end of the Mosaick Constitutions and such a compleat System of Divinity as is sufficient to make a man perfect throughly furnished to every good work and thereby to prepare him for that eternal inheritance that fadeth not away And thus I have now considered all the chief parts of what I design and with all faithfulness according to my knowledge discharg'd my self The discourse on such a point has been long but I hope it will not prove unuseful in such times as these in which truth is blended and beset with error Strange Doctrines have insinuated into the minds of men And we are now sailing betwixt Sylla and Charybdis and God knows which may swallow us When truth like pure and clean Wheat is put betwixt two Mill-stones that seem to joyn to grind it in pieces And Religion like our Saviour upon the Cross is almost crucified betwixt two Thieves But blessed be God his Providence is over all his works and through his help we hope for deliverance from all our troubles For vain is the help of man without him CHAP. X. HAving hitherto for the most part treated concerning False Spirits and argued against the pretences to inspiration among Papists and Fanaticks and given some directions by which we may be able to discern what inspiration is true and what false That it may not be objected against the body of this Discourse that I have left neither Soul nor Spirit to animate it but have hinted only some operation of the Divine Spirit and restrained that to the first Age of the Christian Religion as if it were not needful for future Generations to guide men into all truth I shall spend some Sheets to prove That as there were Promises that the Holy Spirit of God should conduct men after our Saviours Ascension so that these Promises were made good by the apparent Descent of the Holy Ghost And to shew in what manner the Sacred Spirit informed the Apostles and the first Publishers of the Christian Doctrines And how he still influences the minds of men in the understanding and receiving them The Wilderness of this World is very thick of Briars and Thorns that scratch and tear the Church of Christ in her passage through it And since the most who profess themselves to be Christians agree in the design and end of their journey Yet because we are apt to fall out by the way and differ about the determination of the paths that lead thither Hence is it that I have hitherto endeavoured to hinder men of good intentions and different judgements from entertaining a delusion by reason of any shortness in their sight that they may not be deceived by their own fancies or the suggestions of others and so miscarry in their greatest concernments and fall short of eternal happiness hereafter And lest we should complain as if we were in this errable state of life left without sufficient means to conduct us to the great end of all our Religion And in the glorifying of God to save our souls I shall now shew some things before hinted more plainly and openly That we are not left without sufficient conduct from the Holy and true Spirit of God But that he was in the World at the first delivery of the Doctrines and Rules of life expressed in the Writings of the New Testament and still continues to influence the minds and actions of men In order to the discharging this that I am now to engage in I shall first prove That the Holy Ghost did come according to the Predictions of the Prophets and the Promise of our Saviour For 1. He came upon our Saviour himself 2. He inspired and comforted his Apostles and the first Planters of the Christian Religion And 3. He still influences the hearts and minds of those that seek and do not resist him First That this Holy Spirit rested upon our Saviour accompanying him throughout the actions of his life none that pretends to the embracement of Christianity can possibly contradict For his Miracles attest this Divine residency and loudly proclaim it to Ages and Generations And if there had not been this irrefragable testimony yet that there was such a Divine impression upon his mind the purity of his Doctrine and the holiness of his life sufficiently attested and that the Divine Spirit inspired and did assist him As his Conception was by the power of the Holy Ghost so did it continually breath upon him through all the periods of his whole life It gave a visible attestation to his Person and Doctrine and witnessed his Commission to the World when at his Baptism it descended in the shape of a Dove and lighted upon him Matth. 3.16 And this was seconded by an audible voice loudly thundering from the very Skies This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased In his life he had the Spirit without measure John 3.34 He was not limited to the same proportions of power and assistance with S. John who preached the Doctrine of Repentance and by this prepared the way for the Messiah Nor with those Prophets of old who were inspired at sundry times and in diverse manners to whom divine and unaccountable impulses were neither constant in their method or continuance But the Holy Spirit accompanied our Saviour throughout the several stages of his life so that he could upon any emergent occasion make discovery of it to others and alwayes knew it to be resident in himself he carried it with him to his Cross and Death to support him in his misery and to cause him to triumph over his temptations and enemies It hovered as it were over his Grave guarding his body with a security beyond the Souldiers power and at last raised him with triumph from the dead Rom. 8.11 and thus baffled the arguments for infidelity Secondly This Spirit promised came also upon the Apostles of our Saviour In the second of the Acts at the beginning It descended with noise and a glorious splendor and came with such a train of solemnity and its appearance was so gay and pompous that it amused Nations and confounded the multitude It shook the great place of their assembly and sate gloriously in the shape of a Cloven Fiery Tongue upon the head of each Apostle giving them at once a character to distinguish them from others and ability to execute that Commission which our blessed Saviour had before given them They were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other Tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance Here was the Prophecy of Joel accomplished that God would pour out his Spirit upon all flesh when the Holy Ghost thus descended with power in the lap of a Cloud with a rushing wind to blow open the doors of mens hearts that the King of Glory might come in It came with Cloven Fiery Tongues to teach the Apostles to sound forth the Gospel to all the World with a becoming zeal and warm affection The Tongues were Cloven that
