signal to all the World by his special Government over them by Miracles Signs and Wonders by giving them Laws from Heaven in great Majesty and Terrour by committing to them the Divine Oracles by raising up Prophets and Men specially inspired by an Extraordinary Spirit and by effusing among them a greater Measure of the Influence of his Sacred Spirit For that I may say it once for all it hath been always the Method of the Divine Wisdom and Goodness when he sends out the greater Measure of this Influx whereof I speak the Divine Providence accompanies that Efflux with suitable external Means to render it the more effectual and the more agreeable to the manner of the Reception of the humane Understanding But when the Messias came into the World with the Message of the Glorious Gospel the Sun was as it were in its Meridian and as the means of Illumination and Conversion of the World unto God was more effectual and universal so was also the Efflux and Irradiation of the Divine Influence upon the Souls of Men more vigorous diffusive and universal And as the miraculous Gifts of the Spirit of God appeared in the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles the Gifts of Tongues of Healing Diseases of Prophecy and the like to confirm and establish Mens Minds in the Faith Belief and Obedience of the Gospel so neither was this all but the secret and effectual Influence of the same Blessed Spirit appeared in Illumination of the Minds of Men in persuading and mightily subduing their Wills to the Belief and Obedience of the Truth in converting Mens Minds unto God and placing them in their just and due Habitude to Almighty God And this according to the various Workings thereof is sometimes called the Spirit of Regeneration the Spirit of Renovation the Spirit of Sanctification the Spirit of Holiness the Spirit of Adoption the Spirit of Prayer and Supplication the Spirit of Life c. according to the various Energies that this great Effusion of the Influences of the Blessed Spirit had upon the Minds of Men. And this great and more diffusive and effectual Effusion of this Influence under the Gospel was no other than what was prophesied of by the ancient Prophets Isa 25.7 I will destroy in this Mountain the covering cast upon the Face of all People Isa 11.9 The Earth shall be filled with the Knowledge of the Lord as the Waters cover the Sea Isa 54.13 All thy Children shall be taught of the Lord. Isa 59.20 This is my Covenant that I will make with them my Spirit that is upon thee and the Words which I have put in thy Mouth shall not depart from thee nor from thy Seed nor from thy Seeds Seed Ezek. 36.27 I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and keep my Judgments and do them Isa 44.3 I will pour out my Spirit upon thy Seed Joel 2.28 I will pour out my Spirit upon all Flesh And this Energy of the Divine Influence appears 1. By a secret Irradiation and Illumination of the Understanding 2. By a powerful Persuasion and Inclining of the Will both which as they were with a more vigorous and effectual Dispensation under the first breaking out of the Light of the Gospel so they do accompany the Publication of it unto this day and shall unto the end of the World though by reason of the Corruption of the Lives and Manners of Mankind not with equal Success in all Ages We have here the Judgment and Belief of this Great and Good Man of a Divine Efflux upon the Understandings and Wills of Men and that even among the Heathen those so famed for Wisdom Justice Piety and Knowledge were Illuminated and Guided by a Divine Influence And we have here also the Ground of this his Judgment 1. Observations in Nature 2. The Sentiments of Learned and Understanding Men Philosophers in all Ages 3. The Authority of the Sacred Scriptures to which he elsewhere adds his own Experience And whereas he had in some things changed his Opinion as he saw cause from what it was in his younger time this he received early as appears by some of his First Writings and retain'd constantly to the last as appears by his Treatise of Humility which he wrote upon my Motion not long before his last Sickness In his Treatise of Wisdom and the Fear of God after other particulars of the Wisdom of the Fear of God he adds in the 10th place But besides all this there is yet a Secret but a most Certain Truth that highly improveth that Wisdom which the Fear of the Lord bringeth and that is this That those that truly fear God have a Secret Guidance from a higher Wisdom than what is barely Humane namely by the Spirit of Truth and Wisdom that doth really and truly but secretly prevent and direct them And let no Man think that this is a piece of Fanaticism Any Man that sincerely and truly fears Almighty God relies upon Him calls upon Him for his Guidance