Ignorant and the Vnstable who for want of due Knowledge or of sufficient Consideration are like Clouds without water carried about of Winds as S. Iude describes them I shall be carefull that every Part of the Test or Criterion I am to give may be short and yet easie and I hope without all Question The several Parts of the Touchstone will be no fewer than 6 or 7. Nor are the Spirits to be try'd by any one or two of them but by All put together whether or no they are of God First The Spirit that is of God is the Spirit of Truth And therefore if any man who is outwardly of a seeming good Life is yet of very ill Iudgement in Fundamentals in Points essential to Christianity as in the Doctrin of Obedience to every Ordinance of Man to the Higher Powers to Them that have the Rule over us and do watch for our Souls a Doctrin running in a Vein throughout the Body of the Gospel and essentially belonging to All Religion especially if he ascribes to a sinfull man not to say The Man of Sin That Incommunicable Attribute of God himself Infallibility and gives to every Priest the Privilege to doe a much greater Miracle than ere was done by Christ Himself so far forth to transubstantiate a piece of Bread as first to make his own Saviour and then to eat him He must needs be misinstructed by the Spirit of Errour and Fascination the Spirit with which he is bewitch'd as S. Paul speaks to the Galatians let his outward Conversation be what it will let his visible Course of life be never so plausible or severe Next The Spirit that is of God is the Spirit of Holiness and Purity as well as Truth And therefore if any man who is Orthodox is at the same time Dishonest of some good Opinions but evil Practice does hold the Truth but in unrighteousness especially if he takes upon him by That Viper of Morality and all Religion the Iesuites Doctrine of Probability not onely to allow but to incourage and abett the grossest Villanies in the World without exception He is not season'd by the Holy but the Vnclean Spirit let his Orthodoxie of judgement as to some Fundamentals be what it can An honest Heathen is not so bad as a Christian Knave Thirdly The Spirit that is of God is the Spirit of Vnity and Love And therefore if any sort of men shall take upon them to be Reformers by making Schism by dissolving the Bond of Peace wherein the Vnity of the Spirit is to be kept and shall crumble Religion into as many small Parcells as the Caprices of Idle men shall have the liberty to suggest especially if they shall labour to separate Subjects from their Sovereign by absolving them from their Oaths of Christian Obedience and Fidelity or by instructing them to swear with a Design to be forsworn They are miss-led by That Spirit whose Name is Legion even the Spirit of Division That old and cunning Serpent which deceiveth the whole World Fourthly The Spirit that is of God is the Spirit of Meekness and of Order And therefore if any despise Dominion and speak evil of Dignities and in pretense of being the Meek ones who are by right of Promise to inherit the Earth demurely tread upon Crowns and Crofiers and love to be levelling with their Feet whatsoever according to God's special Providence does overtop them by Head and Shoulders especially if they presume to place the single Bishop of Rome above General Councils invest him with a Power to excommunicate Kings and subvert whole Kingdoms and make the People hope to Merit by the most prodigious Murthers They must be led by That Spirit which is called The Angel of the Bottomless Pit Abaddon and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Destroyer even the Spirit which is still working in the Children of Disobedience Fiftly The Spirit that is of God is the Spirit of Sincerity induing All whom He inhabits with an absolute Simplicity and Singleness of Heart And therefore They who do hold up their Left hand to God but their Right against their Governours having Godliness in their Profession but practical Atheism in their Lives hating Idols from the Teeth outwards but loving Sacriledge from the Heart crying down Superstition but preaching up the Creature-comforts flowing from Plunder which they call Providence declaring with zeal against the Prelates but ever voting up the Papacy of their Superintendents declaiming much against the Sectaries who are not of their Denomination but breaking down the Hedge of Discipline whereby the Herds are to be kept from God's Inclosure especially