it might by their means be in its purity free from mixture delivered to all the succeeding generations of mankind And now by the way what a slender plea have any Enthusiasts of this age for any new revelations of Doctrine beyond what Christ preached to the World Since the Holy Ghost himself was never promised to the very Apostles to any such end and purpose For it cannot with any reason be supposed but that Christ whilst he was preaching in the world delivered a compleat Body of his Doctrine And had he not whatever becomes of a jus divinum for the government of the Church He had certainly been less careful than Moses And yet the Author to the Hebrews says He was faithful to him that made or appointed him as also Moses was faithful in all his house Heb. 3.2 But not to endeavour to work Miracles and restore sight to such as are resolved to be still blind and to shut their eyes against the light of the Sun because it will discover that their deeds are evil when darkness does at once as well increase as inspire wilfulness or melancholy To leave also any farther explication of the Doctrine of the Trinity Which I have hinted to you as well to mind you of the solemnity of a necessary Festival of our Church as to cause men to adore what they cannot understand to admire that with which they cannot be familiar to praise what they cannot comprehend and to believe that Mystery which is plainly revealed Though they cannot unriddle the thing it self To come more closely therefore to the business I have in hand The Holy Ghost promised is said to be the Spirit of truth And this not only 1. Because he is Spiritus verax as Slichtingius would have it to comport with his endeared notion of afflatus divinus Nor only is he a true Spirit either in original or operation in opposition to what is gross and sensual Nor 2. because he truly and really proceeds from the Father And consequently has Authority enough to produce a faith in us which must be Divine Nor 3. because being in unity with that Father and Son from whom he does proceed he must be truth it self as S. John stiles him 1. Epist 5. Chap. 6. and consequently cannot be guilty of a falshood unless we suppose that God may lie which the Apostle assures us is impossible Heb. 6.18 And reason also concludes such a Being to be void of this to whom we ascribe all possible perfection But Lastly he is called a Spirit of truth in relation to his Office and Employment Because he guides others into truth Though from the precedent acceptations and account given of his appellation we may reasonably infer his capacity to instruct and guide others into all truth And that the Apostles who were so miraculously guided delivered nothing to be the rule of mens lives but what was true and came from God and therefore what they delivered is to be both believed and obeyed And thus I am come to the last and principal particular that I aim at in this Part of my Discourse in which is contained the Office of the Holy Ghost in this particular and the substance of this promise viz. He will guide you into all truth Now this Conduct of the Spirit of truth must be considered two wayes 1. As it related to the Apostles and first Disciples of our blessed Saviour 2. As it concerns the whole Church of Christ that is or shall be Militant in this World First Let us consider the holy Spirit of God as influencing and directing the Apostles and first planters of Christianity to whom this promise was principally made And as it did concern all so was it promised to all to guide them into all those truths that compleated the Articles of the Christian Faith or were to be left as standing directions for the lives and actions of those who should embrace this Religion He does not call S. Peter out and make this promise of infallibility to him excluding all the rest from this advantage Nor does he here accost him in the name of the other Apostles as he does in that other Text on which the Pope superstructs his Supremacy We find indeed S. Thomas S. Philip and S. Jude interrupting his discourse by proposing questions for him to explain But the last time he spake to Peter we find him at once rebuking his confidence and fore-telling his sin Nay a crime so great as to deny him John 13.38 And therefore all the rest of his intervenient discourse can concern him no more than it did his Brethren And 't is well if at present it did as much which if others would be contented with we might easily grant it and must do so if we would not prove his Epistles to want an inspiration from above This promise then concerning the Apostles and primitive planters of the Christian Doctrine so far as it was useful to their extraordinary conduct we must examine and enquire what assistance the Spirit gave them to guide them into all truth And this he did in five particulars First By an improvement of their understandings Ordering and directing the Ideas of their minds that they might be able to frame adequate conceptions of the truths which they were to deliver to the World And as he that created the eye can see and he that formed the ear can hear So he that made the Soul it self and endued it with all its faculties and powers must needs be able to impress the understanding with any notions he is pleased to infuse by the powerful operations of his Holy Spirit Now that he did exert such an influence had we no testimony from the Scriptures themselves will easily appear to any sober and considerate inquirer that shall compare the education and condition of the Apostles with those admirable Doctrines which they delivered unto the world Though S. Paul was bred at the feet of Gamaliel yet his learned Education made him but the greater persecutor of the Christians and more prejudiced against the Doctrine of our Saviour 'Till he was converted by a Miracle and a light had first dazled his eyes and struck him blind whilst a greater did illuminate his understanding and by its brighter glory darken and blot out those prejudicate notions that seemed before to irradiate his mind Though S. Luke was born and bred in an University the City of Antioch the Metropolis of Syria a place furnished with Schools of literature Though he had applied himself to the study of Physick to which Philosophy was a necessary preparative Though be had studied in the Schools of Greece and Egypt and seasoned his mind with learned accomplishments so far improving the abilities of his nature And though to all this he was a Jewish Proselyte and so far prepared for the Kingdom of God Yet all this signified but little and would certainly have opposed Christianity with the greater strength and more subtilty had he not been first
argue some superiour operation And we must attribute them to God or the Devil Accordingly have men used to difference them as they tend to a good or a bad design Hence we find in the Old Testament two characters of a false Prophet and consequently as many of a true as I have hinted immediately before 1 If the sign or wonder that he gives for confirmation of what he pretends in its design destroys natural Religion i. e. what proceeds from the common reason of men For if there arise among you a Prophet or a dreamer of dreams and the sign or wonder come to pass which he gives thee If this be wrought to draw men from the Worship of the only one God to pay Divine homage to a false one or to many The sign was permitted only to prove them And such a Prophet was not only to be accounted false But to be put to death for his villany and imposture Deut. 13. at the begining 2. When the Prophecy was not true and the thing foretold followed not 't was a sign that the Prophecy was bold and presumptuous and what he that is a God of truth never commissioned the Prophet to deliver Deut. 18.22 When signs therefore and wonders were really effected that tended to the advancement of Religion establishing what was written in mens hearts and destroying all that God had forbidden and fixing nothing contradictory to what had been confirmed to the Jews but what did prefigure this new method and at such a particular period of the World was predicted that it should be destroyed They must needs confirm the truth which those men delivered who had sufficient power and authority to work them Miracles were things rationally acknowledged to be sufficient signs of the Divine Commission of those who were permitted to work them when they carried especially such characters of a Divine Power in their nature or in their frequency and continuation as no Devil could be supposed to have granted to him Nor any man could possibly effect to do mischief in the World Thus when Moses delivered the Law his Speech was followed with Thunderings and Lightnings and the noise of the Trumpet and the smoaking of the Mountain Deut. 20.18 Which sufficiently confirmed the Divinity of the Moral and prepared the people for an obedient reception of the Judicial and Ceremonial Law And thus was it also at the delivery of the Gospel When S. John the Baptist sent two of his Disciples unto Christ to know whether he were the true Messiah that was to give Laws unto the World Our Saviour returns this answer Tell John what things ye have seen and heard how that the blind see the lame walk the lepers are cleansed the deaf hear the dead are raised Luke 7.22 These Miracles so full of goodness and Divine influence were a sufficient attestation of his Doctrine Hence he makes the same reply also to the Jews when they proposed the same question The works that I do in my Fathers name they bear witness of me John 10.25 And therefore sayes he of the same persons If I had not done among them the works which none other man did they had had no sin If I had not done Miracles far beyond Moses and the Prophets whom yet upon the authority of what these did they believe they might reasonably have pleaded their Law against me Which then had been bless'd with as noble an establishment as what I now pretend to deliver But now that I do such works which no man ever yet did before me they have no cloke at all for their sin nor any excuse for their unbelief John 15.24 Now as Miracles argued the truth and Authority of our Saviours Doctrine So they led his Disciples into the same truth For from those Miracles which they saw him do in confirmation of his Doctrine they might reasonably be induced to believe what he delivered to them and when the power was yet continued to themselves they might well inferr that they were still guided into the truth Since the Holy Ghost thus sealed it to themselves and others and they had so powerful and Divine a testimony to what they apprehended and delivered Thus when they had received that Commission from our Saviour to go into the world and to preach the Gospel to every creature They went forth and preached every where the Lord working with them and confirming the word with signs following Mark 16.20 The same is attested by the Authour to the Hebrews that God bare the Apostles witness with signs and wonders and divers miracles and distributions of the Holy Ghost according to his will Heb. 2.4 This is the testimony he gave unto the truth by the Miracles which were wrought by those who published and owned the Doctrine of our Saviour evidenceing its Divinity to themselves and others For we say the Apostles are witnesses of these things and so is also the Holy Ghost whom God hath given to them that obey him Acts 5.32 Lastly The Holy Spirit guided the Apostles and Primitive Disciples into all truths of the Gospel by an extraordinary support in the midst of great and raging persecutions Both Scripture and Ecclesiastical History informs us what trials and conflicts these had for the profession of their Faith and a firm adhesion to the Christian Religion Their whole lives were a continued tragedy which did not end but in blood and death The state of the Church was such in those dayes that All that would live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution 2 Tim. 3.12 Nothing but cruelties from their severe Adversaries attended the profession and publication of the Gospel Which was the principal foundation of that Argument of S. Paul to prove the hopes and certainty of the Resurrection If in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable 1 Cor. 15.19 Hence the Apostle argues the Hebrews to patience and courage in the midst of sufferings from the reflections upon what they had already overcome That they might not by a future cowardize lose the reward of their former adventures Call to mind sayes he the former dayes in which after ye were illuminated ye endured a great fight of afflictions By having their Estates made a prey to their enemies by being made a gazing stock to the world by bearing reproaches and tortures themselves and being companions to those who were so used Heb. 10.32 They gat their bread with the peril of their lives As the expression is Lament 5.9 And for the sake of Christ they were killed all the day long and no more accounted of than as innocent sheep appointed to the slaughter As S. Paul applies that of the Psalmist Rom. 8.36 And if we view the ends of their lives we shall find nature alwayes anticipated and they snatched away by a violent fate still swimming to Heaven in their blood One is crucified another beheaded a third is stoned a fourth has his brains beat out with a Club Another
is hanged by the neck against a Pillar after whips and scourges had made a Prologue to the Tragedy One is flead alive another thrust through with a Spear and a third dragg'd about the craggy part of a street till his flesh was torn off and horrid pains compell'd him to expire It would be endless to account for the dismal tortures which the Apostles and Primitive Disciples endured their whole age being full of clouds and storms And the release from one torment was but the entrance upon another They daily went in danger of their lives which were indeed but continued deaths and repeated tragedies Now what a wonderful confirmation must this add to their own faith as well as seal its truth to posterity that they should have such multiplied tortures as anxious and cruel as the malice of enraged Adversaries could invent and execute and yet would not accept deliverance if they must purchase it with the denial of their Faith They must needs be animated to the belief of those truths in the profession of which they were so encouraged by a Divine power and the comforts of the Holy Ghost that they suffered torments beyond their own strength to endure Nor did the rage and persecution of their Adversaries overcome them Especially when we shall consider too that they could smile in the midst of flames and look upon their own blood with joy When they could account Martyrdom a Crown and such deaths as were most painful and cruel they could travel through as the nearest passage to their eternal reward Which whilst they viewed in a steady and well fixed contemplation they were able to conclude their afflictions to be light and to endure but for a moment And that the future reward overballanced them both in weight and duration They could glory in what the justice and custome of the world accounted shame and rejoice that they were deemed worthy to suffer for it Acts 5.41 They were alwayes dying and yet lived were able to account tortures chastisements and could still rejoyce in the midst of sorrows 2 Cor. 6. They could approve themselves the Ministers of God in patience in afflictions in necessities in distresses in stripes in imprisonments and that black Catalogue which S. Paul has recorded to posterity It must certainly convince both themselves and others that the hand of God did yet support them and that the Doctrine was true which they delivered for which they were miraculously prepared and now strengthened in their sufferings for it by the comforts and assistance of the Holy Ghost They knew themselves to be a company of rude and illiterate men or at least some of them were not polished either by art or Education for converse with the learned Rabbies amongst the Jews or the subtil Philosophers amongst the Gentiles and yet they baffled and could silence both had not their force reached farther than their argument And therefore sayes S. Paul where is the wise where is the Scribe where is the disputer of this world Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world 1 Cor. 1.20 S. Stephen who was but a Deacon to the Apostles was yet so full of faith and so endowed with the power of the Holy Ghost that he did not only amaze the people with the greatness of his Miracles but when many disputants were rang'd against him he did not only smartly encounter but overcame them too For they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spake Acts 6.10 They were fain to leave their reasoning and consult their subtilty and had no way to stop his mouth but by a shower of stones that took away his breath What could such men as these have done when they were brought before the Council of the Jews or Tribunals of the Romans Where all the subtle quirks of Law and all the inventions that malice could contrive should be used to entangle their innocence by craft had not the Holy Ghost assisted them in making their defence loosened their tongues and informed their understandings This was what was promised them before and now as certainly and fully accomplished For when our Saviour sent forth his twelve Apostles and told them how they should acouter themselves what were the contents of their Commission and how they should demean themselves He acquaints them also what dangers they were likely to encounter with They were sent forth as Sheep in the midst of Wolves Every one would endeavour to devour them And therefore they should be scourged in the Synagogues and be brought before Kings and Governours upon their Masters account But sayes he When they shall deliver you up let it not trouble you that ye are not well skill'd in the Law where subtilty may cause a Criminal to escape when ignorance may draw the innocent into punishment For it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak For it is not ye that speak but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you Matth. 