and Direction bath it as really as the Son hath the Counsel and Direction of his Father and though the Voice be not audible nor the Direction always perceptible to Sense yet it is equally as real as if a Man heard the Voice saying This is the Way walk in it And this Secret Direction of Almighty God is principally seen in Matters relating to the Good of the Soul but it may also be found in the Great and Momentous Concerns of this Life which a Good Man that fears God and begs his Direction shall very often if not at all times find And in his Treatise of Humility speaking of this Guidance and Direction of Almighty God in relation to a double End 1. The Salvation and Happiness of the Soul 2. In all the Walk and Concern of this Life as to this latter he saith The Air doth not more naturally yield to our Attraction in Respiration or to insinuate it self into those spaces that are receptive of it than the Divine Assistance Guidance and Beneficence doth to the Desires Exigencies and Wants of an humble Soul sensible of its own Emptiness and Deficiency and imploring the Direction Guidance and Blessing of the most Wise and Bountiful God And then adds I can call my own Experience to witness that even in the External Actions Occurrences and Incidences of my whole Life I was never disappointed of the best Guidance and Direction when in Humility and Sense of my own Deficiency and diffidence of my own Ability to direct my self or to grapple with the Difficulties of my Life I have with Humility and Sincerity implored the Secret Direction and Guidance of the Divine Wisdom and Providence This he speaks of the secret Guidance by the Spirit of Truth by Illumination of the Understanding and Inclination of the Will but there is another Secret Guidance by a Providential Disposal of Occurrences which he doth not here exclude yet seems more especially to intend
to their Original where no Spirit of Prophecy or Miracles yet whether containing Truth and advancing Vertue as to the Matter and whether any way noxious and hurtful either to the Person that receives them or others And this is abundantly sufficient Now for these Notes of discerning them I need referr the Reader to no other Book then to the Doctor 's Martyr Sancta Sophia though he was pleased to take no notice of them there in the Preface from § 29. to § 35. Again in the third Treatise p. 268. from § 9. to § 22. where after directing a strict Observation to be made concerning the Person whether 1. viciously inclin'd 2. arrogant and proud or 3. curious 4. or much addicted to melancholy there are particularly cast off and marked out for Satanical Illusions among others these All such pretended Inspirations or Revelations as do invite the Person to say or do any thing contrary to the Catholick Faith Obedience Humility Peace and Unity Honesty Parity and any other Divine Vertue but especially contrary to the Catholick Faith or Obedience for instance as the attempting to make any new and seditious Reformations as likewise when the Persons obstinately believe these Revelations to be of God after they have been condemned by experienced Superiors and Directors All such I say are condemned for Satanical Illusions which cuts all the nerves of all such pretended Revelations as can any way disturb the Church's Faith or Peace and most of all of those Enthusiasms and Fanatick Frenzies which have been so common among Protestants § 14. Lastly in all these Pretensions where there is any greater difficulty of discerning the Good and Divine from the Bad and Satanical Spirit we have a judge to repair to the Governours of the Church The Spirits of the Prophets saith St. Paul are subject to the Prophets § 15. But there are other Influences and Inspirations of the same Spirit directing us also in Actions in their own nature Indifferent or of Counsel and on either side lawful and free from Sin some of which Inspirations cannot be tried or distinguished from Enthusiasm by any such way as the former which because they are much spoken of by the Mysticks and are very necessary for advancing Christians in the way of Perfection it seems requisite for the freeing these also from Mistakes to give the Reader here some account of them § 18. 