had observed to them in the 18. v. that even then there were many Antichrists And in ver 19. that they those many Antichrists went out from them And his scope in the rest of the Chap. is to fortify and antidote them against the poysonous pretensions of those Antichrists who as he describes them in ver 22 did deny that Jesus was the Christ That this was here his scope and design appears by ver 26. where he saith these things have I written unto you concerning those that seduce you Now the means he makes use of to preserve them under this danger and to establish them is by putting them in remembrance by what means they at the first came to be perswaded of the truth of that Doctrine by which they were taught that Jesus is the Christ and that was by pouring out the Holy-Ghost in visible effects upon the Apostles that taught it and upon those that believed it and consequently upon themselves by which the truth of it was abundantly confirmed to them as coming from God For that doubtless is meant by the anointing here spoken of Jesus Christ himself in respect of the Spirit of glory that appeared in him by his Doctrine and Miracles was said to be anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power Act 10.38 As it was foretold by Isaiah the Prophet saying the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the Poor Isa 61.1 Luke 4.18 and so in like manner the pouring out of the Holy Ghost in miraculous gifts both upon the Apostles and believers for the confirmation of the Doctrine the one preached and the other believed is elsewhere called their being anointed by God as here also it is called the Unction of the holy one which is the same thing 2 Cor. 1.21 22. Now he that establisheth us with you into Christ and hath anointed us is God who hath also sealed us and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts By this it appears that both Apostles and other believers were established into Christ by the anointing of God upon them which anointing was his pouring out of the holy Spirit Ye have an unction from the Holy one and ye know all things Not that by this Unction the common Christians were immediately inspired with the knowledge of all truths but that by it they were assured of the truth of all things which the Apostles had taught them and consequently must needs know thereby that Jesus was the Christ because that was one of the principal Doctrines which they taught and taught all they did teach in the name of him as such As they were induced at the first to believe the Doctrine to be from God because they perceived the anointing of God to be upon them that preached it so they were afterwards confirmed in the truth of it because upon their receiving of it they themselves also received of the same anointing It is not said that this anointing did teach them all things but that it did teach them of all things that is of or concerning the truth of all things to which it was a witness or evidence as I have shewed it was to the Apostles Doctrine from Heb. 2.4.5 Mar. 16.20 and other places When then this Apostle says ye have an Unction from the holy one and ye know all things he did not intend thereby to tell them that all things they were to beleive and do were revealed to them by it but that the Doctrine by which they were taught all things necessary to their salvation was thereby attested to be from God appears evidently by that which he perswades them to by it in v. 24. and that was that the Doctrine which they had heard from the beginning might therefore be retained and held fast by them that had been so ratified and confirmed to them by the Unction they had from the Holy one Let that therefore abide in you which you have heard from the beginning if that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father Agreeable to what he says also in his second Epistle verse 9. He that abideth in the Doctrine of Christ he hath both the Father and the Son And therefore when he says again ye need not that any man teach you but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things and is truth and is no lie he doth not thereby mean that they needed no farther teaching by man for their establishment and building up in the Faith for if he had he had contradicted himself in what he was now doing in this Chap. and all along in this Epistle And therefore his meaning must be that they needed not from him or any other man any teaching that could or could reasonably pretend to give them greater assurance of any thing than that anointing gave them of Jesus his being the Christ and of the truth of that Doctrine which they had heard from the beginning for that anointing saith he is truth and is no lie but such as could not deceive them it being God's witness from Heaven And from thence concludes saying that as it hath taught you ye shall abide in him As if he should have said as this anointing did at the first prevail with you to receive Jesus as the true Messias so for the same cause I am confi-you will as you have the greatest reason still abide in him notwithstanding all pretences of Seducers to take you off This then being the scope and drift of the Apostle in this place to which the several expressions here used are accommodated and by which they are to be interpreted and understood how I pray you will you find your opinion here of the Spirits inward teaching of all things without any outward teaching You are wont to say that the Scriptures are