all which it appears how much more excellent and desirable the saving Graces of the Spirit are than all these pompous miraculous gifts in which there is really no intrinsecal excellence nothing why we should desire or expect them further than as they may be useful for the Church instruments of Religion and motives to Faith and Repentance in defect of ordinary means and acquired gifts All which I would have those especially to consider whose Enthusiastical tempers or educations encline them first to admire and then to conceit these miraculous gifts till by insensible degrees they impose upon their own imaginations and commence within themselves illuminated men Secondly I proceed to shew what little reasons the Romish Doctors have to make miracles a sign of the true Church For Miracles were formerly wrought for signs to confirm the Authority of the Apostles and their Assistants and Successors and to seal the truth of that new doctrine which they were to preach about the world Therefore to suppose that the Church stands always in need of Miracles is to suppose her to be still in a state of Minority and her doctrine to be always a publishing to the world or else to suppose that infinite wisdom may become impertinent and seal the same truths ten thousand times over Indeed as they argue in the Church of the Jews there were always miracles to be found because their Theocratical constitution of Church and State was miraculous God as their King being obliged to make known his pleasure in Civil and Military as well as in Ecclesiastical matters unto them by Voices from heaven Oracles and Prophecies as other Princes do by Proclamations and messages and their Prophets were always to work signs and wonders to prove the Truth of their mission and sometimes the certainty of what they foretold should come to pass But then besides the miracles which belonged to the nature of their Theocratical Government God wrought others for them and among them to render himself and that particular Church more conspicuous in the eyes of the Gentile world Hither we may refer their miraculous victories by single men or armies over their enemies which God wrought to convince them by sensible experiments of his Omnipotence that of all the divinity of the Eastern world he alone was the true God But had the Law been published among all Nations like the Gospel and Judaism become the Universal Religion of the world Miracles at length would have grown out of use as indeed they grew very rare after the Jews were dispersed among the Nations and their Law was translated into Greek which at the time of the Translation was become the most general Language of the world Thirdly I proceed to shew you how unreasonably the Church of Rome hath acted in verifying the Fanatical pretensions of so many gross Impostors and Enthusiasts as she hath done to Inspiration Prophesie Visions Dreams Familiar converses with God and the glorified person of our Saviour working of wonders Communion with Saints and Angels Raptures Impulses and all other sorts of Miraculous gifts that we read of in the Primitive Church Such as these were Dominic Francis of Assize Francis of Pole Francis Xaverius Ignatius the founder of the Jesuits Genvieve Tiresia Catherin of Siena Brigit and many more of both Sexes whom she hath not only Canonized for Saints but to the great scandal of the Christian Religion hath incorporated Religious Societies of men and women to live according to their pretended inspired rules For which not only the Common people and the Brethren and Sisters of the Orders but their Learned Doctors pretend to have as great and it may be a greater veneration than for the Gospel it self Fourthly I proceed to shew you what a sandy foundation the Popes Infallibility is grounded upon For it must be resolved into this Enthusiastical principle of immediate Inspiration which according to the doctrine I have now Preached neither he nor any other Bishop or Presbyter of the Church hath warrant from the Scriptures to pray for or expect I say it is a most dangerous and Fanatical pretension which is so far from having any ground in Scripture that it makes it a most imperfect and useless rule of Faith destroys the certainty of the Christian belief which was fixed above Sixteen hundred years ago and instead of being a means of ending controversies as Papists pretend it introduces everlasting Scepticism into all the parts of Divinity by making truth or falshood good and evil light and darkness sweet and bitter nay what shall I say by making right and wrong God and Belial Christ and Anti-christ depend upon the breath of a single man In the Fifth place let me shew you what a dangerous damnable and precarious principle that is which * George Reiths immediate Revelation Printed 1676. asserts that immediate Revelation or Inspiration is not ceased but is a standing and perpetual gift in the Church of Christ belonging to the very substance of the Gospel-Covenant and of indispensable necessity to the whole body and every member thereof And that this spirit of immediate Revelation or Spiritual light is not like the Spirits in Primitive times to be tryed by the * Barclay 's Theses or Apologia Theolog. Scriptures and reason but that both of them are to be tryed by it This doctrine differs from the preceding only in this that that makes only the Bishop of Rome but this makes every private Christian a Pope and as it