10.19 Now men that had such extraordinary confirmations of their Apostleship and found these assistances from the Holy Ghost must needs be fully convinced of those things that were imprinted on their understandings and would attest their Divine authority unto others to whom they were obliged to declare and publish them when they themselves were so fully persuaded as not only to suffer all the inconveniencies of this life that could be brought upon them by the subtilty of the Politicians of the World but all the tortures and cruel deaths which malice was able to inflict And thus did the Holy Spirit of truth guide the Apostles into all truth But yet notwithstanding all this It must be considered that though the Apostles and primitive Disciples of our Saviour had thus the conduct of the holy Spirit Yet it was never intended to guide them into all truths of all kinds For this were to extend a promise beyond what was ever designed by the Holy Ghost Truth is a word of a large interpretation it runs through all Arts and Sciences and is as comprehensive as all the objects and understandings of men For whereever there is a conformity betwixt the object and a rightly prepared intellect there is truth Nay there is too often truth in that which we do not understand The Spirit therefore did not design in his sacred and infallible conduct to extend the capacities of the sacred Apostles to an infinite comprehension so as to cause them to know omne scibile every thing that is capable to be known For that were not only to make a new creation but to put them beyond the capacity of Creatures Nay though he is Omnipotent to go beyond his own power in making Beings as infinite as Himself Nor did the Spirit in the guidance of the Apostles into all truth intend their information in the truths of all the Arts and Sciences extant in the World He did not design to instruct them in the art of Syllogism Nor
renders our notions more clear and durable We use the means that are within our power and set our reason and faculties on work and then the Spirit by a secret operation enlarges our minds and blesses our endeavours Thus Paul must plant and Apollo water although it is God that gives the increase 1 Cor. 3.6 And thus the Lord opened the heart of Lydia to embrace the Gospel whilst she attended to it as it was spoken by S. Paul Acts 16.14 When the Apostles were yet diffident concerning the truth of our Saviours resurrection though they had the Books of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms by them in which these things were sufficiently predicted yet Christ himself opened their understandings before they could apprehend the meaning of those Scriptures Luke 24.45 As we may do all things through Christ strengthning us Phil. 4.13 So separated from him we can do nothing John 15.5 The Spirit of God has put much of our duty into our own power yet has still reserved something to himself that we may be kept humble depend upon him and beg his aid For the animal man that is not possessed with the Divine benediction and influence of the Spirit who admits not of propositions prov'd only by Miracles receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God because they appear foolishness unto him neither can he know them whilst he remains in that condition because they are spiritually discerned are proved by Miracles not Logick 1 Cor. 2.14 Hence is it that S. Jude describes sensual men to be such as have not the Spirit ver 19. of his Epistle Now upon the view of all this As we have no reason by our unbelief to deprive our selves of what is promised and to shut out those assistances from our souls which bless and facilitate our endeavours so we have no cause to say that our safety is beyond our power and that Heaven is too high for our reach since if we solemnly prepare our hearts and devoutly petition the assistances of the Spirit we may obtain it and God will not be wanting to us if we are not first wanting to our selves This is what S. Austin sayes Facienti quod in se est Deus non deneg at gratiam That God does not deny his grace to him who does what is in his power And that promise of our Saviour may relieve and encourage us That our heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him Luke 11.13 Let us act then with the dependence of creatures and yet not relinquish the reason of men Let us not think to be drawn into an understanding and belief of those truths contained in the Scripture by the strength of a Miracle and upon the wheels of an extraordinary Providence to be snatched out of the pit of ignorance by an irresistible force and informed by an Apostolical illumination But let us use those means that are now put into our own power for the full apprehension of all divine and necessary truth and walk according to what we have already attained the knowledge of that our obedience according to what we have received may attest the sincerity of our minds And then if any thing yet remains which is necessary farther for us to know God will use some method or other to inform us and by his Spirit dispose our understandings to receive it For God shall reveal even this unto us and we have S. Paul's word for it Phil. 3.15 16. And thus I have now at length considered this promise of leading men into truth both as it concerned the Apostles and as it also relates unto our selves I have shewed how it guided them and how it does still lead us into Truth There is now but one thing more that will want only a brief reflection before I arrive at some practical Inferences from the whole discourse and that is the latitude of this Promise in relation to its object which as it hath been already discoursed on with reference to the Apostles so must it be explained in relation to our selves For this universal all truth must not be understood in the utmost extent it is capable of no more than it was with reference to the Apostles but it must be limited in these following particulars First The Spirit guides us into all truth which may be necessary for the ordering our conversations in this World suitable to the Religion we are baptized into There are directions published in Sacred Writ for our Christian deportment in all our various states and conditions From whence S. Paul in the general exhorts that our conversation be as it becometh the Gospel of Christ Phil. 1.27 Which would be a strange and insufficient direction were there not in it a compleat rule for our lives The duties of a Christian are either concerning God others or our selves As to the first we are commanded to worship God in spirit and in truth The devotion we pay him must be suitable to his being and the general rules given in the Gospel John 4.24 And we must love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind Matth. 22.37 As to the second we have this direction To do to others as we would have them do unto us Mat. 7.12 And to love our neighbours as our selves Matt. 22.39 And as to our selves we must walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness not in strife and envying Rom. 13.13 Nay our whole duty is comprehended in one Text of S. Paul who tells us that the Gospel teaches us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in the world Tit. 2.12 Piously towards God Righteously towards our Neighbours and soberly in relation to our selves Nor have we only these general directions but those also that are so particular that we may hence take the measure of our duties and such prudent advice is given in all the conditions that may happen to us That we are neither left without proper counsel nor yet without comfort and relief Secondly The Holy Spirit of Truth guides us into all those Divine Truths which we ought to believe and of these he has given us so exact an account that no new Article is to be added to that Faith which has been already delivered to the Saints The Apostles Creed in which are contained all things necessary to compleat our belief is in every Article revealed in the Scripture And men that go too far beyond it are apt to be wise over much and to think and conclude beyond sobriety and therefore Thirdly The Spirit thus guides us into all truth that concerns our future happiness and salvation It has informed us that there is such a state by bringing life and immortality to light in the Gospel and it has laid out and smooth'd the way that leads to it It has given some description of the state it self as far as
guide them into all truth that we might have safe and infallible Rules to order and direct our actions by Then see how God values soundness in the Faith however men too much disregard it If either any Creed or none at all could have carried men to their future bliss Christ need never have come into the World to deliver an universal Doctrine in the Gospel Nor sent this Holy Spirit of truth to guide the Apostles into all truth This necessity therefore of being sound in the Faith was the reason why our Saviour and his Apostles caution'd men against Prophetical pretenders and false Teachers to take heed what they hear Mark 4.24 To have a care that the light which is in them be not darkness Luke 11.35 And to take heed lest there be in any of them an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God Heb. 3.12 Hence is it because as S. Peter sayes there are damnable Heresies that the unsound Cretians were so severely to be reproved that they might be sound in the Faith Tit. 1.13 Hence is it that S. Paul commands Timothy to hold fast the form of sound words 2 Tim. 1.13 Which probably referr'd to some brief Creed or summary of the Christian Faith delivered to him by the Apostle Though we find them now Burlesqu'd and flouted at But alas with as little wit as reason From hence finally was it that S. Jude exhorted those to whom he wrote his Epistle to contend earnestly for the Faith which was once delivered unto the Saints 3. ver of his Epist We are not now to make our own Faith nor is it indifferent what we believe Let us receive therefore what has been delivered out of the Scriptures through all the several Ages of Christianity and endeavour to make our lives as pure as our Faith Lastly We may learn from this Holy Spirit of truth to speak truth and by no methods to impose upon one another That we may evidence to God our selves and the world that the Spirit of truth has still an influence upon our minds There are a generation of Vipers among men whose teeth are Spears and Arrows and their tongue a sharp Sword That ingross the whole trade of lying and yet pretend to be men inspired These receive false News in gross and then retail it out to others Their tongues indeed are very sharp and no wonder neither since they keep the Whetstone wholly to themselves These are your itinerant Historians that to consume our Corn carry alwayes firebrands at their tails Who lie so often that they can hardly believe themselves when they speak truth and give to all that have had the curse of their conversation a plain testimony who their Father is But let not any of our souls enter into their secrets But resolve to resemble the Spirit of truth in abominating all lies and hypocrisie and to qualifie our selves for our future ascent to Gods holy Hill by speaking the truth in our hearts Psal 15. Our Saviour had no guile found in his mouth And we must follow so good an example unless we think lying the Character of a Saint and perjury to put on a Martyrs Crown S. Paul did not think so when he forbad the Colossians to lie to one another seeing they had put off the the old man with his deeds Colos 3.9 Let us therefore beware of Arrogance and Calumny Of detracting from others or attributing too much to our selves And let us imitate the Holy Spirit under the Gospel by guiding our selves into all truth So shall we avoid both sin and shame and eternal confusion at the great and terrible day of the Lord that we may then give up our accounts with joy and not with grief Would we but endeavour to follow the sacred Spirit of God who is so ready to influence our minds in truth and faithfulness Commerce and Trade would be more innocent we should neither betray our own selves by any false or glozing language nor should we suffer by plain dealing Oaths would again become Religious among English men nor would any be unjustly executed by guilty or scandalously freed by an Ignoramus Our gracious and truly Great Monarch would be safe without the base attempts of any to secure him He would be our own and we at his wise and lawful disposal by his Coronation Oath and our sworn Allegiance to him Every man were there truth among us might enjoy peace in his own capacity he might sit under his Vine and his Fig tree and Liberty and Property would never be bones of contention more But if we remain Hypocrites in Religion and false to each other we can neither expect that God or men should be our friends Because what in us lyes we peck at the foundations of the World and make the whole Creation groan We shake the main Principle of Trade and Commerce when we are such wretched creatures that no body can believe us And we cannot but enrage the Great God who being truth it self has sent his Holy Spirit unto us to guide us into the wayes of truth Whatever guilt therefore any person may by the iniquity of times striking in with his own easie inclinations have contracted to himself in this point Let him now repent while it is called to day lest the night come in which terror and astonishment will surprize him whose obscure shadows will by degrees withdraw the pleasing light from him till it lodges him in a state of blackness for ever The Conclusion WE are here placed in a World so full of objects that affect our external senses that we are naturally led more by these than we are by faith And when by degrees we abstract our thoughts and fix our minds on things above we either weary the powers of our minds and make them sink into a stupid inadvertency or else are so pleased with the sprightliness of our creating fancies that we nimbly make Idea's in our brains of such seeming things as never were nor ever shall be And so we lead our selves into the belief of what was not designed to be the object of our understanding no more than it shall be the subject of our possession Sometimes these things are projected before hand by the cunning politick men of the World who by such means intend to impose upon others to carry on secular interests that may in the end be gainful to themselves And sometimes men by reason of their weak and unable constitutions acting contemplation beyond their own capacity to manage it impose upon themselves till they really believe their own thoughts of objects that yet have no real existence nor are ever like to have a being in the Universe Some think too much and others too little Too much learning makes one sort mad and others are mad because they have so little Some men by sinking themselves into a deep melancholy and others by a nimble and exorbitant agitation of their blood and spirits command themselves into ecstasie or