not to be understood but by the same Spirit that gave them forth And the Spirit doubtless is not wanting to assist the sincere endeavours of men in searching after the sence of the Scriptures in order to practice But truly if we should judge of mens having the Spirit by their understanding the Scriptures I think there would be as little reason to think you have the Spirit as any sort of men that have read the Scriptures for doubtless there are scarce any sort of men if any at all that do more grosly misunderstand and misapply and so abuse the Scriptures than you do and that under the greatest confidence too of being guided in your sence and notions of them by the Spirit of God You take the sound of words in Scripture which as you fancy comport with your notions and opinions and then apply them to your purpose and then are confident the Holy Spirit hath guided you therein When as alas you do not understand the intent or design of the Writer in the places where such expressions are no nor as is to be feared do you
they may be with some But though the things necessary to salvation are in the Revelation of them accommodated to the capacities of the weak and simple whose Salvation is designed by them as well and as much as theirs of stronger and quicker apprehensions yet there are things under the New Testament that are hard to be uttered as the phrase is Heb. 5.11 and therefore hard to be understood as the phrase is again 2. Pet. 3.16 As there is milk for Babes who are unskilful in the Word of righteousness so there is meat for strong Men who by reason of use have their Senses exercised to discern both good and evil as 't is said Heb. 5.13 14. And mens differences about these points proceed at the best from their different measures of Light and understanding and sometimes are persisted in from that which is worse So it was in the Apostles time between the believing Jews and the blieving Gentiles Rom. 14. Which by the way would not have been if all good Christians then had been guided by an infallible Light within as you suppose they are now If they had they would not have needed to have been taught and re-taught which are the first principles of the Oracles of God as some of them were Heb. 5. But when men which are but poor in knowledge and yet rich in confidence undertake to manage and master these more difficult points and passages of Scripture they too often wrest them to their own destruction as St. Peter speaks 2. Ep. 3.16 And this they either do or are in great danger of doing when they fasten upon some wrong sence and notion of hard and difficult places of Scripture and then pervert plain and easie places by interpreting them to their wrong sence of those that are more obscure and difficult especially when their interpretations are not mere speculations but such as influence men in their practice as becoming a rule to them therein Whereas the more wise and judicious never interpret hard places in opposition to the common sence of those that are plain and easie but explain those that are hard and difficult by those that are plain The use I would advise you to make of all this is to review the grounds you have gone on and to cease from your new notions and speculations of your being taught only by the Light within which you have taken up from some expressions in Scripture misunderstood by you and wholly disagreeing to the Scope of the places where they are found and contrary to the general current of the Scriptures in their plain and obvious sence Seek not a Knot in a bulrush seek not for Mysteries there where the Lord hath declared his mind plainly and in no parable But form your notions of God's method of proceeding with men to bring them to Salvation according to the plain and express Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles in the Scriptures and receive from and regulate by that Doctrine all your apprehensions perswasions affections and operations of your Souls together with all your words and actions So did the good Christians of Old they obeyed from the heart that form of Doctrine which was delivered to them Rom. 6.17 They purifyed their souls in obeying that Truth through the Spirit 1. Pet. 1.22 Yea the Apostles themselves were first taught by Christ's preaching unto them what to think and believe concerning Christ John 17.8 I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me and they have received them and have known surely that I came out from thee and they have believed that thou didst send me And just as the Apostles preached so the Christians believed they made their Doctrine the Adequate Rule of their notions of things the Rule of their Faith the Rule of their Life So we Preach and so ye believed saith St. Paul 1. Cor. 15.11 And those great plain known and commonly received Truths necessary to Salvation called the common Faith Tit. 1.4 the Faith once delivered to the Saints Jude 3. these I say were the Rule and Standard by which they were to try the Doctrine of such as only pretended to Inspirations from the Spirit Beloloved believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they be of God because many false Prophets are gone out into the World 1. Joh. 4.1 And then St. John in ver 2 3. commends to them one known fundamental Doctrine pertinent to his Case then in hand by which they might know the Teachers he cautioned them against were not inspired by God nor authorized by him Hereby know ye the Spirit of