utterly overthrows the Authority of the Scriptures and makes them an useless rule of Faith So hath it already cashiered the use of the Sacraments and annulled the Ministerial Orders contrary to the Precepts and Precedents of the Gospel and the practice of Gods Universal Church And when time shall serve it can as effectually convert the Professors of it into down-right Popery consistently with their own principles for they have nothing more to do than to say that the Spirit hath told them that the Church of Rome is the only true Church and that supra hanc Petram belongs to the Pope As this doctrine was first privately sowed among us by ‖ Foxes and Fire-brands pag. 15. c. Printed 1680. Popish Emissaries so hath it been published in our and other countries by those who were Papists as by Robert Barclay who was bred in the Scottish Covent at Paris and Labbade a Jesuit defrooqued In the next place to montion will be sufficient to confute the Pseudo-Prophetical Spirits of this age such as Nayler Venner and Muggleton with his companion Reeve who call themselves the Lords Two last Witnesses and Prophets and have framed many tracts and letters from Jesus and the Holy Spirit a collection of which may be had in Print I deny not but that God is free to send Prophets when he pleases and that he may do so when the exigence of the Church doth require it but then whensoever he sends them he will as he hath always
done send them with the power of working Signs and wonders and whensoever they shall come we shall have a right to try them by the Scriptures as a Test But for these and the German Prophets who pretended to Inspiration and Prophecie without signs to voices from Heaven which none heard and strange Apparitions which none saw but themselves and who Preached other doctrines than what the Apostle hath preached they were Enthusiasts or Impostors or a composition of both and had they first appeared in the Church of Rome his Holiness had likely caressed them for great Saints and Prophets offered them the compliment of a new Order and so have obliged them as he hath done many more by the same arts to devote themselves to his service and declare him to be Vice Deus Vice Christus a God upon earth the Soveraign both of Angels and men In the next place let me observe unto you that among all the miraculous gifts of the Spirit recited either in this Chapter or any other place of the Gospel there is no mention made of Heroical impulse by which men were sometimes irresistably moved from the Spirit under the Jewish Oeconomy to execute judgment in an extrajudicial manner upon the enemies of God For God being the * Is 33.22 Ezek. 20.11 Numb 31.28.37.40 1 Chron. 29.11 Political King and Legislator of the Jews did as other absolute Monarchs do in some special exigencies send men with extraordinary supra-legal commissions to do present execution upon great and dangerous offenders without staying for the ordinary process by Law But our Saviour one end of whose coming was to put an ‖ Eph. 2.14 Dan. 9.26 27. Acts 10.34 35. end to the Jewish Oeconomy and who came not to destroy mens lives but to save them gave no such gifts unto men No there is to be no fire from Heaven nor no Phinehases under the Christian dispensation Accordingly the first Apostolical ages of wonder were utterly ignorant of killing impulse and zeal which I could not but observe to the utter detestation of Christian Assassins the Clements and Ravilliacs on one hand and the * Knoxes history Ravilliac redivivus and the history of the late Archâ—bishop of S. Andrews his murder in the spirit of Popery Melvils and Mitchels on the other To proceed Let us a little more particularly reflect upon that blasphemous doctrine of the Quakers now by the industry of the Emissaries no contemptible Sect concerning a Spiritual ministery and spiritual worship whereby they pretend that the Holy Ghost now comes down upon their Assemblies as it did in the Apostles time and moves them to preach and pray by inspiration without any regard to condition or Sex Hence when they meet together they sit hanging their heads in a silent dumb manner till the Spirit as they pretend shall move some body it is indifferent be it man or woman to preach or pray Accordingly they call their Preaching Prophesying and precariously say that they have the Spirit of Adoption by which they call God Father and that the spirit in the inspired Minister maketh Intercession for them with unutterable groans That they groan sufficiently we grant for sometimes in their meetings they do nothing else but if their groaning or vocal devotions be from the Spirit how comes it to pass that the Spirit never moves them as it did in the Apostles days to Pray and Prophesie in unknown tongues When we shall see in their Assemblies as the unbelieving Jews and Gentiles did in the Primitive Christian meetings that they have the gift of tongues and the gift of interpreting thereof when together with the gift of tongues we shall see that they have as the Christians had all the other miraculous gifts when we shall see that they shew themselves to be Prophets and Spiritual in receiving what this Apostle hath written in particular that a woman should not speak in the Church as the Commandments of God and lastly when with all this they shall preach no other doctrine than what the Apostle hath preached and the Catholick Church received then we will believe if they be