Kingdom of God standeth not in words but in power And seeing a Christians Faith is a part of Gods Kingdom in his Soul the said Faith stands not in the words even of the Apostles by Pauls own Testimony but hath a greater and more noble and excellent Foundation to wit the Power and holy Spirit of God in the Heart of the Believer as that doth inspire and inwardly operate move and act upon the intellectual Faculties of the Soul And here possibly some will grant that the Spirit hath the greatest efficiency or stroke in working this spiritual assent or Perswasion to the Doctrine of the Gospel as an efficient Cause in the Souls of Believers but perhaps they will say as this Author saith of the common saving Graces of the Spirit that they are Moral Virtues insensibly wrought in our Hearts by the Holy Ghost and that therefore any Divine Assent or Perswasion which the Holy Ghost works in our Hearts is wrought insensibly and that the Holy Ghost in his Inspiration and Operation is incognitum quid as some Popish Schoolmen and others have affirmed the Spirits operation to be medium incognitum assentiendum i. e. an unknown medium or mean that worketh in us insensibly or without all perception on our part whose footsteps this Author seemeth to follow And seeing the Spirits Influence or Operation is altogether unperceptible to the Soul as having no objectve evidence whereby to make it self known as they affirm and that the Soul or Mind of man cannot assent to Truth without some objective evidence of truth The Scripture therefore is that medium or mean which alone as they say giveth this objective Evidence of truth to the Soul and moveth it objectively to assent to the truth Hence they distinguish betwixt subjective and objective Illumination and the Subjective and objective Influence and Assistance saying that the Spirit indeed giveth us the Subjective illumination and Assistance but the Scripture only giveth us the objective Illumination and Assistance But this distinction I have sufficiently at length refuted in my Book of Immediate Revelation above cited so that I need not insist to make a new Refutation of it here until the Author or some else disprove the Arguments I have brought there to evince that the Holy Spirit worketh sensibly and perceptibly in the hearts of Believers and giveth unto them an objective Assistance and Illumination as well as subjective or effective that both can be known and is known to be a divine assistance and to proceed from the Holy Spirit in them who have it and whose minds are well prepared and disposed to receive and observe it for the Spirits inward Operation and Inspiration or Influence is sufficiently observable and reachable enough by the inward and spiritual Senses of the Soul when excited and awakned by the power of the Holy Spirit as I can appeal to all who have the least measure of experience in the case and whose spiritual senses are awakned and duly exercised to discern betwixt Good and Evil. Such by an inward spiritual divine sensation are able to discern and distinguish betwixt a good motion and Inspiration that cometh from the Spirit of God and an evil motion and Inspiration that cometh from the Devil or some evil Spirit Again seeing by the Inspiration and Illumination of the Spirit of God we are principally inclined moved and perswaded to assent to the truth of the Scripture-Testimony and are made to believe that the Scriptures are no cunningly devised Fable but the Holy Oracles and Sayings of God by men divinely inspired as all good and sound Protestants do acknowledge we must needs consequentially affirm that the spirits illumination is the more noble Rule and preferable to the Scripture And thus we evite that fallacious Circle that some run into and for which they are derided by some of the Church of Rome because they say they believe the Scriptures for the spirits inward Testimony and to go round again they say they believe the spirits inward Testimony for the Scriptures This say the Romanists is a fallacious Circle and not to be allowed according to the Rules of right Disputation But say we as we own the Scriptures Testimony as a good secondary Confirmation to induce or move us to believe the spirits inward Testimony so we beleive the Spirits inward Testimony being chiefly moved or induced so to do by the spirit of God himself inspiring us and inwardly moving and inclining us thereunto and we principally believe the Scriptures for the spirit but the spirit we principally believe for himself or his own immediate Testimony in our hearts which is secondarily confirmed to us by the Scriptures Testimony And I see not how any true Protestant or sober rational man who owneth a necessity of the spirits Inspiration to produce saving faith in the soul can blame us for so doing And thus the Romanists have no occasion to deride or blame us for running into a vicious Circle in giving the reason of our Faith And we judge it no derogation to the Scripture to prefer the spirit of God and Christ as he doth immediately bear witness in our Hearts to the external Testimony of the Scriptures For as Iohn and all the Prophets and Apostles gave the preference to Christ as more worthy so no doubt the Scriptures which are their Words and Writings prefer the holy spirit of Christ whose servants and Instruments they are And here I give the Reader a necessary Caution which I desire him well to observe that when the Question is stated betwixt the inward and immediate Testimony of the spirit in the soul of a true Christian and the outward Testimony of the Scripture we affirm the inward is the more noble the greater and the more preferable even as the soul is the more noble part of a man and of greater value than the Body however so excellent or beautiful as being that which giveth life to the Body for as the soul quickneth the body and useth it as its Instrument so the holy spirit inspiring the Heart of a true Christian quickneth the Scriptures Testimony and maketh it to live and bring forth Fruit in the soul yet when the Question is stated betwixt the Scriptures and any Revelation Vision or Inspiration externally brought forth in Words or Writing that in this case we most willingly prefer the Scripture words and writings to any words and writings of ours how much soever inspired or proceeding from Inspiration and do most willingly submit all our Words and Writings to the publick standard Test and Touch-stone of the Scriptures to be tryed by them and not otherwise to be received than as agreeing with them A second thing which possibly this Author or some other may answer in the case is That though the Church of England according to the Common Prayer owneth the Inspiration of the holy spirit as necessary to saving Faith and to the begetting a saving and spiritual knowledge of God and the Scriptures yet
Miracle nor do we read that he spoke any Tongue but that which was common to the Iews And it is yet more unreasonable and unequal not to believe us unless we have all the miraculous Gifts of the spirit as if some were not sufficient if so we had them Surely few Churches or Persons had all the miraculous Gifts of the spirit even when they were most common And though we pretend not to those miraculous Gifts of the spirit such as speaking with Tongues healing the sick raising the dead c. yet the absence or not having any of these miraculous Gifts cannot prove that we are not otherwise divinely inspired for there are common divine Inspirations necessary to all true Christians which are of a saving Nature where they are received in Faith and Love whose peculiar and proper quality is to sanctifie those who are inspired with them and consequently are of a moral Nature the which sort of Divine Inspirations being of a different kind from these which were Miraculous that is easie to understand how the miraculous and peculiar sort of Inspirations ceasing those other of a Moral consideration do remain the which though outwardly they are not Miraculous yet inwardly they are as performing the greater Miracles for to raise the soul from Death to Life and to heal the Diseases of the soul is a greater Miracle than to raise or heal the Body A third Condition he requireth of us before we can be believed to have the spirit is That we receive what the Apostle hath written in particular that a Woman should not speak in the Church as the Commandments of God To this I answer that we do receive what the Apostle hath written as the Commandments of God when it doth appear that what he writeth is such But some things he said he wrot by permission and not by commandment And as concerning Womens speaking in the Church he doth not deliver it as an Universal Commandment that did admit no Restriction or Limitation otherwise he had contradicted his own words elsewhere in prescribing an Order to Women that their Heads be covered when they did Pray or Prophesie which to be sure was in the Church for as to private or mental Prayer no such Order is required 1 Cor. 11.5 And whereas Paul said I permit not a Woman to speak in the Church it is easie to be understood in what case that was viz. to dispute or ask Questions in the Church which was permitted unto Men and Children both among the Jews and primitive Christians but not unto Women yet did not this restrain Women to speak either in Prayer or Prophesie when they were divinely inspired so to do for both the Scripture and Church-History informs us how Women did Prophesie and Pray in the Church But this being a digression which the Author introduceth to little purpose here I shall not insist on it CHAP. III. AND now as to his Arguments or rather one bare Argument to prove that Divine Inspiration which he calleth Enthusiasm is ceased in the true Church and among true Christians I shall first produce what he saith in his own words pag. 21 22. which is the sum of all he hath said in his whole Sermon Now this reason saith he is to be taken from the wants and necessities of the Primitive Church whose Infant-state required that God should assist her with the Miraculous Gifts of the Spirit till the Gospel was sufficiently Preached about the Empire the Scriptures of the New Testament compleated the Temple-worship abolished among the Jews Idolatry destroyed among the Gentiles and both were united together under Christ into one Communion or Catholick Church And this is the sum of all the Reasons or Reason he giveth why Divine Inspirations were given to the Church in the Apostles days and for some time after and why they are ceased since as being necessary to the Churches of former times but not to the Churches of the later Now the whole force of all this Argument if all were conceded which he layeth down in the Premisses doth not conclude as concerning the Miraculous kind of Divine Inspirations wherewith they who were so miraculously inspired did spake with strange Tongues cure Diseases and the like But nothing of all this Authors Reasons doth conclude against the other sort of Divine Inspirations which were not for working any outward Miracles but were of a Moral Nature whose direct Tendency and service was to beget the true Knowledge Faith and Love of God and other Evangelical Vertues in the hearts and souls of the Ispired and also to preserve and nourish them in order to a perfect growth And that there were such Inspirations of the Spirit of God which were of a Moral Nature is clear not only from the Scripture-Testimony in abundant places but also from the Common Prayer of the Church of England already cited And seeing the Author himself granteth the necessity of saving Gifts and Operations of the Spirit in all true Believers how can these Operations of the Spirit be understood without Inspiration for how can the Spirit be suppose to operate or work any Divine effect in the Souls of Believers but as he inspireth them with his Light and Life and other divine Vertues To Inspire signifyeth nothing else but to in-breath or to breath into the Soul any Divine Vertue whatsoever and therefore that Operation or Motion of the Divine Spirit whereby he quickens the Soul that once was dead and makes it alive unto God is very properly called Inspiration or In-breathing yea from this sort of operation it is that the Spirit hath its name whether in Latin Greek or Hebrew and signifieth a Breathing so that Spiration or Inspiration may well deserve to be the common and general name of all the various kinds of the Spirits Operations in the Souls of men and especially in Believers according to the words of Christ Iohn 3.8 The Spirit breatheth or inspireth where he willeth for so the words may be translated and so did the Fathers so call'd generally understand them And we know that the occasion of Christs speaking these words was his Discourse with Nicodemus about the Regeneration or spiritual new Birth as intimating plainly unto us that the Spirits Inspiration or in breathing into the Soul is necessary unto its Regeneration This is that breath or breathing of the Spirit which Ezekiel saw come upon the dead and dry bones which made them to live the same that made Adam a living Soul of whom it is said that God breathed into him Nismah Chaim the Breath or Inspiration of life and he became a living soul and indeed it is the Inspiration of life that maketh the Soul of any man that truly liveth unto God a living soul is as necessary to the Souls spiritual Life as the breathing of the Air is unto the Life of the Body And as the Breath or Inspiration of the Spirit of God and Christ quickneth the dead Soul and raiseth a
there is which is not obtained by the signs of the things but by the things themselves immediately perceived and this sort of knowledge is intuitive most near and immediate and therefore much more excellent and pleasant than that other Note secondly that all words and names of divine things and consequently all the words and names of the Scripture are not the divine things themselves the words and names of God and Christ are not God and Christ are not the Light Life and power of God to speak properly they are not the spirit of God the love of God the peace and joy of God the righteousness and holiness and Kingdom of God if we will speak properly and without a figure And even in Natural things the words and names of them do not give us an intuitive clear and immediate knowledge of them but abstractive remote and mediate as when one heareth or readeth of the Kingdom of Italy of the City of Rome or Ierusalem not having seen that Kingdom or these Cities his knowledge of them is only abstractive or discursive obtained by the signs of their names and words But when afterwards by the reading and hearing of those places his desire is kindled to see them and that he travelleth into them when he is come thither he now seeth what only before he read or heard of and he converseth face to face with the Citizens of those places he tasteth of the delightful fruits of the Country and eateth and drinketh abundantly of them this last sort of knowledge is intuitive most near and Immediate and so more excellent more clear and more pleasant then the former only by hear-say and report Now if it be a more excellent and desirable knowledge to know a natural thing and that which is visible by seeing and perceiving the thing it self without and beyond all signs of words and names whatsoever than only to know it by the external signs of words in reading hearing and meditating on them how much more desirable and clear and more delightful shall that knowledge be of God and Christ whereby God and Christ is seen and heard smelled tasted and felt yea touched and apprehended by the most inward parts of the Soul in smost Sweet embraces And let none object unto me that such a knowledge of God belongeth not unto the saints in this mortal life but is reserved for Heaven and the World to come for I answer that a first fruits pledge and earnest of it are communicated to the Saints in this mortal life by the Lord which is abundantly clear both out of many places of Scripture and also from the many experiences of many Thousands of the Saints in all Ages for the places of Scripture see but these few that follow Psal. 34.8 1 Pet. 2.3 Matth. 5.8 2 Cor. 3.18 Eph. 1.17 18. Again the inward Operations Inspirations and Illuminations of the Holy Spirit when they are present in the hearts of the faithful without any outward teacher or signs of words whatsoever make evidence unto themselves and by their own self-evidence beget a most certain and clear knowledge of themselves in the Souls of those who have them even as if one doth take Hony Milk or Wine he needeth not to use the signs of words and names to perceive them but rather in quietness and silence without the noise or whisper of words he doth better perceive those things and enjoyeth the sweetness virtue and benefit of them And so indeed God in Christ and with Christ in a deep silence as well inward as outward of all words the discursive thoughts and reasonings of the mind being also excluded for some time is much better and more clearly and delightfully felt and known then by all the words that the tongues of men and Angels ever did Utter But is therefore the use and exercise of the Scripture Words in reading hearing and meditation of them to be rejected and laid aside Nothing less only the faithful Soul following its inward guide the Holy Spirit is led from that exercise of useing the Scripture words for some time unto another kind of more noble exercise and life as it were from labour unto rest and as it were from the six days working it is led into this pleasant Sabbath yea from all its other exercises whether outward or inward where the Scriptures have a good place and service it is brought into this rest and Sabbath and spiritual sleep so to speak where with Iacob it seeth the Heavens opened and as it were the Angels of God ascending and descending Nor is this to reject the Scripture or its use and exercise if at any time the soul is led from that unto another exercise wherein the Scripture hath not Immediate place As he doth not reject preaching who from preaching passeth unto prayer nor doth he reject prayer who from that passeth unto singing and blessing or praising the blessed name of God Nor doth a man reject his studies who leaving them at certain times goeth to rest and sleep or to refresh himself with meat and drink and many such examples may be brought But if it be further enquired what the use of the Scriptures can be to a man who hath received such an Immediate knowledge of God as doth not in many things depend Immediately upon the use and exercise of the Scripture I answer the powers or faculties of the Soul are various some inferiour as the Imaginative and discursive and some superiour as the intuitive and from the good and right use of the inferior powers whose proper object are the words of Scripture or any other words proceeding from the same spirit the Soul is carried unto the use and exercise of its superior or most supream power which is the intuitive whose proper object is God and Christ with his divine riches and gifts without and beyond all words Now it is the will of God that not one only power of our Souls be exercised in the knowing and worshiping of him but all the powers and faculties or abilities of our Souls both the low and high yea and our whole man inward and outward And therefore the most bountiful and gracious God hath provided sutable and fit objects unto every power of the Soul unto the highest he hath prepared himself in his son Christ to be seen and enjoyed by the Soul without those veils and coverings of words but to the inferiour and lower powers of our Souls he hath provided the words without which they could not reach to that knowledge or apprehension of God And moreover by reading and hearing these most sweet and excellent Testimonies of Scripture our outward man is piously and holily employed the holy Spirit concurring and when the words pass or extend into outward good works and deeds then not only the tongue and ears but the hands and feet and whole body is duely and fitly exercised in the service of God And by these inferiour exercises the Holy Spirit leading and assisting because
