Light to shine out of Darkness hath shined into our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ to give that is to give it forth to others 2 Cor. 4.6 And again in 1 Cor. 2.12 13. Now we have received not the Spirit of the World but the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God Which things also we speak not with the words which mans wisdom teacheth but which the Holy Ghost teacheth And besides this of internal and immediate Revelation there is no way imaginable for men to come to the knowledge of Christ as Mediator but by external and mediate Revelation So that by the process of this Discourse you are brought to this either to say that all men to whom the Gospel comes are enlightned by Christ with the knowledge of his being the Son of God the Christ of God and Saviour of the world by immediate and supernatural Revelation as the Apostles were or else to grant that some men in the world are not enlightened by Christ without being taught by outward means to know what they are bound to believe upon pain of Damnation For I have shewed before that all men and women to whom the Gospel is preached are bound to believe Jesus to be the Christ the Son of God upon pain of Damnation and that there is but these two ways imaginable by which they can come to know it that they might believe it immediate and mediate Revelation or Instruction If being reduced to this straight you shall be so absurd as to chuse to say that all those under the sound and outward teaching of the Gospel that shall be damned for not believing on Christ as the Son of God and for not obeying him had that knowledge of him by immediate and supernatural Revelation as the Apostles had for the sinning against which they shall be damned as knowing their Masters Will and not doing it yet the Scriptures as well as all Experience will detect your Folly in so saying For I have proved in my Propositiions to which I refer you that God's way method of proceeding with men in justifying or condemning them will be according to their Obedience to or Disobedience against that Doctrine of the Gospel which they had heard preached by men to them Go preach the Gospel to every Creature said our Saviour He that believeth not shall be damned that believeth not that Gospel so preached and made known to them by preaching Mat. 16.16 And the Apostle supposeth it impossible for the generality of men to believe that have not heard of Christ in the way of preaching the Gospel to them and concludes that those that do believe are brought to it by hearing it preached and that is not by way of immediate inward teaching of God's Spirit without the teaching by man Rom. 10.14 15 16 17. How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard And how shall they hear without a Preacher saith St. Paul Yes might it have been said by immediate Revelation and inward teaching of God's Spirit or the Light within if that had been the common way of bringing men to believe the Gospel But you see Paul knew of no such way to propagate the Faith after it was once set on foot in an extraordinary way If he had he would not have put such Questions nor have made such a Conclusion as he doth in v. 17. So then Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God And do you know more and better than he did And for your selves it is not to be imagined that ever you could have known that ever there was such a one as Christ in the World any more than the poor Indians or Pagans that never heard of him had you not been beholding to the Scriptures or Oral Tradition for it as God's means for all your great talk of your Light within you If Christ Jesus then doth not savingly enlighten all those who yet are savingly illuminated neither by Natural Light nor by Supernatural Revelation in an immediate way then it follows that such are enlightened by Supernatural Revelation mediately or instrumentally by the Scriptures and Ministration of men unless there can be another way of saving Illumination assigned different from the three before mentioned which none pretend to do so far as I have heard These things are so plain and full of Evidence and so easie to be understood and in their Nature so apt to prevail with all such as do not deny but that the Scriptures are true that after you have considered them I cannot but think you will be convinced by them if there be that love to Truth in you which you pretend to that you have unawares all this while abused that first Chapter of John v. 9. and abused your selves and the world by a misrepresentation of it whereas Christ is the Light of the world divers ways and in several respects as by his Spirit by his Word and by his Works both Miraculous and Exemplary it cannot but be very great weakness or way wardness in you to limit his being so to one of these only § 14. Another Scripture which you alledge as favouring your foresaid Opinion is that Prophesie of Joel 2.28 29. Cited by St. Peter in Acts 2.17 Behold the days come saith the Lord that I will poure out my Spirit upon all Flesh and your Sons and your Daughters shall prophesie and your young men shall see Visions and your old men shall dream Dreams and on my Servants and on my Handmaids I will poure out of my Spirit in those days and they shall prophesie But that this Scripture also is impertinently alledged to prove that in the days of the Gospel every one is immediately directed and moved by the Spirit of God without outward teaching in what they are to believe and do will appear by two things The one from the Nature of the thing here predicted The other by the Application of this Prediction to the event 1. From the Nature of the Subject-Matter of this Prophesie It is not that the Spirit should be poured out upon all flesh so as to direct every one what to believe and do without outward teaching but to qualifie persons extraordinarily for outward teaching it is to enable them to prophesie for that is twice mentioned in the Prophesie fore-cited as the end for which the Spirit should be poured out upon all flesh And prophesying is for the instruction of others it is a means of conveying knowledge of the Divine Will from one man to another He that prophesieth edifieth the Church saith St. Paul 1 Cor. 14.4 This of Prophets was a Second Order in the Evangelical Ministry God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secondarily Prophets 1 Cor. 12. And although seeing Visions and dreaming Dreams be also mentioned as the effect of the pouring out of the Spirit yet
make it your business to understand it but think your business is rather to sit still and to expect the immediate teachings of the Spirit and then conclude your conceptions which first offer themselves to you to be his teachings And on the other hand conclude all rational opposition that is made against you by such as have taken pains to consider the scope and coherence of Scripture to be the issues of fleshly wisdom and carnal reason So that I know not which is more to be pitied your ignorance or your confidence but certain it is that you are to be pittied for both It is observable that when Solomon a man wiser in his generation than any of you are in yours had a promise from God of being made wise above all that were before him did not therefore think himself unconcerned in labour and diligent search to attain it but said I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdome concerning all things that are done under heaven this sore travel saith he hath God given to the Sons of men to be exercised therewith Eccles 1.13 And as he saith the blessing of the Lord maketh rich in one place so he saith the diligent hand maketh rich in another from which may fairly be collected that the blessing of God in the diligent use of due means is the way to prosper in the world And it is as true in the course of attaining to spiritual riches in understanding and grace as it is in temporals And therefore he saith again in reference to that if thou cryest after knowledge and liftest up thy voice for understanding if thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid Treasures then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God for the Lord giveth wisdome out of his mouth proceedeth knowledge