his Doctrine to be Divine and himself the Messiah sent from God by attributing them to the power of the Devil but the Gnosticks did in effect the same thing by retaining upon occasion the Ceremonies of the Jews which our Saviour had abolished if he were owned as a person sent from God to void the old Law and establish a new So that those who embraced what he came to vacate in effect denied him to be come in the flesh and consequently destroyed the obligation of the Gospel by renouncing the Messiah whose authority established this new Law as a Rule to the World Nay by this rejection of the Son they disowned the Father who by a voice from Heaven and giving him power to work Miracles gave a testimony to his Person and his Doctrine And therefore our Apostle reflecting upon these men saies Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ He is Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son whoso denieth the Son the same hath not the Father but he that acknowledgeth the Son the same hath the Father also 1 John 2 Chap. 22.23 And in the 4 th Chap. 3. v. Every Spirit or teacher that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God and this is that Spirit of Antichrist whereof ye have heard that it should come and even now already is it in the world CHAP. II. HAving thus given an account of part of this Epistle of S. John together with those of whom the Apostle cautions men to beware I shall farther explain and illustrate the words to render them yet more useful to our selves by considering in them 1. A Caution 2. An Exhortation 3. The reason of both The Caution is Not to believe every Spirit The Exhortation To try the Spirits whether they are of God The Reason both of this Caution and Exhortation is because many false Prophets are gone out into the world I begin with the Apostles Caution Beloved believe not every Spirit If all that men utter pretending to be inspired were without any severe consideration to be entertain'd and what they deliver were to be believ'd there would no more need the Apostles caution than our own care But when we live in an Age in which Propositions and Doctrines are delivered that too plainly contradict each other some of which are impious and abominable others at first audit foolish and ridiculous and a third sort that tend to disturbance and ruine wasting Property making our Kingdoms large Aceldama's and our Cities the places of dead mens sculls and are apparent enemies to human Society When under the pretence of a Catholick Religion Doctrines of purity proposals to advance the Scepter of Christs Kingdom Principles shall be insinuated that if pursued with that furious zeal which they require will effectually destroy those things indeed which men endeavour to maintain in words If our blessed Saviour may thus be fought under his own Banner the cause of God cover abominations murder be acted for the glory of our Maker Blasphemy be spoken by the assistance of the Spirit and the method to render Princes glorious shall be by stabbing or beheading If the most horrid wickedness shall be palliated under the cloke of Religion a new Commandment shall be pretended for breach of the old and the Moral Law shall daily be violated by inspiration If men under pretensions to the guidance of that Spirit which inspired the first deliverers of the Gospel to be a Rule to succeeding Ages and Generations shall hang out new lights to the world that take away all the glory of the old and preach to us another Gospel bearing their Christ only pictured on their Standards and Banners and their Gospel to us on the points of Swords Nay when the Spirit in the propagation of the Gospel neither prescribed nor used such methods but quite contrary those of faith and patience humility and self-denial which did not interfere with the Government of Princes but made men actively or passively to obey And when the same Spirit has expresly declared that in the latter times there would be such a falling away from the faith that men would so far depart from the standing rules of the Gospel as to give heed to seducing Spirits and doctrines of Devils 1 Tim. 4.1 Nay when the great Lord and Authour of our Religion has acquainted the world that many false Prophets should arise with such earnest pretences and strong delusions that should almost shake the very Elect those whom he had chosen to put his Name and Character upon with Lo here is Christ or lo there exalting several though false Messiahs It will become us to consider any new pretensions beyond the rule we have already learned and not to receive Opinions at adventure but to make a more strict and considerate enquiry and not to believe every Spirit And that 1. Because we have already entertained a standing Rule of Faith and Manners by which all Christians ought to be directed to the final period and consummation of Ages And though this great and Characteristical Principle of Protestants is contradicted both by the Papists and Enthusiasts whilst the former equal their Traditions with the Scriptures and the latter their own fancies and dreams both upon occasion bestowing such ignominious titles on the Bible that they would think it uncivil if they should be given to any of their own writings Yet S. Paul tells us that the Scriptures are able to make us wise unto Salvation and being given by inspiration from God cannot be false without supposing him a liar Nay the Apostle goes on in their commendation that they are profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness that the man of God much more the people may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works 2 Tim. 3.15 16 17. The design of that Gospel which we have embraced