persecution than we at any time oppose them all And if the Holy Spirit be but one as yet I hope I may without much assuming or confidence affirm he is if it be alwayes consistent with it self there can be but one inspiration at one time true and the rest that pretend differently from this make at once themselves and God a Liar whilst they suppose him to contradict himself and they become the publishers of such contradictions Besides if the Spirit these wild men pretend to does inform their minds of the principles they deliver by an immediate illumination or impulse upon their spirits either they feel the stroke made upon them by this invisible power so that they can tell the time as the Prophets of old when the Word of the Lord comes to them or else they are raised by degrees into a presumption that they have this Spirit which thus forces them to declare new Doctrines to the World If they pretend to know when the stroke and impulse is made why does not one immediately of a Fisherman become an Apostle without any study or former gradual practice without being bred in the Schools of the Jesuits or by long hearing the Cant at home by which he is educated and trained to it why does he not on a sudden rise up and publish such consistent Doctrines as may be suitable to the reason of those whom he would perswade to embrace them or at least not thwarting and contradicting the natural Religion of mankind But since we find this impossible among them or the utmost of their skill to be by some mechanick operation or perhaps by an unaccountable influence from the Prince of the Air Why should any be startled at or give credit to new Apostles when our Rules are compleated by those that were commissioned of old If we search into the bottom of these things we shall find them either voluntary Cheats when those that own them make them subservient to bad designs or such as men being deceived themselves by a bad constitution a corrupt education or a suggestion from the Devil under the form of an Angel of Light endeavour either through ignorance or subtilty to impose upon easie believers For 1. There is no promise for such immediate inspirations to dictate new Rules of life made to any but to Apostolical men in the first Age of the Gospel who were to deliver what was to be the standing Law to all succeeding Generations And therefore there is no ground of hope for such things as these in the present Age wherein we live Because inspiration being an immediate influence from God himself his Will enlarges or restrains this power to us and whenever men expect with reason any thing from him it must be grounded upon a promise on which we may hope and rely because all Gods Promises are as certain as his Truth and that equally certain with his Being There being therefore no promise of this made beyond the Age and Lives of the Apostles as no men can now rationally expect any inspiration to confirm their pretensions so neither can others with sobriety believe them 2. Inspirations to prescribe new Rules to the World are so needless after a compleat Law is already given that is to be so lasting and perpetual as the Gospel that were they now to be found amongst men if they should be contrary to it they would abolish and destroy the Gospel But if the pretenders are inspired only to the propagation of the same truths revealed there this second inspiration will appear needless and so tax the wisdom of God to do so great and extraordinary a thing to no purpose because there are the same rules already reveal'd written down in the first age and by the special providence of Almighty God notwithstanding the diligent and furious attempts of the powers of the Earth to interrupt the conveyance handed down from age to age and yet remaining publick and open amongst our selves in our own language that all may read and understand The continuance of men distinct from the multitude who by a different manner of living and Education are enabled and bound by a special duty to read and interpret these Scriptures to the people renders a new inspiration useless to deliver these things to the world which art and human industry can do God might indeed if he had so pleased have continued his Doctrines and Rules of life by writing them daily in every mans breast and inspiring every individual amongst us But if he had done so at first there had been no need of the Twelve Apostles nor our Saviours own preaching to the world but only to be born and die and rise again and if it were afterwards continued it would render preaching and reading a written word useless ease us of much pains and toil and all our inspired and blown up men of giving themselves or others the trouble to come to preach or to hear them at a Conventicle And so inspired men compendiously preach away their own Office Yet our Saviour constituted a standing Ministry whom he has promised to be with to the end of the world Mat. 28.18 19. And S. Paul tells us that when our blessed Lord ascended up on high he constituted in his stead to continue his Office of teaching and presiding over his Church some Apostles some Prophets some Evangelists some Pastors and Teachers several orders and degrees of men suitable to Ages and various Imployments to preserve the Institutions Doctrines and order of the Gospel for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ To remain so long till all that should be gathered out of the successive ages and generations of men might come in the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Ephes 4 th from the 8 th to the 13 th Verse Now the establishment of such a standing Ministry throughout the ages of the Christian Church which is to endure until the Judgement of the Great day sufficiently baffles all expectations of any particular and continued inspirations to effect the same which the Ministry assisted by the received Rule and ordinary conduct of Gods Holy Spirit can well accomplish The constitution of the one is so opposite to and inconsistent with the other that none but madmen can believe both and none but those that are diseased and Lunatick can expect inspiration to such purposes that ever considered the constitutions of Christianity it evacuating all the Oeconomy of the Gospel 3. Suppose there were such an impulse or inspiration to be expected Yet how should those who are to be guided by what they that pretend to it deliver know that they are really inspired who so confidently conduct and lead the people since they do no real Miracles nor use such convincing arguments either from the nature of those Principles they propound
value of things before we receive them that counterfeit coin may not claim the same priviledge with what is instamp'd with Caesar's Image nor an enterance opened for the Pope of Rome riding in a Kirk born on the backs of those that know not what they carry that they may bring Popery in triumph to us like the Grecians lodged in the belly of that Wooden and insensible Horse that entred Troy and sacked the City and so gain'd that by an easie strategem which ten years siege could not effect For these and such like reasons if men will now hearken to any I have chosen this Subject to Discourse on that if possible we may separate the chaff from the wheat distinguish betwixt the Doctrines of Apostles and those of Devils and mark out the Spirit of Antichrist that it may be known from that of our Saviour that names may no longer confound things nor Satan be received by any of us though he transforms himself into an Angel of light lest we mistake that for Samuel in his Mantle which only the Witch of Endor raises And therefore let us not believe every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they are of God because many false Prophets are gone into the world And from these words I shall raise my Discourse In this Epistle S. John endeavours to confirm Christians in the profession and practice of the Christian Religion notwithstanding all Objections to the contrary and therfore gives them sufficient caution to beware 1. Of such Heresies as destroy the foundation such as interfer'd with the great Doctrines and Authority of the Messiah such as under some great pretences of purity and preciseness might introduce Factions and Schisms and dissolve that strict love and union which ought to be among the Professors of the Gospel These things some were prone unto in the first and early times of Christianity As soon as the Church had put forth leaves the Caterpillars were ready to devour them 2. Because the Church of Christ was planted in the midst of Jewish Superstition and Heathen Idolatry and a Sect was now sprung up in the world that under the names of Christians had provided Principles which in times of danger might equally suit with both or either and so could shelter themselves from one storm and raise another if the wind blew from either quarter The Apostle therefore bids men to beware of Idolatry this being a plain renunciation of their Religion as Heresie would both maim and wound it Little children sayes he keep your selves from Idols and what he closes his Epistle with is what we all close our prayers with And that we may be also delivered from the insinuations or Society of both these sorts let all the people say Amen From the consideration of this design of our Apostle we may plainly see how suitable this whole Epistle is to the present humours and distractions among us and how soon were the advice imbraced it would cure us of those languishing distempers under which we seem to faint and die The extremities of disease vex and torture us and no sooner have we got off a cold fit which makes us almost shake and shiver into ashes but the hot one comes on which fires and almost is ready to consume us Nay a strange mixture of both encounter us rather than we shall recover and live and those things which the vigour and strength of our constitution is able to baffle whilst separate and apart being conjoined create a new disease which troubles the Physician and puts him to the utmost of his skill though I hope it will never be able to baffle him or leave us to be a prey to vermine or the great disease and pest of men Let us follow the rules of this Apostle that what ever injuries our bodies may suffer which in too many are Martyrs already by the great fears and uncertainties of their minds our souls may be safe and secure and kept unblameable to the coming of the Lord Jesus Let us be united in our common profession not staggered with the high pretences of others nor let us yet relax our diligence from the discourses of any that will at all adventures be secure among our selves But whatever notions of infallibility on the one hand or present and particular inspiration on the other shall be presented to us to debauch us from our Principles Let us well examine before we believe receive nothing that may contradict natural Religion or what is superadded in the word of God that publick and plainly declared revelation to which there need no additions to make the man of God wise unto salvation But let us follow the Apostles advice and try the Spirits whether they are of God because many false Prophets are gone out into the world By the word Spirit here is plainly meant any one that under a pretence of Inspiration or assistance from the Spirit publishes any new Doctrine to the world in the age of the Gospel and so includes both Papists and Enthusiasts The one tying the Spirit to the Chair of the Pope the other to their own Dreams and Phancies And this interpretation as it is generally assented to is plain and open to every man that will either consider the scope of the Epistle or the reason of this advice of the Apostle why we should not believe every Spirit because many false Prophets are come forth into the world and therefore we are to examine the Doctrines which any pretender to the Spirit teaches lest we are led by the authority of any into snares that may captivate and destroy our souls Now although this caution of Saint John primarily relates to the Gnostick defection yet it is a direction to all Ages and may guard us from all the pretensions of men that under a specious authority from the Spirit of truth vent false Doctrines to the World in any period of the Christian Religion Because both the Duty and the Argument to inforce it will be of a perpetual concernment as long as false Prophets come forth into the world Yet because the Gnosticks are most immediately reflected on as being the Antichrist so early appearing in the Christian world to defeat this Religion under a denomination from it boasting some extraordinary knowledge when they were men both ignorant and vile we must enquire into the particular reason why the Apostle in this place cautions men to beware of these whose faults were so scandalous that they seem manifest to all The reason of this next to that which is more general the proneness of men to any error that may gratifie themselves and become either their security or pleasure is the same why the sin against the Holy Ghost shall neither be forgiven in this world nor in the world to come because the Gnosticks plainly destroyed the Gospel although by a different Argument from the former The former against whom that severe though deserved Sentence was pronounced invalidated all our Saviours Miracles which proved
knew himself to be Fore-runner our Saviour returned no answer but this Go your way sayes he and tell John what things ye have seen and heard how that the blind see the lame walk the lepers are cleansed the deaf hear the dead are raised to the poor the Gospel is preached Luke 7.22 By this intimating that such Miracles were sufficient to convince him that he was the Messiah to whom such power was given from above Thus he endeavours also to convince the Jews by the argument of his Miracles The same works that I do bear witness of me that the Father hath sent me John 5.36 Now as by this argument our Saviour proved his own Commission so when he sent forth his Apostles and the first Planters of his Religion into the World he gave to them the same power to work Miracles for confirmation of their Doctrine Heal the sick sayes he cleanse the lepers raise the dead cast out Devils Matth. 10.8 And accordingly they proved their Doctrine to be Divine and confirmed their Commissions to the World preaching as S. Paul did 1 Cor. 2.4 not so much by Logical argument or in the manner of the Grecian Philosophers way of reasoning But in demonstration of the Spirit and of power When they argued from the Old Testament to the New and did Miracles to confirm all This has been Gods method in the World of evidencing his Mission of Prophets unto men to declare his Messages to them by which he attested his own inspirations which the most confident affirmations of the persons inspired without such plain and publick attestations could never have created a belief of Especially if they delivered Articles of Faith and things not demonstrable to the reason of mankind Thus when God gave Moses authority to lead and preside over the Israelites he endued him with a power to work Miracles to attest his Commission Exod. 4. And when the Prophets were to make any new Revelation to Princes or people or when God sent them on any strange errand he added confirmation to their authority by giving them power to fore-tell something which he brought to pass or else to work some extraordinary Sign or Miracle that those to whom the Message was sent might be convinced that God sent the Prophet But yet because it is often so difficult for men to distinguish betwixt a Miracle and a Wonder who know not the utmost power of Art or Nature Especially they are ignorant of the skill and force of Devils God has still in the last place given Rules for our farther direction in this weighty affair That the fancies of men may not by any subtilty whatsoever be impos'd upon with the seeming authority of Divine Inspiration God knew that the Devil would endeavour in this to imitate the Divine Power as well as appear like an Angel of light when either might impose delusions upon the World That the art and industry of designing men might by a previous acquaintance with Natural Causes so alter their simplicity by mixtures and experiment or meet with such a strange disposition of nature lucky to them as by the application of these to the present conjunction of their own intentions they might take advantage to insinuate their subtile and false Doctrines into the minds of the vulgar or credulous and many times into those that were more rational and learned Or else by a fortunate prediction of something that might come to pass assume to themselves the honour and authority of Prophets and then impose upon and delude the World For the prevention therefore of such great and otherwise unavoidable mischiefs the most gracious God out of his infinite love to mankind has given them three other Rules by which they might and may measure Prophets and their Doctrines 1. If any pretended their authority by fore-telling things to come If they fail'd in any of their Predictions 't was a sign that God never sent them to deliver that which the Prediction was an argument to confirm And that not only because the great God never confirms his Truths to the World by falshood or deceit But because he has cautioned us not to believe them In the 18 th of Deut. v. 22. When a Prophet speaketh in the Name of the Lord if the thing follow not nor come to pass this is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken but the Prophet hath spoken it presumptuously Thou shalt not be afraid of him 2. Supposing that one who took upon him the name of a Prophet and should work Wonders as Antichrist and others under the New Testament for confirmation of his Doctrine and Authority Yet if his Doctrines tend to the evacuating principles implanted in the minds of men and destroying the reasonable propositions of the Natural Religion of mankind it was an apparent sign of a false Prophet For sayes the Text If there arise among you a Prophet or a Dreamer of dreams and giveth thee a sign or a wonder and the sign or the wonder come to pass whereof he spake unto thee saying Let us go after other Gods which thou hast not known and let us serve them Thou shalt not hearken to the words of that Prophet or that Dreamer of dreams Deut. 13. at the beginning 3. In relation to both Natural and Instituted Worship God having now given us a Rule no pretension of Prophecy or Miracle must ever draw us into the opinions of men that thwart or contradict the Divine Establishments already confirmed by the same argument And this is evident partly from that fore-quoted Text Deut. 13. where the reasons why that false Prophet should not be received that endeavoured to draw men from the innate Principles of Natural Religion are 1. Because God by permitting that false Prophet proved mens stedfastness in Religion 2. Because whatever Signs and Wonders were done to confirm a Doctrine men were so far to adhere to the true God as to walk after him and to fear him to keep his commandments to obey his voice to serve and to cleave unto him But this is yet more fully proved from Isa 8.20 When any should endeavour to draw the people unto Wizards and to such as had familiar Spirits The Prophet advises them to try all by the Law and the Testimony because if any speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them And if these directions were good under the Law much more will they satisfie any reasonable men under the Gospel this being the last publick declaration of Gods Will that he intends to make to mankind till the final period and general dissolution For though we sayes the Apostle or an Angel from heaven preach any other Gospel let him be accursed Gal. 1.8 And he tells the World that at the final period God shall judge the secrets of men according to the Gospel Rom. 2.16 Therefore the Gospel is to be the standing Law to the end of the World Nor needs there any other it being the