unreasonableness of such men and their lamentable state who shutting their eyes against the Sun create a perpetual night to themselves and love to wander in darkness and error by being of such unsteady tempers such easie and unmanly resolutions shifting Churches and Opinions at every turn concluding every Apparition to be an Angel of Light and the dreams of men to be inspirations And though principles of various shapes and faces are presented by men with the same confidence and pretence of inspiration yet too many are so inconsiderate and easie as to admit all by a continued succession and live altogether in a circle as if they were fix'd like one of the Philosophers intelligences in an Orb turning it round and riding themselves about with it Or rather chained by some Magical charm that they are condemned to run about the circle and yet are never able to stand still long enough to disentangle themselves And what a dismal state of life is this never to possess rest and quiet How pitiable is the condition of a man that has his mind alwayes toss'd and ruffled who has got such a paralytical distemper as keeps his head alwayes jogging who entertains no principles long and yet Religion is his perpetual burden And well may it be so to him who loads himself with such variety These men put a veil over their own eyes and blindfold themselves that they may either be led by others or stumble on they know not whither These discern not truth from falshood nor make any difference betwixt opinion and demonstration who every day are intangled in the midst of snares and absurdity and wander about in a wild wilderness when they think they are travelling through an inhabited Countrey They are like Fowls flying in the air who are hamper'd in Nets which others have placed on Poles to catch them when they think they are mounted above hazard and danger 'T is a dreadful Judgement when God that gave men souls to discern shall for their own wilful blindness deliver them up to the power of delusion to believe a lye especially when we shall reflect upon what the Apostle informs us will be the consequence That they may be damned who believe not the truth 2 Thess 2.11 We find that this must naturally become the effect of such a wild principle And the experience which we have of the irregularities and crimes of such persons sufficiently informs us that their ways in this world lead down to the Chambers of Death and in the other to the Vaults of Hell Unless the greatest Villanies may be consecrated by such hallowed pretences and wickedness may change its nature by adding the highest degree to it when men make God the Author of it Then indeed the Government of Christ will quickly be inconsistent with that of our Soveraign the Kirk may beat the Throne in pieces and men may snatch away the Kings Crown to cover their own heads withal And it may be after a while an intrenchment on the Triple Crown to be the Sovereign of three Kingdoms The dismal consequences of such an unreasonable and loose opinion we have no cause yet to forget Or if they had escaped our memories and were buried in oblivion the Authors of them being afraid they should remain hid will cause them to revive by fresh instances that Charity it self may no longer cover them but their repeated crimes may at once renew and preserve their Principles God has permitted the pretenders to these new inspirations at once almost to make a plain discovery of themselves and yet he strengthens the hands of Authority to obviate the designs of both and has caused the Religion of his own Church taking its measures by the rules of the Gospel to shine when it was almost covered with a Cloud Lift up your eyes then and behold its glory Not to envy but to delight in it Always to profess such a Faith as is Primitive and Apostolical that delivers no other Principles to the world but what our Saviour did before what his Apostles commented on and a Faith that their followers liv'd by Principles that intrench not upon the rights of Secular Powers that do not interfere with the just and lawful Maxims of State that give no countenance to ambitious usurpations nor any disturbances to the peace of the world that are not wild and extravagant but teach men humanity and obedience that countenance no cruelties or murders but rebuke the inordinate appetites of men give a check to vice and incourage virtue that men passing the time of their sojourning here in the fear of God and justice and charity with their Neighbours thwarting neither the Prerogative of the King nor priviledge of the Subject may die with true peace of conscience in the favour of God and gain a compleat rest from their labours when their gracious dispositions and habits shall be rewarded with eternal glory Let us then having thus fixed our Rules and Doctrines attended with such ample rewards continue stedfast in the profession of this Faith and contend earnestly for it since it is what was formerly delivered to the Saints Let not novelties that drag such vice and irreligion after them that begin with Treason and end in Blood be any more named among us with delight But let every one that names the name of Christ depart from such iniquity as turns the world upside down and makes its proselytes the real and continued troublers of Israel as well as a sure plague to themselves who vex all that give ear to them with the perplexing passions of hopes and fears about their eternal happiness so much that they lose all temporal peace themselves and scare and disturb other men whilst they keep them by their pretended inspirations in perpetual doubts and uncertainties of mind For when they endeavour to believe every Spirit it is very certain they can believe none and so they abandon Gods Religion and their own peace and run a round of endless perplexities and contradictions 2. From the Apostles Caution and my discourse from it we may easily judge of those persons without the pretence of an extraordinary infallibility that run after every new Doctrine like weather-cocks are turned with every wind and follow after every Light though it be but Will with a Wisp or Jack in a Lanthorn that brings them upon Precipices or leads them into Boggs These men having vitiated their fight disposed their organs for all impressions and enlarged their eyes by frequent goggles beyond all proportion that no new object may escape them receive false representations of things with the same greediness that they receive true and so mistake a Paper-Kite for a wandering Comet and an enkindled Meteor for a true Star Hecuba is as acceptable to them as Helen and they embrace a Cloud instead of Juno To endeavour to fix Principles in them is but writing on the face of waters and to endeavour to digest the thoughts of these into standing propositions is
their Sovereigns Scepter that Christs alone may be exalted The murdering those that have Sacred Characters impress'd upon them is taking him that hindereth out of the way and all the usurping Tyrannies in tne world are exercised only to bring in such a blessed confusion that ambitious men may from the spoils of others build their own Nests on high and this shall be called the seating the Lord Jesus on his Throne though his Religion be made their own footstool But if they find the eyes of men open or their stomachs too nice to digest such hard things as these and that they refuse to embrace Devils when the flames appear through their thin garments and they are not cut long enough to hide their cloven feet They will effect by stratagem what they cannot by open force and an ambush shall destroy what a Field-Army cannot They will hide their leaven in some measures of meal till in the end all is leavened blend truth and error together and like the Gnosticks make a Religious mixture that shall have something of the Jew and something of the Christian that may look like what others profess but still add something of their own that poyson may be swallowed in a sweetned potion where men may take and yet never taste it The Saducees could deny the Resurrection from the dead and yet adhere to the Books of Moses The Pharisees could admit the Commandments of God and yet void them by their own Traditions The Arrians could own Christ to be the Saviour of the world and yet grant him only to be a Creature And the Socinians can acknowledge him the Redeemer of mankind and yet deny him to be a God by nature And amongst all these and many more error is entertain'd for the sake of those truths that cover it and not distinguishing betwixt the precious and the vile men often receive them both together The Papists profess the Apostles Creed but add as many Articles of their own And those that are averse to these will yet embrace many errors and are the more easily led towards them when they are dispersed amongst a great many truths But when we consider that one mouthful of pestilential Air may infect and destroy the man it is but reasonable all should be wary in choosing out wholsom habitations and since a little poyson may make us swell and burst asunder this may be more effectual to destroy than all the food we swallow with it can be to save and preserve us in full strength and vigour and by how much the more difficult it is to discern it the more careful we ought to be Thirdly False Prophets will be more difficult to be discerned and therefore more strictly to be examined by us because they will make their erroneous Doctrines to receive a seeming countenance from the Scriptures These are what we own to be our Rule and by these we judge of Doctrines and Opinions and therefore are unwilling to believe that to be false which many Texts are brought to prove Thus the Devil tempted our Saviour Matth. 4.6 when he would attempt the ruine of mankind and the disappointment of our Redeemer nay of the whole most blessed and glorious Trinity in contriving and carrying on such wonderful providence by perswading him to cast himself down from the Pinnacle of the Temple to make him sin in the destruction of himself and anticipating that death upon the Cross by which he was to become our Sacrifice he might tempt Providence and hazard himself If thou be the Son of God sayes he cast thy self down for it is written He will give his Angels charge over thee and with their hands they shall bear thee up lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone rendering the Text plausible to his purpose by omitting that part of keeping him in all his wayes But this was such a tryal of skill as rendered the Devil exceeding foolish because he that knew all things could not be ignorant of what he had omitted which was the key to open that promise Yet from this attempt of the Devil upon our Saviour have the deceivers of mankind throughout all Ages endeavoured to insinuate false Doctrines into the belief of others by bringing Texts of Scripture to prove them The instances are many and well known to those that are conversant in Books and Writings or have given themselves the variety and temptation to hear men of different opinion from us But alas How easie is it for one of no extraordinary skill to wrest the Scriptures both to his own and others ruine Nay S. Peter tells us that it is the common guilt of the unskilful and unlearned 2 Epist 3.16 How much more then may designing men that by guile endeavour to catch the ignorant this way impose upon their understandings by pretending Scripture to prove and countenance their false opinions especially among such as admit Texts for the sake of their number not their weight and more regard the sound of the words than the sense which is couched under them 'T is no difficult matter to mistake the sense of any Writing and then to plead it according to our own purpose and design Nor is it impossible for men to quote divers Texts that to ignorant men may by their sound seem to countenance their opinion that in their true meaning are nothing for them or else confirm a contrary proposition This the Papists and Dissenters know and this we are acquainted with our selves when we view Books whose Margins adorn them with multitudes of Texts which they pretend to prove the same thing by and yet upon a more strict examination do not at all make for their purpose And commonly when men multiply these beyond necessity to prove what is certainly confirmed by few that are plain and pertinent their Doctrine is either doubtful or false or else they do it to take up time and fill their discourses which their own barrenness cannot supply Because all Scripture being of Divine Authority if in any place it be plain and pertinent to the point which it is brought to confirm one Text is as good as a thousand and to quote many if some be impertinent the whole possibly may be suspected And therefore 't is not wisdom to do it but in points much controverted among Christians and in those especially for which the argument to prove them can be no other than Divine institution Fourthly If false Prophets cannot find as they never can and therefore deal in obscure places where the Text is as dark as the places retired into which they creep to lead silly women captive I say if they cannot find plain Scripture to countenance their opinions they will yet pretend visions and revelations which the perfection of the Scriptures disallows nor have they any argument to prove them besides confidence and a bold presumption Yet some are apt frequently to cry a Vision from the Lord when it is the fruit of their own phancies