sufficiently declares it to be a full and compleat rule of life that which if followed brings peace and welfare to us here and eternal happiness in that life which is to come For it teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in the world and to look for a blessed hope and immortality for which the former way of living prepares us Titus 2.11 12 c. Nay so perfect and compleat is this rule and so designed to direct us to the end of the world that the Apostle denounces a Curse against any that teach another Gospel or Rule of life different from or contradictory to this though an Angel from Heaven should prove to be the deliverer And repeats it twice in the same Chapter that it may be sufficiently declared and stand as a memorial to all Ages Gal. 1.8 9. And Saint John in the close of his Revelations sufficiently reproves all new pretensions by telling the world that if any man shall make additions to this which was compleat before God shall add unto
renders our notions more clear and durable We use the means that are within our power and set our reason and faculties on work and then the Spirit by a secret operation enlarges our minds and blesses our endeavours Thus Paul must plant and Apollo water although it is God that gives the increase 1 Cor. 3.6 And thus the Lord opened the heart of Lydia to embrace the Gospel whilst she attended to it as it was spoken by S. Paul Acts 16.14 When the Apostles were yet diffident concerning the truth of our Saviours resurrection though they had the Books of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms by them in which these things were sufficiently predicted yet Christ himself opened their understandings before they could apprehend the meaning of those Scriptures Luke 24.45 As we may do all things through Christ strengthning us Phil. 4.13 So separated from him we can do nothing John 15.5 The Spirit of God has put much of our duty into our own power yet has still reserved something to himself that we may be kept humble depend upon him and beg his aid For the animal man that is not possessed with the Divine benediction and influence of the Spirit who admits not of propositions prov'd only by Miracles receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God because they appear foolishness unto him neither can he know them whilst he remains in that condition because they are spiritually discerned are proved by Miracles not Logick 1 Cor. 2.14 Hence is it that S. Jude describes sensual men to be such as have not the Spirit ver 19. of his Epistle Now upon the view of all this As we have no reason by our unbelief to deprive our selves of what is promised and to shut out those assistances from our souls which bless and facilitate our endeavours so we have no cause to say that our safety is beyond our power and that Heaven is too high for our reach since if we solemnly prepare our hearts and devoutly petition the assistances of the Spirit we may obtain it and God will not be wanting to us if we are not first wanting to our selves This is what S. Austin sayes Facienti quod in se est Deus non deneg at gratiam That God does not deny his grace to him who does what is in his power And that promise of our Saviour may relieve and encourage us That our heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him Luke 11.13 Let us act then with the dependence of creatures and yet not relinquish the reason of men Let us not think to be drawn into an understanding and belief of those truths contained in the Scripture by the strength of a Miracle and upon the wheels of an extraordinary Providence to be snatched out of the pit of ignorance by an irresistible force and informed by an Apostolical illumination But let us use those means that are now put into our own power for the full apprehension of all divine and necessary truth and walk according to what we have already attained the knowledge of that our obedience according to what we have received may attest the sincerity of our minds And then if any thing yet remains which is necessary farther for us to know God will use some method or other to inform us and by his Spirit dispose our understandings to receive it For God shall reveal even this unto us and we have S. Paul's word for it Phil. 3.15 16. And thus I have now at length considered this promise of leading men into truth both as it concerned the Apostles and as it also relates unto our selves I have shewed how it guided them and how it does still lead us into Truth There is now but one thing more that will want only a brief reflection before I arrive at some practical Inferences from the whole discourse and that is the latitude of this Promise in relation to its object which as it hath been already discoursed on with reference to the Apostles so must it be explained in relation to our selves For this universal all truth must not be understood in the utmost extent it is capable of no more than it was with reference to the Apostles but it must be limited in these following particulars First The Spirit guides us into all truth which may be necessary for the ordering our conversations in this World suitable to the Religion we are baptized into There are directions published in Sacred Writ for our Christian deportment in all our various states and conditions From whence S. Paul in the general exhorts that our conversation be as it becometh the Gospel of Christ Phil. 1.27 Which would be a strange and insufficient direction were there not in it a compleat rule for our lives The duties of a Christian are either concerning God others or our selves As to the first we are commanded to worship God in spirit and in truth The devotion we pay him must be suitable to his being and the general rules given in the Gospel John 4.24 And we must love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind Matth. 