know not but this I know by Experience in others and even while this is Printing that there is great need of Good Admonition For I find by divers such Experiences that God is pleased at this time to give some sensible Notices of his Conduct to many who are in some sort in the Case of Samuel 1 Sam. 3.7 who then did not know the Lord neither was the Word of the Lord yet revealed to him and when they come to the Priest who should be as Eli to them to direct them how to behave themselves are by him put quite out of the Way and either dismissed to the Physician to be cured of Melancholy or advised to some cheerful innocent Conversation or to mind their Business in their Callings or to reject the Impressions they feel as Fancies and vain Fears and Scruples And many Cases there are wherein some of these Directions might be proper but there are many others wherein they are all quite out of the Way and wherein great Faults have been to my knowledge and I doubt are daily committed by Learned and otherwise able and good Men partly through Ignorance in these Matters or common Prejudice against them partly for fear of incouraging what they see many abuse to their own hurt and to the Scandal of others and partly for fear of bringing upon themselves the Censure and Reproach of inclination to Fanaticism or Enthusiasm and thereby at once the Grace and special Favour of God is rejected the poor Soul greatly disappointed at least if no worse happen to it and the Director must be accountable for both But to make a matter of so great Importance the more plain it may not be amiss to propose an instance or two of some Cases A Person wants an Employment and an Employment is offered but the Person hath strong Impressions either not to accept it or not to continue it being otherwise supplyed for the present and thereupon repairs to some noted Divine for Advice The Divine considers that the Person needs an Employment and upon Examination can discover nothing unlawful in the Employment nor unfit for the Person and thereupon confidently adviseth to reject the Impression and embrace and continue the Employment Such Advice as this proves in the event to one unsuccessful all his time to another his Ruine and Vndoing as to his Temporal Estate to another the Occasion of the Loss of his Life and to another the hazard if not loss of his Soul and all this by such Means and Occasions as could not be foreseen or discovered by any Mortal but are plainly seen and foreseen by some kind invisible Friends concerned for us Again a young Woman who is not at all proud if we will believe her only she desires to be like other-Folks but she finds something within her that tells her or suggests that she 'll be damned if she wear such a Dress Hereupon she goes for Advice to a Divine He being more cautious in such cases tells her that since she may both lawfully and decently wear another meaner or plainer she should have a care that she doth not reject such Motions in her Mind For many times things which are not damnable Sins in themselves may be Occasions and Inlets to such as are and Hindrances of Graces and so produce such unhappy consequence at last But not liking this Advice away she goes to another of greater note and he tells her that since that Dress is not unlawful it cannot be a Damnable Sin to wear it and therefore whatever it was it could not be the Spirit of God that did so fright her but she must have a care of such things lest she run into Fanaticism and I know not what And this she likes and follows till the tricking up of her Natural Beauty proves a Snare to her self and others the kind Impressions which she formerly had upon occasion cease her Devotion grows cool and she relapseth again into the common Course of the World and what will be the end of it God knows What I have had experience of in my self and my own Family partly for want of due regard to such Notices and too much yielding to Motives of Moral Prudence and partly by such unhappy Resolutions of Cases by others would be too long to relate particularly I have had no less than four Sons undone in this City all as likely Youths as any and all after their disappointments by their Behaviour gaining the Favour and Kindness of all they conversed with and in the placing of them spared neither Cost nor Pains nor Care and took the best Advice I could have at first made choice of such for Masters as I expected to act upon Principles of Religion afterward such as I expected Friendship at least Moral Honesty and Humanity from them but was disappointed in all And I know assuredly that all did proceed from such Causes as I have in general mentioned already and had notice of it in general before It is a great Vnhappiness to this Church and Nation at this time that we have