they should beleeve in him promiseth that hee will give unto his children eternal life and such is his divine power that none can take them out of his hands and useth the self same words in the next verse none shall take them out of my Father's hands and then saith I and my Father are one viz. in power and consequently in essence for the power of God and the essence of God are all one thing This my Adversarie which denie's this Assertion swerv's not onely from the plain meaning of the text but shew's that hee hath less understanding then our very enemies of Christ had for they collected and that rightly from thence that Christ professed himself thereby to bee God Advers I omit saith hee to speak of the suspectedness of the place It 's not extant in the ancient Greek Copies nor in the Syriack Translation nor in most ancient books of the Latine Edition and rejected by sundry Interpreters both ancient and modern Advers This text is so sutable to the matter in hand and so fitly answering to the eighth verse in another kinde and so fully and distinctly confirming by these divine Witnesses that fundamental witnessed truth Jesus is the Son of God and the divinitie of the holy Ghost beeing in other Scriptures sufficiently demonstrated that I can see no reason why this should bee thought a counterfeit addition to the Canon and I have reason strongly to suspect that you are convinced in your conscience that it is a parcel of God's Word because you do so highly pass it over with a Rhetorical figure for the most compendious way to make a short work had been simply to have denied the authority therof and to have plainly rejected it as our Writers do the Apocryphal Scriptures which are alledged against them to have strengthned your Assertion by the best grounds you could devise and then in the conclusion to have named as not much material the Answer which you have most insisted upon I deny not but Copies may bee alledged against Copies ancient and modern Writers against ancient and later if negative witnesses have the same force and authoritie that affirmative have to prove the question but who may wee blame for this difference Wee can suspect none but those corrupted Fathers in whose depraved steps you have trod It 's not to be doubted but they have offred the like violence to this place as they did to a text in S. John as is witnessed by Ambrose God is a Spirit which they unconscionably cancelled and razed out of their own books and I wish did not blot it out of the books of the Church this sacriledg was plainly detected You might saith the Father lib. 3. de Spir. sancto cap. 11. abolish sentences of holy Scripture but you could not destroy the faith Plus vos illa litura prodebat plus vos illa litura damnabat I add quà m litera nocebat and the rather because I find this text 1 Joh. 5. 7. cited by S. Cyprian li. de Vnitate Eccles which lived an hundred years before Macedonius the founder of this Heresie when the Church was not pestred with that noisom weed no nor with Arianism whereby the Deitie of the Son of God chiefly and so the divine Trinitie was directly opposed and violent spirits might be imboldned to adventure on that impietie because the scepter was in the hands of Constantius first and not long after of Valens Arian Emperors To these reasons taken out of the Scriptures I might produce a cloud of humane witnesses and begin with the Fathers which lived before the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and alledg the elaborate Treatises of those which then and after lived in the Church and show how this error hath been registred in the black bill of Heresies by Epiphan to 1. l. 3. haer 74. and August haer 52. Then might I descend lower to the times before and since the schism betwixt the Eastern and Western Churches which albeit many points of faith were deeply corrupted yet did they inviolably maintain even to this day the unitie of the divine Nature and the Trinitie of the persons Then might I relate the consent of the reformed Churches which have a sweet harmonie in their several Confessions touching this point but I know this Author dreaming that hee hath not onely reason but the testimonie of the Scripture on his side will reject them all and say with Luther though in a different case The Word of God is to be preferred above all that make's for mee if a thousand Augustins a thousand Cyprians a thousand Henricians that is English Churches ruled by Henry the Eighth should stand against him hee would reject them all And as I remember I have read one of the same brain with my Adversarie said Luther hath pulled down the walls of Poperie but the foundation thereof meaning the doctrine of the Trinitie remain's untouched therefore will I spare that labor in transcribing their testimonies Yet let mee minde you of this that as the foggie smoak which arose out of the bottomless pit chiefly by Macedonius Bishop of Constantinople about the year of our Lord 361. was happily dispelled by the light of the holy Fathers They so sharpned their weapons and so successfully used them that they gave a deadly wound to those Monsters as Epiphanius cal's them so I do not doubt but by the good providence of God the Schisms Socinian Heresies which do annoy the Church for the present and every new started controversie will occasion that good which hath been long since observed viz. the more full discussion and clearer discoverie of opposed truth and cause the sincere and approved Professors of Gods cause to pray unto God more zealously for divine