22.37 As to the second we have this direction To do to others as we would have them do unto us Mat. 7.12 And to love our neighbours as our selves Matt. 22.39 And as to our selves we must walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness not in strife and envying Rom. 13.13 Nay our whole duty is comprehended in one Text of S. Paul who tells us that the Gospel teaches us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in the world Tit. 2.12 Piously towards God Righteously towards our Neighbours and soberly in relation to our selves Nor have we only these general directions but those also that are so particular that we may hence take the measure of our duties and such prudent advice is given in all the conditions that may happen to us That we are neither left without proper counsel nor yet without comfort and relief Secondly The Holy Spirit of Truth guides us into all those Divine Truths which we ought to believe and of these he has given us so exact an account that no new Article is to be added to that Faith which has been already delivered to the Saints The Apostles Creed in which are contained all things necessary to compleat our belief is in every Article revealed in the Scripture And men that go too far beyond it are apt to be wise over much and to think and conclude beyond sobriety and therefore Thirdly The Spirit thus guides us into all truth that concerns our future happiness and salvation It has informed us that there is such a state by bringing life and immortality to light in the Gospel and it has laid out and smooth'd the way that leads to it It has given some description of the state it self as far as
their Sovereigns Scepter that Christs alone may be exalted The murdering those that have Sacred Characters impress'd upon them is taking him that hindereth out of the way and all the usurping Tyrannies in tne world are exercised only to bring in such a blessed confusion that ambitious men may from the spoils of others build their own Nests on high and this shall be called the seating the Lord Jesus on his Throne though his Religion be made their own footstool But if they find the eyes of men open or their stomachs too nice to digest such hard things as these and that they refuse to embrace Devils when the flames appear through their thin garments and they are not cut long enough to hide their cloven feet They will effect by stratagem what they cannot by open force and an ambush shall destroy what a Field-Army cannot They will hide their leaven in some measures of meal till in the end all is leavened blend truth and error together and like the Gnosticks make a Religious mixture that shall have something of the Jew and something of the Christian that may look like what others profess but still add something of their own that poyson may be swallowed in a sweetned potion where men may take and yet never taste it The Saducees could deny the Resurrection from the dead and yet adhere to the Books of Moses The Pharisees could admit the Commandments of God and yet void them by their own Traditions The Arrians could own Christ to be the Saviour of the world and yet grant him only to be a Creature And the Socinians can acknowledge him the Redeemer of mankind and yet deny him to be a God by nature And amongst all these and many more error is entertain'd for the sake of those truths that cover it and not distinguishing betwixt the precious and the vile men often receive them both together The Papists profess the Apostles Creed but add as many Articles of their own And those that are averse to these will yet embrace many errors and are the more easily led towards them when they are dispersed amongst a great many truths But when we consider that one mouthful of pestilential Air may infect and destroy the man it is but reasonable all should be wary in choosing out wholsom habitations and since a little poyson may make us swell and burst asunder this may be more effectual to destroy than all the food we swallow with it can be to save and preserve us in full strength and vigour and by how much the more difficult it is to discern it the more careful we ought to be Thirdly False Prophets will be more difficult to be discerned and therefore more strictly to be examined by us because they will make their erroneous Doctrines to receive a seeming countenance from the Scriptures These are what we own to be our Rule and by these we judge of Doctrines and Opinions and therefore are unwilling to believe that to be false which many Texts are brought to prove Thus the Devil tempted our Saviour Matth. 4.6 when he would attempt the ruine of mankind and the disappointment of our Redeemer nay of the whole most blessed and glorious Trinity in contriving and carrying on such wonderful providence by perswading him to cast himself down from the Pinnacle of the Temple to make him sin in the destruction of himself and anticipating that death upon the Cross by which he was to become our Sacrifice he might tempt Providence and hazard himself If thou be the Son of God sayes he cast thy self down for it is written He will give his Angels charge over thee and with their hands they shall bear thee up lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone rendering the Text plausible to his purpose by omitting that part of keeping him in all his wayes But this was such a tryal of skill as rendered the Devil exceeding foolish because he that knew all things could not be ignorant of what he had omitted which was the key to open that promise Yet from this attempt of the Devil