so few of any considerable Experience in these things especially among those who should be Guides to others And it is their Great Sin and without due Repentance will prove Damnation to many that they have been so bug-beared by a fluttering Sadducean Atheistical Humour and base prudential Compliance of some of greater Name than genuine Christian Vertue as to be ashamed or afraid to assert or own so great and noble a Principle of the Religion they profess And therefore besides my own special Obligations and concern for the Honour and Service of God and of our Holy Religion Pity to the many Souls which I perceive destitute of true Spiritual Direction and Indignation at the Baseness Folly and Madness of so many Prudentialists amongst us hath made me for some time to long for an Opportunity to bear my Testimony in the Case The Motive in my collecting the other Discourse which though written last and by the by according to its proper order is here first was to detect a Misapplication of Truth and retort his Argument against himself who had so grossly and rudely treated the Business of Fanaticism without due regard to that Sacred Principle of Religion which is pretended in it or to the most noble and heroick Professors and Observers of it But in this degenerate Age God hath not left himself without Witness but raised up some of a more generous Spirit such as Mr. Smith of Cambridge the late profound Dr. Cradoc whom I much esteemed for his Generosity as well as Judgment in Preaching up this Doctrine who told me he had Preached 20 or 30 Sermons upon it and that if we deny that we may burn our Bibles for he knew not he said what Religion would signifie without it and the Learned Mr. Matthew Scrivener who hath left us a Discourse concerning Mystical Divinity Intituled The Method and Means to a true Spiritual Life and others to say
his management hath not given too much Advantage or at least Occasion to the common Adversaries Infidels and Deists But as to this cause O. N. hath so fully answered all Cavils at the Terms of Art that it seems he left little to be replyed to and therefore for Answer our Author is reduced to these two shifts 1. To inculcate the Unintelligibleness of Mystick Theology from the cessation of the discursive Faculty at the time of Contemplation which is all that the Mystick Writers intend as if all Men in the very act of intent listening to Sounds or beholding something extraordinary did not the like in a great measure 2. To make a great Bravado as if he had the Authority of the whole Church of Christ against all Visions immediate Revelations Extasies c. in the case of Montanus Whereas what was condemned in Montanus and his Companions was not the pretending to Visions and Revelations but pretending such to be Divine which were not but Diabolical as appeared both by the Manner and by the Matter being Heresie as is very plain in the ancient Writer in Eusebius l. 5. c. 16. When the Faithful throughout Asia had met often and in many places of Asia upon this account and had inquired into this New Doctrine and determined it to be prophane and rejected this Heresie they were expelled out of the Church And before he relates how Montanus his Ambition gave the Enemy an Entrance into himself and he was filled with the Devil and of a sudden possest with a furious and frantick Temper of Mind c. So he saith of Theodotus that he was possest with a false Extasie which plainly implies true ones believed then contrary to what our Author doth pretend To say that it hath no Foundation in the Christian Doctrine and yet to pass by so many Testimonies of Scripture produced for it with no better answer than what amounts to a Concession deserves no other reply than only to note it To mistake and mis-represent Mens Words through Ignorance is a Fault but more especially in Men pretending to Learning and Knowledge yet hath that some excuse by reason of the Humane Infirmity incident to all But to do it wilfully deliberately and seeking Occasions is not only different from but contrary to the Spirit of Christianity But what is it then if it be in despight of that which is really true and the Operations of the Spirit of Grace To say that the Case of Montanus was the very Case of Mystical Vnions and that the Spirit of Montanus was rejected in the Christian Church as a Fanatick Enthusiastical Spirit as if the Case of Mystical Unions was the Case of that Spirit so rejected with other expressions to like purpose are fit to be considered afterward if they were not well considered before-hand There is a passage which he recites out of the Spiritual Exercises of the Jesuites p. 31 32. edit 1574. viz. It is the great Perfection of a Christian to keep himself indifferent to do what God shall reveal to him and not