They who have invented the Art of Aequivocating and Cheating the Art of Swearing any thing safely by mental Exceptions and Reservations the Art of Couzenage by the Contract they call Mohatra and the like must needs be acted by that Spirit whom the Scripture has expressed by the Father of Lies even the Spirit of Hypocrisie That black Prince of Darkness which transforms himself with ease into an Angel of light Sixtly The Spirit that is of God is the Spirit of Knowledge and Wisedom and Vnderstanding And therefore if any man cites Scripture against the whole Tenor and Stream of Scripture and wanders into the wrong way even by That very Word which does direct him into the Right one especially if he levells the Canon of Scripture with the Apocrypha and makes the Pure Word of God to truckle humbly under Tradition whereby it becomes of none effect if men so learned and so acute and so sagacious as the Iesuites after all the heinous things they have done and taught are so far from discerning what Spirit they are of that they utterly mistake an Evil Spirit for a Good one a Spirit from Hell for one from Heaven the Spirit which reigns in the Court of Rome for the Spirit which guides in the Church of England if they can think it the Top of Piety to advance the Lord Iesus quite against the Lord Christ and make the Christian Religion the greatest Transgression of Itself which moves the Iansenists to call them The Antichristian Society if they can take it for the Comble of Christian Merit and Perfection to espouse and put in practice this Turkish Maxime that Religion is to be propagated where 't is possible by the Sword They must needs be possess'd by the Spirit of Slumber the Spirit of dead Sleep the God of this World which blindeth the mind for so the Devil is once call'd 2 Cor. 4.4 What I have thus drawn out at length our Blessed Lord does wind up into This short Bottom Matth. 7.20 Ye shall know them by their Fruits But the Fruits of That Spirit that is of God are reckon'd up by S. Paul to be such as These Love Ioy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Meekness Goodness and the like And therefore They who instead of loving
Enemies do persecute and oppress the mystical Members of the same Body whereof Christ is the Head who lay the Cross of Christ Iesus on Christian Shoulders robbing one of a Living another of a Liberty a third of a Life and this for no other Crime than being constantly Conscientious and very real Friends to All because the Flatterers of None though able to injure or to oblige them must needs be managed by That carnal and unclean Spirit which makes them so fruitfull and so abounding in the works of the Flesh such as Hatred Variance Wrath Strife Seditions Heresies and the like § 8. Now if All these Particulars be laid together in our minds I suppose we have a Touchstone to Try the Spirits of Pretenders whether or no they are of God and such a Touchstone as needs not it self another Touchstone to be Try'd by But because the best Touchstone is nothing worth to such as know not how to use it we shall doe well to take notice of one Rule more in the using of it For considering how many Vices do too much border and confine upon several Vertues and how many Lies are more plausible to flesh and bloud than many Truths and hardly any thing can be so false but may have Colours and Probabilities to set it off being neatly laid on by men ingeniously wicked and that a multitude of Ignaro's do often swallow the grossest Errours presented to them in the Disguise of the greatest Truths by not distinguishing Words as they ought from Things and blending one thing with another and taking them down all at once without any masticating or chewing I say for This reason we must not pass our last Iudgement upon Pretenders to the Spirit untill we have made our selves acquainted as well with their Habits as with their Acts as well with the main or general current of their Lives as with the meer conduct and carrying-on of their Designs with the Means they make use of as well as with the End they pretend to aim at with the Building which is erected as well as with the Scaffold by which 't is rais'd with All their Actions in a lump as well as with the most specious and fairest of them And when This is done throughly Then let the Hypocrites and Impostors be what they will let the Forms of Godliness and the Features of Religion be never so artificially and neatly drawn let the Colours