of Saintship and altogether unproper and unmeet for that state of growth and perfection which they pretend to have attained unto This wile of the Devill is not by all good men easily and at the first observed not doe they consider that by a shew of rationall and spirituall pretences he deprives them at last of all the Ordinances and Institutions of God that his inspirations and revelations may be in stead of them and he at last may be all in all unto them For I beseech you what else is the effect of those methods in these men in whom he hath gained most upon this way but a forme of unsound words by which evill communication they corrups good manners stuffing their Preachings and Writings with an uncouth and most unsavory gibberish or jergon language which the Scriptures owne not which rationall and truely spirituall men understand not till at last growing bolder in the vanities of their minds and expressions they come to this to which some of them are come to make themselves Christ and God and to stile themselves the Lord of Hosts Blasphemies unheard of in other ages and such as are capable of astonishing the most debauch't and prophane spirits and such as tend not onely to the utter subversion of all Religion but as a necessary consequence of that to the destruction and dissolution of all bands of civill government Notwithstanding the horrour of these things yet I must professe when I thinke seriously of them I cannot but rest satisfied in the wisedome and goodnesse of God to his who by letting them see the miserable consequences and effects of opinions so depraved as the casting aside of all Ordinances of worship and yet of that seeming holinesse and spiritualnesse as the pretence of a more immediate and spirituall converse with God is are bounded and kept in order by these exorbitancies and taught that which the Scripture teacheth frequently that The weaknesse of God is stronger then men and the foolishnesse of God is wiser then men and therefore if any will be wise for all these vanities arise from nothing but from a carnall and vaine Philosophating about spirituall things he must become a foole that hee may be wise Now as to be instrumentall to turne sinners and such as erre from the truth from the errour of their ways is a thing of the greatest concernment and highly acceptable to God so is it no way of more consideration then in such errings and mistakings as are about the fundamentals of Religion and Worship and which are so fertile of ill as having gained once a prevalency and authority there is no stoppe or bounds to any thing which a vaine and carnall heart deluded and imboldened by the Devill shall broach to the World for good Doctrine That which immediately debauches the spirit of men this way is as I said a slighting and undervaluing of the Ordinances of worship and holy Institutions and after that a despising and abhorring of them as things carnall and unbecomming a spirituall and raised state But that which is yet a deeper and more bottome root of this untoward production is Secondly Low and meane thoughts of the holy Scriptures the Word of God or which is as bad and arises from the same root of pride and vanity such a bold and ridiculous allegorizing of them under a colour of going farre enough from the Letter and understanding the mystery of them as they obtrude upon you all the vaine reasonings of a carnall heart and that as the Preachings and Writings of these times will abundantly witnesse with such folly and madnesse as that after that rate a man may not despaire to see the Turkish Alcoran brought out of the New Testament or if there be any greater the greatest absurdities and follies that ever entered into the heart of any ignorant or carnall man since the World stood He therefore that would indeavour the recovery of these men or prevent the fallings and disorders of others in these matters of greatest concernment had need speake something to such errings as are about the Scriptures And First Not to speake if there bee any such of those that question the Divine Authority of Scripture as if it had not God for its Author and Originall that which I shall speake something to is that Opinion which seemes to be received amongst some as if it were a straitning to the spirit of God and indignity offered to it to bring spirituall revelations to the touch-stone and Examen of the Scriptures On the other side to me the Scripture seems amongst others to have tâ—o excellent ends for our advantage the one as other Ordinances of God to be a Medium of his owne setting up and which he delights to use for the conveying of himselfe to our spirits in inlightening and sanctifying us and making us partakers of the Divine nature The other to be a certaine and fixt Standard to which we may bring any thing that is broacht under the name of spirituall truth and may thereby as the Scripture sayes Try the spirits whether they be of God may know the voyce of God from the voyce of the Devill and the voyce of the holy spirit and good Angels from that of Satan even when he transformes himselfe into an Angel of light Nor is this any indignity offered to the spirit of God as is before pretended since he is confined to no Rule but what is of his owne forming If the Scriptures were a rule formed by man or by Angels it were unsufferable to subject the spirit of God to any rule so infinitely below it selfe but All Scripture being of Divine inspiration holy men of God speaking as they were moved by the holy Ghost as it is of great use to us against the wiles of the Devill so it is a particular honour to the spirit of God which by the meanes of such a Standard and rule appeares ever like it selfe that is uniforme and constant and which is a high attribute of God without variablenesse and shadow of changing From this good understanding betweene the spirit of God and the word of God the Scriptures dictated by the same spirit it is that in all matter of faith and worship and all things spirituall the appeale is still to the Scriptures as to the visible and lawfull Judge So Christ convincing the Jewes of their sin of unbeliefe tels them There is one that accuseth them even Moses for he wrote of him John 5.45 And as for the Jewes so for all others our Lord saith That he that rejecteth him and receiveth not his word hath one that judgeth him the Word saith hee that I have spoken the same shall judge him in the last day So Paul gloryes in this that the Thessalonians received the word spoken by them not as the word of man a thing subject to exceptions and limitations but as it is in truth the word of God which effectually worketh in them that beleeve 1 Thes 2.13 Hence when
Christ would convince the Sadduces of the Resurrection he told them They erred not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God Matth. 22.29 and then makes out his assertion by Scripture authority Have yee not read that which was spoken by God unto you And then brings them the very Scripture words I am the God of Abraham c. vers 32. So when Christ would prove himself to be the Messiah he bids them Search the Scriptures John 5.39 You see therefore it is no disparagement to the spirit of God that there is a visible Standard and Rule manifest to all men to which we may have a constant and easie recourse in any doubt or controversie of faith or worship Obj. If any shal object further that though this be not a disparagement or a lessening to the spirit of GOD since the authority of God it selfe and the reason of the thing seems to vindicate it from this Yet the Scriptures are capable of senses and interpretations so various as we see in all experience as it will be difficult to make it a Sandard and Rule of Faith and Worship or a Medium to try the spirits by since it needs the assistance of the spirit to the right interpretation of it selfe Ans I answer that the ignorance or perversnesse of Interpreters can by no meanes take away that Honour from the Scriptures that it should not be the Standard and Rule in things spirituall no more then in civill things the ignorance or peruersenesse of a man in giving the interpretations of the Law should detract from the honour of its being the rule and standard of judging in things civill It is certaine that in respect of the things spoken or in respect of the Speaker the Scripture hath not various and uncertaine senses but it seemes to have so oftentimes in respect of our vanity or ignorance Which leads me into consideration of the second charge I lay to some perverse spirits of these times which by obscure and mysterious Allegories draw a vaile and cast thick Clouds betweene us and the Scriptures and then cry out that they are mysterious obscure darke and hidden but If our Gospel bee hid as the Apostle saith it is hid to them that perish in whom the God of this World hath blinded their eyes Pride or some evill lusting hath blinded their eyes and then they cry out that there is a defect on the part of the object that that is not visible and the way by which they would spiritualize and inlighten it renders it a thousand times darker whilst under a pretence of running far enough from the Letter which they judge carnall and killing they subject it to the vanities and dreamings of every addle head and make the holy Scripture Eccho to the sound that is already in their eares according to that English Proverbe As the foole thinketh so the Bell tincketh But first here they greatly mistake who in alluding to that place of 1 Cor. 3.6 Not of the letter but of the spirit thinke there is an opposition put betwixt the letter of the Gospel and New Testament and the spirituall sense of it for here plainely by Letter is meant the Law and by spirit is meant the Gospel or New Testament in the very letter of it as you have John 1. The Law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ Not as if the Jewes were onely under a literall externall administration which did not affect their spirits God