and understanding that is he gives such wisdome unto men usually upon those terms forementioned Prov. 2 3 4 5 6. But your rare notions like Jacobs Venison are usually too soon too easily come by tobe right § 17. But because I would not be too tedious I shall I think in reference to the business in hand consider but one or two places of Scripture more at which you stumble unless others fall in upon occasion of discussing those And one of them is Rom. 8.14 As many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God And you suppose this comports with your wild notion of mens being guided by the internal teachings of the Spirit without outward teaching But why I pray you without outward teaching Do you not know that the whole Gospel preached by Christ and his Apostles and afterwards written is the Issue or product of the Spirit Is not all the Holy Scripture given by inspiration of God Did not the holy men of old the Prophets speak and write as they were moved by the Holy Ghost and do not you your selves say that the Scriptures cannot be understood but by the same Spirit that gave them forth by which you suppose and grant that they were given forth by the Spirit And for what end did the Holy Spirit inspire the Apostles first to preach and after that to write the Holy Doctrine of the Gospel but to teach men thereby what to beleive and how to live that they might be saved And if so are not all those who are led and guided by this Gospel which is the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit led by the Spirit of God There 's no doubt but that the Spirit by its inward operations upon the minds of men doth concur with that teaching of his which is from without by the Scriptures and by men from the Scriptures But methinks it 's wonderful I mean wonderfully absurd that you should divide the Spirits teaching and leading and oppose his inward to his outward teaching Whereas the Lord hath declared expresly that his word outwardly and Spirit shall be so conjoyned in carrying on his design of grace towards the world under the Gospel as that they shall never be separated Isa 59.21 As for me this is my Covenant with them saith the Lord my Spirit that is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy Seed nor out of the of mouth thy Seeds Seed saith the Lord from hence forth and for ever Prov. 123. By which and by other Scriptures I know assuredly that whatever inward teaching by the Spirit you pretend to yet the Holy Spirit never taught you to believe or to say that the Spirits inward teaching only without any outward teaching by the Scriptures or by men is the rule of Faith and Practice whatever other Spirit it is that taught it you the which it concerns you more than me to examine For the Spirit having said thus much by this holy man of God in this Place for he as all other Prophets spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost I am sure he hath said nothing to the contrary in any other for the word that proceeds from the Spirit of truth is not yea and nay When St. Paul said Gal. 5.18 if ye are led by the Spirit ye are not under the Law he did not mean if they were led by the inward guidance of the Spirit without the outward conduct of the Gospel but under the word Spirit here he opposeth the Gospel to the Law And his meaning was that if they gave up themselves to the conduct of the Spirit by the Gospel they should not need to make conscience still of the Ceremonies of Moses's Law as Circumcision or the like as some among them did from which he had been dehorttng them in the begining of this Chapter This Gospel is called the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus which frees those that walk after it and not after the Flesh from the Law of Sin and Death Rom. 8.1 2. And where this Gospel is received into the heart so as that it is predominant there there Christ dwells and the Spirit dwells by that word of the Gospel And thus Christ is in men the hope of Glory and thus Christ dwells in the heart by Faith by Faith in his word and those live and walk in the Light that live and walk according to this word and thus they abide in Christ that have his word abiding in them and those that abide in the Doctrine of Christ have both the Father and the Son and they are spiritually minded whose minds are powerfully influenced by the Gospel and they resist the Holy Ghost who resist that word which hath been declared by motion and inspiration from him So inseparable are the Word and Spirit in the conduct of Christians to happiness St. Paul exhorted the Ephesians to be filled with the Spirit in order to their speaking to themselves in Psalms and Hymnes and Spiritual Songs Eph. 5.18 19. and the Colossians that they
him as well as to have sent him to Ananias to be told what he should do He could have told Cornelius by himself or by the Angel that he sent to him those words by which he and his house should be saved as well as to direct him to Peter to learn them of him God could have revealed the same things to the World by immediate inspiration of his Spirit which he made known to it by Prophets by Christ himself by Apostles Evangelists Pastors and Teachers but he chose rather at sundry times and in divers manners to speak unto the Fathers by the Prophets and at last by his own Son which he sent into the World in our nature to teach the way of Salvation And when he left the World again and ascended up on high 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 These things are so plain that it is a matter of great astonishment that ever Christians that have read these things and that have not a design to undermine the Gospel and to Paganize the World again as I hope you have not should be ever tempted to think much more that ever you should be brought to believe it your selves and teach it others That the Light within without being taught by man or by the Scripture is the Rule of Faith and Practice But doubtless the inward Pride the over-valuing of your selves which I have been admonishing you of hath had a great hand in bringing you to it And if ever you be recovered from this snare of the Devil it must be by being brought to a sight and sence of your own injudiciousness and ignorance and altogether groundless confidence And if you were but well awakened out of that Spirit of Slumber into which your intoxication hath cast you and out of that pleasant Dream in it which hath so tickled your fancy you would be ashamed and confounded before God and Men that ever you should be so strangely deluded and prevailed upon as you have been to trouble the World with your whimsies and fancies and thereby to bring a scandal upon the Christian Religion and make sport for them that have no mind seriously to consider the things of the Gospel and to encourage Romish Agents in their design against the Reformation Be perswaded then by the Reason of the matter it self to become modest and humble and sober-minded and he not only content to receive your teaching from God by the Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures as all good Christians do and ever since the Primitive times have done but count it also as a high favour from him that he hath given us the Scriptures and sent the Gospel among us when so great a part of the World are at this day without it Remember how the Psalmist when he was therein assisted by the Spirit of God was affected with a less favour than that which you make little of when he said he sheweth his Word unto Jacob his Statutes and his Judgments unto Israel he hath not dealt so with any Nation and as for his judgments they have not known them Praise ye the Lord Psalm 147.19 20. And if it be so great a favour to us that have the Scriptures above what is vouchsafed to the Infidel and Pagan World which have them not then you cannot but be guilty of high ingratitude to God whilest you give the Precedency to that Light within which you say every man coming into the World hath and so the Pagans themselves and speak of the Scriptures as if they were but a Declaration of that which was in you and which you knew without them and which you might have known if you had never heard of them By all which you teach them that have so little Wit or Grace