the habit of their mind because these are rules of righteousness but it is manifest their minds are unrighteous note where then are these rules writ where he who is unjust knoweth what is just where he understandeth that he ought to have that which he hath not Where are they therefore writ but in the Book of that Light which is called the Truth whence every just Law is described and is transferred into the Heart of Man who worketh Righteousness not by motion as from one place to another but by impression as the Image passeth from the Seal into the Wax and yet leaveth not the Seal Thus Augustine Again In this same Paragraph he blameth R.B. for saying That the General Revelation doth suffice unto Salvation although the Special doth not come nor be adjoyned thereunto But granting that he who hath faithfully obeyed and followed the General Revelation be in a safe state as to the present and hath a firm and sure hope of future happiness yet this doth not hinder but in order to obtain a more perfect state through Christ of Eternal Life the Special Revelation is necessary as is plain in the example of Cornelius to whom the Apostle Peter behoved to be sent who was to Preach unto him words concerning Christ by which as the Angel said Acts 11.14 He and his House were to be saved CHAP. IV. IN his Seventh and Eighth Paragraphs he saith little or nothing more than what he had formerly delivered concerning the state of the Controversie to wit whether Immediate Divine Revelations be the Principle of knowing God and Divine Things in respect of all men and for all times But divers other things remain as necessary to be opened for the more clear stating the Controversie First as to the Principle of Knowledg which is either Primary or Secundary or which is to the same effect Principal or Subordinate Now as concerning the Subordinate and Secundary Principle we deny not but that the Scriptures are a subordinate and secundary Principle of knowing Divine Doctrines and Truths as concerning God and Christ but still we contend for the Holy Spirit Inlightning Inspiring and by its Life giving Vigour and Vertue effectually working in the souls of men as the Principal or Primary And let the Adversary tell me seeing he doth acknowledge that the inward illumination and operation of the Holy Spirit is absolutely necessary to the obtaining any Saving Knowledge of God whether he doth not believe that the Holy Spirit inwardly operating and inlightning the Minds of Believers is the Primary Principle of Divine Knowledge Or will he say that the Scriptures are the Primary Principle and that the Holy Spirit is but the secundary and subordinate which last as being too absurd and offensive to Christian ears I hope he will abhor to affirm Secondly As concerning the term of inward Revelation the strife or controversie is to be removed for why should we contend in meer words if we be agreed in the same sence as to the verity of the thing First he doth acknowledge that the inward Illuminations of the Holy Spirit are absolutely necessary to beget the saving knowledge of God and Divine Things in Mens minds Secondly He granteth that these inward Illuminations of the Holy Spirit are not only effective but also that they are objective as being real objects proposed to the Mind and moving it to the assent of Truth For so he doth in his Thirty Second Paragraph expresly affirm That God or the Spirit revealing doth not only work efficiently on the Intellectual Faculty to bring forth or produce the Act of Believing but doth also move the Mind objectively or by a formal representation of an object determine the Vnderstanding to assent Thus He. Wherein so far as I can understand or reach he doth acknowledge that the inward Illumination of the Holy Spirit is Revelation properly so called For by inward Revelation we do not understand any other thing than that the Holy Spirit works not only efficiently or as an Efficient Cause upon our Understanding to beget in us True Divine Knowledge and Faith but that he also moves objectively or by a formal representation of the Object determines our Understanding to Assent For what is it in general to Reveal but to propose the Object revealed to our perceptive Faculty and so in particular he who doth propose the outward visible Objects to my sight he is properly enough said to reveal unto me these Visibles and the same is to be understood of the Objects of the other outward Senses And surely according to Scripture phrase the inward illustrations and illuminations of the Holy Spirit produced in the hearts of the faithful are called Revelations in respect of which the Holy Spirit in Scripture is called The Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation Eph. 1.17 as he doth illustrate and illuminate the hearts of the Faithful And Paul writing of the state of his Conversion affirmeth that God had revealed his Son in him the which in some manner and degree may be said of every converted man As yet therefore we agree well enough as I suppose in forming the state of the Controversie It remaineth then Thirdly that we discuss or consider this term Immediate a little more fully wherein alone almost the strife of the Controversie seemeth to be placed the which although at first view it may seem great yet afterwards laying aside prejudice it may appear to be little if any That it may therefore be more clearly understood what is signified by this term Immediate I desire the Reader to take notice that Immediate doth signifie two very different things One is the absence of all means or medium's in the producing any effect Hence God the Great Creator is rightly said to have produced or created his creatures immediately because there was no medium or mean existing save only his Word and Spirit whereby to create them But this signification of the word or term Immediate is too strait and narrow and perhaps agreeth to no other operation than to the Creation and Conservation of the World by God that infinite and supreme Cause unless we add those Divine Miracles and other marvellous things which God did of old and yet doth without the use or concurrence of means The second or other signification of the word Immediate doth not import the absence of the mean or medium but the intimate application or concurrence of the principal and primary Cause unto the secundary together with the mean or means in the operation Again the medium or mean is either continued or discontinued The continued mean I call that mean which is continued or continually and closely is conjoyned in working with the Cause both principal and subordinate But the discontinued mean is that which is not continued or conjoyned in the working with the primary and principal Cause but either works nothing at all or worketh only with the secundary Cause while as the principal and primary Cause worketh nothing with the
said mean but suspendeth and withdraweth its concourse and influence that is requisite to the producing the effect aright Now the continued mean or medium hindereth not that the action or operation of the principal and primary Cause be said to be immediate Hence Immediate is as much as to be in medio i. e. in the mean and therefore when God is said to be in the midst of the faithful so that by his presence in the midst of them or he mediating and intervening they perform all their works he is rightly and properly said immediately to work in them and to inspire and inlighten them Now that the continued mean hinders not the immediate operation of the principal Cause many examples might be produced to show it I shall give an instance in some few which follow The Sun doth immediately inlighten our eyes and shine upon the visible objects and yet it doth this by means of the Air and sometimes by means of the Chrystal or Glass of the Window But because the Air and Glass or other diaphanous and transparent mediums are continued with the Suns illumination the said illumination is immediate and is commonly acknowledged so to be Again when the Husbandman laboureth in his field using many means as Ploughing Digging Sowing Watering or Reaping and Gathering his Corn the Sun doth immediately inlighten him and shine upon his labours by vertue and assistance of which illumination he still laboureth Here we see the making use of many means doth not hinder the immediate illumination and operation of the Sun upon the Husbandman and his labours but all these means and the use of them doth very well agree with the Suns immediate illumination and as it were Revelation and the one is perfited and established by the other For as the labouring and using these outward means cannot be rightly performed and do not profit or avail without the Suns influence and operation so unless the said Husbandman doth labour in his Field Plow Dig Sow and perform other necessary actions for the labouring his ground the Suns illumination or operation although immediate shall little avail him Another example I shall give in the daily mutual conversation of men one with another When one man speaks to another face to face they both hear and see each other immediately and yet this hearing and seeing of one another is not without the use and intervening of many means or mediums for both the voice and image of those men immediately so conversing are conveyed from one to another not only by means of the Air but also of many Organs of the Eyes and Ears It now remaineth to apply these examples or similitudes to the present purpose of Immediate Revelation and the Illumination of the Holy Spirit Do not our Adversaries grant that God doth so inlighten the minds and inward eyes of the Faithful with his Light and Illumination who is the inward spiritual and invisible Sun of the Soul as the outward and worldly Sun doth inlighten our outward eyes I suppose this they will grant Again Is not God who is the light and life of the Faithful as closely and intimately present or rather indeed much more present with his people as the outward Sun is to our Body and outward Man Doth not the Spirit of God which is of a most subtle and penetrating nature and his Light Life and Virtue more perfectly go through and penetrate all means than the outward illumination of the Sun can penetrate or pierce through the Air or most clear and transparent Glass or Chrystal Is not God most inwardly present in all his Creatures and most near and close unto them Is he not more near unto us than all means however so near But it may be answered that God worketh in us using many and various means as reading of the Scriptures Preaching Hearing Meditation Prayer sometimes one and sometimes another and at other times divers joyned together This is granted but all this hinders not that the operation and illumination of God in the use of those means is immediate For if the use of all means in every respect be taken away in Gods instructing teaching inspiring and inlightning men I know not if it can be proved clearly that any man whether Prophet or Apostle was immediately inlightned or inspired by the Holy Spirit with special Revelation For besides that many of the Prophets were taught of God by the means and ministry of Angels and that Iohn the Apostle had his Visions of the Revelation when he was banished into the Isle of Patmos by means of an Angel sent by Christ unto him what Prophet or Apostle ever was of God or of Christ but made use of means Was not Prayer sometimes both Mental and Vocal sometimes only Mental a general and universal Mean which both Prophets and Apostles used and that frequently to obtain their Divine Inspirations and Revelations Do we not read how Moses besought the Lord that he might see his glory the which most sweet and blessed Vision he obtained by means of his prayer and the same is to be understood of the other Prophets And did not the Apostles continue with one accord in prayer at a certain place betwixt the time of Christ his ascending into heaven and the giving of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost And did they not obtain that most excellent gift of the Holy Spirit by means of their prayer And did not Cornelius and his Friends receive the Holy Spirit by means of Peter his Preaching and the like did frequently come to pass to the Primitive Disciples by means of the Apostles Preaching and laying on of their hands Did not Christ inspire the Apostles immediately before his Ascension by means of his outward Preaching unto them and laying his hands on them Did not the Apostles Minister one to another after they had received the Holy Spirit of the word of Life and did edifie and build up one another Had not the Prophets of old Schools and there did Prophesie and Preach and Pray and by using these means the Gift and Spirit of Prophesie came upon many Hearers immediately Surely few or none of the Prophets or Apostles but at times were outwardly taught Adam the first Prophet instructed Abel and Seth Seth instructed his Children and they again their children at least some of them until Noah and Noah instructed some of his Posterity and they again of theirs until Abraham for without all controversie both Abraham and Moses learned some things by outward teaching from their Forefathers of God and Divine Things which yet did not hinder but that they also were immediately inspired and taught of God themselves yea the outward teaching did further them and by its virtue did prepare their minds to receive their Divine Inspirations But put the case that some of them did not hear any thing taught them outwardly by mans voice as in the case of Adam when he was alone Did he or they therefore use no means
Religion which is a special Religion more perfect and excellent than the General and perfiting the said General Religion in true Christians are made known unto us by the Scripture means the Holy Spirit inwardly inlightning and inspiring us that we may understand the Doctrines declared in the Scripture and may savingly apply them with true and sincere Faith to the salvation of our souls And what more any can require of us to establish the due use of the Scripture or of any other means I do not understand And as concerning the aforesaid experimental and sensible knowledge of God that is only manifest or obvious to the inward and supreme sences and powers of the Soul as they are opened and awakened in us by the work of Regeneration and Renewing of the Holy Ghost although the Scripture words do not immediately concur in the formal act of such a Divine and Intuitive Knowledge as the words of a mans name do not make me see the man yet the Scriptures do witness abundantly concerning such an experimental and spiritually sensible knowledge of God which is perceived in a most inward union and communion of the Soul with God and in a certain Intellectual or spiritual contact or touch of which not only Plato and Plotin and others among those called Philosophers but the Apostles among the Christians have largely made mention And after the Apostles Athanasius Gregory Nazianzen Clemens Alexandrinus Origen and many others among the Grecians and Augustine and Ierome with many others many Ages ago among the Latines and in latter Ages Bernard Thauler and Thomas a Kempis and the Author of the German Theology unto whose Book Luther did write a Preface and did much commend it All these and generally these called Mysticks and Writers upon Mystick Divinity so called do Preach and hold forth a certain Knowledge of God which is received without all words by a certain inward gust taste and touch and inward feeling of God and Divine Things in the souls and hearts of those who have attained unto that due state and degree of purity and holiness requisite in order to such a knowledge and enjoyment And hence it is that they distinguish Theology or the knowledge of God into discursive on the one hand and mystick or intuitive and contemplative on the other and they say the former is had or received by words and verbal discourses syllogisms propositions premisses and conclusions gathered and collected from Scripture which yet without the Spirits inward illumination and operation is not effectual to the salvation of those who have it but that this latter is obtained by a naked and simple perception and intuition of God and Divine Things as the mind is purified and cleansed and denuded as it were from all images and similitudes or signs of words or outward things whatsoever That we may therefore put a conclusion to the forming the state of the controversie aright which is the most principal thing if the question be made concerning doctrinal and discursive Theology or knowledge which require words propositions definitions reasons arguments and conclusions we shall readily grant that the Scriptures are a General Principle of the same but Secundary the Holy Spirit inwardly inlightning and inspiring mens souls and hearts being still the Primary and Principal and that by means of the Scriptures in reading and hearing and meditating upon them and as they are preached and opened and used by men spiritually gifted and fitted of God we attain to the knowledge of the said discursive and doctrinal Theology and most especially the Scriptures are of service unto us when we turn or convert the words of them that do most nearly respect Holiness of Life and Manners such as the precepts and examples of Christian Vertues into good works and deeds and into a good and Christian Life But in the experimental and mystick or intuitive and contemplative Theology not the Scripture words but the things themselves signified by the words to wit God Christ the Holy Spirit the Life Light and Power of God the Love Peace and Joy of God and the Kingdom of God which Christ did testifie to be within us reveal and demonstrate themselves to the souls and hearts of the faithful by themselves nakedly in their own proper and native light glory and evidence without words even as the outward things and riches of this visible world and the beauty glory and vertue of them reveal and discover themselves unto our outward senses without words and far beyond the force or reach of words And if outward things without words are continually presented to our outward senses it followeth that inward things to wit the things of the Divine and Heavenly Kingdom which is in us are presented to our inward and spiritual senses without words seeing these inward and spiritual things are as near to our souls yea much nearer ' as those outward things are to our bodies And thus the state of the Controversie being rightly framed and brought to a period I shall have little difficulty to answer the following Paragraphs or Sections of the Adversary seeing in all things almost he goeth without or beyond the state of the Controversie and so contendeth not so much against us or R. B. as his own shadow or thoughts CHAP. VI. WHat the Adversary saith in his Ninth and Tenth Paragraphs are of the same tendency with the things he had formerly mentioned belonging to the state of the Controversie In his Eleventh Paragraph he saith the Controversie is not of any sort of Revelation but that of Immediate And in his Twelfth he affirmeth that Revelation considered in it self doth prescind or abstract from that which is Immediate and Mediate And he assenteth unto R. B. his five Propositions pag. 9. of his Apology and that Divine Revelations remain to be the formal object of the Saints Faith but he denyeth them to be Immediate To whom I answer that he granteth with us That he inward illuminations and operations of the Holy Spirit are altogether necessary to beget true and saving Faith in men and that these inward illuminations are objective or by way of Object Par. 32. and Par. 34. So that the act of Faith is occupied or exercised and doth finally stay in God himself revealing as the Object And what he subjoyneth That God revealing as the formal Object in whom the Vnderstanding stayeth or resteth and the Divine Revelation consisting of the external signs are not to be opposed Because when God the revealer by outward words Preached or Writ moveth the Vnderstanding to acknowledge them to be as a Divine Revelation it cannot be denyed that the Vnderstanding doth so rest in God revealing as the formal Object So that it doth also regard these signs depending on God by which that Revelation doth consist meaning the words All this is granted both by me and R. B. yea that is it for which R. B. pleadeth viz. that God inwardly illuminating and moving the Understanding to the assent of the
immediate communication of the Holy Spirit given commonly to the Saints it shall also exclude David himself an excellent Prophet who said these words from the immediate communication of the Spirit Then as seemeth unto me the Adversary wonderfully forgetting himself within a few lines he confesseth that David was immediately inlightned by God and gifted with the Spirit of Prophecy Lo how he hath mortally wounded and killed his own cause as it were with his own hands For because the words of David above cited do not say take not away thy holy Spirit immediately given me therefore he argueth that these words of David do not prove an immediate communication of the Spirit But I no where find it said in the whole scripture that the Holy Spirit was immediately given to David or to any of the Prophets and Apostles for the scripture hath not the term Immediate which is enough to demonstrate that when it is said the Spirit was given to any man doth sound or signifie as much as that the Spirit was given him immediately But for that distinction of the Spirits being given immediately to some and only mediately or remotely to others the scripture is wholly silent of it neither can it be gathered from scripture by any good consequence And let this answerer tell me if some stubborn and cross grain'd Adversary should deny that any of the Prophets or Apostles were immediately inspired how could he convince him of his error For whatever places of scripture he shall bring to convince him he shall be ready to answer with this our Adversary that all these places of scripture say nothing of the Holy Spirit his being immediately given to any either of the Prophets or Apostles But if he answer that the scripture-words which say that the Prophets and Apostles had the Spirit of God inwardly teaching inlightning leading moving and acting them although they do not express the term immediate yet they do sufficiently signifie and import the immediate communication of the Holy Spirit therefore it shall be equally lawful unto us to conclude because all the faithful and true children of God are said in scripture to have the Spirit of God which dwelleth in them doth inwardly teach them inspire inlighten lead move and act them and that it is one spirit which is in all the faithful whether they be Prophets or Apostles or any other true members of Christ because the phrase of the scripture is the same concerning the communication of the Holy Spirit as well to all the faithful as to the Prophets and Apostles therefore it hath the same sence in both to wit that both the Prophets and Apostles and all the faithful servants and children of God have one and the same Spirit of God immediately communicated unto them Nor is this to make all Prophets or Apostles for although the communication of the Spirit be immediate unto all yet it doth not produce in all the same gifts and functions but one sort in the Prophets and Apostles and another sort in ordinary Christians Even as the same soul or spirit of man is immediately communicated to the whole body and all its members yet it doth not follow that every member is the Head or Eye for notwithstanding that the same spirit is immediately communicated to all the members yet there remaineth a clear distinction of the members and of their offices one from another Again whereas he affirmeth Parag. 19. that the Prophets and Apostles received the Spirit immediately but all others of the faithful but only mediately He saith his without any proof and playeth on the ambiguous or various signification of the word or term immediate and mediate which I have above explained and so he departeth and goeth aside from the true state of the controversie altogether For although it be granted that many received the Holy Spirit by means of the outward preaching that doth not hinder but that they had it immediately and most nearly communicated unto them of God for beside other reasons and examples formerly brought by me cap. 4. the following example shall demonstrate the thing abundantly We see by how many various means a Husbandman or Gardiner doth ingraft a Twig or Branch upon the stock of a Tree the using of which means notwithstanding doth not hinder but on the contrary doth greatly conduce and further or help that the said branch may cleave immediately unto the stock on which it is ingrafted and may draw and derive life and a vital influence from the said stock or root immediately and most closely no less than if it had been a natural branch of the said Root Again Herbs and Trees are planted in the earth by using many means which afterwards taking root in the earth do derive from it immediately life and a vital or lively influence and vertue Granting therefore that the faithful are commonly ingrafted into Christ by means of the outward Preaching do they therefore derive nothing of the Spirit of Christ immediately Are not the Faithful as immediately joyned or united to Christ as the branches are to the Vine or the Twigs to the Stocks on which they are ingrafted Shall they not therefore immediately partake of the spirit of Christ seeing as Christ himself hath said He is the Vine and the faithful are the Branches grafted into him Moreover How can the Adversary prove that the Prophets and Apostles who as he confesseth had the Spirit immediately had it not derived and given unto them commonly by means of outward Preaching For the younger Prophets did commonly and for most part hear the elder Prophets preach unto them and by means of their Ministry and preaching they also received the same Spirit which dwelt in them immediately and moved them immediately to speak as it did the Elder Prophets Hence it is that we read of the Schools of the Prophets and of their Sons and Disciples in the scripture And did not Elisha the Disciple of Elijah by means of his Master immediately receive the Holy Spirit And the Apostles also received the Holy Spirit in some degree immediately before the day of Pentecost by means of Christs preaching outwardly unto them Nor can it be questioned but that when they received the same Spirit more abundantly on the day of Pentecost they were much helped and assisted or prepared for such an excellent dispensation by means of Christs doctrine which he preached unto them while he was yet conversant with them in the flesh upon Earth And the faithful did commonly receive the Holy Spirit and many excellent gifts of it immediately and yet by means of the Apostles preaching and laying on of their hands I spoke before of Cornelius who received the Spirit immediately and yet obtained it further by means of Peter's preaching Timothy also received that excellent gift which was in him by Prophesie with the laying on of the hands of the Eldership If therefore it be said that some of the faithful received the Spirit immediately and others only