knew how to speake to his in those times but that was not the office of Moses or of the Law which propounded rules of living with promises and threatnings therefore When the Law came sin revived and I dyed saith Paul But the Ministry of the Gospel he cals spirit because the things it declares are quickning enlivening and restoring and such as speaking comparatively also the spirit accompanies much more then it did the Law as being the instrument of the grace of Christ in his Ministry The mistake of this place made Origen first and since very many loose themselves and their auditors in senslesse and idle Allegories supposing that the allegoricall sense was spirituall and the literall killing whereas the literall sense in most scriptures is not onely a spirituall sense but the onely spirituall sense of it and if besides what sense I have given of this place of the Law and the Gospel it reaches further the letter and the spirit is not to be understood of the Exposition of the words but of the fruit and effect of it it then being onely received in the Letter when it affects not the heart nor workes saving changes upon us and then in the spirit when it indeed converts and turnes us and moulds us into that holy frame and forme to which God ordaines his people Now that these expressions of the Spirit and the Letter are meant particularly of the Law and the Gospel appeares evidently in the following verses 7 8 9. For verse 7. speaking of the Letter he calls it The administration of death written and engraven in stones which we know was the Law this hee proves glorious from the glory and shining of Moses countenance In opposition to this he cals the Gospel The ministry of the spirit verse 8. and shews in one point more the excelling glory of this Gospell beyond the Law that it is to abide and remain evermore whereas the other is done away and past verse 10 11. It is true that what the Law is of it self that the Gospel is by accident killing and destructive 2 Corinth 2 16. To the one we are the savour of death unto death c. But though the Gospel be the occasion of damnation to very many notwithstanding it may be called the Spirit or Doctrine of life for as much as God uses it as the instrument or vehiculum of our conversion or new life and that it holds out and offers free reconciliation to us with God whereas the Law taking it simply and alone as it is here taken is the Letter that killeth and the ministry of death prescribing onely an exact rule of life by which comes the knowledge and reviving of sinne which kills without shewing any releife or way to escape And thus have I briefly opened this place which hath been the cause to many of such grosse errings and mistakes But to proceed It is certaine the Scriptures have a plainnesse and easinesse in them to be understood and therefore are said to be A light to our feet and a Lanthorne to our paths and a light shining in a darke place Thy words they give light they give understanding to the simple And if this may be affirmed of the Writings of the Old Testament with much more reason may it be affirmed of those of the New For Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ They had many things formerly in Types and Allegories as things that concerned others more then themselves For it was revealed to them that
them and admonish them of such things as hee writ then altogether lay foundations or deliver principles that are new to them and with which they are not acquainted Therefore Verse 24. hee admonisheth them that that might remaine with them which they have heard from the beginning as intending rather to confirme what they knew already and have been taught from the beginning by the word and spirit then to add in this exhortation any thing in which they were raw and unprincipled But because John sayes here that they have an unction from the spirit and know all things and Vers 27 that they need not that any man should teach them To conclude that therefore they needed no other Ministry or teaching but the spirit neither Scriptures nor Prophesies were to make John himselfe ridiculous For wherefore did he labour in this Doctrine and wherefore did he teach them at all if there were no need at all of his teaching when Paul sayes as he doth 1 Thes 4.9 Touching brotherly love there is no need that I write unto you for yee your selves are taught of God to love one another Doth he forbeare therefore to exhort the Saints to that duty or rather shew that he need not doubt of the successe of that Doctrine of brotherly love which he and other Apostles inculcates exceedingly because they have a principle taught them by God himselfe and his holy spirit that renders them apt to receive any hints or intimations that way It is a great piece of Oratory when yee can perswade your hearers that the things ye would inforce and make out more fully they assent unto already Therefore John here professes that hee wrote to them because they knew the truth already and upon that very ground that they were taught and did know and that they needed not teaching he was incouraged to the Doctrine and exhortation he gave them It is one of the best arguments we draw from reason to prove there is a God and in the vertue of which we use many others that this point is a thing they need not to be taught this they are all taught of God no man so barbarous no Nation so remote from the knowledge and converse with others that hath not this ingrafted in their nature this notwithstanding we doe not cease to multiply arguments to this purpose to confirme and draw out that principle into use and practice of which there is so faire a beginning layd deep even in the nature of every man living The summe is besides what I have sayd in the beginning that the Apostle would use them to bring all things to the Examen of the spirit and that he would improve the confirmation of the truth of his Doctrine by the principles already layd in them by the spirit of God he uses these expressions that they know all things and need not that any man teach them but as the same anoynting teaches them and that he writes to them because they know the truth already Both to avoyd the seeming to deale with them as learners and beginners altogether unprincipled and untaught when as the things were such as were built upon principles layd into them by the anoynting of the spirit as also to fetch an effectuall rise of arguments for the assenting to such things as they knew and were taught already as there is no better bottome argument as I sayd to prove there is a God then this that they know it already being all taught it of God nor no better foundation to the exhortation of brotherly love with which the Scripture abounds above any one thing then that which Paul layes in the place above quoted out of the Thessalonians That there is no need to bee taught that For that they are all taught of God to love one another We say it is the part of a wise man Rerum manifestarum causas quaerere and it is especially the duty of those who have the care of instructing others to improve principles already lodged into them of which the foundations are most generally and most cleerly layd by the holy spirit in all the Saints for those commonly are of the greatest use and concernment So as here will be no good warant to depart from the use of Scripture or the Ministry of teaching for which God hath in all times and in these particularly in which John wrote indued men with gifts and power to follow vaine Enthusiasmes unlesse we wil put ridiculous and contradictory actions and wayes upon the Doctrines of this holy Apostle and the dictates of the holy spirit Having largely and sufficiently I hope opened these words I proceed now to those other texts I quoted out of Isaiah and Jeremiah That of Jeremiah is in Chap. 31. Vers 31. c. which is certainly a Prophesie of those times in which the Apostle John lived and of that state of the Church in which in the place before discussed he speaks Here the Prophet as it was usuall with the Prophet Isaiah and the rest rising from the Type to the Antitype having before discoursed of the inlarging and bettering of the condition of the Israelites he fals naturally and easily into the discourse of the times of the Gospell and New Testament Behold the day's come saith the Lord that I will make a new Covenant c. what this Covenant is not hee tells you Verse 32. Not the Covenant hee made with their Fathers when he brought them out of the Land of Aegypt What that Covenant was we shall not need here to consider of but then Verse 33. hee tells you what his Covenant shall be I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and I will bee their God and they shall be my people and they shall teach no more every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying Know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them saith the Lord for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sins no more The great benefit of this New Covenant in opposition to the Old lyes in this that in this New Covenant God doth not onely propound the tearmes but ingages himselfe to performe the condition whereas the Old Covenant set before you life and death good and evill but ingaged you to the performance of the good without assistance for the Law was without you or to the suffering of evill But in the new Covenant the Law is within written in your hearts by which you are made holy and disposed for all good If you sinne as if any man sayes he has no sin he deceives himselfe and the truth is not in him He will forgive your iniquity and remember your sin no more And because the knowledge of God and his wayes is of the greatest consideration to us for our happinesse and holinesse ye shall be enlightened have the holy unction and be taught of God This inlightening especially in things of the