upon our Saviour have the deceivers of mankind throughout all Ages endeavoured to insinuate false Doctrines into the belief of others by bringing Texts of Scripture to prove them The instances are many and well known to those that are conversant in Books and Writings or have given themselves the variety and temptation to hear men of different opinion from us But alas How easie is it for one of no extraordinary skill to wrest the Scriptures both to his own and others ruine Nay S. Peter tells us that it is the common guilt of the unskilful and unlearned 2 Epist 3.16 How much more then may designing men that by guile endeavour to catch the ignorant this way impose upon their understandings by pretending Scripture to prove and countenance their false opinions especially among such as admit Texts for the sake of their number not their weight and more regard the sound of the words than the sense which is couched under them 'T is no difficult matter to mistake the sense of any Writing and then to plead it according to our own purpose and design Nor is it impossible for men to quote divers Texts that to ignorant men may by their sound seem to countenance their opinion that in their true meaning are nothing for them or else confirm a contrary proposition This the Papists and Dissenters know and this we are acquainted with our selves when we view Books whose Margins adorn them with multitudes of Texts which they pretend to prove the same thing by and yet upon a more strict examination do not at all make for their purpose And commonly when men multiply these beyond necessity to prove what is certainly confirmed by few that are plain and pertinent their Doctrine is either doubtful or false or else they do it to take up time and fill their discourses which their own barrenness cannot supply Because all Scripture being of Divine Authority if in any place it be plain and pertinent to the point which it is brought to confirm one Text is as good as a thousand and to quote many if some be impertinent the whole possibly may be suspected And therefore 't is not wisdom to do it but in points much controverted among Christians and in those especially for which the argument to prove them can be no other than Divine institution Fourthly If false Prophets cannot find as they never can and therefore deal in obscure places where the Text is as dark as the places retired into which they creep to lead silly women captive I say if they cannot find plain Scripture to countenance their opinions they will yet pretend visions and revelations which the perfection of the Scriptures disallows nor have they any argument to prove them besides confidence and a bold presumption Yet some are apt frequently to cry a Vision from the Lord when it is the fruit of their own phancies
they were commanded by God to be worn to remember them of the Law as well as to difference the Jews from other Nations and to prevent Idolatry as often as they look'd upon these Fringes which the God of Israel commanded them to wear Numb 15.38 Scrupulous were these men in relation to all the circumstances of Religion but they regarded not so much the substance of it nor what these things were ordain'd to signifie and represent We read of some in the Apostles dayes that had a form of Godliness who yet denied the power thereof 2. Tim. 3.4 And this continues still in the World and will so long as Religion is capable of being vailed with hypocrisie and one man cannot discern the inside of another 'T is but being strict in outward appearance and a wicked man may be accounted a Saint and if open and scandalous sins be avoided mens inside may be full of rottenness and corruption and they be canonized still Thus the Devil may be taken for an Angel of light if he can but hide his malice and his flames And men may cheat their Neighbours commit adultery or secret murder if their actions escape the notice of others and they make not themselves a spectacle to the world This the Ministers of Sathan do like him acting deeds of darkness within whilst yet a Candle is hung out at their doors that are earnest for reformation in other men but do not at all reform themselves only they endeavour to cover those faults which yet they will not strive to amend If they bless God with their mouths they care not if they blaspheme him in their hearts because their business is not to recommend themselves to God but unto those men whom they designingly delude God himself complains of such Atheistical hypocrites that turn things upside down that seek to hide their counsel from the Lord and their works are in the dark They draw near me sayes God with their mouth and with their lips do honour me but have remov'd their heart far from me Isai 29.13 And there is yet sufficient cause of lamenting the sad state of Professors of Christianity who are still beguiled with good words into ill practices and under a pretence of Religion are drawn to renounce it But yet in the midst of such various Principles preached to the World with noise and confidence with great zeal though little reason which therefore as an enemy some disgrace and vilifie they distract the minds of those that are unsetled disturb the peace of all Society both Civil and Religious draw men into Heresie and Schism and every evil work and make them think those Prophets inspired with the breath of God that swell only with their own passion and disgorge themselves in fire and brimstone among mankind And the Doctrines that cause these disorders they manage with such art and such suitable applications and have so many plausible pleas to the World by which they spread them with too much success over the minds of men That it must fully