Unity of the Body of Christ to encrease our knowledge in the Christian Doctrine and prevent our being deceived and led into error Hence was Timothy's Office which he had received by the Ordination of S. Paul stiled a gift 2 Tim. 1.6 And lest these appointments should not be accounted the products and designation of the Holy Spirit These gifts are attributed to the Spirit Who is in himself one uniform Being though these were divers according to the variety of times and seasons And they are all such manifestations of the Spirit as are given to men to profit withal 1 Cor. 12. Now as Gods Providence Rules the World though we can neither discover his Councels nor are able to account for the manner of his operation As he disposes of Crowns and Kingdoms determines our dayes and disposes our Habitations though these things are accomplished by an order and train of second Causes severally designing and concurring to the end So does the Holy Spirit dispose the way of the Education of some and incline their minds to the Office of Ministers in the Church of Christ that Gods people may not perish for want of knowledge But there may be some alwayes to preach the Word and to convey Christs Doctrine from Generation to Generation That his Church being built upon the true confession of an Holy Faith as on a firm and well fixed Rock the gates of Hell may never be able to prevail against it Matth. 16.16 and 18. Now a sufficient number of such men distinguished by their Education and manner of living from those that are more encompassed with the noise and disturbing affairs of this life being prepared by a previous train of circumstances and having the advantages of their own parts and understandings And being by such means able to see into the notions of those that have gone before them having been used more to reading consideration and retirement than other men and to weigh the just consequences of things They must needs attain a competent ability in the matters of Religion to which they most apply themselves And they may be capable through the assistance of that Spirit who calls and gives them Authority in their Office to become instruments in his hands to guide men into the wayes of truth In all the Arts and Mysteries of the World we deem it a natural way to learn by obtaining one that is skilful himself to teach us the Principles and Grounds of his Knowledge And we more certainly and easily obtain our design when we have such a one to instruct us So is it in matters of Religion 'T is a natural way to inform our selves in those things that concern our Salvation when we have not only an an inspired Rule But men Educated into the knowledge of those things that prepare them for the understanding the Mysteries of Religion and are afterwards appointed by due Ceremony and the direction of the Holy Ghost to guide us into all truth Especially if in the last place we consider that the Spirit of truth confirms those truths contained in the Scriptures unto the minds of men by co-operating with the external appointed Ministrations by an internal work upon the understanding and affections That there is such a thing as a Divine illumination yet continued amongst Christians as our Church owns it by her Prayers so no man can reasonably contradict it Not that it does render any man infallible as the Romanists affirm Nor inspire men with any new Doctrine or Rules of life besides what it has revealed in the Scriptures as some Enthusiasts adventure to determine Yet we must not to avoid the extreams forsake so useful an Article of belief that gives God the glory of his power and keeps us dependent upon him and is so great a foundation of our prayers and praises Truth is not to be forsaken by the Jews because the Samaritans may be of the same opinion Nor shall I like the Jews in Barbary refuse to eat of that Meat which is dress'd by one of a different perswasion Or to drink in the same Cup with a Moor when he is a person of a wholsome Constitution until it has undergone the Ceremony of Washing Truth in this World will be blended with error and 't is the prudence as well as piety of a Christian to make a separation of the Wheat from the Chaff and not to slight and refuse the one because the other has been mix'd with it 'T is true indeed as Mr. Hales expresses it The Promise of the Spirit to the Apostles which should lead them into all truth was made good unto them by private and secret informing their understandings with high and heavenly Mysteries which never entered into the conceit of man And to us this promise is made good because what was written by Revelation in their hearts for our instruction they have written in their Books But yet this is not all the assistance the Spirit gives us For though he does not inspire us with any new Doctrine you he opens our understandings to the apprehension of the old I am far from admitting the conceit of an impulse to be the rule and measure of our lives because we know what mischiefs have overspread the World when propositions have been vailed with such a pretence and it may be our own as well as S. Austin's observation Tanto sunt ad seditionem faciliores quanto sibi videntur spiritu excellere Men are the more prone to sedition by how much the more they seem to excell in their inspiration yet there cannot appear the same danger where the Spirit only assists our understandings to apprehend those truths which are already deliver'd and inclines our wills and affections to embrace them when according to the direction of S. John we are not so credulous as to believe every Spirit but to try the Spirits whether they are of God or no 1 John 4.1 Now then only may we reasonably conclude our understandings to be influenced by the Spirit when our notions agree with the written Word For to the Law and to the Testimony sayes the Prophet if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no morning or light in them Isa 8.20 There are divers means natural in themselves and rationally appointed by Almighty God for the informing men in the truths that concern them Reading meditation and hearing the Word are proper methods to inform our understandings and to guide us into the way of truth But prayer is therefore wont to be superadded not only to compose our minds and make them fit for Divine Contemplation by a sequestration of our thoughts from those external objects that by intermixing themselves with those that are more spiritual confound our Idea's and notices of things and render our minds more loose and extravagant But because Prayer supplicates those aids and assistances of the Spirit that facilitate our apprehensions of truth by removing objects that crumble and disorder them and it
will yet remain in our selves and our very travail becomes our punishment till at last we die and perish in a Wilderness which becomes the enterance to greater darkness Alas the Christian Religion though much debauched by the corrupt intermixtures and disgraced by the vicious lives of men is not now to be revealed to the world nor are its Records so hidden or lost that the Principles of it are no where to be found nor are men yet so blockish and unlearned that they cannot read so as to understand them If men were so blind those that are as blind might lead them into the ditch But the principles of Christianity besides what was revealed in the Old Testament are now above sixteen hundred years standing and have been handed down from age to age with their original records And therefore this Religion becomes matter of fact not invention And all the question must now be What was at first delivered The wise and grave reason of men must not controll the Wisdom of God nor make another thing of that which God sent his Son to declare to the World and has been conveyed to us with as great a certainty as any thing antecedent to the time we live in We are not now by discourse or inspiration to make to our selves another Gospel under the notion or pretence of the old This is not a thing subject to the Maxims of every squirting and half-witted Philosopher nor to be moulded according to the intrigues and designs of a subtle and projecting Statesman It is not to be spued out of the mouth of the Leviathan nor cunningly to be fleered out of the Works of Plato nor blended with any Doctrines of Epicurus that may prepare men for an indulgence to their vice or perswade them to disbelieve some of the greatest and most substantial points of Christianity Our Religion is now too old to be made new nor must we model that which has run through so many Ages by any tricks or devices of our own nor must it be servant to any mens ambition as if their secular interest or opinion were to be their guide or phancy putting on the name and garb of conscience were to be a Rule for such as call themselves Christians To the Law and to the Testimony sayes the Prophet if any speak not according to this rule it is because they have no light in them Isa 8.20 And we have a more sure word of Prophecy sayes S. Peter Epist 2. Chap 1. ver 19. whereunto you do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place If we forsake therefore the tryal of the Doctrines and Pretences of men by the Scriptures which rightly understood are our only safe Rule we have no way to distinguish a bold pretender from him who is inspired from above If such persons were now to be expected after the Canon of Scripture the Rule for mens lives have been so long ago compleated For by inclining to believe any new revelation beyond the Scripture we suppose that an insufficient Rule the sufficiency of which true English Church Protestants have alwayes defended with success And if the revelation be contrary unto it it makes that Spirit that dictated the first a lyar if the latter be received and supposed true But grant what men of such an easie belief and such speedy resolutions that admit of as speedy changes would without any proof have yielded to them Yet I would fain know how men in their circumstances are able any way to satisfie themselves concerning the proposition which they pretend to be inspired in and thereby authorized to deliver unto others I am afraid confidence will be their only argument to recommend it to others and opinion interest and a strong presumption or what is worse Atheism and Knavery to themselves For 1. supposing the Spirit of God in its Dictates unto men alwayes uniform and consistent with it self how can there be different inspirations to prescribe various Rules opposite to each other at the same time for men to guide their belief and conversations The Apostle tells us that as there is but one God and one Lord with undoubted authority over the whole World so there is but one Spirit to influence the minds of men one Baptism that enters them into the Church of Christ and but one Faith to be embraced by them And therefore the Church is but one Body Eph. 4.4 5 6. How then can we reasonably admit the pretence of any mans inspiration that avers he speaks from the Dictates of the Spirit which is within him to publish any Rules of Religion different from what we have received before And if such a pretender means only his own Spirit the soul which acts within the body we can understand no more than his judgement and opinion Though phrases by such canting are rendered equivocal to startle the infirm but are foreign to our purpose when reflected on by considering men We well know that the design of Christianity was to unite the World under one profession and in religious affairs to subject it to the same rules of life How then can any with Religion or modesty pretend another inspiration for new directions when the former if they were ever true are sufficiently in the New Testament declared to be perpetual and obligatory till Christs coming to judgement when he shall pass sentence upon the whole World and deliver us into our everlasting states no less than his Mediatory Kingdom back unto the Father These are such inconsistent things that none but mad men can now expect any inspirations to deliver new Doctrines to the World 2. I would fain learn of any bold man that publishes under a pretence of inspiration new Doctrines different from the old how he knows himself to be inspired We find those that were formerly so besides some certain token to themselves which neither we nor our pretenders can now give a certain account of though we may some probable conjectures could work Miracles for the settlement of belief both in themselves and others But no such things appear now though lying wonders are published to the World carrying only the testimony of those that invent the story or others that are hired to sacrifice the truth to the confidence of an impostor and therefore one would think such things as these should at the utmost only deceive the simple whilst they that ensnare them having other designs beyond their reach vent what they do not believe themselves that they may accomplish their own carnal ends by the religious easiness and simplicity of others For upon the view of those various Sects visible either abroad or among our selves that any way pretend to be inspired to what they deliver to others we find them publishing by this authority doctrines to be believed and Rules of life quite different nay opposite to one another and pursue each other according to the advantages they receive with a greater eagerness and hotter
to endeavour to imprint Characters on the Air you may inscribe more durable Divinity on the dust which every wind drives to and fro or impress more lasting footsteps on the Shore which the next Tide washes away S. Jude tells us at the 12 th Verse of his Epistle that they are Clouds without water without any weight to ballance them and are not only light as the Air but as inconstant too S. Peter sayes that they are Wells without water Clouds that are carried with a tempest but yet such to whom the midst of darkness is reserved for ever 2 Pet. 2. ch 17. Certainly such men must needs be wrong who by frequent shifting declare to the world that they do not know which opinion is right but like sticks and straws are carried with the stream and alwayes swim down with the River Their faith must needs stagger who thus expose it to every stroke and certainly he must dye and perish that with a naked breast is willing to receive all the wounds that his adversaries will give him If such men are to be deem'd religious sober men would become prophane and if these are they that make a Church the more rational part will enter into a Conventicle or any place distant from these What! must a man be a Fool to become a Prophet or cannot he be spiritual unless he be mad Must Religion that brings peace to the world be the only bone of contention among men which they cast at one anothers heads Shall that which teaches us self-denyal patience humility and obedience be pleaded for a breach of all these Shall our Saviour's Kingdom be of this World notwithstanding his own protestation to the contrary Or those that are zealous for the Doctrine of S. Paul propagate it by that Sword which yet S. Peter was rebuked for using Will men be bold to assume to themselves the names of Christians and yet act more cruelties than the Turks Or call the holy Jesus their Master and yet openly violate all his Laws Can they bow their knees to him and yet presently carry him away to be crucified Can men think it reasonable that a faith should be manured with the blood of others that was planted at first in the Martyrdom of Believers Or can any be supposed to have received power from on high to constitute our Saviour a divider of inheritances when he himself has refused the Office and gave the person a rebuke that desired him to accept it by asking him that question Luke 12.14 Man who made me a judge or a divider over you In vain is it for men designing disturbances in the World to pretend that they follow the commands of Heaven when they knock the Crown of our Saviour against their Sovereigns or fight withone Scepter against the other unless they can reach high enough to pull the Sun and the Stars from the Firmament that no light may shine upon the World Or void the Gospel by inspiration The Protestant world is too wise now to be again thus fool'd Men must chuse a night for such designs as these and stay yet a little longer if they intend to meet with Bats and Owles The age is not dark and melancholy enough to bring in Monkery among these nor has ignorance that Mother of Popish devotion yet sufficiently prepared our minds to receive the Doctrines of Papists or Enthusiasts Nor are the brains of rational and sober men yet beat out that there may be room for Dreams and Visions Nor have we so forgotten the Scriptures as to be guided only by pretended inspiration or to be frighted out of our Faith and Principles by every new and unexpected apparition Nor are we so ignorant of mens devices as to be baffled out of our Religion by those that are deceived themselves Or to accomplish designs of malice or ambition would subtily endeavour to impose on others We know the difference betwixt virtue and vice and have a Rule to judge Doctrines and Preachers by and know how to judge of those that now pretend to present inspiration and those that follow such pretenders And we well hope that we shall not twice in the same age be catch'd and entangled in the same snare To prevent which dismal and fatal ruine permit me in the last place to exhort you to what I cannot command with the sacred Apostle though the World was then also to be gain'd by intreaty as appears by his kind compellation Beloved A word that is used I will not say practised too by men that love fornication in Religion and too often without a metaphor by those who are far differrent from the spirit and life of our Apostle Yea so often that it takes up time in their discourses fills the room of sence and is therefore worn out and as they manage it is grown ridiculous Yet let me exhort men that are beloved of the Lord and not without reason by me also and all honest Christians not to believe every Spirit not to be so soft and easie when you have received a standing Rule so well proved and conveyed to the world to admit of new Doctrines that contradict it or to attend persons that boldly assume as if they were inspired with an equal confidence as if all were Apostles There are many in the world that from S. Paul's advice to prove all things keep themselves in the midst of doubts and perplexities and never love to travel long but where Clouds cover the face of Heaven and attend only to such Doctrines whose darkness keeps them in perpetual ignorance and so the sound is grateful only when it is uncertain And thus with them to prove all things is only to hear without examination and never to hold fast that which is good At this rate a ravening Wolf may be received though he has not so much as sheeps cloathing and to be real Worshippers of an Asses Head with which both Jews and Primitive Christians were falsly charged would be a thing of great merit and honour But shall the cause of God be any longer a cloak for the malice of the Devil the infernal Lake be placed in the Skies or men that have their wits about them mistake the flames of Hell for Heaven Shall the Devil lead us with as good assurance as if he were an Angel of light Or any walk by so loose a principle as cannot distinguish betwixt false Prophets and true Many men are such strange fatalists that they become altogether indifferent in their Choice and concluding their Fortunes to be written on their foreheads they care not whether they make any at all This is an Opinion which when in its consequence pursued will make those that really espouse it and with equal reason to be as regardless of temporal welfare as they are of their eternal and take a great deal of pains and care either to do ill or nothing at all to any purpose Then indeed men might as securely go into a Pest-house as