as to believe you to have a low esteem of the Scriptures and to think that men may as well be saved without them as with them And how then can you possibly free your selves from that horrid guilt which God charged upon the Jews of old saying I have written to him Ephraim the great things of my Law and they were esteemed as a strange thing Hos 8.12 You have no doubt thought your selves more sublime and spiritual than others upon account of your new Notions and new affected Modes and Phrases And not only so but there is great reason to think that an affectation of being esteemed so did insensibly lead you or at least the Leaders among you from one novel conceit to another until you have exceeded all bounds of Sobriety of mind and become perfectly Drunk though not with Wine as the Prophet speaks Whereas alas the Spirituality of Christians doth not lye in high-flown Notions and Speculations nor in uncouth Phrases and expressions different from what are common among Men but in the inward frame and temper of their Spirits and conversations when these are conformable to the Doctrine of the Gospel which is of and from the Holy Spirit and thereby become partakers of the spiritual and Divine nature or likeness to Christ Jesus in purity in lowliness humility and meekness and in love to God and Charity to Men in patience and gentleness in contempt of the World in contentation and self-resignation to God in Zeal to honour God and to do all the good we can in the World Upon account of which Spiritual qualifications Christians are said to be one Spirit with Christ and by this Spirit and temper when given us we know that we dwell in him and he in us and if any Man have not the Spirit of Christ in some measure he is none of his Such as in whom are found the fruits of the Spirit they are the spiritual Christians such as is Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance as they are enumerated by St. Paul in Gal. 5.22 23. And as these do more or less abound in Christians in the degree and measure of them so they are more or less Spiritual And who-ever they be that do estimate themselves to be Spiritual Christians upon account of any sublime Notions or Speculations or affected Phrases or by their being for or against any form way or party or which is more by their being in the constant use and exercise of God's own Ordinances farther than they are bettered in the frame and temper of their Spirits thereby and made more like Christ Jesus they take wrong measures of their Spirituality And if there were nothing else to make us suspect your new-taken-up way to be not Spiritual but carnal this would do it in that it hath according to common observation made you since you came into it or were looking towards it more self-conceited proud and disdainful slighting and setting at naught all others that differ from you and more desperately censorious and more bold and confident in reviling than you were
THE Grand Errour OF THE QUAKERS Detected and Confuted Shewing how they contradict God's method of directing men to Salvation by following that Light within which comes by outward Teaching by their directing them to seek it by following that Light within which is wrought without external teaching by the Scriptures or by men WHEREIN Those things are considered likewise which have betrayed them into delusion By W. A. Rom. 10.14 17. How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard And how shall they hear without a Preacher So then Faith cometh by hearing LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishops-Head in St Paul's Church-Yard 1680. AN EPISTLE TO THE ENTHUSIASTS Or the People called QUAKERS Sirs I Have cause to think that your unmeasurable Confidence of the Truth and Goodness of your own Way in opposition to the best men that differ from you and the scornful entertainment the best Endeavours of men have met with to convince you of Error and Mistake have discouraged many of those from attempting it who are best able herein to serve you But my Love to your Souls and Desires of recovering you to a sound mind being stronger than my hopes of effecting it by any Endeavours of mine have prevailed with me to offer a few things to you however whether you will hear or whether you will forbear not being without all hope but that it may have such effect upon some among you or inclining to you as may be worth my Labour § 1. You know it was said by our Blessed Saviour That straight is the Gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto Life and few there be that find it And I little doubt but that an Appearance at the first of a greater Strictness and Narrowness in your way than in theirs that differ from you was a Temptation to some injudicious persons I have known and probably to many other such to strike into it as supposing it must be the best and safest because the narrowest and fewest of it Which Snare I presume they would easily have escaped had they been but wise enough to have considered these two things First That that Narrowness and Strictness consisting in outward Austerities and Incivilities wherein you differed from other Sober Christians was no Narrowness or strictness of God's appointing but a piece of Superstition of your own devising when you placed Religion in it And you are not the first that have been deceived with such Appearances several Orders among the Papists have been built upon the same Bottom long before your way was heard of in the world And we read of others long before them also who subjected themselves to like Ordinances of men such as touch not taste not handle not Such things having a shew of wisdom in Will-worship and Humility and neglecting of the Body not in any honour to the satisfying of the Flesh as the Apostle speaks Col. 2.20 23. In respect of which and other like little things that had no real worth or goodness in them the false Apostles pretended to more strictness than was in the Apostles of Christ themselves whom they represented but as men walking according to the Flesh in comparison of themselves 2 Cor. 10.2 And the Pharisees before them by reason of some Austerities they used about Fastings external Purifications and shunning the company of Publicans pretended to greater strictness in Religion than was in Christ's Disciples yea than in Christ himself whom they accounted to be but a Gluttonous person and a Wine-bibber a friend of Publicans and Sinners in compare with themselves By such appearance of extraordinary Zeal and Strictness though alas it be but in things that do not tend at all to the bettering or perfecting men in their Nature Deceivers are wont to procure to themselves a Reputation among people of weak minds by advantage whereof as of a Eait that covers the Hook they obtain a ready reception for their more dangerous Doctrines Again They would not so easily have been overcome with the aforesaid Appearances of Narrowness and Strictness if they had but well considered that in reference to those things wherein the Narrowness and Strictness of Christ's way to Life doth most consist and wherein he hath tied up his followers to strictness indeed ye have taken liberty to walk loosly and to cast off his Yoke and that is in not governing your Spirits Passions and Tongues according to the Laws of his Kingdom and Government He hath strictly enjoyned his Followers to be humble and lowly in heart to esteem others better than themselves to speak evil of no man but to shew all meekness to all men yea and in meekness to instruct even those that oppose themselves to bless those that curse them to overcome others evil with their good not to judge and the like But quite contrary hereunto your very Leaders and such as have been esteemed most eminent among you have by their examples taught you to rail on and revile if not bitterly to curse such as wished you no harm but sought your good and proudly to exalt and justifie your selves and to despise and set at naught yea to judge condemn and sentence to eternal destruction such whom ye ought to have honoured as probably much better than your selves What less signifies such Language as this Thou accursed thou Beast to whom the Plagues of God are due a Reprobate a Child of Darkness thou