God every Spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the Flesh is of God And every Spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the Flesh is not of God And again verse 6. We are of God he that knoweth God heareth us adhered to and governed themselves by the Apostles Doctrine he that is not of God heareth not us hereby know we the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error And truly if you will not make the plain and express Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles in the Scriptures touching Faith and a good Life your Rule by which to try and to judge of the Truth and erroneousness of your conceptions perswasions motions and inclinations under the notion of the Light within and of all your words and actions consequent thereupon you are and will be in great danger to be like the wandring Stars and the clouds carried with a Tempest of which St Peter and Jude speak unfixed and unstable in your judgment Faith and Ways For it is certain and evident whatever you pretend to the contrary that the Light within you is not in your own account always a certain constant and infallible Rule to you for if it were you would not act so contrary to your selves as you have done under pretence of being taught of God and guided by the Light within One while crying up your former practice of shaking as the effect of God's work in and upon you and another while confessing it to be a delusion as Samuel Fisher one of note with you did to me saying it was so judged One while crying down all Ecclesistical forms of Government as tyrannical another while erecting one among your selves pretending to as much Infallibility in your Body representative in managing it as the Papists do in reference to the Pope One while owning the witnessing of a person to be from God and another while condemning the same for an error or delusion How often have those of your number thought they have been sent by God on messages who after have found themselves deluded By these and other like instances you may be convinced that if you do not make the Doctrine of Christ in the Scriptures the Adequate Rule of the motions and inclinations of your minds and the actions of your lives whereby to know when they are of God and when not you have then no certain Rule to
Apostles themselves by immediate Revelation yet belief of it and obedience to it upon that less degree of Evidence is not the less but rather much more rewardable than is obedience to it upon greater evidence John 20.29 Jesus saith unto him Thomas because thou hast seen thou hast believed blessed are they which have not seen and yet have believed It is not to be imagined but that the Apostles and Evangelists have expressed the Christian Doctrine and the Reasons why it should be believed in as plain terms when they wrote it as when they preached it They could hardly speak those great Doctrines touching the Essentials of Christianity plainer than they are communicated to us by their Writings yet how plain soever they spake them the very same things prejudice worldly interest and the love of Lust which now detain men from obeying their Doctrine as communicated and transmitted down to us by their Writings did in like manner keep back Multitudes from yielding Obedience to their Doctrine then when they themselves preach'd it to them and wrought many Miracles to convince them that it was from God And as men then that had no mind to obey the Doctrine which Christ and the Apostles preach'd raised Cavils and pickt Quarrels against it Why do you not understand my speech even because ye cannot hear my Word said our Saviour to such John 8.43 Even so at this day those Atheistical and loose men that have no mind to conform their Hearts and Lives to the holy Doctrine of Christ in the Scriptures raise Cavils and pick Quarrels against the Scriptures which are a standing Reproof to their bad Tempers and evil Lives which because they are so they seek by all means to invalidate them that they might the more securely and without disturbance from them hold on their ungodly course secretly or openly How far any that have led you the way may be concerned in such a thing as this I shall not say but sure I am it concerns both you and them to think on 't and so much the rather because 't is seldom if ever seen among other men but that those that are cold in their affection to the Scriptures are as cold to the power of Godliness or rather zealously hot against it And indeed I must needs say you bewray your cold affection to and your little and slight esteem of the holy Scriptures while you think you have ground pleasedly to call them the Dead Letter from that Saying of the Apostle in 2 Cor. 3.6 Who hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit And to call those that preach from the Scriptures Ministers of the Letter Whereas that Expression is so far from serving your purpose herein as that if you understood it which alas you do not you would find it to cast a Glory and Honour upon the Scriptures of the New Testament and no disparagement at all upon those of the old upon any account of the matters therein contained as being written For the Doctrine of the Old Testament it self is not called the Letter because it is in Writing nor that of the New the Spirit because not in Writing but because the Subject-Matter of which the Mosaical Covenant did much consist and many of the things therein contained were but figurative