to determine himself to do what he hath already revealed and taught in the Gospel which is very gross indeed if the meaning be what he would have us to believe and indeed so gross that it is not to be believed to be their meaning if it be to be found there and fairly translated but since it is capable of another construction viz. not to confine ones self to what is revealed in general but to be indifferent as to things not determined but lest indifferent to do as God shall direct I know not what can be said of any weight against it Such a Construction had been but according to their own Rule Christianum unumquemque pium debere promptiore animo Sententiam seu Propositionem obscuram alterius in bonam trahere partem quam damnare c. Exercit. Spirit p. 65. edit Ant. 1676. 8o. which had been more worthy of our Author's Observation Nor do I see any reason to alledge as an Instance or Proof of their Fanaticism that Custom of Ignatius and his Companions related by Orlandinus lib. 1. n. 111. viz. In any matter of Debate they were to joyn together in Prayer and after seeking God what Opinion the most were of that they resolve upon Where was the Fault in this in joyning in Prayer or in agreeing with the Majority If the Odium of the Name will excuse any thing with the vulgar yet it becomes neither Christianity nor Ingenuity nor is it consistent with true Prudence to condescend to such mean Objections Over-doing doth often spoil a good Work and disparage and discredit the Author The Errors and Miscarriages of Devout People ought to be pitied mentioned with Grief and not exposed beyond Truth or Necessity For that makes sport for the Devils and wicked Men gives Scandal to weak Men promotes Uncharitableness and Irreligion and discomposeth and disordereth the Spirit of him that doth it He who judgeth others ought to take care that they rise not up in Judgment hereafter against himself How will that Fanaticism which carries Men to the farthest part of the World for the Conversion of Infidels to Christianity rise up in Judgment against them who suffer their own Parishes and Diocesses of professed Christians at home to sink into Insidelity for want of due Care and sufficient Instruction And how will the Excess of Devotion if it be so in some Spiritual Writers rise up in Judgment against such as will be found to have given occasion to Tepidity Carelessness and Neglect of the most Spiritual Exercises of Religion NOTES and OBSERVATIONS to discern Illusions from Divine Inspirations THERE is another part of the Quarrel which our Author hath to this Mystical Divinity besides that that it is unintelligible as he says viz. That it leads Persons into strange Illusions of Fancy which he takes to be a great Injury not only to those Melancholy Souls that are led through this Valley of Shades and Darkness but to the Christian Religion it self Which if true is a just Cause of Quarrel indeed But if well consider'd no greater Cause than others have against the Holy Scriptures because some wrest them to their own Destruction 2 Pet. 3.16 It is true many Persons have been impos'd upon by their own Fancies and many more by Satan transformed into an Angel of Light but must we therefore deny that there are any true Divine Illuminations Inspirations Motions or Communications It is therefore very necessary to be well considered How they may be distinguished And because O. N. in the Book which our Author answers hath a Discourse on that Subject which hath passed his Examination without any hard censure which is an implicit Approbation that may not improperly here be added FOR the discerning of such Illusions proceeding from Satan from the true Inspirations of God's Holy Spirit we affirm That many Notes and Observations there be whereby they may be known if not certainly whether Divine as
when he afterward appeals to the Experience of others I have also observed as well from what he hath said upon several Occasions as from divers Passages in his Writings that he had from his younger time in all his Life not only a great respect to this secret Guidance of the Spirit of God but also so great a Sense of the Malice Subtlety and Energy of the Evil Spirits as made him very vigilant against them And I doubt not but his constant and reverend Attendance to that Holy Conduct and his Vigilance against the Wiles and Devices of those invisible Enemies were a principal Means whereby he became so Great and Good a Man as he was This is genuine Christianity and therefore it cannot but move Indignation in the Hearts of True Christians to see so Great and Noble a Principle of their Religion to be so unworthily expos'd contemned and reproached as this hath been in our Times partly by sensual Bruits partly by conceited animal Pretenders to Reason