crown S. Paul did not think so when he forbad the Colossians to lie to one another seeing they had put off the the old man with his deeds Colos 3.9 Let us therefore beware of Arrogance and Calumny Of detracting from others or attributing too much to our selves And let us imitate the Holy Spirit under the Gospel by guiding our selves into all truth So shall we avoid both sin and shame and eternal confusion at the great and terrible day of the Lord that we may then give up our accounts with joy and not with grief Would we but endeavour to follow the sacred Spirit of God who is so ready to influence our minds in truth and faithfulness Commerce and Trade would be more innocent we should neither betray our own selves by any false or glozing language nor should we suffer by plain dealing Oaths would again become Religious among English men nor would any be unjustly executed by guilty or scandalously freed by an Ignoramus Our gracious and truly Great Monarch would be safe without the base attempts of any to secure him He would be our own and we at his wise and lawful disposal by his Coronation Oath and our sworn Allegiance to him Every man were there truth among us might enjoy peace in his own capacity he might sit under his Vine and his Fig tree and Liberty and Property would never be bones of contention more But if we remain Hypocrites in Religion and false to each other we can neither expect that God or men should be our friends Because what in us lyes we peck at the foundations of the World and make the whole Creation groan We shake the main Principle of Trade and Commerce when we are such wretched creatures that no body can believe us And we cannot but enrage the Great God who being truth it self has sent his Holy Spirit unto us to guide us into the wayes of truth Whatever guilt therefore any person may by the iniquity of times striking in with his own easie inclinations have contracted to himself in this point Let him now repent while it is called to day lest the night come in which terror and astonishment will surprize him whose obscure shadows will by degrees withdraw the pleasing light from him till it lodges him in a state of blackness for ever The Conclusion WE are here placed in a World so full of objects that affect our external senses that we are naturally led more by these than we are by faith And when by degrees we abstract our thoughts and fix our minds on things above we either weary the powers of our minds and make them sink into a stupid inadvertency or else are so pleased with the sprightliness of our creating fancies that we nimbly make Idea's in our brains of such seeming things as never were nor ever shall be And so we lead our selves into the belief of what was not designed to be the object of our understanding no more than it shall be the subject of our possession Sometimes these things are projected before hand by the cunning politick men of the World who by such means intend to impose upon others to carry on secular interests that may in the end be gainful to themselves And sometimes men by reason of their weak and unable constitutions acting contemplation beyond their own capacity to manage it impose upon themselves till they really believe their own thoughts of objects that yet have no real existence nor are ever like to have a being in the Universe Some think too much and others too little Too much learning makes one sort mad and others are mad because they have so little Some men by sinking themselves into a deep melancholy and others by a nimble and exorbitant agitation of their blood and spirits command themselves into ecstasie or
phrensie And then their pretensions grow so big that they become proportionably tall too till they aspire to the storming the Walls of Heaven attempting to blow open the everlasting Gates that they may pry into those things which are lock'd up from the inquiries of men And thus being puff'd and swelled up it proves only to be Tympany and disease when we think we have true conceptions and when our own thoughts have raised our fancies we conclude that the Spirit overshadows us and our obscure opinions or strange propositions raised by the sudden transports of our minds are too often with confidence enough boldly averred to be the immediate dictates of the Holy Ghost Want of true and ingenuous education and thereby the more exact assistances of reason causes many of those who would be accounted more spiritual than other men to think themselves inspired from above when an unusual fear a sudden joy or a powerful disease has brought Convulsions into their Nerves and seised their reason and judgement with a Palsie so that all their notions are jog'd into a confusion and their faculties can neither embrace or pursue their proper objects But by what means soever the thoughts or expectations of such men are lifted to an height waiting for an impulse sighing and groaning for an unusual influence Vain are those hopes where there is no promise and uncertain that rule of determination of things which appears to be fallible and deceitful And yet thus are all the expectations of those who think the Spirit guides them into truth by other means than what I have already shewed you or to any rules and measures of religious actions than what are plainly laid down in the Word of God or thence drawn by a fair and truly Logical deduction If you should be at the trouble to examine a little all the pretended impulses of men their great variety will evince their folly and their opposition to each other their deceit and falshood Is there any Sect pretending to Enthusiasm that does not peremptorily and with the greatest confidence assert the Spirits internal seal to their principles