lawfully baptized that it is the spirit which is speaking in them and that God is in them and among them of a truth but till then we must believe them all to be Impostors or Enthusiasts and blasphemers of the Holy Ghost Therefore in the next place let us consider what an horrible sin it is to counterfeit any of the gifts of the Holy Ghost in particular the spirit of Praying and Preaching which with the gift of Faith as it is taken for inspired courage and boldness is most easie to be counterfeited of all the spiritual gifts But first let us make some reflection on the pretenders to the spirit of praying and preaching under whom I comprehend not only those whom I mentioned above but another sort of spiritual juglers who when they are ashamed to talk like the lowest form of Enthusiasts in a plain Fanatical strain and so apparently blaspheme the Holy Ghost yet invent such uncouth ambiguous terms in Divinity and so artificially contrive the style and phrase of their religious discourses as to beget an opinion in their followers that they pray and preach by inspiration and so besides the dishonour they reflect on the Christian Religion and the Holy Ghost maintain the Schisms which they have made under the colour of more spiritual ordinances and worship and sacrilegiously usurp that specifick veneration to themselves which was wont to be given to inspired men One equivocal phrase which is commonly in the mouths and writings of these Sanctimonious men is the Spirit of preaching and the Spirit of prayer which though by an Hebraism in English they ought now to signifie no more than the skill or habit of praying and preaching yet these Sophisters and usurpers for so most of them are of our Holy Profession so use them that the deluded people generally take them in a more obvious sense for praying and preaching by immediate inspiration from the Holy Ghost To this purpose they talk much of the in-comeings out-lettings and in-dwellings of the Spirit and have taught their disciples to object that to pray by a form doth stint the spirit and by these and other like phrases whereof store may be found in Rutherfords letters and the writings of the Independents not to mention any more they have made their followers take it for granted that extemporary prayers especially as they are spoken and acted by them are the effect of inspiration and by consequence that themselves are immediately inspired This error concerning the extemporary spirit of Prayer hath been the cause of much * Concil Milev 2. can 12. Placuit ut preces quae probatae fuâ—rint in concilio ab omnibus celebrentur nec aliae omnino dicantur in Ecclesiâ ne fortè aliquid contra fidem vel per ignorantiam vel per minus studium sit compositum See also Con. Carth. 3. c.
of which God ordained before the world was unto our that is unto the glory of us the Apostles who were the first discoverers thereof To them it was that the Spirit gave the First Understanding and discovery of the Mysteries of God and of the Father and of Christ in whom as our Apostle speaks Col. 2. all the treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge were hid In him they were hidden and wrapt up before they were unfolded by the Apostles to whom in the 14 15 and 16. Chapters of St. John's Gospel our Saviour promised his Spirit to comfort and assist them in his absence to teach them all the things that belonged to the Gospel to lead them into all truth to bring to their remembrance whatsoever he had formerly taught them and bear witness to the Truth of their Doctrine by his works Therefore the first and most principal gift of the Spirit was this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Revelation of the Gospel or the discovery of all those excellent truths the knowledge and belief whereof is Essential on our parts to the New and better Covenant which God hath made betwixt himself and man This Supernatural knowledge of the whole Counsel of God in the Redemption of the world through Christ was first given to the Apostles by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost and Preached by them to the whole world Given I say to the Apostles for as we read of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diversities of gifts in my Text So in the next verse to it we read of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 differences of Administrations that is of Ministeries or Ministers to whom these Gifts belonged And therefore as the Apostle hath put the word of Wisdom first in the Catalogue of gifts So in the List of Ministers which answers to it in the 28th verse he hath put the Apostles first From whence I pass to the word of Knowledge by which with Dr. Lightfoot and Menochius I understand Prophecy properly so called or the revealed knowledge of secret remote and future things Of secret things as of the mind or will of God or the thoughts of men of remote things as of what was done in other places or of future things as of what would be done in times to come According to this Interpretation you will find that Prophets which holds the Second place in the List of Ministers exactly answers to the word of Knowledge in the Catalogue of Gifts In the Church saith he God hath set First Apostles Secondarily Prophets The Spirit of Prophecy properly so called had ceased a long time in the Jewish Church before the coming of Christ but in the last days that is in the conclusion of the Jewish and