and partly by inconsiderate Opposers of Enthusiasm Nay it is a Principle not peculiar to the times of the Incarnation of the Eternal Logos and succeeding Ages but made manifest by that Light which enlighteneth every Man that cometh into the World unto all pious and virtuous Souls from the beginning and it is a dangerous sign of an empty bewidowed deserted Soul for any Man to speak slightly or irreverently of so Holy a Principle That Excellent Philosopher and Emperor Antoninus besides divers other Passages to the purpose hath expressed himself in one place in the very words before used by our Author Seneca affirms it Bonus Vir sine Deo nemo est besides many Passages to this purpose And Cicero besides what more largely elsewhere Nemo vir Magnus sine aliquo Afflatu Divino unquam fuit Socrates is notorious and Plato and his Followers Plotinus Porphyrius Jamblicus Proclus c. are known and confess'd to have been of the same Judgment as also the Chaldaick and Egyptian Philosophers The same is observ'd of Democritus That he thought that there were no Men Wise besides those who were inspir'd with a Divine Influence And Theophrastus and indeed all the better Philosophers are noted to have had the same Sentiments And even Aristotle himself as great a Rationalist as he was hath plainly expressed himself to have been of the same Judgment in several places In one among the rest to this effect They who are moved by a Divine Instinct ought not to consult Humane Reason but follow the Interior Instinct because they are moved by a better Principle than Humane Reason And that the same Sentiments were among the Gentiles in very ancient times we may observe in the Sacred Scriptures Dan. 4.8 and 5.11 and long before Job 32.8 33.14 15 16. and Gen. 41.38 and 39.3 and before 26.28 and before that 21 22. And for the Jews it is very plain that in those Excellent Books of Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus by the Name of Wisdom this Divine Influence and Conduct is intended And for the Christians the Doctrine of our Saviour and his Apostles is so express to this purpose that they who would evade the genuine Sense of their Words are forced to strain their Wits to the utmost and their Consciences too I doubt if they be not stupified before hand I need not recite the places which every one may have recourse to at pleasure and therefore it may be sufficient to note them under several Heads as I. The Predictions of the Prophets Isa 44.3 54.13 recited by our Saviour Jo. 6.45 Jer. 31.33 34. Ezek. 11.19 36.26 27. Joel 2.28 recited by St. Peter and applyed not only to the Christians then but to those also who should come after Act. 2.17 33.39 Zech. 12.10 Mat. 3.11 II. Promises of our Saviour Luk. 11.13 Jo. 7.39 14 16 17 23 26 15.26 16.7 Lu. 24.49 Act. 1.4 8 2.38 III. The Accomplishment of these Predictions and Promises 1. In the Original visible Effusion on the day of Pentecost upon the Apostles and Primitive Christians Act. 2.2 3 4 33. 2. By a Ministerial Communication Act. 8.15 17 10.44 19.6 Gal. 3.2 5 14. 2 Tim. 1.6 2 Cor. 3.6 8. 3. By internal Residence and Operation Illumination and Sanctification Rom. 8.9 11. 1 Cor. 3.16 6.19 Eph. 2.22 2 Tim. 1.14 1 Jo. 2.24 Gal. 4.6 1 Thess 4.8 2 Cor. 13. 〈…〉 2.13 4. By special and particular Manifestation and Conduct variously exhibited as 1. By Visions and Revelations Act. 9.10 12 10.10 11.28 16.9 18.9 22.17 1 Cor. 11.23 12.4 6 10 14.6 24 29 30 31. 2 Cor. 12.1 2 7. v. Lu. 2.26 Gal. 1.12 2.2 2. By Allocutions Act. 8.29 10.19 13.2 4 23.9 3. By Impulses and Excitations v. Lu. 2.27 Act. 4.8 13 31 5.20 4. By Prohibitions Act. 16.6 20.23 21.4 11. and Restraints Act. 16.7 IV. Admonitions 1. How to obtain it Jo. 14.15 16 17 23. Act. 5.32 Lu. 11.12 Ja. 1.5 Rev. 3.20 1 Pet. 4.13 2. To follow and obey it Rom. 8.1 4 5 9 13 14. Gal. 5.16 18 25. Eph. 4.30 3. To try the Spirits 1 Jo. 4.1 1 Cor. 14.29 More might be added but these are more than enough And to these it would not be hard to add a true Catholick Interpretation and Comment that is The Sentiments of the most ancient Christian Writers and others of the most Eminent of after Ages such as Hermas Justine Tatian Irenaeus Tertullian Cyprian Novatian Hilary Nazianzen Ambrose Hierom Austin and many others but it would be too long for this place and occasion And therefore to make short Work instead of that I will here represent their Sentiments in some short Notes of an Eminent and most Learned Annotator who was well acquainted with them and doth sometimes intersperse some of their Testimonies in his Writings It is the Famous Hugo Grotius These saith he upon Mat. 18.10 who dedicate themselves to God with a true Faith and thereupon are accounted his peculiar People God as he doth favour them with a peculiar Providence so he