although just opposite to each other and all perhaps contrary to the Scripture This is the great fountain which yet divides into so many streams whose waters all have different tastes according to the chanels in which they run and the variety of soil through which they pass This is made the cause of separation which in it self is still but one This makes men divide from one another and all from that Church to which they should belong proving each others Doctrines erroneous and all still by the same Spirit As if the God of order delighted in division and different Religions like variety of creatures proclaimed Gods Wisdom and his Power When he has now enjoyn'd one faith to the whole World and sent his Son to set up his Banner for all Nations to flock to it Divers Languages indeed were once a character of inspiration from the Holy Ghost but different Creeds were never yet the fruits of him that is but one That truth which the Spirit guides men into can be no other than the plain uniform rules of the Gospel and whoever pretends to any inspiration to deliver a Doctrine different from this blasphemes the Holy Ghost and makes God a lyar whilst he pretends his inward seal publickly to attest an open falshood But if there were such a thing as the Spirits impulse in these ages of Christianity we should have some certain characters by which we might know it as the Prophets and Apostles must be suppos'd to have had and if we make it an argument to convince others we must work Miracles to attest its original The latter none of the Enthusiasts pretend to Or when ever their madness has attempted this testimony no sooner do they dubb themselves by the names of Prophets but they are discovered to be plain Cheats If they pretend a way to evidence to themselves that they are inspired with a divine breath to give them a warrant for doctrine or action not consonant to the Writings of the Apostles it does not only render the Scriptures insufficient but makes God to contradict himself and wounds that Eternal Truth of the Deity into which we ultimately resolve our belief But let us come to the examination of the impulse it self and we shall perceive in the midst of what uncertainties such men must be miserably toss'd who suppose what they deem such to be sufficient warrant for what they then think on and propose to themselves What strange and impious actions have been the consequences of such supposals I need not now relate because they have made such noise and ruines among our selves that they are still fresh among us But to proceed with this supposed impulse or impression upon mens minds by which deserting the Scriptures some Enthusiastical men will take the measures of their doctrines or actions I know not what they mean by it unless it be the heightning our perswasion making our belief of a thing bold and strong and our resolutions to act and maintain it fix'd and zealous And if this be what they make a rule or a character of the Spirits guidance since we find but little difference when we view this supposed operation in persons of various nay opposite principles we must either conclude what all deliver under this pretence to be true or else it is not safe to conduct any The former is too wild a position for any that pretend to sobriety to espouse and therefore the latter must be true Besides every mans reason may sufficiently inform him that our perswasions and determinations of things become as well setled and fix'd and have their various elevations or depressions as well by the strength or weakness of arguments duly weighed and attended to as by any impulse which can be imagined How then shall we be able to know what our reason dictates and what we are confirmed in by strength of argument from what the Holy Spirit now seals by an impulse or impression upon our minds How shall we distinguish betwixt a strong fancy a setled opinion and this pretended inspired Doctrine Nay how can we difference without recurring to the eternal Laws of good and evil which will render this new impulse useless the impressions of the Spirit from a secret temptation and a subtile suggestion from him who is our greatest adversary If we dare adventure to be so Critical as to pretend to new discoveries and such a rare ability to distinguish betwixt the motions which these several impulses make Since there can be but one sort of action in the spirits of a man if the perception be not above reason miraculous the same convulsions and percussions on the Nerves to cause the soul to understand and believe whether it be a truth or falshood that is represented a truth from God or a diabolical delusion How can the rarest and most artificial Enthusiast distinguish betwixt
actions where there is no difference at all For as it matters not whether the object proposed to the Wills embracement be either real or apparent good the same passion is used in the reception so in respect of the understanding also If the object seems to be true it makes the same impression with truth it self If we pretend a difference in the Images represented in the brain which the soul contemplating does according to their beauty or deformity own or reject the objects represented by them since we find still that an error presented under the notion of truth as long as we receive it is as pleasant to us as truth it self there can be no such Idea's supposed of such different aspects that in them we can read good and evil without some more superiour direction For if there were it would be impossible for a man to be deceived that gave himself time to contemplate these Images But if we shall as we must indeed prove the truth of the Spirits impulse from the agreement of the thing it impells us to with the truths revealed in Gods Word then the impulse it self is but a weak direction that must have another more convincing to determine it Nay not the surest confirmation of things that admits a proof beyond it self whilst the Scripture becomes its Judge either to condemn or acquit it If this were not so why should our Saviour give the World such admonitions and caution men against false Christs and false Prophets that should arise and deceive many Matth. 