convince us of a necessity to use diligence in our enquiries and to try the Spirits whether they are of God and so much the more because many false Prophets are gone out into the world And thus I have done with the Arguments and Reasons why we should examine the Doctrines of those that come to preach Religion among us let their pretensions of Authority be what they will Though they arise as high as inspiration and aver their Commission to be from Heaven CHAP. VI. I Proceed now to my second Particular proposed about this duty of trying Spirits And that is to give you some Directions how to know when Doctrines propounded as coming from God are indeed revealed from Heaven and the Deliverers to be believed as inspired from above and accordingly to be entertained in the world Now because men are apt sometimes to rely on false characters of trial and there being several marks set up by men of various humours and interests to guide them in their way to Heaven by which they pretend they are able to direct themselves and others and try Doctrines and Opinions I shall make some brief reflections on them that no prejudice may remain to hinder us from embracing the true methods of trying mens Propositions in Religion Especially those who come with so great an authority as inspiration And 1. We meet with many in the world who suppose what they call the Church which they make as narrow and little as they can to be either that into which they ultimately resolve their Faith or at least to have such Authority as to determine all points in Religion and what rules are to be accepted as Divine and therefore by her judgment all Spirits and Doctrines are to be tried and determined But this Guide will many times be uncertain Nay false too if a Society of men called the Church agree upon such Principles as are erroneous which we find a thing not impossible when our present experience may inform us that Rome which would be the only Church and many separate Congregations in the World who yet assume the honour of a Church err in Articles of the Christian Faith and in many wayes of Discipline and Manners And this is no wonder at all when we consider that a Church is a Society of men and that every man is capable of error and that all Councils are managed by votes and these many times are given wrong not only through ignorance or inadvertency but humour and interest so far prevail in the opinions of many that we cannot yield their determinations to be infallible Especially since we often find great Assemblies managed by the tricks and devices of a few whose designs being beyond the reach of the multitude draw them by degrees into the consent to what had they foreseen they would never have yielded Were the promises indeed of an infallible direction from the Spirit of God made to all ages of the Church and tied to the Assemblies which Christians call Councils we could not reasonably dispute their determinations but must obey them But the promises of this nature being confined to the first planters of the Gospel that were to publish an infallible Rule to the world and neither made nor useful to future Generations but only to prove the certainty of the Gospel to which every Christian is to submit both his Faith and Practice it being a rule in all things necessary to salvation The things now ordained by any Church or Society of men whatever authority they may claim above us as necessary to salvation have neither strength nor authority unless it may be declared that they may be taken out of holy Scripture And therefore General Councils may err and have err'd in things pertaining to God as our Church declares in the twenty first Article 'T is true indeed the Church of the Jews had the Oracles of God committed to them They were custodes legis the keepers
of the Law So the Church among the Christians has the Gospel committed to her custody and has a power to determine in indifferent matters To order all the circumstances in Religion for decency order and edification and Authority to restrain such Controversies as tend to make a Schism and separation and dissolve that unity which Christians are frequently exhorted to keep So that although the Church be a witness and keeper of Holy Writ yet as it ought not to decree any thing against the same So besides the same ought it not to enforce any thing to be believed for necessity of salvation as our Church declares in her twentieth Article I shall not deny nor could I without singular pride and Arrogance but that Fathers and Councils and all Congregations of holy and judicious Christians much more Bishops and Governours of the Church treating about a point in Religion attempted to be introduced a new or being old is controverted in the world are with great deference to be attended to For every mans reason will urge this obligation to himself That his own judgement is rendered suspected when it opposes the common and united determination of persons that cannot justly be reproached with want either of skill or honesty And 't is ordinary for men to mistrust the sight of their own eyes when a multitude of others having the same advantage cannot behold what a single person pretends to see And in Religious affairs and such matters as are of great moment when persons of learning piety and authority in the holy Church of Christ assemble with solemnity and have a real intention to employ with all faithfulness and diligence those parts which God has bless'd and encreased to them by the advantage of a peculiar education and study invoking a Divine influence upon their endeavours to find out the truth and meaning of any difficult and controverted proposition We have great reason to incline to the