of the Law So the Church among the Christians has the Gospel committed to her custody and has a power to determine in indifferent matters To order all the circumstances in Religion for decency order and edification and Authority to restrain such Controversies as tend to make a Schism and separation and dissolve that unity which Christians are frequently exhorted to keep So that although the Church be a witness and keeper of Holy Writ yet as it ought not to decree any thing against the same So besides the same ought it not to enforce any thing to be believed for necessity of salvation as our Church declares in her twentieth Article I shall not deny nor could I without singular pride and Arrogance but that Fathers and Councils and all Congregations of holy and judicious Christians much more Bishops and Governours of the Church treating about a point in Religion attempted to be introduced a new or being old is controverted in the world are with great deference to be attended to For every mans reason will urge this obligation to himself That his own judgement is rendered suspected when it opposes the common and united determination of persons that cannot justly be reproached with want either of skill or honesty And 't is ordinary for men to mistrust the sight of their own eyes when a multitude of others having the same advantage cannot behold what a single person pretends to see And in Religious affairs and such matters as are of great moment when persons of learning piety and authority in the holy Church of Christ assemble with solemnity and have a real intention to employ with all faithfulness and diligence those parts which God has bless'd and encreased to them by the advantage of a peculiar education and study invoking a Divine influence upon their endeavours to find out the truth and meaning of any difficult and controverted proposition We have great reason to incline to the belief of what these shall deliver for truth Unless the contrary be so apparent to us upon sufficient enquiry that there is no cause of hesitation at all This being the moderate opinion of our own Church we are opposed in it both by the Papist and Fanatick The former asserts that major est autoritas Ecclesiae quam Scripturae That the Authority of the Church is greater than that of the Scripture And that Traditiones sunt pari pietatis affectu cum Scripturis recipiendae Their Traditions are to be received with the same affection and devotion as the Scriptures And truly the latter come not far short of these but as much confine when it is in their power the belief as well as practice of their members to the determination of their Assemblies and little differ from the Roman infallibility in the end and design For if any Churches among our selves do yet affirm as they have formerly declared that the Kirk of Scotland was to be the pattern of their Reformation then I am sure they expect the same submission both in opinion and practice to their Assemblies determinations as a Popish Council do to their Canons or the Pope himself to his Decrees For to the Assembly held at Glasgow 1638 they swore that for judgement and practice they would adhere to the Determination of it though perhaps they knew not what it would determine But to leave the persons of those that stretch the power of a Church beyond the Authority God has given her There are three Reasons which plainly shew that any Church or Council of men cannot lay down any Propositions which derive their utmost Authority from themselves that may be the ultimate Rules by which the Doctrines and Opinions of others are to be judged 1. Because God to whom our Religion relates has appointed a rule that being superiour to the inventions of men must bind their fancies and opinions in these things and determine their Faith with those general actions that are deem'd Religious To what purpose were the Scriptures given to the World if they were not to be Rules and Directions to men Nay God being the Creator of all things and in reason claiming the Supreme Sovereignty over the things which he has made It is in his power to impose what Laws he will upon the world and 't is most suitable to his goodness to reveal them That men may not err for want of knowledge nor their thoughts contradict the will of their Maker Now this he has done in the holy Scriptures which are sufficiently authorized by his own Sanction in that Miracles attended their first publication which are as it were the Broad Seal of Heaven that prove them Gods own Act and Deed when they no way contradict the natural Notions and the prime foundations of the Religion of men The Scriptures therefore being thus given and confirmed to us must either be our Supreme Direction and an infallible guide in matters of Religion or else they were deliver'd to no purpose or to cheat and delude mankind The former consists not with the wisdom of God and the latter would contradict both his goodness and his truth All the difficulty then will be whether this Rule is sufficient to guide us in the Doctrine and practice of Religion so that we need not any new inspiration or any rules to be superadded beyond the sence of Scripture it self to conduct men in their way to Heaven And consequently whether we may by them judge of all Doctrines and Opinions without the help of the Roman infallibility or what is the same in another dress the unerring Spirit of the Enthusiast But admitting the Scriptures to be of Divine Authority they themselves are a sufficient testimony of their own perfection whilst they declare that they proceeded from Divine inspiration to be profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnish'd unto all good works 2 Tim. 3.16 2. No Canons or Decrees of whatever bears the name of Church or Council can be a Rule of trying Doctrines in Religion so as to be ultimate and Supreme Because all the conclusions and propositions of these are themselves the Doctrines and Opinions of men either with or without the pretence of inspiration and all Doctrines are to be tried themselves For this must be included as I have sufficiently proved in S. John's direction try the Spirits whether they are of God That therefore which is subject to an higher Tribunal cannot be it self the highest nor what is appointed solely to aid us in our trial and examination of Opinions nor the utmost Rule by which we must examine them Lastly If the Doctrines of the Prophets and Apostles of old nay of Christ himself the Saviour of the World were lyable to the examinations of men it being natural to mankind to try the truth of any Propositions before they believe them Then certainly no assembly of men can now in reason pretend such authority to impose their own
't is but calling any one Heretick and a dressing him up with pictures of Devils and presently he is exposed to the flames And this is such a Sovereign power of life and death that it reaches not only the body but the soul Thus as some flea the truth to prove it naked and instead of declaring it expose it So others pretending to its safe custody permit none to understand it but themselves And so the rest must swallow a Serpent for a Fish and eat stones instead of bread As if imposing cheats upon the World were the best way to prove a man insallible and deluding others were the only Argument to evidence that we are not deceived our selves This is the great secret of the Roman Empire that does not only silence Disputes but forbid Enquiry That does not only stop the mouths but crack the skulls of mankind taking away our judgement of discretion and our choice and Metamorphosing men into Beasts And then they put the yoke upon us and whip us on to toyl and drudgery that their own Pastures may be covered with Flocks and their Valleys stand thick with Corn whilst the high Hills laugh and sing For if it be once supposed that their Church is infallible whatever they determine must be true And when we have vow'd obedience to them 't will be too late afterwards to make enquiry A powerful way this is to reconcile men when contradictions themselves may thus meet and at any infinite distance embrace when the Romanists please to declare them true If this one point be but admitted 't will be ridiculous to dispute the rest For all the Articles must certainly be true which a Church has determined that cannot err This is a new way indeed to walk by faith and not by sense to pull out our eyes that we may see the better And instead of captivating our understandings to the obedience of Faith to deliver up our reason to another man This is perfectly to enslave our selves when Christ has made us free to entangle our necks in the yoke of bondage and to leave the burden of the old Law for the greater load and oppression of a new And to make our selves like gentle Beasts ready trapped and furnish'd for others to ride us Let the Church of Rome once be infallible and then they become as omniscient as Apollo All their determinations are ex Tripode And we must then become as silent as in the Grave and make our selves a prey to these Worms We must kneel down at the Popes feet and make our selves fit to be trod upon But our reason is so properly our own that as no man has a right over it so is it strongly fortified within us that none is able to take it from us unless we will deliver it up our selves If we will suffer the Philistins to deprive us of our strength and put out our eyes they will certainly then make sport with us And if we yield so great a Point as they unjustly challenge from the Old Testament and the New we deserve then to be made a Spectacle when they have no reason to prove their Authority but because they have a mind to rule and we become such fools as to obey The Prophets then may prophesie falsely and the Priests bear rule by their means when the people shall love to have it so and what will you do in the end thereof Jer. 5.31 Seneca sayes of men that are curious about trifles operose nihil agunt De brev vitae cap. 13. that they are very industrious about nothing and though the studying of many of our Modern Controversies is like an Emperours locking himself into his Closet that he may be very busie in catching Flies and we may say of some great Controvertists in the world what Seneca sayes of those that took abundance of pains to find out a few unprofitable experiments that by this they did not appear more learned but troublesom Vid. ut sup Yet when by admitting a Principle our reason is destroyed and our Religion in an eternal hazard by being at the devoir of another altogether as fallible as our selves and of whose honesty we cannot alwayes be assured We must then rally our Arguments to resist or suffer our selves to be led into slavery That there is not therefore a foundation from any Text for the Romanists pretended Infallibility nor any Argument grounded upon reason I shall endeavour briefly to make appear And therefore we may yet believe our selves to be men and the Pope himself to be no other Because 1. There is no absolute promise of intire Infallibility made to men in the whole Book of God but only with limitation and restriction I readily grant that there are promises of Infallibility in some Texts But these were made good in the Apostles and the seventy Disciples And yet though delivered in general terms they are to be restrained not only to the persons to whom our Saviour spake but to things necessary for them to know in relation to that end for which they were inspired And these were only such truths as our Saviour delivered to be the standing rules for Posterity to guide themselves by in relation to their eternal welfare This is plain both from the latter part of the Verse of which the promise of the Spirits guiding into all truth Joh. 6.3 is the former And from the comparison of this Text with another In the Verse of which this Text is a part we have this added to confirm the promise lest any should think the revelation of the Spirit should not prove equally certain with the declaration of our Saviour He shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak Whatsoever he shall be commissioned to inspire you with that shall he communicate unto you Which is still included in these two particulars 1. In what our Saviour himself had delivered to them Or 2. In what he should suggest to them to make their defence before Kings and Rulers which need not at all concern them whose ignorance in the Laws might cause them to fear because the Holy Ghost should teach them in the same hour what they ought to say Luke 12.11 12. This only is superadded And he will shew you things to come Which must either relate to the Gnostick defection and the perdition of the Jews which our Saviour had predicted Matth. 24. Or else to the Spiritual nature of Christs Kingdom which the Apostles were so prejudiced against to inform them that this with some other things which they could not bear whilst he was with them in the flesh they should at last be satisfied in Joh. 10.12 Or else it must include those predictions of Prophets more frequent in the Primitive times of Christianity such was that of Agabus Acts 11.28 who foretold the Famine that should come to pass in the dayes of Claudius Caesar And that prediction of S. Pauls bonds and imprisonment Acts 21.11 All which
considered together brings the promise of the Spirit and infallibility to the Apostles under determinate restraints and limitations But 2. This will further appear if we compare the promise of guiding into all truth with that other relating to the Holy Ghost Joh. 14.26 where the Apostles are told that he should teach them all things more plainly those which our Saviour had delivered and bring those things to their memory which they might forget though before declared He shall teach you all things sayes he and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you So that it appears that the Apostles had not the Spirit without measure though they may be said to be filled with the Holy Ghost And that this promise of infallibility to them was made in a limited and restrained sense Secondly Supposing the promises of Infallibility were made in never so enlarged a sense yet they are to be restrained to the persons to whom they were at first made as to the unerring conduct and I might easily make it appear that they cannot in their full sence concern any but the Apostles themselves and the first Preachers of the Christian Religion Because the end of this extraordinary inspiration was to make them capable of prescribing to us an infallible and unerring rule Which being accomplished there is no farther occasion of an infallible inspiration For to what end should this be continued to one or a certain number of men unless they were upon new emergencies to deliver new Doctrine to the world If it be necessary to the understanding of what has been already prescribed the Laws of the Gospel will not only want one of the most excellent qualifications of a Law that it be plain and easily intelligible But the same necessity will argue infallibility useful to all which renders it thus necessary unto some For if it be therefore necessary to some that they may become Guides to others Since their conduct in relation unto others must consist in advice and declaring that sence of the Law which could not be understood without them all which must be expressed by word or writing every man has as much need of infallibility that he may not misunderstand the interpretation as any have to prevent their misapprehensions of the Law if there can be no peace without infallibility Now that all men have not infallibility is as readily yielded as it is to be proved that the Pope has none Thirdly If there were now this infallibility amongst men there must be a perpetual revelation For if the perfection of the humane nature could here render any men infallible we may well conjecture that many might have been in every age that might have been Directors to the rest Or if it had been founded in humane nature why should not an equal perfection render all mankind infallible Either of them being granted will invalidate the necessity of a Divine Revelation and turn the word of God into a story and do despight to the spirit of grace if rendering it useless and a fable will do it For to what end should any men be inspired when they were before infallible in themselves The infallibility therefore which we discourse of must proceed from a strong and certain inspiration And whatever is delivered by vertue of this is of equal authority with the Scriptures themselves And then none can be safe in his life or fortunes when ever any inspired man makes it his pleasure to take them away Nay if we are