make them weary of their profession and deter and affright others from entertaining that Truth which was thus persecuted in those that did profess it The other way hath been by secret subtilty and cunning Sophistrie to undermine and imbase the Truth to mixe his poyson with Gods wine whereby Hee might with less difficulty either cheat the Professors and owners of it or at least hinder the Genuine and naturall effect which pure Truth should have upon the mindes of men But upon all the glory there hath been a protection and defence and this defence hath been the munition of Rocks First That there have been violent assaults upon the persons of the Saints for the Truths sake I need not fetch an argument from farr to demonstrate unto you Every one that we meet withall is able to tell us of those primitive persecutions and to relate unto us ruefull stories of the bloody Massacres that have been abroad Who amongst us is ignorant of those Smith-field Butcheries and those whole-burnt-offerings of holy men which the bloody Priests of Rome did offer to their great Idol What shall we say to this dayes rehearsall of those not invincible Armadoes those Powder-plots and conspiracies those armies and insurrections those wars and tumults which have threatned as with open mouth to swallow up and devoure whole Nations and Common-wealths where Iesus Christ hath had his worshippers Certainly nothing herein is so wonderfull as this that Christ hath yet a Name in the world that Hee hath yet a Name in England And that which hath secured Truth and her subjects from the mischief of these designes hath been the powerfull providence of the Almighty He that holdeth the Reins of Government in his hand who is the great and supteam Moderator of this world hath taken to himself his great power and hath reigned Behold God hath been to his Churches and holy ones as a Refuge from the storme and as a shadow from the heat of their persecuting Adversaries whilst the blast of the terrible ones hath been as a storme against the wall so that as we have cause this day in our Anniversary Commemoration of these never to be forgotten deliverances wee may take up that Angelicall Doxologie and say Blessing Honour Glory and Power be given to him that sits upon the Throne and to the Lambe for ever amen Hallelujah Secondly That there hath been deceit and Sophistry used to steale away Truth from the professors of it nothing is more clear and manifest The Scripture speaketh expresly that there were false Prophets amongst the people and there shall false Teachers creep in who shall bring in damnable Heresies even denying the Lord that bought them And these Agents or Factors for Truths Adversary are either those Tenebriones Lucifugae those Owles and Night birds who doe secretly blaspheam the Truth but dare not come into the Light lest their workes of darkness should be revealed and made manifest Or else they are those whom the Father calls Meridiani Daemones those noon-day Devils who with an impudent forehead dare set themselves to cry downe and with most Devillish confidence to oppose that Truth which must prevail and conquer And these may be those white Devils that would appear in the shape of Angels of Light whilst indeed secretly and inwardly they are nothing else but Feinds of Darknesse But against all these hath our Lord Jesus secured his Church and people and hath brought off his Truth without loss or prejudice and that by the powerfull working of his own Spirit living in the hearts of holy men Now as we have cause every way to bless God for Truths safety so from a godly jealousie and holy fear we may admonish and call upon the Professors of Truth that they be not led away with the error of the wicked or ensnared with the craft and subtilty of Antichristian seducers And this was the occasion of that discourse which the Apostle falls upon in this Chapter as may be gathered from the 26. Verse These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you The aged Apostle in the beginning of his discourse doth well consult the condition of Believers to whom this Epistle should come and writes unto them as unto little Children In Vers. 18. Little children you whose attainment it is to know the Father even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and in him your God and Father My little Children It is Hora novissima the last houre and therefore you had need to stirr up your selves and seriously to consider how to save your selves from that great inundation of the mystery of iniquity which will endeavour to suppresse the mystery of Godliness My little Children It is the last houre and as you have heard formerly by those who instructed you in the Truth that Antichrist should come so now already there be many Antichrists for this is the last time And the danger is greater forasmuch as those Antichrists who are abroad were sometimes pretenders to the truth of the Gospell sometimes they professed themselves subject unto that Truth which now they endeavour to oppose and vilify Yet let me informe you in this That they went out from us but they were not of us for if they had been of us no doubt they would have continued with us but they went out that it might be made manifest they were not all of us Now after Hee had given this Alarum to Believers concerning the approach of the Antichristian Adversary He gives himself and them a Cordial and encouragement in the words which I have read But ye have an unction from the Holy one and yee know all things Which words you may please to look upon as the Saints security in evill times or the best protection of holy men against the impudent assaults of Brazen-faced error and Antichristian falshood In these words be pleased to observe these three things First A glorious Title given to Iesus Christ the King of Saints He is called the Holy one You have an annointing from the Holy one The spirits of Antichrist they are uncleane spirits they are profane debauched polluted and polluting spirits but the spirit of our Lord Jesus which is in you proceedeth from one that is holy harmless and separated from sinners This is a Title often given in the old Testament to the eternall Majesty that increated Being God himself And our Lord Iesus as the eternall Son of the everlasting Father is dignified with the same Title and called the Holy Child the Holy thing the Holy one yea in Dan. 9. 24. he is called the sanctum sanctorum The great Saint or the most holy of all There the Angel tells Daniel that after seventy weeks there should be a reconciliation made for iniquity and everlasting righteousness brought in and the most holy should be annointed that is our Lord Jesus Christ the true Messiah should come in the flesh and be inaugurated and installed into