belief of what these shall deliver for truth Unless the contrary be so apparent to us upon sufficient enquiry that there is no cause of hesitation at all This being the moderate opinion of our own Church we are opposed in it both by the Papist and Fanatick The former asserts that major est autoritas Ecclesiae quam Scripturae That the Authority of the Church is greater than that of the Scripture And that Traditiones sunt pari pietatis affectu cum Scripturis recipiendae Their Traditions are to be received with the same affection and devotion as the Scriptures And truly the latter come not far short of these but as much confine when it is in their power the belief as well as practice of their members to the determination of their Assemblies and little differ from the Roman infallibility in the end and design For if any Churches among our selves do yet affirm as they have formerly declared that the Kirk of Scotland was to be the pattern of their Reformation then I am sure they expect the same submission both in opinion and practice to their Assemblies determinations as a Popish Council do to their Canons or the Pope himself to his Decrees For to the Assembly held at Glasgow 1638 they swore that for judgement and practice they would adhere to the Determination of it though perhaps they knew not what it would determine But to leave the persons of those that stretch the power of a Church beyond the Authority God has given her There are three Reasons which plainly shew that any Church or Council of men cannot lay down any Propositions which derive their utmost Authority from themselves that may be the ultimate Rules by which the Doctrines and Opinions of others are to be judged 1. Because God to whom our Religion relates has appointed a rule that being superiour to the inventions of men must bind their fancies and opinions in these things and determine their Faith with those general actions that are deem'd Religious To what purpose were the Scriptures given to the World if they were not to be Rules and Directions to men Nay God being the Creator of all things and in reason claiming the Supreme Sovereignty over the things which he has made It is in his power to impose what Laws he will upon the world and 't is most suitable to his goodness to reveal them That men may not err for want of knowledge nor their thoughts contradict the will of their Maker Now this he has done in the holy Scriptures which are sufficiently authorized by his own Sanction in that Miracles attended their first publication which are as it were the Broad Seal of Heaven that prove them Gods own Act and Deed when they no way contradict the natural Notions and the prime foundations of the Religion of men The Scriptures therefore being thus given and confirmed to us must either be our Supreme Direction and an infallible guide in matters of Religion or else they were deliver'd to no purpose or to cheat and delude mankind The former consists not with the wisdom of God and the latter would contradict both his goodness and his truth All the difficulty then will be whether this Rule is sufficient to guide us in the Doctrine and practice of Religion so that we need not any new inspiration or any rules to be superadded beyond the sence of Scripture it self to conduct men in their way to Heaven And consequently whether we may by them judge of all Doctrines and Opinions without the help of the Roman infallibility or what is the same in another dress the unerring Spirit of the Enthusiast But admitting the Scriptures to be of Divine Authority they themselves are a sufficient testimony of their own perfection whilst they declare that they proceeded from Divine inspiration to be profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnish'd unto all good works 2 Tim. 3.16 2. No Canons or Decrees of whatever bears the name of Church or Council can be a Rule of trying Doctrines in Religion so as to be ultimate and Supreme Because all the conclusions and propositions of these are themselves the Doctrines and Opinions of men either with or without the pretence of inspiration and all Doctrines are to be tried themselves For this must be included as I have sufficiently proved in S. John's direction try the Spirits whether they are of God That therefore which is subject to an higher Tribunal cannot be it self the highest nor what is appointed solely to aid us in our trial and examination of Opinions nor the utmost Rule by which we must examine them Lastly If the Doctrines of the Prophets and Apostles of old nay of Christ himself the Saviour of the World were lyable to the examinations of men it being natural to mankind to try the truth of any Propositions before they believe them Then certainly no assembly of men can now in reason pretend such authority to impose their own
they might be sure to divide the Word aright and Glorious like the streams of Fire not only to represent the Majesty and Divinity of the Holy Ghost or to signifie the clearness and perspicuity of the Gospel but to enflame the zeal and warm the devotion of these Apostles Nay they were both Fiery and Cloven that their zeal might not be divorced from knowledge but one might administer to the other and both to him who influenced them with this Spirit This made them at once the admiration and envy of the World This made their Doctrine glorious and triumphant and confirmed it with Miracles beyond the force of malice and contradiction This caused the Church to spring from the Blood of Martyrs made it live in the midst of spight and flourish on the tops of Crosses and Gibbets to shine gloriously in the midst of flames and triumph over death it self though its members were killed all the