conscientious we must yield them up upon demand lest haply we may be found fighters against God And this appears in the Romanists themselves as well as others taught by them The more conscientious any of them are the more readily do they yield to the impositions of their superiours and they have reason for it if they think them to be absolutely infallible For no private evidence of a thing must subvert their faith in the Churches determination and so much the more triumphant is their faith by how much the more it captivates their understandings As it is so much the more meritorious by how much the less it has of evidence So the greater the Objections are that meet and encounter the Churches determinations their faith is rendered the more glorious and full of victory Let the Doctrine then be never so wicked in it self or consequences the conscientious believer of the point of Roman Infallibility must neither see the one nor the other But renounce all the evidence of his reason and if occasion be as there is sometimes of his senses too For what evidence can reasonably be attended to that bears a testimony against that which is infallible This then must be a ready method to change the nature of good and evil and the eternal Law instamp'd upon our minds if the mutation proceeds from the Roman Chair Nay the nature of things need not be changed if the Pope please to change their names Men may borrow then and never pay if he pleases to cancell the debt Ruining families and overturning Kingdoms will become noble and a glorious exploit Nay religious acts when he is at leisure to adopt them into the number Burning Cities and murdering Princes shall be accounted means of propagating the Gospel if he please once to determine that we may do evil that good may come of it And blowing up the Estates of Kingdoms is presently holy if he will but sanctifie the Powder and Canonize the man that has the courage to attempt it So powerful is this Doctrine of Roman Infallibility that it can change the Devil into an Angel of Light And let the Pope himself be never so wicked his determinations are all true and good and he may remain his Holiness still He may subvert by degrees or all at once the whole Doctrine of Christianity though from thence he receives his pretensions of authority if he pleases to declare it a Fable when it shall no longer comport with his advantage Nay he has already so blended it with the Religion of the Jews and practice of the Heathens that Christianity is so buried in an heap of rubbish that 't is an hard matter to gather it up out of such a great confusion of ruines The substance is lost in the midst of Ceremony internal devotion is interrupted by a pompous Scene of Pageantry and Shew and yet the evidence of our senses must be rejected in the Doctrine which they so much applaud in practice And yet Fourthly Notwithstanding all the Roman pretences to Infallibility If there are any promises made of it they do as well concern other Churches as themselves For if these promises were made to the Apostles in general as is very plain from the circumstances of their delivery if they were not terminated in them but reached also the whole succession of those by vertue of whom Christs promise was made good of being with the Apostles alwayes to the end of the world Then either
all Churches must be infallible or none especially all that are able to derive their succession from any Apostle or Apostolical men that were once Bishops and presided there And if so then the Church of Jerusalem must be infallible because S. James the less was appointed their Bishop either by our Saviour himself as some say or else immediately by the Apostles as others The Church of Alexandria because this was the Bishoprick of S. Mark must become as infallible as that of Rome That of Constantinople because founded by S. Andrew That of Ephesus because S. John was seated there Nay those also of Smyrna Pergamus Thyatira Sardis Philadelphia and Laodicea because this Apostle laid the foundations of them Nay and our own Church of Britain too which our adversaries will hardly yield infallible because Simon the Zelot preached here wrought many Miracles and at last suffered Martyrdom for the Faith of Christ and our Native Soil has the honour of his Bones if the Greek Menologies may obtain any credit amongst men But to bring this business nearer to an head If this infallibility will not be allowed to all Churches of the Apostles planting nor to those over which they more especially presided as they certainly will never yield it whose interest it is to keep it unto themselves Yet why should not Antioch become infallible which was a Church of S. Peter's planting at least seven years before he came to Rome Must the elder Sister become a fool that the younger may appear infallible Or must we deny the priviledge of Antioch because it would invalidate that of Rome The latter seems their most probable conjecture though 't is easily proved S. Peter was at Antioch but eagerly disputed whether ever he was at Rome But allowing S. Peter to have been at Rome and not only so but to have been Bishop there and the present Pope to be his Successor which yet is hard for them to prove especially when the Succession is to be traced through their Anti-Popes and Pope Joan must become an Holy Father too How came this promise of infallibility to be fixed only upon S. Peter when it was spoken to the whole Apostolical College If you will say that the infallibility can be fixed but in one and that we may as well discourse of many Omnipotents as many Infallibles and certainly 't is to be proved with equal success were the infallibility not capable of restraint Yet why must it be fixed upon S. Peter and not on any other of the Apostles S. Paul though a later Apostle has as much to plead for a settlement of it upon the Gentiles as ever S. Peter to fix it upon the Jews Nay the Romanists themselves have greater reason to derive it from S. Paul than ever they had for deriving it from S. Peter Unless they acknowledge themselves to succeed the Circumcision of which S. Peter was only Bishop But perhaps they will plead Infallibility from Supremacy and afterwards if occasion serves plead Supremacy from Infallibility again Yet still S. Paul will bid as fair for the Supremacy too if we take time to examine his Plea Saint Paul was not only designed to his Apostleship by the Grace of God before he had any merit in himself being a chosen Vessel to bear Christ's Name amongst the Gentiles when he was appointed to his Office from his Mothers Womb Gal. 1.15 But his Conversion was attended with Miracles and from a Persecutor when the design was laid and his malice big against the Christian Church he was struck down with a dart from Heaven and convinced by that Light which made him blind He was brought to this Religion with Pomp and Ceremony and ushered into the Church with a train of circumstances that were Heralds to his honour and proclaimed him great Acts 9. Nor was he greater in his Apostleship than in his sufferings For after a large Catalogue of his miseries 2 Cor. 11. he made the Tragedy compleat by his death He was thrown into Prison with S. Peter And if Baronius may be credited the Pillars are yet remaining at which they were both bound and scourg'd And had he not been a Roman he might have been crucified with S. Peter But being such like a Person of Honour he was beheaded In the time he lived he laboured more abundantly than the rest of the Apostles 1 Cor. 15.10 Nor was he in any respect behind the very chief of them 2 Cor. 11.5 He neither yielded to the argument of interest when he received his first conviction nor did he when he was baptized or illuminated from above and by inspiration had received a sufficient Commission to preach the Gospel go to derive his authority from the Apostles as if he had been inferiour unto them But he straightway preached Christ in the Synagogues though to the amazement of all that heard him Acts 9.20 21. He was not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ though his former zeal another way might be and was objected to him And that he might sufficiently evidence the truth and the honour of his Apostleship he went into the untrodden paths of the World where none had adventured to preach the same Doctrine before him For so sayes he have I strived to preach the Gospel not where Christ was named lest I should build upon anothers foundation Rom. 15.20 All this we have drawn into a narrow compass Gal. 1.16 17. But it pleased God who separated me from my mothers womb and called me by his grace to reveal his Son in me that I might preach him among the heathen Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood neither went I up to Jerusalem to those which were Apostles before me As he was most justly stiled The Apostle of the Gentiles For the care of all their Churches lay upon him and I hope the Romans were not then Jews let them be whatever they will since and came more upon him every day 2 Cor. 11.28 He opposed the principal Officers of the Church at Jerusalem and gave no place by subjection no not for an hour since they that seemed to be somewhat added nothing in conference to his knowledge but perceived him to be appointed the Apostle of the Gentiles as well as S. Peter was the Apostle of the Jews when they came to Antioch he withstood Peter to the very face because sayes he he was to be blamed for that both he himself had dissembled with the Jews and had perswaded James and Barnabas into the same compliance And upon the whole neither of them walked according to the truth of the Gospel And all this difference was upon no smaller point than this that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but by the faith of Jesus Christ Gal. 2. 'T is plain S. Paul had here in a proper sense the right hand of fellowship not only in that they admitted him into the society of the Apostles but they gave him the preheminence among them And S. Peter
fervency and devotion for them For if ye being evil sayes our Saviour know how to give good gifts unto your children how much more shall your heavenly Father give the holy Spirit to them that ask him Luke 11.13 And since God is so bountiful to us let us not be wanting to our selves For when we shall with retirement consider how numerous and potent our sins are which must all in their habits be mortified and subdued how many turbulent or inticing temptations we have to oppose that are ready every day to conquer us and steal invisibly to our most secret entertainments how many passions we have to calm and moderate which upon every suitable and tempting occasion endeavour to make an insurrection against our reason How many personal and relative duties we are to perform in a wise and pious ordering our conversation how the suggestions of our own flesh the injections of Sathan and the malice and defilements of the world will endeavour to oppose and obstruct our progress When we consider the black passage of death and the grave and God knows what dismal encounters we may meet with in our way to them What fears will then suddenly arise to baffle our hopes and make our faith ready to expire And upon the whole when we reflect upon our weakness and miserable infirmity In a word When we consider how much work we have to do how little time to perform it and what great disproportion there is betwixt our duty and our power It will not only appear that it is high time to awake out of sleep to rise and be doing But to take the Armour of God for our defence and to pray to Heaven for the assistance of the Spirit Since this appears to be so necessary in relation to our weakness and our duty And certainly what is so necessary for our safe conduct to that Haven where we would be and which God designs for our eternal rest and shelter from all tempests and future storms There is no reason why we should distrust the Spirits influence and operation Nor to make our selves uncapable of the favour by testifying our unwillingness to receive it by perpetually opposing and disputing against it For Lastly this influence of the holy Spirit upon the minds of holy and good men is from the Scripture infallibly certain to those that at once both want and beg it and do prepare themselves for the reception of it Why otherwise should our Saviour give this assurance to his Disciples that God gives the holy Spirit to those that ask him Nay what becomes of those promises in the Scripture that engage Gods truth and faithfulness to assist good men in the discharge of their duty and to support them under all their misery and misfortune if we were altogether left to our selves to pursue the dictates of our own reason and to stand only upon our own leggs without any superiour help or influence The Apostle tells us that the Spirit does help our infirmities Rom. 8.26 But this would be false if we had either none that required his assistance Or that he would not condescend to supply our wants S. John makes this vinculum unionis this bond of union betwixt Christ and us the Spirit of God to be a character by which we may distinguish our selves Because he has given us of his Spirit 1 John 4.13 And S. Paul fully agrees with S. John For sayes he if any man has not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Rom. 8.9 I know with what great industry these and other Texts have been restrained to that Divine temper of mind by which we know and discern our condition This indeed being the gracious effect of the holy Spirits co-opperating with our endeavours is by no means to be separated in our judgment upon our selves And we have no other way to judge of the cause but by this Divine and glorious effect But yet where this is visible in an holy life and virtuous actions we have no reason to exclude the cause Especially when it is principally included in the expression For the Apostle supposes this Spirit that Christians have to be the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead Nay a branch also of that power which shall hereafter raise us too For it follows He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwells in us Because our Bodies are here the Temples of the Holy Ghost God will not suffer them to remain eternally in their ruiues But will hereafter re-edifie and raise them because they were once the habitation of his Spirit Hence are Believers said to be sealed with the holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of their inheritance Ephes 1.13 And therefore they are advised in the same Epistle not to grieve this holy Spirit of God whereby they are sealed unto the day of their redemption Eph. 4.30 Now though we may be said to be sealed up for Heaven by a Divine temper of mind upon Earth that this prepares us for future glory and that if this disposition be not in us we are none of Christs Yet it would be as harsh a speech as can be admitted in any language to say that this holy temper of mind shall raise us up at the last day Since the wicked are then raised too Or to say that any man voluntarily grieves this Divine temper and disposition of mind when the man then grieves himself These expressions therefore must certainly intend more than this And they can scarcely admit of a fair interpretation without expounding them of the holy Spirit of God which now co-operating with our faculties produces in us divine tempers and dispositions and so prepares us for that inheritance which he shall raise us up from our graves to possess The Holy Ghost was first promised to the Apostles and Christian Disciples under the names and notion of a Comforter and the Spirit of truth and how could he be both or either if he did not influence their minds with joy and knowledge The Spirit it self sayes the Apostle bears witness with our Spirits that we are the children of God Rom. 8.16 It did not only testifie unto others by those Miracles that did confirm their Religion and consequently proved those that did sincerely embrace it to be born of God as well as their Religion But it evidenced these things also to their own consciences by a sacred benediction and a Divine and more immediate concurrence with them when they compared their lives with the Rules of their Religion And consequently proves to them that they were heirs of God and coheirs with Christ which is the argument the Apostle is there prosecuting to give them comfort in the midst of tribulation and to animate their courage and resolution against the sufferings of that present time The graces and virtues visible in a Christians life are said in Scripture to be the fruits of the Spirit
