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
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
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
his Doctrine to be Divine and himself the Messiah sent from God by attributing them to the power of the Devil but the Gnosticks did in effect the same thing by retaining upon occasion the Ceremonies of the Jews which our Saviour had abolished if he were owned as a person sent from God to void the old Law and establish a new So that those who embraced what he came to vacate in effect denied him to be come in the flesh and consequently destroyed the obligation of the Gospel by renouncing the Messiah whose authority established this new Law as a Rule to the World Nay by this rejection of the Son they disowned the Father who by a voice from Heaven and giving him power to work Miracles gave a testimony to his Person and his Doctrine And therefore our Apostle reflecting upon these men saies Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ He is Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son whoso denieth the Son the same hath not the Father but he that acknowledgeth the Son the same hath the Father also 1 John 2 Chap. 22.23 And in the 4 th Chap. 3. v. Every Spirit or teacher that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God and this is that Spirit of Antichrist whereof ye have heard that it should come and even now already is it in the world CHAP. II. HAving thus given an account of part of this Epistle of S. John together with those of whom the Apostle cautions men to beware I shall farther explain and illustrate the words to render them yet more useful to our selves by considering in them 1. A Caution 2. An Exhortation 3. The reason of both The Caution is Not to believe every Spirit The Exhortation To try the Spirits whether they are of God The Reason both of this Caution and Exhortation is because many false Prophets are gone out into the world I begin with the Apostles Caution Beloved believe not every Spirit If all that men utter pretending to be inspired were without any severe consideration to be entertain'd and what they deliver were to be believ'd there would no more need the Apostles caution than our own care But when we live in an Age in which Propositions and Doctrines are delivered that too plainly contradict each other some of which are impious and abominable others at first audit foolish and ridiculous and a third sort that tend to disturbance and ruine wasting Property making our Kingdoms large Aceldama's and our Cities the places of dead mens sculls and are apparent enemies to human Society When under the pretence of a Catholick Religion Doctrines of purity proposals to advance the Scepter of Christs Kingdom Principles shall be insinuated that if pursued with that furious zeal which they require will effectually destroy those things indeed which men endeavour to maintain in words If our blessed Saviour may thus be fought under his own Banner the cause of God cover abominations murder be acted for the glory of our Maker Blasphemy be spoken by the assistance of the Spirit and the method to render Princes glorious shall be by stabbing or beheading If the most horrid wickedness shall be palliated under the cloke of Religion a new Commandment shall be pretended for breach of the old and the Moral Law shall daily be violated by inspiration If men under pretensions to the guidance of that Spirit which inspired the first deliverers of the Gospel to be a Rule to succeeding Ages and Generations shall hang out new lights to the world that take away all the glory of the old and preach to us another Gospel bearing their Christ only pictured on their Standards and Banners and their Gospel to us on the points of Swords Nay when the Spirit in the propagation of the Gospel neither prescribed nor used such methods but quite contrary those of faith and patience humility and self-denial which did not interfere with the Government of Princes but made men actively or passively to obey And when the same Spirit has expresly declared that in the latter times there would be such a falling away from the faith that men would so far depart from the standing rules of the Gospel as to give heed to seducing Spirits and doctrines of Devils 1 Tim. 4.1 Nay when the great Lord and Authour of our Religion has acquainted the world that many false Prophets should arise with such earnest pretences and strong delusions that should almost shake the very Elect those whom he had chosen to put his Name and Character upon with Lo here is Christ or lo there exalting several though false Messiahs It will become us to consider any new pretensions beyond the rule we have already learned and not to receive Opinions at adventure but to make a more strict and considerate enquiry and not to believe every Spirit And that 1. Because we have already entertained a standing Rule of Faith and Manners by which all Christians ought to be directed to the final period and consummation of Ages And though this great and Characteristical Principle of Protestants is contradicted both by the Papists and Enthusiasts whilst the former equal their Traditions with the Scriptures and the latter their own fancies and dreams both upon occasion bestowing such ignominious titles on the Bible that they would think it uncivil if they should be given to any of their own writings Yet S. Paul tells us that the Scriptures are able to make us wise unto Salvation and being given by inspiration from God cannot be false without supposing him a liar Nay the Apostle goes on in their commendation that they are profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness that the man of God much more the people may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works 2 Tim. 3.15 16 17. The design of that Gospel which we have embraced sufficiently declares it to be a full and compleat rule of life that which if followed brings peace and welfare to us here and eternal happiness in that life which is to come For it teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in the world and to look for a blessed hope and immortality for which the former way of living prepares us Titus 2.11 12 c. Nay so perfect and compleat is this rule and so designed to direct us to the end of the world that the Apostle denounces a Curse against any that teach another Gospel or Rule of life different from or contradictory to this though an Angel from Heaven should prove to be the deliverer And repeats it twice in the same Chapter that it may be sufficiently declared and stand as a memorial to all Ages Gal. 1.8 9. And Saint John in the close of his Revelations sufficiently reproves all new pretensions by telling the world that if any man shall make additions to this which was compleat before God shall add unto