fervency and devotion for them For if ye being evil sayes our Saviour know how to give good gifts unto your children how much more shall your heavenly Father give the holy Spirit to them that ask him Luke 11.13 And since God is so bountiful to us let us not be wanting to our selves For when we shall with retirement consider how numerous and potent our sins are which must all in their habits be mortified and subdued how many turbulent or inticing temptations we have to oppose that are ready every day to conquer us and steal invisibly to our most secret entertainments how many passions we have to calm and moderate which upon every suitable and tempting occasion endeavour to make an insurrection against our reason How many personal and relative duties we are to perform in a wise and pious ordering our conversation how the suggestions of our own flesh the injections of Sathan and the malice and defilements of the world will endeavour to oppose and obstruct our progress When we consider the black passage of death and the grave and God knows what dismal encounters we may meet with in our way to them What fears will then suddenly arise to baffle our hopes and make our faith ready to expire And upon the whole when we reflect upon our weakness and miserable infirmity In a word When we consider how much work we have to do how little time to perform it and what great disproportion there is betwixt our duty and our power It will not only appear that it is high time to awake out of sleep to rise and be doing But to take the Armour of God for our defence and to pray to Heaven for the assistance of the Spirit Since this appears to be so necessary in relation to our weakness and our duty And certainly what is so necessary for our safe conduct to that Haven where we would be and which God designs for our eternal rest and shelter from all tempests and future storms There is no reason why we should distrust the Spirits influence and operation Nor to make our selves uncapable of the favour by testifying our unwillingness to receive it by perpetually opposing and disputing against it For Lastly this influence of the holy Spirit upon the minds of holy and good men is from the Scripture infallibly certain to those that at once both want and beg it and do prepare themselves for the reception of it Why otherwise should our Saviour give this assurance to his Disciples that God gives the holy Spirit to those that ask him Nay what becomes of those promises in the Scripture that engage Gods truth and faithfulness to assist good men in the discharge of their duty and to support them under all their misery and misfortune if we were altogether left to our selves to pursue the dictates of our own reason and to stand only upon our own leggs without any superiour help or influence The Apostle tells us that the Spirit does help our infirmities Rom. 8.26 But this would be false if we had either none that required his assistance Or that he would not condescend to supply our wants S. John makes this vinculum unionis this bond of union betwixt Christ and us the Spirit of God to be a character by which we may distinguish our selves Because he has given us of his Spirit 1 John 4.13 And S. Paul fully agrees with S. John For sayes he if any man has not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Rom. 8.9 I know with what great industry these and other Texts have been restrained to that Divine temper of mind by which we know and discern our condition This indeed being the gracious effect of the holy Spirits co-opperating with our endeavours is by no means to be separated in our judgment upon our selves And we have no other way to judge of the cause but by this Divine and glorious effect But yet where this is visible in an holy life and virtuous actions we have no reason to exclude the cause Especially when it is principally included in the expression For the Apostle supposes this Spirit that Christians have to be the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead Nay a branch also of that power which shall hereafter raise us too For it follows He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwells in us Because our Bodies are here the Temples of the Holy Ghost God will not suffer them to remain eternally in their ruiues But will hereafter re-edifie and raise them because they were once the habitation of his Spirit Hence are Believers said to be sealed with the holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of their inheritance Ephes 1.13 And therefore they are advised in the same Epistle not to grieve this holy Spirit of God whereby they are sealed unto the day of their redemption Eph. 4.30 Now though we may be said to be sealed up for Heaven by a Divine temper of mind upon Earth that this prepares us for future glory and that if this disposition be not in us we are none of Christs Yet it would be as harsh a speech as can be admitted in any language to say that this holy temper of mind shall raise us up at the last day Since the wicked are then raised too Or to say that any man voluntarily grieves this Divine temper and disposition of mind when the man then grieves himself These expressions therefore must certainly intend more than this And they can scarcely admit of a fair interpretation without expounding them of the holy Spirit of God which now co-operating with our faculties produces in us divine tempers and dispositions and so prepares us for that inheritance which he shall raise us up from our graves to possess The Holy Ghost was first promised to the Apostles and Christian Disciples under the names and notion of a Comforter and the Spirit of truth and how could he be both or either if he did not influence their minds with joy and knowledge The Spirit it self sayes the Apostle bears witness with our Spirits that we are the children of God Rom. 8.16 It did not only testifie unto others by those Miracles that did confirm their Religion and consequently proved those that did sincerely embrace it to be born of God as well as their Religion But it evidenced these things also to their own consciences by a sacred benediction and a Divine and more immediate concurrence with them when they compared their lives with the Rules of their Religion And consequently proves to them that they were heirs of God and coheirs with Christ which is the argument the Apostle is there prosecuting to give them comfort in the midst of tribulation and to animate their courage and resolution against the sufferings of that present time The graces and virtues visible in a Christians life are said in Scripture to be the fruits of the Spirit