day long This gave the Apostles the prevision of those things which in our Saviours life they were not able to bear at the same time giving them a prospect of their misery and their comforts too This brought to their remembrance what their Master had before taught them and inspired them to the instruction of others that they might build the Christian Church upon that Corner-Stone which though rejected of men was in it self elect and precious Thirdly The Holy Spirit came also upon the hearts of believers The Samaritans that believed received the Holy Ghost Acts 8.17 and whilst S. Peter was preaching occasion'd by the conversion of Cornelius the Holy Ghost fell on those that heard him Acts 10.44 And though as to those glorious effects of that power which at first was frequent in working Miracles and inspiring men to speak divers languages for the proof and early propagation of the Gospel it now withdraws its force and operation yet it still continues that necessary influence which impresses the minds of devout men and assists them in the performance of their duty and arms them with patience and resolution This Doctrine of the Spirits working upon the minds of men is too frequently contradicted even by such as seem to want the assistance of some strength superiour to their own whilst to avoid one Rock they run upon another To escape that Enthusiasm which has too much disturb'd the World and led men into darkness and error they reject the conduct of Gods Holy Spirit when he would lead them into the way of truth Men are so cautious lest they should infringe the uncontroulable liberty of their own wills that they intrench upon the Divine Providence and endeavour to bind their God in chains that he may sit fast in Heaven to very little purpose If there were no such thing as a Divine influence and benediction from above to what purpose would our prayers be Why should we petition for those things which we are assured we shall never receive Or how can any pray in faith for what they believe will never come We mock our Maker to his very face when we say Turn thou us O good Lord and so shall we be turned if God has no hand in the conversion of a sinner and it would be prophane and ridiculous to pray for the being or increase of grace if God did not influence our minds Nay he that rejects this principle boldly pleads the cause of Epicurus against Christ and the Philosophy of an Heathen countermands the Divinity of a Christian For how can God rule the world exercise his Empire over the Powers of the Earth how can he controll the purposes of men and rebuke their actions when they contradict the counsels of his Will and the designs of his Providence if he does not immediately influence their wills as well as propose objects to their senses I know we are too apt to disbelieve those things which we do not fully understand and to expunge that out of our Creed which is not plainly evident to our reason But can it appear to be just and equal to reject a Being because we understand not the manner of its existence Or to deny such effects as we see because we have not a view of the Cause which is invisible If so then farewel the sublimest Articles of the Christian Faith And not only so but the first Principle of all Religion the Being of a God which no mortal eye ever saw nor can a finite Being frame a compleat Idea of him Shall I deny the Creation of the World because I know not the manner of its Makers operation when he sent forth his Fiat Nor how so rare a Systeme of things could be produced out of nothing pre-existent Must I reject Spirits because I cannot see them or all the operations of immaterial Beings upon the corporeal substances of this World because motion amongst bodies is made by contact and I cannot apprehend how a Spirit can work upon a body when none but bodies can touch one another Who can tell how our souls work upon our bodies And yet none is so senceless as to deny it Nay who can describe the manner of our souls union to our bodies And yet no man will refuse to own the thing or will any one deny the parts of bodies to be united to each other because the term of their union was never yet so fully resolved as to baffle all objections to the contrary Why should we then doubt of the holy Spirits influencing the minds of men because the manner of operation is intricate and inexplicable When we find it by the independence of our thoughts and those good suggestions crowded into the midst of some evil contrivances where no other reason can be given of them but that they are injected from above that we may fully convince our selves by our own experience that God works by his Spirit and concurs with the motions of rational beings when they incline to comply with his operations The wind bloweth where it listeth sayes our Saviour and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth so is every one that is born of the Spirit John 3.8 We all believe that the wind blows when it becomes obvious to our senses And yet the causes of these different winds and the reason of this swift motion of the Air have puzled the wisest and most inquisitive Philosophers God is therefore said by the Prophet to bring the winds out of his treasures Jer. 51.16 And in the Book of Job we find that they break out of the chamber and secret places So we discern the fruits and effects of the Spirit though we cannot account for the manner of producing them And therefore 't is not unreasonable to believe the influence of Gods Spirit upon the minds of men For 1. 'T is possible 2. Necessary 3. From the Scripture infallibility certain First The operation of the Holy Ghost upon the souls of men is possible Our Saviour to rebuke the