not unto themselves but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that Preacht the Gospell unto you 1 Pet. 1.12 Therefore Moses their Prophet was vayled to them But we with open face beholding as in a glasse the glory of the Lord are changed from glory to glory 1 Cor. 3.13 18. Nor will it be to any purpose to object here that which is affirmed by Peter 2 Pet. 3.16 That some things in Pauls Epistles are hard to be understood For even those things be made easie by diligence prayer to God communication and conference with others God hath made in all things indigency the bond of Society without we need one another we should not value and esteeme one another we should not have love nor converse one with another But who doth this difficulty or hardnesse here spoken of hurt Men unlearned and unstable whose sluggishnesse makes unlearned and whose corruption and depravement makes unstable men that are double in their ends and therefore unstable in their wayes as appeares by their wresting and destroying of the Scriptures which is there spoken of and not only those hard places but other Scriptures also to their owne destruction But if there be any difficulty in Scripture-expressions which God sometimes permits for holy ends as I have said will the way to helpe our selves be to fall a Figurizing and Allegorizing making the Word of God saplesse and fruitlesse by the vanity of our Traditions Or because as the men I complaine against use to doe there are some figurative and allegoricall expressions in the New Testament as when our Saviour calls himselfe a Vine or a Doore which figurative speeches are to ordinary eares as easie to be understood as the most literall shall we take liberty from hence to confound Heaven and Earth And upon every itching of our owne fancy to dissolve the whole Scripture and Word of God into Figures and Allegories Which in stead of inlightning brings us into clouds and darknesse that in that mist the Devill may use as he will I will not deny but some things are to be expounded allegorically The legall Ceremonies may be handled allegorically because they were shadows and types of good things to come as the Paschall Lambe of Christ Christ our Passeover is sacrificed for us 1 Cor. 5.7 Christ was the scope and Butt of the Old Testament and therefore the Paschall Lambe the brazen Serpent and a hundred other things are accommodated justly to him also severall Histories upon this account have their allegoricall use so there be a care had to preserve the Historicall truth stable and unshaken So our Saviour accommodates the History of Solomon and Jonas to himselfe as having besides the Historicall truth an use of typifying out him in his office and sufferings and if a man by way of allusion or similitude will allegorize a History as to say that as David overcame Goliah so Christ doth the Devill so the spirit doth the flesh if it be done pertinently may have its use But without all question the literall sense of Scripture especially of the New Testament is principally to be sought after as that you may safely build upon for Doctrines Exhortations and Conclusions Symbolica Theologia non est argumentativa except such as the holy Ghost propounds and interprets in which case wee may safely follow and conclude from Allegories I would not therefore expound any Scriptures allegorically except as before but such as could not be expounded literally as for instance When without the supposition of a type or figure the Scriptures would imply a falshood or when in a Gramaticall sense the words of the Scripture would imply an absurdity as that Christ is a Doore or a Vine or when the literall sense is contradictory to a rule of Faith as when we are commanded to pull out an eye or to cut off a hand or foot but to depart needlesly from the Gramatical and literall sense of Scripture to subtelize it with Figures and Allegories is that which destroyes the majesty and integrity of the Word of God makes it a Nose of Wax and subjects it to the fancies of every crasie and unsound braine so that as in another case one complaines they doe Verborum minutiis rerum frangere pondera And if it be objected as it is by some that if the literall and Gramaticall sense be the Scripture sense the naturall man may be very able in understanding Scripture I Answer that no question they may and to their greater condemnation but yet they want the glory and life of this understanding which is the spirituall impression affecting their hearts and making them God like Those things which are words of life and peace to one are but a dead letter to them there wants that infusion into the words which makes them mighty and converting Changing them from darknesse to light and from the power of Satan to God to one it is the word of Men to others it is the word of God the power of God to salvation effectually working in them that beleeve Whereas those absurd Allegorizers we complaine of boast of the spirit and revelations and thinke they have got all when they have mudded and defiled and nonsensifyed a Scripture with their Figures and Allegories though they feele nothing of the spirit and life which should change and convert them into the forme of Doctrine delivered to them And according to this sense must severall Scriptures be accommodated particularly that 1 Cor. 2.14 The naturall man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishnesse unto him neither can hee know them because they are spiritually discerned That which we translate the naturall man is in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 animalis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ab anima the soule so as he is a naturall or an animall man which walkes according to sense or to the flesh that judges of things after a carnall and humane reasoning other things are foolishnesse to him so you have it in the 23. of the former Chapter We Preach Christ crucified to the Greeks foolishnesse And in the words of the Text The things of the spirit of God are foolishnesse unto him Yet the notion of Christ Crucified as it is layd downe in Scripture in plaine and significant words is certainely intelligible to an animall man but the spirituall reason of it which is the beauty and glory of it which should alter and convert and transforme by beholding that he sees not and therefore though custome and commonnesse have taken away the seeming absurdity of such a notion so as men can beare it and take it up and professe it with others yet the spirituall beauty of it which is the taking and converting thing they see not As the eye of sense sees the figure and superficies of a thing but cannot tell the reason of it for want of a principle to judge by so a naturall man that hath no other
principles but sense and reason sees the truth aright and as it is but it is a foolish and weak thing to him in order to the end for which it is appointed because there is a spirituall beauty which he hath no eye to see nor sense to taste I deny not besides this but that when there are diversities of interpretations and allegoricall senses of which I spake before the spirituall man hath advantage of all the World besides and that not onely in the sense of which I have already spoken but in opposition to one more raysed and more spirituall a man may be called a naturall or carnall man so you have it in the beginning of the next Chapter And I brethren could not speake unto you as unto spirituall but as unto carnall even as unto babes in Christ verse 3. For yee are yet carnall for whereas there is among you envyings and divisions and strife are yee not carnall and walke as men Which as it shewes that the opposition of spirituall to carnall may be made in respect of more or lesse spiritualnesse in the same party so it leads us backe to that sense I gave before That he is to be judged the spirituall man and to comprehend best the mysterie of Divine things and of the holy Scriptures not who can most misteriously that is as these men use it obscurely and aenigmatically and if you will irrationally and absurdly discourse of Divine things and of interpretation of Scripture but he Who laying aside all malice and superfluity of naughtinesse receives the word and he who by seeing and beholding it is transformed into that which is most opposite to envying strife and divisions The Apostle Jude after he hath made a list of the worst and vilest of men Uncleane persons that despise Dominion and speake evill of Dignities he tels you verse 10. That these are sensuall or animall or naturall for it is the same word that is used here having not the spirit These were all Christians and Professors and perhaps could Philosophate as mysteriously as their neighbours for they were such as separated themselves verse 10. and it is like were well opinionated of their abilities but because the beauty of the Word gained them not to the love of God what ever light they had besides could not defend them from the denomination of sensuall or animall which is the word here opposed to spirituall And thus have I done with what I intend to say in answer to the objection above made To conclude with what I first mentioned in this point of the Scriptures The spirit of God and the Word of God the holy Scriptures hold so good an intelligence as we try the spirits by the Scriptures and the holy spirit enlightens us to understand the Scriptures so Christ by his spirit inlightened the Disciples going to Emaus to understand the Scriptures hee did not make them wise without them which he could have done but he chose that medium as a vehiculum of his spirit sutable and proportionable to them and to his wayes and dispensations towards his people In like manner when Paul had exhorted the Thessalonians not to quench the Spirit he doth not lead them from the Word of God to vaine speculations but immediatly subjoynes a command Not to despise Prophecy intimating an aptnesse in men under the notion of magnifying and advancing of the spirit to despise Prophecy and shewing also that the meanes to quench and extinguish the illuminations