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
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
wonder of his Disciples at a Doctrine of his that seemed harsh and difficult tells them that with God all things are possible Matth. 19.26 The possibility therefore of a thing prepares us for the belief of any proposition when either certainty or greater probabilities do not plainly determine the contrary Now what does not imply a contradiction that it should be is possible to be But the Holy Spirits operation upon the minds of men does not imply any contradiction And therefore it must be at least a possible supposition that it may be so Nay further what has been is certainly possible to be But that there has been such influences upon the minds of men the sacred Inspirations of the Prophets and Apostles do abundantly evince And to assert the contrary must shake the very foundation of Religion and invalidate the whole Canon of Scripture And certainly if it admits no contradiction to affirm Spirits working upon Bodies it must be less to suppose one Spirit to operate upon another there being a nearer affinity betwixt their natures and a greater capacity to apprehend the notices they receive from one another For if the Soul of one man may apprehend what are the thoughts of another when they are expressed by the words of the tongue or some external signs and representations There is as great a probability that there may be more easie and quicker methods for one soul to converse with another were they freed from their bodies than by the mediation of external senses which may and often do convey false representations to the mind And therefore for the holy Spirit of God to influence the minds and affections of men is not only rendered possible But a very probable and easie supposition Though whilst we remain in these bodies 't is all one as to the being of the thing whether we conjecture for it can be no more the influence to be made immediately upon the soul or by percussions on or dispositions of the nerves and by determining the Spirits so as to make representations to the mind to cause in it desire or aversation and from hence just and proportionable actions suitable to the design of the holy Spirit But Secondly this influence and operation of the holy Spirit is not only possible but necessary too if we consider our own weakness and infirmity or the circumstances we are frequently surrounded with in this vale of tears and region of misery We have still a proneness and propensity to sin notwithstanding our being washed by an holy Baptism and dipt in the sacred Laver of regeneration And though grace were then conveyed to us and power to perform our part of the Covenant which at last gives us the possession of the promise Yet this cannot well be apprehended to be tied about us with such indissoluble bonds as not to forsake us upon the violation of our vow when by sinful courses we rescind Gods obligagation to us Or if there were no forfeiture to be made Yet we cannot apprehend this Grace and Spirit given us at the first to be so constantly and powerfully residing in us as never to need any new supplies or accessions of degrees Or to be like our souls alwaies tied continually to invigorate us without any new influences from above God governs the World by his Providence and supports this great systeme of Beings by the constant and continued influences of his Power impressing things by his Divine concurrence to accomplish the end and design of their beings to continue their stated motions and order and to repair their decayes by a new and uninterrupted succession Now it would not be more false and unsuitable to his nature to suppose him at first to have put things into their orderly motions and to impregnate nature with all the power at once that shall at any time be requisite for its support and conduct when things are subject to such various misadventures that it is impossible for any but himself to foresee Than it would be to suppose him to give a child in his sacred Baptism sufficient strength to influence his whole life and afterwards leave him to his conflicts and misfortunes without any new assistances from above This would still make the Great and infinite Being of the World instead of a wise and active God nothing but an idle and lazy Spectator We need not then pray for grace and continued accessions of strength and power But only use those words of David Cast us not away from thy presence and take not thy holy Spirit from us Psal 51.11 The Apostles and Primitive Disciples of our Saviour were sensible of new accessions or incomes from the Spirit as the difficulties increased which they encountered For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us sayes S. Paul so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ 2 Cor. 1.5 And when we shall consider that our assistances are necessary in proportion to our duties or our sufferings all men being not in the same circumstances but some have an easier passage to an eternal rest and a blessed eternity than others who are made a spectacle to the world who have greater difficulties to encounter a longer race to run upon the Earth and are surrounded with a larger number of duties and perplexities certainly God who is the God of all grace will reasonably give the influences of his Spirit suitable to the degrees of mens necessities and the employments or conflicts that his most wise Providence calls them unto As the Apostles were not sufficient of themselves to preach the Christian Doctrine to the World and to obviate those difficulties that attended the publication so neither can any of us in our ordinary course of affairs in the World being placed in