1. We must know then as Sancta Sophia Tr. 1. p. 57. and others have discoursed more at large that there are two Spirits within us that is all the Regenerate the Holy Spirit and that of Corrupt Nature assisted with the Suggestions of the Devil who took a kind of Possession of us upon Adam's Fall Eph. 2.2 That this last Spirit is never totally expell'd or silenc'd in us during this Life but tempts us still Gal. 5.17 And that its Suggestions may appear many times like the Motions of God's Spirit pretending Good Ends the performing some Duty to our selves or our Neighbour our advancement in Vertue and the like That the Effect of the first of these Spirits Sanctifying Grace received in our Regeneration or Justification is in its infusion ordinarily but as a small Seed 1 John 3.9 1 Pet. 1.23 Mat. 13.31 33. or spark capable of a daily growth and increase and which with the co-operation of our Free will and further Aids that are from time to time received from God works in us at length a total Reformation and Christian Perfection which so many among the Regenerate as do attain are said in a more special mannner to be Spiritual Persons and to have the Spirit of God And in this sense the Apostle writes to the Corinthians I Brethren could not speak unto you as to Spiritual but as to Carnal and as to Babes in Christ 1 Cor. 3.1 and so ver 3. For ye are yet Carnal and Walk according to Man that is ye are Babes only in Christ and so in some degree Carnal and walking according to the natural Man still and not as yet entirely Spiritual And frequent mention we find in the Scriptures of these several Degrees and Growths in a Regenerate Condition It being God's Pleasure that the New Man as the Old should grow by degrees and not be made compleat in us all at once Mention I say of some Babes and little ones and to be fed as yet only with Milk Of strong Meat and Wisdom and higher Mysteries only to be delivered to and spoken amongst the Perfect See Heb. 5.12 13. 1 Pet. 2.2 1 Cor. 3.1 1.2 6. Of growing in Grace and receiving Increase from God 2 Pet. 3.18 Col. 2.19 Of the new Man being renewed day by day 2 Cor. 4.16 Of arriving to a perfect Man unto the measure of the Stature or Age of the Fulness of Christ Eph. 4.13 Of the Apostles labouring to present every one perfect in Christ Jesus and that they might stand perfect and full in all the Will of God Col. 1.28 4.12 and of this Perfection still containing in it higher and higher degrees Not as if I had already attained saith the Apostle Phil. 3.12 Though therefore by this Principle of a New Life and the infusion of the habitual Grace of Charity we are already translated from the former being of corrupt Nature to a Divine being of Supernatural Grace freed at the first from the former state of Mortal Sin and from the Slavery and Captivity we suffered under its Dominion yet hath not this Spirit as yet attained such a soveraign Empire and Mastery over the importunate Solicitations of Concupiscence and the natural Inclinations of our Will and Affections as that we do not still fall frequently into many lesser and those call'd Venial Sins or at least as to Actions that are not sinful but in their nature indifferent or lawful that we do not for the most part still prosecute those that are more grateful or advantageous to our present Carnal desires and our Sensual or secular designs Though such Actions are no way expedient for us nor acceptable to the Holy Spirit in which now we live nor do conduce to our growth in Grace but are great hinderances thereof and though these Acts contained indeed within the compass of lawful yet often expose us to Occasions of Sin Now so long as we stay here and advance no further we appear but as Infants and Babes in Grace it having not as yet obtained its perfect Reign in us either over our Concupiscence which carries us still into frequent venial Sins or over our Nature and Will which carries us in other matters lawful to those satisfying our natural Condition But when we are come to have potestatem voluntatis nostrae as St. Paul expresseth it 1 Cor. 7.37 come once to act seldom according to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Concupiscence to fall seldom into Venial Sin especially with advertency and unsurprised and the Holy Spirit to have a more absolute power over Sense Reason our own Will Propriety and Self-love as
perfect shall be as his Master that is in Sufferings like him The Author may do well to review this passage of his § 66. The repairing to Prayer in the best manner we can make it is a proper natural and most efficacious way to obtain a supernatural Light from God's Spirit to discern his Will in all our Actions speaking of such as are indifferent and such wherein neither we nor any others have any external certain Rule all Circumstances considered whereby we may be guided as we have in all such other Actions the Lawfulness of which is doubted of which yet is not said as if Prayer were the only means of our direction in these so as to exclude the making use of either our own Reason or other Mens Advice as is said before § 76. This is not making Enthusiasm but Prayer a means to obtain the Illuminations of God's Spirit to shew us in two things suggested to us which of them comes from It or which is more conformable to God's Will that so we may follow and obey it