seems to give to each an Angel Guardian to guide and assist them either perpetually or certainly until they come to the full Possession of the Divine Spirit For so I see the Ancient Christians did believe And in his Pref. to his Annot. upon the Epistle to the Romans Into the Heart purified by Faith as into a clean Vessel God doth infuse his Spirit I mean the Spirit of Christ full of Love of God and of our Neighbour and of all Goodness Those who have this Spirit of God and carefully keep it God doth account as born of Him and like unto Him to them he gives a certain Right to Heavenly and Eternal Good Things Neither is the Heart purisied but by Faith in Christ nor is the Spirit infused but into a Heart so purified nor doth he plainly own for his any but who are endowed with that Spirit Upon Luke 22.3 As they who religiously obey the Divine Admonitions at length receive the Indwelling Spirit
so they who readily consent to the Suggestions of the Devil at length God deserting them become the Slaves of Satan Upon Jo. 5.45 Those to whom the Gospel is Preached become taught of God that is if they would if they be greedy of it if they do not reject the Benefits offered and even forc'd upon them They will have no need to have recourse to Learned Men that from them they may learn the Mysteries of the Old Testament Upon Eph. 1.17 The Spirit of God which is given to Believers doth among other things imprint also Wisdom in their Souls not that of the things of this World of which Philosophers did boast but of those things which conduce to a better Life The same Spirit doth reveal also to those who are his things future and secret which cannot be known by humane Means Upon 1 Jo. 2.20 The Spirit doth suggest to us in all Circumstances both the Precepts of Christ and such Hints or Notices as are meet for the Occasion v. 27. What we are to do in every Circumstance For there are certain Differences which Times Places and Persons require Therefore is there often need of Admonition to hit the way of our Duty See Jer. 31.34 Jo. 6.45 and if you please Seneca Epist 94. And upon 1 Thess 4.9 The Holy Ghost teacheth you concerning all things to be done By how much the more there is of the Spirit so much the less need is there of Prescripts This Place is not to be understood of the General Precept but of special Determinations as all Things Persons and Times do require And Gal. 5.18 Those who are led by the Spirit as now of Age have no need of the Law the Guardian of their Touth And Rom. 8.4 Those who walk after the Spirit he interprets those who having obtained the Holy Spirit do constantly obey its Motions and afterwards v. 5. They that are after the Spirit he interprets those who are possessed by the Spirit of God which doth not now come to pass but by Christ And v. 12. he notes God hath given his Spirit that we should use it and again So great a Guest will be treated with Care otherwise he will bid farewell to his Lodging And to conclude 1 Thess 5.23 Spirit here saith he is that Holy Spirit inhabiting in the Souls of Christians and if it be carefully kept adhering to Souls unto Death and after Death even to the Resurrection and then referrs to what he had said 1 Cor. 15.44 to Hierom upon Gal. 5. and recites to the same purpose the Words of Philo Irenaeus Tatianus Clem. Alexandrinus and Tertullian More might be added but this is enough to shew the Mind of this great Man concerning the Necessity of our having the Spirit of God dwelling in us the Effects of his Residence in Light and Conduct and our Duty how to treat it And that this is also the Belief of the Church of England however some of late have commonly presum'd to speak if not despitefully and reproachfully yet too slightly of so great and holy a Principle of our Religion may appear by the most Authentick Evidence that can be her most solemn Addresses to Almighty God in divers Collects for this very purpose As for all Persons to be Baptized before they be Baptized to give his Holy Spirit to them that they may be born again c. and after they be Baptized to give his Holy Spirit to them that they may continue his Servants and attain his Promises So likewise for all Persons Confirmed to strengthen them with the Holy Ghost and daily increase in them his manifold Gifts of Grace before Imposition of Hands and then again together with the Imposition of Hands that they may daily increase in his Holy Spirit and again afterward that his Holy Spirit may ever be with them and so lead them c. and lastly for all the Congregation upon several Occasions as upon the Nativity of our Lord that they may daily be renewed by his Holy Spirit Upon the 19th Sunday after Trinity that his Holy Spirit may in all things Direct and Rule our Hearts Upon the first Sunday in Lent that