the midst of snares and temptations keep consciences void of offence without the influences of Gods grace and the assistances of his Spirit S. Paul justifies himself to the Corinthians by giving them a prospect of his joy and innocence Our rejoycing is this sayes he the testimony of a good conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God we have had our conversation in the world and more abundantly to you wards 2 Cor. 1.12 And when in the third Chapter he re-assumes the argument lest they should think that all was effected by his own power he introduces also this acknowledgement Not that we are sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiency is of God ver the 5 th God is not an hard and austere Master to reap where he did not sow nor to gather where he did not scatter He expects an account of his own talents which every one does or may receive in proportion to his wants and necessities that he may grow up unto that measure of stature to which Christ has appointed him in the world And doubless we may obtain Divine helps If men have but that love to themselves as to pray with
therefore it must remain doubtful to those that will not believe the Gospel is it not more reasonable to receive this Revelation so well attested and to renounce others that are not so than to leave things of such an infinite concernment at so miserable an hazard Nay since there can be no other than probable proofs of future things when Arguments are taken from their own nature without the admission of Divine Revelation Is there not greater reason even when two things seem uncertain to adhere to that which is more probable And to that which gives us some hopes rather than to that which affords us none at all In this there can be no danger to believe there is a future state there may be great in the denial of it If it be not true it makes us yet live with more comfort and die with less trouble and reluctancy But perhaps all may now be willing to believe the Scriptures to be true Yet such Faith alone will not gain the prize though we finish our course in fighting for it Therefore let mens belief of a future immortality and a joyful state evidence it self in endeavours to obtain it For that faith is only fancy that thinks to be crowned without obedience And to believe the History of the Resurrection of our Saviour and not raise our selves to newness of life will leave us still dead in our sins Credere se in Christum quomodo dicit sayes S. Cyprian de unitate Ecclesiae qui non facit quod Christus facere praecepit How can he be said to believe in Christ who does not do what he commands him And a little before in the same Tract Immortalitate potiri quomodo possumus nisi ea quibus mors expugnatur vincitur Christi mandata servemus How can we enjoy eternal life unless we keep those Commands of Christ by which death is assaulted and overcome S. John tells us He that doth righteousness is righteous And though men pretend other signs which are as easily confuted as they are made Yet If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandments sayes our Saviour Matth. 19.17 And S. Cyprian will vouch the application if I suppose this to be the condition to obtain it For though the Christian Law be a Law of liberty yet it is a Law still that commands us to act like Religious men and not think to be drawn to Heaven upon the wheels of an extraordinary Providence and craned up to Paradise by an irresistable Power We ascend to Heaven by gradual advancements of virtue and devotion nor can we think that all mankind are perpetually to be saved like the Thief upon a Cross We must not think to mount above the Clouds through the vapours of repeated Debaucheries to rend the Skies and make Heaven open by louder Oaths and thundering Execrations Or to jump out of Dalilah's lap into Abraham's bosome No surely they that have done good shall go into life everlasting But they that have done evil into everlasting punishment Thirdly We learn from this discourse to praise God for giving us the Gospel and to admire and extol the Holy Ghost himself who in such an eminent manner assisted the Apostles to commit so excellent a systeme of religion to writing that we of the latter ages of the World may read what we could not hear And by the ordinary conduct of the Spirit of truth be guided to the knowledge of those things which they were extraordinarily inspired to deliver Not to commemorate so great a favour must be the highest ingratitude imaginable Let us be as thankful then as we are knowing and as we increase daily in the one let the other run parallel in the enlargement God is pleased to own himself glorified by our praises This we do when we praise him with our tongues But then does it become most glorious when it is followed with an holy and Religious life The former may proceed from hypocrisie But attended with the latter it makes the whole Trinity to rejoyce and secures to our selves those Graces we already have and engages God to give us more as our future conditions shall want supplies To him that hath shall be given saies our Saviour Nay this in an especial manner rejoyces the holy Spirit of God whose proper work it is to sanctifie And a vicious life is said to grieve him And how acceptable a Sacrifice the whole is appears in what he sayes by the Psalmist Psal 50.23 Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me And to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God Praises and thanksgivings are the natural results of a sense of mercies and favours impress'd upon the minds of men And we conclude those to be unworthy of a benefit that will not acknowledge the goodness of their Benefactors And the proportions of thanks must take their measures from the benefits received How much therefore the sending the Holy Ghost to inspire the Apostles and by them to convey light unto the World to conduct mankind to glory and immortality exceeds all the temporal favours we do enjoy By so much the more must our hearts be lifted up and our lives express our gratitude to him that sent him and to him who by his merit and intercession procured him Fourthly Did the Spirit of truth guide the Apostles into all truth necessary to the Salvation of men And does he still influence our minds and promote our endeavours in making enquiry after the things that conduce to our peace