art thou disobedient one upon whom God will render vengeance in flaming fire thou dark blind Hypocrite thee man that is Cain with the Light of Christ thou art seen and with the Life judged and condemned thou Sorcerer thou dead Beast and so art not justified before God nor never shall be But such polluted filthy Beasts as thou Thou polluted Beast who art a Reprobate and thou shalt find him to be thine eternal Condemnation thou dark Beast and Conjurer thou dark sottish Beast Works of Edw. Burroughs p. 29 32 33 34. With abundance more in other of your Writings This truly is Language more like to proceed one would think from such presumptuous daring arrogant men whose mouth speaketh great swelling words as Peter and Jude describe than from men inspired with any of that Spirit of Meekness and Gentleness which was in Jesus Christ If Humility Charity and Modesty were the prevailing Constitution of these mens Spirits as it is of those who have been taught of Christ as the Truth is in Jesus and are made one Spirit with him I should think they would by no means speak at this rate And yet this and such like is not the Language only of some bold rash heady women or of men less considerable among you transported with furious Zeal but even of Ed. Burrough himself one of the Chieftains among you in his time And that not upon any sudden surprize of Passion but upon so much deliberation as men use in writing of Books and upon no other provocation than a bare propounding certain Queries touching
p. 115. Many may run into the practice of several outward things mentioned in the Scriptures to have been the practice of Saints in former Ages and yet not be led into the Truth for all that is but Will-Worship Imitation and Vnwarrantable Your Notion concerning your Way then thus represented is this or to this effect That God Christ the holy Spirit do by immediate Illumination of your minds and without external teaching by the Scriptures or by men shew you or reveal to you what you ought to believe and do and by their immediate motion or operation draw or perswade you to believe and practise accordingly Which Illumination or Operation you call The Light within or the Holy Anointing which teacheth all things This I take to be your sence when you say you own Scripture but not as your Teacher and that such have no need of the Scripture to teach them and that all the Children of God are taught of God and need not any other Teacher And again that God's pure Spirit is put into the inward parts to be the Rule and Guide of Life in all things and that the only perfect Rule of Conscience in the exercise to God is the Spirit of Christ and not any other thing That the Scriptures are so far from being the Rule of Faith and Practice as that the Light within is both your Warrant and Rule That the Spirit of Truth alone leads into all Truth And that the infallible Spirit of Christ gives Infallibility of judgment and discerning into all Cases and Things This then is your Method and Way Now I will shew you what is God's Method and Way which is quite different from yours The Gospel plainly declares That there shall be a Resurrection of all men after Death and a State of everlasting weal or wo in another world and that as many as believe Christ to be the Son of God and Saviour of the world and repent them of the evil they have done and sincerely obey his Laws shall by his Death which he suffered for sin receive Remission of sin and Eternal Life but that those that do not shall be punished with everlasting Destruction This Gospel this Doctrine being not knowable by men by any Natural Light in them without Divine Revelation from God Jesus Christ who came from the Bosom of the Father he revealed it himself to his Apostles and others by his Doctrine and after his Ascension into Heaven he by sending them the Holy Spirit immediately inspired them with a clear knowledge and understanding of it and so by the gift of speaking divers Languages accompanied with boldness and utterance enabled them to reveal and publish it to the world and to procure Credit to it by many Signs and Wonders which were done by them And ever since that God's way and method of bringing men to Salvation that live where the Gospel comes hath been by making known this Gospel to them by word or writing and so by the mighty Motives contained in it such as the Manifestation of God's Love in the Gift of Christ the Hopes of Eternal Life and the Fears of Eternal Death in concurrence with the Operation of his Grace and good Spirit together with the rational Evidence of the Truth of it to perswade men to believe and embrace it and to live according to it So that according to this Representation compared with that made of your Way God's Way and Method and yours greatly differ You holding that the Holy Spirit directs and perswades men what to believe and do by his own immediate working without outward teaching whereas as we say he doth it by outward teaching It is God Christ the Holy Spirit that works the saving change in men but he doth it still by the Word of the Gospel as communicated to mens minds by the Scriptures or by mens teaching the same Doctrine which is contained in the Scriptures and it is this Doctrine that is the Rule of Faith and Practice And this I doubt not to make very plain to you in opposition to your way if you will not shut your eyes And this I shall endeavour gradually step by step in certain Propositions § 3. First In the Apostles days in which there was the greatest effusion of the Holy Spirit on them and other Christians that ever hath been yet even then God's way of bringing men to believe the Gospel and to live according to it was by publishing it to men by men either by Word or Writing and evidencing it to be from God The Apostles indeed had the Gospel from Christ himself immediately as he himself had it from the Father who gave him Commandment what he should say and what he should speak It at the first began to be spoken by the Lord himself and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him as 't is said Heb. 2.4 But after Christ's Ascension others at the first received the Knowledge and Faith of the Gospel by the Ministry of the Apostles who were his Ambassadors to the world by them he made known his Salvation to the Ends of the Earth When our Saviour prayed for all other good Christians that should be in the World besides his Apostles he describes them thus viz. Such as should believe through their Word John 17.20 Neither pray I for these alone but for them also which shall believe on me through their Word And it pleased God by the foolishness of Preaching to save them that believe 1 Cor. 1.21 And so Faith cometh by Hearing saith he Rom. 10.17 By hearing of what and of whom Why by hearing the Gospel preached by such whom God sent to preach it of which mention is made in the precedent Verses The Doctrine which the Apostles preached which is the Gospel is said to be the Power of God to Salvation Rom. 1.16 And the Reason is given in ver 17 18. Because thereby the Righteousness of God is revealed from Faith to Faith That is God's method of justifying men upon condition of their believing and obeying of it and because thereby the eternal Wrath of God from Heaven is revealed against all Ungodliness and Unrighteousness of men This Revelation being from God and the things the Motives revealed being powerful Arguments to prevail with men to receive and obey the Gospel upon their doing of which they shall be saved thence it is that 't is called The Power of God to Salvation not excluding the concurrent Operation of God's Spirit upon the heart by it This being so your Leaders manifest a strange degree of Vnlearnedness in the things of the Gospel when they deny saving Grace to be wrought by the outward Administration of the Word or Teaching by man as they do when they attribute it to God alone as his immediate Work and all because the Scripture attributes it to God to Christ to the Holy Spirit Whereas nothing is more common than to attribute the same Effect sometimes to one Cause sometimes to another when there is