be laid on with never so delicate a Pencill and let that Pencill also be managed with never so exquisite Address 't will be most easie to find the difference between the Picture and the Life Let Zeuxis his lively Grapes be never so apt to deceive the Birds yet the Deadness of his Boy will unfold the Cheat. § 9. The very Truth of it is We should be utterly unexcusable if we should fall into the Snare of The certain men among us crept in unawares of either sort because their Arts of deceiving are gross and obvious fit to infatuate Understandings of the lowest size onely and such as are willing to be deluded There were Counterfeits in the most primitive and purest Times of the Church who were brave Cheats indeed who besides their Form of Godliness besides their Praying and their Preaching could also set forth themselves by Signs and Wonders The Devil had taught them That subtil Trick of transforming themselves into Angels of light and so of deceiving if it were possible the very Elect. Such were Barchochebas Apollonius and Simon Magus Whereof the First had got a faculty even of vomiting flames of Fire the Second could tell the men of Ephesus what in That very Hour was done at Rome the Third like a Cherub could fly abroad into the Air. So that They had some kind of Colour for their giving out themselves to be the Messengers of Heaven some Pretences for their Broaching a New Theology to the People because their Counterfeited Miracles however derived from below might seem at least to short Reasons to have been given them from Above And to be couzen'd by such as These were a more tolerable Infirmity a Credulity more to be pitied and very much more rather than less to be pardon'd also The Magicians also in Aegypt were such admirable Deceivers that They were able as well as Aaron to turn their Rods into Serpents and their Slime into Frogs and their Waters into Bloud So as if Moses and Aaron through God's Assistance had not publickly convicted them of downright Sorcery and Inchantment wherein the Magicians grew eminent through the Assistance of the Devil If Aaron's Rod at last had not swallow'd up Their Rods and turn'd the Dust into Lice through all the Land w ch the Magicians could not doe but confessed to their own shame that The finger of God was in it Lastly if Moses had not smitten the very Sorcerers themselves as well as the rest of the Aegyptians with Boyls and Blains insomuch that the Magicians could not stand before Moses They had had a shrewd Advantage in the deceiving of the People and the People so deceiv'd had been excusable à Tanto Whereas our modern Enthusiasts or Pretenders to Revelation and to a Testimony within them from God the Holy Ghost are not so much as good Iugglers They are woefull Impostors and silly Cheats such as Satan indeed has furnished with very much Industry but with very small Wit whereby He does not more strongly Tempt them than he discovers them to be His. They being so far from being indow'd with extraordinary Gifts whereby to prove to us an extraordinary Commission so far from setting out themselves by Signs and Wonders like those Primitive Deceivers of whom our Saviour gave all his Disciples Warning in the 24 th of S. Matthew or like Those of whom Moses forewarn'd His People in the 13 th of Deuteronomy that they come short of most men of the Church of England even in Those very things wherein they would be thought eminent The onely Gifts of the Spirit which they pretend to are but Praying and Preaching in their Performances of which they signalize themselves by Nothing or at least by nothing more than Noise and Nonsense The Gift of Tongues or the Gift of Healing or the Gift of being subject to Higher Powers for Conscience sake or for the Lord's or any other such remarkable Apostolical Gift of the Holy Ghost I never heard that our Adversaries on either side did ever yet so much as pretend unto They seem to be as unapt to obey their Governors for Conscience sake which is one special Gift of the Holy Ghost as to speak with new Tongues or to raise the Dead § 10. Now if those Exquisite Pretenders in the Infancy of the Gospel Barchochebas a Iew and Apollonius Tyanaeus an arrant Heathen Simon Magus Menander Basilides and the like who by Profession at least were Christians were not Then to be believ'd notwithstanding their Inchantment and Magick-miracles If a false