24. but that he foresaw the false pretensions that would be made to inspiration S. John need not otherwise have cautioned us not to believe every Spirit nor exhorted us to try the Spirits whether they are of God but that he knew that many false Prophets were gone out into the world But Lastly Let us consider too that God does not use to make bare his arm and put his power to an immediate work when the thing may be accomplish'd as well by other means which he has appointed to that very end For though this might demonstrate his Power yet it lessens his Wisdom to exert more strength and use more applications to produce an effect which fewer might as well accomplish Nay it would subvert that scheme of causes which his contrivance has already ordered It would both render Gods rules and mans endeavours after the knowledge of the truth useless and ridiculous At least those Scriptures which are already revealed would not be able to make the man of God perfect which is not only contrary to the Apostles affirmation 2 Tim. 3.17 But S. Paul's argument must be inverted and he might justly he ashamed of the Gospel of Christ because it would not be the power of God unto salvation whereas he plainly and confidently affirms it to be so Rom. 1.16 Why should any therefore now the Rule is given vainly expect revelations and impulses and extend their belief to a bold presumption deluding themselves with vain hopes since these now are neither promised nor in that manner Enthusiasts wait for them ever intended Let us rest satisfied therefore with those truths already received since no more Divine Rules of life can rationally be expected till the Day of Doom And with Gods benediction and the ordinary concurrences of his holy Spirit upon the Gospel let us frame our lives according to its Precepts and Commands that walking according to these Rules we may at last receive the end of our faith the salvation of our souls These the Holy Ghost has sealed to us not only by inspiring the Sacred Pen-men to an exact delivery but he has confirm'd them also by such Miracles as at once exceed the powers of the creation and surmount the objections of men and Devils Upon this we build a rational belief though some mysteries in our Religion exceed our full and perfect comprehension Other pretensions however back'd with great names being confidently averr'd with boldness and zeal are no other than wild notions and exorbitant fancies Things that if Satan who pants and breathes for our eternal ruine can once perswade us to an embracement of he then presents a deformed Monster for the most beautiful Truth He has then cast a veil upon our minds and leads us blindfold into what errors he pleases He spreads his Nets and entanglements for us and certain he is to catch and ensnare us For who cannot lead the blind into a ditch or bring him upon a Precipice when he thinks himself safe and secure How easie is it for the fallen Spirit that envies men the very hopes of bliss since he himself is in eternal despair to dart into persons who forsake the written Word to attend new impulses and revelations those poisoned arrows that shall drink up their spirits and perswade such to embrace any thing who have no better rule than their own perswasions Listen not then to the fond fancies of any bold and passionate men who making use of their hot constitutions convert their own natural rashness into a seeming zeal pouring forth thick words and thin sense whilst they impudently pretend the Spirits impulse for all their rude and unreasonable notions and give the stamp of Canon to their Doctrines Nor must we yet on the other hand so far make our reason Judge as to destroy our faith but taking the Gospel for our sufficient rule let us use our faculties to explain and apprehend it But by no means let us curtail or extend it beyond what was the design of the imposer 'T is a strange Age in which we live when Religion is almost lost by making too strict an enquiry after it and too much curiosity in our speculations has rendered us almost regardless of our practice We discourse the gravest and most serious points of our holy faith with so much levity and disrespect the indecency of the places in which we hold such Conferences adding to our vanity that we first make our Religion common and then slight it as mean and inconsiderable But whatever the Sons of Darkness do let us who are of the Day be sober and with due reverence and a godly fear receive those impressions of the Spirit which he has made in Sacred Writ so shall we avoid the blasphemies of those who so confidently assert Diabolical suggestions and the black fancies which are the fruits of a corrupted constitution for Divine inspirations For no zeal or mode of delivery can possibly perswade any rational man that duly exercises his own faculties that profound nonsense or unaccountable propositions are deep Divinity Nor that men whose natures are envious and Diabolical can possibly receive instructions from God to promote division raise disturbances or to continue any which have already had their auspicious beginnings and as I hope their full progress among us For that wisdom which is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without wrangling and