the Concurrence and Co-operation of several Causes to the producing of the same Effect as there usually is in God's working savingly upon men As men are said in Scripture to be born of God to be born of the Spirit so they are said to be born of the Immortal Seed of the Word 1 Pet. 1.23 Because that is God's Instrument Of his own Will begat he us by the Word of Truth Jam. 1.18 And the Gospel is the Ministration of the Spirit and the Sword of the Spirit as it is called because it is the great Instrument or Means by which the Spirit doth its Work upon men Indeed the Work of Grace in men is most properly attributed to God to Christ though other Causes concur to the producing of that Effect because he is the principal Cause of it and all other but subordinate and yet the Effect is sometimes attributed to subordinate and second Causes also though less properly Thus Christ the principal Cause of it is said to be The Light of the World the Light of men because he by his Gospel as the Author of it discovers and reveals to them a future everlasting Happiness attainable in another World and the way to it and yet the Gospel it self yea the Apostles and Pastors and Christian Professors are also said to be the Light of the world as subordinate Causes under Christ of the Illumination of men in the knowledge hereof Mat. 5.14 2 Cor. 4.4 Phil. 2.15 16. All which had you well considered you would never have opposed mens being enlightened and taught by Christ as ye do to their being taught by the Scriptures or by men and all because forsooth the Illumination of men is attributed to Christ This very thing here suggested to you would in great part reduce you and set you to rights if you could be but willing to receive and own that for truth which cannot without great absurdity and contradiction to the Scriptures be denied But for want of distinguishing between things and things which in some respect seem to be the same but in other respects greatly differ you run your selves into Error and great Absurdities I will upon this occasion instance in another thing not much unlike to that but now mentioned wherein you greatly mistake for want of distinguishing and that is touching the Presence of Christ in men For because the Scriptures speak of Christ's being in men and because Christ is God and God euery where present and so in all men from these thus jumbled together you infer that therefore Christ is in all men and that being so you farther infer that all men are taught by him himself immediately without external Teaching In doing of which you confound things together which are distinct to the darkning of them in your understandings and the misguiding you in Judgment You do not distinguish as you ought to do between the Essential Presence of Christ as God and his Virtual Presence as Mediator God-man For although Christ as God is present to every man in the exercise of common Providence in the world My Father worketh hitherto and I work saith he John 5.17 yet in respect of his Virtual Presence as Mediator as when he rules and operates in mens hearts by his Authority and by the Evangelical Law in this sence which yet is doubtless the sence in which Christ is said in Scripture to be in men and to dwell in them I say in this sence he is not in all men For men are said to be without Christ until they are converted to Christianity Eph. 2.12 And it is by Faith which only some and not all men have that Christ dwells in any mans heart Eph. 3.17 It is by that Faith that his Authority in his Doctrine and Law is owned and where that 's sincerely owned there Christ is said to dwell Not that Christ as Mediator God-man dwells personally in men for in that sence and respect he dwells in Heaven and is at the right hand of the Majesty on high And therefore as Teacher of his Church he doth not teach men now immediately in person but by his Gospel which he sends to them by which he enlightens them in the way of Salvation Ye do therefore err not knowing or understanding the Scriptures while you attribute those effects to the Essential Presence and immediate operation of Christ in men which are wrought by him indeed but it is by the Instrumentality and Agency of second Causes the Gospel and the Ministration thereof by men I wish that by these Instances you could be made sensible of your great weakness in despising Distinctions as if they were but effects of Carnal Reason and Fleshly Wisdom for sith Words that are the same in sound are often used to signifie things of a different Nature and words different in sound to signifie things of the same Nature instances of which the Scripture abounds with they must of necessity be perpetually liable to Error and gross Mistakes that throw away Distinctions as useless which is your own case in many other things besides these now instanced in Since then it was God's Method in the Apostles dayes to bring men to salvation by believing and obeying the Doctrine preached by them as I have shewed It is marvellous that any that pretend to know any thing in Christianity should deny this Doctrine to be the Rule of Faith and Christian Practice whenas that 's the very end and Reason of the promulgation of it to direct men what to believe and do that they might be saved and to excite them to believe and do accordingly When St. Paul saith Whereto we have attained let us walk by the same Rule doth he not by Rule mean the Apostles Doctrine whenas in the next words he proposeth himself that lived according to what he taught as an example for them to follow Phil. 3.16 17. It was the great commendation of the primitive Christians that they continued stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine Acts 2.42 And St John said Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the Doctrine of Christ hath not God And to transgress sure is to swerve from the Rule 2 John 9. This Doctrine of Christ is called the Gospel of the Kingdom Mat. 4.23 and 9.35 and 24.14 For it is that Rule by which Christ our King doth rule and govern his Subjects both in Heart and Life as the Laws of the Land are the Rule according to which Earthly Kings do govern theirs The Sum and Substance of the Doctrine which the Apostles preached one as well as another and in one place as well as another is called The Form of Sound Words 2 Tim. 1 13. The Principles of the Doctrine of Christ Heb. 6. And this Form of Doctrine was delivered to the Christians to rule and govern themselves by Rom. 6.17 But now have obeyed from the heart that Form of Doctrine which was delivered to you And it was so much a Rule to them that they were commanded to mark and
that refers but to the same thing the qualifying of persons to prophesie For the Prophets of old did usually receive the matter of Prophesie by Dreams or Visions Numb 12.6 If there be a Prophet among you I the Lord will make my self known unto him in a Vision and will speak unto him in a Dream Hos 12.10 And it was not unusual for Prophets then to fore-tell Evangelical Events in an Old-Testament Dialect And when 't is said the Spirit should be poured out upon all flesh it is not meant of all persons in the world without exception for it was never given unto all persons to prophesie taking all in so large a sence but to persons of all sorts both for Sex and Age Sons and Daughters old men and young yea Servants and Handmaids also as they are particularly exprest in the Text and these not of the Jews only but on the Gentiles also as the Event shews which was new to the world 2. The Application of this Prophesie to the Event plainly shews that the End for which a Promise of this pouring out of the Spirit was made was to enable some to teach others For the event of this Prophesie in which it received its completion was the pouring out of the Spirit in extraordinary and miraculous gifts upon the Apostles and Disciples on the day of Pentecost and for some time after This appears by St. Peter's application of that Prophesie to this very Event Act. 2.16 This is that saith he which was spoken by the Prophet Joel c. And that those miraculous Gifts were poured out on some to enable them to teach others will appear in these two things not to instance in more First the Gift of speaking divers Tongues which was one of them was to enable them to declare the things of the Gospel to people of all Nations Tongues and