of the spirit is to have low and unworthy thoughts of the Word of God and of Prophecying according to the Analogy and Proportion of that Word Now as some think it an indignity to try the spirit by the Scripture and others with vaine allegorizing make the Word of God of none effect to both which I have spoken already so there doth not want of them which thinke the use of the Scripture hath its period and time with men beyond which it is uselesse and improper to attend to it though before that time it be a duty and of use to us According to this sense they interpret that place of Peter 2 Pet. 1.19 Where the Apostle speaking of the Scripture of the Prophets tels them to whom he writes That they doe well to take heed to them as to a light shining in a darke place till the day dawne and the day starre arise in their hearts That is till God have set up such a light in them as they need no more helpe of Prophesie according to which interpretation they adapt also other Scriptures as that of John 6. quoted out of Isaiah 54.13 They shall all be taught of God that of Jeremiah 31.34 They shall teach no more every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying Know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them and particularly also that place of John 1 John 2.20 21 27. But yee have an unction from the holy one and yee shall know all things Verse 27. But the anoynting which yee have received of him abideth in you and ye need not that any man teach you but as the same anoynting teacheth you all things To speak a little to these places and first to speak something to this last of John The Apostle seemes to doe two things one is to bring what he sayes to the examen of the spirit who onely is the full and sufficient judge who seales to our spirits to the end that wee may be certaine that God speakes it Secondly he would the better authorize his doctrine by referring them to the judgement of the spirit within them which teaches them that finding something that beares witnesse within to the word without it might have a full effect upon their spirits and worke in them a strong perswasion But then particularly and perhaps especially in this place the Apostle seems modestly to excuse himself for seeming to deale with them as with learners and beginners when as he tells them they have the unction of the spirit and know all things In like manner is that which Paul sayes Rom. 15.14 and to the same purpose when he tels them that they were full of goodnesse and filled with all knowledge and able also to admonish one another and yet he tels them he thought it his duty to admonish them to put them in minde as he sayes so here Verse 21. I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth but because ye know it For if they had beene altogether unlearned and unbottom'd and had not knowne something if they had not had foundations layd and been principled they had not beene fit for the Doctrine hee delivered Whereas he sayes Verse 21. They knew all things that cannot bee taken in the full extent that the words seeme to beare for we know but in part 1 Cor. 13. but either with restriction to the subject in hand or else to shew as before that he doth rather remember
greatest concernment as that instanced in here Knowing the Lord that is with a practicall knowledge such as changes the heart and converts is so much the work of God himself and of the holy spirit as of the principall and chiefe agent that the subordinate instruments who contribute under God by the will and institution of God to that work are scarce considerable It is well knowne this being the promise of the New Covenant the time of opening and beginning of which was after the death and resurrection of Christ as Heb. 8. Christ became the mediator of a better Covenant It is knowne I say that in those times in the course of which we live there was the institution of Apostles Prophets Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the worke of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ Ephes 4. and 2 Tim. 4.2 Paul commanded him there To preach the Word and to be instant in season and out of season and Rom. 10. How shall they beleeve in him of whom they have not heard and how shall they heare without a preacher so that gifts and Offices and teaching were judged by the holy Ghost extreame necessaries to faith holinesse and the right knowledge of God in Christ This notwithstanding in respect of that great part the holy spirit acts the agency and working of men deserves scarce a thought or mention so as on that consideration it may be sayd not to be And it is not unusuall as elsewhere so in Scripture phrase that that should be affirmed of one and denâ—ed of others which more illustriously or more frequently appeares in that one though in some sort it be common with others It is certaine Isaack loved Jacob and Esau too but because he more loved Esau it s sayd Isaack loved Esau and Rebecca loved Jacob Gen. 25.28 And though Christ loved all the Disciples it is said notwithstanding that John was the Disciple whom Jesus loved But especially that place of Matth. 15. where Christ sayes He was not sent but to the lost sheepe of the house of Israel and yet if Christ were not sent as well to the Gentiles as to the Jewes it were little for our comfort The preaching of the Word how necessary soever to the begetting of faith for how can they beleeve in him on whom they have not heard and how can they heare without a Preacher yet how little doth it contribute and how truely may so great an effect be sayd to bee alone from God What can the sound of words doe but strike the eare but it is the unction that must affect the heart 'T is not the noyse of a voice without but something within that produces such great and mighty effects The great weight that turnes the ballance and that ignea vis that fire that inflames the mind and carryes it up to God to move after God to follow God is some greater and higher thing then the voyce of man or sound of words and is nothing else but the unction within us and the voyce of God himselfe In a word it is the effect of that which is here and more particularly in Isaiah promised That they should be all taught of God which place as it is expounded and applyed by our Saviour the best Expositor will give the surest witnesse to the exposition we have given of this The place is John 13.45 It is written in the Prophets they shall be all taught of God every man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh to me Our Saviour seemes to have respect to the place we have been speaking of all this while where God undertakes to do so much as he makes the Ministry of man in comparison nothing or more especially to that place in Isaiah 54.13 where the Prophet speaking of the restauration of the Church affirmes that their Children shall bee taught of God Now when our Saviour comes to apply and improve this passage of the Prophet doth he reject the Ministry of man as a thing of no use altogether carnall and unprofitable Doth he reprobate Preaching Exhortation and Doctrine No such thing He himselfe Preach't that hee was the Messiah that was to come and he sent our Apostles and Disciples to Teach and Baptize promising great rewards to those that shall not onely prophesie but shall receive a Prophet in his Name so farre was hee from abolishing the use of the Ministry or the Agency or assistance of men in that great worke of begetting and improving faith but tells the Jewes to whom he spake and who were offended with him for the meannesse of his birth and condition that the reason why they beleeved not was because they fell not under that great promise To be taught of God That no man could come to him except the Father drew him That teaching of God was especially necessary and that drawing of God that secret language and those invisible Cords without which all the words of man no of the man Jesus would doe no good nor contribute effectually to so great and high an end as comming to Jesus Christ and beleeving in him So as cleerly the use of this and other Scriptures of this kind is farre from excluding the Ministry of man and the use of the Scriptures and other Ordinances which the wisedome of God in the dayes of this new Covenant hath made extreamely necessary and usefull to us but to shew us where we must expect the Energy force and power which as an infusion into these Ordinances must produce these blessed effects and to give us an account of the difference that is found amongst men under the same Ordinances and dispensations that some come to God in Christ and forsake all things for him and others lye still dead in their sinnes for want of this Unction this being taught of God and of this strong and powerfull drawing which our Saviour speaks of in this place Having spoken that which is sufficient to the places last treated on I come now to that which I first propounded out of 2 Pet. 1.19 but this yet wee have gained already if wee assent to the expositions given that the highest teachings we are capable of in this life the teachings of God and of the anointings of the spirit are nothing of Supersedeas to the teachings of others or to our owne reading and meditation in the Word of God So as according to the truth already made out this Scripture will receive the easier accommodation First It is generally believed that those two Epistles were written to the Jewes of whom Peter was more particularly the Minister and the Apostle that this second Epistle was writ to the same persons to whom the first was appeares by the first Verse of the third Chapter This second Epistle beloved I now write unto you c. Now the first Epistle is intituled To the Strangers scattered abroad which James in his inscription calls The twelve Tribes scattered abroad James