adversary doth fain or devise a wonderful strange sort of indwelling of God and the Holy Spirit in the Souls of the faithful without all Immediate speech or concern Certainly to speak after the manner of men it is hard to think how two intimate Friends can dwell together in one house and follow the same manner of life in many things and yet the one speak nothing to the other immediately or by word of mouth all the whole time of their living so nearly But indeed the indwelling and habitation of God and Christ by the Holy Spirit in the hearts of the faithful is a thing far more sweet and joyful then this adversary doth imagine the which as it is most inward or Primitive and Immediate in them so it doth import likewise an Intimate and Immediate familiarity converse and communication And as concerning the habits of arts and sciences whereof he made mention which are in the minds of men and yet are given not Immediately but by means of the outward teaching of the Master I say the seeds and principles of all these arts and sciences are Immediately planted and sowed in our minds as the purest and truest Philosophy doth teach and all arts and sciences do Immediately sprout and spring forth from these seeds and principles Immediately planted in us as the Flouers and fruits of Herbs and Trees do spring and grow from their Seeds and Roots Nor is such an Immediate production hindered but rather much helped by the external culture of means applyed both to the Seeds and Roots of the Earth and also to these unplanted and ungrafted notices and principles of natural knowledge and of this the aforesaid Seneca doth discourse very well lib. 4. de benef cap. 6. The seeds of all ages and of all arts are implanted in us saith he and God the inward or secret Master brings forth Engines or knowledges and cap. 7. thou will say nature doth these things unto me Dost thou not understand saith he when thou sayest this that thou changest the name of God for what else is nature but God and Divine reason infused into the whole World and all its parts and Tertullian discoursing of the innate witness in the Soul worthy of behalf some calling it natural the more natural saith he the more divine In his 34 parag Because R. B. did argue from the nature of the new Covenant that all the faithful under the Gospel were Immediately taught of God the adversary doth infer against him that then it doth follow that the faithful under the Old Covenant were not Immediately taught which is against his first assertion But this is easily answered in few words that all the faithful under the Old Covenant were Immediately taught of God yet not by virtue of the Old Covenant but of the New which New Covenant in some degree had place in the time of the Old and was to be further revealed in Gospel days after the coming of Christ in the flesh and I think strange that this Doctor or Teacher did not advert to this being so obvious a thing Again that he thinketh R. B. understandeth by the phrase of Scripture in those Gospel promises of God his putting his Spirit in his people and his words in their mouths as that Isaiah 59. that all using of means is excluded he is much described for R. B. doth not understand an exclusion of means but doth abundantly acknowledge a necessary use of them Only he doth plead that over and beside the outward testimony of the letter God hath promised to speak himself to the Soul which two things are not to be opposed but both are to be granted Again that he affirmeth God his putting words in the mouths of his people to design that the word is outwardly to be preached we grant it is but so that those words be put in the mouths of those speakers by God himself Immediately as he put words in the mouths of the Prophets and Apostles Immediately to preach unto others and outwardly to instruct them But if God put not his words in the mouth of any since the Apostles days certainly the Church ever since should be in a worse and more abject condition now under the Gospel then it was under the Law for in all ages under the Law God raised up some Prophets and Ministers to whom he spoke Immediately and in whose mouth he put his words Immediately to speak them forth And if nothing of this kind now be given to the Church instead of her being nearer unto God and more familiar and partaking more abundantly of the life and light of God and Christ she shall be further removed and more estranged from him and receive much less of these his Divine Gifts and blessings now under the Gospel then formerly under the Law Moreover as to what he writeth of the Scripture being a Canon so filled up as if nothing since the days of the Apostles to the end of the World either by Word or Writ it to proceed Immediately from the Spirit of God conform to the Doctrine of the Scripture already delivered and declared in Scripture he affirmeth this indeed very confidently but proveth it nothing at all and the authority of Iustine Martyr Ireneus and Tertullian doth contradict him who expresly writ that the gift of prophesying or speaking in the Church by Immediate Inspiration were continued unto their times In his 35 Parag. he saith the Christians are the more happy viz. then the Jews although the Christians want altogether Immediate Revelation which some of the Jews at last had because the Christians may know the mind of God out of the Scripture that is made publick and obvious unto all whereas the Jews were to take long Journeys from home to consult the Priests and to solicite and wait for the respouses of the High Priests which were rare to be obtained But what for a refuge and evasion is this instead of answering more becoming some Socinian or Pelagian then our Adversary who at other times doth so much profess the indwelling and inward Illumination of the Holy Spirit its being necessary to all the faithful But was it not a great glory and ornament to the Church of the Jews and which was greatly to the advantage of it to have their Prophets to whom God spoke immediately and were they not in this more happy than other Nations that the gift of Prophecy did flourish among them and when Devils and unclean Spirits gave forth their Oracles unto the Nations God most Holy and most Pure gave his Immediate Oracles unto the Jews and his Holy Spirit unto the Prophets that they might declare them and unto the People that they might believe and understand them without which holy Spirit its being given to the people the Oracles themselves could not be understood as is manifest in the Jews at this day who although they have these ancient Preachers to wit the Scriptures of the Old Testament yet they do not understand them
new and spiritual Life in it so is that which slayeth Antichrist whom as the Scripture saith Christ shall destroy or slay with the Breath of his mouth and the brightness of his coming I need not be at pains I hope to prove that the Breathing and In-breathing of the Holy Spirit which is to say his Inspiration is all one thing for all the breathing of the Spirit on men is within in the Hearts and inward parts of men and therefore is properly Inspiration And according to Solomons words in the Song it is the Breathing or Inspiration of the Holy Spirit which like the South-wind blowing upon the Garden maketh the spices thereof to send forth a sweet and fragrant smell The which Spices are nothing else but the Christian Graces wherewith God indueth his Church which he maketh as a Garden and which Graces are made to operate and send forth-their Divine Smell as the Spirit of God doth breath or inspire upon the Souls of those in whom these Sacred and Heavenly Spices grow and according to Elihu in Iob the Inspiration of the Almighty giveth understanding And thus in brief we see the great necessity of Divine Inspiration both to the Church in general and to all the Members of it in particular though not in respect of those Miraculous and extraordinary Gifts of Tongues and Healings of bodily Diseases yet in regard of more Noble and Divine Effects as the Souls Regeneration and quickning and both for the planting and nourishing the Divine Graces of Gods Holy Spirit in the Hearts of all true Believers And notwithstanding of all this as it seemeth the Author of this Sermon hath a marvellous prejudice and antipathy at the word Inspiration as not applicable to any sort of the Spirits Operation in our days For though he granteth the necessity of the Spirits Operations yet I no where can find that he owneth the Word or Term Inspiration in any respect as applicable to any Operation of the Spirit at present in any Believer And the same prejudice he seemeth to have against divers other Phrases and Terms all which are either expresly found in Scripture or fully agreeable to the sense of Scripture which yet he hath the confidence to call invented and uncouth Terms as the Spirit of Preaching and Prayer the In-comings Out-lettings and In-dwellings of the Spirit How like is his Discourse in this particular to the Socinians and Pelagians who deny the necessity of any Supernatural and Divine aid or Assistance of the holy Spirit to perform our acceptable Service and Obedience unto God He saith further That the Spirit of Preaching or Praying ought to signifie no more than the skill or habit of Preaching or Praying But if he mean only a natural and acquired habit he joyneth with the Socinians and contradicteth his own former Concessions wherein he did acknowledg the necessity of the saving Gifts of the Spirit and that these were Supernatural such as Faith Love Humility Now every one that Preacheth and Prayeth either acceptably unto God or profitably for himself or his Neighbours he must Preach and Pray with Faith and Love and Humility so that these and other Divine Graces must be exercised in his Preaching and Praying which require more than even a spiritual habit to wit a present actual assistance of the Divine Spirit otherwise a man who hath the habit of Preaching and Praying according to this Author needeth not any dependance upon any new assistance of the Spirit and so it is in vain for him to pray for the same which yet is contrary to the common practice of most Preachers But whereas the Author taxeth some for pretending to the Spirit of Preaching and Praying and make as if their extemporary Prayers were the effect of Ispiration I acknowledge they are worthy to be blamed when in the mean time these very persons deny all Inspiration or Preaching and Praying by it in our days and are as great Opposers to the Principle of Immediate Revelation and Inspiration as any men in the World And it is indeed a great Error to imagine that all extemporary Prayers are the Effect of Divine Inspiration for some are and some are not and they who pretend to pray extempore by the Spirit and as with the same breath deny the very Principle of Inspiration fall into a great inconsistency which yet very many do for which they are justly taxable But to return to the Author he confesseth That in the Primitive Church in the days of the Apostles many Preached and Prayed and did sing by Inspiration and being Enthusiastically moved or acted and that this did continue in the Church for some time And first as concerning singing and praising God by inspired Hymns and Psalms He saith pag. 14. For inspired persons did usually spend their Enthusiasm in composing of Hymns and spiritual Songs And again concerning Preaching and Praying he saith pag. 15. In the Apostles time there was a miraculous Gift of Praying as well as Preaching when the spirit used to seize upon the souls of men in Publick and affect them in such an extraordinary way as to make them Pray for such things and in such a due manner as in those times when as yet the Church had composed no Liturgies Persons not inspired could not do And here he citeth a Testimony out of Chrysostome Ep. ad Rom. cap. 8. hom 14. which I thought worthy to translate into English and here insert Moreover together with all these Gifts there was the Gift of Prayer the which was called the Spirit and he who was endued with it he did pray for the whole multitude for seeing we are ignorant of many things which are profitable to us and that we ask things that are no wise profitable the Gift of Prayers did come unto one of them who standing for all the rest did pray for what was usually convenient to the whole Church and also did teach others Therefore he viz. Paul Rom. 8. calleth the Spirit both such a Gift and also that Soul which did receive it and which did intercede with God and sigh For he who is favoured with such a Grace standing with great compunction or Contrition of mind and with many sighs being humbled in mind before God asketh the things which are profitable unto all of which now is a Symbol the Minister offering Prayers unto God for the people Therefore Paul feeling this said The Spirit himself intercedeth for us with groans unutterable To the same purpose speaks Theoph. and Oecumenius upon the place But now the thing which the Author of this Sermon should have proved is That this Gift of Preaching and Praying and Singing by Divine Inspiration was of the same sort and nature with the Miraculous and extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit and equally Miraculous and Extraordinary with them which he not having done nor so much as once essayed to do from any Scripture Authority he had as good done nothing at all And the words of Chrisostome cited by
the Author say it was the Preaching simply considered that had the saving efficacy in it without the Spirit so that the Spirits operation added nothing thereunto I suppose few will believe so gross an assertion for if so then the Minister of the Letter is as good as the Minister of the Spirit and he who hath only the words is as good a Preacher as he who hath the Spirit and Words both but how contrary is this to the mind of Paul who said I will know not the words of them who are puffed up but the power And our Gospel came not in words only but in power and in the Holy Ghost and he hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit for the Letter killeth by the Letter he doth understand the words which any preach without the Spirit but the Spirit giveth life And surely that which giveth life hath a sanctifying Vertue in it and is of a moral and holy nature And doth not sad experience prove it sufficiently that men who preach barely from the Letter of the Scripture have not success in their Ministry to the Conversion of Souls else why is it that so many having the name of Christians yet want the true nature of Christianity and come short of many Heathens and when God shall be pleased to pour out his Spirit more abundantly and to inspire men to be Preachers of his holy Mind and Will shall not Christianity more prevail in the World than now it doth is not the great want the want of the Spirit among the greatest part of those called Christians or rather indeed a want of a right belief concerning the necessity of the Spirits help and of the great bounty and Grace of God how willing he is to bestow plentifully of his Spirit upon men if they would not reject and resist it and with their prejudice against so excellent a Gift exclude themselves from the enjoyment of it And whereas the Author saith But thou canst cry Abba Father without Inspiration and thou mayest make Prayers Supplication and Intercession and giving of Thanks for all men without Inspiration which if thou hadst it would not make thy Prayers more excellent in themselves or more acceptable in the sight of God These are such gross assertions that as seemeth to me to have repeated them is Refutation enough to any spiritually minded man Were not Davids Prayers the more excellent that they were inspired Do not all Christians value and esteem of Davids Prayers and Psalms and the Prayers and Psalms of other Saints recorded in Scripture as being Divinely inspired Do they not favour of that sweet and precious Life and Spirit which inspired them Or have the made and conceived Prayers of others without all Divine Inspiration the same excellency and worth with Davids Inspired Prayers and Psalms This were to equal the Words and Writings of men no wise inspired with the Scriptures a Crime which our Adversaries but unjustly seek by consequence to fix upon us But the Author still supposeth that men may preach and pray by the help of the saving Graces of the Spirit without Inspiration which maketh him conclude from all which saith he it appears how much more excellent and desireable are the saving Graces of the Spirit than all these pompous miraculous Gifts in which there is no intrinsecal excellency But I say the Author still beggeth the great thing in Controversie viz. That there are any saving Graces of the Spirit without Inspiration which we altogether deny For we affirm that saving Faith Hope and Love and all other Evangelical Vertues are wrought in Believers by the Spirits Inspiration Nor can we reach the Authors subtilty to distinguish the inward saving operation of the Spirit from Inspiration as if they were distinct things For suppose all sorts of Inspirations be not saving or necessary to Salvation it doth not follow that none are necessary in that respect and although all Inspirations be not saving Graces yet all saving Graces are Inspirations even as though all animals be not men yet all men are animals Or let the Author if he can clearly distinguish betwixt these two and prove them to be so distinct from some better authority than his bare affirmation viz. That no saving Grace is any Divine Inspiration but of a differing nature therefrom the which if it were true then none of all the Saints had any saving Graces inspired into them in any age of the World which I judge is contrary to the belief of most Christians who generally believe that the Prophets at least had the saving Graces of the Spirit inspired into them To conclude this Authors whole Discourse tendeth only at most to prove if all his Premisses were granted That the miraculous Gifts of the Spirit are not necessary to Salvation and consequently are not of a necessary continuance in the Church which we do not affirm and I know not any who do so affirm so that the Author had better saved his Labour than spend his Breath and his Time to prove an assertion which I know not any that doth call it in question for who is it that saith he hath the Gift of Tongues or other miraculous Gifts of that sort I know not any Or who pleadeth for the absolute necessity of them But as we do not plead for such Gifts so we cannot be so peremptory to conclude that all these miraculous Gifts have universally ceased or expired since the primitive times or that none of them at any time hereafter shall again appear And I judge divers of his Premisses on which he buildeth his Conclusion of the Universal Expiration of those miraculous Gifts are defective and none of them sufficient to demonstrate his assertion it would require too much time and Paper to examine every thing he saith but something I cannot well let pass His first and main Reason he taketh from the Infancy of the Church which required these miraculous Gifts during her Infant-state and to this he applyeth these two following Scriptures Eph. 4. from v. 8. to v. 14. and 1 Cor. 13. from v. 8. to the end But surely these two Scriptures seem to me to be very impertinently brought to confirm his assertion and his Application of them I believe is contrary to the mind of most Teachers And first that he supposeth all these Gifts which God gave to the Church at Christs Ascension to have been the miraculous and extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit and not one of them the ordinary and saving Gifts of the Spirit But why are not the saving Gifts of the Spirit common to all true Christians as really the fruit and effect of Christs Death Resurrection and Ascension as those miraculous and extraordinary Surely this is a very unnatural separation and seemeth very injurious unto the purchase of Christ as if all the saving Graces of the Spirit were excluded from being any of these Gifts which Christ hath purchased to