take the Air receive fire into their bosoms and yet never fear burning One might endeavour to beat a thousand and we might run on the points of naked Swords without more danger of wounds or death than if we were at quiet in our Beds or guarded in the midst of Troops and Armies But whatever courage such strange Principles may seem to inspire men withal Yet to be sure they are not breath'd from Heaven nor inspired themselves These Doctrines may probably make stout Soldiers but never will make a good Christian Suited indeed they are to such as think a Sword the best mean to propagate Religion which is the reason why the Turk embraces them But they thwart and contradict such a Gospel as brought peace to all who will embrace it and not propagate its belief by war or blood by open force or secret conspiracy Alas men had need to be wary when eternal welfare is in hazard and endeavour to play their game well when their own Salvation lies at stake We know by sad and woful experience that many false Prophets are gone abroad into the world And shall we still with an indifferent though equal affection pursue all We may then lodge a viper in our bosoms drink Poyson instead of Potions swallow a Serpent instead of a Fish and eat the very stones for Bread we may thus safely halt betwixt two opinions and be both for God and Baal Christ and Mammon may become equal and it will be no matter what we worship so as we worship any thing at all But 't is a plain sign of a wanton palate that must be tasting every dish And when the Manna is set before us 't is evident that we loath it if we desire Quails If the messengers of Sathan may transform themselves into the Ministers of the Gospel as well as the Devil into an Angel of light we had need to view men before we entertain them and examine Doctrines before we receive them Will any rational and wise man venture on a precipice without necessity or take pleasure in such hazard to have the vanity and glory of relating it when one slip proves irrecoverable and his fall bruises him all to pieces And yet this is the state of those men who at all adventures attend the fancies and imaginations of others or without trial receive their own They are like persons travelling in a Wood who may sooner meet with Beasts of prey than any men either to relieve or direct them How easie is it for those that are once out of the way and travelling on without knowledge or direction to be either lost like a man in a Wilderness or run among the Tents of their enemies or blunder upon that which they have lost their way to escape They may mistake Rome in the dark to be their own City and think Tyber to be the Thames and may lodge there if they are thus deluded when they think they are safe in their own Beds The Wolves are now abroad in the World nay such as will neither be frightned with a Drum nor yet be charmed and tamed by a Fiddle or a Pipe Let not the Sheep then approach them nor the flock of Christ feed nigh them lest the Shepherds themselves are forced to fly when they can no longer govern or defend them Those therefore that are Baptized into the Christian profession that have vowed obedience to the institutions of the Gospel ought to consider that their Religion is not now to chuse But that they have engaged in the Christian profession and are to live according to its directions And therefore are to be so far from believing any pretended inspirations contrary to these Rules that they must abandon them as impious and abominable their everlasting welfare depends upon it and eternity is not a thing to be played with nor Salvation to be staked at hazard No zeal nor confidence of others must shake or alter our resolutions Nor must we change upon any extravagant motions of our own We must not like Barnabas Gal. 2.13 be carried away with the dissimulation of the Jews nor taken with any gaudy Idolatry of the Gentiles but hold fast the form of sound words and contend with earnestness for that faith which was once delivered unto the Saints We must adhere to that standing Ministry instituted by our Saviour and continued to us through Ages and Generations not forsaking the assembling our selves together as the manner of some is Because if we thus sin wilfully in renouncing our profession when we have received the knowledge of the truth there remains no more Sacrifice for sin but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries Heb. 10.25 For if those that despised Moses's Law died without mercy under two or three Witnesses Of how much sorer punishment shall they be thought worthy who tread under foot the Son of God and count the blood of the Covenant a common thing and by their wilful revolt do despite to the Spirit of Grace S. Paul tells us that Christ is the head of the Church the rest are only subordinate unto him from whom the whole body fitly join'd together maketh increase of the body unto the edifying it self in love And therefore he exhorts that we be no more children toss'd to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lay in wait to deceive Ephes 4.14 c. And shall we to whom our Faith is Ancient be more easie to be drawn away than they who had but newly received it God forbid that we should so disgrace our profession when they that are engaged in a false opinion can die resolutely though not for this only yet without renouncing it If they do much upon principles of honour shall not we do more upon those of Religion Shall we that have been bred into setled Maximes be drawn aside by a mad-man or a fool if he is but able to pronounce inspiration This is the way to entertain any Doctrines of men though never so wild if they will be so hardy as to suffer for them and to take the pack of a common Pedler for the burden of the Lord if we find him to stoop and crouch under it Thus we may be carried by the Spirit into the Wilderness and take him for an Angel that ministers to us But we are sufficiently cautioned against such mistakes if we will but follow the directions of the Scriptures For our Saviour has cautioned us against false Christs and false Prophets and the Author to the Hebrews advises men that they should not be carried about with divers and strange Doctrines because it is a good thing that the hearts be established with grace i. e. the Gospel Heb. 13.9 And we had need all of us to receive it and be exceeding cautious and wary in this to guess at Wolves by their howling and devouring let their cloathing be
what it will that no subtilty may circumvent us nor creeping into houses lead the silly women captive nor cause us to stray after them We know the Devil is both cunning and diligent and that he suits his temptations to the various interests and dispositions of men that he walks about like a roaring Lion but 't is only to seek whom he may devour 1 Pet. 5.8 The Scribes and Pharisees were pains-taking men For they compassed Sea and Land to make a proselyte but when they had made him he became twice more the child of Hell than themselves Matth. 23.15 Let us not then under the pretence of new discoveries forsake that which has been from the beginning but let the same mind be in us which was in Christ Jesus and according to S. Pauls advice Rom. 16.17 18. Let us mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine we have learned and avoid them because they are such as serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple Then as it follows the God of peace shall bruise Sathan under our feet shortly Let us live in that unity which our holy Religion prescribes to us not raise or abett disturbances in the world but endeavour to fulfil S. Pauls joy and make our Ministers task easie in being like minded having the same love being of one accord and of one judgement that nothing be done through strife or vain glory Philip. 2. at the beginning For if we are drawn by hearkening to the various pretences of men that yet account themselves inspired to be alwayes biting and devouring one another we shall be consumed one of another And this we are not only in our own age taught by experience but the Apostle has long ago admonished men of this Gal. 5.15 Let us live therefore like those that have professed rules of faith and conversation endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace And then if we thus live in this world we shall be entertained in the glory of the next CHAP. IV. HAving thus discours'd the Apostles Caution and evidenced to you that every one that pretends to Revelation is not to be believ'd I proceed to the second particular I propounded which contains a Direction how we may disentangle our selves from those perplexities and different opinions that various men under the same pretension puzzle us withal But try the Spirits whether they are of God Now as this is a metaphorical expression taken from those who bring Metals to the Touchstone that they may discern the difference betwixt them that they may be able to value them proportionably to their worth So to try the Spirits is to examine the Doctrines that such pretenders deliver to the world and to discern betwixt true and false and accordingly judge whether they are from God or no. It was the duty of the Priests under the Law to shew the people the difference betwixt holy and prophane and to cause men to discern betwixt the clean and the unclean Ezek. 44.23 And the duty is continued under the Gospel in relation to the Doctrines and pretensions of men For as our Saviour foretold that many false Prophets would arise in his Name with pretensions to his power and authority so we find them too suddenly after this prediction to have gone abroad into the World and even yet continuing their boldness and impiety dividing the Church and not only troubling particular men but whole Societies overturning Thrones dissolving Government amongst mankind and raising confusions not only in Secular but Religious affairs To prevent therefore such unsufferable disturbances that Religion may not cover malice or ambition nor give any countenance to the humours or impieties of men we must endeavour to preserve this entire without any mixtures of villany or imposture and by some certain characters know what properly belongs to it that we may not lye open to the fancies or designs of those who cunningly ruine our principles and profession And since new Lights are continually exposed to the view of men which they too easily gaze at till their eyes are dazled we must endeavour to distinguish these blazing Comets from the true and fixed Stars in the Firmament by which we are to be guided on Earth and directed in our way to Heaven We must try both Doctrines and those that publish them whether they are of God because many false Prophets are gone out into the world If you will take an old Apostles advice against the pretended infallibility of new he advises you to prove all things but still to hold fast that which is good 1 Thess 5.21 We must try the Doctrines Opinions Examples nay even the Actions of all pretenders to revelation for by their fruits ye shall know them sayes our Saviour And what we call Tender Consciences as well as those that are very raw being rubb'd often by reason of their former commissions when they are not guided by a well balanced judgement are most apt to have secret combats within themselves and to be sensible of the least touch upon them For the best things in this World have some inconvenience still attending them and that which in some cases is good with other circumstances becomes evil and most men that have an itch upon their ears have had a scab first upon their minds The best Gold is most ductile and a Tender Conscience if the judgement be not the governour of the affections is easily enslaved to such principles as suit with passion and make impressions on the temperaments and bodily dispositions of men A seal we know makes the fairest and most lasting impression upon such Wax as is first softned and a tender Conscience where the head is as soft as the passions plyable easily receives the next Image though to the blotting out and defacing the old We had need therefore when any man comes under a pretence of some new inspiration to examine well both the person and his doctrine and receive to our own the skill of others especially those whom God has set over us in the Lord we may otherwise forsake the true Israel when Ephraim and Manasseh shall combine together or singly encounter it And we have been lately and are not yet out of danger so vex'd with parties different from one another whilst one extreme rides the other that the caution against believing every Spirit cannot too often be repeated nor our trial of all Preachers and Doctrines be too frequently urged and practised Our Saviour gives his Disciples a caution who yet had the view of those Miracles which we only believe that they should take heed that no man deceive them Mat. 24.4 that they might not entertain a secret enemy instead of a bosom friend And certainly we have much more reason to beware now although there were false pretenders then For if they durst when our Saviour was in the world design
make fools of others that they that cheat them may be accounted wise and those who are thus imposed upon disclaim the use of their own reason and have eyes of their own but see not which is all one as to have none at all And it must appear very strange that any man having a clear sight should yet refuse to guide himself but chuse to be led about like a Dog in a Halter CHAP. V. THere is yet one Argument more why we should try and examine Doctrines that are pretended to be the effects of inspiration and that is what the Apostle makes the reason of his Caution and Direction because many false Prophets are gone out into the world Now since these are many enough to boast the advantage of their number to the staggering many weak men and frightening that Authority which should suppress them and yet they remain false Prophets under what specious pretences soever they appear There is great reason why we should prove and try them that we may not be led away with the error of the wicked and extreamly hazard if not ruine our souls For in matters of Religion especially where divers Opinions of the same thing are exposed to us our first business must alwayes be according to our capacity and power to settle our minds by a fixed choice of such Principles and fundamentals of which we have such good assurance as may fully convince us that they are true and not false and according to these to direct our lives Which can never be done without enquiry and judging for our selves of those Doctrines that under pretence of a Divine Authority are by any propounded to our belief Since therefore there are so many false Prophets fluttering in the world there is reason that we should examine and try them and not believe every one that boldly affirms he came from God lest we entertain thieves and robbers in the room of hearty and honest friends and instead of receiving a faithful Guide we retain one that deludes us out of our way till at last he lodges us in the chambers of Hell instead of carrying us up to Heaven But since no man comes with so great a pretence as immediate inspiration or to deliver Gods will to the world but that he will offer something to recommend both himself and message since he knows he speaks to men having the same faculties with himself who have at least their own reason to guide their choice and cannot if they are at all considerate be rash in their entertainment of those Doctrines wherein their eternal welfare is concerned It must of necessity quicken our endeavours to try and sift the Doctrines of men to the utmost of our power and the more because of the plausible Arguments that deceivers insinuate themselves by into the hearts and affections of others whose poyson may appear wholsom to the eye that yet gripes and swells the bowels Amongst many things therefore that render false Prophets difficult to be discerned I shall instance in some that upon the view of them and discovery of their deceit we may use the utmost diligence in our trial and be the better prepared to entertain those Rules by which we may discern true inspiration from that which is false and only pretended First They will inveigh against the Principles you have already received and those that are the guides of your souls As well knowing that a new building cannot be erected on that ground on which another stood without demolishing the old removing the materials and clearing the foundation And this they alwayes do in proportion according to the degrees of alteration which they design till at last perhaps they introduce among you golden Calves instead of the worship of the God of Israel And if their enterprize be thus crown'd with a joyful success their language will be like that which we read 1 King 12.18 Behold O Israel the Gods that brought thee out of the land of Egypt and then we must with prostration worship them False Prophets will come to you in sheeps cloathing the ravening Wolf shall not appear till he has an opportunity to devour you The Principles of these would fill us with too much horror and amazement should they appear all at once and that before prejudice were removed They endeavour therefore to gain by a gradual advancement upon us abating the strength of custom and education first startling and then seducing us using methods to invalidate the old before they settle new Principles Nay if they can but make us indifferent betwixt both either by argument or debauchery their work then waits only a fitting opportunity But if the resistance be so great that they cannot wholly captivate at once they will assault where we are weakest baffle us by degrees and introduce one point dependently on another till at last we become wholly theirs before we are sensible of so great a change as they by succession have wrought among us 'T is a vast advantage they gain against us if they can but render us lazy in our enquiries or cause us to undervalue our Guides Which they will never be wanting in as long as an evil tongue can asperse or secret whisperings can do men injury who are not present to answer for themselves Nay as long as boldness can confront modesty Or men that assume not equal advantages may be either sworn or Hector'd into silence Let these designing men but once bring your Teachers into contempt and it will not be long er'e they drive them into corners The former has been long attempting and not without considerable success God defend us against the latter lest the people are destroyed for want of knowledge and ignorance becomes the Mother of devotion For we know what such devotion means Thus was it in our Saviours time the Jews branded him for an impostor and deceiver that so they might argue his Doctrine to be false and rather than own that his Miracles should prove divine they blasphemously attributed them to the power of the Devil Matth. 12.24 And the Servant is not above his Lord But the same Spirit that in this manner disparaged the Master of the houshold will not be more kind to the family but will make us if he can as he did the Apostles lustrating Sacrifices to expiate for the City and a strange spectacle both to Angels and to men But Secondly These projecting men that come to you with inspired Doctrines till they kill and slay and take possession will gloze over their false principles with all possible art and cunning there shall be no Treason against the person of a Prince when it is their pleasure first to depose him and if he come to an untimely end they kill the man but not the King and all shall be not murder but the execution of Justice when they sentence him by a Church-authority superiour to his own Rebellion then is a just vindication of their own right and they only break