illumination to search the Scriptures more diligently to continue themselvs together more firmly and communicate their labors mutually more plentifully then they were accustomed to do and put them on the labor of love for their brethren with tenderness and compassion to strengthen them that stand lest they fall and like waking husbandmen vigilantly to guard those fields of corn where the instruments of the envious spirits are most likely to sow their tares Gods faithful servants are burning lights the Adversaries which do top them do burn or at least besmear their fingers But these lights do shine thereby more brightly and I do hope that as S. Austin said of the absurd Manichees when they boasted as all Sectaries will do Veritas Veritas the Truth the Truth that sound Christians with better enlightned and clearer judgments then formerly will bee as able to say as it followeth in my Author there is no truth at all in them And O that the seduced would make an heartie acknowledgment wee took that for truth for divine truth but now blessed bee God wee are convinced and our eyes are enlightened to see it was but an error I conclude as S. Austin did his fifteenth the last book of the Trinitie Domine Deus
office Saul and the Messengers of Saul prophesied amongst the Prophets 1 Sam. 19. And that hee is yet more fully revealed in the New Testament you cannot denie although you do boldly and wickedly denie his Deitie Well then if these Ephesians never heard of the holy Ghost either it was because they never had sufficient means to instruct them in that profound mysterie and do you think that this is very probable for they had or might have had the writings of the Prophets and if they were baptized by John doth not hee expresly speak of the holy Ghost Christ saith hee should baptize with the holy Ghost Matth. 3. 11. Or might they not have repaired to som Christians in som place or other for a further instruction in the faith Or if they never heard of the holy Ghost it is else because albeit they had som means of knowledg this way yet did they not regard them or sufficiently profit by them Take it which way you will and in neither of the waies is there any strength in the Argument to prove your odious assertion but it argue's clearly that you are given up by the just judgment of God to strong delusions to beleeve lies How could it else have entred into your heart to think that the ignorance of a few untaught Christians should bee a sound proof to overthrow a truth which was unanimously imbraced by sounder Christians Shall God's truths bee no truths because som sinfull and ignorant persons do not know them Nay rather you should thus have reasoned since this was a divine truth preached by John the Baptist and afterward more fully taught by Christ and his Apostles therefore without wavering much more without contradicting them I will submit to their better judgment The Argument by this which is already spoken is fully answered yet I will follow the Adversaries steps and gather up his mistakings for the better satisfaction of the Reader Advers If any shall say by the holy Spirit is meant not the Person but the gifts of the Spirit besides that hee speak's without example hee evacuate's the emphasis wee are so far from receiving the holy Ghost that wee have not heard whether there bee an holy Ghost or not Answ First let the Reader observe how the Adversarie is possessed with the spirit of giddiness in contradicting himself It 's without example saith hee to say the Spirit is taken for the gifts of the Spirit and yet within three lines after hee saith wee may grant that this question Have you received the holy Ghost may bee meant of the gifts of the holy Ghost And with the same breath hee saith strangely forgetting himself that it is without example to take the holy Ghost for the gifts of the holy Ghost I add further that it is clearly prophesied that extraordinarie gifts as of prophesying and tongues are called the holy Ghost Joël 2. 28. Acts 2. 17. and in this Chapter Acts 19. 6. the holy Ghost came upon them How this is to bee understood the words following do expound They spoke with tongues and prophesied Ver. 6. So Acts 2. 4. thus John 7. 39. the holy Ghost was not yet you cannot denie but hee was in Person before that time and that hee was as touching sanctifying graces before How then is it said the holy Ghost was not yet Of necessitie it must bee meant as touching miraculous operations which were not yet bestowed on the Disciples What can bee more plainly spoken Nor doth this overthrow the Ephesians arguing and the emphasis of the words for however the holy Ghost bee taken yet your Argument is not good this onely can bee soundly inferred from their words Wee are so far from receiving the miraculous gifts of the holy Ghost that wee have not so much as heard whether there bee any such miraculous gifts of the holy Ghost or not And if the question moved to them was not touching the Person and sanctifying graces of the holy Ghost but onely touching miraculous gifts as 't is most probable for they being Disciples might bee presumed not to bee ignorant that there was an holy Spirit and that hee was a Sanctifier of his servants then either their answer is impertinent to the question or else they must needs return their answer in effect thus Wee have not heard whether there bee such miraculous gifts of the holy Ghost or not Advers S. Paul would have taken the hint which hee did not to have instructed them in the Deitie of the holy Ghost Answ 1 First