Then let us pray frequently to Almighty God for this influence and benediction of the Spirit Prayer was that which prevail'd with God to send him in so eminent a manner and for such glorious designs into the World and prayer will still continue him here I will pray the Father says Christ and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of truth Joh. 14.16 Prayer has not only an influence upon our selves as it fixes our minds and makes our holy resolutions steady but mightily prevails with God himself who will crown what he has commanded with success In this therefore lies our greatest strength in the performance of which duty soberly and with a suitable devotion and intention of mind we may be said to wrestle with God Nay it conveys to us those assistances of the Spirit that are useful to us for the sanctifying our natures and carrying us through the hazards and various circumstances of our lives For if ye being evil sayes our Saviour know how to give good gifts unto your children how much more shall your heavenly Father give the holy Spirit to them that ask him Luke 11.13 Let us not then be wanting to our selves in this duty of Prayer since so great an advantage attends its devout and hearty performance and to publick Prayer whereby God is most glorified the pains are only presence and devotion Fifthly If God sent his Spirit upon the Apostles to
guide them into all truth that we might have safe and infallible Rules to order and direct our actions by Then see how God values soundness in the Faith however men too much disregard it If either any Creed or none at all could have carried men to their future bliss Christ need never have come into the World to deliver an universal Doctrine in the Gospel Nor sent this Holy Spirit of truth to guide the Apostles into all truth This necessity therefore of being sound in the Faith was the reason why our Saviour and his Apostles caution'd men against Prophetical pretenders and false Teachers to take heed what they hear Mark 4.24 To have a care that the light which is in them be not darkness Luke 11.35 And to take heed lest there be in any of them an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God Heb. 3.12 Hence is it because as S. Peter sayes there are damnable Heresies that the unsound Cretians were so severely to be reproved that they might be sound in the Faith Tit. 1.13 Hence is it that S. Paul commands Timothy to hold fast the form of sound words 2 Tim. 1.13 Which probably referr'd to some brief Creed or summary of the Christian Faith delivered to him by the Apostle Though we find them now Burlesqu'd and flouted at But alas with as little wit as reason From hence finally was it that S. Jude exhorted those to whom he wrote his Epistle to contend earnestly for the Faith which was once delivered unto the Saints 3. ver of his Epist We are not now to make our own Faith nor is it indifferent what we believe Let us receive therefore what has been delivered out of the Scriptures through all the several Ages of Christianity and endeavour to make our lives as pure as our Faith Lastly We may learn from this Holy Spirit of truth to speak truth and by no methods to impose upon one another That we may evidence to God our selves and the world that the Spirit of truth has still an influence upon our minds There are a generation of Vipers among men whose teeth are Spears and Arrows and their tongue a sharp Sword That ingross the whole trade of lying and yet pretend to be men inspired These receive false News in gross and then retail it out to others Their tongues indeed are very sharp and no wonder neither since they keep the Whetstone wholly to themselves These are your itinerant Historians that to consume our Corn carry alwayes firebrands at their tails Who lie so often that they can hardly believe themselves when they speak truth and give to all that have had the curse of their conversation a plain testimony who their Father is But let not any of our souls enter into their secrets But resolve to resemble the Spirit of truth in abominating all lies and hypocrisie and to qualifie our selves for our future ascent to Gods holy Hill by speaking the truth in our hearts Psal 15. Our Saviour had no guile found in his mouth And we must follow so good an example unless we think lying the Character of a Saint and perjury to put on a Martyrs Crown S. Paul did not think so when he forbad the Colossians to lie to one another seeing they had put off the the old man with his deeds Colos 3.9 Let us therefore beware of Arrogance and Calumny Of detracting from others or attributing too much to our selves And let us imitate the Holy Spirit under the Gospel by guiding our selves into all truth So shall we avoid both sin and shame and eternal confusion at the great and terrible day of the Lord that we may then give up our accounts with joy and not with grief Would we but endeavour to follow the sacred Spirit of God who is so ready to influence our minds in truth and faithfulness Commerce and Trade would be more innocent we should neither betray our own selves by any false or glozing language nor should we suffer by plain dealing Oaths would again become Religious among English men nor would any be unjustly executed by guilty or scandalously freed by an Ignoramus Our gracious and truly Great Monarch would be safe without the base attempts of any to secure him He would be our own and we at his wise and lawful disposal by his Coronation Oath and our sworn Allegiance to him Every man were there truth among us might enjoy peace in his own capacity he might sit under his Vine and his Fig tree and Liberty and Property would never be bones of contention more But if we remain Hypocrites in Religion and false to each other we can neither expect that God or men should be our friends Because what in us lyes we peck at the foundations of the World and make the whole Creation groan We shake the main Principle of Trade and Commerce when we are such wretched creatures that no body can believe us And we cannot but enrage the Great God who being truth it self has sent his Holy Spirit unto us to guide us into the wayes of truth Whatever guilt therefore any person may by the iniquity of times striking in with his own easie inclinations have contracted to himself in this point Let him now repent while it is called to day lest the