beginning of the Christian Church God poured it out upon all flesh and their young men saw Visions and their old men dreamed Dreams according to the prediction of Joel in the 2d chap. which St. Peter on the day of Pentecost when the Spirit descended with all his Gifts declared was fulfilled to the Jews By this renewed Spirit of Prophecy it was that the * Acts 13 2. Prophets in the Church of Antioch had it revealed to them by the Holy Ghost that Barnabas and Saul should be separated for the work unto which he had called them that St. Peter ‖ Acts 5.3 knew that Ananias and Sapphira lyed to the Holy Ghost that * Acts 11.28.21.10 Agabus foretold the Farmi◠in the days of Claudius Caesar and the imprisonment of St. Paul at Jerusalem that ‖ Acts 9.10 Ananias knew of the Conversion of St. Paul and that * Acts 27.23 24. St. Paul told the Centurion before the Shipwrack that not a man in the ship should be lost Lastly that St. John wrote the Revelation in the ancient Prophetick style and that many others of whom we read in ‖ Euseb Eccles hist lib. 5. cap. 7. lib. 3. c. 37 Ecclesiastical History foretold many strange events From whence I proceed to the Third Gift which is called Faith by which you are not to understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as * Hom. 29. in Ep. ad Cor. cap. 12. Theophyl Oecum Theod in id cap. Chrysost calls justifying or saving Faith for that was a common gift to which all Christians had an equal title and claim but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the faith of Miracles Emphatically so called because it was a certain supernatural confidence and assurance wrought by the Spirit in the Soul of a man by which he was sure he could do such or such Miracles before he attempted to do them By this supernatural confidence and impulse it was that men knew as by a sign when they could work wonders and when not and the greatest Operator whether Prophet or Apostle durst never undertake to do a Miracle but when he was assured by the Spirit he could do it And indeed it was requisite for God by some secret preceeding impression to let the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Teachers of the Gospel know when he would assist them lest they should attempt to do Miracles when they could not and so discredit their own Doctrine and Authority and dishonour the name of God Of this sort of Enthusiastical confidence with which the Spirit filled the minds of men is that place to be understood in the * As also that in Matth. 17.20 Luke 17.5 6. vid. Chrysost Hom. 29. in 1 cp ad Corinth cap. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Theodor. in locum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 21. ch of St. Matthew's Gospel ver 21. where our Saviour told his Disciples That if they had faith and doubted not they should not only do what he had done to the fig-tree but if they should say to that mountain upon which they stood Be thou removed and cast into the sea it should be done And therefore this sort of Faith is here put before the Gift of healing and working of Miracles because it consisted in an antecedent impulse to do both Or else by Faith is here to be understood supernatural courage and confidence with which God was wont to endow the minds of all those whom he set upon any design that would find oppositions from Devils or men This fiducia or undanted courage is called in the New Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render boldness Acts 4.13 29 31. But by the ingenious Translator of the Mons-testament it is rendered Constance fermeté Liberté Hardiesse and it was an effect of that which the Jewish writers call the Spirit of might and as ‖ More Nevoch p. 2. c. 38. Maimonides observes it was always conferr'd upon the person commissioned by God after the promise of ittecha Ani or Ehieh Immach Go and I will be with thee Which promise as it was solemnly made by God to * Exod 3.12 Moses ‖ Jerem. 1 8. Jeremiah and * Ezek. 3.9 Deut. 31.6 8. Josh 1.5 others in the Old Testament So was
discerners of Spirits gave to the Church whereby to try the Spirits was this that every Spirit which wrought Miracles to prove that Jesus was the Christ was of God but every Spirit that wrought wonders to prove that he was not Christ or that another was the Christ was a lying Spirit that Spirit of Antichrist which our Saviour foretold his Disciples should come and which was in the world in the time of St. John as you may read in the place I cited before as also in his 2 Epist ver 7. Conformably to this St. Paul in the verse before my text lays down the same infallible rule that no man that calleth Jesus Anathema as many Infidels and Apostates did can speak by the Spirit of God Another rule whereby to try the Spirits was submission and obedience to the Governours of the Church We are of God saith St. John 1 Ep. 4.6 he that knoweth God heareth us he that is not of God heareth not us hereby we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error And If any man among you saith St. Paul 1 Cor. 14.37 pretend to be a Prophet or inspired by the Holy Ghost as a sign that he is truly so let him acknowledge that the things I write unto you are the Commandments of God I question not but they had other tests besides these by which to try the spirits as that every spirit which wrought signs to confirm any doctrine which was inconsistent with a pure and peaceable life or the sober use and