and What a Christian is he that being doubtful especially in two affairs of much concernment which to make choice of doth not retire to his Prayers desiring God to direct him in such a particular and promising to do that which he shall be pleased by any way to signifie to him to be more conformable to his Will and more conducing to Christian Perfection as certainly the one may be much more than the other although both contained within the general bounds of Good or indifferent And then what Illumination he Prays for why may not he also expect Again Who is there much frequenting Prayer that doth not perceive in them some Illustrations and Influences entring and injected as it were into his Mind without his own procurement touching a more perfect knowledge of himself or the immense Love of God to Mankind or some acceptable Service he may do to God or his Neighbour or secret Reprehensions for some Faults or Admonitions for the better ordering of his Life Spiritu as our Lord saith Jo. 3.8 Spirante ubi vult and he not knowing whence such things come or how they pass away yet these things we are assured must be from God's Spirit because no good Thought is from our selves And why may not we imagin the same a due Preparation being supposed of the Thoughts injected in our Doubtings and Requests concerning Actions left free and undetermined by the Divine declared Will what way in these we may rather take the better to serve and please him God forbid that the Name of Enthusiasm should deterr Christians from such a Practice or hearkening to this internal Language or as Mr. Cressy expresses it in his Preface should render Prayer and by Prayer the obtaining of Divine Grace a suspicious Exercise And I wish the Author would a little better weigh his Words and the malign Influence they may have on others We say then Divine Inspirations are necessary for Grace as well furthers as prevents us to distinguish the Motions of the Good and Bad Spirit in our Minds in matters purely indifferent which may be proposed to us by either of these Spirits for a different end where we have no other external Rule to judge these Motions by as we have in all internal Suggestions concerning such other matters as are either directly commanded or prohibited by God's Law I shall conclude my Collections out of this Author with the Explications of some of the Terms of Art which are quarrelled with as followeth Divine Inaction is in plain English the acting of God or his Spirit in us which in the Perfect is more extraordinary sensible and manifest § 48. Passive Vnions are called Passive not that when herein a Soul contemplates God she may not be said in some sort Active but Because when God is pleased so graciously to communicate himself to the Soul the Soul is taken out of her own Disposal and doth and must see and think only what God will have her and this no longer then his good pleasure is such Neither can any Dispositions or Preparations that the Soul can use assuredly procure it Thus Sancta Sophia explains this Word And the Expression is secured by such like Scripture Language Qui Spiritu Dei aguntur Rom. 8.14 Not I live but Christ in me Gal. 2.20 Not I work but the Grace of God which is with me 1 Cor. 15.10 Not ye that speak but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you Matt. 10.20 So the Spirit that is in us is said to interceed for us with Groans unutterable Rom. 8.26 c. § 48. Deiformity and Deification are words not of late only but anciently used signifying an Vnion with God not in Essence but by Grace and this Union still more intimate as the Grace more extraordinary secured by like Scripture Language For Deiform Renewed to the Image of our Greator Col. 3.10 Changed into the Image of our Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 Transformed by the renewing of our Mind Rom. 12.2 For Deification Partakers of the Divine Nature and of the Powers of the future World Heb. 6.4 5. The Lord and we made one Spirit 2. Pet. 1.4 Filled with all the Fulness of God 1 Cor. 6.17 I have no more but to acquaint the Reader who this O. N. was out of whose Book I have collected those things his Name was ABRAHAM WOODHEAD a good Man who with great Modesty and Solidity hath vindicated Mystical Divinity against the Quarrel of one who charged it to be Fanaticism His Character may be seen more at large in Mr. Wood 's Oxford Antiquities FINIS POSTSCRIPT WHEREAS it is feared by some that what is in the fore-going Discourse related concerning Plotinus and Porphyrius who lived in Gospel-times and yet were not Christians but the latter a grand Adversary of the Christians and of Christianity may too much gratifie some call'd Quakers to their hurt who are great Magnifyers of the Gentile Dispensation I do declare that I should be