night come in which terror and astonishment will surprize him whose obscure shadows will by degrees withdraw the pleasing light from him till it lodges him in a state of blackness for ever The Conclusion WE are here placed in a World so full of objects that affect our external senses that we are naturally led more by these than we are by faith And when by degrees we abstract our thoughts and fix our minds on things above we either weary the powers of our minds and make them sink into a stupid inadvertency or else are so pleased with the sprightliness of our creating fancies that we nimbly make Idea's in our brains of such seeming things as never were nor ever shall be And so we lead our selves into the belief of what was not designed to be the object of our understanding no more than it shall be the subject of our possession Sometimes these things are projected before hand by the cunning politick men of the World who by such means intend to impose upon others to carry on secular interests that may in the end be gainful to themselves And sometimes men by reason of their weak and unable constitutions acting contemplation beyond their own capacity to manage it impose upon themselves till they really believe their own thoughts of objects that yet have no real existence nor are ever like to have a being in the Universe Some think too much and others too little Too much learning makes one sort mad and others are mad because they have so little Some men by sinking themselves into a deep melancholy and others by a nimble and exorbitant agitation of their blood and spirits command themselves into ecstasie or
actions where there is no difference at all For as it matters not whether the object proposed to the Wills embracement be either real or apparent good the same passion is used in the reception so in respect of the understanding also If the object seems to be true it makes the same impression with truth it self If we pretend a difference in the Images represented in the brain which the soul contemplating does according to their beauty or deformity own or reject the objects represented by them since we find still that an error presented under the notion of truth as long as we receive it is as pleasant to us as truth it self there can be no such Idea's supposed of such different aspects that in them we can read good and evil without some more superiour direction For if there were it would be impossible for a man to be deceived that gave himself time to contemplate these Images But if we shall as we must indeed prove the truth of the Spirits impulse from the agreement of the thing it impells us to with the truths revealed in Gods Word then the impulse it self is but a weak direction that must have another more convincing to determine it Nay not the surest confirmation of things that admits a proof beyond it self whilst the Scripture becomes its Judge either to condemn or acquit it If this were not so why should our Saviour give the World such admonitions and caution men against false Christs and false Prophets that should arise and deceive many Matth. 24. but that he foresaw the false pretensions that would be made to inspiration S. John need not otherwise have cautioned us not to believe every Spirit nor exhorted us to try the Spirits whether they are of God but that he knew that many false Prophets were gone out into the world But Lastly Let us consider too that God does not use to make bare his arm and put his power to an immediate work when the thing may be accomplish'd as well by other means which he has appointed to that very end For though this might demonstrate his Power yet it lessens his Wisdom to exert more strength and use more applications to produce an effect which fewer might as well accomplish Nay it would subvert that scheme of causes which his contrivance has already ordered It would both render Gods rules and mans endeavours after the knowledge of the truth useless and ridiculous At least those Scriptures which are already revealed would not be able to make the man of God perfect which is not only contrary to the Apostles affirmation 2 Tim. 3.17 But S. Paul's argument must be inverted and he might justly he ashamed of the Gospel of Christ because it would not be the power of God unto salvation whereas he plainly and confidently affirms it to be so Rom. 1.16 Why should any therefore now the Rule is given vainly expect revelations and impulses and extend their belief to a bold presumption deluding themselves with vain hopes since these now are neither promised nor in that manner Enthusiasts wait for them ever intended Let us rest satisfied therefore with those truths already received since no more Divine Rules of life can rationally be expected till the Day of Doom And with Gods benediction and the ordinary concurrences of his holy Spirit upon the Gospel let us frame our lives according to its Precepts and Commands that walking according to these Rules we may at last receive the end of our faith the salvation of our souls These the Holy Ghost has sealed to us not only by inspiring the Sacred Pen-men to an exact delivery but he has confirm'd them also by such Miracles as at once exceed the powers of the creation and surmount the objections of men and Devils Upon this we build a rational belief though some mysteries in our Religion exceed our full and perfect comprehension Other pretensions however back'd with great names being confidently averr'd with boldness and zeal are no other than wild notions and exorbitant fancies Things that if Satan who pants and breathes for our eternal ruine can once perswade us to an embracement of he then presents a deformed Monster for the most beautiful Truth He has then cast a veil upon our minds and leads us blindfold into what errors he pleases He spreads his Nets and entanglements for us and certain he is to catch and ensnare us For who cannot lead the blind into a ditch or bring him upon a Precipice when he thinks himself safe and secure How easie is it for the fallen Spirit that envies men the very hopes of bliss since he himself is in eternal despair to dart into persons who forsake the written Word to attend new impulses and revelations those poisoned arrows that shall drink up their spirits and perswade such to embrace any thing who have no better rule than their own perswasions Listen