words that the Scripture gives us nor to principles of right reason having this for an unanswerable cloake when ever they are driven to a wall that that is dictated to them by the spirit And I doubt not but that the evill and uncleane spirit is fertile of notions and supplyes by his suggestions the irrationality of their opinions and practices Quest If you aske now why God ordained such mediums as these things so unsuitable and unproportionable to the reason and wisedome of men Answ I answer That no flesh should glory in his presence 1. Cor. 1.29 Wherefore would God destroy Jericho by the blowing of Rams-hornes Joshua 6. If all the men of Warre had taken it by an ordinary siege they would have had the glory and God would have lost his but when the walls of a mighty City shall fall downe flat before the blowing of Rams-hornes and a little instituted ceremony of incompassing it in such a manner so many dayes God alone had the glory and no flesh could glory in his presence upon the same account in this great worke of salvation wherein if in any he would intirely have the praise and is especially jealous least his glory should be given to another God hath chosen foolish things and base things and weake things and things which are despised and things which are not to bring to nought things that are Verse 27 28 29. Such as Christ crucified is and all the seeming foolish weake and low Ordinances of Christ as Preaching Assembling Church-fellowship Baptisme breaking of bread c. But secondly God doth this because we are poore low and foolish creatures and God would have us by such things remembred of it continually Our bodies are one halfe of us our soules and bodies make but one person our bodies as well as our spirits are the temples of the holy Ghost and yet what pityfull languishing needy pieces are they how do they subsist in a continuall succession of fillings and emptyings how are they wound up by meate and drinke and lye fallow by rest so meane are they as the Apostle knowes no Epithite more proportionable to them then that of Our vile bodies so are our spirits weake and foolish things such as if they were let alone to runne to the utmost bounds of their owne speculations would runne out to the greatest vanities and extravagancies would be vaine in their reasonings and professing wisedome would become fooles therefore like fooles and children God deales with us And why doe we not pretend as well that our bodyes should live angelicall lives without the aydes of food and raiment as that our soules should not need such Ordinances and Institutions for there is the like reason of both and when our bodies shall not need those aydes but be as the Angels our spirits shall also bee freed from any such tracts or formes of worship as for the present God hath made our portion and blessing Though some I heare wisely in that making the notion go round say they are in a glorified state also in respect of the body and that they doe but seeme to eate or drinke or doe any other actions of life If you aske then what difference is betweene us and the Jewes who were under Moses who had ceremonies and mediate Ordinances I answer Very much as much as betweene open-facednesse and vailing betweene seeing in a Picture and seeing in a glasse Quod videtur in speculo non est Image 't is the thing it selfe not the picture or image of it and therefore the Apostle speaking of the difference betweene the Jewes and Christians The vayle saith he is over their hearts but we all with open face behold as in a Glasse the glory of the Lord 2 Cor. 13.18 But the same Apostle speaking of our present state with the times that are to come sayes That we see as a childe and understand as a childe and that we see through a glasse and in a riddle but then face to face and the seeing on this manner is to continue till Prophecy shall fayle and tongues shall cease and knowledge shall vanish away I thinke in this life there is no body that will deny that there is use of ability in tongues of the gifts of science or knowledge and prophesie which are of great use to the people of God for the begetting them to the faith and for their building up as long as is use of faith or hope but when we come to live by sight and not by faith to be absent from the body and present with the Lord 3 Cor. 5.7 Then and not before tongues prophesies faith and hope shall cease together then wee shall know as we are knowne and not in part and shall see no longer through a glasse darkly but face to face 1 Cor. 13. That is all those eclipsing mediums which are proper and necessary to this state whilst we are in the body and in this earthly Tabernacle shall vanish together and there will be a seeing and converse with God more raysed and more divine then wee can now conceive of In a word every body will easily I conceive discerne the vast difference of these Ordinances from those of old by considering the difference of the two Covenants and the glory of the Gospell from what was that of the Law as for Prophesie or Preaching common to us with the Jewes it holds out the whole mind of God in Christ the great mystery of godlinesse God manifested in the flesh gives us that in history and accomplishment which the Jewes that lived under another Covenant had but darkly in predictions and types they but a shadow and not the image Heb. 10. Now we see the things have more then the image as I sayd that which is seene in a glasse is not the image 't is the thing and as this is true of prophesying or preaching so there will be found to be the same reason of other administrations those wee call Sacraments Baptisme and breaking of bread which is the administration of the same Gospell to us by the mediation of other senses therefore these Ordinances have the same advantage over the Sacraments of the Law that the Gospell it selfe hath over the Law confirmes to our faith by the mediation of other senses all the riches and glory of the Gospell and what ever revelation the spirit of God makes to us therein scales to us that in history and performed which was darkly before represented in types and God having made himselfe visible now at last in his Sonne makes his Son and all his beauties and glories visible to us in his Ordinances the holy Ghost speaking to our senses by the mediation of words or things or signes of the same efficacy with words set apart for that purpose the great mystery of the Gospell But lastly and particularly to those two Ordinances of Baptisme and breaking of bread which besides other things holds forth to us directly and immediately the death and sufferings of
Christ why may it not be thought that our Lord hath particularly instituted these to keepe fresh to us for our comfort and his honour that great love wherewith he loved us when hee gave himselfe for us to death which the Scripture magnifies and values so much as to give it for the highest instance of the love of God the Father God so loved the World that he gave his onely begotten Sonne 1 John 3. and also of the greatest and highest engagement of our love to him 2 Cor. 5.14 The love of Christ constraineth us Now this which speakes Gods love so much and ingages ours so fully and which in respect of the condition of our state in this life is of so great concernment God would have kept fresh to us by most visible and sensible demonstrations and the rather to prevent and meet with the ingratitude of unworthy men who after they have served their turne of him fling away Christ crucified as an element as beggerly as any of those Ordinances which represent it and under I know not what vanity or pride of notion cast that behind their backs which Paul in his preaching desired especially to know and manifest 1 Cor. 2.2 Thus much for what I thought to say to this head concerning the difference betweene us and the Jewes in our formes of worship and ministration Object But if any shall bee yet unsatisfied with this as pretending after a more spirituall converse with God then is suitable to such Ordinances of preaching Baptisme Church fellowshippe breaking of bread c. Answ 1 I answer first That for some part of these to wit Prophecy or Preaching neither God nor the Devil will easily part with that under any notion whatsoever not God because by the foolishnesse of preaching hee saves them that beleeve it is a mighty Ordinance in his hands for the converting and building up his in the faith and knowledge of him nor the Devill what ever in a kind of gallantry he or such as are acted by him may pretend to for he would want the most proper and naturall and easie medium to diffuse and propagate his lyes and therefore when I have heard of some who having prophesied notorious lyes in the name of the Lord have by the same spirit of lying fayned themselves in the state of the resurrection and that therefore they were to pray and preach no more I alwayes sayd before the event proved it true that for the businesse of preaching I would undertake they should not long refraine that what ever became of other things for as much as the Devill would not long loose that mighty engine of diffusing his principles and accordingly these persons have beene since the most constant and diligent Preachers and the Devill hath not beene wanting to his usuall methods of transforming himselfe into an Angell of light and mingling abominable lyes with seeming raysed and high and spirituall expressions that the one may be set of and take better by the ayde and assistance of the other Then if prophesying or preaching or conference which are of the same nature wil be allowed by these men that are scandalized at the foolishnesse of Ordinances why not Baptisme breaking of bread and the rest which are no more foolish nor no more carnall then the other for cannot the holy spirit speake as spiritually and as effectually by these Hieroglyphick's of its institution as by the words and reasonings of any man Cannot it tell you the love of the great God the merits of the death of Christ what conformity and assimilation God expects from you to your head with all the rest of those things wherein these Ordinances instruct