glad to gratifie any People for their Good but not any to their Hurt And therefore to prevent any such misuse of what I have written for a good purpose which I have mentioned in the end of the Preface they must know 1. That as the Actions of Witches and their Familiars if the matter of fact be evident and undeniable are good Evidence against Atheists and Sadduceans and the Real Inspiration of any Spirit if proved is good Evidence against all such Anti-enthusiasts as deny the Reality of Inspiration and that there is any thing more in it than meerly the actings of Peoples Imaginations so the plain apert Declarations by these Men of the Mystick Divinity which was more occultly delivered by the Ancients is good Evidence of the Tradition and Succession of these Mysteries though they should be found to have erred in the Use and Application of it And for this purpose was that Collection made 2. That though Porphyry and Plotinus and some
so they who readily consent to the Suggestions of the Devil at length God deserting them become the Slaves of Satan Upon Jo. 5.45 Those to whom the Gospel is Preached become taught of God that is if they would if they be greedy of it if they do not reject the Benefits offered and even forc'd upon them They will have no need to have recourse to Learned Men that from them they may learn the Mysteries of the Old Testament Upon Eph. 1.17 The Spirit of God which is given to Believers doth among other things imprint also Wisdom in their Souls not that of the things of this World of which Philosophers did boast but of those things which conduce to a better Life The same Spirit doth reveal also to those who are his things future and secret which cannot be known by humane Means Upon 1 Jo. 2.20 The Spirit doth suggest to us in all Circumstances both the Precepts of Christ and such Hints or Notices as are meet for the Occasion v. 27. What we are to do in every Circumstance For there are certain Differences which Times Places and Persons require Therefore is there often need of Admonition to hit the way of our Duty See Jer. 31.34 Jo. 6.45 and if you please Seneca Epist 94. And upon 1 Thess 4.9 The Holy Ghost teacheth you concerning all things to be done By how much the more there is of the Spirit so much the less need is there of Prescripts This Place is not to be understood of the General Precept but of special Determinations as all Things Persons and Times do require And Gal. 5.18 Those who are led by the Spirit as now of Age have no need of the Law the Guardian of their Touth And Rom. 8.4 Those who walk after the Spirit he interprets those who having obtained the Holy Spirit do constantly obey its Motions and afterwards v. 5. They that are after the Spirit he interprets those who are possessed by the Spirit of God which doth not now come to pass but by Christ And v. 12. he notes God hath given his Spirit that we should use it and again So great a Guest will be treated with Care otherwise he will bid farewell to his Lodging And to conclude 1 Thess 5.23 Spirit here saith he is that Holy Spirit inhabiting in the Souls of Christians and if it be carefully kept adhering to Souls unto Death and after Death even to the Resurrection and then referrs to what he had said 1 Cor. 15.44 to Hierom upon Gal. 5. and recites to the same purpose the Words of Philo Irenaeus Tatianus Clem. Alexandrinus and Tertullian More might be added but this is enough to shew the Mind of this great Man concerning the Necessity of our having the Spirit of God dwelling in us the Effects of his Residence in Light and Conduct and our Duty how to treat it And that this is also the Belief of the Church of England however some of late have commonly presum'd to speak if not despitefully and reproachfully yet too slightly of so great and holy a Principle of our Religion may appear by the most Authentick Evidence that can be her most solemn Addresses to Almighty God in divers Collects for this very purpose As for all Persons to be Baptized before they be Baptized to give his Holy Spirit to them that they may be born again c. and after they be Baptized to give his Holy Spirit to them that they may continue his Servants and attain his Promises So likewise for all Persons Confirmed to strengthen them with the Holy Ghost and daily increase in them his manifold Gifts of Grace before Imposition of Hands and then again together with the Imposition of Hands that they may daily increase in his Holy Spirit and again afterward that his Holy Spirit may ever be with them and so lead them c. and lastly for all the Congregation upon several Occasions as upon the Nativity of our Lord that they may daily be renewed by his Holy Spirit Upon the 19th Sunday after Trinity that his Holy Spirit may in all things Direct and Rule our Hearts