DIVINE Immediate Revelation AND INSPIRATION Continued in the True CHURCH Second Part. In Two TREATISES The First being an Answer to Io. W. Bajer Doctor and Professor of Divinity so called at Iena in Germany Published first in Latine and now in English The Second being an Answer to George Hicks stiled Doctor of Divinity his Sermon Preached at Oxford 1681. and Printed with the Title of The Spirit of Enthusiasm Exorcised where this pretended Exorcist is Detected Together with some Testimonies of Truth Collected out of diverse Ancient Writers and Fathers so called By G. K. The Second EDITION London Printed in the Year 1685. A PREFACE To the Friendly and Well-wishing READER THE thing which I principally treat of in this my Answer to John W. Bajer c. is of Divine Immediate Revelation and Inspiration its continuance in the Church of God in all Ages and of the good Consistency and Harmony of it with the frequent and diligent use of the Holy Scriptures and all other true means The which is a Theme or Subject very necessary and profitable to be handled And therefore I have somewhat more largely treated of many things belonging to my intended purpose than a particular Answer to the foresaid Writer did require regarding herein a more general profiting of the people into whose hands by Divine Providence this Treatise may come Although nothing I hope is omitted which shall seem needful to a particular Answer But the common Advantage and Benefit of many to whom I might be serviceable by this kind of Writing was more before myeyes than a striek Method of answering to every particular For to overcome an Adversary in particulars doth little contribute to the Victory or gaining the Cause that is in Controversie if at any time he be overcome it will be said that he hath badly defended his Cause and nevertheless of his fall or overthrow the Cause is still judged to stand and remain untouched I have therefore more regarded the Cause or thing in Controversie than the Adversary And therein by the Grace of God assisting me I have laboured to show and demonstrate the good and excellent consistency and Harmony of Divine Immediate Revelation and Inspiration with the frequent and diligent use of the Holy Scriptures and of all other true means For I did observe that this was the greatest and almost the only prejudice and impediment that did prevail in the minds of many against Divine inward and Immediate Revelation and Inspiration that this principle being once granted and believed the use of the holy Scripture and other means shall be abandoned and laid aside and so by this stratagem or device the people under the pretence of Spiritual Illumination and Revelation shall be led into gross and extream ignorance This is that therefore for which I chiefly labour in this Treatise that I may remove and lay aside and quite take off that great prejudice of mind that is in many people and that both Divine Immediate Revelation and Inspiration may be established and the frequent and diligent use of the Holy Scripture whether in Reading or Hearing or Preaching or Meditating or Praying or Thangksiving and of all other true means truly appointed of God may be Confirmed And indeed true Divine Immediate Revelation and Inspiration of the Holy Spirit is so far from making void or rendring useless and unprofitable the use and exercise of the Holy Scriptures or of any other true means that on the contrary it is the only thing that makes the use of them effectual and profitable For why is it that so much Reading Preaching Hearing Praying c. in the use and exercise of the Holy Scripture is so altogether unprofitable unto the greatest part of men but because they have departed from that Divine and Holy Spirit of God that where it is received doth inwardly and immediately Inlighten and Inspire them and have rejected it as unnecessary and unprofitable And hence it is that such gross ignorance of God and Divine things even in the daily use and exercise of the Holy Scriptures doth almost every where reign and prevail among those called Christians But on the other hand they who imbrace this principle of Divine Inspiration and inward Immediate Revelation with true and sincere faith and according unto their faith duly and carefully attend and watch unto or wait for the Holy Spirit to inlighten and inspire them and sincerely do study in all things chastly and purely to obey his holy Precepts and Admonitions and Divine Motions they do abundantly witness the said Holy Spirit to open and inlighten their understanding to understand the Holy Scriptures when they hear them or read them or meditate upon them and exercise their reason or rational faculties in a sober and moderate way under a due subjection to the Spirit of God in these or any other profitable things and also they feel and perceive their hearts and affections led and drawn by the Holy Spirit yea kindled and inflamed thereby to love the Testimonies and Oracles of the Holy Scriptures and to value or esteem them above all the Riches Delights and Honours of the World whereby it comes to pass that in reading or hearing them and meditating on them when they are not reading nor hearing they find great delight and profit themselves very much in the frequent and diligent use of the Scripture the Holy Spirit leading them unto the same and inlightning them in order to the increasing and promoting holiness of life Now many fall into dangerous and damnable extreams some on the right and some on the left hand On this hand these fall who seem to imbrace the letter of the Scripture but reject and cast off the Spirit of God which only and alone maketh it effectual and profitable and on this side most of these called Christians at present do miserably transgress and deceive themselves and are miserably deceived by their blind Teachers and Guides who depreciate and cry down this most holy and most profitable gift of the Divine Spirit and Light and labour to render it among the People as a vile and hurtful thing But wo wo to these blind Guides and Teachers whosoever in the day of the Lord unless they timely and seriously repent And on the other hand too many although fewer in number then the former under a pretence of following the Spirit inwardly do either altogether or at least too much neglect and lay aside and cast off the use and exercise of the Holy Scriptures and of other good and true means appointed them of God And this neglect doth not at all proceed from the Holy Spirit as if that could or did in the least move them unto the same but cometh from their ignorance and want of knowledge and also from loftiness of mind and Spiritual Pride of all which they must also repent that they may be saved and come to walk in the way of Salvation but they who under the specious pretext of the Spirit
neglect and lay aside the reading of the Holy Scripture and Meditation thereon and the use and exercise of other good means as Preachings or Declarations of Truth in the Assemblies of the Faithful through Holy Men who speak by the Holy Ghost and also prayers and supplications and giving of thanks unto God both in publick and private or the Pious and Christian Admonitions Exhortations and Reprehensions of their Brethren and Elders where they are needful how much sover they make a pretext of the Spirit yet they live not in the Holy Spirit of God and they may pretend to have a name to live with those of the Church of Sardis but they are very dead carnal rude and ignorant whereas the humble meek and faithful Servants of God in the first place they imbrace love and receive with great respect the Holy Spirit of God and watch and attend unto the same and then duely and chastly they regard the Holy Scriptures as the Instruments means organs and vessels of the Holy Spirit as the same useth them and appeareth in them and so frequently and daily make use of them and of all other means ordained and appointed of God and in their so doing find their great profiting to the praise of God and to the increasing in them Divine knowledge and vertue for they do well know and consider that it is a peculiar work and office of the Holy Spirit to expound the Holy Scriptures unto them explain and unfold their mysteries prophecies and hidden things and reveal their deep sence and that sometimes by the means of others preaching unto them and at other times by silent and solitary meditation within themselves which doth not hinder the immediate operation and communication of the Holy Spirit but is altogether made effectual thereby as is showed at large in this following treatise And how can they reject the Holy Scriptures or their use to read and hear them and meditate upon them who believe that the Holy Spirit is given them for that very cause that he may expound unfold and reveal the Scriptures unto them the Holy Scripture therefore is not to be rejected nor laid aside by any however so much inlightned and replenished with the Holy Spirit but greatly to be esteemed and improved according to their great worth The Apostle Paul exhorted Timothy who had that excellent gift of the Holy Spirit to read the Holy Scripture and praised him that from his Childhood he had known them and been exercised in them his faithful parents to wit his Mother and Grandmother procuring and moving him unto the same also the Apostles did exercise themselves in reading the Scriptures of the Prophets and did bring many excellent places out of them as the Holy Spirit taught them and opened them in their Preaching Christ and his Gospel and Faith to convince the unbelieving and in their Epistles unto the faithful they did frequently cite the Scriptures of the Prophets and did also meditate in them for the nourishing their hope and consolation as Paul hath expresly affirmed Whatever said he is written for our cause it was written whereby he includeth both himself and all the Apostles as well as other Saints that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures may have hope and if they be writ for the Saints as well as for others therefore they are to be read and heard and meditated upon by the Saints as well as others by Men and Women Old and Young and by young Children also that as it were with their Mothers Milk they may draw and suck in the most wholesome precepts institutions and examples of the Scripture and the most profitable Histories thereof for the begetting and forming them unto a good life by the assistance of the grace of the Holy Spirit which shall not be wanting to them who sincerely wish and desire it for all Scripture Divinely inspired and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness that the Man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto every good work 2 Tim. 3.16.17 Daniel who was a great Prophet of God understood some things out of books and especially out of Jeremiah his Prophecy as he himself did testifie John saith the things he did write concerning Christ were writ unto men that they might believe and by believing may attain everlasting life John 20.31 and therefore the Scriptures are given also in order to work or beget faith into Christ in mens hearts to wit as a means or instrument thereof in the hand of the Spirit and finally Paul saith that the mistery to wit of the Gospel of Christ which was kept secret since the World began but now is made manifest is by the Scriptures of the Prophets according to the Commandment of the everlasting God to be made known to all Nations for the obedience of faith Rom. 16.25 26. And although neither in the age of the Apostles nor unto this day the outward Testimony of the Scripture in the declaration of the Gospel is come to all and every one of Mankind yet it shall most certainly come into all before the end of the World and the Gospel as Christ hath declared shall be preached to all Nations both inwardly and outwardly for a Testimony to the Salvation of them that believe and to the greater condemnation of these who believe not And surely the time is near wherein God is to visit all Nations with his Spirit Light Life and Grace in a larger measure than in many ages by-gone and by the virtue and efficacy of his Spirit he will sanctify and bless unto the people the outward testimony of the Scriptures that with spiritual fruit and encrease they may read them and hear them and meditate upon them diligently and this my testimony as concerning the worth and use of the Scriptures and of all other true means appointed of God the Holy Spirit assisting I desired to have published ERRATA PAge 18. line 4. read tast p. 20. l. 27. r. airy p. 29. l. 24. r. where p. 41. l. 26. r. is Christ p. 75. l. 10 11 r. Books which they contain in so many words p. 78. l. 10. f. primitive r. intimate p. 78. l. 28. r. implanted and ingrafted p. 79. l. 9. r. worthy of belief p. 81. l. 17. r. at least p. 82. l. 14. r. antient writings p. 84. l. 29. r. refuted The Second Treatise Page 89. l. 16. r. was induced p. 93. l. 8. r. restricted p. 95. l. 23. f. acknowledge r. actually l. 24. r. absent p. 97. l. 6. r. to the Holy Ghost p. 98. l. 1. r. assentiendi p. 104. l. 9 13 18 r. Students l. 12. r. them p. 105. l. 2. r. pretend p. 109. l. 25. r. doth only conclude p. 110. l. 10. r. inspired l. 21. r. supposed p. 114. l. 13. r. inspiration p. 138. l. 19. r. Revelations p. 139. l. 4. r. within p. 145. l. 6. r. at most l. 26. r. partly p. 160. l. 24. r.
God in whom we live and move and have our being is most present in all his Creatures in Heaven and Earth and below the Earth and that he doth impart unto them all his Immediate concurrence and influence according to the exigence of every one of them In the Mineral and Metallin region he works immediatly with the minerals and mettals in the vetegable with the herbs flowers and trees and in the Animal he works immediatly with all the living Creatures to feed and nourish them Also he feedeth and nourisheth man not with Bread alone but with every word that cometh out of his Mouth And if this be true in respect of the natural and animal life how exceedingly true is it in respect of the Spiritual and supernatual which after a peculiar manner is called in Scripture the life I do not therefore understand how our adversary can reject this term Immediate from the inward divine Illumination or light of God that operates in the hearts of the faithful But parhaps he will say he doth not reject the term Immediate as the said Immediate concurse and influence of God is joyned with the means having an excellent consistency harmony and concord with them but that he denyeth such an immediate concourse of God as excludeth all means and the use and necessity of them in regard of the common and ordinary way of Gods working or at least doth not require them as necessary Now if this be the mind of our adversary he ought to have explained it in his dissertation and not to have rejected the term Immediate without all distinction and limitation But I answer moreover that we are so far from rejecting any true Means in order to the attaining the true and saving knowledge of God that we most gladly receive all means both inward and outward and both the book of the Scripture and the book of the Creatures as blessings and gifts of God We do also acknowledge that in respect of the more special Heads and Doctrines of the Christian Religion the Scripture is necessary both by necessity of precept and also of means and in what cases the Scriptures are not absolutely necessary yet they are very profitable unto all even unto the most spiritual and perfect And therefore the use of the Holy Scripture is not to be rejected or laid aside by none so long as this Mortal life endureth and this upon the matter R. B. hath sufficiently granted and that it may be the better known in what special Doctrines of the Christian Religion we hold the use of the Scripture to be necessary unto us we grant first that the whole History of the Creation and of all the ages from Adam unto Christ and of all the great works of God in building preserving nourishing and encreasing his Church in all those ages unto Christ and unto the end of the age of the Apostles is made known unto us by benefit of the Scripture of the Old and New Testament the inward divine Revelation and Illumination of the Holy Spirit working together with the Scripture and begetting in our minds and hearts the saving knowledge and faith of all these things Secondly all these most excellent Prophecies both and that especially concerning Christ his coming in the Flesh and his Spiritual Kingdom in the hearts of the faithful and also concerning many other things very necessary to be known and believed are made known unto us by the help of the Scripture the foresaid inward divine Revelation and Illumination of the Holy Spirit working with the Scripture and begetting in us the saving knowledge and belief of those things and here the holy Spirit is the principal cause and the Scripture a means and instrument Thirdly the knowledge of those most excellent examples of the vertues and vertuous and holy living of the Saints that greatly conduce by the working of the Holy Spirit to frame and fashion us after the same Manner and to ingraft and implant in us the same divine vertues and graces Fourthly the knowledge of many mysteries as of Christ his being both God and Man his being born in the Flesh of a Virgin his being crucified and becoming a Propitiatory sacrifice for our sins his Resurrection Ascension and Glorification and pouring out of his Spirit and the fulfilling of all these things many ages ago as they were foretold also the Mysterys of Election Vocation Justification and of the Regeneration of the Saints and of their spiritual ingrafting into Christ through the same and the Mystery of the Resurrection of the Body and its Glorification at the last day with many other secrets and hidden things of the Christian Religion Fifthly the knowledge of diverse Gospel precepts leading and carrying on the true travellers into a Gospel and Spiritual Life until he arrive at a perfect Man Sixthly the knowledge of diverse Gospel promises wherby we become partakers not only of the divine life and nature in this World but shall injoy most abundantly everlasting Happiness and felicity in the World to come I say the knowledge of all these things and of many more which to recite all one by one were too long is conveyed unto us by the Scriptures Testimony as we are exercised in reading and hearing and meditating on them the foresaid inward divine Revelation and Inspiration working as is said together with the Scriptures which can only beget in us the saving knowledge and belief of all these things It may now be asked what remaineth to be revealed by the Holy Spirit inwardly inspiring and Illuminating us the Scriptures not concurring so much as means and instruments at least immediatly and formally in the very act of knowledge as touching the things revealed I answer The experimental and sensible knowledge of God that is no ways obvious to the outward senses but to the inward and spiritual whereby God himself in Christ and Christ himself in his Life Light Vertue and Spirit is most inwardly felt seen and heard and a most sweet tast of him is received above all that the natural man can conceive of him and this is that most inward Magisterie or teaching of the inward Master of which Augustin makes mention lib. 14. de Trinit cap. 15. And it is that also of which the Apostle Paul said Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor hath it entred into Mans heart to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them who love him but God saith he hath revealed them to us by his Spirit This is that hidden Manna and white-stone which no Man knoweth save he who hath it And for the more full and clear understanding of this thing let the Reader take notice that there is a twofold knowledge of things whether natural and visible or of spiritual divine and invisible There is one knowledge of things which is not received by the things themselves but by the signs of them and such a knowledge is abstractive remote and mediate and therefore is very obscure another knowledge