and outward Representations of those excellent Spiritual things which in the Gospel are plainly and nakedly expressed without any such Vail or Cover For so the Apostle in the process of this his Discourse doth more plainly express it ver 12 13 14. We use great plainness of Speech and not as Moses which put a Vail over his Face so that the Children of Israel could not look or see to the end of that which is abolished Which Vail is done away in Christ that is in the Doctrine of Christ in the New Testament in which Doctrine Divine and Spiritual Truth is stripp'd out of its Cloathing and Covering and represented as it is in its own nature and not in dark figures And that this and not the Writing or not Writing is meant by Letter and Spirit will farther appear by comparing other Texts of Scripture with this Rom. 2.29 Circumcision is that of the heart in the Spirit and not in the Letter By Letter here is plainly meant Circumcision in the Flesh and by Spirit that which was couched under it or signified by it and that is the Circumcision of the Heart which in the New Testament is called Mortification or Purifying of the Heart or crucifying Affections and Lusts So again Rom. 7.6 But now we are delivered from the Law that being dead wherein we were held that we should serve in Newness of Spirit and not in the Oldness of the Letter That is according to those plain Precepts of the Gospel which answer the Spirit and Scope of the Law and not in the outward Ceremony which were but figurative of them as in offering our Bodies a living Sacrifice instead of slain Beasts in cleansing our selves from the filthiness of the flesh instead of Legal Purifications by washing the Body in putting off the Body of the Sins of the Flesh and all evil Concupiscence and not in cutting off the Foreskin of the Flesh And those Ministers that preach this and other like Spiritual Doctrine out of or according to the Scriptures of the New Testament and not the Ceremonies of Moses they are Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit Which had you understood you would never have poured your spiteful contempt on them as you have by calling them Letter-Preachers I shall conclude what I have said in this Proposition to shew that the same regard is due to the Doctrine of the Apostles when written as now it is as when it was preached by them by remembring you of this one great Truth That every man shall be tried and judged at the last day by that Law he hath been under The Gentiles that are or have been without a written Law shall be judged without any such Law and the Jews which were under a written Law they shall be judged by it Rom. 2.12 Even so those that are under the Gospel written will be judged by that as those that were under the immediate preaching of it by Christ and his Apostles before it was written will be judged by that He that rejecteth me and receiveth not my words hath one that judgeth him the Word that I have spoken the same shall judge him at the last day saith our Saviour John 12.48 And if that be the Rule by which those shall be judged that have his Word made known to them be it by one means or by another then it greatly concerns all such to make that Word of his the Rule of their Life and Practice as ever they hope to come off well upon their Trial at last whatever you talk of it s not being a Rule as it is a written Word And therefore beware
the Father and the Son And again 1 John 2.24 If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father § 12. 10. That in Christ Jesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Uncircumcision but a new Creature is a most important Doctrine declared in writing by St. Paul Gal. 6.15 And when he saith in the next Verse As many as walk according to this Rule peace be on them it is most evident he was not of your mind and way who hold that the Holy Scriptures or Doctrine contained in them which is the same are not a Rule of Christian Faith and Practice This written Doctrine of the Gospel we see is a Rule for Christians to walk by as the written Law and Testimony was to the Jews and as it was said of those that walked not according to that Word or Rule that it was because there was no Light in them Isa 8.20 Even so and for the same reason it may now be said of you that if you walk not according to this Rule it is because in truth there is no Light in you how much soever you vainly boast of it and censure others for want of it that yet make it their daily care and endeavour to walk according to the Light and Guidance of that Rule that hath its seat in their Conscience And now Sirs by this time methinks you should not but perceive that I have given you proof in good measure heaped up shaken together pressed down and running over That Gods way and method of directing men what to believe and do as necessary to their Salvation and of perswading them to believe and do accordingly is and hath been by that teaching which comes from God into the Soul by outward means such as is his Word written or by mens teaching the same Doctrine which is contained in the Scriptures and if so then not by his immediate teaching and operation without such outward teaching which yet is that which you hold and teach in opposition to God's Method The Proof of this is so evident and convincing that if you will but give your minds and Consciences Liberty seriously to consider it I cannot imagine how you should possibly persist in your way without