Gal. 5.22 Not only that they are the fruits of the Gospel which is sometimes phrased by the word Spirit in opposition to those legal observations which being carnal ordinances are called flesh But they are so the fruits of the Spirit that as he first dictated the Rule so does he also concurr to the actions If the Evil Spirit could carry Christ to be tempted in the Wilderness Shall we not think the good Spirit could relieve him too If the Prince of the power of the Air can be a Spirit working in the children of disobedience Ephes 2.2 Shall we conclude the Holy Ghost less active or powerful to work in those who resign their wills by the direction of his Laws to his most sacred and safe conduct The promise of life and eternal salvation is made to us upon this condition that through the Spirit we mortifie the deeds of the body Rom. 8.13 And though many things concur with the influences of the holy Spirit to effect so great and victorious triumphs Yet all causes act with a dependence upon this glorious power which works in us both to will and to do when we prepare our selves for its reception by endeavouring what in us layes to work out our salvation with fear and trembling Philip. 2.12 13. Preaching Prayers Meditation and hearing the word of God are ordinary means to convert a sinner from the error of his way And yet S. Paul though he sufficiently magnifies the Preachers Office sayes that we are only workers together with God 2 Cor. 6.1 And 't is well for us all when God assists and blesses our endeavours And God grant that those who attend such sacred institutions being swift to hear may never be so swift also as to depart without a blessing Having thus both asserted and explained the coming of the holy Spirit to influence men the certainty of its operation and the necessity of its influence which makes up this Chapter of my discourse I shall close it with a brief request to all who desire so to approve themselves to God here that they may not be rejected by him hereafter That they would use all possible diligence to obtain and keep the blessing and influence of this holy Spirit which gives them such great assistance in sanctifying their minds and ordering all the actions of their lives That they would well use the grace they have received that so they may be capable of more in the hour of trial and at the day of temptation That they would pray frequently for new supplies of aid and assistance And that they would never by a vicious and unholy life grieve the Spirit and cause it to desert them lest through too much confidence in themselves they at last prove both Cowards and Apostates CHAP. XI HAving in the former Chapter in some measure proved that the Holy Spirit of God descended according to the predictions of the Prophets and the promise of our Saviour I shall now enquire into his work and business in this world amongst men who were rational and intellectual Beings Who might as some men are apt to think have well enough propagated Christian Doctrine when they had heard it from our Saviours own mouth and had for some time daily conversation with him Without any other new assistance besides the miraculous gift of tongues And what employment the Spirit of God could possibly have among other men As they will not be Religious enough to know So truly they are yet very much to seek However I shall adventure without calling any men names to shew according to my steady and long continued though mean thoughts what the sacred Spirit of God has done and yet does to guide men into the wayes of truth In the promises where Christ who was truth it self engages for the Spirits corning into the World in a more plentiful manner than in foregoing periods He seems to be described as a person different from the Father and the Son And I shall instance in one eminent promise to this purpose John 16.13 Howbeit when he the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth Now that our great and most blessed Redeermer of men speaks of a person here And not of what is said to be an afflatus divinus only as some have interpreted this place to void the Doctrine of the most glorious Trinity Which is the great and I had almost said the distinguishing Article of the Christian Faith is plain from the terms of this Text Because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is prefix'd to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He the Spirit of truth And this latter part which is a Periphrasis does but acquaint us who the Person was Even the Holy Ghost the third Person in the most Glorious Trinity God blessed for evermore Now this profound mystery of the Trinity however inexplicable it may seem to be in all particulars to the understandings of men who are loth to think that any Beings are above their great capacities and reasonings Yet it has been alwayes believ'd by the Orthodox through all the Ages of the Christian Church And it is a point sufficient if there were no other to baffle the Heathen Objection against our Religion viz. That it cannot be Divine because there is no Mystery in it But I design not to treat in this discourse with any that own not Christ to be the Messiah The great King and Saviour of the World And therefore shall only acquaint the Reader That Jesus himself seems to take great care to insinuate and fix this fundamental point in the particular promises of the Holy Ghost Lest any persons mighty in reason and wonderful in argument should refuse to believe such a Mystery as this when apparently revealed because their own reason is not able to conclude the thing or their language cannot fully explain it In the fourteenth of Saint Johns Gospel the sixteenth Verse our blessed Saviour acquaints his Disciples for their comfort and encouragement with this great promise I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever Even the Spirit of truth Here is one praying another sending and a third given So is it also at the twenty sixth Verse of the same Chapter But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you Here is the Father sending in the Sons name or upon his account the Holy Ghost to teach the Apostles those things which our Saviour had more briefly hinted to them And such things also which the Apostles through prejudice could not then receive And to bring those parts of the Christian Doctrine to their remembrance which they through human frailty might forget That so they might be fitted to be the publishers and the sacred and infallible Pen-men of the most excellent Principles of the Christian Religion And that