converted to this Religion and accompanied Saint Paul received the notices of those early and first transactions of our Saviour and his Disciples and been guided by the Holy Spirit of God in recording the History and Doctrine of our Saviour and his Apostles But if we make the strictest enquiry into those twelve Apostles which our Saviour sent to preach his Doctrine abroad in the World we shall find them all by their Education either too much prejudiced or unprepared to invent or propagate such a Religion The greater part were a few rugged and inconsiderable Fishermen that knew only to catch Fish and mend their Nets when they were broken and either eat or sell their Fish when they had caught it And how unfit these were to preach rules of life to the world to make known Riddles and explain Mysteries To maintain their Faith against the learned disputes of Rabbies and Philosophers or to commit a System of Christian Doctrine to writing for future ages to live by and that it might become the rule for mens actions Let any reasonable men judge It must needs therefore be a greater argument of a larger inspiration that these men were so slenderly prepared by nature or Education And by how much the meaner these were by so much the more powerful were the operations of the Spirit to guide them into all truth But besides the consideration of this we have a more sure word of Prophecy to ascertain their inspiration from above Since all Scripture is given by inspiration of God 2 Tim. 3.16 And since no man can possibly know those Laws by which God will govern the World 'till he pleases himself to make them known It must needs be that he must impregnate the minds and inform the understandings of those whom he designs to be the Pen-men of his Laws And this he did as to Moses and the Prophets under the Old so to the Apostles in the New Testament by his Holy Spirit Therefore was he to teach them all things by informing their understandings John 14.26 And by guiding them into all truth John 16.13 Secondly The Holy Spirit of truth guided the Apostles and first publishers of his sacred Doctrines by quickning their memories That what their Master had before taught them the Disciples now might remember for the benefit of others The memories of men by reason of their own weakness and the multitude of objects which daily present themselves to the mind and that variety of converse and numerous disturbances they meet with in a World full of noise and humour are very apt to slip many things which they ought to register and when they are entered to lose the record Hence is that admonition of the Author to the Hebrews that we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard lest at any time we should let them slip Heb. 2.1 The Apostles therefore who were men of like passions with our selves had an extraordinary power assisting their memories That those things might again recur which they had heard from our Saviour at that time when by his-absence he was uncapable of repeating and orally to deliver that Doctrine which before they had the advantage of hearing The Spirit then by an immediate impression put their Spirits into such a motion and proposed such objects to their consideration and understanding and so ranged the particles of the brain that the same images presented themselves and they had the same Ideas and apprehensions which possess'd their minds when the trutns were first delivered to them Or if I may be any way extravagant in endeavouring to describe the manner of framing this miraculous effect Yet sure I am that some way or other this was done or the promise of the Holy Ghost was not fully accomplished For sayes the Text the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you John 14.26 Thirdly This Holy Spirit of Truth inclined the wills of the Apostles and first Planters of Christianity to publish those things which were impress'd upon their understandings and their memories now perfectly retained and to commit these truths to Writing that future Ages might be able to read what they could neither see nor hear To exhibit no more than what they had received for the Divine Rule and to live also suitable to their Doctrine to avoid the suspicion of Cheat and Imposture Now though this influence might seem to be unnecessary to such as had imbibed the Christian Doctrine with their understandings because their wills might seem immediately to follow what their understandings dictated to be true and the reasonableness and admirable excellency of this Doctrine might be motive enough to perswade as well to its practice as belief Yet we find by a woful experience that the wills of men do not alwayes follow the dictates of their understandings But that we violate Laws which yet we are convinced to be true and good If it were not so few men would embrace vice and offer injury to the Precepts of Christianity which all men of reason and discretion must needs acknowledge to be excellent in themselves and infallibly sealed and authorized by God who has by a miraculous hand attested them to the World It was necessary therefore that the Apostles and first Publishers of the Gospel should be made willing as well as able to accomplish all those things which might tend to the propagation and assurance of the Gospel And we cannot conjecture that so sudden an alteration could be made as we find in the Apostles who by their Trade and Education were rough and stubborn this being generally observed of Mariners so as to be brought to acknowledge such gentle precepts so opposite to their customs and inclination without a superiour influence mollifying their tempers and the powerful operation and perswasions of God to make them willing in the day of his power When Paul therefore was converted by a Miracle and brought to the acknowledgement of that Jesus whom he had persecuted that glorious light which shined upon his understanding rectified also the perverseness of his will and inclined that to follow his Conviction so that he became not disobedient to the Heavenly Vision but shewed both to the Jews and Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God and do works meet for repentance Acts 26.19 20. Fourthly The Holy Ghost led the Apostles into all truths of the Gospel by working Miracles to confirm their Doctrine These are the great Seal of Heaven that sufficiently authorize whatever they are brought to give testimony unto For these being either visible effects beyond the power of natural Causes or some strange and extraordinary alterations of nature by laying a restraint upon its usual operations Or causing it to take a different course by a strange composition of second Causes or a powerful concurrence of some Agent not included in the immediate Cause They
that they should read natural Philosophy to the World He did not intend to teach them to call the Stars by their names or that they should by virtue of his instruction know their several motions distances or altitudes He did not intend Aphorisms in Physick Or to give to them Geometrical proportions Nor to breed them curious and expert Artificers though some of these have made themselves Apostles Nor to teach them the numbers of Arithmetick Or the Astrological signatures of things or times and seasons For these were not for them to know because the Father had put them into his own power Acts 1.7 And therefore as they were never so proud and bold so neither were they so unlucky as the Pope who must needs condemn a point in Geography and the tenet of Antipodes for a destroying Heresie So little did he know the universal Empire he pretended to that he did not understand the extent of it nor the Figure or Bounds or Inhabitants of that Earth over which he yet pretended an Authority The Holy Ghost therefore guided the Apostles into those truths only in Divinity which included the full Doctrine of the Gospel which our Saviour delivered that they might be able to preach them to the present age and commit them to writing for the use of all succeeding Generations The Spirit was not given to them to make them great Historians or Philosophers but Christians and to capacitate them to be the planters and founders of Churches not the posts and standards of dispute Or to be the leaders of Sects and Factions in Philosophy They were to erect a Pillar of truth setled upon a firm foundation Christ himself supporting the Building and this neither for Pasquins or Poetry but for a Rule and directory of standing Religion and Devotion CHAP. XII THE souls of men whilst hous'd in these bodies of clay are darkned and obscured notwithstanding all the windows of sense to let in the light of external objects to an intercourse with the mind For supposing our senses could alwayes make true and exact representations to our souls which yet we know are often deceived yet these could only convey such things as are the proper objects of the souls of men Those of an higher and more exalted nature that are not capable of an image must needs escape the perception of our outward senses and if reason it self when most disentangled from those fetters which our senses too often impose should endeavour to make propositions and inferences about the essences of those things whose spiritual natures evade our sense our notions could not be adequate to the things themselves nor could we fully comprehend what is infinite nor have a positive Idea of spiritual Beings though reason might conclude their existence Hence is it that all our definitions and descriptions of these are therefore imperfect because negative and though we may conclude what they are not we never could by humane power yet resolve compleatly what they are which makes Divine Revelation necessary and that we should have faith beyond our reason though we never believe without reason to assure us of the authority we confide in This being therefore our state and condition in this World we must as well praise Gods Goodness as admire his Power for sending us that Spirit of Truth which guides us into all truth that is necessary to conduct us to eternal happiness Now this Promise I told you I would consider two wayes 1. As it related to the Apostles and first Disciples of our Lord and Saviour 2. As it concerns the whole Church of Christ that is or shall be militant on the earth The first of these is already dispatched And therefore I now proceed to the second To view the Promise of the Spirits guidance as it concerns the Church throughout the several Ages and Periods of the Christian World I have already proved the divine influence on the minds of men though its immediate operation is too difficult to be explained as to the manner of its energy and work and that we have no reason to disbelieve the thing for that we know not the manner of its operation What therefore is now to be discoursed supposing the truth of its influence in general and that extraordinary assistance he gave unto the Apostles is How the Holy Spirit of God possesses the minds of those with truth who make themselves by holy dispositions and a due exercise of their rational faculties capable to receive it and what truths those are that the Spirit of God guides men into As to the first supposing that which has been already proved That the Apostles were inspired from above to receive a full revelation of those truths by opening their understandings and quickning their memories that concern the salvation of mankind and that they committed them to writing faithfully recording them for the use of posterity and that these are to be standing rules for all ages and generations to come I cannot find any other method the Spirit has used or does continue to guide the ages succeeding the Apostles into all truth but what is contained in these three particulars 1. By those Scriptures which he inspired the Apostles to publish and deliver 2. By inclining the hearts of some men to continue that Ministry which must endure to the end of the world And 3. By confirming those truths contained in the Scriptures unto the minds of men by co-operating with the external ministration by an internal work upon the understanding will and affections of those who are inclinable in the day of his power First then The Spirit of truth guides us into all truth by those Scriptures Christ and his Apostles delivered to be the standing rules for posterity These are those lively Characters in which we may read the Nature of God and the directions of our lives These are such an infallible rule of truth that they certainly guide those into it who soberly and conscientiously apprehend and follow them They convey peace of conscience here which is a thing valuable above Crowns and Kingdoms and hereafter give us such possessions as infinitely transcend the power of our thoughts and exceed all humane expectations These Holy Scriptures contain such a compleat body of Doctrine that they need not any additions to be made to them Let their own sense be but sufficiently explained and if they are permitted to speak their own mind they will neither want Apocrypha nor Traditions nor any new Revelation neither to render them a compleat System of Divinity Mens own Doctrines and not Christs want Traditions to confirm them and 't is the pride and covetousness of a Sect of men that would make all Christians groan with their burden and void Gods Word with their own pretensions however they are varnished with the plausible Epithets of ancient and Apostolical that make such additions to the Scriptures But the Holy Scriptures which were at first given by inspiration of God are able of themselves