of the connexion and union of the powers of the Soul we are brought into the divine vision for the things which we read and hear in the Scripture the Holy Spirit cooperating excite our attention attention exciteth memory memory exciteth the imagination viz. not the vain every imagination but that which is a natural faculty of the Soul given it of God the imagination exciteth the reason or reasonable and discursive facultie and reason exciteth in us the love and desire of seeing and lastly this love and desire exciteth vision it self or the intuitive faculty and power of the Soul whereby God himself that most desireable good and most delightful object is seen as he is pleased to reveal himself and not otherwise and enjoyed yea and as it were with both the arms of the Soul is held and embraced for some space of time but this intuitive power of the Soul whereby God is seen is blinded and shut up in all unregenerated and unsanctified men And thus the Soul is led as it were through those six daies or steps of labour of its inferiour powers in reading hearing and meditating on the Scriptures and practising what it reads of the practical part in the leadings and enablings of God's Holy Spirit until it cometh unto the sweet Sabbath and rest of the divine fruition And this is that state of which Augustine seemeth to speak lib. 1. de Doctrina Christiana cap. 39. saying A man that is endued with Faith Hope and Love and holdeth them firmly needeth not the Scriptures but to instruct others that is as I understand in respect of that supreme power of his Soul whereby he reacheth unto God and apprehendeth him with Faith Hope and Love far beyond and above all manner or measure of words he needeth not the Scriptures although he needeth them in regard of his inferiour powers as well for his own instruction as for the instruction of others And in his first Book de consensu Evangelistarum cap. 5. discoursing of the active and contemplative vertue he saith thus In this mortal life that to wit the active vertue is in the work of a good Conversation but this to wit the Contemplative is more in Faith and with some darkly as in a Glass and in part in some vision of the unchangeable truth These two vertues are figuratively understood in Jacob 's two Wives for Lea signifieth labouring and Rachel signifieth the beginning of Vision Thus Augustine than which what can be more clear as belonging to the present question And Luther also as appeareth out of a Book published in High-Dutch Anno 1618. called the Harmony or Concord did assert Such an inward Illumination and Inspiration immediate of God which did teach the faithful above all Books and outward hearing by vertue of which they needed not the Books of the Scripture but to prove unto others that it is so written And he said That a man so taught and inlightned of God was above all Law to wit outward in a Sermon of his on Pentecost And in the same Sermon he describeth the second Law not to be of the Letter but of the Spirit not pronounced with the mouth nor writ with Pen and Ink but to be the holy Spirit Himself or at least his work which he worketh in the heart And in a Sermon of his upon the Magnificat he saith No man can know God or his Word aright who doth not receive it immediately from the holy Spirit Note here that the term Immediate is used by Luther Again on the fourth Psalm he saith Faith is well called the light of God's countenance because it is an Illumination divinely inspired into our mind and a certain Ray of the Divinity infused into the heart of the Believer whereby every one who is saved is directed and saved Again in his Postill dom 8. Serm. 2. speaking of Faith as aforesaid he saith the Preached Word is to be ruled by Faith and not Faith by the Preached Word And after All Doctrines are to be grounded on Faith to wit that Divine Illumination inspired into the Mind for Faith is the Touchstone Measuring Line Rule and Ballance wherewith all Doctrines are to be weighed proved and judged And on the 11 th Psalm The words of the Lord are pure words he saith The Prophet David here doth not speak of the Scripture but specially of the Word of God and they are then the words or speeches of the Lord when he speaketh them in us as he did in the Apostles And in his Sermon on Pentecost he saith It is necessary that God speak to thee in thy heart and that is Gods Word otherwise the Word of God remaineth unspoken What can be more clearly said for immediate Inspirations and Illuminations or who can be a greater Enthusiast than Luther according to the aforesaid words I know indeed that Luther spoke and writ many things against false Enthusiasts who did vaunt and boast of their Revelations and Inspirations that were false and contrary to Scripture which yet doth not hinder but that Luther might be a true Enthusiast even as he may be a true Christian who Writeth against false or Christians falsely so called CHAP. III IN his Fifth Paragraph he findeth fault with R. B. his words for saying where outward means are wanting God himself infinitely good and merciful is present to supply their defect as to the salvation of Souls and that Gods immediate help is present unto all and that God doth prevent the use of means by the inward and immediate motions influences and illuminations of his Spirit This is that saith our Adversary in which we dissent from him To whom I answer If in this ye dissent from him ye also dissent from your Ancestor Luther on the same Question For he in his Commentary upon the Epistle to the Galatians cap. 3. Enquiring of Infants and dumb persons how they believe doth answer with Ierome that nothing is deaf unto the Word of God nor void of hearing which speaketh not unto the outward ears but these of which it is said He who hath ears to hear let him hear Again that the Adversary denyeth that God doth prevent or go before the use of means by his inward illumination and operation he dissenteth from Augustine as well as from Scripture lib. 4. de consensu Evangelist where he thus expoundeth the words of Christ Matth. 26.32 I will go before you into Galilee This saying is to be taken saith he prophetically For Galilee signifieth either Transmigration or Revelation According then to its first signification of Transmigration what other thing doth occur to be understood than this that the Grace of Christ was to pass over from the People of Israel into the Gentiles to whom the Apostles when they should Preach if the Lord had not prepared the way in their hearts they would not have believed the Gospel Preached by them and this should be understood by these words He shall go before you into Galilee But according
to obtain their Revelations Or did God use no means when he did communicate unto them those Revelations and Inspirations Did he not always use their Souls and Minds at least as means and instruments when he did inspire them as he did use their Tongues and Lips to speak forth and their Hands to bring forth in writing their Prophecies Vissons and Revelations For that the Souls and Minds of the Prophets and their Intellectual Faculties or Powers were not altogether passive and suppose they had been passive altogether yet they might be accounted passive means but were partly active is clearly enough manifest from the diversity of style and phrase of speaking and writing that doth occur both in the Prophets and Apostles For Isaias doth after another manner of style express his Visions and Revelations than Amos And among the Apostles Paul and Matthew and Iohn do differ in their style and manner of expression The which diversity of style and manner of speech did proceed from the different qualifications and endowments of their minds for as the spirit of God findeth any man furnished or endued with gifts whether natural or acquired so he worketh upon him accordingly sanctifying those gifts and making use of them as means in his work and service Again that the Souls and Minds of the Prophets might be rendred apt and fit to be used by God as his instruments and means both to receive and convey the Revelations of his Will how many and how great preparations and purifications did they require all which might be called means Yea with what watchings fastings prayers and wrestlings against all inward impurities and evil and unclean suggestions and temptations of the Devil did they labour both day and night How soberly how holily how chastly how purely how obediently behoved they to walk and have their conversation in all Gods commandments both in respect of the inward and outward Man that they might be approved Ministers and Prophets of God And therefore never any Prophet of God who was true and faithful whom God inspired immediately but used divers sorts of means And did not some of the Prophets under the Law make use of Minstrels as means to fit or dispose them to prophecy in that legal and shadowy dispensation And David at sundry times when he considered the Heavens and the Stars and other excellent works of God did fall into most excellent and noble Visions and Prophesies as may be seen Psal. 8.104 107 c. And therefore the right and lawful use of means whether of Scripture in reading or hearing preaching or praying meditating or waiting singing or thanksgiving or any other appointed of God doth not in the least hinder that the illumination and revelation of God in the hearts and souls of his people be immediate and properly so to be accounted For the Sun shineth as immediately while the Husbandman doth labour in his Field using many sorts of means as when he doth nothing and oft-times the Divine Sun of Righteousness which is in Christ doth as immediately shine in the hearts of the faithful and inspire and inlighten them when they are exercised according to the Will and moving of God in the use of means as reading hearing meditating and the like as when they are not so employed but only silently waiting upon God which also may be called a mean CHAP. V. WHat doth now remain of Controversie or Debate betwixt our Adversary and us in the matter of inward and Immediate Revelation and Inspiration Perhaps he will say in this That we affirm that God doth in many things inlighten and inspire us without making use of the Scripture Means But he pleadeth that none of the Faithful is inlightened or inspired in any particular without the concurrence of Scripture To this I answer First the Controversie of Immediate Revelation is more large and general than to be restricted to that without Scripture For it is one question whether Divine Revelation be received without all means and another question whether without the means of Scripture But secondly If it were granted which yet I do not grant that no man hath any inward illumination or Inspiration or Revelation in our days without the conveyance and concurrence of Scripture used either in reading and hearing or meditation all this should not hinder the said Illumination or Inspiration to be immediate because the Scripture in that case is a continued mean or medium most closely and nearly conjoyned with that Illumination as doth sufficiently appear from what is above said Moreover it may be affirmed that as to those who from their Infancy and Childhood or from their first Conversion have been instructed and exercised in reading and hearing the Scriptures and meditating upon them that they have been a remote means at least and continue so to be in respect of their knowledge of Divine Things to wit by disposing and fitting or preparing their Minds and Hearts through the secret operation of the Holy Spirit unto true Piety Purity and Holiness and to the begetting those Divine Vertues in them whereby at length the Soul and Mind may be raised up to behold Divine Things and God and Christ himself far beyond and above the reach and measure of words which as is already said are not the Divine Things themselves but the signs and shadows as it were of them and so to see God in Christ without these veils and coverings of words We do therefore greatly esteem and value the use of the holy Scripture when it is joyned with the inward operation and illumination of God but if the use of the Scripture be separate from the said inward illumination and operation as it happeneth most frequently among the most of these called Christians it doth nothing profit but is only a killing Letter And seeing the Adversary doth acknowledge that the Gentiles know many things of God and some things that are Divine by General Revelation and these inward notices of Truth planted in them by God without Scripture whereby that which may be known of God is manifest in them therefore many things are also revealed unto Christians of God and Divine Things by General Revelation For the said General Revelation is as large or indeed more large and full in true Christians who have the Scriptures as in those Gentiles which have them not because the General Revelation commune to us with the Gentiles by virtue of Special Revelation and the doctrine of the Scriptures is much improved and perfected in true Christians yet retaining its Nature of General Revelation Even as Natural Reason and other Natural Gifts of the Soul are much improved and perfected by the operation of the Holy Spirit and yet retain their Nature as such And if we except these Doctrines and Heads of General Religion common to us with the Gentiles which are revealed both to them and us without Scripture of all which notwithstanding the Scripture doth abundantly testifie all other Doctrines and Heads of the Christian
but mediately beside that such a distinction cannot be proved from scripture being altogether a mere invention and fiction of mans brain they who had the Spirit immediately did oftentimes obtain it by means of the preaching of others unto them And the gift of Prophecying or speaking immediately by the Spirit was continued in the Church in the times of Iustin Martyr and Tertullian as they themselves do testifie the which continuation of so excellent a gift was by means of preaching so long as the Preachers did preach purely by the Spirit and also did purely and chastly live and walk in the Spirit But when the Preachers left off or ceased to preach by the Spirit and to live in the Spirit and to put their own spirit in the room and place of the Spirit of God and of Christ that Spirit and gift of Prophesie the which is greatly to be lamented did cease in great part What the Adversary disputeth against R. B. in his following Paragraphs to the end of his dissertation and answereth to R. B. his solid and firm arguments taken from scripture doth altogether lean upon that false foundation sufficiently refuted by me to wit that because the faithful both under the new and old covenant received the Holy Spirit by means of outward Preaching ordinarily and commonly that therefore they were not immediately endued and inspired with the same the which consequence I have already over and over again showed to be most false although it were granted that all the faithful had always received the Spirit by means of outward Preaching or using of the scriptures the which I will never grant unto him And if I shall grant unto him that the faithful received the Spirit of Christ in some degree by means of the doctrine outwardly preached while as yet they were as children and Infants he can never prove from this that when they were more advanced into a spiritual and holy life and come unto the state of men that they did always receive the further measures and degrees of the Spirit by means of outward Preaching For it doth not follow that because at sometime they received the Spirit by means thereof that they always did so receive it in the fuller and larger measures and degrees thereof even as it doth not follow that because a Child or Infant needeth the ministry or means of a Nurse or Servant to feed it in that weak state that therefore it always needeth the help of that Nurse or Servant when it is come to a mans Age and growth I shall not therefore stay to answer to every thing of his Dissertation by giving still new answers seeing one answer doth suffice to them all and if I should still repeat that one Answer I should both lose my time and labour and also should weary the Reader and beget a loathing in him and therefore with this one Answer I reply unto all he hath objected against R. B. That he departeth from the state of the question and still beggeth the thing in controversie and so falleth into that error commonly called in the Schools Petitio principii i. e. a taking for granted the thing in controversie while he doth continually oppose and set at variance the immediate communication of the Holy Spirit and the means of outward Preaching and other the like helps which are not to be opposed but do well agree And it is so far otherwise that the Spirits immediate communication doth not only not hinder or make void the use of any means appointed of God as of Preaching Reading and Hearing the scriptures and meditating upon them that on the contrary it doth truly and solidly establish them sanctifie them and maketh them all effectual But that the Adversary doth continually bind up or tye the operation of the Holy Spirit to the outward letter of the Scripture either as read or heard or meditated upon is too rashly done in him and he hath not in all his Dissertation so much as once essayed to prove it And however his common and too credulous Hearers and Disciples in the School may easily receive his bare Affirmations without Proof yet they cannot find place with us nor with others we know better things and whose inward and spiritual eyes God out of his abundant Grace hath opened to discern the Truth But suppose which yet is not at all to be granted that the Illumination of the Holy Spirit is continually bound up or tyed to the outward Sign or Letter yet it doth not thence follow even upon that absurd principle that the Illumination of the Holy Spirit is not immediate or is not immediately perceived by us Even as if it were granted that the outward Illumination and Light of the outward and visible Sun is never seen by the eyes of men separated from all other visible objects but always joyned and united with them and always shining upon some one or other of the visible objects and reflecting its beams upon them though such who have Eagles eyes can look strait upon the Sun himself yet it will not from thence follow that the outward Illumination or Light of the outward Sun is not immediately received and seen or perceived by us CHAP. VIII ANd here I might well enough by right make an end of my Answering but because he doth affirm divers things in his other Paragraphs following which partly need correction and partly conduce to manifest the truth therefore I shall not be unwilling to take notice of them in a few particulars In his Twenty Second Paragraph he erreth in saying universally and without making any distinction that there is no substantial difference but only accidental and circumstantial betwixt mediate and immediate outward and inward Revelations according to the different kind of the signs under which God doth manifest himself For although this may be granted in those inward Revelations made in the Imagination yet not in these which have place in the highest faculty or power of the Soul which is the intuitive aforementioned For the Revelation which is given to this supreme or highest power of the soul that is intuitive and which is opened and awakened only in those who are sanctified and spiritually renewed doth not consist of signs but God himself and the Divine Things of his Kingdom in their own proper light and evidence discover themselves in the souls and hearts of the faithful without all signs And therefore however the outward Revelation may be called accidental because it doth but contain the signs which are accidents yet the inward Revelation which hath place in the Souls intuitive power and respecteth the Divine Things themselves without signs is to be called substantial In his Twenty Fourth Paragraph he hath these notable words When our men saith he affirm that at sometimes the outward Revelation is the formal object of the Saints Faith the meaning is not that the Faith of the Saints doth precisely lean or rely upon that which is outward in that Revelation or