troubled the Church perverted the Gospel of Christ Gal. 1.7 But this is no argument against the sufficiency or plainness of the Scripture in things necessary to our eternal salvation For they are usually more obscure Texts that are to exercise the more Learned and Critical part of men upon which Heresies are founded And this too frequently is occasioned by men that wrack and torture their understanstandings to conceive such things as are not here perfectly to be known Or if they are to be fathomed by other men yet are above the reach of those who thus ignorantly and erroneously apprehend them Thus S. Peter speaking of S. Paul's Epistles sayes that in them there are some things hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the other Scriptures unto their own destruction 2 Pet. 3.16 But another sort there are too that have too much subtilty to be accounted ignorant Who are some of he perverse disputers of the world that first suit their Tenets to their interest and then violently press the Scriptures to prove what they were never intended for We should never else have heard This is my Body brought to prove that absurd Doctrine of Transubstantiation Nor Feed my Sheep to prove the Popes Supremacy Nor He will guide you into all truth to prove his Infallibility Nor He shall be saved yet so as by fire to prove a Purgatory When all these Texts are capable of fairer and more plain interpretations to another and more coherent sense But that the ambition of some men would entitle themselves to the government of the rest And then frame others belief to render them tame for such a tyranny and to be subject to whatsoever they will impose when all this while they suit the Articles of the Churches Faith to the encrease of their own Wealth the better to support their Pride and Usurpation Nay on the other side we have those amongst our selves who call the Pope names and yet embrace his Doctrine And tie that infallibility which they rob the Roman Chair of to their own single and Enthusiastick determinations Who by misunderstanding some Texts of Scripture direct themselves by a private impulse and then muster these to defend it But the Flower is not the less fragrant for that the Spider thence will suck for poison Nor does the Scripture cease to be a safe and sufficient Rule to those who soberly apprehend and follow it Notwithstanding some may wrest and misapply it Nor does the Spirit at any time contradict it self He having therefore inspired some men to commit a Rule to writing for future Generations to read and understand and put forth a Law that is sufficiently plain and perspicuous And men having reason and understanding enough assisted by the Spirits ordinary directions to guide themselves by the measures of this Rule and Law into all truth He expects now that they should order themselves as they do by all human Laws That is to believe upon the Authority of the Imposer and live proportionably to so great a favour and labour to understand what he has put into their power to know Remembering that of wise Agur Add thou not unto Gods words lest he reprove thee and thou be found a liar Prov. 30.6 The authority God has given to the Governors of his Church empowers them to command or alter circumstantials that all things may be done decently and in order In these we are to obey them that have the rule over us and to submit our selves Heb. 13.17 But no men are authorized to usurp the Throne of God himself To create new Articles of Faith Or impose other primary rules of duty than what they find written in the Scriptures They are only to confirm and explain them For as we must not think of men so neither of Doctrines above what is written Our language and design must be the same with S. Paul To deliver that which we also received 1 Cor. 15.3 So may we be workers together with God And when the world in the wisdom of God that is by the works of God which demonstrate his wisdom knows not God it may please him by the foolishness of preaching i. e. what some men account folly to save them that believe 1 Cor. 1.21 And this leads me to the next particular in which the Holy Spirit of God guides us that are remote from the Apostles Age into all truth which they delivered By inclining the minds of some men to continue that Ministry that must have its succession unto the end of the World And this is the second way of the Spirits conduct That in all Religious Constitutions which have been in the World there has been a separate and appointed Ministry is more notorious than to spend words in the proof of it 'T is too deeply planted in the minds of men and it bears an equal date with the Law of Nature fix'd in us Without this publick Worship cannot have its constant and orderly Being And had not this been established with the constitution of Christianity it would not only have been in a worse condition than any Religion which has possessed the world But than any Trade or Occupation among us to the obtainment of which men must be learners before they become able Workmen Or are permitted to exercise their particular Callings amongst any well ordered and embodied Society The separation therefore of some men from the generality of Christians was first made by our Saviour himself When he called the Apostles and sent forth the seventy Disciples to preach the Gospel unto human creatures And when the time of his departure from the world was come When he was to be received into his Fathers Kingdom in such a triumph as became a Conquerour and one to whom all power was given He delivers his full Commission to his Apostles substituting them in his own stead to rule his Church and to ordain their Successors That like the Tribe of Levi they might be legitimate and by a continued and distinguishable descent they might be perpetuated to the end of the World As my Father sent me sayes Christ so send I you John 20.21 Or as S. Matthew describes it All power is given to me both in Heaven and in Earth Go ye therefore and teach all Nations Baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you And lo I am with you alway to wit in the exercise of this power by your selves and Successors to the end of the world Matth. 28.18 19 20. These are some of those gifts our Saviour gave unto men when he ascended upon high Ephes 4.8 For he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers For the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ This is to endure 'till we all come into the
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