we may ever obey his Godly Motions Upon Easter-Day that as by thy special Grace preventing us thou dost put into our Minds good Desires so by thy continual Help we may bring the same to good Effect Upon the fifth Sunday after Easter that by his Holy Inspiration we may think those things that be good and by his merciful Guiding may perform the same and others to the like Effect as upon the Sunday after Ascension Whitsunday the 13th Sunday after Trinity the Collect at the beginning of the Communion Service And at every Morning and Evening Service all are admonished to beseech him to give us his Holy Spirit And in the Coll. for Grace we pray to God that all our doings may be ordered by his Governance and in the Litany to indue us with the Grace of his Holy Spirit to amend our Lives according to his Holy Word In the Ordering of Deacons this Question is first to be asked by the Bishop Do you trust that you are inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon you this Office and Ministration c In the Ordering of Priests the Bishop says Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office and Work of a Priest in the Church of God c. And in the Consecration of a Bishop the Arch-Bishop says Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office and Work of a Bishop c. and at each is sung the Hymn Come Holy Ghost c. And in the Exhortation in the Commination this is mentioned as one of the Conditions of our Pardon viz. If we will be ordered by the Governance of his Holy Spirit And in the Articles of Religion Art 17. are mentioned together Godly Persons and such as feel in themselves the Working of the Spirit of Christ mortifying c. To this Authority of the Church I will subjoyn the Judgment of one of her Sons who though at first it seems he was carried away with the common Prejudice of the Age yet afterward upon better consideration extricated himself and recover'd a better Judgment and has in few words said what is much to the purpose That God himself affords his Intimacies and Converses to the better Souls which are prepar'd for it I confess the proud and phantastick Pretences of many of the conceited Melancholists in this Age to Divine Communion have prejudiced divers intelligent Persons against the Belief of any such happy Vouchsafement so that they conclude the Doctrine of Immediate Communion with the Deity in this Life to be but an high-flown Notion of warm Imagination and over-luscious Self-Flattery and I acknowledge I have my self had Thoughts of this nature supposing Communion with God to be nothing else but the Exercise of Vertue and that Peace and those Comforts which naturally result from it But I have considered since That God's more near and immediate
a great Indisposition for it by any undue Opposition of Fanaticism without sufficient Distinction and Caution than it is Impudence and Inconsiderateness in others to expose themselves and their Followers to the Delusions of Evil Spirits by high Pretences to such Divine and extraordinary Favours without any Regard to or Notice of those special Qualifications and Cautions for Tryal of Spirits which are necessary to capacitate them for such Favour and to secure them against such Delusions It requires therefore no small Caution to use this Author's Expression that under an invidious Name they reject not such Favours or calumniate such an Holy Conduct and that they especially who reproach others with limiting the Holy Spirit do not themselves in this what in other things they condemn in others with less Reason And certainly great Caution is likewise to be used on the other side that we presume not to attribute to the Holy Spirit of God what is meerly the Imaginations or Effusions of our own Spirit what is meerly Humane Invention or Artifice and even the Inspirations and Delusions of Satan transformed into an Angel of Light By this means is great Indignity commonly done to the Holy and Pure Spirit and great Sin contracted by Mens arrogating to themselves those Gifts and Graces which they have little of and recommending themselves and their Performances upon such high Pretences and great Scandal given to People to think meanly of so great a Principle of our Religion There are three Great Means which God hath provided for us to lead us into all necessary Truth Natural Reason Supernatural Revelation communicated by Persons authorized by Divine Commission so to do and Special Illumination and Direction of the Holy Spirit And they who carefully use all these in their due Order cannot err But they who set up these one against another do usually run themselves and lead others into great Errors And hence it is that so great Disorders and Mischiefs have through the Subtilty and Energy of Satan been brought into the Church by