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
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
considered together brings the promise of the Spirit and infallibility to the Apostles under determinate restraints and limitations But 2. This will further appear if we compare the promise of guiding into all truth with that other relating to the Holy Ghost Joh. 14.26 where the Apostles are told that he should teach them all things more plainly those which our Saviour had delivered and bring those things to their memory which they might forget though before declared He shall teach you all things sayes he and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you So that it appears that the Apostles had not the Spirit without measure though they may be said to be filled with the Holy Ghost And that this promise of infallibility to them was made in a limited and restrained sense Secondly Supposing the promises of Infallibility were made in never so enlarged a sense yet they are to be restrained to the persons to whom they were at first made as to the unerring conduct and I might easily make it appear that they cannot in their full sence concern any but the Apostles themselves and the first Preachers of the Christian Religion Because the end of this extraordinary inspiration was to make them capable of prescribing to us an infallible and unerring rule Which being accomplished there is no farther occasion of an infallible inspiration For to what end should this be continued to one or a certain number of men unless they were upon new emergencies to deliver new Doctrine to the world If it be necessary to the understanding of what has been already prescribed the Laws of the Gospel will not only want one of the most excellent qualifications of a Law that it be plain and easily intelligible But the same necessity will argue infallibility useful to all which renders it thus necessary unto some For if it be therefore necessary to some that they may become Guides to others Since their conduct in relation unto others must consist in advice and declaring that sence of the Law which could not be understood without them all which must be expressed by word or writing every man has as much need of infallibility that he may not misunderstand the interpretation as any have to prevent their misapprehensions of the Law if there can be no peace without infallibility Now that all men have not infallibility is as readily yielded as it is to be proved that the Pope has none Thirdly If there were now this infallibility amongst men there must be a perpetual revelation For if the perfection of the humane nature could here render any men infallible we may well conjecture that many might have been in every age that might have been Directors to the rest Or if it had been founded in humane nature why should not an equal perfection render all mankind infallible Either of them being granted will invalidate the necessity of a Divine Revelation and turn the word of God into a story and do despight to the spirit of grace if rendering it useless and a fable will do it For to what end should any men be inspired when they were before infallible in themselves The infallibility therefore which we discourse of must proceed from a strong and certain inspiration And whatever is delivered by vertue of this is of equal authority with the Scriptures themselves And then none can be safe in his life or fortunes when ever any inspired man makes it his pleasure to take them away Nay if we are conscientious we must yield them up upon demand lest haply we may be found fighters against God And this appears in the Romanists themselves as well as others taught by them The more conscientious any of them are the more readily do they yield to the impositions of their superiours and they have reason for it if they think them to be absolutely infallible For no private evidence of a thing must subvert their faith in the Churches determination and so much the more triumphant is their faith by how much the more it captivates their understandings As it is so much the more meritorious by how much the less it has of evidence So the greater the Objections are that meet and encounter the Churches determinations their faith is rendered the more glorious and full of victory Let the Doctrine then be never so wicked in it self or consequences the conscientious believer of the point of Roman Infallibility must neither see the one nor the other But renounce all the evidence of his reason and if occasion be as there is sometimes of his senses too For what evidence can reasonably be attended to that bears a testimony against that which is infallible This then must be a ready method to change the nature of good and evil and the eternal Law instamp'd upon our minds if the mutation proceeds from the Roman Chair Nay the nature of things need not be changed if the Pope please to change their names Men may borrow then and never pay if he pleases to cancell the debt Ruining families and overturning Kingdoms will become noble and a glorious exploit Nay religious acts when he is at leisure to adopt them into the number Burning Cities and murdering Princes shall be accounted means of propagating the Gospel if he please once to determine that we may do evil that good may come of it And blowing up the Estates of Kingdoms is presently holy if he will but sanctifie the Powder and Canonize the man that has the courage to attempt it So powerful is this Doctrine of Roman Infallibility that it can change the Devil into an Angel of Light And let the Pope himself be never so wicked his determinations are all true and good and he may remain his Holiness still He may subvert by degrees or all at once the whole Doctrine of Christianity though from thence he receives his pretensions of authority if he pleases to declare it a Fable when it shall no longer comport with his advantage Nay he has already so blended it with the Religion of the Jews and practice of the Heathens that Christianity is so buried in an heap of rubbish that 't is an hard matter to gather it up out of such a great confusion of ruines The substance is lost in the midst of Ceremony internal devotion is interrupted by a pompous Scene of Pageantry and Shew and yet the evidence of our senses must be rejected in the Doctrine which they so much applaud in practice And yet Fourthly Notwithstanding all the Roman pretences to Infallibility If there are any promises made of it they do as well concern other Churches as themselves For if these promises were made to the Apostles in general as is very plain from the circumstances of their delivery if they were not terminated in them but reached also the whole succession of those by vertue of whom Christs promise was made good of being with the Apostles alwayes to the end of the world Then either