for ought I can collect from the words of Christ Matth. 23.14 and by the words of S. Peter 2 Pet. 2.9 10. If they who hate our Congregations and way of Worship because they judge the Holy Ghost to have forsaken our Meetings and to dwell onely in theirs or because we do not easily shut the Door against Sinners till by Authority authoriz'd though they are under the Reputation either of Drunkenness or Whoredom or any other the like Scandalous and Deadly Sin but not under the Sentence of legal Excommunication till when we cannot lawfully shut them out from our Communion I say if the Censurers of our Patience and Longanimity towards such would but turn their Eyes inwards or duely reflect upon themselves and compare those Sins which the Devil never commits with those several other Sins which are proper to him If they would not onely observe but also remember and consider and religiously lay to heart the terrible Emphasis and force S. Peter puts on the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saying of Them who despise Government that they are chiefly or most especially reserved by the Lord unto the day of Iudgement to be punished and the most formidable Importance of That Greater Damnation which our Saviour has denounced against those Hypocrites who for a Pretence do make long Prayers I say again if our dissenting separating Brethren in love and pity to whose Souls we pray preach for their Conformity would have the Patience and the Humility to chew enough on these things They would think with more Charity of our Communion and with less Arrogance of their own They would not separate from us Then unless for contrary Inducements than now do move them They would separate from us Then in an humble opinion of their own Vileness saying from the heart with the meek Centurion Lord we are not worthy that Thou shouldst enter under our Roof and are by consequence unworthy to have admittance under Thine They would not separate from us Then unless in the Spirit of S. Peter afraid to approach unto Christ himself with a Depart from me O Lord for I am a Sinfull man They would not separate from us Then like those Idolaters in Isaiah with a Stand farther off come not near to us for we are holier than you But rather like the Lepers under the Law of Leprosie would cover their faces with Confusion and stand aloof from God's House accusing themselves of their Vncleanness or like the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Primitive Times of Discipline falling down flat upon their faces not in the Church but the Churchyard at an humble Distance would beg the Charity of Their Prayers whom they saw entring into God's House at the Times of Prayer Were they such Separatists as These and from such a Principle as This from the excesses onely of Meekness and not of Pride we should receive them with the Embraces of Arms and Hearts we should readily afford them even the Right hand of Fellowship we should conclude the Holy Ghost had so descended upon their Souls as once he did upon the Heads of the 12 Apostles or rather upon the Hearts of thâ—se 3000 who at S. Peter's one Sermon were added to them Though not in the Edifying Gifts which were bestowed upon the former yet in the Sanctifying Graces which were infused into the latter § 12. But having spoken enough already of Trying the Spirits in other men I think it fit to say something of Trying them also in our selves For considering the words of the Prophet Ieremy The Heart of man is deceitfull above all things and that 't is given to very few few I mean in comparison to know what Spirits they are of I guess it concerns us all in general and every one of us in particular to resume the whole Text and bring it home unto our selves to search and try our own Hearts and to examin our own Spirits whether or no they are of God 'T was the Precept of Pythagoras to every man of his Sect that he should bring himself to the Test or call himself to an Accompt every Evening of his whole Life with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what he had done in That Day which he ought to have omitted and what good thing he had omitted which 't was his Duty to have done Nor was he to suffer himself to sleep till he had made up this Reckoning three several Times So 't was the Precept of S. Paul in his ad Epistle to the Corinthians Examin your selves whether ye be in the Faith meaning That Faith which does work by Love all manner of Obedience to the Law of Christ's Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prove or try your