not then to the fond fancies of any bold and passionate men who making use of their hot constitutions convert their own natural rashness into a seeming zeal pouring forth thick words and thin sense whilst they impudently pretend the Spirits impulse for all their rude and unreasonable notions and give the stamp of Canon to their Doctrines Nor must we yet on the other hand so far make our reason Judge as to destroy our faith but taking the Gospel for our sufficient rule let us use our faculties to explain and apprehend it But by no means let us curtail or extend it beyond what was the design of the imposer 'T is a strange Age in which we live when Religion is almost lost by making too strict an enquiry after it and too much curiosity in our speculations has rendered us almost regardless of our practice We discourse the gravest and most serious points of our holy faith with so much levity and disrespect the indecency of the places in which we hold such Conferences adding to our vanity that we first make our Religion common and then slight it as mean and inconsiderable But whatever the Sons of Darkness do let us who are of the Day be sober and with due reverence and a godly fear receive those impressions of the Spirit which he has made in Sacred Writ so shall we avoid the blasphemies of those who so confidently assert Diabolical suggestions and the black fancies which are the fruits of a corrupted constitution for Divine inspirations For no zeal or mode of delivery can possibly perswade any rational man that duly exercises his own faculties that profound nonsense or unaccountable propositions are deep Divinity Nor that men whose natures are envious and Diabolical can possibly receive instructions from God to promote division raise disturbances or to continue any which have already had their auspicious beginnings and as I hope their full progress among us For that wisdom which is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without wrangling and
A DISCOURSE Concerning the TRIAL OF SPIRITS WHEREIN Inquiry is made into Mens Pretences to Inspiration for publishing Doctrines in the Name of God beyond the Rules of the Sacred Scriptures In opposition to some Principles and Practices of Papists and Fanaticks As they contradict the Doctrines of the Church of England defined in her Articles of Religion established by her Ecclesiastical Canons and confirmed by ACTS of PARLIAMENT By THOMAS PITTIS D.D. one of His Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary London Printed by B.W. for E. Vize at the Bishop's Head over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil 1683. To the Right Worshipful Sr. Edward Worseley Knight Colonel of one of the Regiments of the Country Militia and Deputy Governour of the ISLE of WIGHT Honoured Sir HAving an unexaminable opportunity of publishing such Tracts as this And having formerly by your Father been presented to the Rectory of the Parish of Gatcomb in the Bounds of which your Mansion House is seated and in which you live having the right of Advowson undoubtedly in your self I cannot but present these Papers to you as being the Inheritor of your Fathers Estate and Vertues too and of his great kindness to me in particular which you yet on all occasions continue and increase by succeeding heaps of favours I need not relate the Loyalty of your Family it bearing date with its Antiquity and has been so manifested to the present World that a Memorial of mine would be its disparagement and upbraid the memory of mankind All know whose brains are not sunk into Oblivion how you would have redeemed King Charles the First that most Pious Martyr of ever blessed memory when he was a Prisoner in Carisbrook Castle from the present insolence of the worst of men to whom by violence he was enthral'd and the designed mischiefs that were likely to befal him from persons that thirsted after Royal Blood who were most monstrous and irreconcileable enemies to mankind and Caesar You had prudently laid your design and were honestly ready accoutred and prepared and at your Post at the appointed hour But alas all miscarried through the base treachery of other men to your misfortune and much bigger grief After this you were forced to wander and exile your self And 't was happy for us that survive your misfortune that you came off so Since the return of our present and most gracious Sovereign with whom you were also expell'd by the rage and malice of a Pack of unreasonable and malicious men your great modesty and unalterable affection to the Island in which you make so considerable a Figure in which I have the priviledge and honour of a Native has been the only cause of your not being removed into a larger Sphere But now your age and the greatness of your Merits together with your old Protestant Church of England Principles to which you are honestly and severely addicted will hardly permit you to suffer an exchange in this World though I alwayes wish'd it 'till you advance to the Glory of the next I dare not any longer be thus burdensome to your modesty and contentment that covet retirement in defiance of all your very large capacities But yet Sir give me leave to pray from the true resentments of a grateful mind that the great God who is far exalted above all Beings would continue to preserve your most Loyal and exceedingly devout self Your most Vertuous and extraordinarily pious and modest Lady and the two Gentile and excellent Branches happily sprung and nourished too from You who are the root of both much longer than I in this World shall be capable of remaining Dear SIR Your most affectionate and most humble Servant Tho. Pittis London Nov. 1. 