offering some violence to the reason of your Minds § 13. But since you have strengthened your selves in this your perswasion out of an Opinion you have that some Scriptures are on your side in it I shall yet add something farther to convince you of Error and Mistake therein You seem to ground your selves much upon John 1.9 Where it is said of Christ This is the true Light which lightneth every man that cometh into the world That Christ doth one way or other lighten every man that comes into the world is a great truth here declared But that which you are wont to alledge it for and which you are to prove hence if you would have it do your business is That Christ lighteneth every man that comes into the world with the knowledge of what he ought to believe and do in order to his salvation without learning it from or by any Outward Means That no such thing as that Christ so lightens all men without Outward Teaching can be proved either from this or any other Scripture I shall easily shew you Christ doth enlighten all whom he doth enlighten in one or more of these three ways either 1. By Natural Light Or 2. By Supernatural Revelation Or 3. By outward Teaching by Speech or Writing or Example in conjunction with the inward assistance of his Spirit 1. Christ indeed as God Creator as he is described in the beginning of that Chapter doth enlighten every man that comes into the world with the faculty of Reason and Understanding by which he may know that there is a God and that he is to be worshipped and that he is placable and the difference between moral good and evil in many things But however this may possibly be a Light sufficient to direct the Heathen to as much as God expects from them if they live up to it to whom he affords no other Light yet this Natural Light is not sufficient to direct those that live under the Gospel to believe and do what they are bound to believe and do upon pain of Damnation They that live under the Gospel are bound to believe Jesus to be Christ the Son of God and Saviour of the world and that upon pain of damnation If ye believe not that I am he ye shall die in your sins said our Saviour to them to whom the Gospel came Jo. 8.24 Every Spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God but is the Spirit of Antichrist 1 John 4.3 He that believeth not the Son of God shall not see Life but the wrath of God abideth on him Joh. 3.36 Now that no man can know Christ know him to be the Son of God and Saviour of the world by his Natural Light without Supernatural Revelation from God or Instruction from without derived from them that had such Revelation is most evident When Peter said to Christ Thou art Christ the Son of the Living God our Saviour told him Flesh and Bloud had not revealed that unto him but his Father Mat. 16.16 17. And the Natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned that is they are knowable only by means that are purely spiritual and supernatural as the revelation of the Gospel at first was And it may well be that in this respect 't is said that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost 1 Cor. 12.3 For no man could know that he was so but by that Revelation and discovery which the Holy Ghost several ways at the first made concerning him He shall glorifie me for he shall receive of mine and shall shew it unto you said Christ to his Apostles concerning the Holy Spirit John 16.14 And Christ is said to be justified in or by the Spirit to be what he himself said he was and his Apostles witnessed him to be 1 Tim. 3.16 All this shews that though Christ do enlighten all men with Natural Light yet this is not sufficient without somewhat else to enlighten all men particularly those that are under the Gospel with the knowledge of what is necessary for all such to know and believe in order to their Salvation For to whom much is given of him much shall be required Luke 18.48 Then secondly Another way by which Christ enlightens men with the knowledge of himself and of what is necessary for mens Salvation is by immediate and supernatural Revelation and thus he enlightened the Apostles that they might be able infallibly to teach the way of Salvation by Christ through Faith in him and Obedience to him For God saith one of them who commanded the
sort poured out on them that believed their Prophesie likewise as now it was upon those that received the Apostles Doctrine And therefore such a thing as this was foretold by the Prophets as peculiar to the coming of the Messias and as that by which he might be known to be come when the event of such Predictions took place even as it came to pass here The Prediction Joel 2.28 was that in the last days the Spirit should be poured out upon all flesh in the last days that is in the last days of the Jewish State or Common-wealth as may be evinced by the Context in which Christ came as was foretold by his Prophets in which time also the Spirit was poured out in miraculous gifts and operations as a testimony that the Messias was come The Holy Spirit in the effects of it in these extraordinary gifts and operations is called the testifying of Christ or the witness which he bore touching his being the true Messiah and Saviour of the world John 15.26 27. But when he the Comforter is come even the Spirit of Truth he shall testifie of me and ye also Apostles shall bear witness because ye ye have been with me from the beginning And again 1 John 5.6 This is he that came by