to this I say that this your pleading make's as strongly against your self as against the truth for do not you also put a difference betwixt that prime creäted Spirit as you do blaspheme and his gifts What then do you say against us which make's not as much against your self also Secondly how prove you that the holy Apostle did not instruct these Ephesians touching the holy Ghost Is not this your pleading It is not written therefore it was not don this is say I inconsequent All that hee preached is not written and do not you see that by this reasoning you wound your own cause For can you shew that S. Paul taught these Ephesians such a doctrine touching the holy Ghost which you do maintain that hee was a creature Thirdly it is not to bee doubted but that hee opened to them the doctrine of the holy Ghost that hee was God and that hee taught them that holy graces are fruits of the holy Spirit which none but God can give Advers Yet now say you wee are made to beleeve that a man is damned that beleeve's not the Deitie of the holy Ghost And so saying you think to aggravate our error Answ To this I answer you are to know that wee make a great difference of times and persons wee do not despair of their salvation which were in the state of these Ephesians or of others now in the like condition if beleeving in one God and that Jesus Christ is a Savior and seeing their own sins and miseries should relie on him for eternall life And then as the converted thief on the Cross presently die though they never heard of the holy Ghost I would charitably judg of them and conceive that God intended mercie to them by these gracious discoveries of himself to them at this time but if God will graciously wink at such ignorance and have mercie on them this will yield no comfort at all to you who have been bred up in the Church of Christ and in our Schools and have read the word of God for you have wilfully shut your eies against the truth which is as clear touching the holy Ghost as if it had been written with the Sun beams and you have stretched your wits to the uttermost to pervert the plain meaning of the Scripture as appear's by your endeavoring to answer Matth. 28. and Acts 5. I may say to you as S. Cyprian de Sacram. Dom. calicis saith of som which
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 OR A TREATISE OF THE HOLY GHOST IN WHICH The God-head of the third Person of the Trinitie is strongly asserted by Scripture-Arguments And defended against the Sophisticall subtleties of JOHN BIDLE BY Mr. Nicolas Estwick B. D. somtime Fellow of Christ-Colledg in Cambridg and now Pastor of Warkton in the Countie of Northampton LONDON Printed by William Du-gard for Ralph Smith and are to bee sold at the Sign of the Bible in Corn-hill neer the Royal-Exchange 1648. THE PREFACE THe sublime Argument touching the unitie of the God-head and the Trinitie of the Persons is of that high concernment that it obligeth Christians to lay themselvs out to the uttermost in the search of the means in the which it hath pleased the Lord to reveal himself that wee might have right apprehensions of him partly because it is very dangerous and attended with sad consequences to have erroneous conceptions in this to-bee-adored subject and partly because no subordinate truths can bee more profitably learned whether wee respect the information of our judgments the reformation of our lives or our sound consolation in every condition In this licentious age wherein Heresies with more boldness the more is the pitie are not onely privately vented but printed and exposed to publick view then in former ages whereby many unwary and ungrounded Readers are infected with leprosie in their heads and their judgments are corrupted as other wicked phancies for want of humilitie knowledg in Scripture Arts and Tongues and due respect to the word of God and the testimonie of ancient and modern Divines have been broached so hath the fundamentall Article touching the Deitie of the holy Ghost been questioned yea plainly contradicted Many months passed before I had a sight of Mr. Bidle's abhorred lines nor did I so much as desire to read them but when I heard by the relation of a very learned man and of much observation touching these times that those twelve Reasons did a great deal of hurt I then used the means to get a sight of the Book and I saw it was Sophistically penned and plausibly contrived to do much mischief and when I could not hear that any of the learned which have far better abilities more leasure and encouraging accommodations then I have would spend their precious time in convincing this Adversarie of God I resolved by the grace of the Spirit of God to vindicate what lie's in mee his honor in shewing partly the weakness partly the blasphemie of his twelve Reasons to shew him if it may bee the danger of his Heresie and to clear the alledged Scriptures from his Sophistrie and to hold forth that little light which the blessed Spirit hath freely imparted to mee to the bettering of the understanding of the simple Readers There have been many erroneous opinions no fewer then six in my knowledg and 't is not unlike but there are many more touching the blessed Spirit the holy Ghost it is not fit nor safe for mee to set down a Catalogue of them lest unawares which is far from my intention som vain and unsound Christians in these unsettled daies should take an occasion to err from the beaten way of truth and others which have tender consciences should bee offended with the stinch of these rotten