an evasion is a palpable error is apparent from the institution of our Saviour as recorded by all the Evangelists that mention it in all the Gospels where this is repeated For as the essential parts are always set down so we have prescribed Bread and Wine which by a solemn consecration are blessed and separated from common uses to signifie Christs Body and Blood and in a separate manner to represent Christ dead and not united under one Symbol And to whomsoever he gave the Body represented by the Bread the same person received the Blood signified by the Wine contained in the Cup As it appears upon the view of Christs own institution If it be Objected upon the grant of this which none can deny that the Apostles then only received And that the Romanists themselves allow it to the Priests It may from thence with a greater colour be argued that the whole Sacrament ought only to be continued to the Clergy And that the Laity should not receive so much as a part And then the argument will sooner deprive them of all than any one part of it But that I may totally invalidate this scruple and at the same time prove the Papists to be erroneous Let us view the institution as repeated by S. Paul who has in this proved Rome to have err'd and clearly frees us from their imposture Though S. Peter sayes nothing of it 1 Cor. 11.23 I have received of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he brake it and said Take eat this is my Body which is broken for you this do for a remembrance of me After the same manner also he took the Cup when he had supped saying This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood This do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me Now the whole design of this repetition of the first Institution is to rebuke those disorderly practices of the whole body of the Church of Corinth and to regulate all by the Institution of our Saviour And all together as well people as Clergy are told that as often as they eat this Bread and drink this Cup they shew forth the Lords death till he come If this then is to be continued in the Church as a Memorial of Christs Death till his coming again to judge the World which the Church of Rome will not deny It must be an error thus to depart from the first Institution of Christ and the succeeding practice of his blessed Apostles to say nothing of other Ages of the Church to give to the people an half Communion which the Priests will not be contented with themselves and to deliver them only a part of the Sacrament This certainly is such an error as does not only void their infallibility but a crime too Unless the greatest Sacriledge be a vertue And in plain language it certainly concludes that either the Scriptures or the the Romanists are not infallible Secondly I instance in their Prayer in an unknown tongue I mean a language unknown to the people I cannot but wonder if we had no directions in the Book of God concerning this matter that any persons should be so stupid as to petition from God they know not what and to offer that under the notion of a reasonable service which they do not understand For how can that be presented with Faith which they know not whether it be such as God will accept and as becomes them to offer The Priest here may curse the people in the name of the Devil when they think they are bless'd in the name of God But not to prosecute any absurdities consequential to this irrational practice besides what the Scriptures mention designing not at present to handle these things at large 'T is a direct contradiction to that of S. Paul 1 Cor. 14. Chap. 14 15. and 16 Verses For the Apostle having laid down this general direction that all things in the publick Worship should be done to edification He affirms that praying and blessing in unknown tongues did not accomplish this end vers the 12 th and 17 th 1. Because he that prayes in an unknown tongue though he understands it himself becomes unprofitable unto others v. the 14. 2. Because no man that understands not can give his assent or breath forth a wish by saying Amen to a Prayer or Blessing in an unknown tongue ver the 16 th And the Apostle from the whole inferrs this as a rule unto himself That when he prays with the Spirit i. e. in an unknown tongue which was then an immediate gift of the Spirit he would pray with understanding also i. e. so as he understanding it himself might become fruitful unto others by giving them its just interpretation that they who understood not divers languages might be able to say Amen when they were rendered into their own So that it must be an error in the Church of Rome to enjoyn their publick Prayers to be made in an unknown tongue Unless they will invalidate the Scriptures of S. Paul by a blind and unwritten authority from S. Peter Lastly They have lost their pretended infallibility by determining that monstrous and absurd Doctrine of Transubstantiation It cannot be expected when I introduce this point as a proof of another that I should expatiate upon all the absurdities that attend so prodigious a determination As that the same Body may be in a thousand places at once that there may be admitted a penetration of dimensions That a Body may be somewhere where it was not before without changing its place That the whole Body of Christ may be contain'd within the small compass nay in every little part of a Wafer That it may be eat every day yet remain the same still That an irrational creature a Mouse for example may feed upon the Body of our Lord That one thing may be chang'd into another thing which did exist before That a Body may be in a place after the manner of a Spirit Nay that Christ may give his own Body to be eaten by his Disciples whilst yet he remained alive and entire at the Table These and such like are the absurd consequences of Transubstantiation which men must swallow with the substantial Body and Blood of Christ in the Roman Sacrament of the Lords Supper And they require too large a discourse for me to expatiate upon each severally and apart I shall therefore instance in one absurdity or rather a foundation of great impiety such as destroys the authority of the Gospel if this Doctrine of Transubstantiation proves true and is not an error And that is That it destroyes all the certainty of our senses For if that which has the colour and appearance of Bread That which my taste informs is such That which by touching and handling of it seems to be Bread by as great an evidence as can appear to
Heaven to it and a sufficient guide to future action and an assurance that it was both lawful and just Many men when they have for some time brooded upon a thing they are apt then to petition Heaven to inform them of the lawfulness or convenience or the unlawfulness or inconvenience of it And having ended their devotion finding their thoughts to run still in the same chanel into which they had turned and confined them before they conclude this to be a sufficient warrant for them to prosecute and accomplish their design And the eagerness of their intention which proceeds only from their predeterminated resolution they foolishly take for the conduct of the Spirit which they are willing against all reason to think thus guides them to conclude the lawfulness of their desire And this is no inconsiderable hint because in this method many wicked and unlawful actions claim Gods patronage to justifie and defend them And what impious and most bloody designs have been attempted and carried on by the impressions upon mens minds after they have pretended to seek the Lord and thus gained what they have called a Return to their prayers I need not now particularly relate History has reported and will yet more discover them to the World This one thing has raised Rebellion Murdered Princes in design and act violated all Sacred Obligations and layes Religion at the feet of every fresh and fanciful pretender At this rate we shall cheat our neighbours by a secret impulse and murder Gods Anointed by a special command and no man can be safe in his Life and Fortune if a praying Hector or a dreaming Enthusiast has a mind and power to take them away Nor will he long be without a Warrant when by winking hard and directing his thoughts he may impress his own mind as he pleases and with a melancholy or sturdy confidence proclaim God to be the Author of it But alas God is then only in a true and proper sense said to hear or make returns to our prayers when he bestows on us those good and lawful things which we have with humility and devotion begg'd And if any man pondering on a wicked design of his own contrivance in this case prayes to God for his direction and after his prayer finds the sinful impression still remaining This proceeds from his own vicious and Diabolical inclination but not from the impulse of Gods Spirit And it can by no reasonable person be accounted Gods answer to his prayers Unless he will suppose the great Maker of Heaven and Earth to be willing to offer the greatest violence to his own nature and to nurse and cherish what he would hate in himself in those who are the workmanship of his own hands No greater reproach can be given to the Divine Majesty than this by those who acknowledge and adore his Being For they make him the Patron to mens sins as if his essential purity and goodness could permit him to instigate any to the commission of those things which his justice notwithstanding must and cannot chuse but punish Such apprehensions of the Supreme God would oftentimes make the Authour of peace to be guilty of the worst War and the shedding the best blood in a Kingdom The God of Order would become the cause of the greatest confusions among mankind and in plain terms give himself the Lye It cannot be safe therefore to make what we are apt to call an answer to our prayers a rule of actions unless they agree with Gods written word and then there will be no need of a new Warrant For the word of God as it is the best so it must be to us the only general direction in our taking the measures of good and evil If at any time the following strong impressions made upon our minds may be safe to guide us after we have sought to God for particular directions it must as I conceive be only in things that were indifferent before that he may influence our prudential choice in matters which he has left to our own option And even in this case we must have a care that we do not fully resolve before-hand lest we are found to be dissemblers with God and have no real hesitation in our own judgments But if in such things we have occasion to make any applications to him we must be sure to leave room for his direction and that we know not which way to determine our selves by any of the Laws of Good and Evil The lawfulness of either part must be evident and we must desire an influence on the government of our choice only in the prudential determination with reference to the good consequence or success I cannot apprehend that any evil can attend this it being a solemn acknowledgement of a Supreme Being who has the Government of the whole World of our own weakness and inability to guide our selves without his assistance and consequently of our dependence on him which are great reasons for our adorations and prayers But yet the good that may in particular attend the pursuance of this must be left to Gods secret conduct and to the intrigues and influence of his providence which no man is able to discover Unless he could pry into the consults of Heaven and disclose the secrets of an infinitely wise and powerful Being when besides what he has already revealed there is not a key-hole to peep through For my own part I love not to be wise above what is written or to be bold in prescribing Rules in those cases in which God has been pleased to give us none but shall confine my self to the Law and to the Testimony and look upon the Scripture as my certain Rule thus guiding my self in this World that I may at last through Gods mercy and the Merits of my Redeemer arrive at my proportioned glory in the next But Secondly Another false Rule of trying Opinions Doctrines and resolutions in Religion set up by some is every mans private judgement and determination When in the mean time it takes not its measures from Gods Word nor the general notions of Good and Evil but from a peculiar private Spirit got into a single mans thoughts and apprehensions Now to this head may be reduced what mad-men call lights and revelations What those Enthusiasts that will be Saints in spight of all their prophane actions and dub themselves Holy in the midst of their own irreligion call Conscience And what others of a more smooth and gentle disposition stile Reason that they may advance the powers of mankind to the degrading if not expelling the benign operations of the Holy Spirit of God In a word This seems to be the foundation of judgement and the Rule of discerning Spirits and Doctrines amongst Quakers Anabaptists Independents and the rest of our Separatists speaking in the general of all that follow the Socinian Principles and is the foundation of Popery it self when those of the Roman Communion mistake the result of
their Governours Opinions enacted into Laws for the true dictates of the Holy Ghost inspiring the Pope or presiding at their Councils and infallibly assisting in their determinations But none of these things taken as they are propounded can possibly be a safe Rule much less the highest conduct in matters of Religion When we shall consider that though they may be helps to judge upon the view of the Rule Yet phancy and opinion may frequently be mistaken for reason illumination Conscience nay the dictates of the holy Spirit it self and according to the common inferences about these matters are so concluded and believed by men that consult their own faculties But this will yet be more evident if we consider 1. That the holy Spirit of God does not in any ages since he inspired those that delivered the Scriptures to be the rule of life either illuminate or direct mankind in the things relating to their eternal peace in any other manner than 1. By those Scriptures allowing the faculties of human nature and the general propositions of Religion among mankind which he inspired the Sacred Pen-men to record 2. By inclining as well as authorizing some men being prepared by education and study to continue a succession of that Ministry which our Saviour appointed to endure to the end of the World to explain the difficulties in Religion unto others And 3. Confirming by a secret and inexplicable operation which is easily believed by all that affirm Gods Grace or Providence and in consequence his Being the propositions contained in the Scriptures unto the minds of men and inclining their faculties to believe and embrace them Which influence is obtained by prayer to him that is of a docil disposition as well as given in our Sacred Baptism till such time as we either resist or renounce it all which shall be more evident before I make an end Now none of these though great priviledges can intitle any to that illumination or immediate guidance which wild men make the rule of their faith and conductor of their actions But they may mistake and be confident in it their own phancy and high opinion proceeding either from thoughtfulness or disposition for immediate motions from the Spirit of God And 2 As for the consciences of men if they mistake them not for phancy opinion or a strong persuasion of their own minds they are nothing but the agreement of our judgements with Gods word for thus much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports which is knowledge with another and includes the relation of our understandings to a Rule These are so far therefore from being a rule themselves that they are to be governed by another and cannot be proper consciences without it Being therefore guided by a Superiour Rule they cannot be safe conductors themselves and if conscience as taken by those that plead hardest for it were once allowed its full latitude phancy interest and the humours and impious mistakes of men would pass for conscience and a safe guide and introduce such a medly and mixture in Religion that every one under the covert of this would do what is good in his own eyes even as when there was no King in Israel The Church of Christ would be turned into a Babel and our houses of Prayer into dens of Thieves being fill'd with nothing but Sacriledge and confusion Thirdly Some make such Providence as crowns their opinions with success to be an argument that their opinions are true But to evince the invalidity of this needs no other than this observation That when the same things are covered with a Cloud their Authors punished or the propagation of their tenets becomes improsperous the same men will not admit of the same argument Nor permit others to defend their opinions by the same medium with which they prov'd their own When the Sun for a season shines upon them and the Heavens smile then behold the hand of the Lord is with them But when a prosperous ray refreshes others and they receive not the countenance they had before but have the frowns and discouragements of Superiors Behold now wickedness is seated in high places The holy Seed are led into the Wilderness and persecution attends the Elect of God and Canaanites possess the Holy Land But if success were an argument for inspiration and smiling Providences a rule to judge Doctrines by Numa Pompilius might have had an argument for the inspirations from his Nymph Aegeria and for the truth of his Religion he establish'd among the Romans The Jews might have been lost in the Wilderness and have justified the making their Gods to go before them They had ceased to have the marks of a Church and would not have been the people of the Lord when they were carried into Egypt or Babylon Nay by this they might have justified their condemning the great Messiah and Pilate and the Roman Guards might have had an argument for executing him The Primitive Christians must be condemned and the Apostles inspiration be proved an imposture if a dark Providence be that by which the Doctrines of men are to be judg'd Mahomet must have been deemed a true Prophet when he gathered so many Proselytes in the East And the great Turk be yet as holy as he has been for the most part prosperous in the World Nay Popery it self must then be embraced if the glory and prosperity of opinions must prove them true and success becomes the measure of Religion This is a way to justifie all lucky Usurpations To determine right and wrong by combate and the longest Sword may justly measure out the largest Possession and the property of mankind must submit to power A Rebel then may lawfully possess his Sovereings Throne if he has strength enough to force the brightest Majesty to an exchange And if this principle be fully pursued the men that own it may bow the Knee and say to an Usurper God save the King This will make many times the greatest Villany to have more Authority than Virtue and Innocence and force true Religion to be vanquished by a false Nay he that by this rule is taken for a Prophet to day may be an Impostor to morrow though he continues in the delivery of the same Doctrine Because a man may receive Hosanna's from the multitude and their cry shall shortly be Crucifie him Crucifie him These things are the subject of common observation It was holy Davids long ago And it will be so to the end of the world whatever Jews or Millenaries may dream That the wicked will sometimes be in great power when the righteous hang down their head like a bulrush When the Psalmist spake of the prosperity of the wicked He observ'd for some time that there were no bands in their death but their strength was firm and sound They were not in trouble like other men but plagued less than those that were better Therefore pride compass'd them as a chain and violence covered them as a garment their