you as well as by the words or reasonings of any man which unlesse the spirit informe and inliven it is as dull and improper to convey spirituall things to us and in it selfe as low and carnall as any other medium you can imagine This being granted as it cannot be denied they who will admit of prophesying or preaching or conference which goe all under one head cannot deny any of the rest Church-fellowship Church-assembling Baptisme breaking of bread c. to be proper and fit mediums for Gods convaying himselfe to us in any piece of spirituall knowledge or manifestation for since it is the holy spirit that must doe all that is done in us and upon us for good the holy spirit hath and can make as good use of these mediums and preach to us upon that text as well as upon the word or expressions or reasonings of any man whatsoever and it is as proper and suitable to that blessed spirit to speake to us by things as by words c. Words in themselves and in their letter are as carnall and unfit for our spirituall edification as any thing you can imagine This answer therefore is a Pari if you will allow of preaching or conferences which as I said none will be found to denie long there will be no good reason to reprobate or reject Baptisme breaking of bread Church-fellowship or the rest as things in their nature improper and unspirituall for whatever reason comes from institution we shall examine that afterwards Answ 2 But then secondly for those who would lay aside these mediums as things more carnall and bodily then befits their state whether wilfully or ignorantly they deceive themselves and others I would intreat them to consider how they come to apprehend any things spirituall or whether whilst they are in the body whilst their soules live in these houses of clay they can reason understand by which spirituall impressions are conveyed without the ayde and assistance of the body For though God hath this preheminence effectually to inlighten the understanding and determine the will in respect of the event which no creature man or Angell can doe yet the way by which he accommodates himselfe to us in the doing of these things is still humanâ— more and after the rate and proportion of our weaknesses as wee are able and fitted to receive things being in the body and in this mixt lame and imperfect state in which wee are when Gods speaks to us by men or things it is alwaies by the mediation of our externall senses but when hee goes another way to worke it is not without the body but by the mediation of phantasmes either formerly received or newly injected which God can doe though perhaps neither men nor Angels can he represents objects to our understandings and wills which take and move us as it peaseth him to give the blessing so as you cannot contemplate nor meditate nor reason nor thinke of God without the assistance and use of the body nor receive impressions from him upon your understanding and will and affections but by the same way It is therefore grosse ignorance in men as it is in the most assisted and improved by pride or wilfulnesse which makes them subject to these mistakes to judge that converse with God unholy and unspirituall
Christs Those of the reformed Religion on the other side are generally of opinion that the Ministry of John was the the same that was after delegated to the Apostles and that the Baptisme of John was the same which was administred after by the Disciples and Apostles of our Lord and which by the command of Christ was to be propagated into all the World and all Nations to be Baptized with it This controversie though in the tearmes of it it remaines much the same yet in sense and meaning it is exceedingly changed by some men of this generation who would have us beleeve that there is no use of Water in the Baptisme of Christ that belonging onely to Johns Ministry the last terme of which was the Ascention of Christ but that Christs Baptisme and the rule and Institution of it Matth. 28.29 Goe teach all Nations baptizing them c. is not to plung and dip them in cold Water as John did his Disciples But baptize them or dip them into the Name of God the Father Sonne and Spirit that is to use their owne words by the Ministry which shall be of the Spirit and not of the Letter You shall Baptize them or dip them or interest them into the Name of God who is the Father Sonne and Spirit or sprinkle his Name upon them that they may be holy just true mercifull righteous good c. The drift of all is as they affirme distinctly to exclude Water Baptisme in lieu of which as a thing contradistinct they would bring you in Spirit Baptisme To make this good they draw most of their best weapons out of the Popish Quiver in the disputes betweene us and them of the difference of Johns Baptisme from that of Christs though they manage them to a quite other purpose then they meant them for we and they differ about the efficacy of Baptisme by Water they the Papists affirming that Baptisme doth ex opere operato conferre grace that is by the force and vertue of its administration without any respect to the foregoing Faith and Repentance in the party baptized in which respect they preferre it to the Baptisme of John administred also by Water but these would have us beleeve that there is no such thing remaining to Christians as Baptisme by water When therefore I say they have helped themselves by these borrowed arguments to shew that the baptisme of Christ and that of John are two things and abused the Popish arguments to their owne ends then with many a specious flourish they acquaint you with the excellency of spirit Baptisme above water Baptisme wherein as in a Theame very easie they make a great flourish and shew us forsooth how much the efficacy of the spirit is more then water which for honour sake no doubt ever and anon they call cold water and so at length conclude with that which all the premises drive at that all outward and carnall and earthly things are put to an end in which number all outward administrations are contained by the inward spirituall and heavenly things of a better and second testament In which how little sincerely and faithfully they deale with holy Ordinances and the great Master and Institutor of them Jesus Christ by imposing their Apocryphall novelties upon the people under the specious title of a more raysed and spirituall administration as I have in part shewed already more generally in the preceding discourse so I shall endeavour more particularly in the vindication of the Ordinance of Baptisme to make manifest For my owne part I have thought that the difference of Johns and Christs Baptisme was not very considerable for we by the acknowledgment of all injoying Christs baptisme it was of lesse moment to know what the difference of the two Baptismes were if there were any But as it comes stated to us by new hands and it is the particular credit of errour that it is new there is nothing more considerable since by vertue of that distinction of Johns and Christs Baptisme they would utterly take away the Ordinance of Baptisme it selfe and by a like reason all the rest which with so much comfort and edification the Saints of God have knowne how to use as pledges of love and paths and tracts of Communion with God in Jesus Christ without adoreing them or putting them in Gods place though I confesse according to what our corruption is that is not without danger but it is the part of good and wise men to reform errour without overthrowing foundations on the other side folly ever rests in the extremities to which the Devill drives it That there is a Gospell New Testament Baptisme that these men will grant and that it is particularly held out in these places Matth. 28.19 20. and Marke 16.15 16. The words of Matthew are Goe teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father the Sonne and holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and so I am with you unto the end of the World To say here that Christ might mean baptisme by water of which ceremony there should be an end within a certaine time is to contradict the expresse words of the Scripture that sayes he will be with them in these things unto the end of the World and they may with as good reason prefix a time to the ending of Faith and Hope or any Christian grace or Ordinance according to their owne fancies or pleasures or to Preaching also since Preaching and Baptisme are here put together But some would Philosophate more subtlely and tell you that by baptizing here is not meant dipping or plunging in water in the Name of the Father c. But to Baptize them or dip them or interest them into the Name of God or sprinkling his Name upon them that they may be holy just mercifull righteous good But besides that this is boldly affirmed how ridiculous and absurd it is you will easily see boldly because in a thing of this moment upon a baâ—e affirmation without any proofe they goe against what hath been the sense of all ages and of all men if you will judge of their sense as we must needs doe by their preachings and by their practice but ridiculous I say also and absurd it is The words are wee know Goe teach all Nations or disciple them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and then Baptize them that is first make them Disciples first make them beleevers and then baptize them therefore in Marke the place before quoted Hee that beleeves and is baptized shall bee saved According to this word of Institution and command yee have exactly the Apostolicall practice and this I dare affirme there can be no better way of finding out the nature of any Ordinance then by comparing the practice with the Institution The practice you will find in severall places particularly Acts 8.34 35. When Philip had Preacht to the Eunuch Jesus and the Ordinance of Baptisme as it appeares because the