Languages in their own Mother-Tongue wherein they were born Upon the use of this gift those of every Nation under heaven then resident at Jerusalem said We do hear them speak in our Tongues the wonderful works of God Acts 2.11 By this Gift the Apostles were prepared to preach the Gospel to all Nations to every Creature as Christ afterwards commissioned them to do Secondly As by this Gift of Tongues they could and did propagate the Knowledge of the Gospel to them that never heard of it before so by this as by other miraculous Gifts of the Spirit was Belief of the Gospel procured from them to whom it was made known For hereby they knew or had reason to believe that persons thus qualified were sent of God and the Doctrine they brought was from God John 3.2 We know that thou art a Teacher come from God for no man can do these Miracles that thou dost except God be with him In which respect this and other miraculous Gifts were called signs and signs of what but that the persons so qualified and their Doctrine were of God Tongues saith St. Paul are for a sign to those that believe not 1 Cor. 14.22 They were teaching Signs they taught those to believe the Gospel who did not believe before Signs and Wonders done by the Apostles and others were those things by which God gave testimony to the Word of his Grace as it is Acts 14.3 These signs said our Saviour shall follow those that believe in my name in my name they shall cast out Devils they shall speak with new Tongues c. Mark 16.17 And in v 20. They the Apostles went forth and preached every where the Lord working with them and confirming the Word with Signs following And Heb. 2.4 God also bearing them witness with Signs and Wonders and divers Miracles and Gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will Truly saith St. Paul the Signs of an Apostle were wrought among you in Signs and Wonders and mighty Deeds 2 Cor. 12.12 These were teaching Signs by which the Apostles were known to be Apostles Messengers sent by God and their Word and Doctrine to be the Message which God sent by them These miraculous powers of the Spirit of God visible in the Apostles and those that received their Doctrine were that which procured such wonderful success to the preaching of the Gospel notwithstanding the fiercest opposition of Adversaries The very first day in which the Gospel set out armed and attended with these powers it brought in of Converts no less than 3000 Souls and so went forth conquering and to conquer from Jerusalem and throughout all Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the Earth I will not dare saith St. Paul to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me to make the Gentiles obedient by word and deed by the word preached and the mighty deeds that did accompany it through mighty Signs and Wonders by the power of the Spirit of God so that from Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum I have fully preached the Gospel of Christ Rom. 15.18 19. That which made the Gospel the more credible as coming from God and the more successful in bringing in multitudes of new Converts and in confirming and establishing those who were already converted was in that the holy Spirit was shed abroad in those Miraculous Gifts not only upon the Apostles that preached that Doctrine but also upon those that received it and believed it afterwards as well as on the day of Pentecost And that the more credit might be thereby procured to the Apostles in their Message from God to men the holy Ghost in extraordinary gifts was given to the Disciples after they believed by the laying on of the Apostles hands Thus at Samaria the Believers converted by Philip received the holy Ghost not by the laying on of his hands but of the hands of Peter and John Acts 8.17 And that they received the holy Ghost in some visible effects appears in that it is said that when Simon saw that through the laying on of the Apostles hands the Holy Ghost was given he offered them Money for the like power What to confer inward spiritual Grace No that was not the thing which he saw or could see the Apostles do nor is it probable that he desired it Likewise those Believers at Ephesus when Paul had laid his hands on them the Holy Ghost came on them and they spake with tongues and prophesied Acts 19.6 Thus it is said of them that after they believed they were sealed with the Holy Spirit of Promise as the earnest of the future Inheritance and purchased possession they continuing in the belief and practice of that Gospel that came thus confirmed to them Eph. 1.13 14. At the very first indeed it should seem the Holy Ghost fell on the Believers thus without laying on of the Apostles hands as in Acts 2. 10.44 But afterwards we have seen how it was The Spirit in some extraordinary gifts was poured on some of the Prophets of old but we never read that it was in such
had observed to them in the 18. v. that even then there were many Antichrists And in ver 19. that they those many Antichrists went out from them And his scope in the rest of the Chap. is to fortify and antidote them against the poysonous pretensions of those Antichrists who as he describes them in ver 22 did deny that Jesus was the Christ That this was here his scope and design appears by ver 26. where he saith these things have I written unto you concerning those that seduce you Now the means he makes use of to preserve them under this danger and to establish them is by putting them in remembrance by what means they at the first came to be perswaded of the truth of that Doctrine by which they were taught that Jesus is the Christ and that was by pouring out the Holy-Ghost in visible effects upon the Apostles that taught it and upon those that believed it and consequently upon themselves by which the truth of it was abundantly confirmed to them as coming from God For that doubtless is meant by the anointing here spoken of Jesus Christ himself in respect of the Spirit of glory that appeared in him by his Doctrine and Miracles was said to be anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power Act 10.38 As it was foretold by Isaiah the Prophet saying the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the Poor Isa 61.1 Luke 4.18 and so in like manner the pouring out of the Holy Ghost in miraculous gifts both upon the Apostles and believers for the confirmation of the Doctrine the one preached and the other believed is elsewhere called their being anointed by God as here also it is called the Unction of the holy one which is the same thing 2 Cor. 1.21 22. Now he that establisheth us with you into Christ and hath anointed us is God who hath also sealed us and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts By this it appears that both Apostles and other believers were established into Christ by the anointing of God upon them which anointing was his pouring out of the holy Spirit Ye have an unction from the Holy one and ye know all things Not that by this Unction the common Christians were immediately inspired with the knowledge of all truths but that by it they were assured of the truth of all things which the Apostles had taught them and consequently must needs know thereby that Jesus was the Christ because that was one of the principal Doctrines which they taught and taught all they did teach in the name of him as such As they were induced at the first to believe the Doctrine to be from God because they perceived the anointing of God to be upon them that preached it so they were afterwards confirmed in the truth of it because upon their receiving of it they themselves also received of the same anointing It is not said that this anointing did teach them all things but that it did teach them of all things that is of or concerning the truth of all things to which it was a witness or evidence as I have shewed it was to the Apostles Doctrine from Heb. 2.4.5 Mar. 16.20 and other places When then this Apostle says ye have an Unction from the holy one and ye know all things he did not intend thereby to tell them that all things they were to beleive and do were revealed to them by it but that the Doctrine by which they were taught all things necessary to their salvation was thereby