when rightly understood to make the man of God perfect And if they are able to furnish the Minister certainly they are sufficient to instruct the people Nay to make them throughly furnished to all good works and are able to make them wise unto salvation through faith which is in Jesus 2 Tim. 3.15 16 17. Hence is it that these are so far from being taken from the adult that they are to be exposed to Childrens Learning Or else it would not have been Timothy's commendation that from a child he had known the Scriptures And if such Elogiums were made in the honour of the Old Testament much more praises must be given to the New which shews us a way to be justified from those things from which we could not be justified by the Law of Moses Acts 13.39 and brings life and immortality to light 2 Tim. 1.10 The Doctrines in the Gospel preached by Christ and enlarged upon by the Apostles through the powerful inspiration of the Holy Spirit are sufficient accompanied with those means appointed for their delivery and the ordinary assistances given to those that attend them with humility to guide men into all those truths requisite to be known in relation to their eternal welfare And therefore blessed are they sayes our Saviour that hear the word of God and keep it Luke 11.28 From hence draw we the water of life and these are the fresh springs of salvation at which mankind may satisfie themselves Here have we directions to demean our selves in all our various conditions in the World that we may endure both the Sun-shine and the Storms that prosperity may neither swell nor adversity consume us S. Paul's advice therefore to Timothy must be attended by us also To continue in the things which we have learned and have been assured of knowing of whom we have learned them and that because evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived 2 Tim. 3.13 14. Let the infallible men of mystical and unintelligible demonstration endeavour to prove what they cannot defend but by their old argument of force and fire Let them blaspheme the Holy Ghost in the Apostles whilst yet they pretend to its inspiration themselves Let those argue against the Scriptures being a Rule when rightly understood that can defend their Doctrine only by a counterfeit tradition Having no greater argument against the sufficiency of the Scripture but because it consumes their Hay and Stubble And that they can there neither fetch Wood to burn us nor Stones to destroy us But let us who are of the day be sober and be wise to that which is good And then as God formerly subjected Sathan to the seed of the Woman for that by the Serpent he deceived their simplicity and stain'd their innocence so though now he endeavours by subtile impostors to beguile soft and ignorant minds he shall not alwayes triumph in his villany But the God of peace shall bruise him under our feet shortly Rom. 16.20 The Providence of God is a great deep the reason of man is not able to fathom it And though he may for the punishment of our sins the tryal of our vertue or to make our adversaries ripe for destruction permit some to erect their Plumes and lead captive unwary souls in triumph yet though he that standeth must take heed lest he fall let us according to S. Paul's advice hold fast the form of sound words 2 Tim. 1.13 and contend earnestly for that faith which was once delivered unto the Saints Jude ver 3. and withdraw from every brother that walketh disorderly and not after what has been delivered 2 Thess 3.6 And if we walk according to this rule peace shall be upon us and mercy Gal. 6.16 We need not then be afraid of the winds and storms nor yet of him that kills the body if we truly fear him that can destroy the soul Which none but God himself can do For sayes our Saviour whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doth them is like a wise man who built his house upon a rock and though the rain descend the floods come and the winds blow and beat upon that house it falls not Matth. 7.24 The God of truth having now given us a standing rule by the glorious inspiration of his Holy Spirit expects that it should be the general measure of our actions And as no sign would be given of our Saviours death and resurrection besides that of the Prophet Jonas so no rule can be expected by us besides the Gospel to the universal period and general Conflagration Hence is it that S. Paul puts all under the severest curse that pervert this or preach another Gospel And he does not only anathematize men but passes the same sentence upon Angels if at any time they should prove so bold and impious Nay he doubles the curse to testifie his faith and proclaim the irrepealable duration of the Gospel But though we or an Angel from heaven preach any other Gospel unto you let him be accursed Gal. 1.8 What was indited by the inspiration of the Spirit is certainly true and we may confide in it What is added by the wit of men may possibly be false and therefore it is not to be be looked upon as infallible any farther than it can be proved either directly or by consequence from the Scriptures themselves This is the rule which the ancient Fathers disputed against the Hereticks by and this must be the measure and rule of our faith it being so full and plain that no new Article must be added to our Creed nor any other rules of duty contradictory to these all necessary things being so easie that any person of any ordinary capacity using the methods of Gods own institution may soon arrive at knowledge enough to save him if his will does not rebell against his understanding and he faithfully practises what he knows Nor could the end of Gods Law ever be obtained or men be left inexcusable if it were so obscure that it could not unriddle it self For the end of all Laws being the obedience of those that are bound by them How can men obey that which they cannot by any means understand And if it cannot by the ordinary helps of the learned in it interpret it self there must then be a new inspiration to interpret what was inspired before And then there will be two inspirations where one would have served Because he that can interpret a Law plainly to the World might have made it plain at its first delivery Unless perchance we may think it wiser to do any thing with toil and pains which may be performed with ease and pleasure 'T is true indeed that many men by ignorance or wilfulness when they forsake the Guides of Gods appointment heaping Teachers to themselves having itching ears may be and are led into divers errors under the specious pretence of truth And thus those amongst the Galatians who in those early dayes
troubled the Church perverted the Gospel of Christ Gal. 1.7 But this is no argument against the sufficiency or plainness of the Scripture in things necessary to our eternal salvation For they are usually more obscure Texts that are to exercise the more Learned and Critical part of men upon which Heresies are founded And this too frequently is occasioned by men that wrack and torture their understanstandings to conceive such things as are not here perfectly to be known Or if they are to be fathomed by other men yet are above the reach of those who thus ignorantly and erroneously apprehend them Thus S. Peter speaking of S. Paul's Epistles sayes that in them there are some things hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the other Scriptures unto their own destruction 2 Pet. 3.16 But another sort there are too that have too much subtilty to be accounted ignorant Who are some of he perverse disputers of the world that first suit their Tenets to their interest and then violently press the Scriptures to prove what they were never intended for We should never else have heard This is my Body brought to prove that absurd Doctrine of Transubstantiation Nor Feed my Sheep to prove the Popes Supremacy Nor He will guide you into all truth to prove his Infallibility Nor He shall be saved yet so as by fire to prove a Purgatory When all these Texts are capable of fairer and more plain interpretations to another and more coherent sense But that the ambition of some men would entitle themselves to the government of the rest And then frame others belief to render them tame for such a tyranny and to be subject to whatsoever they will impose when all this while they suit the Articles of the Churches Faith to the encrease of their own Wealth the better to support their Pride and Usurpation Nay on the other side we have those amongst our selves who call the Pope names and yet embrace his Doctrine And tie that infallibility which they rob the Roman Chair of to their own single and Enthusiastick determinations Who by misunderstanding some Texts of Scripture direct themselves by a private impulse and then muster these to defend it But the Flower is not the less fragrant for that the Spider thence will suck for poison Nor does the Scripture cease to be a safe and sufficient Rule to those who soberly apprehend and follow it Notwithstanding some may wrest and misapply it Nor does the Spirit at any time contradict it self He having therefore inspired some men to commit a Rule to writing for future Generations to read and understand and put forth a Law that is sufficiently plain and perspicuous And men having reason and understanding enough assisted by the Spirits ordinary directions to guide themselves by the measures of this Rule and Law into all truth He expects now that they should order themselves as they do by all human Laws That is to believe upon the Authority of the Imposer and live proportionably to so great a favour and labour to understand what he has put into their power to know Remembering that of wise Agur Add thou not unto Gods words lest he reprove thee and thou be found a liar Prov. 30.6 The authority God has given to the Governors of his Church empowers them to command or alter circumstantials that all things may be done decently and in order In these we are to obey them that have the rule over us and to submit our selves Heb. 13.17 But no men are authorized to usurp the Throne of God himself To create new Articles of Faith Or impose other primary rules of duty than what they find written in the Scriptures They are only to confirm and explain them For as we must not think of men so neither of Doctrines above what is written Our language and design must be the same with S. Paul To deliver that which we also received 1 Cor. 15.3 So may we be workers together with God And when the world in the wisdom of God that is by the works of God which demonstrate his wisdom knows not God it may please him by the foolishness of preaching i. e. what some men account folly to save them that believe 1 Cor. 1.21 And this leads me to the next particular in which the Holy Spirit of God guides us that are remote from the Apostles Age into all truth which they delivered By inclining the minds of some men to continue that Ministry that must have its succession unto the end of the World And this is the second way of the Spirits conduct That in all Religious Constitutions which have been in the World there has been a separate and appointed Ministry is more notorious than to spend words in the proof of it 'T is too deeply planted in the minds of men and it bears an equal date with the Law of Nature fix'd in us Without this publick Worship cannot have its constant and orderly Being And had not this been established with the constitution of Christianity it would not only have been in a worse condition than any Religion which has possessed the world But than any Trade or Occupation among us to the obtainment of which men must be learners before they become able Workmen Or are permitted to exercise their particular Callings amongst any well ordered and embodied Society The separation therefore of some men from the generality of Christians was first made by our Saviour himself When he called the Apostles and sent forth the seventy Disciples to preach the Gospel unto human creatures And when the time of his departure from the world was come When he was to be received into his Fathers Kingdom in such a triumph as became a Conquerour and one to whom all power was given He delivers his full Commission to his Apostles substituting them in his own stead to rule his Church and to ordain their Successors That like the Tribe of Levi they might be legitimate and by a continued and distinguishable descent they might be perpetuated to the end of the World As my Father sent me sayes Christ so send I you John 20.21 Or as S. Matthew describes it All power is given to me both in Heaven and in Earth Go ye therefore and teach all Nations Baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you And lo I am with you alway to wit in the exercise of this power by your selves and Successors to the end of the world Matth. 28.18 19 20. These are some of those gifts our Saviour gave unto men when he ascended upon high Ephes 4.8 For he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers For the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ This is to endure 'till we all come into the
Unity of the Body of Christ to encrease our knowledge in the Christian Doctrine and prevent our being deceived and led into error Hence was Timothy's Office which he had received by the Ordination of S. Paul stiled a gift 2 Tim. 1.6 And lest these appointments should not be accounted the products and designation of the Holy Spirit These gifts are attributed to the Spirit Who is in himself one uniform Being though these were divers according to the variety of times and seasons And they are all such manifestations of the Spirit as are given to men to profit withal 1 Cor. 12. Now as Gods Providence Rules the World though we can neither discover his Councels nor are able to account for the manner of his operation As he disposes of Crowns and Kingdoms determines our dayes and disposes our Habitations though these things are accomplished by an order and train of second Causes severally designing and concurring to the end So does the Holy Spirit dispose the way of the Education of some and incline their minds to the Office of Ministers in the Church of Christ that Gods people may not perish for want of knowledge But there may be some alwayes to preach the Word and to convey Christs Doctrine from Generation to Generation That his Church being built upon the true confession of an Holy Faith as on a firm and well fixed Rock the gates of Hell may never be able to prevail against it Matth. 16.16 and 18. Now a sufficient number of such men distinguished by their Education and manner of living from those that are more encompassed with the noise and disturbing affairs of this life being prepared by a previous train of circumstances and having the advantages of their own parts and understandings And being by such means able to see into the notions of those that have gone before them having been used more to reading consideration and retirement than other men and to weigh the just consequences of things They must needs attain a competent ability in the matters of Religion to which they most apply themselves And they may be capable through the assistance of that Spirit who calls and gives them Authority in their Office to become instruments in his hands to guide men into the wayes of truth In all the Arts and Mysteries of the World we deem it a natural way to learn by obtaining one that is skilful himself to teach us the Principles and Grounds of his Knowledge And we more certainly and easily obtain our design when we have such a one to instruct us So is it in matters of Religion 'T is a natural way to inform our selves in those things that concern our Salvation when we have not only an an inspired Rule But men Educated into the knowledge of those things that prepare them for the understanding the Mysteries of Religion and are afterwards appointed by due Ceremony and the direction of the Holy Ghost to guide us into all truth Especially if in the last place we consider that the Spirit of truth confirms those truths contained in the Scriptures unto the minds of men by co-operating with the external appointed Ministrations by an internal work upon the understanding and affections That there is such a thing as a Divine illumination yet continued amongst Christians as our Church owns it by her Prayers so no man can reasonably contradict it Not that it does render any man infallible as the Romanists affirm Nor inspire men with any new Doctrine or Rules of life besides what it has revealed in the Scriptures as some Enthusiasts adventure to determine Yet we must not to avoid the extreams forsake so useful an Article of belief that gives God the glory of his power and keeps us dependent upon him and is so great a foundation of our prayers and praises Truth is not to be forsaken by the Jews because the Samaritans may be of the same opinion Nor shall I like the Jews in Barbary refuse to eat of that Meat which is dress'd by one of a different perswasion Or to drink in the same Cup with a Moor when he is a person of a wholsome Constitution until it has undergone the Ceremony of Washing Truth in this World will be blended with error and 't is the prudence as well as piety of a Christian to make a separation of the Wheat from the Chaff and not to slight and refuse the one because the other has been mix'd with it 'T is