their argumentations and parrallells who like Orators that manage an ill cause make least stay in the most important places And here I should put an end to this discourse of The Vindication of Gospell Ordinances having shown by generall grounds of Scripture the reason of the thing it selfe and a particular instance in a leading and prime Ordinance to wit baptisme that there are certaine formes and institutions remaining with us suited and proportioned to our state which are pledges of Christs love to us tracts and wayes wherein hee delights to meet us and meanes by which he conveys himselfe to us in this state of our Pilgrimage Whilst we are at home in the body and absent from the Lord whilst we live by Faith and not by sight whilst wee see in a glasse darkly and not face to face whilst wee know in part and not as we are knowne But least any should thinke that this tends to an undervaluing of the spirit of God or a lessening of his Empire though no such thing but the contrary is to be gathered out of all the premises yet I am not unwilling by way of Corollary and conclusion to this discourse to spend a few words particularly upon this subject and to professe before all the World that nothing ought to be so dear to us and so much esteemed and so much sought for by us as the accesses and influences of the holy spirit That it is the spirit that leads us into all truth it is the spirit that quickens the spirit that comforts us without which since our Lord went into Heaven we had been left Orphans and Fatherlesse It is the spirit that searcheth all things the spirit that inables to judge all things the spirit by which wee live in which wee walke when wee walke with God and doe any thing that is agreable to his will it is the spirit that seales us to the day of redemption and witnesseth with our spirits that we are the Sonnes of God It is the spirit that hath done all the wonderfull things which the holy Scriptures record it is the spirit that hath given boldnesse in all ages to doe and to suffer great things for the Name and Testimony of Jesus If I should pursue this Theame at large there would be no end or meane found of the Encomiums and Elogyes of the spirit It is the fellowship therefore and communion of the holy spirit which my soule breaths after and longs for above any thing imaginable But that which I affirme is that the spirit is communicated to us particularly and especially in such Ordinances as we have been speaking of It was the spirit that strove with the old World in the Ministry of Noah a Preacher of righteousnesse and in the administration of the old Covenant the things they were taught and provoked to were things spirituall and they were sayd to have the good spirit of the Lord to instruct them Nehem. 9.10 Which was undoubtedly the reason why the Saints of those times breathed so much after those Ordinances which God had fitted to their present state and capacity as things in which the spirit instructed them and God blest to them to know more of his mind then all the World by any other way or wisedome could doe For the new and better Covenant under which state and condition we live the spirit is conveyed to us by certaine formes and institutions of Gods owne inventing Preaching is a great Ordinance in the hand of God for the conveying of the holy spirit the Galatians received the spirit by the hearing of Faith preached Galat. 3.3 And we know that generally all the great and famous conversions which are seene in the World by which men are sayd to be borne of the spirit are administred by the Preaching of the Gospell in the mouth of the ordinary Ministers and dispensers of it former times for the greater glory of the beginnings of the Gospel had greater Harvests but the way of administration was the same then at one Sermon there were added to the Church three thousand and whilst Peter was Preaching to Cornelius and his friends the holy Ghost fell upon all them that heard the word but the way as I sayd is the same ever since and it pleases God by the foolishnesse of Preaching to save them that beleeve And as the holy Ghost doth preside the Ministry of preaching so the ordinary Officers and Elders of the Church were sayd to be made Overseeers by the holy ghost to feed the Church of God which he had purchased with his own blood Acts 20.28 And for that Ordinance for which wee have more particularly contended Baptisme we are sayd by one spirit to bee all baptized into one body and usually the administration of the spirit accompanyed baptisme either after it as an appendix or before it as a qualification for that Ordinance as I have already shewed That therefore which makes mee contend for the holy Ordinances of God and value them to that height which through the grace of God I do is that inestimable value and esteeme I put upon the holy spirit of God who is pleased to meete us in these tracts and to offer himselfe to us in these administrations But such is the vanity and perversnesse of men that to avoyd errours they runne ever into extremities We see it in civill things those who have found the pressures of the Tyranny of one man thinke themselves never safe till they have cast off all Government and runne willingly into Anarchy or that which is next to that worst Democracy or the Government of the People Whereas in all things especially in things of God and Religion truth and right is that which lyes in the middle as diverse in its owne nature from either extreame as one extreame is from the other It were certainely absurd in nature because it is our spirits that immediatly act our bodyes for us to fall out with our blood as with a grosse and dul substance that we would have nothing to doe with when as our blood is the Vehiculum of our spirits And it is not lesse absurd for us in the present state wherein we are to cry out of Ordinances as of things grosse and disproportionable to a spirituall life and man when God who knowes our temper better then we our selves uses them to convey his spirit by and makes them tracts and wayes wherein he is wont to meet us To Idolize and make a God of Ordinances as if the opus operatum rendred us spirituall and agreeable to God as it hath beene the fault of Christians in many ages so it is the most uncomely and most unsprituall thing that can be but for the avoiding of this folly and fault to fling them all away as things not at all usefull because not suitable to our carnall reasonings about spirituall things or capable of an abuse is an unspiritualnesse and uncomelynesse no lesse great then the former For my part whilst God
Those things which in the next place come into consideration and need to bee vindicated from the dishonour and scorne put upon them by a Generation of these Times who impose their vaine and addle fancies under the name and title of Spiritual Revelations are Gospell Ordinances such as Preaching the Word Baptisme the Lords Supper Church fellowship and assembling with what ever institutions our Lord hath left to entertaine us with in this state whilst we are absent from the Lord and present in the body whilst wee live by faith and not by sight In order to this that which I first pitcht my thoughts upon was that place of the 1 Corinth 1.21 For after that in the wisedome of God the World by wisedome knew not God it pleased God by the foolishnesse of Preaching to save them that beleeve which seemes particularly to strike at the Vanity of such men who being as little able as others in a way of wisedome to know God by the wisedome of God are yet extreamly scandalized at the weakenesse and foolishnesse of Preaching and other Ordinances of that kind That I might the better discover the scope and drift of this place I thought it would be necessary to consider something the coherence In this Chapter therefore after the usuall salutations and gratulations in the nine first Verses in the tenth he falls upon the first subject which he handles in this Epistle to wit the dissentions and divisions which were amongst the Corinthians with which he charges them Verse 11 12. and from which he dehorts them Hee gives them this authority for what he charges them with The houshold of Cloe Verse 11. then shewes what their fault was that they were taken and captivated with the names of men which though of good and holy men was not lawfull nor fit for them to be nay not of Christ himselfe as if doting on his person after the flesh his words his deeds his miracles should be onely extold and magnified with the despising or villifying of the gifts and miracles and doctrines of others though as Christ God Man they proceed from him This Christ seemes himselfe to reprove in the young man Matth. 