attested to be from God appears evidently by that which he perswades them to by it in v. 24. and that was that the Doctrine which they had heard from the beginning might therefore be retained and held fast by them that had been so ratified and confirmed to them by the Unction they had from the Holy one Let that therefore abide in you which you have heard from the beginning if that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father Agreeable to what he says also in his second Epistle verse 9. He that abideth in the Doctrine of Christ he hath both the Father and the Son And therefore when he says again ye need not that any man teach you but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things and is truth and is no lie he doth not thereby mean that they needed no farther teaching by man for their establishment and building up in the Faith for if he had he had contradicted himself in what he was now doing in this Chap. and all along in this Epistle And therefore his meaning must be that they needed not from him or any other man any teaching that could or could reasonably pretend to give them greater assurance of any thing than that anointing gave them of Jesus his being the Christ and of the truth of that Doctrine which they had heard from the beginning for that anointing saith he is truth and is no lie but such as could not deceive them it being God's witness from Heaven And from thence concludes saying that as it hath taught you ye shall abide in him As if he should have said as this anointing did at the first prevail with you to receive Jesus as the true Messias so for the same cause I am confi-you will as you have the greatest reason still abide in him notwithstanding all pretences of Seducers to take you off This then being the scope and drift of the Apostle in this place to which the several expressions here used are accommodated and by which they are to be interpreted and understood how I pray you will you find your opinion here of the Spirits inward teaching of all things without any outward teaching You are wont to say that the Scriptures are not to be understood but by the same Spirit that gave them forth And the Spirit doubtless is not wanting to assist the sincere endeavours of men in searching after the sence of the Scriptures in order to practice But truly if we should judge of mens having the Spirit by their understanding the Scriptures I think there would be as little reason to think you have the Spirit as any sort of men that have read the Scriptures for doubtless there are scarce any sort of men if any at all that do more grosly misunderstand and misapply and so abuse the Scriptures than you do and that under the greatest confidence too of being guided in your sence and notions of them by the Spirit of God You take the sound of words in Scripture which as you fancy comport with your notions and opinions and then apply them to your purpose and then are confident the Holy Spirit hath guided you therein When as alas you do not understand the intent or design of the Writer in the places where such expressions are no nor as is to be feared do you
would let the word of Christ dwell in them richly in order to the same end Col. 3.16 From both which passages compared it appears that the Word of Christ which is the Gospel and the Spirit do concur and co-operate in producing the same Spiritual effects in men Yea it seems they are so unanimous in their operation in reference hereto that when but one is named the other is to be understood or else that the variation of expression is but another word for the same thing These things being so plain throughout the current of the Scriptures your bold and confident assertion to the contrary discovers your very great unskilfulness in the nature of the Evangelical Dispensation and your utter insufficiency and unfitness to take upon you to teach others and that you need rather your selves to be taught the first principles of the Doctrine of Christ § 18. Heb. 8.10 11. is another place which you would constrain to serve your turn and to make it evident that under the New Covenant God himself doth so inwardly teach men and write his Laws in their hearts that they need no outward teaching what to believe or do by any other means because it is there said I will put or give my Laws into their minds and write them in their hearts and they shall not teach every man his Neighbour and every man his Brother saying know the Lord for all shall know me from the least to the greatest But when you can but obtain of your selves seriously and impartially to consider for what end God hath set in his Church first Apostles and then Pastors and Teachers if not to teach men what to know believe and do that they may be saved I doubt not but you will then find it necessary to understand this place of Scripture so as that it may not run counter to and contradict the whole current of Scripture elsewhere as it will if your sence of it take place as I have already shewed at large And therefore seeing your sence of it cannot stand unless the general testimony of the Scriptures fall another sence of it must of necessity be accepted of These words then as noting the difference of the second Covenant from the first are a form of speech to set forth after a rhetorical way how plainly and easily to be understood the mind of God touching the Salvation of men shall be revealed and made known under the Gospel in comparison of what it was before Before and under the old Covenant it was but obscurely made known by dark Prophesies which are therefore said to be a light shining in a dark place 2. Pet. 1.19 and under types and figures and literal representations so that the Children of Israel could not see to the end of those things which are now abolished they could rarely and not without much difficulty and uncertainty if at all understand the end or design of them or what was signified by them till the Gospel came and revealed them And therefore St. Paul saith before Faith came we were kept under the Law shut up unto the Faith which should afterwards be revealed Gal. 3.23 So that by all the teaching they had though there were Precept upon Precept Precept upon Precept Line upon Line Line upon Line here a little and there a little as the Prophet speaks yet they had and could have but a dim and very imperfect sight and knowledge of what is now revealed in the Gospel And therefore it s said of the Prophets themselves who having their predictions by immediate revelation from God were like to know more in this kind than any other in those times yet it s said of them that when they Prophesied of the Grace that should come to them that are under the Cospel though they enquired diligently what as well as what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signifie when it testified before hand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow yet I say 't is said of them that not unto themselves but unto us they did Minister the things which are reported by them that have preached the Gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven 1. Pet. 1.10 11 12. In this respect it was said though none of the Prophets were greater than John the Baptist yet the least in the Kingdom of God is greater than he This was their Case then But now by the Gospel the way of Salvation by Christ and the terms and conditions upon which it is promised are so nakedly plainly and clearly revealed and fitted to mens understandings and capacities that so much as is necessary to Salvation may very easily be understood by persons of very ordinary and common capacities and without much teaching as appears by those that were converted and baptized as the Jaylor and his Houshold and the three thousand in Acts 2. with little teaching Upon account of which clear revelation it s said we all with open face behold as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord the Glory of his Wisdome Goodness Grace and Mercy in the way of Salvation now exhibited in the Gospel 2. Cor. 3.18 Upon account of this difference it is I conceive that St. John saith the darkness is past and the true Light now shineth 1 Joh. 2.8 Besides the Laws and terms of the New Covenant are not only fitted to