Holy Spirit alone to the Heart and Soul of the Faithful I inquire if in this case the inward presentation of the object were not to be called an Immediate Revelation The which if he grant therefore I say it is now immediate when the outward object is adjoyned to it for that inward illumination and Revelation doth not change its Nature in the absence and presence of the outward object having all entirely in it self that belongs to an Immediate Revelation but remaineth the same whether it be joyned to the outward or separated therefrom Even as the soul of man whether joyned to the Body or separated therefrom yet it still retaineth its own Nature that it is the immediate Principle of its operations both in the Body and out of the Body And indeed by a certain Analogy as the Soul is to the Body so is the Spirit of God inwardly operating and illuminating to the outward testimony of the Letter And because the Soul doth many things by the means of the Body yet that doth not hinder but that it is the immediate principle of its operations But the Soul doth many things in respect of its most inward and intellectual operations without the means and help of the Body even when it is in the Body and therefore why may not that Divine Spirit as it doth many things in the Saints by means of the Letter of the scripture do or work some other things and not use the means of the Letter Yea how many things doth the Holy Spirit reveal and open in Men as belonging to the special and particular acts of Vertue and Vice that do far transcend and go beyond the straitness and narrow compass of words of which Seneca the Gentile and an Heathen so called doth Write well Lib. 2. De Ira. How narrow Innocency is that saith he to be good according to the Law He understandeth a Law writ or contained in words How much more doth the Rule of Duties extend than that of Law How many things doth Piety Humanity Liberality Iustice and Faithfulness require which are not in the publick Tables or Records to wit all written Laws Thus Seneca For as he who describeth some Kingdom as of Germany or England with Words or Mapps cannot describe it in as great largeness as it doth contain in it self but in much narrower bounds And although he describe all the Cities Towns and Villages of the said Kingdom yet he doth not describe all the houses of every City and Village or all the Fields and Orchards belonging to it much less all the Rooms and Chambers of each House or all the Acres and Roods of the Corn Fields or all the particular Ears of Corn that grow in those Fields or all the Trees and Fruits of these Orchards particularly one by one And even so they who describe the Kingdom of God which is within us to wit the Writers of the Holy Scripture they could not describe all the particulars contained in that Kingdom the which particulars are yet very necessary to be known unto the Saints and therefore the Holy Spirit revealeth unto them those particular things which are not contained in the Scripture And the same is to be understood of the Kingdom of Vices and of Satan that it containeth many more particular vices and sins than can be described by any words And as concerning the glory of Gods Kingdom in the Saints it may be well said in the words of the Queen of the South concerning Solomon's Glory that the same or report of the Glory was true but the half of it was not told the which cannot be told by any words And therefore the Scripture it self calleth the joy of the Lord in the Saints a joy unspeakable and that the Peace of God which is in them doth not only surpass all words but all to wit discursive understanding Moreover R. B. showeth in his Apology from pag. 39. to pag. 43. to which the Adversary hath answered nothing that there are many particular things very necessary to be known unto every one of the faithful which are no where revealed in the Scripture and are therefore immediately to be revealed unto them by the Spirit such as especially concerning the Souls inward state and those inward calls of God unto the soul to the discharging or performing of its particular services In his thirtieth parag he saith it is one thing that the Spirit is within a man and another thing that the said Spirit is given not mediately but Immediately by a meer inward operation without an outward mean surely saith he the habits of arts and sciences are within in the mind of man and yet for most the part they are given to men not Immediately but mediately or by means of the outward teaching of the Master and a few lines after he saith we not only grant but we earnestly plead for the indewlling of the Holy Spirit as altogether necessary to Christians That he doth acknowledge and plead for the indwelling and inbeing of the Holy Spirit to be altogether necessary to Christians it is well but that he doth absolutely deny the Immediate Operation and Revelation of the indwelling Spirit of God he doth badly for although that this inward teacher and Master doth frequently teach his Disciples by means of the Scripture shall he therefore teach them nothing by word of mouth or his own living voice Immediately shall he not expound open to them what they read in the Scriptures with his living voice or shall he sit and remain in them always as one dumb which God forbid that we should so imagine speaking or saying nothing nay not so much as one small sentence but what is in express words contained in the Scripture and borrowed from them surely such an assertion is too rash and without all ground from Scripture and is most unworthy of God immortal our most excellent Master and Pastor yea our Bridegroom and Husband to fain any such things of him which no Mortal or Earthly School-Master would do to his Disciples and if he did so all would judge him a Fool and unfit for such an affair if to wit he should say nothing unto them but what is contained in the Book which they became in so many words and which he takes out of the Book and should speak nothing to them Immediately by word of mouth What disciple would bear such a School-Master or rather would not turn him off and chuse another more friendly and familiar unto him or what woman would not take it very unkindly and unworthy if her Husband did not speak to her any one small sentence immediately and by word of mouth but did leave all that is to be said to letters or epistles writ by him of old or what servant would willing serve such a Master who being presently with him in the same house did not speak to him at any time not one word by word of mouth immediate whither he did well or ill please him Surely this
because they have departed and Apostatised from that Holy Spirit given of old unto their Fathers And therefore was it not also a great glory and honour to the ancient Christian Church to have in it the gift of prophecy or speaking by Immediate Inspiration and would it not be now a great glory and honour to the Church if that gift of prophecy which did anciently flourish in the Church for some Ages after the Apostles days should flourish and spring forth again was not this gift with many others lost by the apostacy of the professors of the Christian Religion and therefore when the apostacy goeth out and people doth return to the sincere worship and obedience of God shall not this excellent gift be restored together with many others Had not the ancient Christian Church after the Apostles days all the Books of Scripture of the Old and New Testament as well as we The Jews also had the Scriptures of the Old Testament which contained all the heads of Christian Doctrine in respect of the substance of Religion a people therefore having the Scripture but wanting the Spirit Immediately teaching leading and inspiring them which both the Jewish Church had and also the Christians after the Apostles days shall be more happy then both these because they want the said Holy Spirit Immediately inspiring teaching and leading them This is a wonderful paradox but most false for the Christians are not more happy than the Jews because out of the Scripture barely they could know the will of God for the Jews had the Scripture also containing all the heads of the Doctrine of their Religion clearly enough But for this cause true Christians are more happy than those Jews that whereas the Jews for all their having the Scripture did need to take long Journeys to consult the Priests to solicite wait for the respouses of the High Priests all true Christians because they partake more largely of the Holy Spirit they need not make these Journeys or travels to consult either Priests or High Priest because they have a most excellent Priest yea an High Priest more high then the Heavens or the Angels that dwell in them to wit Jesus Christ dwelling in their hearts who by his Spirit teacheth them all things and doth clearly and without all doubtfulness answer them iâ— all things needful to be known by them and who doth also clearly and infallibly expound the Scripture unto them And therefore true Christians have no need to run to these Jewish Priests and High Priests nor unto these Doctors so called and preachers at this day who do not so much as profess to have any thing of the Divine Inspiration and inward Revelation with which the Prophets and holy men of God were of old endued and do not pretend to have any infallible sense or understanding of the holy Scripture or to have received any infallible Judgment of its meaning And so true Christians may spare both their labour and their mony and not spend it nor give it away to such Doctors and Preachers but leaving them all behind as unprofitable let them go unto Jesus Christ the Lord the eternal Priest who liveth for ever by whom they shall be well and sufficiently taught and instructed and that freely without either labour or mony And lastly as to these notable testimonies of the ancients and reformers in Luther's times cited by R. B. in his Apology because the Adversary endeavoureth to elude or evade the form of them after the same manner as he doth the testimonies of the holy Scripture therefore he is the same way refused in both and the answers given in the one will serve in the other the which if I have effectually given I leave unto the â—qual and impartial Reader for to Judge THE Pretended EXORCIST DETECTED In a Brief REPLY TO A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE The University of Oxford by George Hicks stiled Doctor of Divinity in the Month called Iuly 11. 1680. the which Sermon is called The Spirit of Enthusiasm Exorcised CHAP. I. UPon my reading of this Authors Printed Sermon which is called the Spirit of Enthusiasm exorcised I find the said Author very unskilful and unacquainted with the true notion of Enthusiasm as it is owned and received among the People called in derision Quakers with all possible moderation And though he hath been pleased to cite my Book of Immediate â—evelation and R. B. his Apology and Theses yet I can hardly believe he hath been at any pains to read and consider throughly what is said by us on that Subject for had he but read and well considered what we have said or writ in that matter he would have â—â—â—â—e fairly and genuinely stated the controversy betwixt us and our opposers as to this particular In my answer to Io. Bajer the Lutheran Doctor in Iena so much is already said as less needs be added for a reply to what this Author hath brought against us As for the word or term Enthusiasm as I have already said in my answer to the Lutheran Doctor we do not plead for it or affect such a name or title for it being no Scripture phrase or expression we can and do very well declare our Faith in the thing we intend without it Yet we cannot altogether reject the term when thrust or cast upon us by opposers on purpose many times to render us odious because the Etimology of the word Enthusiasm according to the best and most approved Greek Lexicons signifieth Divine Inspiration And whereas it hath been used by heathenish writers to signifie the inspirations or inward suggestions of Daemons and evil Spirits yet this hath rather been an abuse and improper signification of the word then a true and genuine acceptation of it and notwithstanding of this abuse of the word among heathenish writers and Poets yet divers of the Fathers useâ— it in a good sense and as applicable to good and sincere Christians Yea this Author himself with respect to the Prophets and Apostles and others their successors for 3 or 4 hundreds of years owneth the term Enthusiasm and that in the Apostles times and downwards to the 4 or 5 Century there were some real and sincere Christians who had Enthusiasms and were enthusiastically acted and moved by the Spirit of God for thus he saith Pag. 12. Edit 3. of this sort of Enthusiastical confidence with which the Spirit filled the minds of men is that place to be understood Math. 21. vers 21. and Pag. 14. he saith prophecy may be taken as it is often in the Old and New Testament for praising of God by inspired Hymns and Psalms for inspired persons did usually spend their Enthusiasm in composing of Hymns and Spiritual Songs And Pag. 16. he saith the groanings wherewith some inspired persons prayed in the Apostles days according to Rom. 8. were the effect of those supernatural raptures and Enthusiasms with which the Spirit filled the souls of those inspired Orators so we see how this Author
owneth the words Enthusiasm Enthusiast and Enthusiastical as applicable to some Persons who were true and sincere Christians and divinely inspired And yet the Title of his Printed Sermon presumeth to Exorcise the Spirit of Enthusiasm without making any distinction as if the said Spirit were some Devil or unclean Spirit universally But if he say he meaneth not the Spirit of Enthusiasm as it was in the Primitive times but as it is now in the following ages since the true Divine Spririt of Enthusiasm did universally cease or expire To this I answer it is more than he hath proved or can prove that the true Spirit of divine Enthusiasm hath universally ceased among Christians and as for his reasons or proofs I hope with Gods assistance sufficiently to discover their weakness and invalidity and that he layeth a too weak and unsteddy foundation for so great and weighty superstructure But how this Author presumeth to Exorcise the Spirit of Enthusiasm without the least measure of the Spirit of Divine Enthusiasm I am at a loss to understand for if the Spirit of Enthusiasm be such a Devil as he supposeth it generally to be how can it be Exorcised or cast out but by a measure of the Divine Spirit of Enthusiasm for the Author will readily as I suppose acknowledge that all the Exorcists in the Apostles times who had power to Exorcise and cast out evil Spiritsâ— were Enthusiastically inspired so that by the Spirit of God and Christ inspiring them as being the stronger they did cast out evil Spirits who were the weaker But if the Author think that without some divine Enthusiasm or inspiration he can cast out or Exorcise any devil or unclean Spirit only by the strength of his parts or humane Spirit or barely naming the words of Scripture and of Jesus and Paul let him call to mind and consider what happened unto them who presumed to Exorcise a certain unclean Spirit with the names of Jesus and Paul without having that divine Spirit which was in Jesus and Paul To whom the Spirit answered Iesus we know and Paul we know but who are Ye and the Man in whom the evil Spirit was leapt on them and overcame them and prevailed against them so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded read Acts 19.13 14 15 16. I no where find in Scripture or any credible History that any ever had power to Exorcise the Devil or any unclean Spirit unless he was in indeed with the Spirit of God for the weaker must be overcome by the stronger but whither the Author thinketh himself by his meer natural parts and humane Spirit stronger then the Devil let him see to it Another thing he should greatly advert to lest he hath called the Operation of the Spirit of God and Christ in his Children the work of the Devil which to do is a great iniquity and yet is pardonable through repentance if not committed knowingly and willfully which I hope this Author hath not done therefore I can heartily pray unto God that he may be forgiven and his eyes may be opened to see and acknowledge the Truth But to pass from the name of word Enthusiasm for which being no Scripture word we shall not contend let us come to the thing it self to wit true divine inspiration Vision and Revelation and true divine inward teaching and leading and moving of the holy Spirit Immediately whither in some measure or degree it be not the common priviledge of all Gods people and of all sincere and true Christians I take notice of the Authors distinction pag. 4. of two sorts of spiritual gifts Common and Special By the common gifts of the Spirit he saith he meaneth all those that all Christians are bound to pray for and expect and that are given by God in common to all those who sincerely desire them and labour after them and that are necessary for the Salvation of the Soul and of this sort he saith are all the saving gifts and graces of the Spirit called in the Schools gratiae gratium facientes which the Spirit helps to work in mens hearts as Faith Hope Charity Purity Humility and all other gracious habits of the Mind which the Apostle calls the fruit of the Spirit and wherein the image of God the power of Godliness and the Spirit of Christianity truly do consist By special gifts he understandeth those which men are not ordinarily bound to expect and which unless it be in some few circumstances that seldom happen would be vanity and presumption to beg of God and which by consequence are not necessary for the Salvation of the Soul Of this sort he saith are all the Miraculous unctions of the Holy Ghost called by the Schoolmen gratiae gratis datae such as the gift of tongues power of working Miracles signs and wonders the Spirit of prophecy c. But these sorts of gifts saith he agree in this that they are supernatural and freely given by God to men This distinction brought by the Author I willingly own and acknowledge But the thing that remains for him to prove is that no sort of Immediate divine Revelation and Inspiration and Immediate divine teaching is any of those common and ordinary gifts given freely of God to all true and sincere Christians Now that the inspiration of the holy Spirit is one of these common gifts of the Spirit doth plainly appear from the Common Prayer of the Church of England according to this very difinition of a common saving gift of the Spirit given here by the Author to wit that it is such as all Christians are bound to pray for and expect but such is the inspiration of the Holy Spirit according to the Common Prayer of the Church of England for thus she prayeth in the Collect on the first Sunday after Easter Lord from whom all good things do come grant us thy humble Servants that by thy Holy Inspiration we may think those things that be good and by thy merciful guiding may perform the same through our Lord Iesus Christ Amen Again in the first prayer at the Communion immediately after our Father c. it saith Almighty God unto whom all hearts be open cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy holy Spirit that we may perfectly love thee and worthily magnifie thy name c. Again in the 4 Prayer which hath this Title for the whole state of Christs Church Militant here on Earth it saith thus beseeching thee to inspire continually the universal Church with the Spirit of Truth Vnity and Concord Thus we see how at three several times the Church of England prayeth for the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and if she pray for it she ought certainly to expect it and not believe it is ceased or expired which makes me think it the more strange that one of her own members and that a Doâ—tor also should deny this so excellent and precious a gift and condemn it as some Devil
or evil Spirit and undertake to Exorcise it before the face of the University of Oxford where Common Prayer is so frequently read and that without any distinction But possibly he may say he is not against divine inspiration as it is a common saving gift of the Spirit necessary to all the Church and every member of it but as it is some peculiar and extraordinary thing as the gift of tongues power of working Miracles signs and wonders the Spirit of prophecy c. To this I answer 1. He ought then in the first place to have told so much what sort or kind of Enthusiasm or divine inspiration for both these words are of one signification he was for and what sort he was against and not have promiscuously condemned Inspiration or Enthusiasm altogether in the Lump 2. The people called in derision Quakers do not plead for those extraordinary Enthusiasms or Inspirations which the Apostles and some others had in the primitive times as the gift of tongues the power of working Miracles c. and as the Spirit of Prophecy is restructed to signifie a peculiar gift of forfeiting future events we do not plead for its absolute necessity in the Church far less do we Judge it necessary to every true Christian And this I did sufficiently declare in my Book of Immediate Revelaion cited by the Author the which Book if he had taken a little pains to read and consider might have saved him the labour of saying so much against the Quakers without any just ground or provocation It is like that we and our Books are esteemed so meanly of by such as this Author as that they think it not worth their time or labour to read our Books But in case it be so that we are so mean in their eyes yet they ought not to judge or condemn us until they have good knowledge or information of what we hold which they are not likely to have without taking some time and pains to read or hear what we say for to condemn any principle we hold before they do well know it is as unjust as to condemn a man before he be heard CHAP. II. BUt there are other two or three things which I suppose this Author or some other may answer in the Case The first is that the Inspirations which the Church of England doth hold pray for and expect are subordinate to Scripture and do acknowledge the Scripture as superiour and more noble and that they are to be tryed by the Scripture as the greater and more principal rule and not the Scripture by them whereas some of the Quakers have writ and particularly R. B. in his Theses that this Spirit of Immediate Revelation is not to be tryed by the Scriptures and reason but that both of them are to be tryed by it for so doth the Author cite R. B. his Theses as so affirming pag. 38. To this I answer the Author doth manifestly wrong R. B. in his Citation for R. B. no where saith in his Theses or Apology that the Spirit or its Inspiration is not to be tryed by the Scripture or Reason simply Only he saith that those inward divine Revelations are not to be examined and tryed by the Scriptures as the more noble and certain rule Yea in the 3 Thesis R. B. doth plainly acknowledge that the Scriptures are and may be esteemed a secondary rule subordinate to the Spirit from whom they derive the excellency and certainty they have it is not therefore affirmed by R. B. as this Author upon his own mistake as seemeth doth alledge nor yet by any Quaker so called that I know of that the Scripture or right reason in no respect are a rule and may not be profitably and safely used as a rule whereby to try inward Divine Revelations as the Scripture or right reason is used or applyed for a rule by the help of the Spirit and in subordination unto the Spirit But the state of the question lyeth here whither the external testimony of the Scripture used and applyed as a rule without the Spirit as too many do be a more noble and greater rule and more certain or giving to the mind of man more assurance of truth than the inward Immediate Testimony of the Spirit of God in the soul or mind which as a ray of the Sun shineth with its own Light and hath a self evidencing power and vertue in it as every other true light hath This is one branch of the state of the question Another branch is this whither when both the Spirits inward testimony and the Scriptures outward testimony do acknowledge co-operate and concur to produce or work a persuasion or essent to some Gospel doctrine or principle of Christian Religion in the soul or heart of a true Believer I say whither in this case the inward testimony or witness of the Spirit is not the greater the stronger and more clear and certain as to us and the more effectual and as having the greatest stroak and share in the begetting or producing the said assent to truth or persuasion of it in the mind of man Now the pople called in derision Quakers are not ashamed but bold in the Lord to say that the Inward Testimony Operation and Revelation or Inspiration of the Spirit of God is the greater and hath the greatest stroak and efficiency in this work and that the holy Spirit is not the subordinate instrument or rule of the Scripture but the Scripture is the subordinate rule and instrument of the Spirit And this I prove first from the express words of the Apostle Iohn 1 Iohn 5.9 10. If we receive the witness of men the witness of God is greater for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son he that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself Now it is clear that Iohn by the witness of men doth mean the Scripture as being the witness of the holy Prophets and Apostles who were men and by the witness of God the inward witness of the Spirit which he who believeth hath in himself not as if the Scripture were not also the witness of God and a divine witness far above all bare humane Testimony but yet the Scripture being compared with the inward Immediate witness of Gods Spirit in the soul may be without any derogation called the witness of men to wit of the Prophets and Apostles who were holy men for what other men Iohn doth mean I do not understand but faithful and holy men who did bear a true record to Divine Truth as they had it inwardly revealed unto them And to this same effect the Apostle Paul declared that his Gospel came unto the Thessalonians not in words or speech or discourse only but in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much Assurance where he annexeth the much assurance to the Power and at the Holy Ghost and not simply nor principally to the words and elsewhere he said The