true indeed as Mr. Hales expresses it The Promise of the Spirit to the Apostles which should lead them into all truth was made good unto them by private and secret informing their understandings with high and heavenly Mysteries which never entered into the conceit of man And to us this promise is made good because what was written by Revelation in their hearts for our instruction they have written in their Books But yet this is not all the assistance the Spirit gives us For though he does not inspire us with any new Doctrine you he opens our understandings to the apprehension of the old I am far from admitting the conceit of an impulse to be the rule and measure of our lives because we know what mischiefs have overspread the World when propositions have been vailed with such a pretence and it may be our own as well as S. Austin's observation Tanto sunt ad seditionem faciliores quanto sibi videntur spiritu excellere Men are the more prone to sedition by how much the more they seem to excell in their inspiration yet there cannot appear the same danger where the Spirit only assists our understandings to apprehend those truths which are already deliver'd and inclines our wills and affections to embrace them when according to the direction of S. John we are not so credulous as to believe every Spirit but to try the Spirits whether they are of God or no 1 John 4.1 Now then only may we reasonably conclude our understandings to be influenced by the Spirit when our notions agree with the written Word For to the Law and to the Testimony sayes the Prophet if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no morning or light in them Isa 8.20 There are divers means natural in themselves and rationally appointed by Almighty God for the informing men in the truths that concern them Reading meditation and hearing the Word are proper methods to inform our understandings and to guide us into the way of truth But prayer is therefore wont to be superadded not only to compose our minds and make them fit for Divine Contemplation by a sequestration of our thoughts from those external objects that by intermixing themselves with those that are more spiritual confound our Idea's and notices of things and render our minds more loose and extravagant But because Prayer supplicates those aids and assistances of the Spirit that facilitate our apprehensions of truth by removing objects that crumble and disorder them and it
therefore it must remain doubtful to those that will not believe the Gospel is it not more reasonable to receive this Revelation so well attested and to renounce others that are not so than to leave things of such an infinite concernment at so miserable an hazard Nay since there can be no other than probable proofs of future things when Arguments are taken from their own nature without the admission of Divine Revelation Is there not greater reason even when two things seem uncertain to adhere to that which is more probable And to that which gives us some hopes rather than to that which affords us none at all In this there can be no danger to believe there is a future state there may be great in the denial of it If it be not true it makes us yet live with more comfort and die with less trouble and reluctancy But perhaps all may now be willing to believe the Scriptures to be true Yet such Faith alone will not gain the prize though we finish our course in fighting for it Therefore let mens belief of a future immortality and a joyful state evidence it self in endeavours to obtain it For that faith is only fancy that thinks to be crowned without obedience And to believe the History of the Resurrection of our Saviour and not raise our selves to newness of life will leave us still dead in our sins Credere se in Christum quomodo dicit sayes S. Cyprian de unitate Ecclesiae qui non facit quod Christus facere praecepit How can he be said to believe in Christ who does not do what he commands him And a little before in the same Tract Immortalitate potiri quomodo possumus nisi ea quibus mors expugnatur vincitur Christi mandata servemus How can we enjoy eternal life unless we keep those Commands of Christ by which death is assaulted and overcome S. John tells us He that doth righteousness is righteous And though men pretend other signs which are as easily confuted as they are made Yet If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandments sayes our Saviour Matth. 19.17 And S. Cyprian will vouch the application if I suppose this to be the condition to obtain it For though the Christian Law be a Law of liberty yet it is a Law still that commands us to act like Religious men and not think to be drawn to Heaven upon the wheels of an extraordinary Providence and craned up to Paradise by an irresistable Power We ascend to Heaven by gradual advancements of virtue and devotion nor can we think that all mankind are perpetually to be saved like the Thief upon a Cross We must not think to mount above the Clouds through the vapours of repeated Debaucheries to rend the Skies and make Heaven open by louder Oaths and thundering Execrations Or to jump out of Dalilah's lap into Abraham's bosome No surely they that have done good shall go into life everlasting But they that have done evil into everlasting punishment Thirdly We learn from this discourse to praise God for giving us the Gospel and to admire and extol the Holy Ghost himself who in such an eminent manner assisted the Apostles to commit so excellent a systeme of religion to writing that we of the latter ages of the World may read what we could not hear And by the ordinary conduct of the Spirit of truth be guided to the knowledge of those things which they were extraordinarily inspired to deliver Not to commemorate so great a favour must be the highest ingratitude imaginable Let us be as thankful then as we are knowing and as we increase daily in the one let the other run parallel in the enlargement God is pleased to own himself glorified by our praises This we do when we praise him with our tongues But then does it become most glorious when it is followed with an holy and Religious life The former may proceed from hypocrisie But attended with the latter it makes the whole Trinity to rejoyce and secures to our selves those Graces we already have and engages God to give us more as our future conditions shall want supplies To him that hath shall be given saies our Saviour Nay this in an especial manner rejoyces the holy Spirit of God whose proper work it is to sanctifie And a vicious life is said to grieve him And how acceptable a Sacrifice the whole is appears in what he sayes by the Psalmist Psal 50.23 Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me And to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God Praises and thanksgivings are the natural results of a sense of mercies and favours impress'd upon the minds of men And we conclude those to be unworthy of a benefit that will not acknowledge the goodness of their Benefactors And the proportions of thanks must take their measures from the benefits received How much therefore the sending the Holy Ghost to inspire the Apostles and by them to convey light unto the World to conduct mankind to glory and immortality exceeds all the temporal favours we do enjoy By so much the more must our hearts be lifted up and our lives express our gratitude to him that sent him and to him who by his merit and intercession procured him Fourthly Did the Spirit of truth guide the Apostles into all truth necessary to the Salvation of men And does he still influence our minds and promote our endeavours in making enquiry after the things that conduce to our peace Then let us pray frequently to Almighty God for this influence and benediction of the Spirit Prayer was that which prevail'd with God to send him in so eminent a manner and for such glorious designs into the World and prayer will still continue him here I will pray the Father says Christ and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of truth Joh. 14.16 Prayer has not only an influence upon our selves as it fixes our minds and makes our holy resolutions steady but mightily prevails with God himself who will crown what he has commanded with success In this therefore lies our greatest strength in the performance of which duty soberly and with a suitable devotion and intention of mind we may be said to wrestle with God Nay it conveys to us those assistances of the Spirit that are useful to us for the sanctifying our natures and carrying us through the hazards and various circumstances of our lives For if ye being evil sayes our Saviour know how to give good gifts unto your children how much more shall your heavenly Father give the holy Spirit to them that ask him Luke 11.13 Let us not then be wanting to our selves in this duty of Prayer since so great an advantage attends its devout and hearty performance and to publick Prayer whereby God is most glorified the pains are only presence and devotion Fifthly If God sent his Spirit upon the Apostles to
phrensie And then their pretensions grow so big that they become proportionably tall too till they aspire to the storming the Walls of Heaven attempting to blow open the everlasting Gates that they may pry into those things which are lock'd up from the inquiries of men And thus being puff'd and swelled up it proves only to be Tympany and disease when we think we have true conceptions and when our own thoughts have raised our fancies we conclude that the Spirit overshadows us and our obscure opinions or strange propositions raised by the sudden transports of our minds are too often with confidence enough boldly averred to be the immediate dictates of the Holy Ghost Want of true and ingenuous education and thereby the more exact assistances of reason causes many of those who would be accounted more spiritual than other men to think themselves inspired from above when an unusual fear a sudden joy or a powerful disease has brought Convulsions into their Nerves and seised their reason and judgement with a Palsie so that all their notions are jog'd into a confusion and their faculties can neither embrace or pursue their proper objects But by what means soever the thoughts or expectations of such men are lifted to an height waiting for an impulse sighing and groaning for an unusual influence Vain are those hopes where there is no promise and uncertain that rule of determination of things which appears to be fallible and deceitful And yet thus are all the expectations of those who think the Spirit guides them into truth by other means than what I have already shewed you or to any rules and measures of religious actions than what are plainly laid down in the Word of God or thence drawn by a fair and truly Logical deduction If you should be at the trouble to examine a little all the pretended impulses of men their great variety will evince their folly and their opposition to each other their deceit and falshood Is there any Sect pretending to Enthusiasm that does not peremptorily and with the greatest confidence assert the Spirits internal seal to their principles although just opposite to each other and all perhaps contrary to the Scripture This is the great fountain which yet divides into so many streams whose waters all have different tastes according to the chanels in which they run and the variety of soil through which they pass This is made the cause of separation which in it self is still but one This makes men divide from one another and all from that Church to which they should belong proving each others Doctrines erroneous and all still by the same Spirit As if the God of order delighted in division and different Religions like variety of creatures proclaimed Gods Wisdom and his Power When he has now enjoyn'd one faith to the whole World and sent his Son to set up his Banner for all Nations to flock to it Divers Languages indeed were once a character of inspiration from the Holy Ghost but different Creeds were never yet the fruits of him that is but one That truth which the Spirit guides men into can be no other than the plain uniform rules of the Gospel and whoever pretends to any inspiration to deliver a Doctrine different from this blasphemes the Holy Ghost and makes God a lyar whilst he pretends his inward seal publickly to attest an open falshood But if there were such a thing as the Spirits impulse in these ages of Christianity we should have some certain characters by which we might know it as the Prophets and Apostles must be suppos'd to have had and if we make it an argument to convince others we must work Miracles to attest its original The latter none of the Enthusiasts pretend to Or when ever their madness has attempted this testimony no sooner do they dubb themselves by the names of Prophets but they are discovered to be plain Cheats If they pretend a way to evidence to themselves that they are inspired with a divine breath to give them a warrant for doctrine or action not consonant to the Writings of the Apostles it does not only render the Scriptures insufficient but makes God to contradict himself and wounds that Eternal Truth of the Deity into which we ultimately resolve our belief But let us come to the examination of the impulse it self and we shall perceive in the midst of what uncertainties such men must be miserably toss'd who suppose what they deem such to be sufficient warrant for what they then think on and propose to themselves What strange and impious actions have been the consequences of such supposals I need not now relate because they have made such noise and ruines among our selves that they are still fresh among us But to proceed with this supposed impulse or impression upon mens minds by which deserting the Scriptures some Enthusiastical men will take the measures of their doctrines or actions I know not what they mean by it unless it be the heightning our perswasion making our belief of a thing bold and strong and our resolutions to act and maintain it fix'd and zealous And if this be what they make a rule or a character of the Spirits guidance since we find but little difference when we view this supposed operation in persons of various nay opposite principles we must either conclude what all deliver under this pretence to be true or else it is not safe to conduct any The former is too wild a position for any that pretend to sobriety to espouse and therefore the latter must be true Besides every mans reason may sufficiently inform him that our perswasions and determinations of things become as well setled and fix'd and have their various elevations or depressions as well by the strength or weakness of arguments duly weighed and attended to as by any impulse which can be imagined How then shall we be able to know what our reason dictates and what we are confirmed in by strength of argument from what the Holy Spirit now seals by an impulse or impression upon our minds How shall we distinguish betwixt a strong fancy a setled opinion and this pretended inspired Doctrine Nay how can we difference without recurring to the eternal Laws of good and evil which will render this new impulse useless the impressions of the Spirit from a secret temptation and a subtile suggestion from him who is our greatest adversary If we dare adventure to be so Critical as to pretend to new discoveries and such a rare ability to distinguish betwixt the motions which these several impulses make Since there can be but one sort of action in the spirits of a man if the perception be not above reason miraculous the same convulsions and percussions on the Nerves to cause the soul to understand and believe whether it be a truth or falshood that is represented a truth from God or a diabolical delusion How can the rarest and most artificial Enthusiast distinguish betwixt