the understandings and capacities of all sorts of persons by the plainness of the Revelation of them but are such also in the very nature of them as that they commend themselves to every mans acceptation and choice and are every whit as worthy to be embraced by their wills as they are easie to be understood by the reason of their minds A great part of the Laws of the Old Covenant which were but figurative of the terms of the New had little or nothing in them to commend themselves to mens acceptation and choice so long as their Symbolical nature was not understood save what the authority of God in commanding them gave them Circumcision Sacrificing legal washings and Purifications and the like were in St. Pauls account but beggarly Elements when the command of God for the observation of them was taken off And not only so but they were a Yoke which as St. Peter said neither we nor our Fathers were able to bear a Yoke of Bondage as St. Paul calls them Whereas most of the Precepts of the Gospel the things commanded there are desirable in themselves if they had not been commanded by a promulgate Law To love and worship God to repent of that which hath been ill done to be sober chast and temperate to do to others as we would be done to our selves in point of equity fidelity and charity to be humble and meek patient and contented and the like are things that tend to the peace and satisfaction of the minde to the health of the body and long life to a mans Credit Reputation and thriving in the
they may be with some But though the things necessary to salvation are in the Revelation of them accommodated to the capacities of the weak and simple whose Salvation is designed by them as well and as much as theirs of stronger and quicker apprehensions yet there are things under the New Testament that are hard to be uttered as the phrase is Heb. 5.11 and therefore hard to be understood as the phrase is again 2. Pet. 3.16 As there is milk for Babes who are unskilful in the Word of righteousness so there is meat for strong Men who by reason of use have their Senses exercised to discern both good and evil as 't is said Heb. 5.13 14. And mens differences about these points proceed at the best from their different measures of Light and understanding and sometimes are persisted in from that which is worse So it was in the Apostles time between the believing Jews and the blieving Gentiles Rom. 14. Which by the way would not have been if all good Christians then had been guided by an infallible Light within as you suppose they are now If they had they would not have needed to have been taught and re-taught which are the first principles of the Oracles of God as some of them were Heb. 5. But when men which are but poor in knowledge and yet rich in confidence undertake to manage and master these more difficult points and passages of Scripture they too often wrest them to their own destruction as St. Peter speaks 2. Ep. 3.16 And this they either do or are in great danger of doing when they fasten upon some wrong sence and notion of hard and difficult places of Scripture and then pervert plain and easie places by interpreting them to their wrong sence of those that are more obscure and difficult especially when their interpretations are not mere speculations but such as influence men in their practice as becoming a rule to them therein Whereas the more wise and judicious never interpret hard places in opposition to the common sence of those that are plain and easie but explain those that are hard and difficult by those that are plain The use I would advise you to make of all this is to review the grounds you have gone on and to cease from your new notions and speculations of your being taught only by the Light within which you have taken up from some expressions in Scripture misunderstood by you and wholly disagreeing to the Scope of the places where they are found and contrary to the general current of the Scriptures in their plain and obvious sence Seek not a Knot in a bulrush seek not for Mysteries there where the Lord hath declared his mind plainly and in no parable But form your notions of God's method of proceeding with men to bring them to Salvation according to the plain and express Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles in the Scriptures and receive from and regulate by that Doctrine all your apprehensions perswasions affections and operations of your Souls together with all your words and actions So did the good Christians of Old they obeyed from the heart that form of Doctrine which was delivered to them Rom. 6.17 They purifyed their souls in obeying that Truth through the Spirit 1. Pet. 1.22 Yea the Apostles themselves were first taught by Christ's preaching unto them what to think and believe concerning Christ John 17.8 I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me and they have received them and have known surely that I came out from thee and they have believed that thou didst send me And just as the Apostles preached so the Christians believed they made their Doctrine the Adequate Rule of their notions of things the Rule of their Faith the Rule of their Life So we Preach and so ye believed saith St. Paul 1. Cor. 15.11 And those great plain known and commonly received Truths necessary to Salvation called the common Faith Tit. 1.4 the Faith once delivered to the Saints Jude 3. these I say were the Rule and Standard by which they were to try the Doctrine of such as only pretended to Inspirations from the Spirit Beloloved believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they be of God because many false Prophets are gone out into the World 1. Joh. 4.1 And then St. John in ver 2 3. commends to them one known fundamental Doctrine pertinent to his Case then in hand by which they might know the Teachers he cautioned them against were not inspired by God nor authorized by him Hereby know ye the Spirit of God every Spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the Flesh is of God And every Spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the Flesh is not of God And again verse 6. We are of God he that knoweth God heareth us adhered to and governed themselves by the Apostles Doctrine he that is not of God heareth not us hereby know we the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error And truly if you will not make the plain and express Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles in the Scriptures touching Faith and a good Life your Rule by which to try and to judge of the Truth and erroneousness of your conceptions perswasions motions and inclinations under the notion of the Light within and of all your words and actions consequent thereupon you are and will be in great danger to be like the wandring Stars and the clouds carried with a Tempest of which St Peter and Jude speak unfixed and unstable in your judgment Faith and Ways For it is certain and evident whatever you pretend to the contrary that the Light within you is not in your own account always a certain constant and infallible Rule to you for if it were you would not act so contrary to your selves as you have done under pretence of being taught of God and guided by the Light within One while crying up your former practice of shaking as the effect of God's work in and upon you and another while confessing it to be a delusion as Samuel Fisher one of note with you did to me saying it was so judged One while crying down all Ecclesistical forms of Government as tyrannical another while erecting one among your selves pretending to as much Infallibility in your Body representative in managing it as the Papists do in reference to the Pope One while owning the witnessing of a person to be from God and another while condemning the same for an error or delusion How often have those of your number thought they have been sent by God on messages who after have found themselves deluded By these and other like instances you may be convinced that if you do not make the Doctrine of Christ in the Scriptures the Adequate Rule of the motions and inclinations of your minds and the actions of your lives whereby to know when they are of God and when not you have then no certain Rule to