19.16 One came and sayd Good Master what good thing shall I doe Why callest thou mee good saith Christ there is none good c. But keepe thou the Commandements Whereby Christ shewes that that which the man considered was not so much God the chiefe good and holinesse the way of converse with him but look't upon him as some excellent and famous Master Why callest thou me good Why lookest thou so much upon my person and outward man Rather all acceptance of persons layd aside mind my Doctrine This knowing Christ after the flesh as a gifted man so indowed c. with difference from others Paul disclaimes 2 Cor. 5.16 he knew him not now as a Preacher of the Gospel as a Minister conversing here on earth full of excellent gifts and parts of such a spirit and nature but in a divine and heavenly manner as he that was the Captaine of their Salvation that reconciled them to God that dyed for them and rose againe after such a heavenly manner he knew him and therefore was to bee new himselfe both in the manner of his knowledge and the rule of his life Verse 15 16 17 19. Verse 13. He tells them this their factious dissention shewes as if there were many Christs many Gospels many Saviours of the World whereas Christ is but one and not divided or as if they were baptized into another Name then Christs for so they gave themselves up as Disciples to particular Teachers and Ministers as if they held their Baptisme of them or they were Crucyfied for them I thanke God saith he it is fallen out by a good providence that I have baptized a very few Least any should say I had baptized in my owne name That is I had formed mee a Generation of followers and sect of Disciples For that was it seemes a corrupt fashion amongst them that those who baptized should be followed and adored by them as their spirituall Father and Master Verse 17. For Christ sent me not to baptize but to Preach the Gospell that is the principall piece of my Ministry to which I was adorned with such gifts and graces and miracles was Preaching Baptisme indeed was an appendix of preaching and was in the Apostolicall Commission but being every ones worke as the serving of Tables was committed when it grew burthensome to others that the Apostles might give themselves to the word and prayer For conversion from Atheisme and Judaisme being the great worke the administration of the Seales which needed not those gifts nor labour was done ordinarily by other hands so Peter instructed the house of Cornelius but hee commanded them to be baptized by others Acts 10. So Christ Preached but his Disciples Baptized John 4. Paul had Commission to Baptize else hee would not have baptized any but not principally Suitable to this is that place Jer. 7.22 I spake not to your Fathers concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices but this thing I commanded them obey my voyce c. Although in Aegypt they sacrificed the Passeover and in Mount Sinai hee commanded them concerning Sacrifices but the other was the principall Like also unto which is that phrase I will have mercy and not sacrifice that is I require mercy rather and more principally then sacrifice So the Apostle sayd It was not meet for them to leave the word of God and to serve tables yet Paul did gather money for the poore Saints at Hierusalem that is that was not their chief and ordinary worke but the other Not with wisedome of words c. He had no sooner made mention of Preaching the Gospel but he taxes the principall vice of these Sectaries which was a certaine vanity in preaching the Gospel not onely with Rhetoricall inlargements and expressions but even so Philosophating the Gospel as they made it hold rather of humane wisedome then that divine simplicity which became so holy and heavenly a subject Least the Crosse of Christ c. that is least the Gospell of Christ Crucified should be rendred vaine and uselesse as needing the power of humane wisedome to uphold it Verse 18. For the preaching of the Crosse is to them that perish foolishnesse This preaching of Christ crucified or a crucified Saviour seemes to proud and seeming wise men the foolishest thing in the world that a dying man should give life to others that hee that could not save himselfe should save the World But unto us who are saved c. Those who being predestinate to eternall life beleeve and are saved they feele it is the power of God and what is a more admirable effect of power and of God then that a crucified Saviour by a company of illiterate poore men should render the spirit quiet and stable in God and give that conversion in life which all the learned discourses of Philosophers
were not able to doe Verse 19. For it is written I will destroy the wisedome of the wise c. God hath resolved on this long agoe that by strength no man shall prevaile wise and prudent men in the businesse of Religion shall be no more then others so as you may aske where is the Scribe and disputer of this World either of Jew or Gentile their wisedome is made folly and in those things wherein they have thought to be wise they have shewed themselves the weakest and foolishest of any other Verse 21. For after that in the wisedome of God c. Here hee gives the reason why God hath made the Gospell so opposite and contrary to humane wisedome because that the World in the wisedome of God by wisedome knew not God By the World is meant the whole World consisting of Jews and Gentiles To them both God spake in severall manners in the morall Law and visions and apparitions in the fabrick of Heaven and earth the subordination of all things to their first cause c. But the World by wisedome knew not God in these things in this wise and excellent way suitable to principles in them which they might have improved they knew him not nor glorified him as God though that which was invisible was manifest c. It pleased God or seemed good to God Here the sinne was the abuse of divine wisedome the punishment was the infatuation of humane wisedome so as by the foolishnesse of preaching God would save them that beleeve By that which to carnall and wise men was the foolishest thing in the Word the simple and plaine preaching of a crucified Saviour by that it pleased God to save them that beleeve that denying their owne wisedome and renouncing wholly themselves did beleeve that God could by the most weake foolish and unlikely mediums produce the greatest and most considerable effects From this place thus considered it will evidently follow that worldly humane wisedome in the knowledge and judging of God and heavenly things is a foolish uselesse thing and that the foolishnesse of preaching c. are the meanes of the salvation of the Elect. And that also which I lay especially to the charge of these men That the Gospel and all Gospel Ordinances as Preaching Baptisme c. are to such worldly men I speak of no better then foolishnesse and weaknesse and therefore as poore and weake things are despised by them and cast away No man need seeke farre for reasons why these things should have that Notion and Character in the spirits and reasonings of men not subjected to the spirit Certainely because things indeed spirituall suite with none of their principles they have nothing they can take their measure by a man that would judge of any thing judges by some principles within him But then againe because there is a meanes and lownesse in them which is abominable to carnall wisedome as the washing of Naaman the Leper in Jordan As also because they can see no suitablenesse and correspondence betwene the meanes and the effect as Epicurus disputes against the making of the World where sayes he were the Engines the Ladders what devises to rayse such a mighty building But upon what ever ground this may bee which I purpose not here to inlarge in no man that considers the premises will deny me this That to be scandalized and offended at the Gospel Christ crucified and the Ordinances of Preaching Baptisme the Lords Supper for they hold of the same weaknesse hold out a dying suffering Christ is a signe of a carnall worldly heart But here I must stand the Butt of some Objections which I shall be sure to meet withall and be ingaged to answer certaine demands which these pretended spiritualists will be sure to make to me In the answer and consideration of which that truth which I contend for will I hope be made manifest Object 1 First therefore it will be sayd those men that are prejudiced against Ordinances are not against a crucified Christ Secondly that such seeme to be the most spirituall of any other For the first they must needs be prejudic'd as well against a crucified Christ for it is no more weake and foolish to be baptized in water or breake bread according to the institution then it is to beleeue in a Saviour hanged or crucified Secondly De facto they are so and make the crucifixion of Christ a kind of figurative allegoricall thing which was to make such a representation of Gods mind to us and then to end not a thing induring and remaining they make a kind of notionall thing of all the birth life suffering resurrection and session in Heaven of Christ a thing for weake men and weake times Object 2 Secondly For their seeming to be most spiritual Answ By way of answer to that I would consider that the Apostle in the second of the Collossians seemes to forewarne those to whom he writes of two sorts of errings the one about antiquated formes of worship and Jewish ceremonies which men naturally superstitious and of a more grosse and dull spirit are apt to bee deluded by this hee mentions Verse 16. Let no man therefore judge you in meat and drinke or in respect of an holy day or of the new Moone c. Which are but the shadow of things to come but the body is of Christ Those things which were but shadows and typicall are vanisht at the appearing of the body and substance The other was about such deceptions and delusions as men of more raysed and notionall spirits were in danger of of those hee speakes Ver. 8. Take heed least any man spoyle you through Philosophy and vaine deceit There seemes to have been in those dayes as there are in these certaine spirits who not contented with the meannesse and lownesse of the Doctrine of Christ crucifyed with such Ordinances and administrations as the spirit of God judged proper for the exhibiting and making good to us such a Doctrine would frame a kind of Philosophicall rationall Divinity savouring rather the spirit of Plato and Aristotle then of Jesus Christ and which being full of uncouth and unusuall expressions made the people admire what they understood not and caused that to passe for spirituall though it were but vaine deceit which seemed most remote from the common and usuall though the truest and rightest apprehension I affirme therefore that it is but a carnall spirituallity which these men have and hold out such as Philosophers subtelizing spirituall things with worldly distinctions and notions not holding the head and indeed covering their carnall apprehensions under the name of spirituall for that which a Socinian calls plainely and more honestly Humana ratio that they call the spirit covering it with a fairer name but both the one and the other are transgressours alike both philosophating as wildly the one as the other about spirituall things saving that these latter are worse keeping neither to the forme of wholsome