own selves whether ye have not yet received the True Faith of Christ or whether having once received ye still retain it Know ye not your own selves how that Iesus Christ is in you except ye be Reprobates So S. Paul reason'd with his Corinthians and so must we with or within our selves Know we not that Christ is in us by the Presence of his Spirit and by the Power of his Word and by the evident effects of His Operation Such as our Sorrow for our sins past our hatred of our selves in Remembrance of them and our stedfast Resolutions of better life Know we not that Christ is in us by such Evidences as These If we do Then let us treat him in such a manner as may become so Divine a Guest But if we do not we have some reason to fear lest we have sinn'd-away our Saviour as arrant Reprobates and Castaways as men unworthy to be call'd Christians as men who either are not at all Regenerate or else are fallen from That State of Regeneration which we were in or to express it with S. Paul as men who have received the Grace of God in vain And as it concerns us on all occasions to try the Spirit which is in us whether 't is a good or an evil Spirit so most especially does it concern us at such a Time as This is when we Tread in God's Courts to offer up the Gospel-sacrifice of Supplication and Thanksgiving to hear His Word to partake of his Sacraments Duties equally belonging to the first Sunday of the month For the Bread of God's Children must not be cast unto the Dogs and the Food which is Spiritual belongs to Them onely who can spiritually discern it and who live not after the Flesh but after the Spirit I do not mean after every Spirit for there are many more than good as I shew'd before but after The Spirit that is of God The Spirit of Holiness and Truth The Spirit of Vnity and Love The Spirit of Meekness and of Order The Spirit of Singleness and Sincerity The Spirit of Wisdom and Vnderstanding The Spirit of Counsel and Ghostly Strength The Spirit of Knowledge and true Godliness and lastly The Spirit of God's Holy Fear as the divine Prophet Isaiah expresseth him resting upon Christ of whom the good King Hezekiah was but a Type in That place Unto all which if I should add The Spirit of Promise with S. Paul and The Spirit of Prophecy with S. Iohn The Spirit of Grace with holy Zachary and The Spirit of Glory with S. Peter I should but say The same Spirit in the vindicating of whom from the many False Spirits which in this last Age especially have been debauching the Christian World I have imploy'd the little Time which is allow'd for this Part of our Morning Service To Him therefore with The Father in their Unity with The Son Sing we Hosannahs and Hallelujahs Blessing Glory Honour and Power To Him that liveth for evermore Vide Haeresin Ienxuanam apud Massaeium l. 16. * Vid. Arrian Epict. l. 3. c. 29. l. 4. c. 5. Plotin Enn. 3. l. 2. Joh. 4.24 * p. 214. * 1 King 13.1 * Deut. 13.1 3. * 2 Pet. 1.21 ch 2. ver 1. Ezek. 13.2 3 4 6 8 c. * 1 Joh. 4.13 * 1 Joh. 3.9 * Ibid. * Rev. 2.17 * Rom. 8.11 1 Joh. 4.6 * Rom. 8.16 1 Joh. 5.10 ver 9. Leviath p. 36. 169. Ibid. p. 232. Leviath p. 250. Deut. 13.1 2. 1 King 13.4 6. 1 King 18.38 40. 2 King 5.15 Num. 16. * Mar. 16.16 Act. 5.31 Ibid. Joh. 14.17 1 Pet. 2.13 Rom. 13.1 Heb. 13.17 1 Joh. 4.6 Act. 8.9 11. Gal. 3.1 Rom. 1.4 18. * Vid. Les Provinciales 5.6 Caramuel de Theologiâ Fundamentali p. 71 72. Escobar Theol. Moral Tom. 1. l. 2. c. 2. p. 34 39.4â—.160 c. a Mar. 5.8 b Eph. 4.3 4. Mar. 5.9 Rev. 12.9 1 Cor. 4.12 1 Cor. 14.23 Rev. 9.11 Eph. 2 2. Joh. 8.44 2 Cor. 11.14 Isa. 11.2 * Matth. 15.6 Mar. 7.13 Rom. 11.8 Isa. 29.10 Gal. 5.22 23. Gal. 5.19 20 21. * Troppo confina la Virtu col Vitio 2 Thess. 2.9 2 Cor. 11.14 Matth. â—4 24 Exod. 7. c. 8. Vin. Lit. c. 15. 2 Thess. 2.3 9. Matth. 24.24 Matth. 7.22 Matth. 23.14 Matth. 4.4 6. Quomodo ob Religionem Magni quibus Magnitudo de irreligiositate provenit Tertull Apolog. cap. 25. p. 56. * apud Prudentium ad Valentin Si Romanae Religiones regna praestant nunquam retro Iudaea regnásset Despectrix communium istarum Divinitatum Tertull Apol. c. 26. p. 57. Hieron ad Marcellam Philostrat l. 3. * Maffaea Hist. Ind. l. 12. p. 319. l. 14. p. 398. 1 Cor. 7.31 Ideo me exultare noveriâ—u quia ad huc Sanctus per totum Seculum adorator 2 Pet. 2. 9 10. Matth. 23.14 Luk. 7.6 Isa. 65.2 5. Lev. 13.45 46. Act. 2. 41. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cor. 13.5 Isa. 11.2 Eph. 1.13 Rev. 19.10 Zech. 12.10 1 Pet. 4.14