this is such an Inspiration as is commonly obtained in the use of the ordinary means of salvation as of reading the Scriptures hearing them preached expounded and opened also meditating upon them with frequent Prayer unto God to give the Understanding of them and his gracious Assistance rightly to use and improve them and so is not an immediate Inspiration or Revelation that cometh unto the Saints without the use of the means as it did come unto the Prophets and Apostles whereas the Inspirations and Revelations which the people called Quakers pretend unto are immediate and come as they say unto them immediately as unto the Prophets and Apostles of old without all use of the means But this I have so abundantly answered to the Lutherian Doctor in the aforesaid Treatise that little here needeth to be added where I have sufficiently shewed That though we own and plead for immediate Revelation and Inspiration of the Spirit yet this Revelation and Inspiration is ordinarily obtained by us and all true Christians in the diligent and frequent use of all the true means of Salvation appointed of God according to the direction of Gods Holy Spirit And we readily grant That reading and hearing the Scriptures also true and right Preaching and Prayer with Meditation are special means in the right use whereof the spirits Inspirations and Revelations are ordinarily obtained Nor doth this hinder the Inspirations of the spirit to be immediate because they are conveyed and given to true Christians in the use of these aforesaid means or any other not named as I have in the above named Treatise largely made apparent which I need not here repeat And it is a great mistake in them who think that the Inspirations and Revelations of the holy spirit which came unto the Prophets and Apostles were commonly obtained by them without all use of means the contrary whereof I have also clearly proved in the aforesaid Treatises And indeed this Author himself doth save me the Labor of further insisting upon the Proof of so clear an Assertion For in the last page of his Printed Sermon he saith Among the Jews themselves there were Schools of the Prophets in which as the Jewish Writers agree the Youth were trained by study and discipline for the reception of the Prophetical Spirit which according to Maimonides whom the Jews call the second Moses rarely came but upon persons so qualified and prepared Thus we see according to this Authors acknowledgment the Prophetical Inspirations which were immediate came ordinarily unto the Prophets being prepared and qualified by the use of means in study and discipline And thus indeed Christ prepared his Apostles before-hand for the more abundant reception of the holy spirit by his Preaching and Labouring among them during the time of his Ministry and Preaching before his Crucifixion which continued about three years and a half But whereas the Author addeth That he dare boldly say were it not for the two Schools of the Prophets in our Israel the Nation would soon be over-run with Ignorance c. I suppose the Author knoweth that the Schools of the Prophets whose Masters were divinely inspired and the Schools of Oxford and Cambridge are very unlike and have little in common but the name In the Schools of the Prophets by study and discipline and especially by vertuous and godly Education in a holy Life the minds of the Studients were prepared and qualified to receive the spirit of Prophecy and the divine Influences and Inspirations thereof and accordingly so did receive they which the Studients in your Universities are not like to receive while they are taught to believe that all such Prophetical Inspirations are expired and that the spirit of Enthusiasm or Inspiration where-ever it is now found is the Devil or some unclean spirit But surely the Studients in the Schools of the Prophets were of another belief A third thing which possibly this Author or some may alledge is That the Inspirations or Revelations which the People called Quakers own pretend to discover and introduce new Doctrines into the World and impose them on people as new Articles of Faith and as a new Rule of their Belief and Manners for so much the Authors words imply when he saith And lastly when with all this they to wit the Quakers shall Preach no other Doctrine than what the Apostle hath Preached and the Catholick Church received then we will believe if they be lawfully Baptized that it is the Spirit which is speaking in them But in Answer to this I say we pretent to no new Doctrine nor do we believe that any Doctrine not already delivered in the Scriptures and sufficiently Preached by the Prophets and Apostles is revealed to us by Divine Inspiration nor do we expect the Revelation of any new Doctrine or any other Articles of Faith or Precepts of holy life but what are already declared in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament only we say that we need the Inspiration of the holy Spirit to work in us a right Faith and Understanding of the Doctrines and Precepts declared in the Scriptures and to enable us rightly to use and apply them the which is according to the Common Prayer of the Church of England as is sufficiently made apparent from what is abovesaid What the Author saith of our being lawfully Baptized as one of the Conditions requisite to have us to be believed that we have the spirit of God I shall not insist upon seeing it tendeth to lead us into a new Controversie only this much in short by the way I query 1. Why may we not have the spirit supposed not Baptized with Water seeing Cornelius and his Friends received the spirit before they were Baptized with Water 2. Whether in the Primitive Church when many delayed their Baptism with Water till death or old Age they were deprived of the spirit all that time wherein they were not baptized with Water and whether all who have died without Water Baptism have died without the spirit and so without salvation 3. Whether many of us have not been as lawfully Baptized with water as the Author himself if that did or could contribute any thing to the receiving the spirit 4. Whether he can prove from Scripture That Infant-sprinkling with Water is the Lawful Baptism or ever was 5. Whether he can prove that Christ hath commissioned all or any of those who sprinkle Infants on the Forehead so to do or why some more than others why the Teachers of the Church of England more than Papists or Presbyterians But there are other two Conditions he requireth in order to our being believed that we have the spirit the one is That we work Miracles and together with the gift of Tongues have all other miraculous Gifts But surely this Condition is very unreasonable and unequal for by the same Law he would have excluded Iohn the Baptist who was a great Prophet and yet as it is said expresly of him he wrought no
his Church and the contrary doth plainly appear from the words themselves for they were such Gifts as were given to the Rebellious that God might duel among them as signifying the sanctifying and renewing Gifts of the spirit most especially Again they are such as were given for the work of the Ministry the perfecting of the Saints the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come in the Unity of the Faith and of the Knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. And whereas this Author will have that the Church was come to her full stature in the primitive times and that consequently there was no more need of any of those Gifts mentioned in that aforecited place being all miraculous it seemeth to me wonderfully strained this his assertion And to be sure is far from the mind of many of his Brethren who from this very place of Scripture use to argue That there will be a Ministry and Office of Teachers in the Church till the Worlds end because however so perfect the Church was in those days by reason of new Converts and others in the present succeeding Ages who were to be converted Ministers and Teachers are still necessary for granting that some are come to the full stature yet many more are not so far advanced and so long as the World stands there will be Children as well as young men and Fathers in the Church But it is strange that he thinketh not only the Apostles Prophets and Evangelists but also Pastors and Teachers or Doctors to have ceased or expired with these miraculous Gifts Whence then have these who are now called Pastors and Doctors their Gifts and Authority it seemeth verily unto me that the Author hath here far out-reached and done a great disservice to his Brethren instead of thinking to do them a great service and how the University of Oxford can let this pass without a censure I do not well understand And whereas he saith From whence it is evident viz. from the afore-cited place Eph. 4.8 9 10 c. that as the Gospel increased and the Church grew up God like a wise Nurse weaned her by degrees from these miraculous Gifts till at last having arrived at her full stature in Christ he left her as Parents leave their Children when they are grown to be men to subsist without extraordinary helps and supplies But hath God left her without Pastors and Teachers and all the Gifts of Christs purchase when he ascended or are Pastors and Teachers these extraordinary helps how much better were it to say that the Gifts here mentioned are some extraordinary and miraculous and some ordinary and however that the persons of the Apostles or their bodily presence be removed from the Church of God on Earth yet their Testimony Words and Writings remain together with a measure of the same life and spirit that was in them for the spirit is one in all and therefore that very Gift of God his giving the Apostles to the Church and Evangelists and Prophets hath still its service in the Church and will to the VVorlds end and so in respect of that Service doth still remain and the Pastors and Teachers with all the common and ordinary Gifts of the Spirit necessary to Salvation do actually remain Again whereas the Author will have it that when the Church was in her more Infant-state the miraculous and extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit did most abound and when she was come to her most adult and perfect state they did wholly cease This also may be called in question viz. VVhether the Church in the Apostles days when those miraculous Gifts did most abound was not in a more perfect state than in the succeeding ages and whether the Author thinketh in his conscience that the Church in these latter ages since these miraculous Gifts have generally ceased viz. from about the beginning of the fifth Century till this time hath been in the most perfect state or rather have we not good ground to believe that the Church that was in the Apostles days and the ages immediately succeeding for the first three hundred years was in the purest and most perfect state of all and that the Churches of the succeeding ages have not arrived at her perfection Is not the Apostolical Church worthily reckoned the Patron of all other Churches hath not a great Apostacy come upon the far greatest part of that called the Church which began about that very time when these miraculous Gifts did cease in great part and though the Lord knoweth best why these miraculous and extraordinary Gifts did cease yet may it not be judged a better reason than any given here by the Author that these so excellent Gifts were taken away because of the Apostacy that was coming on apace upon the visible face of the Church and that the Unfaithfulness of Professors who did abuse both the ordinary and extraordinary Gifts of God provoked the Lord to take both sorts away from the greatest number in a great part if not altogether But whether when the Church shall Universally recover her former purity and sincerity it may please God to restore unto her those very extraordinary Gifts I leave to his infinite counsel and good pleasure to determine Again as to the other Scripture alledged and applied by him for the ceasing of these extraordinary Gifts he seemeth to have as far missed the mark as in the former as if forsooth Paul did reckon not only all those miraculous and extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit wherewith he was so richly endued but also all his Visions and Enjoyments he had of God by Inspiration and Immediate Revelation but as childish things and as belonging to a Childs state in comparison of more perfect attainments of Believers in the succeeding ages when all Divine Inspiration and Immediate Revelation should cease as this Author supposeth and if so then the Author may think himself and such as he as men in respect of Paul and the other Apostles who were but as Children to him and his Brethren for thus he expoundeth Pauls words 1 Cor. 13.9 10 11 12. Even as when I was a Child I spake as Child I understood as a Child I thought and conceived things as a Child but when I become a man and to the full use of my Reason I put away childish conceptions and things for now we see Divine Revelations thus he glosseth upon Pauls words as the Prophets did of old in a dark Enigmetical manner and by symbolical Representations of things upon the phansie as in a Glass but in the adult state of the Church we shall see them after the Mosaical manner in a more rational way and more accommodate to human Nature as it were face to face Now I know them imperfectly but then I shall know them clearly even as I am known Now I appeal to the Impartial Reader if he doth not prefer himself and
his other Brethren to Paul and all the other Apostles as if the Apostles because of their Inspirations and Revelations knew but in part and as Children having little use of their rational Faculties whereas this Author having attained to the adult state he is become perfect in Knowledge and like Moses converseth with God face to face and that without all Revelation or Inspiration immediately from God But how did Moses converse or speak with God face to face to whom the Lord said Thou canst not see my face and live was it without all manner of immediate Revelation or Inspiration I trow not but rather after a more noble and higher sort of Divine Inspiration than was commonly given to other Prophets But how much more sutable and agreeable to truth is that exposition of Pauls words that is commonly given that Paul compareth his highest attainments in this Life even by Vision and Revelation or Inspiration with what he did expect and wait for after death so as the highest attainments of Divine Knowledge by Revelation or Inspiration belonging to this life are but as the attainments of Children in comparison with what the Saints are to expect after death in the life to come But whereas the Author thinketh that the highest Revelations given in this life are but by symbolical Representations upon the phansie as in a Glass he is much mistaken There is a Revelation of God which God pleaseth at times to give to his Children far beyond all symbolical Representations or Similitudes of things whereby God in Christ and the pure Glory of God is seen and enjoyed by the highest and noblest faculty of the Soul which is an earnest and first Fruits of Eternal Life Nor is the Author more dexstrous in expounding all that diversity of Gifts mentioned 1 Cor. 12.4 8 9 10. to have been the miraculous and extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit for why might not some of them have been the common and ordinary and others of them miraculous and extraordinary By common and ordinary I mean not here such as were given to all and every one in particular but such common ministerial Gifts as God gave in common to all ordinary Teachers and Preachers and Ministers of the Lords fitting and sending for of these ministerial Gifts the Apostle is here principally to be understood And whereas the Author here doth argue that the Gifts mentioned in this place cannot be the saving Gifts of the Spirit because these God bestoweth joyntly on those who have them or not at all whereas the Gifts mentioned here are given some to one and some to another But to this I answer although the Gifts here mentioned in the foregoing Verses be not the saving Universal Gifts mentioned by him which are given to every one of the Faithful yet it doth not follow that therefore they are all miraculous and extraordinary for some of them might be of a third and middle sort to wit given in common to all Teachers and Preachers and may be called saving in such a sense or respect as the Preaching of the Gospel and distinct Offices of the Ministry may be called saving as being instrumental to the Salvation of Souls as it is said in Scripture That it pleased God by the foolishness of Preaching to save them that believe And if according to the Author all the Gifts here mentioned be miraculous and all ceased within some few ages after the Apostles days then according to him there is no word of Wisdom nor of Knowledge in the Church which how harsh it will sound to Christian ears I leave the spiritual to judge But that the Author taketh this place of Scripture viz. 1 Cor. 12.4 for his Text and Foundation of his whole Discourse to prove that all the Gifts here mentioned were miraculous and consequently expired within some few Ages to the Apostles times is meerly asserted by him but not at all really proved And he might as well say that Faith Hope and Charity were miraculous Gifts of the Spirit and consequently expired with those other for of them also he discourseth a little after and compriseth them with the other sorts under the diversity of Gifts mentioned v. 4. whereas the Spirit is one So that in this whole Discourse of Pauls concerning the diversity of Gifts Chap. 12.13 14. he mentioneth no less than three several sorts one miraculous and extraordinary another sort common and ordinary to the Teachers in the Church and peculiar unto them a third sort viz. Faith Hope Charity common to all true and sincere Christians so that this diversity of Gifts extendeth it self to all the Church one way or another all having some although every one had not all even as the precious Ointment that ran down from Aarons beard unto the lowest skirts of his Garments And though when the Apostle doth treat of Faith Hope and Charity it is in the thirteen and fourteenth Chapters yet the Discourse is still one and the same as one intire piece and all the Gifts mentioned in all the three Chapters are contained under the diversity of Gifts viz. Spiritual Gifts mentioned v. 4. of Chap. 12. and all proceed from one Spirit so that it may and ought to be said of them of all Now there are diversities of Gifts but the same Spirit and the best of these Gifts are Faith Hope and Love and the greatest of these is Love or Charity And thus I have answered to every thing that seemed material in his Sermon to prove that Divine Inspirations which he calleth Enthusiasms are ceased in the Church and though I have not observed strictly the method of his Sermon so as to answer to every thing in his order because the Nature of my answer required to put several things together that lay scattered in his Sermon and sometimes to take that last which he putteth first yet I hope the diligent and impartial Reader will find that the whole substance of his Sermon against Divine Inspirations is sufficiently answered And now in the Close I shall only take notice of some Reflections of his on the people called Quakers and some few other particulars and then make an end CHAP. V. IN his page 37. Edit 3. he undertakes to show what a dangerous damnable and precarious Principle that is which asserts that Immediate Revelation or Inspiration is not ceased c. But the Instances he bringeth to prove what he saith are wholly precarious and false as 1. That it differs only from the Popes Infallibility in this That that makes only the Bishop of Rome but this makes every private Christian a Pope This I say is altogether a false charge as to us For we place not an absolute Infallibility upon any person or persons whatsoever but we say the Spirit of God in all his Leadings Teachings and Motions is infallible and men only conditionally so far as they receive and are in unity with these Leadings and Teachings are Infallible We say further That every true Christian hath