Heresies when they are presented to them yet necessary it is that I should set down my Adversaries tenet that the Reader may know it and that I may more punctually address myself to answer him and this hee hold's That the holy Ghost is a creature a finite person the prime and chief of all the good Angels as the Divel by an unhappy excellencie is called the chief of all the evill Spirits An ancient Heresie this is in the Church of Christ condemned both by the single testimonie of many famous Doctors and by a generall Synod at Constantinople which hath been alwaies honored and was held by the Summons of Theodosius the first more then twelve hundred and threescore years ago O blessed God! bee not angry with mee I beseech thee who am but sinfull dust and ashes for adventuring to speak of thy glorious Majestie Pardon I humbly pray for my Saviors sake all my sinfull apprehensions of thine unconceivable Greatness accept graciously my sincere intentions to promote thy glorie and guide mee O my God! that I may alwaies as a weak and sinfull creature ought to do both think and speak and write of thy glorious Majestie with holy fear and lowly reverence and instruct mee O thou blessed Spirit of Truth that I may readily untie the Sophistical knots of carnal and humane reason which in pretence are grounded on the truth of thy Word and yet there is no truth in them nor any divine word for them And enable mee to maintain thy Greatness against a wretched man which dare's stand up and both boldly and publickly argue against thine ever to bee adored Deitie The Deitie of the holy Ghost proved by Scripture and Argument True Arguments grounded on the Word of God whereby the Deitie of the holy Ghost is fully proved and such passages of Scriptures which are excepted against by the Adversarie are examined and clearly refuted Argum. 1 Maj. HEe that hath the names of God absolutely attributed to him is God Min. The Holy Ghost hath the names of God absolutely attributed to him Concl. Ergò the holy Ghost is God The Major is clear for albeit the name of God bee given to Angels Psal 8. 6. Heb. 2. 7. and to Magistrates they are Gods to whom the Word of God came Psal 82. 7. that is to whom by divine vocation the office of Magistracie is committed yet either this is not spoken in the singular number I said yee are Gods whereas the true God without contradiction is but one or when it is spoken singularly it is not without limitation Moses I have made thee a God to Pharaoh Exod. 7. 1. Every man may readily conceive that a made God is is not a true God or with such an affixed limitation that a simple man can hardly mistake I have said yee are Gods yet they are but mortal Gods for as is threatned there They must die like mortal men but the true God is immortal So that in all the Scriptures wee shall not finde the names of God asscribed to any creatures without addition limitation or correction of speech nor is this denied by the Adversarie The Minor is proved first more obscurely Gen. 1. 1. God creäted A word not of the singular or dual but plural number and that is also with a word of the singular number God creäted because God is but one in nature but in regard of the manner of beeing there are three Persons And in verse 26. of the same Chapter God saith Let Vs make man after Our image that is in the image of the holy Trinitie these and many like to these are alledged out of the old Testament and justified to bee pertinent to prove this
the Second and Third Persons are not so called by the name of God nor is this concession to your advantage The Father is so called chiefly for these two reasons First because hee is God of himself and from no other Person hee is often stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without a principle of beeing so are not the Son and the holy Ghost Secondly because hee is the principle and the fountain communicating the Deitie to the Son and the holy Ghost and yet when it is said Wee have one God and it is immediatly subjoyned the Father this is not spoken by way of exclusion but inclusion of the Son and the holy Ghost for the Son is in the Father and so is the holy Ghost too All creatures and particularly Idol-Gods are excluded from beeing God for God is opposed to Idols in the later place and I suppose you will not take the Son of God and the holy Ghost to bee Idols Besides the text might have lead you to this construction for it is said Wee have one Lord Jesus Christ will you rashly exclude God the Father from beeing our Lord will you deny that hee hath dominion over us And if the Father bee included in this term Christ is our one Lord why should not the Son bee included in the former one God And as for the other places the works recited there do prove the holy Ghost to bee God the the 3d. Argument followeth Argum 3 Maj Hee that hath the incommunicable properties of God is God Min The holy Ghost hath the incommunicable properties of God Concl Ergò The Major is confessedly true and need 's no proof the Minor is confirmed by a few instances and if it can bee proved that but one of them belong's to him it 's virtually proved true of them all for all are but one in truth and nature and one is all First the holy Ghost is omniscient not onely in that hee lead's his servants into all truth Joh. 16. 13. Esa 40. 13. hee is true the Spirit of Truth and the Fountain of Truth but chiefly is this confirmed because hee searcheth all things yea the deep things of God 1 Corin. 2. 