Persons pretending to some one of these in a kind of Opposition to some other of them either of Right Reason or of the Pure Word of God or of the Spirit and Spiritual Worship I do not doubt but they who pretend most to Right Reason in opposition to Inspiration are even therein very strongly inspired but by the subtile Spirit of Opposition and are in effect as great and pernicious Fanaticks as any though they least suspect it But not only those unhappy Atheistical Pretenders to Reason who despise all Revelation and Revealed Religion but such as profess themselves Christians and not only that insolent and presumptuous Sect who assert the Divine Authority of the Scriptures and yet make no scruple to strain and wrest them to comply with their pre-conceived Notions but more Moderate Men and such as pretend highest to the Pure Word of God and to the most pure Spiritual Worship and cry out against Man-made Divinity and against Fanaticism too by indulging too much to their own Conceits have brought such Disorders and Mischiefs into the Church as are not much to be doubted were the Fruits of the Influences and Impressions of the Spirit of Delusion upon their Mind Hence are many run from Superstition into Prophaneness from Idolatry into Sacrilege from Formality into Contempt or Neglect of the most Solemn Christian Worship from beggarly Rudiments and Carnal Ordinances to make light of the Institutions of Christ from Monkish Austerity as they call it into common Indulgence and Gratifications to Sense from Popish Merit into Carlessness Worldly-mindedness Selfishness and little Concern for the Honour of God or Salvation of Souls from the Traditions of Men and Popish Pretences to deny all even of the Apostles the Authority of the Catholick Church and the Catholick Sense and Interpretation of divers of the Evangelical and Apostolical Precepts and Directions and at last to limit our Saviour's Sermon upon the Mount to the times of Persecution til at last by those means we are grown ripe for a Persecution or some other severe awakening and purging Judgment All this and more that might be noted we cannot impute meerly to the Weakness and Corruption of Men unless we can imagin that all the Powers of Darkness have been all the while meer idle Spectators But if they have been so subtle and active thus to deceive the Gentiles in these latter times and the best of Men have not been exempt from their Assaults it concerns all to beware that they be not deceived by a Spirit of Delusion under any of these Appearances either of the Good Spirit or of the Scripture or of Reason that they embrace not false Conclusions instead of Right Reason their own Conceits or the Novel Opinions of some Sect instead of the Genuine Sense of the Scriptures or Satan transformed for the Spirit of God least by any means as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his Subtilty their Minds should be corrupted from the Simplicity that is in Christ And there is no way possible to escape this but by the Aid Illumination and Conduct of the Holy Spirit of God Nor are any to be believed to be led by that Spirit when they go out of the way prescribed by Christ and by his Apostles who were Commissioned by Him for it is the Spirit of Christ and of his Fulness we all receive As the Law was our Schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ so is Observance of the Prescripts of the Gospel designed for our Tutourage to bring us to the Spirit To that we must come or we are none of his but that way we must come and in that way we must keep or else we shall be led by the Spirit of Error and mistake that for the Spirit of Truth If we do well consider the Holy Scriptures the Nature of the Holy Spirit and the Fruits of the Spirit we may learn what Qualifications are requisite to obtain that inestimable Treasure and by what Signs and Characters it may be known and distinguished And thereby we may discern that many who pretend highly to the Spirit are much out of the way of the true Spirit of God and many led by the subtile Spirit of Antichrist under the appearance of an Angel of Light to undermine the Gospel and Institutions of Christ to do despite to the Spirit of Grace and to raise Scandals and Prejudices against the Holy Doctrine which they pretend and it may be think to assert and to indispose Men for the Reception of those Graces which those envious and malicious Spirits may know to be ready to be communicated to them And this should make others the more cautious that they be not subservient to and be made the very Tools of these wicked Agents in their Opposition least at last they be involved with them in their Condemnation The True way to reduce the misled People is not to deny or dissemble the Holy Doctrine much less to villifie