imployed and exercised who attend to his inspirings and find advantage in so doing much more than by all the much pratling of men who presume to Preach or Teach without the Spirit In pag. 37. he saith The Popes Infallibility must be resolved into this Enthusiastical Principle of immediate Inspiration I answer not but a most into a false pretence thereunto which yet argueth nothing against the true Principle itself And though some of the Popish Schoolmen resolve it into a pretence of Immediate Revelation yet many more do otherwise and particularly the University of Paris as I have showed at more length in my Book called Quakerism no Popery They resolve it only into a blind insensible assistance of the Spirit which they call subjective or effective illumination but not objective the which Popish distinction many Protestants and as it seemeth this Author apply to their Faith with this difference that these Protestants make the assistance of the Spirit fallible but the Papists make it as in the Pope and his Council infallible Pag. 29. he saith The Churches Hieroms Augustines Chrysostoms like us were not inspired but studied Divines I answer why might not Hierom Augustine and Chrysostome and such as they be both to wit parly inspired and partly studied as he termeth it seeing there is no inconsistency as he supposeth betwixt the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit and the frequent and diligent use of all right and lawful means such as reading the Scriptures Meditation and Prayer with other Religious Exercises which this Author calleth studying But studying without all Divine Inspiration makes but poor Divines or rather dead and dry Vines And here I give the Reader to understand that in the very beginning of his Sermon this Author for all his prejudice at Enthusiasts distinguisheth betwixt them and Impostors saying Impostors on one hand and Enthusiasts on the other c. What then are the Enthusiasts no Impostors One thing I like well in the Author as to what he saith and do therein cordially-agree with him pag. 39. The first Apostolical Ages of Wonder were utterly ignorant of killing impulse and zeal which I could not but observe to the utter detestation of Christians Assassines c. I could here cite divers Testimonies of the Ancients for the verity of Divine Inspiration as still remaining among and in the true Christians but to avoid prolixity I shall only cite two Testimonies one of Augustine another of Origene Augustine saith Tract Epist. Ioh. 3. There is an inward Master who teacheth Christ teacheth his Inspiration teacheth where his Inspiration and Anointing is not the words outwardly make but an empty sound Origines contra Celsum lib. 7. circa med 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. Mat. 11. Verbum autem Dei divina quadam gratia non athea existente anima sed cum quodam Enthusiasmo demonstrat cognosci Deum The word of God citing Mat. 11. No man knoweth the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son reveals him demonstrateth that God is known by a certain divine Grace the Soul not being Atheistical but indued with a certain Enthusiasm Where note that he setteth in opposition Atheism and Enthusiasm or the Atheist and Enthusiast as if whosoever is not Enthusiast or indued with a Divine Enthusiasm were a downright Atheist which is very agreeable to a Title of a Friends Book called Enthusiasm above Atheism writ some years ago by G. W. There is one passage more in this Authors Sermon which I cannot well let pass pag. 32 33. Suppose saith he thou knowest the Gospel like the Apostles by Inspiration what then another Minister who knows it by reading and study is as capable to edifie the Church as thee And besides if thou art like a vain Corinthian ambitious of Inspiration know that it will add nothing to the Reputation of thy parts for an inspired man is but the Vessel to the Treasure the very Instrument and Machine of the Holy Ghost who can ordain strength out of the mouths of Babes and Sucklings and make a Child or an Ideot preach as well as thee To the first I answer according to this Authors assertion the bare Minister of the Letter is as good a Preacher and as useful in the Church as Paul or any of the Apostles which is so gross as nothing needs to be said unto the spiritually minded for its Refutation Did then the Scribes preach with the same Authority that Christ did is it not said expressly that Christ preached as one having Authority and not as the Scribes and what was the Reason of this so great a difference was not a main Reason of it that the Scribes preached barely from the Letter without Divine Inspiration but Christ preached by Divine Inspiration wherewith he was exceeding richly endued above all other men And if it should please God to send Preachers who should preach with Divine Inspiration should they not better open and expound the Scriptures and the Mysteries of the Christian Religion being inspired divinely so to do than those who presume to expound them meerly by the strength of their natural parts and human Learning Or why is it that great Schollars so accounted give so contrary Expositions to the same places of Scripture so frequently but that they want the Inspiration of the Spirit that gave them forth For as Hierome saith Epist. Paulin. 103. The Law is Spiritual and needeth Revelation that it may be understood To the second I answer 't is not Pride nor Vanity to desire the saving Inspirations of the Holy Spirit for Christ hath encouraged us to ask the Holy Spirit which is the same to our Souls as bread is unto the Body or the most nourishing Food And whereas he saith that Inspiration will add nothing to the Reputation of a mans parts who hath it I answer yea the Divine Inspiration that we plead for which is of a moral and saving Nature doth add exceedingly to a mans parts whether acquired or natural and consequently to their true and just Reputation for Grace which is a Divine Principle inspired and infused into the Soul doth sanctifie both the Soul of man and all its faculties and parts and healeth all the Souls Diseases and Disorders and consequently doth greatly improve assist and enlarge the mans parts and rational faculties who is so inspired as abundant Experience can be given both of latter and former Ages And tho' Inspiration of the Spirit of God may make Children and Ideots such as some of the Apostles were to preach or speak well yet it leaveth them not still to be Children and Ideots but by degrees doth largely replenish them both with spiritual and sometimes with a great natural understanding And doth not the Author think that Paul had a greater and nobler enlargedness of his rational faculties and the use of them in Preaching Disputing and Writing on the account of his being divinely inspired and although the inspired Man is but the Vessel to the Treasure yet
the ministry of the outward senses or those of its own making is necessary unto the attaining the fruitive or intuitive knowledge of God as aforesaid and the conversing with him nearly and intimately This I prove first from the testimony of Scripture Psalm 46.10 Be still and know that I am God and as the Septuagint hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 otiamini vacate vake ye Psalm 4.4 Speak in your heart upon your Bed and be silent so the Hebrew doth carry it Observe here by the Bed is signified the inward rest of the mind which when it attaineth it is fittest to speak unto God and vers 8. I will both lay me down in peace and sleep c. Psalm 23.2 He maketh me to lye down in green pastures he leadeth me beside the still waters Eccles. 5.1 2. Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God and be more ready to hear then to offer the sacrifice of fools for they consider not that they do evil Be not rash with thy mouth and let not thy heart be hasty to utter any thing before God Observe in that he saith let not thy heart be hasty to utter any thing before the face of the Lord so the Hebrew he layeth a restraint not only upon rash words of the mouth but upon rash thoughts also of the heart which it may utter before the face of the Lord which face of the Lord is the Light of the Lord that shineth in mans heart according to the words of the fourth Psalm called the light of his Face or Countenance Now which thoughts may be called rash or hasty thoughts Surely all such as are its own as proceeding simply from the heart it self without the Divine Instinct and Inspiration of the Spirit of God for saith the Apostle not that we are sufficient to think any thing as of our selves 2 Cor. 3.5 Canticles of Solomon 5.2 I sleep but by heart waketh how Bernard undestandeth this place I shall shew afterwards and Cant. 2.3 Cant. 2.3 I sat down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit was sweet to my tast Observe this whole speech being allegorical the sitting down must needs signifie the quiet and still condition of the mind and then to wit in this inward quietness of mind the fruit of her beloved is sweet to her tast Again Cant. 1.7 Tell me O thou whom my soul loveth where thou feedest where thou makest thy flocks to rest at noon Isaiah 26.23 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee and as the Hebrew hath it the thought being stayed Isaiah 66.2 And on whom will I look but upon the humble and the silent and who tremble at my words So do the Septuagint translate the place And Isaiah 41.1 Keep silence before me O Islands and let the people renew their strength And Isaiah 30.15 In returning and rest shall ye be saved in silence and expectation shall be your strength Lamentations 3.26 He shall wait and be silent for the salvation of the Lord. Observe here the Scripture expresly mentioneth silent waiting or waiting in silence let the Opposers and Adversaries of Truth consider this who speak so much against silent waiting or waiting in silence and who say they read not of such a thing in Scripture and they acknowledge no waiting upon God but as they are exercised in somewhat as reading or hearing or speaking which they call waiting in Ordinances but here is a waiting in silence which is as real an Ordinance or appointment of God as any other which they utterly deny and are ignorant off Again Lamentations 3.28 He sitteth alone and keepeth silence Hosea 2.14 I will perswade her and bring her into a solitary place remote from all speech and I will speak unto her heart Zechariah 2.13 Be silent O all flesh before the Lord for he is raised up out of his holy habitation Moreover notwithstanding all the disdainful language which the opposers of Truth use against silence yet see what the Prophet saith of it in the Psalm Psalm 65.1 Unto thee silence praise O God in Zion so doth the Hebrew bear it and so doth Arias Montanus translate it Tibi silentium laus Deus in Sion which may be understood either 1. That silence is praise as well as words unto God or 2. That silence is due or belonging unto God as where he said Psalm 62.1 My soul is silent verily unto God or 3. That silence is necessary as a preparation unto praise all which are true Now that silence mentioned so frequently in Scripture is not a bare outward silence but a silence of the mind or soul from its own thoughts whether arising from corrupt and inferiour nature or from the active part of it self as it can act so much as in thought without the Divine Inspiration of the Spirit of God for without this all thoughts of mans heart touching Divine and Spiritual things are but barren and hurtful but such as are conceived in the mind by vertue of a Divine Instinct and Inspiration of God are profitable and fruitful and sweet unto the soul above hony or the hony comb even as David said how sweet are thy thoughts unto me O God For as I have already showed out of Bernard such thoughts are the words or speech of God as he speaketh in us by the Spirit Now when we speak of being silent from thoughts we do not understand these thoughts which are conceived or formed in us by Divine Inspiration for they are not inconsistent with the true silence but arise out of it and remain or spring up therein Secondly I prove the same from Antiquity I. Clemens Alexandrinus lib. 5. Stromatum he who neither maketh use of his sight nor any other of his senses in his thinking or contemplating but by the pure mind it self applieth to things obtaineth the true Philosophie Also Pythagoras his five years silence had this signification that he commanded his disciples that they should turn away from sensible things and behold and Contemplate God with the pure mind observe by the pure mind he understandeth the mind not only cleansed from its lusts but separated from the sensible Images of sensible things II. Augustin lib. 9. cap. 10. of his Confessions If to any the tumults of the flesh were silent and the phantasies of the Earth Water and Air were silent and the Poles of Heaven were silent and if the soul were silent unto it self and should pass beyond it self not thinking on it self and if Dreams and Imaginary Revelations were silent and every Tongue and Sign and whatever is made passing from one to another if to any it can be silent for if any hear all these things speak we have not made our selves but he hath made us who remaineth for ever Having said this if now they be silent because they have roused or awakened up the ear to him who made them let him speak alone not by them but by himself that we may
declared concerning Divine Inspiration as being absolutely necessary for the attaining of the true knowledge of God are unto the principles of Socrates and Plato whom Augustin in his Books de Civitate Dei commendeth as the best Philosophers I shall give you a summ of their Doctrine out of Marsilius Ficinus his argument in Euthydemum Platonis that wisdom is not acquired so much by humane study as it is divinely infused into purified minds yea Socrates in his discourse with Theages denyeth that ever any men learned ought from him neither would he acknowledge himself to have any further use unto men than to be as a Spiritual Midwife unto them to help to bring forth that wisdom or knowledge which God himself had put in them And concerning the necessity of inward silence and unmoveableness of mind in order to converse with God how agreeable it is to Socrates and Plato let us further hear Marsilius Ficinus Theol. Platon lib. 9. cap. 3. love God alone saith he O soul love the Light alone the infinite Light of the bountiful God love thou infinitely now thou shalt shine and be delighted infinitely I pray thee therefore seek his face and thou shalt rejoyce for ever but I pray thee be not moved that thou may touch that Light because it is stability be not scattered through diverse things that thou may apprehend it for it is Unity Stay the motion gather together the multitude immediately thou shalt find God who hath already found thee In this search Oh how repugnant is the mind unto all bodys how much doth it despise their Images and deceits How much doth it condemn the phantasie and bodily senses Thirdly As concerning that great duty of returning or turning in into the heart which our opposers who deny Immediate Revelation and Inspiration do so much speak against as nonsense and the like that it is a thing required of God and commanded This I prove first from the testimony of Scripture Deuteronomy 4.39 and know this day and return unto thy heart So the Hebrew Deuteronomy 30.1 And shall return to thy heart Hebrew 1 Kings 8.47 if they shall return unto their heart so the Hebrew and 1 Kings 8.48 and shall return unto thee in their whole heart Isaiah 46.8 Return O ye transgressors unto the heart so the Hebrew and the Old Latine Lamentations of Ieremy Therefore or for this will I return unto my heart that so I may wait cap. 3.21 Secondly I prove the same from antiquity I. Augustin quinquagena 2 a Psalm 57.10 citante Beda The written Law what cryteth it unto them who have forsaken the Law written in their hearts return O ye transgressors unto the heart Observe it is worth your observation that all along the Translators have otherwise translated all these places of Scripture which expresly mention this great duty of returning unto the heart because as seemeth they were ignorant of it as people generally now are who when they hear us bidding them turn into their hearts or minds are ready to gnash their teeth at us and to say as I have heard them there is no good in our hearts what should we turn in unto them for and surely if there were no Divine Revelation in the heart it were in vain to turn in unto it Again Augustin in his Confessions lib. 7. cap. 10. And being upon this admonished to return unto my self I entred even into my inwards thou O Lord leading me and I was able to do it for thou becamest my helper I entred into my self and with the eye of my soul I saw over the eye of my soul over my mind the unchangeable Light of the Lord. Observe how Augustin first turned in to his heart that he might see the Light of the Lord but they who believe not that there is any Light of the Lord to be seen in their hearts think it in vain to turn into their hearts And verily most men are so turned or extraverted unto outward objects that for them to be turned inward unto an invisible object of Light and Life from God in their hearts is to make them change their element which they are as unwilling to do as the Fish is to leave the water And on the contrary one that is truly an inward liver and is come to converse with the inward Light and Life and Word of God in his heart is an unwilling to leave this place and go forth unto outward things which are but as shadows in respect of that inward substance which is to be found and enjoyed in the heart II. The Author de Spiritu Anima joyned with Augustin cap. 34. Let the mind therefore return unto it self and gather it self into it self III. Bernard de Conversione ad clerum cap. 2. as yet wisdom cryeth in the streets return unto the heart O ye Transgressors for this is the beginning of the Lords speech and it appeareth that this word hath gone before unto all who are turned unto the heart Observe how Bernard understandeth it to be one of the first things which God speaks to the heart to return unto the heart Again Bernard in Sermone de verbis Habakkuk super custodiam meam Stabo But he calleth back sinners unto the heart and reproveth them for the error of the heart because he dwelleth there and there he speaketh Again Bernard Tractatu de Precepto Dispensatione Surely to seek the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof ye shall endeavour rather to enter within your selves than to go sorth or to ascend above Again in his Epistle 108. I pray thee return unto the heart Again e Sermone parvo de tribus panibus A Friend cometh unto me off the way when forsaking transitory things I return unto the heart as it is written return unto the heart ye Transgressors Isa. 46.8 Again in the Treatise de Domo interiori cap. 14. But now saith he perhaps thou hast ascended Now thou hast returned unto thy heart and hast learned there to stand neither let this suffice thee learn to dwell there and to make it a mansion and by whatsoever wandring of mind thou be drawn from thence hasten always to return thither again Without doubt by much use at some time it shall become a delight unto thee insomuch that without any difficulty of labour thou maist be there daily yea it will be rather a pain unto thee to make a stay any where else but there And as touching waiting or watching for the Lord in the inward retiredness or recollection of the mind see what Bernard saith Bernard Sermone de visitationibus Domini Who is among us so vigilant and observant of the time of his Visitation and diligently searching after the coming of the Bridegroom at all moments so that when he cometh and knocketh it is opened unto him and after Surely our want doth argue us of neglect and carelesness for if any of us uprightly and perfectly according to the word of the Wise man would deliver up his heart to watch for the Lord early who made it and would pray in the sight of the Most High and also by all endeavours study according to the Prophet Isaiah to prepare the ways of the Lord and to make straight the paths of his God Who hath to say with the Prophet my eyes are ever unto the Lord and I have had the Lord always in my sight shall not he receive a blessing from the Lord and mercy from the God of his Salvation Surely he shall be frequently visited neither shall he ever be ignorant of the time of his Visitation however so secretly and as a thief he cometh who visiteth in Spirit who is a modest lover and while he is yet afar off he well watching soul with a sober mind shall perceive him Now that silent waiting is according unto Scripture I have above showed out of the Lamentations Also the words of Habakkuk do plainly hold forth the same I will stand on my watch and I will hear what the Lord will speak in me Moreover that Socrates and Plato taught this doctrine of the converting or turning in of a man to himself to within himself to behold the innate idea of vertue in him see Plato his Charmides And as concerning profiting by silence in the company of good men Seneca that renowned Philosopher saith thus Epistola 94. est aliquid quod ex magno viro vel tacente proficias there is somewhat that thou mayst profit by a great man to wit who is great in virtue even when he is silent And concerning retiring unto a mans self to converse with the Divine Spirit that is within him that famous Emperor and Philosopher Marcus Aurelius Antoninus in his Books of Meditation concerning himself lib. 4. num 3. saith thus A man cannot any whther retire better than to his own soul. And again he saith afford then thy self this retiring continually and thereby refresh and renew thy self and lib. 2. num 11. It is sufficient saith he for a man to apply himself wholly and to confine all his thoughts and care to the tendance of that Spirit which is within him and truly and really to serve him his service doth consist in this that a man keep himself pure from all violent passion and evil affection from all rashness and vanity and from all manner of discontent either in regard of the Gods or men Note that by the Gods Antonius Seneca Socrates Plato and others of the best Philosophers understood Angels and Immortal Spirits which the Scripture at times calleth also Gods for they did believe there was but only one supream and infinite God the Creator and upholder of all things who is over all blessed for ever THE END See Cor.