I may the more clearly manifest to this great Assembly what my understanding is in this weighty matter give me leave to preface foure particulars which may prevent mistakes as if any private or particular designe were aimed at in such a Doctrine as this First Man as a reasonable Creature is the subject of Christian Doctrine Man doth not throw away his mind and understanding when hee comes to be proselited into the Truths of Christ When God undertaketh to informe a man with heavenly doctrine hee doth not deale with him as hee would deale with a stone which he would raise up to be a child to Abraham for he findeth man already endowed with a minde and will upon which account Hee is capable to heare further from his God Mans understanding is of very good use in Christian Religion for by that is man able to communicate much of his sence in heavenly things unto others as also to plead for and by argument to back the Truth received against the Cavils and contradictions of such as oppose themselves I must confess freely what I apprehend That in the moment of a mans conversion when the grace of God powerfully ceizeth upon his spirit to turne him from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God those acts that he doth then performe are the most rationall acts that ever he did performe in all his life The acts of Repentance Faith and Selfe-denyall the act of turning from sin unto God which are the acts that appear in the first motion of the soule unto God these are in themselves and to the soule most reasonable equitable just and right yea in the further progress of the grace of God in mans minde when it growes up into sanctification and holiness the understanding of a man doth act and acteth understandingly The truth is This minde and understanding of a man is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as the great Philosopher calls it the very flower of a mans soule which is not blasted and withered by the Truths of the Gospell but it is thereby reformed rectified repaired and restored to its primaeve perfection with great advantage So that I think in a sober sence what the Apostle speaks of the Law That it is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a School-Master to Christ may be sayd of mans naturall knowledge and understanding In which sence one of the Antients calleth true Philosophy {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} an inferiour Schoole or a fore-teaching to Christ as it is that which renders a man capable and fit to receive the impressions of a divine spirit For certainely a man in his witts and not a mad distracted man is the subject of Gods grace of his converting and sanctifying grace Secondly The written word of God in the Scriptures of Truth is the onely outward rule of faith and manners This is the norma fidei morum According to this rule must every man order his conversation Isai. 8. 20. To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because they have not so much as morning-light in them This is the royall Standard of Truth unto which we must bring all mens dogmata their assertions and opinions which are vended for Truth in the world Hereby may we examine and judge of all that which men would obtrude upon us I recommend to evry one that heartes me the constant studying of the holy Scriptures as being the Oracles of God It was that for which the Holy Ghost doth so highly commend the Beraean Christians That they received the word with all readiness of mind and searched the Scriptures daily whether those things were so and upon this account they were called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} more noble as being better borne better bred better educated then those of Thessalonica I will onely adde this That the Letter of the Scriptures is but dead without a divine power joyned with it and a spirit moving mans mind without a word is very questionable and dangerous Thirdly The Holy Spirit which is understood by this anointing is no private spirit or particular impulse no singular perswasion or extraordinary inspiration but a generall and universall sense in all regenerate minds Holy men doe all agree by common consent in those Truths which the New Creature doth chiefly resent and rellish The Apostle to this purpose useth two expressions 1 Cor. 12. 13. and 2 Cor. 4. 13. By one spirit are we all baptized into one body and have been all made to drinke into one spirit and wee have the same spirit of Faith Where the Apostle considers the community of Christians under the notion of a body made up of severall members which must have a soule and spirit to informe animate quicken and enliven it This is that spirit of Jesus Christ which doth live in the soules of holy men and distinguish them from the common Herd of Infidels and Beastly sinners Although we may be ignorant of that which the Philosophers meant by their Anima mundi the soule of the world yet me thinks every gracious heart should easily apprehend what is that spirit and soule of the regenerate world But here I must acknowledge also That the eternall spirit of God doth sometimes come downe as from Heaven and particularly move upon a regenerate minde whereby it doth {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} blow off the ashes and stir up those heavenly sparkes which lay in the soule as buried under some clouds of sadness and hereby the frozen and benumined spirit of a precious saint doth finde it selfe thawed into a vivacious fitness for any service This is that which the spouse calls for in Song 4. 16. Awake O North winde and come thou South blow upon my Garden that the spices thereof may flow out This discourse I conceive may shew us the difference between the good spirit of God which sober minds converse withall and that fanatick and exstatick spirit which vaine men pretend unto and are deluded with This spirit in both the senses that we have spoken of may not be condemned as a groundless Enthusiasme for as the learned Cameron observes Enthusiasmus est ubi quis est merum organum sine omni usurationis judicij Then is a man acted by such a spirit when he uttereth Revelations without the use of his understanding and reason as sometimes the Prophets of old did who were but as a trunk or instrument through which the spirit conveyed those secrets which God would declare unto the world Fourthly The spirit of Christ signified by this anointing is first received in the way of his Ordinances and is thereby maintained and carryed on and doth live with great delight in the use of those Ordinances where it was first received He who hath received the anointing from the Holy one knows where he hath received it and he knowes also that