rules of moral reason must needs be a diabolical Pseudo-prophetical spirit as I think I could demonstrate if I had but time From whence I come to speak of the two last kinds viz. of the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost in 1 Ep. ad Cor. 12. c. Hom. 29. Gift of Tongues and which was as wonderful as that the gift of Interpreting thereof To the understanding of which be pleased to take notice that the gift of strange tongues was usually accompanied with such strong Enthusiasms and Raptures that the affected person could not use his understanding in an ordinary way so as to ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys ib. interpret and explain his inspirations in the audience to which he spoke which was the reason that the spirit did usually reveal to * 1 Cor. 14.4 28. others who stood by and understood not the inspired Languages the matter which the gifted Oracles spoke or else by a * 1 Cor. 14.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys in 1 Cor. 12.10 new inspiration revealed unto them the things which they had spoken in the unknown tongue but through the violence of the Enthusiasm had forgot Which latter Gift because it was more profitable for the Church the Apostle in the 14th chap. prefers before the former which the vain Corinthians did so much affect These are the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost which as it appears from the 28. ver of this chap. God gave to the difference of Ministeries or Ministers i. e. to the Apostles Prophets Teachers Helps and Governments of the Primitive Church To the Teachers i. e. to the more profound and solid sort of Doctors who answered to the Scribes in the Synagogue and wholly devoted themselves to Preach and expound the Scriptures which was an excellent Gift or Talent and always esteemed the most useful way of instruction especially of the ‖ Luke 23.27 Acts 2. ch 28.23 Jews in the Primitive Christian Church To the Helps i. e. to the helpers or assistants such as the Evangelists were to the Apostles as Silas to Paul Mark to Barnabas or such as the Deacons were to the Bishops and Presbyters and the whole Church And they are called helps by an Hebraism in Greek as the Levites were called in the Jewish Church and Language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 helps to the Priests By Governments are to be understood Governours for in the Hellenistical style the abstract is often put for the concrete according to the custom of the Hebrew and Syriack tongues and by Governours are meant the Apostles and * So Rev. 2.2 The Angel of the Church of Ephesus is commended for trying them which say they are Apostles and are not Bishops to whom the Gift of discerning Spirits seems to have belonged in a peculiar manner because the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is here put for Government is used by the Septuagint to render the Hebrew word Tachbuloth which signifies discerning Wisdom Prudence or Counsel wherein the spirit of Government doth consist Thus in the first of Proverbs v. 5. where we say a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsel the Septuagint saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of understanding shall attain unto Government The like may be seen Prov. 11.14 and 14.6 There were other Miraculous gifts under the New Testament which are not mentioned in this Chapter and which though properly speaking they did not proceed from the Holy Ghost yet in a large sense may be called spiritual gifts These were the voice from Heaven which the Jews called Bath col and the appearance of Angels those holy messengers of God and Ministring Spirits who sometimes acted as Gods Vice-gerents and * Galat. 3.19 Hebr. 2.2 assumed his person in speaking to men But though the Apostle take no notice of them here because they were not intrinsecal and inherent gifts yet I thought fit to mention them because they were extraordinary and relate to some passages in the following part of this discourse Thus having given you an account of the number and diversities of these gifts of the Holy Ghost together with the difference of Ministeries to which they belong'd I proceed in the Third place to shew the reasons why they were given by God to the Primitive Churches and not to the Churches of latter times Now this reason is to be taken from the wants and necessities of the Primitive Church whose infant-state required that God should assist her with the Miraculous Gifts of the Spirit till the Gospel was sufficiently Preach'd about the Empire the Scriptures of the New Testament compleated the Temple-worship abolished among the Jews Idolatry destroyed among the Gentiles and both were united together under Christ into one Communion or Catholick Church It had been impossible for God to bring to pass all these stupendous things in a way consistent with his own Wisdom and the freedom of humane nature without making use of these or other fitting means as wonderful as these to publish the Gospel and confirm the truth thereof How should the Jewish and Gentile world have believed without Apostles and * 2 Cor. 8.23 Phil. 2.25 Apostolical Preachers and how should the Apostles and Evangelists have preached unless they had been inspired for their Saviour left them like Orphans or rather like Scholars of the third Classe before he had revealed all the Gospel unto them and therefore it was necessary for God to send his