10. which no creature can do Secondly because hee is essentially and powerfully present every where The holy Prophet took this as an undeniable truth Psal 139. 7. Whither shall I flee from thy Spirit This Interrogation as appeareth also by the enumeration of places most distant one from another heaven and hell implieth a peremptory assertion that hee could go no where no not in his thoughts but the Spirit of God was present there and yet is hee not included or circumscribed in any places as bodily creatures or limited as the nature of Angels is Basil de Spir. San. c. 22. Advers This beeing a pinching Argument and easily apprehended to bee very forcible by slender capacities must seemingly bee answered and the wound which his cause receive's thereby must have a skin drawn over it though it is not curable by the art of man Thus hee saith By this reason the devil is omnipresent for hee steal's the Word sowen in a thousand places at once hee dwell's in all wicked men Let them answer to these and then I will tell them how the Spirit though hee is not omnipresent may bee in all the faithful at once Answ 1 First I must tell this Disputant that though hee saith much and enough to prove our assertion yet it is not so full as it ought to bee for the Argument holdeth forth this truth That God's Spirit is not onely in the hearts of his children but there and it is their happiness that hee is essentially there where they shall never bee Hee is every where Answ 2 Secondly I observe that though many lines are penned in answer to the question yet positively doth hee assert nothing at all Hee leave 's us to guess at his meaning to prevent absurdities with which hee might have been pressed if hee had told us how the holy Ghost a creature is in all the faithful and how the chief Devil is in all the wicked now possibly hee hath a starting hole and may say hee hath no such meaning It became a plain dealing man desirous to have the truth revealed to him as hee pretend's to bee to have opened his minde clearly and not to have left the Beader in suspence touching this particular You tell us and this is all you say that what wee can answer against the Omnipresence of the Devil you will apply the same Answer to our Objection And will you so indeed Shew mee then out of the Word of God in any place that the holy Ghost hath his beeing by creätion and not by eternal procession I can plainly prove and this you will not deny that the Devil and his Angels were creäted of God and were good in the instant of their creätion Shew mee out of the Word of God that it is any where thus spoken the holy Ghost and his Angels as it is said expresly the Devil and his Angels Wee read indeed that Michaël and his Angels did fight with the Dragon and his Angels Revel 12. Whosoever is meant by Michaël and there are several interpretations thereof yet none did so much as dream of the holy Ghost whom you make the Prince of Angels Shew mee out of the Word of God that the Devil and his Angels are every where as it is said expresly of the holy Spirit If you mount up into heaven are they there Are they not thrust headlong from thence never to bee re-admitted to the pure and blessed place Are they in the bottom of the sea or in the places of the earth which are not inhabited unless by restraint If in an instant you were placed there you might truly say that you fled from the Devil's presence and could be som where and the Devil not there Shew mee out of the holy Word that inferior good Spirits which as Guardians and Protectors do lead the servants of God into all truth that they do sanctifie them and that in the Scripture phrase they dwell in them and that it is not one onely holy Ghost that doth all these and as you your self contend The Person of the holy Ghost is given together with his gifts Argum. 7. but I can shew you that it is not one individual Devil but they are innumerable principalities and powers against which God's servants must fight as against enemies with whom they must make no peace and which do damnably seduce guid and hold in woful captivitie all sinners A legion of Devils was cast out of one man every one of these wicked Spirits is a Devil a Satan hee is like a similar bodie as a bone every one is a Devil Advers Whereas you object that one lying Spirit seduced four hundred Prophets 1 King 22. 23. and add that there is the same reason of four hundred and four millions To this I say speak out man doth one wicked
made not the heavens and the earth they shall perish Or else wee may conceive of God relatively as distinctly to bee apprehended to bee God the Father God the Son God the holy Ghost The former was alwaies necessarily beleeved to salvation but not the later so peremptorily to avouch is to cover the graves of millions with a stone of despair For if the Sun shine's not on the mountains surely the vallies are not lightsom Bellarmine judging the Argument drawn from the word Elohim not sufficient to prove the Trinitie of the Persons amongst other things add's this In l. 2. de Chr. cap. 6. no. 7. that the Septuagints never turned it Dii To this our learned Junius answer's the reason hereof is either because they themselvs knew not the mysterie of the Trinitie or thought it not safe to propound it to them And yet I grant that God never heard any but for his Sons sake nor could ever any man make an acceptable praier to God but by the help and direction of the holy Ghost The former was clearly revealed in the Old Testament The Lord thy God is one Lord Deut. 6. 