wonder of his Disciples at a Doctrine of his that seemed harsh and difficult tells them that with God all things are possible Matth. 19.26 The possibility therefore of a thing prepares us for the belief of any proposition when either certainty or greater probabilities do not plainly determine the contrary Now what does not imply a contradiction that it should be is possible to be But the Holy Spirits operation upon the minds of men does not imply any contradiction And therefore it must be at least a possible supposition that it may be so Nay further what has been is certainly possible to be But that there has been such influences upon the minds of men the sacred Inspirations of the Prophets and Apostles do abundantly evince And to assert the contrary must shake the very foundation of Religion and invalidate the whole Canon of Scripture And certainly if it admits no contradiction to affirm Spirits working upon Bodies it must be less to suppose one Spirit to operate upon another there being a nearer affinity betwixt their natures and a greater capacity to apprehend the notices they receive from one another For if the Soul of one man may apprehend what are the thoughts of another when they are expressed by the words of the tongue or some external signs and representations There is as great a probability that there may be more easie and quicker methods for one soul to converse with another were they freed from their bodies than by the mediation of external senses which may and often do convey false representations to the mind And therefore for the holy Spirit of God to influence the minds and affections of men is not only rendered possible But a very probable and easie supposition Though whilst we remain in these bodies 't is all one as to the being of the thing whether we conjecture for it can be no more the influence to be made immediately upon the soul or by percussions on or dispositions of the nerves and by determining the Spirits so as to make representations to the mind to cause in it desire or aversation and from hence just and proportionable actions suitable to the design of the holy Spirit But Secondly this influence and operation of the holy Spirit is not only possible but necessary too if we consider our own weakness and infirmity or the circumstances we are frequently surrounded with in this vale of tears and region of misery We have still a proneness and propensity to sin notwithstanding our being washed by an holy Baptism and dipt in the sacred Laver of regeneration And though grace were then conveyed to us and power to perform our part of the Covenant which at last gives us the possession of the promise Yet this cannot well be apprehended to be tied about us with such indissoluble bonds as not to forsake us upon the violation of our vow when by sinful courses we rescind Gods obligagation to us Or if there were no forfeiture to be made Yet we cannot apprehend this Grace and Spirit given us at the first to be so constantly and powerfully residing in us as never to need any new supplies or accessions of degrees Or to be like our souls alwaies tied continually to invigorate us without any new influences from above God governs the World by his Providence and supports this great systeme of Beings by the constant and continued influences of his Power impressing things by his Divine concurrence to accomplish the end and design of their beings to continue their stated motions and order and to repair their decayes by a new and uninterrupted succession Now it would not be more false and unsuitable to his nature to suppose him at first to have put things into their orderly motions and to impregnate nature with all the power at once that shall at any time be requisite for its support and conduct when things are subject to such various misadventures that it is impossible for any but himself to foresee Than it would be to suppose him to give a child in his sacred Baptism sufficient strength to influence his whole life and afterwards leave him to his conflicts and misfortunes without any new assistances from above This would still make the Great and infinite Being of the World instead of a wise and active God nothing but an idle and lazy Spectator We need not then pray for grace and continued accessions of strength and power But only use those words of David Cast us not away from thy presence and take not thy holy Spirit from us Psal 51.11 The Apostles and Primitive Disciples of our Saviour were sensible of new accessions or incomes from the Spirit as the difficulties increased which they encountered For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us sayes S. Paul so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ 2 Cor. 1.5 And when we shall consider that our assistances are necessary in proportion to our duties or our sufferings all men being not in the same circumstances but some have an easier passage to an eternal rest and a blessed eternity than others who are made a spectacle to the world who have greater difficulties to encounter a longer race to run upon the Earth and are surrounded with a larger number of duties and perplexities certainly God who is the God of all grace will reasonably give the influences of his Spirit suitable to the degrees of mens necessities and the employments or conflicts that his most wise Providence calls them unto As the Apostles were not sufficient of themselves to preach the Christian Doctrine to the World and to obviate those difficulties that attended the publication so neither can any of us in our ordinary course of affairs in the World being placed in the midst of snares and temptations keep consciences void of offence without the influences of Gods grace and the assistances of his Spirit S. Paul justifies himself to the Corinthians by giving them a prospect of his joy and innocence Our rejoycing is this sayes he the testimony of a good conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God we have had our conversation in the world and more abundantly to you wards 2 Cor. 1.12 And when in the third Chapter he re-assumes the argument lest they should think that all was effected by his own power he introduces also this acknowledgement Not that we are sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiency is of God ver the 5 th God is not an hard and austere Master to reap where he did not sow nor to gather where he did not scatter He expects an account of his own talents which every one does or may receive in proportion to his wants and necessities that he may grow up unto that measure of stature to which Christ has appointed him in the world And doubless we may obtain Divine helps If men have but that love to themselves as to pray with
converted to this Religion and accompanied Saint Paul received the notices of those early and first transactions of our Saviour and his Disciples and been guided by the Holy Spirit of God in recording the History and Doctrine of our Saviour and his Apostles But if we make the strictest enquiry into those twelve Apostles which our Saviour sent to preach his Doctrine abroad in the World we shall find them all by their Education either too much prejudiced or unprepared to invent or propagate such a Religion The greater part were a few rugged and inconsiderable Fishermen that knew only to catch Fish and mend their Nets when they were broken and either eat or sell their Fish when they had caught it And how unfit these were to preach rules of life to the world to make known Riddles and explain Mysteries To maintain their Faith against the learned disputes of Rabbies and Philosophers or to commit a System of Christian Doctrine to writing for future ages to live by and that it might become the rule for mens actions Let any reasonable men judge It must needs therefore be a greater argument of a larger inspiration that these men were so slenderly prepared by nature or Education And by how much the meaner these were by so much the more powerful were the operations of the Spirit to guide them into all truth But besides the consideration of this we have a more sure word of Prophecy to ascertain their inspiration from above Since all Scripture is given by inspiration of God 2 Tim. 3.16 And since no man can possibly know those Laws by which God will govern the World 'till he pleases himself to make them known It must needs be that he must impregnate the minds and inform the understandings of those whom he designs to be the Pen-men of his Laws And this he did as to Moses and the Prophets under the Old so to the Apostles in the New Testament by his Holy Spirit Therefore was he to teach them all things by informing their understandings John 14.26 And by guiding them into all truth John 16.13 Secondly The Holy Spirit of truth guided the Apostles and first publishers of his sacred Doctrines by quickning their memories That what their Master had before taught them the Disciples now might remember for the benefit of others The memories of men by reason of their own weakness and the multitude of objects which daily present themselves to the mind and that variety of converse and numerous disturbances they meet with in a World full of noise and humour are very apt to slip many things which they ought to register and when they are entered to lose the record Hence is that admonition of the Author to the Hebrews that we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard lest at any time we should let them slip Heb. 2.1 The Apostles therefore who were men of like passions with our selves had an extraordinary power assisting their memories That those things might again recur which they had heard from our Saviour at that time when by his-absence he was uncapable of repeating and orally to deliver that Doctrine which before they had the advantage of hearing The Spirit then by an immediate impression put their Spirits into such a motion and proposed such objects to their consideration and understanding and so ranged the particles of the brain that the same images presented themselves and they had the same Ideas and apprehensions which possess'd their minds when the trutns were first delivered to them Or if I may be any way extravagant in endeavouring to describe the manner of framing this miraculous effect Yet sure I am that some way or other this was done or the promise of the Holy Ghost was not fully accomplished For sayes the Text the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you John 14.26 Thirdly This Holy Spirit of Truth inclined the wills of the Apostles and first Planters of Christianity to publish those things which were impress'd upon their understandings and their memories now perfectly retained and to commit these truths to Writing that future Ages might be able to read what they could neither see nor hear To exhibit no more than what they had received for the Divine Rule and to live also suitable to their Doctrine to avoid the suspicion of Cheat and Imposture Now though this influence might seem to be unnecessary to such as had imbibed the Christian Doctrine with their understandings because their wills might seem immediately to follow what their understandings dictated to be true and the reasonableness and admirable excellency of this Doctrine might be motive enough to perswade as well to its practice as belief Yet we find by a woful experience that the wills of men do not alwayes follow the dictates of their understandings But that we violate Laws which yet we are convinced to be true and good If it were not so few men would embrace vice and offer injury to the Precepts of Christianity which all men of reason and discretion must needs acknowledge to be excellent in themselves and infallibly sealed and authorized by God who has by a miraculous hand attested them to the World It was necessary therefore that the Apostles and first Publishers of the Gospel should be made willing as well as able to accomplish all those things which might tend to the propagation and assurance of the Gospel And we cannot conjecture that so sudden an alteration could be made as we find in the Apostles who by their Trade and Education were rough and stubborn this being generally observed of Mariners so as to be brought to acknowledge such gentle precepts so opposite to their customs and inclination without a superiour influence mollifying their tempers and the powerful operation and perswasions of God to make them willing in the day of his power When Paul therefore was converted by a Miracle and brought to the acknowledgement of that Jesus whom he had persecuted that glorious light which shined upon his understanding rectified also the perverseness of his will and inclined that to follow his Conviction so that he became not disobedient to the Heavenly Vision but shewed both to the Jews and Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God and do works meet for repentance Acts 26.19 20. Fourthly The Holy Ghost led the Apostles into all truths of the Gospel by working Miracles to confirm their Doctrine These are the great Seal of Heaven that sufficiently authorize whatever they are brought to give testimony unto For these being either visible effects beyond the power of natural Causes or some strange and extraordinary alterations of nature by laying a restraint upon its usual operations Or causing it to take a different course by a strange composition of second Causes or a powerful concurrence of some Agent not included in the immediate Cause They
is hanged by the neck against a Pillar after whips and scourges had made a Prologue to the Tragedy One is flead alive another thrust through with a Spear and a third dragg'd about the craggy part of a street till his flesh was torn off and horrid pains compell'd him to expire It would be endless to account for the dismal tortures which the Apostles and Primitive Disciples endured their whole age being full of clouds and storms And the release from one torment was but the entrance upon another They daily went in danger of their lives which were indeed but continued deaths and repeated tragedies Now what a wonderful confirmation must this add to their own faith as well as seal its truth to posterity that they should have such multiplied tortures as anxious and cruel as the malice of enraged Adversaries could invent and execute and yet would not accept deliverance if they must purchase it with the denial of their Faith They must needs be animated to the belief of those truths in the profession of which they were so encouraged by a Divine power and the comforts of the Holy Ghost that they suffered torments beyond their own strength to endure Nor did the rage and persecution of their Adversaries overcome them Especially when we shall consider too that they could smile in the midst of flames and look upon their own blood with joy When they could account Martyrdom a Crown and such deaths as were most painful and cruel they could travel through as the nearest passage to their eternal reward Which whilst they viewed in a steady and well fixed contemplation they were able to conclude their afflictions to be light and to endure but for a moment And that the future reward overballanced them both in weight and duration They could glory in what the justice and custome of the world accounted shame and rejoice that they were deemed worthy to suffer for it Acts 5.41 They were alwayes dying and yet lived were able to account tortures chastisements and could still rejoyce in the midst of sorrows 2 Cor. 6. They could approve themselves the Ministers of God in patience in afflictions in necessities in distresses in stripes in imprisonments and that black Catalogue which S. Paul has recorded to posterity It must certainly convince both themselves and others that the hand of God did yet support them and that the Doctrine was true which they delivered for which they were miraculously prepared and now strengthened in their sufferings for it by the comforts and assistance of the Holy Ghost They knew themselves to be a company of rude and illiterate men or at least some of them were not polished either by art or Education for converse with the learned Rabbies amongst the Jews or the subtil Philosophers amongst the Gentiles and yet they baffled and could silence both had not their force reached farther than their argument And therefore sayes S. Paul where is the wise where is the Scribe where is the disputer of this world Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world 1 Cor. 1.20 S. Stephen who was but a Deacon to the Apostles was yet so full of faith and so endowed with the power of the Holy Ghost that he did not only amaze the people with the greatness of his Miracles but when many disputants were rang'd against him he did not only smartly encounter but overcame them too For they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spake Acts 6.10 They were fain to leave their reasoning and consult their subtilty and had no way to stop his mouth but by a shower of stones that took away his breath What could such men as these have done when they were brought before the Council of the Jews or Tribunals of the Romans Where all the subtle quirks of Law and all the inventions that malice could contrive should be used to entangle their innocence by craft had not the Holy Ghost assisted them in making their defence loosened their tongues and informed their understandings This was what was promised them before and now as certainly and fully accomplished For when our Saviour sent forth his twelve Apostles and told them how they should acouter themselves what were the contents of their Commission and how they should demean themselves He acquaints them also what dangers they were likely to encounter with They were sent forth as Sheep in the midst of Wolves Every one would endeavour to devour them And therefore they should be scourged in the Synagogues and be brought before Kings and Governours upon their Masters account But sayes he When they shall deliver you up let it not trouble you that ye are not well skill'd in the Law where subtilty may cause a Criminal to escape when ignorance may draw the innocent into punishment For it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak For it is not ye that speak but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you Matth. 10.19 Now men that had such extraordinary confirmations of their Apostleship and found these assistances from the Holy Ghost must needs be fully convinced of those things that were imprinted on their understandings and would attest their Divine authority unto others to whom they were obliged to declare and publish them when they themselves were so fully persuaded as not only to suffer all the inconveniencies of this life that could be brought upon them by the subtilty of the Politicians of the World but all the tortures and cruel deaths which malice was able to inflict And thus did the Holy Spirit of truth guide the Apostles into all truth But yet notwithstanding all this It must be considered that though the Apostles and primitive Disciples of our Saviour had thus the conduct of the holy Spirit Yet it was never intended to guide them into all truths of all kinds For this were to extend a promise beyond what was ever designed by the Holy Ghost Truth is a word of a large interpretation it runs through all Arts and Sciences and is as comprehensive as all the objects and understandings of men For whereever there is a conformity betwixt the object and a rightly prepared intellect there is truth Nay there is too often truth in that which we do not understand The Spirit therefore did not design in his sacred and infallible conduct to extend the capacities of the sacred Apostles to an infinite comprehension so as to cause them to know omne scibile every thing that is capable to be known For that were not only to make a new creation but to put them beyond the capacity of Creatures Nay though he is Omnipotent to go beyond his own power in making Beings as infinite as Himself Nor did the Spirit in the guidance of the Apostles into all truth intend their information in the truths of all the Arts and Sciences extant in the World He did not design to instruct them in the art of Syllogism Nor