Upon the first Sunday in Lent that we may ever obey his Godly Motions Upon Easter-Day that as by thy special Grace preventing us thou dost put into our Minds good Desires so by thy continual Help we may bring the same to good Effect Upon the fifth Sunday after Easter that by his Holy Inspiration we may think those things that be good and by his merciful Guiding may perform the same and others to the like Effect as upon the Sunday after Ascension Whitsunday the 13th Sunday after Trinity the Collect at the beginning of the Communion Service And at every Morning and Evening Service all are admonished to beseech him to give us his Holy Spirit And in the Coll. for Grace we pray to God that all our doings may be ordered by his Governance and in the Litany to indue us with the Grace of his Holy Spirit to amend our Lives according to his Holy Word In the Ordering of Deacons this Question is first to be asked by the Bishop Do you trust that you are inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon you this Office and Ministration c In the Ordering of Priests the Bishop says Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office and Work of a Priest in the Church of God c. And in the Consecration of a Bishop the Arch-Bishop says Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office and Work of a Bishop c. and at each is sung the Hymn Come Holy Ghost c. And in the Exhortation in the Commination this is mentioned as one of the Conditions of our Pardon viz. If we will be ordered by the Governance of his Holy Spirit And in the Articles of Religion Art 17. are mentioned together Godly Persons and such as feel in themselves the Working of the Spirit of Christ mortifying c. To this Authority of the Church I will subjoyn the Judgment of one of her Sons who though at first it seems he was carried away with the common Prejudice of the Age yet afterward upon better consideration extricated himself and recover'd a better Judgment and has in few words said what is much to the purpose That God himself affords his Intimacies and Converses to the better Souls which are prepar'd for it I confess the proud and phantastick Pretences of many of the conceited Melancholists in this Age to Divine Communion have prejudiced divers intelligent Persons against the Belief of any such happy Vouchsafement so that they conclude the Doctrine of Immediate Communion with the Deity in this Life to be but an high-flown Notion of warm Imagination and over-luscious Self-Flattery and I acknowledge I have my self had Thoughts of this nature supposing Communion with God to be nothing else but the Exercise of Vertue and that Peace and those Comforts which naturally result from it But I have considered since That God's more near and immediate
imparting himself to the Soul that is prepar'd for that Happiness by Divine Love Humility and Resignation in the way of a Vital Touch and Sense is a thing possible in it self and will be a great part of our Heaven That Glory is begun in Grace and God is pleased to give some excellent Souls the happy Antepast That holy Men in ancient times have sought and gloried in this Enjoyment and never complain so sorely as when it was with-held and interrupted That the Expressions of Scripture run infinitely this way and the best of modern good Men do from their own Experience attest it That this spiritualizeth Religion and renders its Enjoyments more comfortable and delicious That it keeps the Soul under a vivid sense of God and is a grand Security against Temptation That it holds it steddy amidst the Flatteries of a prosperous State and gives it the most grounded Anchorage and Support amidst the Waves of an adverse Condition That 't is the noblest Encouragement to Vertue and the highest Assurance of an happy Immortality I say I considered these weighty Things and wonder'd at the Carelessness and Prejudice of Thoughts that occasion'd my suspecting the Reality of so glorious a Priviledge I saw how little Reason there is in denying Matters of inward Sense because our selves do not feel them or cannot form an Apprehension of them in our Minds I am convinc'd that things of gust and relish must be judged by the sentient and vital Faculties and not by the noetical Exercises of speculative Vnderstandings And upon the whole I believe infinitely that the Divine Spirit affords its sensible Presence and immediate Beatifick Touch to some Rare Souls who are divested of carnal Self and mundane Pleasures abstracted from the Body by Prayer and Holy Meditation spiritual in their Desires and calm in their Affections devout Lovers of God and Vertue and tenderly affectionate to all the World sincere in their Aims and circumspect in their Actions inlarged in their Souls and clear in their Minds These I think are the