water and blood and it is the Spirit that beareth witness because the Spirit is truth John 16.8 And when he the Comforter is come he will convince the world of sin because they believe not on me saith Christ of Righteousness because I go to my Father was taken up into heaven and of Judgment because the Prince of this world is judged the Devil dethroned and cast down as he was when the Mouths of his Oracles were stopped and the Idol-Temples shut up and his Kingdom and Rule demolished by the preaching of the Gospel among the Heathen accompanied with these Miraculous Effects of the Spirit which bore down all before it as it were and therefore this is called the Demonstration of the Spirit and Power as opposed to Humane Oratory among Heathen Philosophers and the way of Humane Demonstration 1 Cor. 2.4 This wonderful effusion of the Spirit in miraculous Gifts was that Baptism of the Spirit we read of which you with some others have in these days vainly pretended to under another Notion of being baptized with the Spirit But if you will but compare Mat. 3.11 and Acts 1.5 with Act. 2.3 4. and 11.15 16. you may easily discern your Error in applying it to any thing but to that extraordinary and miraculous effusion of the Spirit By all this you may see how one Scripture falls in with and explains another if you will but take hold of a right Notion of the end for which the plentiful effusion of the Spirit was foretold and promised Which was not to guide all Christians by its inward motions without outward teaching but to enable some to teach the right Faith and Life to others even to those of other Tongues in their own Language and to confirm their Doctrine thereby and by other operations of the Spirit to be from God And these extraordidary effects of the Spirit were greatly necessary to accompany the first promulgation and planting of the Gospel in the world to procure credit to it belief of it from the Jews who otherwise would not have been taken off from their old way of Levitical Ceremonial worship which they had received from God and from the Gentile-Nations who otherwise would not have been taken off from their Idolatrous and Superstitious way of Worship in which they had been deeply rooted by long and ancient Tradition received from their Forefathers And therefore St. Paul saith as was observed before that Tongues that is the gift of speaking divers Tongues on a sudden are a sign not to them that believe but to them that believe not 1 Cor. 14.22 As the giving of the Law by Moses was accompanied with Signs and Wonders which were wrought by Moses both before and after the first promulgation of it to procure belief from the Jews that he was sent of God and that the Law given by him was from God So it was as necessary that the first promulgation of the Gospel by the Son of God himself and by those that were immediately sent by him should be for the same reason accompanied with more and greater Miracles and Wonders than those wrought by Moses were as Christ himself was greater than Moses and as the abrogation of the Old and the giving of the New Law was more than the giving of the Law only when there was no promulgate Law before in being And therefore our Saviour said of the Jews that would not receive his Doctrine but still stuck to the Letter of the Law of Moses If I had not done among them the works which none other man hath done they had not had sin John 15.24 And as it was not necessary to continue those or the like Miracles and Wonders in the Jewish Church after the Law had been well established by them but that the Law being once committed to writing might be as it was their standing Rule of Worship and Conversation Even so after the Gospel had received a sufficient attestation to be from God by the continuance of those miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost in the Church for some time till the Doctrine and History of the Gospel were committed to writing and those Writings owned as Authentick Records every where by the Church in all known parts of the world it was then no more necessary as the event shews to perpetuate Miracles in the Christian Church for the confirmation of the Gospel than it was to perpetuate them in the Jewish for the ratification of the Law but that the Doctrine and History of the Gospel in Books of the New Testament should be of like use to Christians as the Law and Prophets in Books was to the Jews of old The Prophets of old who though they were extraordinarily inspired did all along in their time call the Jews to obedience to the written Law of Moses and to Repentance for transgressing that And when prophesying in this sence was to cease from among them for several Ages God by Malachy the last of those Prophets gave it in charge to that People to remember the written Law of Moses as that by which they were to govern themselves Remember saith he the Law of Moses my Servant which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel with the Statutes and Judgments Mal. 4.4 And it was foretold by Moses concerning Christ that a Prophet should be raised up by God like unto him Deut. 18.15 18. And although Christ that Prophet was unlike unto Moses in many other things wherein our Lord excelled him yet he was truly like unto him in this viz. in that he as Mediator gave forth the Evangelical Law at his Appearance in the world as that which was to be the standing Rule unto Christians throughout the whole duration of