that they should read natural Philosophy to the World He did not intend to teach them to call the Stars by their names or that they should by virtue of his instruction know their several motions distances or altitudes He did not intend Aphorisms in Physick Or to give to them Geometrical proportions Nor to breed them curious and expert Artificers though some of these have made themselves Apostles Nor to teach them the numbers of Arithmetick Or the Astrological signatures of things or times and seasons For these were not for them to know because the Father had put them into his own power Acts 1.7 And therefore as they were never so proud and bold so neither were they so unlucky as the Pope who must needs condemn a point in Geography and the tenet of Antipodes for a destroying Heresie So little did he know the universal Empire he pretended to that he did not understand the extent of it nor the Figure or Bounds or Inhabitants of that Earth over which he yet pretended an Authority The Holy Ghost therefore guided the Apostles into those truths only in Divinity which included the full Doctrine of the Gospel which our Saviour delivered that they might be able to preach them to the present age and commit them to writing for the use of all succeeding Generations The Spirit was not given to them to make them great Historians or Philosophers but Christians and to capacitate them to be the planters and founders of Churches not the posts and standards of dispute Or to be the leaders of Sects and Factions in Philosophy They were to erect a Pillar of truth setled upon a firm foundation Christ himself supporting the Building and this neither for Pasquins or Poetry but for a Rule and directory of standing Religion and Devotion CHAP. XII THE souls of men whilst hous'd in these bodies of clay are darkned and obscured notwithstanding all the windows of sense to let in the light of external objects to an intercourse with the mind For supposing our senses could alwayes make true and exact representations to our souls which yet we know are often deceived yet these could only convey such things as are the proper objects of the souls of men Those of an higher and more exalted nature that are not capable of an image must needs escape the perception of our outward senses and if reason it self when most disentangled from those fetters which our senses too often impose should endeavour to make propositions and inferences about the essences of those things whose spiritual natures evade our sense our notions could not be adequate to the things themselves nor could we fully comprehend what is infinite nor have a positive Idea of spiritual Beings though reason might conclude their existence Hence is it that all our definitions and descriptions of these are therefore imperfect because negative and though we may conclude what they are not we never could by humane power yet resolve compleatly what they are which makes Divine Revelation necessary and that we should have faith beyond our reason though we never believe without reason to assure us of the authority we confide in This being therefore our state and condition in this World we must as well praise Gods Goodness as admire his Power for sending us that Spirit of Truth which guides us into all truth that is necessary to conduct us to eternal happiness Now this Promise I told you I would consider two wayes 1. As it related to the Apostles and first Disciples of our Lord and Saviour 2. As it concerns the whole Church of Christ that is or shall be militant on the earth The first of these is already dispatched And therefore I now proceed to the second To view the Promise of the Spirits guidance as it concerns the Church throughout the several Ages and Periods of the Christian World I have already proved the divine influence on the minds of men though its immediate operation is too difficult to be explained as to the manner of its energy and work and that we have no reason to disbelieve the thing for that we know not the manner of its operation What therefore is now to be discoursed supposing the truth of its influence in general and that extraordinary assistance he gave unto the Apostles is How the Holy Spirit of God possesses the minds of those with truth who make themselves by holy dispositions and a due exercise of their rational faculties capable to receive it and what truths those are that the Spirit of God guides men into As to the first supposing that which has been already proved That the Apostles were inspired from above to receive a full revelation of those truths by opening their understandings and quickning their memories that concern the salvation of mankind and that they committed them to writing faithfully recording them for the use of posterity and that these are to be standing rules for all ages and generations to come I cannot find any other method the Spirit has used or does continue to guide the ages succeeding the Apostles into all truth but what is contained in these three particulars 1. By those Scriptures which he inspired the Apostles to publish and deliver 2. By inclining the hearts of some men to continue that Ministry which must endure to the end of the world And 3. By confirming those truths contained in the Scriptures unto the minds of men by co-operating with the external ministration by an internal work upon the understanding will and affections of those who are inclinable in the day of his power First then The Spirit of truth guides us into all truth by those Scriptures Christ and his Apostles delivered to be the standing rules for posterity These are those lively Characters in which we may read the Nature of God and the directions of our lives These are such an infallible rule of truth that they certainly guide those into it who soberly and conscientiously apprehend and follow them They convey peace of conscience here which is a thing valuable above Crowns and Kingdoms and hereafter give us such possessions as infinitely transcend the power of our thoughts and exceed all humane expectations These Holy Scriptures contain such a compleat body of Doctrine that they need not any additions to be made to them Let their own sense be but sufficiently explained and if they are permitted to speak their own mind they will neither want Apocrypha nor Traditions nor any new Revelation neither to render them a compleat System of Divinity Mens own Doctrines and not Christs want Traditions to confirm them and 't is the pride and covetousness of a Sect of men that would make all Christians groan with their burden and void Gods Word with their own pretensions however they are varnished with the plausible Epithets of ancient and Apostolical that make such additions to the Scriptures But the Holy Scriptures which were at first given by inspiration of God are able of themselves
when rightly understood to make the man of God perfect And if they are able to furnish the Minister certainly they are sufficient to instruct the people Nay to make them throughly furnished to all good works and are able to make them wise unto salvation through faith which is in Jesus 2 Tim. 3.15 16 17. Hence is it that these are so far from being taken from the adult that they are to be exposed to Childrens Learning Or else it would not have been Timothy's commendation that from a child he had known the Scriptures And if such Elogiums were made in the honour of the Old Testament much more praises must be given to the New which shews us a way to be justified from those things from which we could not be justified by the Law of Moses Acts 13.39 and brings life and immortality to light 2 Tim. 1.10 The Doctrines in the Gospel preached by Christ and enlarged upon by the Apostles through the powerful inspiration of the Holy Spirit are sufficient accompanied with those means appointed for their delivery and the ordinary assistances given to those that attend them with humility to guide men into all those truths requisite to be known in relation to their eternal welfare And therefore blessed are they sayes our Saviour that hear the word of God and keep it Luke 11.28 From hence draw we the water of life and these are the fresh springs of salvation at which mankind may satisfie themselves Here have we directions to demean our selves in all our various conditions in the World that we may endure both the Sun-shine and the Storms that prosperity may neither swell nor adversity consume us S. Paul's advice therefore to Timothy must be attended by us also To continue in the things which we have learned and have been assured of knowing of whom we have learned them and that because evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived 2 Tim. 3.13 14. Let the infallible men of mystical and unintelligible demonstration endeavour to prove what they cannot defend but by their old argument of force and fire Let them blaspheme the Holy Ghost in the Apostles whilst yet they pretend to its inspiration themselves Let those argue against the Scriptures being a Rule when rightly understood that can defend their Doctrine only by a counterfeit tradition Having no greater argument against the sufficiency of the Scripture but because it consumes their Hay and Stubble And that they can there neither fetch Wood to burn us nor Stones to destroy us But let us who are of the day be sober and be wise to that which is good And then as God formerly subjected Sathan to the seed of the Woman for that by the Serpent he deceived their simplicity and stain'd their innocence so though now he endeavours by subtile impostors to beguile soft and ignorant minds he shall not alwayes triumph in his villany But the God of peace shall bruise him under our feet shortly Rom. 16.20 The Providence of God is a great deep the reason of man is not able to fathom it And though he may for the punishment of our sins the tryal of our vertue or to make our adversaries ripe for destruction permit some to erect their Plumes and lead captive unwary souls in triumph yet though he that standeth must take heed lest he fall let us according to S. Paul's advice hold fast the form of sound words 2 Tim. 1.13 and contend earnestly for that faith which was once delivered unto the Saints Jude ver 3. and withdraw from every brother that walketh disorderly and not after what has been delivered 2 Thess 3.6 And if we walk according to this rule peace shall be upon us and mercy Gal. 6.16 We need not then be afraid of the winds and storms nor yet of him that kills the body if we truly fear him that can destroy the soul Which none but God himself can do For sayes our Saviour whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doth them is like a wise man who built his house upon a rock and though the rain descend the floods come and the winds blow and beat upon that house it falls not Matth. 7.24 The God of truth having now given us a standing rule by the glorious inspiration of his Holy Spirit expects that it should be the general measure of our actions And as no sign would be given of our Saviours death and resurrection besides that of the Prophet Jonas so no rule can be expected by us besides the Gospel to the universal period and general Conflagration Hence is it that S. Paul puts all under the severest curse that pervert this or preach another Gospel And he does not only anathematize men but passes the same sentence upon Angels if at any time they should prove so bold and impious Nay he doubles the curse to testifie his faith and proclaim the irrepealable duration of the Gospel But though we or an Angel from heaven preach any other Gospel unto you let him be accursed Gal. 1.8 What was indited by the inspiration of the Spirit is certainly true and we may confide in it What is added by the wit of men may possibly be false and therefore it is not to be be looked upon as infallible any farther than it can be proved either directly or by consequence from the Scriptures themselves This is the rule which the ancient Fathers disputed against the Hereticks by and this must be the measure and rule of our faith it being so full and plain that no new Article must be added to our Creed nor any other rules of duty contradictory to these all necessary things being so easie that any person of any ordinary capacity using the methods of Gods own institution may soon arrive at knowledge enough to save him if his will does not rebell against his understanding and he faithfully practises what he knows Nor could the end of Gods Law ever be obtained or men be left inexcusable if it were so obscure that it could not unriddle it self For the end of all Laws being the obedience of those that are bound by them How can men obey that which they cannot by any means understand And if it cannot by the ordinary helps of the learned in it interpret it self there must then be a new inspiration to interpret what was inspired before And then there will be two inspirations where one would have served Because he that can interpret a Law plainly to the World might have made it plain at its first delivery Unless perchance we may think it wiser to do any thing with toil and pains which may be performed with ease and pleasure 'T is true indeed that many men by ignorance or wilfulness when they forsake the Guides of Gods appointment heaping Teachers to themselves having itching ears may be and are led into divers errors under the specious pretence of truth And thus those amongst the Galatians who in those early dayes
troubled the Church perverted the Gospel of Christ Gal. 1.7 But this is no argument against the sufficiency or plainness of the Scripture in things necessary to our eternal salvation For they are usually more obscure Texts that are to exercise the more Learned and Critical part of men upon which Heresies are founded And this too frequently is occasioned by men that wrack and torture their understanstandings to conceive such things as are not here perfectly to be known Or if they are to be fathomed by other men yet are above the reach of those who thus ignorantly and erroneously apprehend them Thus S. Peter speaking of S. Paul's Epistles sayes that in them there are some things hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the other Scriptures unto their own destruction 2 Pet. 3.16 But another sort there are too that have too much subtilty to be accounted ignorant Who are some of he perverse disputers of the world that first suit their Tenets to their interest and then violently press the Scriptures to prove what they were never intended for We should never else have heard This is my Body brought to prove that absurd Doctrine of Transubstantiation Nor Feed my Sheep to prove the Popes Supremacy Nor He will guide you into all truth to prove his Infallibility Nor He shall be saved yet so as by fire to prove a Purgatory When all these Texts are capable of fairer and more plain interpretations to another and more coherent sense But that the ambition of some men would entitle themselves to the government of the rest And then frame others belief to render them tame for such a tyranny and to be subject to whatsoever they will impose when all this while they suit the Articles of the Churches Faith to the encrease of their own Wealth the better to support their Pride and Usurpation Nay on the other side we have those amongst our selves who call the Pope names and yet embrace his Doctrine And tie that infallibility which they rob the Roman Chair of to their own single and Enthusiastick determinations Who by misunderstanding some Texts of Scripture direct themselves by a private impulse and then muster these to defend it But the Flower is not the less fragrant for that the Spider thence will suck for poison Nor does the Scripture cease to be a safe and sufficient Rule to those who soberly apprehend and follow it Notwithstanding some may wrest and misapply it Nor does the Spirit at any time contradict it self He having therefore inspired some men to commit a Rule to writing for future Generations to read and understand and put forth a Law that is sufficiently plain and perspicuous And men having reason and understanding enough assisted by the Spirits ordinary directions to guide themselves by the measures of this Rule and Law into all truth He expects now that they should order themselves as they do by all human Laws That is to believe upon the Authority of the Imposer and live proportionably to so great a favour and labour to understand what he has put into their power to know Remembering that of wise Agur Add thou not unto Gods words lest he reprove thee and thou be found a liar Prov. 30.6 The authority God has given to the Governors of his Church empowers them to command or alter circumstantials that all things may be done decently and in order In these we are to obey them that have the rule over us and to submit our selves Heb. 13.17 But no men are authorized to usurp the Throne of God himself To create new Articles of Faith Or impose other primary rules of duty than what they find written in the Scriptures They are only to confirm and explain them For as we must not think of men so neither of Doctrines above what is written Our language and design must be the same with S. Paul To deliver that which we also received 1 Cor. 15.3 So may we be workers together with God And when the world in the wisdom of God that is by the works of God which demonstrate his wisdom knows not God it may please him by the foolishness of preaching i. e. what some men account folly to save them that believe 1 Cor. 1.21 And this leads me to the next particular in which the Holy Spirit of God guides us that are remote from the Apostles Age into all truth which they delivered By inclining the minds of some men to continue that Ministry that must have its succession unto the end of the World And this is the second way of the Spirits conduct That in all Religious Constitutions which have been in the World there has been a separate and appointed Ministry is more notorious than to spend words in the proof of it 'T is too deeply planted in the minds of men and it bears an equal date with the Law of Nature fix'd in us Without this publick Worship cannot have its constant and orderly Being And had not this been established with the constitution of Christianity it would not only have been in a worse condition than any Religion which has possessed the world But than any Trade or Occupation among us to the obtainment of which men must be learners before they become able Workmen Or are permitted to exercise their particular Callings amongst any well ordered and embodied Society The separation therefore of some men from the generality of Christians was first made by our Saviour himself When he called the Apostles and sent forth the seventy Disciples to preach the Gospel unto human creatures And when the time of his departure from the world was come When he was to be received into his Fathers Kingdom in such a triumph as became a Conquerour and one to whom all power was given He delivers his full Commission to his Apostles substituting them in his own stead to rule his Church and to ordain their Successors That like the Tribe of Levi they might be legitimate and by a continued and distinguishable descent they might be perpetuated to the end of the World As my Father sent me sayes Christ so send I you John 20.21 Or as S. Matthew describes it All power is given to me both in Heaven and in Earth Go ye therefore and teach all Nations Baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you And lo I am with you alway to wit in the exercise of this power by your selves and Successors to the end of the world Matth. 28.18 19 20. These are some of those gifts our Saviour gave unto men when he ascended upon high Ephes 4.8 For he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers For the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ This is to endure 'till we all come into the