4. and in many other places not needful to bee recited but the mysterie of the Trinitie was not clearly revealed but mystically expressed and in great wisdom wee are sure And if wee will beleeve Theodoret and many others l. 2. ad Graecos it was so ordered partly because the people of God then were uncapable to understand that depth and partly to prevent Idolatrie to which sin the Israëlites were very prone for living amongst the Egyptians then with Cananites and other idolatrous people that did surround them and were worshippers of many gods if they had clearly and explicitely heard mention of God the Father of God the Son and God the holy Ghost here is the danger that they would have been Tritheïtes and have beleeved that there were three gods yet was this mysterie shadowed many waies in the Old Testament lest it being seen in the essentiall image of God and evidently preached in the Gospel should seem to Christians a new doctrine or repugnant to the Old Testament Conclus 2 The second Conclusion to bee called a Disciple of Jesus Christ and a Beleever on him I speak of actuall faith doth of necessitie require that hee should beleeve the promised Messiah was com into the world I do not say that it was alwaies necessarie to beleeve that hee was God the second Person of the blessed Trinitie for I take it for granted that in the infancie of the Church not onely ordinarie Christians but his choice Disciples apprehended not that divine truth Nor do I say that it was absolutely necessarie to salvation to beleeve that Christ was incarnated and that hee was crucified for the sins of the world for Cornelius Act. 10. And it might bee the case of many others then and before those daies was in a good condition for beleeving in the promised Messiah albeit then hee pitched not his faith on the Messiah as already com in the flesh and that was wee may well presume for want of sufficient instruction for virtually beleeving on the Messiah whom hee explicitely professed not yet I say that hee which is denominated a Beleever in Christ and a Disciple of the Lord Jesus doth not onely beleeve with his heart but hee doth also profess with his tongue that the Savior of the world was manifested in our flesh Conclus 3 The third Conclusion is Beleevers and Disciples are of two sorts Som there are that are thoroughly instructed in the Articles of faith and others there are which either for want of capacitie time to learn or means of learning and these make their ignorance to bee invincible or else for want of industrie or through their negligence to learn are ignorant of many main heads of our Christian religion which they might have known and whereof they are sinfully ignorant This is a received truth in the world all those who profess the Name of Christ which are distinguished from Jews Mahumetans and Pagans are usually and may in a general way bee called Disciples and Beleevers These Conclusions being thus premised the answer to the Argument will bee a very easie task Advers Hee in whom men have not beleeved is not God Answ I answer this Proposition if it bee restrainedly understood and meant of God taken personally viz. for an explicite belief of the third Person is not generally true as it ought to bee Many there are in the world which were not so far enlightned and yet were Beleevers and Disciples of Christ as is shewed in the third Conclusion But now if the Proposition bee meant thus as it is explained hee that doth not beleeve in him that is God taken absolutely and essentially can bee no Disciple or Beleever I readily grant this to bee a truth hee that doth not beleeve in one God hee is no Disciple nor do I think that any worthy the name of a Christian ever questioned the truth thereof Advers Many say you were Disciples which were so far from beleeving in God the holy Ghost to bee God that they never heard whether there were an holy Ghost or not Act. 19. 2. Answ To this I answer that those Ephesians were Disciples and Beleevers for so the text call's them but they were very children in knowledg at that time they were converts and baptized for so saith the text how ever Baptism is taken and if properly as it is most likely either by John the Baptist or one of his Disciples they were not tam tincti quà m sordidati saith S. Ambrose They then returned home to Ephesus and wanted means at home of further instruction as wee may charitably judg and probably gather because that Paul and Timothy were forbidden to preach the word of God in Asia Acts 16. 6. where Ephesus stood but afterwards as wee may read Acts 19. and 20. Chapters the glorious light did shine forth to idolatrous Ephesus by the long continued disputations and many Sermons of Saint Paul so that in what sense soever the holy Ghost bee taken in the question and answer these Ephesians were very much unlike to those Christians which according to that scomma propheticum Esa 65. 20. were children of an hundred years old And as Espencaeus out of his own knowledg saith of an ancient and noble Gentleman brought up in the Church and so his ignorance was unexcusable that hee did freely confess that hee never had heard whether there was an holy Ghost or not in 1 Tim. 3. cha digr 17. But I will reason with you Either this ignorance of the Ephesians was vincible or invincible either it was sinfull or sinless That there was an holy Spirit of God expresly revealed in the Old Testament and by the name of the Spirit of God yea and manifested by extraordinarie inspirations and raptures not onely by the holy Prophets but also to others which had not a standing calling to that high