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
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
it was fit for us to know or our frail capacities can receive so that we may accommodate the words of the Psalmist to the Holy Spirit Thou shalt guide us with thy counsel and afterwards receive us to glory Psal 73.24 These are the truths the Holy Ghost still guides us into as far as our frailty is able to comport with his methods and influence He does not now come amongst men to cause them to speak divers Languages or to work Miracles amongst those who have the Records of the Gospel Nor yet to reveal such secrets as the Father has put in his own power and properly belong to God alone He does not help us to search into the Closets and Decrees of Heaven no more than he discovers the Councels of Princes nor does he elevate mens understandings to distract themselves with things that are above them But having given the Law of Life he guides our feet into the way of peace CHAP. XIII HAving thus far accomplished my design in confuting mens false pretensions to inspiration from the Holy Spirit of God upon due examination of others writings and mine own thoughts raised for ought I know to the contrary either by my converses with or observations from other men for I dare not call any thing mine own so as to be any first inventor Having no Common-Place-Book to direct me Or else from some Superiour benediction upon human endeavours which I have attempted in some part to prove and vindicate And to shew in this all that I believe or can at this time explain in any measure unto others That there may be some farther use made of this writing I shall conclude all with a few brief Observations and Inferences from the whole or some parts of this Discourse And First Every man ought to judge for himself in matters or Religion that are proposed to his belief or practice as far as he has abilities and capacity to understand Because S. John exhorts all men to try the Spirits whether they are of God And this will neither seem to be absurd or impossible when we shall consider that we are men endued with rational faculties that we have the use of the Holy Scriptures in which all things are plain that are universally necessary to the Salvation of mankind That we have Guides appointed to help us in the interpretation of what is difficult and the Holy Spirit promised to assist us in all Which God gives to every one who in earnest prayer devoutly asks it And which is present with him in all emergences 'till by a vicious life he strangely grieves him and by an obstinate continuance in the habits of sin he provokes it totally to withdraw from him Were there an human Throne of infallibility erected to which all others might appeal and rest satisfied with the determinations of him that possesses it There would be no occasion of an Apostles direction to try the Spirits But since we are exhorted to prove all things that we may hold fast that which is good And the Scriptures direct us to no such human infallibility but assure us that what is not of faith is sin As it produces the greatest satisfaction to every man to settle his own notions in Religion So it is his duty to examine the Doctrines and Opinions of men propounded to his belief or which are designed to guide his practice before he believes and entertains them Making Gods Word his rule in all things that are plain and evident And taking the assistance of those Guides and Teachers which God has appointed and set over him in those points that are more difficult and obscure And this if done with that humility devout prayer for Gods assistance and true industry which becomes a man in so great a concernment as that of Religion will either find out all truth Or if he remain in any error it will be such as God will never condemn him for Since the most gracious God will never expect from mankind that their apprehension of things should exceed the cacapacity of their reception and what the means of his appointment cannot help them to Nor that either their belief or actions should ever exceed the power of their Beings And those that so studiously and industriously endeavour to give a check to mens reasoning and examination about the Doctrines they propound render their opinions things to be very much suspected And will give us to understand that their deeds are evil when they hate the light And as for that peace among Christians that the pretended infallibility in the Church of Rome or any where else boasts an establishment and continuance of Whilst Protestants are crumbled into Sects and Divisions We may easily reply that they have their Controversies as well as we and parties among them that oppose each other with an equal heat and eagerness in dispute with other mortals and are distinguished by their several denominations Even as the Jesuits difference themselves from all being such sworn Vassals to the Court of Rome that they endeavour to support it to the ruine of the Church Let the Romanists and others therefore first pull the Mote out of their own eyes and then they may the better see to pull the Beam out of anothers But why may not such peace and order as are convenient and perhaps as much as can ever be obtained be preserved among men professing Christianity by the publick Authority checking the disorderly actions of men without imposing setters on their belief Which it is altogether impossible to compel or punish either if men were so wise as to keep it to themselves and not trouble others by discourse I doubt not but it may be done as well as Authority keeps men in a tolerable order in relation to the management of secular affairs though he that administers it is not infallible Nor do all that are Subjects still concur in Opinion with him Preserve therefore your judgement of discretion and use it too that you may not be led like blind men when you have eyes to see and helps to assist them when they wax dimm And then having setled your selves in the true Religion Secondly Let me exhort you to stand fast in it Not to be like waves of the Sea rolling to and fro with every tempest and carried about with every wind of doctrine Not to be pleased with every new appearance in the world because variety in other things different from Religion is so grateful to the generality of men For in such things they may have their choice and not be limited by a superiour power But our option in relation to Principles of Religion must be directed by a superiour rule and guide And having once found out this we must not vary upon new pretensions from what this prescribes to us Lest having left those paths that should direct us we wander about we know not whither Sathan gets great advantages upon unsteady minds And 't is easie to make a new impression
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