renders our notions more clear and durable We use the means that are within our power and set our reason and faculties on work and then the Spirit by a secret operation enlarges our minds and blesses our endeavours Thus Paul must plant and Apollo water although it is God that gives the increase 1 Cor. 3.6 And thus the Lord opened the heart of Lydia to embrace the Gospel whilst she attended to it as it was spoken by S. Paul Acts 16.14 When the Apostles were yet diffident concerning the truth of our Saviours resurrection though they had the Books of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms by them in which these things were sufficiently predicted yet Christ himself opened their understandings before they could apprehend the meaning of those Scriptures Luke 24.45 As we may do all things through Christ strengthning us Phil. 4.13 So separated from him we can do nothing John 15.5 The Spirit of God has put much of our duty into our own power yet has still reserved something to himself that we may be kept humble depend upon him and beg his aid For the animal man that is not possessed with the Divine benediction and influence of the Spirit who admits not of propositions prov'd only by Miracles receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God because they appear foolishness unto him neither can he know them whilst he remains in that condition because they are spiritually discerned are proved by Miracles not Logick 1 Cor. 2.14 Hence is it that S. Jude describes sensual men to be such as have not the Spirit ver 19. of his Epistle Now upon the view of all this As we have no reason by our unbelief to deprive our selves of what is promised and to shut out those assistances from our souls which bless and facilitate our endeavours so we have no cause to say that our safety is beyond our power and that Heaven is too high for our reach since if we solemnly prepare our hearts and devoutly petition the assistances of the Spirit we may obtain it and God will not be wanting to us if we are not first wanting to our selves This is what S. Austin sayes Facienti quod in se est Deus non deneg at gratiam That God does not deny his grace to him who does what is in his power And that promise of our Saviour may relieve and encourage us That our heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him Luke 11.13 Let us act then with the dependence of creatures and yet not relinquish the reason of men Let us not think to be drawn into an understanding and belief of those truths contained in the Scripture by the strength of a Miracle and upon the wheels of an extraordinary Providence to be snatched out of the pit of ignorance by an irresistible force and informed by an Apostolical illumination But let us use those means that are now put into our own power for the full apprehension of all divine and necessary truth and walk according to what we have already attained the knowledge of that our obedience according to what we have received may attest the sincerity of our minds And then if any thing yet remains which is necessary farther for us to know God will use some method or other to inform us and by his Spirit dispose our understandings to receive it For God shall reveal even this unto us and we have S. Paul's word for it Phil. 3.15 16. And thus I have now at length considered this promise of leading men into truth both as it concerned the Apostles and as it also relates unto our selves I have shewed how it guided them and how it does still lead us into Truth There is now but one thing more that will want only a brief reflection before I arrive at some practical Inferences from the whole discourse and that is the latitude of this Promise in relation to its object which as it hath been already discoursed on with reference to the Apostles so must it be explained in relation to our selves For this universal all truth must not be understood in the utmost extent it is capable of no more than it was with reference to the Apostles but it must be limited in these following particulars First The Spirit guides us into all truth which may be necessary for the ordering our conversations in this World suitable to the Religion we are baptized into There are directions published in Sacred Writ for our Christian deportment in all our various states and conditions From whence S. Paul in the general exhorts that our conversation be as it becometh the Gospel of Christ Phil. 1.27 Which would be a strange and insufficient direction were there not in it a compleat rule for our lives The duties of a Christian are either concerning God others or our selves As to the first we are commanded to worship God in spirit and in truth The devotion we pay him must be suitable to his being and the general rules given in the Gospel John 4.24 And we must love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind Matth. 22.37 As to the second we have this direction To do to others as we would have them do unto us Mat. 7.12 And to love our neighbours as our selves Matt. 22.39 And as to our selves we must walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness not in strife and envying Rom. 13.13 Nay our whole duty is comprehended in one Text of S. Paul who tells us that the Gospel teaches us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in the world Tit. 2.12 Piously towards God Righteously towards our Neighbours and soberly in relation to our selves Nor have we only these general directions but those also that are so particular that we may hence take the measure of our duties and such prudent advice is given in all the conditions that may happen to us That we are neither left without proper counsel nor yet without comfort and relief Secondly The Holy Spirit of Truth guides us into all those Divine Truths which we ought to believe and of these he has given us so exact an account that no new Article is to be added to that Faith which has been already delivered to the Saints The Apostles Creed in which are contained all things necessary to compleat our belief is in every Article revealed in the Scripture And men that go too far beyond it are apt to be wise over much and to think and conclude beyond sobriety and therefore Thirdly The Spirit thus guides us into all truth that concerns our future happiness and salvation It has informed us that there is such a state by bringing life and immortality to light in the Gospel and it has laid out and smooth'd the way that leads to it It has given some description of the state it self as far as
guide them into all truth that we might have safe and infallible Rules to order and direct our actions by Then see how God values soundness in the Faith however men too much disregard it If either any Creed or none at all could have carried men to their future bliss Christ need never have come into the World to deliver an universal Doctrine in the Gospel Nor sent this Holy Spirit of truth to guide the Apostles into all truth This necessity therefore of being sound in the Faith was the reason why our Saviour and his Apostles caution'd men against Prophetical pretenders and false Teachers to take heed what they hear Mark 4.24 To have a care that the light which is in them be not darkness Luke 11.35 And to take heed lest there be in any of them an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God Heb. 3.12 Hence is it because as S. Peter sayes there are damnable Heresies that the unsound Cretians were so severely to be reproved that they might be sound in the Faith Tit. 1.13 Hence is it that S. Paul commands Timothy to hold fast the form of sound words 2 Tim. 1.13 Which probably referr'd to some brief Creed or summary of the Christian Faith delivered to him by the Apostle Though we find them now Burlesqu'd and flouted at But alas with as little wit as reason From hence finally was it that S. Jude exhorted those to whom he wrote his Epistle to contend earnestly for the Faith which was once delivered unto the Saints 3. ver of his Epist We are not now to make our own Faith nor is it indifferent what we believe Let us receive therefore what has been delivered out of the Scriptures through all the several Ages of Christianity and endeavour to make our lives as pure as our Faith Lastly We may learn from this Holy Spirit of truth to speak truth and by no methods to impose upon one another That we may evidence to God our selves and the world that the Spirit of truth has still an influence upon our minds There are a generation of Vipers among men whose teeth are Spears and Arrows and their tongue a sharp Sword That ingross the whole trade of lying and yet pretend to be men inspired These receive false News in gross and then retail it out to others Their tongues indeed are very sharp and no wonder neither since they keep the Whetstone wholly to themselves These are your itinerant Historians that to consume our Corn carry alwayes firebrands at their tails Who lie so often that they can hardly believe themselves when they speak truth and give to all that have had the curse of their conversation a plain testimony who their Father is But let not any of our souls enter into their secrets But resolve to resemble the Spirit of truth in abominating all lies and hypocrisie and to qualifie our selves for our future ascent to Gods holy Hill by speaking the truth in our hearts Psal 15. Our Saviour had no guile found in his mouth And we must follow so good an example unless we think lying the Character of a Saint and perjury to put on a Martyrs Crown S. Paul did not think so when he forbad the Colossians to lie to one another seeing they had put off the the old man with his deeds Colos 3.9 Let us therefore beware of Arrogance and Calumny Of detracting from others or attributing too much to our selves And let us imitate the Holy Spirit under the Gospel by guiding our selves into all truth So shall we avoid both sin and shame and eternal confusion at the great and terrible day of the Lord that we may then give up our accounts with joy and not with grief Would we but endeavour to follow the sacred Spirit of God who is so ready to influence our minds in truth and faithfulness Commerce and Trade would be more innocent we should neither betray our own selves by any false or glozing language nor should we suffer by plain dealing Oaths would again become Religious among English men nor would any be unjustly executed by guilty or scandalously freed by an Ignoramus Our gracious and truly Great Monarch would be safe without the base attempts of any to secure him He would be our own and we at his wise and lawful disposal by his Coronation Oath and our sworn Allegiance to him Every man were there truth among us might enjoy peace in his own capacity he might sit under his Vine and his Fig tree and Liberty and Property would never be bones of contention more But if we remain Hypocrites in Religion and false to each other we can neither expect that God or men should be our friends Because what in us lyes we peck at the foundations of the World and make the whole Creation groan We shake the main Principle of Trade and Commerce when we are such wretched creatures that no body can believe us And we cannot but enrage the Great God who being truth it self has sent his Holy Spirit unto us to guide us into the wayes of truth Whatever guilt therefore any person may by the iniquity of times striking in with his own easie inclinations have contracted to himself in this point Let him now repent while it is called to day lest the night come in which terror and astonishment will surprize him whose obscure shadows will by degrees withdraw the pleasing light from him till it lodges him in a state of blackness for ever The Conclusion WE are here placed in a World so full of objects that affect our external senses that we are naturally led more by these than we are by faith And when by degrees we abstract our thoughts and fix our minds on things above we either weary the powers of our minds and make them sink into a stupid inadvertency or else are so pleased with the sprightliness of our creating fancies that we nimbly make Idea's in our brains of such seeming things as never were nor ever shall be And so we lead our selves into the belief of what was not designed to be the object of our understanding no more than it shall be the subject of our possession Sometimes these things are projected before hand by the cunning politick men of the World who by such means intend to impose upon others to carry on secular interests that may in the end be gainful to themselves And sometimes men by reason of their weak and unable constitutions acting contemplation beyond their own capacity to manage it impose upon themselves till they really believe their own thoughts of objects that yet have no real existence nor are ever like to have a being in the Universe Some think too much and others too little Too much learning makes one sort mad and others are mad because they have so little Some men by sinking themselves into a deep melancholy and others by a nimble and exorbitant agitation of their blood and spirits command themselves into ecstasie or
phrensie And then their pretensions grow so big that they become proportionably tall too till they aspire to the storming the Walls of Heaven attempting to blow open the everlasting Gates that they may pry into those things which are lock'd up from the inquiries of men And thus being puff'd and swelled up it proves only to be Tympany and disease when we think we have true conceptions and when our own thoughts have raised our fancies we conclude that the Spirit overshadows us and our obscure opinions or strange propositions raised by the sudden transports of our minds are too often with confidence enough boldly averred to be the immediate dictates of the Holy Ghost Want of true and ingenuous education and thereby the more exact assistances of reason causes many of those who would be accounted more spiritual than other men to think themselves inspired from above when an unusual fear a sudden joy or a powerful disease has brought Convulsions into their Nerves and seised their reason and judgement with a Palsie so that all their notions are jog'd into a confusion and their faculties can neither embrace or pursue their proper objects But by what means soever the thoughts or expectations of such men are lifted to an height waiting for an impulse sighing and groaning for an unusual influence Vain are those hopes where there is no promise and uncertain that rule of determination of things which appears to be fallible and deceitful And yet thus are all the expectations of those who think the Spirit guides them into truth by other means than what I have already shewed you or to any rules and measures of religious actions than what are plainly laid down in the Word of God or thence drawn by a fair and truly Logical deduction If you should be at the trouble to examine a little all the pretended impulses of men their great variety will evince their folly and their opposition to each other their deceit and falshood Is there any Sect pretending to Enthusiasm that does not peremptorily and with the greatest confidence assert the Spirits internal seal to their principles although just opposite to each other and all perhaps contrary to the Scripture This is the great fountain which yet divides into so many streams whose waters all have different tastes according to the chanels in which they run and the variety of soil through which they pass This is made the cause of separation which in it self is still but one This makes men divide from one another and all from that Church to which they should belong proving each others Doctrines erroneous and all still by the same Spirit As if the God of order delighted in division and different Religions like variety of creatures proclaimed Gods Wisdom and his Power When he has now enjoyn'd one faith to the whole World and sent his Son to set up his Banner for all Nations to flock to it Divers Languages indeed were once a character of inspiration from the Holy Ghost but different Creeds were never yet the fruits of him that is but one That truth which the Spirit guides men into can be no other than the plain uniform rules of the Gospel and whoever pretends to any inspiration to deliver a Doctrine different from this blasphemes the Holy Ghost and makes God a lyar whilst he pretends his inward seal publickly to attest an open falshood But if there were such a thing as the Spirits impulse in these ages of Christianity we should have some certain characters by which we might know it as the Prophets and Apostles must be suppos'd to have had and if we make it an argument to convince others we must work Miracles to attest its original The latter none of the Enthusiasts pretend to Or when ever their madness has attempted this testimony no sooner do they dubb themselves by the names of Prophets but they are discovered to be plain Cheats If they pretend a way to evidence to themselves that they are inspired with a divine breath to give them a warrant for doctrine or action not consonant to the Writings of the Apostles it does not only render the Scriptures insufficient but makes God to contradict himself and wounds that Eternal Truth of the Deity into which we ultimately resolve our belief But let us come to the examination of the impulse it self and we shall perceive in the midst of what uncertainties such men must be miserably toss'd who suppose what they deem such to be sufficient warrant for what they then think on and propose to themselves What strange and impious actions have been the consequences of such supposals I need not now relate because they have made such noise and ruines among our selves that they are still fresh among us But to proceed with this supposed impulse or impression upon mens minds by which deserting the Scriptures some Enthusiastical men will take the measures of their doctrines or actions I know not what they mean by it unless it be the heightning our perswasion making our belief of a thing bold and strong and our resolutions to act and maintain it fix'd and zealous And if this be what they make a rule or a character of the Spirits guidance since we find but little difference when we view this supposed operation in persons of various nay opposite principles we must either conclude what all deliver under this pretence to be true or else it is not safe to conduct any The former is too wild a position for any that pretend to sobriety to espouse and therefore the latter must be true Besides every mans reason may sufficiently inform him that our perswasions and determinations of things become as well setled and fix'd and have their various elevations or depressions as well by the strength or weakness of arguments duly weighed and attended to as by any impulse which can be imagined How then shall we be able to know what our reason dictates and what we are confirmed in by strength of argument from what the Holy Spirit now seals by an impulse or impression upon our minds How shall we distinguish betwixt a strong fancy a setled opinion and this pretended inspired Doctrine Nay how can we difference without recurring to the eternal Laws of good and evil which will render this new impulse useless the impressions of the Spirit from a secret temptation and a subtile suggestion from him who is our greatest adversary If we dare adventure to be so Critical as to pretend to new discoveries and such a rare ability to distinguish betwixt the motions which these several impulses make Since there can be but one sort of action in the spirits of a man if the perception be not above reason miraculous the same convulsions and percussions on the Nerves to cause the soul to understand and believe whether it be a truth or falshood that is represented a truth from God or a diabolical delusion How can the rarest and most artificial Enthusiast distinguish betwixt