that great office of an high Priest which had been for so many years past typified and shadowed out in their Priest that served in the Temple Now this is worth our consideration That if our Lord Jesus who is the Fountain from whence we receive this spirit be so holy and pure then surely the effects and operations that this spirit doth produce in those who receive it must be holy and pure also Impurity uncleanness and sinfull defilements cannot possibly proceed from so pure a spirit as the spirit of Jesus Christ is whose Name is The Holy one Secondly Another thing considerable in the words is An effusion of the Holy Ghost from Jesus Christ upon his people Yee have an unction or yee have received the anointing The custome of anointing was anciently used either to separate and consecrate to an holy use or to install and inaugurate to some office and service or to endow with gifts suitable to some notable and eminent employment And we finde in the Scriptures That the anointing past upon some of their Prophets their Priests and their Kings It is also further observed That in the second Temple the anointing or the holy oyntment was wanting which might signifie to the Jews that then were that their Ceremoniall Rites were beginning to waste they should therefore long for and earnestly desire the Messiahs comming by whom that anointing and other things should be supplyed and restored in a more singular and eminent way Our Lord Jesus as our high Priest was anointed and from him do all his people as so many inferiour Priests receive and participate of that anointing for as it is observed the High Priest of old had most oyle poured upon his head and the other Priests were but sprinkled with that holy oyle So then the meaning of this anointing which is poured out from Christ upon his people must needs signifie a communication of the same spirit of the same life of the same grace and nature that Jesus Christ as the chief Priest was anointed withall from the Father so that the same disposition and goodness of mind doth flow out from Christ to a gracious soule Thirdly Here is the great benefit that Believers doe Receive by this holy anointing which they have from the holy one and that is That they know all things You have an unction from the holy one and yee know all things There is some difference in the reading of these words The Syriack Translator reads them thus yee know all men and in that sence they may refer to that which the Apostle Paul speaks of in 1 Corint 12. 10. where amongst the gifts of the spirit which he reckoneth up this is one namely {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the discerning of spirits And the truth is this great gift of discerning mens spirits was more especially given to some then unto others in the primitive times and they were able not onely probably to conjecture but also to give a judgement concerning many with whom they conversed and did thereby discover divers hollow and false-hearted Hypocrites which gift may peradventure though in a smaller measure and lower degree live even to this day in the hearts of holy men for verily they many times do give a very shrewd conjecture not to say judgement concerning Professors amongst whom they live but this they doe with a sober modest and compassionate spirit As for profane monsters and notorious sinners their condition is obvious and easily to be discerned by men whose eyes are in their heads who are not blinded with a Bride of favour or prejudiced with some fond and passionate affection But all the Greek Copies as is observed do read the words as we translate them Yee know all things that is all those maine necessary and fundamentall Truths which Jesus Christ came to declare as from the Father to the World or yee know all things that is All those Truths of the Gospel which those Antichrists that now are or that great Antichrist which shall come will sett themselves to oppose and contradict You who have this anointing doe most certainly and assuredly know and are well established in these principall and capitall Truths which you have received by vertue of this anointing Thus we have a brief account of these words presented to us And the point that I shal discourse upon with your Christian patience is this That the most certaine and assured knowledge of Christian doctrine is attained unto by a participation of the anointing of Iesus Christ Yee have received such an unction and thereby it is that yee know all things Every man almost in these days thinks himself well instructed in his Profession that hee makes and in the Articles of Faith whereunto he declareth himself to bee a servant who is there that doth not judge himself to be as a Master of Israel well understood in all points of Theologie who yet like Nicodemus remaineth in the very darkness of ignorance as not knowing what Regeneration and the new birth might signifie for we shall finde that there is no such certaine and infallible way to come to the knowledge of heavenly Truths as by Receving an unction from Jesus Christ When Iob's three Friends had spent much time in arguing and redarguing the case with Iob Elihu standeth up and speaketh after this manner I did expect that dayes should have taught wisedome and that I should have found understanding in the multitude of years but now I finde there is a spirit in man and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth him understanding great men are not alwayes wise neither doe the Aged understand judgement I find a great difference between the judgement that these men though grave seniors give concerning Iob's case and the judgement that the spirit of God giveth The Censure of these men proceedeth from the peevish angry spirits of men but the judgement of the divine spirit in this case is according to Truth But that notable Scripture which I shall briefly speak unto is in 1 Corinth 2. 13 14. c. where the Apostle speaking of this very subject telleth us of many things That which is the substratum the maine business of his discourse are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the things of the spirit then he tels us of a naturall man and a spirituall man then he speaks of the spirit of the World the spirit of God and the minde of Christ and then Hee compares all these together and bringeth forth thus much namely That the spirit of the world the spirit of a naturall man which is a mundane worldly spirit cannot receive the things of the spirit of God for they are spiritually discerned and onely they can know them who have the same spirit living and dwelling in their soules which Jesus Christ had dwelling in him having received it from the Father Wee have the minde and spirit of God and hereby doe we know the things of the Spirit That