it might by their means be in its purity free from mixture delivered to all the succeeding generations of mankind And now by the way what a slender plea have any Enthusiasts of this age for any new revelations of Doctrine beyond what Christ preached to the World Since the Holy Ghost himself was never promised to the very Apostles to any such end and purpose For it cannot with any reason be supposed but that Christ whilst he was preaching in the world delivered a compleat Body of his Doctrine And had he not whatever becomes of a jus divinum for the government of the Church He had certainly been less careful than Moses And yet the Author to the Hebrews says He was faithful to him that made or appointed him as also Moses was faithful in all his house Heb. 3.2 But not to endeavour to work Miracles and restore sight to such as are resolved to be still blind and to shut their eyes against the light of the Sun because it will discover that their deeds are evil when darkness does at once as well increase as inspire wilfulness or melancholy To leave also any farther explication of the Doctrine of the Trinity Which I have hinted to you as well to mind you of the solemnity of a necessary Festival of our Church as to cause men to adore what they cannot understand to admire that with which they cannot be familiar to praise what they cannot comprehend and to believe that Mystery which is plainly revealed Though they cannot unriddle the thing it self To come more closely therefore to the business I have in hand The Holy Ghost promised is said to be the Spirit of truth And this not only 1. Because he is Spiritus verax as Slichtingius would have it to comport with his endeared notion of afflatus divinus Nor only is he a true Spirit either in original or operation in opposition to what is gross and sensual Nor 2. because he truly and really proceeds from the Father And consequently has Authority enough to produce a faith in us which must be Divine Nor 3. because being in unity with that Father and Son from whom he does proceed he must be truth it self as S. John stiles him 1. Epist 5. Chap. 6. and consequently cannot be guilty of a falshood unless we suppose that God may lie which the Apostle assures us is impossible Heb. 6.18 And reason also concludes such a Being to be void of this to whom we ascribe all possible perfection But Lastly he is called a Spirit of truth in relation to his Office and Employment Because he guides others into truth Though from the precedent acceptations and account given of his appellation we may reasonably infer his capacity to instruct and guide others into all truth And that the Apostles who were so miraculously guided delivered nothing to be the rule of mens lives but what was true and came from God and therefore what they delivered is to be both believed and obeyed And thus I am come to the last and principal particular that I aim at in this Part of my Discourse in which is contained the Office of the Holy Ghost in this particular and the substance of this promise viz. He will guide you into all truth Now this Conduct of the Spirit of truth must be considered two wayes 1. As it related to the Apostles and first Disciples of our blessed Saviour 2. As it concerns the whole Church of Christ that is or shall be Militant in this World First Let us consider the holy Spirit of God as influencing and directing the Apostles and first planters of Christianity to whom this promise was principally made And as it did concern all so was it promised to all to guide them into all those truths that compleated the Articles of the Christian Faith or were to be left as standing directions for the lives and actions of those who should embrace this Religion He does not call S. Peter out and make this promise of infallibility to him excluding all the rest from this advantage Nor does he here accost him in the name of the other Apostles as he does in that other Text on which the Pope superstructs his Supremacy We find indeed S. Thomas S. Philip and S. Jude interrupting his discourse by proposing questions for him to explain But the last time he spake to Peter we find him at once rebuking his confidence and fore-telling his sin Nay a crime so great as to deny him John 13.38 And therefore all the rest of his intervenient discourse can concern him no more than it did his Brethren And 't is well if at present it did as much which if others would be contented with we might easily grant it and must do so if we would not prove his Epistles to want an inspiration from above This promise then concerning the Apostles and primitive planters of the Christian Doctrine so far as it was useful to their extraordinary conduct we must examine and enquire what assistance the Spirit gave them to guide them into all truth And this he did in five particulars First By an improvement of their understandings Ordering and directing the Ideas of their minds that they might be able to frame adequate conceptions of the truths which they were to deliver to the World And as he that created the eye can see and he that formed the ear can hear So he that made the Soul it self and endued it with all its faculties and powers must needs be able to impress the understanding with any notions he is pleased to infuse by the powerful operations of his Holy Spirit Now that he did exert such an influence had we no testimony from the Scriptures themselves will easily appear to any sober and considerate inquirer that shall compare the education and condition of the Apostles with those admirable Doctrines which they delivered unto the world Though S. Paul was bred at the feet of Gamaliel yet his learned Education made him but the greater persecutor of the Christians and more prejudiced against the Doctrine of our Saviour 'Till he was converted by a Miracle and a light had first dazled his eyes and struck him blind whilst a greater did illuminate his understanding and by its brighter glory darken and blot out those prejudicate notions that seemed before to irradiate his mind Though S. Luke was born and bred in an University the City of Antioch the Metropolis of Syria a place furnished with Schools of literature Though he had applied himself to the study of Physick to which Philosophy was a necessary preparative Though be had studied in the Schools of Greece and Egypt and seasoned his mind with learned accomplishments so far improving the abilities of his nature And though to all this he was a Jewish Proselyte and so far prepared for the Kingdom of God Yet all this signified but little and would certainly have opposed Christianity with the greater strength and more subtilty had he not been first