actions where there is no difference at all For as it matters not whether the object proposed to the Wills embracement be either real or apparent good the same passion is used in the reception so in respect of the understanding also If the object seems to be true it makes the same impression with truth it self If we pretend a difference in the Images represented in the brain which the soul contemplating does according to their beauty or deformity own or reject the objects represented by them since we find still that an error presented under the notion of truth as long as we receive it is as pleasant to us as truth it self there can be no such Idea's supposed of such different aspects that in them we can read good and evil without some more superiour direction For if there were it would be impossible for a man to be deceived that gave himself time to contemplate these Images But if we shall as we must indeed prove the truth of the Spirits impulse from the agreement of the thing it impells us to with the truths revealed in Gods Word then the impulse it self is but a weak direction that must have another more convincing to determine it Nay not the surest confirmation of things that admits a proof beyond it self whilst the Scripture becomes its Judge either to condemn or acquit it If this were not so why should our Saviour give the World such admonitions and caution men against false Christs and false Prophets that should arise and deceive many Matth. 24. but that he foresaw the false pretensions that would be made to inspiration S. John need not otherwise have cautioned us not to believe every Spirit nor exhorted us to try the Spirits whether they are of God but that he knew that many false Prophets were gone out into the world But Lastly Let us consider too that God does not use to make bare his arm and put his power to an immediate work when the thing may be accomplish'd as well by other means which he has appointed to that very end For though this might demonstrate his Power yet it lessens his Wisdom to exert more strength and use more applications to produce an effect which fewer might as well accomplish Nay it would subvert that scheme of causes which his contrivance has already ordered It would both render Gods rules and mans endeavours after the knowledge of the truth useless and ridiculous At least those Scriptures which are already revealed would not be able to make the man of God perfect which is not only contrary to the Apostles affirmation 2 Tim. 3.17 But S. Paul's argument must be inverted and he might justly he ashamed of the Gospel of Christ because it would not be the power of God unto salvation whereas he plainly and confidently affirms it to be so Rom. 1.16 Why should any therefore now the Rule is given vainly expect revelations and impulses and extend their belief to a bold presumption deluding themselves with vain hopes since these now are neither promised nor in that manner Enthusiasts wait for them ever intended Let us rest satisfied therefore with those truths already received since no more Divine Rules of life can rationally be expected till the Day of Doom And with Gods benediction and the ordinary concurrences of his holy Spirit upon the Gospel let us frame our lives according to its Precepts and Commands that walking according to these Rules we may at last receive the end of our faith the salvation of our souls These the Holy Ghost has sealed to us not only by inspiring the Sacred Pen-men to an exact delivery but he has confirm'd them also by such Miracles as at once exceed the powers of the creation and surmount the objections of men and Devils Upon this we build a rational belief though some mysteries in our Religion exceed our full and perfect comprehension Other pretensions however back'd with great names being confidently averr'd with boldness and zeal are no other than wild notions and exorbitant fancies Things that if Satan who pants and breathes for our eternal ruine can once perswade us to an embracement of he then presents a deformed Monster for the most beautiful Truth He has then cast a veil upon our minds and leads us blindfold into what errors he pleases He spreads his Nets and entanglements for us and certain he is to catch and ensnare us For who cannot lead the blind into a ditch or bring him upon a Precipice when he thinks himself safe and secure How easie is it for the fallen Spirit that envies men the very hopes of bliss since he himself is in eternal despair to dart into persons who forsake the written Word to attend new impulses and revelations those poisoned arrows that shall drink up their spirits and perswade such to embrace any thing who have no better rule than their own perswasions Listen not then to the fond fancies of any bold and passionate men who making use of their hot constitutions convert their own natural rashness into a seeming zeal pouring forth thick words and thin sense whilst they impudently pretend the Spirits impulse for all their rude and unreasonable notions and give the stamp of Canon to their Doctrines Nor must we yet on the other hand so far make our reason Judge as to destroy our faith but taking the Gospel for our sufficient rule let us use our faculties to explain and apprehend it But by no means let us curtail or extend it beyond what was the design of the imposer 'T is a strange Age in which we live when Religion is almost lost by making too strict an enquiry after it and too much curiosity in our speculations has rendered us almost regardless of our practice We discourse the gravest and most serious points of our holy faith with so much levity and disrespect the indecency of the places in which we hold such Conferences adding to our vanity that we first make our Religion common and then slight it as mean and inconsiderable But whatever the Sons of Darkness do let us who are of the Day be sober and with due reverence and a godly fear receive those impressions of the Spirit which he has made in Sacred Writ so shall we avoid the blasphemies of those who so confidently assert Diabolical suggestions and the black fancies which are the fruits of a corrupted constitution for Divine inspirations For no zeal or mode of delivery can possibly perswade any rational man that duly exercises his own faculties that profound nonsense or unaccountable propositions are deep Divinity Nor that men whose natures are envious and Diabolical can possibly receive instructions from God to promote division raise disturbances or to continue any which have already had their auspicious beginnings and as I hope their full progress among us For that wisdom which is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without wrangling and
fervency and devotion for them For if ye being evil sayes our Saviour know how to give good gifts unto your children how much more shall your heavenly Father give the holy Spirit to them that ask him Luke 11.13 And since God is so bountiful to us let us not be wanting to our selves For when we shall with retirement consider how numerous and potent our sins are which must all in their habits be mortified and subdued how many turbulent or inticing temptations we have to oppose that are ready every day to conquer us and steal invisibly to our most secret entertainments how many passions we have to calm and moderate which upon every suitable and tempting occasion endeavour to make an insurrection against our reason How many personal and relative duties we are to perform in a wise and pious ordering our conversation how the suggestions of our own flesh the injections of Sathan and the malice and defilements of the world will endeavour to oppose and obstruct our progress When we consider the black passage of death and the grave and God knows what dismal encounters we may meet with in our way to them What fears will then suddenly arise to baffle our hopes and make our faith ready to expire And upon the whole when we reflect upon our weakness and miserable infirmity In a word When we consider how much work we have to do how little time to perform it and what great disproportion there is betwixt our duty and our power It will not only appear that it is high time to awake out of sleep to rise and be doing But to take the Armour of God for our defence and to pray to Heaven for the assistance of the Spirit Since this appears to be so necessary in relation to our weakness and our duty And certainly what is so necessary for our safe conduct to that Haven where we would be and which God designs for our eternal rest and shelter from all tempests and future storms There is no reason why we should distrust the Spirits influence and operation Nor to make our selves uncapable of the favour by testifying our unwillingness to receive it by perpetually opposing and disputing against it For Lastly this influence of the holy Spirit upon the minds of holy and good men is from the Scripture infallibly certain to those that at once both want and beg it and do prepare themselves for the reception of it Why otherwise should our Saviour give this assurance to his Disciples that God gives the holy Spirit to those that ask him Nay what becomes of those promises in the Scripture that engage Gods truth and faithfulness to assist good men in the discharge of their duty and to support them under all their misery and misfortune if we were altogether left to our selves to pursue the dictates of our own reason and to stand only upon our own leggs without any superiour help or influence The Apostle tells us that the Spirit does help our infirmities Rom. 8.26 But this would be false if we had either none that required his assistance Or that he would not condescend to supply our wants S. John makes this vinculum unionis this bond of union betwixt Christ and us the Spirit of God to be a character by which we may distinguish our selves Because he has given us of his Spirit 1 John 4.13 And S. Paul fully agrees with S. John For sayes he if any man has not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Rom. 8.9 I know with what great industry these and other Texts have been restrained to that Divine temper of mind by which we know and discern our condition This indeed being the gracious effect of the holy Spirits co-opperating with our endeavours is by no means to be separated in our judgment upon our selves And we have no other way to judge of the cause but by this Divine and glorious effect But yet where this is visible in an holy life and virtuous actions we have no reason to exclude the cause Especially when it is principally included in the expression For the Apostle supposes this Spirit that Christians have to be the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead Nay a branch also of that power which shall hereafter raise us too For it follows He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwells in us Because our Bodies are here the Temples of the Holy Ghost God will not suffer them to remain eternally in their ruiues But will hereafter re-edifie and raise them because they were once the habitation of his Spirit Hence are Believers said to be sealed with the holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of their inheritance Ephes 1.13 And therefore they are advised in the same Epistle not to grieve this holy Spirit of God whereby they are sealed unto the day of their redemption Eph. 4.30 Now though we may be said to be sealed up for Heaven by a Divine temper of mind upon Earth that this prepares us for future glory and that if this disposition be not in us we are none of Christs Yet it would be as harsh a speech as can be admitted in any language to say that this holy temper of mind shall raise us up at the last day Since the wicked are then raised too Or to say that any man voluntarily grieves this Divine temper and disposition of mind when the man then grieves himself These expressions therefore must certainly intend more than this And they can scarcely admit of a fair interpretation without expounding them of the holy Spirit of God which now co-operating with our faculties produces in us divine tempers and dispositions and so prepares us for that inheritance which he shall raise us up from our graves to possess The Holy Ghost was first promised to the Apostles and Christian Disciples under the names and notion of a Comforter and the Spirit of truth and how could he be both or either if he did not influence their minds with joy and knowledge The Spirit it self sayes the Apostle bears witness with our Spirits that we are the children of God Rom. 8.16 It did not only testifie unto others by those Miracles that did confirm their Religion and consequently proved those that did sincerely embrace it to be born of God as well as their Religion But it evidenced these things also to their own consciences by a sacred benediction and a Divine and more immediate concurrence with them when they compared their lives with the Rules of their Religion And consequently proves to them that they were heirs of God and coheirs with Christ which is the argument the Apostle is there prosecuting to give them comfort in the midst of tribulation and to animate their courage and resolution against the sufferings of that present time The graces and virtues visible in a Christians life are said in Scripture to be the fruits of the Spirit
Gal. 5.22 Not only that they are the fruits of the Gospel which is sometimes phrased by the word Spirit in opposition to those legal observations which being carnal ordinances are called flesh But they are so the fruits of the Spirit that as he first dictated the Rule so does he also concurr to the actions If the Evil Spirit could carry Christ to be tempted in the Wilderness Shall we not think the good Spirit could relieve him too If the Prince of the power of the Air can be a Spirit working in the children of disobedience Ephes 2.2 Shall we conclude the Holy Ghost less active or powerful to work in those who resign their wills by the direction of his Laws to his most sacred and safe conduct The promise of life and eternal salvation is made to us upon this condition that through the Spirit we mortifie the deeds of the body Rom. 8.13 And though many things concur with the influences of the holy Spirit to effect so great and victorious triumphs Yet all causes act with a dependence upon this glorious power which works in us both to will and to do when we prepare our selves for its reception by endeavouring what in us layes to work out our salvation with fear and trembling Philip. 2.12 13. Preaching Prayers Meditation and hearing the word of God are ordinary means to convert a sinner from the error of his way And yet S. Paul though he sufficiently magnifies the Preachers Office sayes that we are only workers together with God 2 Cor. 6.1 And 't is well for us all when God assists and blesses our endeavours And God grant that those who attend such sacred institutions being swift to hear may never be so swift also as to depart without a blessing Having thus both asserted and explained the coming of the holy Spirit to influence men the certainty of its operation and the necessity of its influence which makes up this Chapter of my discourse I shall close it with a brief request to all who desire so to approve themselves to God here that they may not be rejected by him hereafter That they would use all possible diligence to obtain and keep the blessing and influence of this holy Spirit which gives them such great assistance in sanctifying their minds and ordering all the actions of their lives That they would well use the grace they have received that so they may be capable of more in the hour of trial and at the day of temptation That they would pray frequently for new supplies of aid and assistance And that they would never by a vicious and unholy life grieve the Spirit and cause it to desert them lest through too much confidence in themselves they at last prove both Cowards and Apostates CHAP. XI HAving in the former Chapter in some measure proved that the Holy Spirit of God descended according to the predictions of the Prophets and the promise of our Saviour I shall now enquire into his work and business in this world amongst men who were rational and intellectual Beings Who might as some men are apt to think have well enough propagated Christian Doctrine when they had heard it from our Saviours own mouth and had for some time daily conversation with him Without any other new assistance besides the miraculous gift of tongues And what employment the Spirit of God could possibly have among other men As they will not be Religious enough to know So truly they are yet very much to seek However I shall adventure without calling any men names to shew according to my steady and long continued though mean thoughts what the sacred Spirit of God has done and yet does to guide men into the wayes of truth In the promises where Christ who was truth it self engages for the Spirits corning into the World in a more plentiful manner than in foregoing periods He seems to be described as a person different from the Father and the Son And I shall instance in one eminent promise to this purpose John 16.13 Howbeit when he the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth Now that our great and most blessed Redeermer of men speaks of a person here And not of what is said to be an afflatus divinus only as some have interpreted this place to void the Doctrine of the most glorious Trinity Which is the great and I had almost said the distinguishing Article of the Christian Faith is plain from the terms of this Text Because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is prefix'd to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He the Spirit of truth And this latter part which is a Periphrasis does but acquaint us who the Person was Even the Holy Ghost the third Person in the most Glorious Trinity God blessed for evermore Now this profound mystery of the Trinity however inexplicable it may seem to be in all particulars to the understandings of men who are loth to think that any Beings are above their great capacities and reasonings Yet it has been alwayes believ'd by the Orthodox through all the Ages of the Christian Church And it is a point sufficient if there were no other to baffle the Heathen Objection against our Religion viz. That it cannot be Divine because there is no Mystery in it But I design not to treat in this discourse with any that own not Christ to be the Messiah The great King and Saviour of the World And therefore shall only acquaint the Reader That Jesus himself seems to take great care to insinuate and fix this fundamental point in the particular promises of the Holy Ghost Lest any persons mighty in reason and wonderful in argument should refuse to believe such a Mystery as this when apparently revealed because their own reason is not able to conclude the thing or their language cannot fully explain it In the fourteenth of Saint Johns Gospel the sixteenth Verse our blessed Saviour acquaints his Disciples for their comfort and encouragement with this great promise I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever Even the Spirit of truth Here is one praying another sending and a third given So is it also at the twenty sixth Verse of the same Chapter But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you Here is the Father sending in the Sons name or upon his account the Holy Ghost to teach the Apostles those things which our Saviour had more briefly hinted to them And such things also which the Apostles through prejudice could not then receive And to bring those parts of the Christian Doctrine to their remembrance which they through human frailty might forget That so they might be fitted to be the publishers and the sacred and infallible Pen-men of the most excellent Principles of the Christian Religion And that