Dispositions that are requisite to fit us for Divine Communion And God transacts not in this near way but with prepared Spirits who are thus disposed for the Manifestation of his Presence and his Influence and such I believe he never fails to bless with these happy fore-tasts of Glory But for those that are Passionate and Conceited Turbulent and Notional Confident and Immodest Imperious and Malicious that doat upon Trifles and run fiercely into the ways of a Sect that are lifted up in the Apprehension of the glorious Prerogatives of themselves and their Party and scorn all the World besides for such I say be their Pretensions what they will to Divine Communion Illapses and Discoveries I believe them not their Fancies abuse them or they would us For what Communion hath Light with Darkness or the Spirit of the Holy One with those whose Genius and Ways are so unlike Him But the other Excellent Souls I described will as certainly be visited by the Divine Presence and Converse as the Chrystalline Streams are with the Beams of Light or the fitly prepared Earth whose Seed is in it self will be actuated by the Spirit of Nature There is a late Writer of no mean Learning and Parts and Authority too among those of his own Party who reckons the Despising of the Holy Spirit and his Operations now to be a Sin of the same Nature with the Apostacy of the Jews by Idolatry of old and afterwards by rejecting of our Saviour at his coming and yet in detestation of Enthusiasm utterly abandons all Impulses and Motions to Things and Actions which are not acknowledged Duties in themselves evidenced by the Word of Truth c. under the Name of Irrational Impressions and violent Inclinations and what some Men intend by Impulses he says he knows not Indeed they who reject all such things reject they know not what And did they thereby only hurt themselves it might be thought a just Punishment but such confident Assertions in Print may not only be hurtful to Men but also injurious to the Wisdom and Goodness of God which is not to be limited by Mens Conceits The Jews heretofore had the Favour to inquire of God and receive Answers and Direction in their special Exigences and if the Christians are not allowed that Favour now it may be thought that the State of Christians is inferior to that of the Jews then in a Matter of great Importance or that the Christians now are as the latter Jews were fallen from the Integrity of the true Christian State Nor can I conceive any reason why Christians should not have some such Means for this purpose as the ancient Jews had but that every Christian ought to have a Divine Oracle in his own Breast by the Residence of the Spirit of God there if we were indeed such as our Profession doth require and oblige us to be that is truly Spiritual and Heavenly-minded It doth therefore concern us to inquire whether the Fault be not in our selves if God doth not answer us as it was with Saul when God was departed from him rather than to dishonour our Profession by arguing against the Truth to cover our Shame and since the Lord's Ear is not heavy that it cannot hear whether our Sins have not interposed between our God and us that he will not hear Certainly we often need a Wisdom more than Humane in many Cases wherein the General Prescripts are not sufficient For as many things are lawful which may not be expedient so many things may be expedient or necessary which may not be acknowledged Duties in themselves evidenced by the Word of Truth the written Word and to the successful Performance of acknowledged Duties certain Circumstances may be and often are so necessary that unless duly observed all Endeavours would be frustrate and all these Expediences and Circumstances may be and frequently are such as are not discernable by us Mortals without some Notice from more Intelligent Beings If therefore the All-seeing Wise and Gracious God be pleased either immediately by his own Spirit or mediately by any of the Invisible Ministers of his Providence to afford any such Divine Favours to such Mortals as are duly disposed for the same if taking notice of the Sincerity of his Servant he be pleased by any secret Impression upon his Heart or Mind or other Notices to conduct him in these things or in any thing of his Will and Pleasure though without manifesting the Reasons of it to exercise his Reasonable Creature to the Subjection of his Intellect to the Divine Wisdom as well as his Will to Obedience to his Pleasure as he who after competent Experience of this should be disobedient to any such Notice would certainly incurr Sin more or less and justly deserve Correction so it would be no less Impiety against that Holy Majesty and Mischief to Men to raise amongst them any Scandal or Prejudice against it and thereupon