1683. A DISCOURSE Concerning the TRIAL OF SPIRITS CHAP. I. THE Third Person in the Sacred Trinity one God blessed for ever is frequently abused by the pretences of men to such Revelations as are inconsistent with the truths of the Gospel and many Doctrines of the Christian Religion which the Holy Ghost at first inspired men to deliver And though this began in the Apostles days when the mystery of iniquity by the Gnostick defection began to work Yet it has continued and improved men in their villanies throughout the several Ages of the Church Nay so far that Treason and Murder and open Rebellion are consecrated by those that pretend to be inspired and they blasphemously make the Holy Spirit of God that breaths forth peace and quietness upon the World to become the Patron of the greatest and most disturbing impieties that ever infested the Societies of mankind This though we have been loth to believe it we are now convinc'd of by a woful experience an experience which had been purchased by our utter ruine unless Gods Providence assisting and favouring the wisdom of our Superiours encouraged by some Loyal and unwearied resolutions had happily prevented it We have two sorts of men both pretending to an infallible inspiration though on different grounds that ruine and destroy the Principles of Christianity under a shew to advance them And though we were unwilling to think that men who seem'd at so great a distance from each other should ever reach to join hand in hand and that the same principle should reconcile such different pretensions Yet as Samson's Foxes were joined together by their Tails though their heads looked away from one another So now we see those that breath inspirations from the Pope and they that boast more immediate ones from Heaven confederating though before expected by the most observing and considerate men to house the corn and tares together that Gods Harvest may become their own and they may reap where they never sowed And certainly when such attempts both by a separate and united force are made against all Order and Religion intitling God to the Patronage of a lie making the Spirit of Truth to contradict himself and crucifying Christ under a pretence to exalt him when our own Kingdoms are ready to be destroyed by cheating us out of our Properties and our Lives with a specious shew of advancing the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and to lift up his Scepter our Soveraign's must first be broken in pieces when disorders tending to subversion and ruine are plainly legible in the affairs of men coals are blowing to set all our Houses on fire and we tread those paths that will lead us to confusion and all this while men profess to be serving a God of Order when multitudes pretend to be sent from God that speak contrary to his written word and have no other Miracle to prove their Principles but the strangeness of their villany in rooting up the Laws of Nature and Society when so much brass is currant amongst us instead of gold and our silver is every day exchang'd for dross and we are ready to be made the companions of Owls or what is worse of Thieves and Murderers 't is high time to bring forth the Touchstone to enquire into the
will yet remain in our selves and our very travail becomes our punishment till at last we die and perish in a Wilderness which becomes the enterance to greater darkness Alas the Christian Religion though much debauched by the corrupt intermixtures and disgraced by the vicious lives of men is not now to be revealed to the world nor are its Records so hidden or lost that the Principles of it are no where to be found nor are men yet so blockish and unlearned that they cannot read so as to understand them If men were so blind those that are as blind might lead them into the ditch But the principles of Christianity besides what was revealed in the Old Testament are now above sixteen hundred years standing and have been handed down from age to age with their original records And therefore this Religion becomes matter of fact not invention And all the question must now be What was at first delivered The wise and grave reason of men must not controll the Wisdom of God nor make another thing of that which God sent his Son to declare to the World and has been conveyed to us with as great a certainty as any thing antecedent to the time we live in We are not now by discourse or inspiration to make to our selves another Gospel under the notion or pretence of the old This is not a thing subject to the Maxims of every squirting and half-witted Philosopher nor to be moulded according to the intrigues and designs of a subtle and projecting Statesman It is not to be spued out of the mouth of the Leviathan nor cunningly to be fleered out of the Works of Plato nor blended with any Doctrines of Epicurus that may prepare men for an indulgence to their vice or perswade them to disbelieve some of the greatest and most substantial points of Christianity Our Religion is now too old to be made new nor must we model that which has run through so many Ages by any tricks or devices of our own nor must it be servant to any mens ambition as if their secular interest or opinion were to be their guide or phancy putting on the name and garb of conscience were to be a Rule for such as call themselves Christians To the Law and to the Testimony sayes the Prophet if any speak not according to this rule it is because they have no light in them Isa 8.20 And we have a more sure word of Prophecy sayes S. Peter Epist 2. Chap 1. ver 19. whereunto you do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place If we forsake therefore the tryal of the Doctrines and Pretences of men by the Scriptures which rightly understood are our only safe Rule we have no way to distinguish a bold pretender from him who is inspired from above If such persons were now to be expected after the Canon of Scripture the Rule for mens lives have been so long ago compleated For by inclining to believe any new revelation beyond the Scripture we suppose that an insufficient Rule the sufficiency of which true English Church Protestants have alwayes defended with success And if the revelation be contrary unto it it makes that Spirit that dictated the first a lyar if the latter be received and supposed true But grant what men of such an easie belief and such speedy resolutions that admit of as speedy changes would without any proof have yielded to them Yet I would fain know how men in their circumstances are able any way to satisfie themselves concerning the proposition which they pretend to be inspired in and thereby authorized to deliver unto others I am afraid confidence will be their only argument to recommend it to others and opinion interest and a strong presumption or what is worse Atheism and Knavery to themselves For 1. supposing the Spirit of God in its Dictates unto men alwayes uniform and consistent with it self how can there be different inspirations to prescribe various Rules opposite to each other at the same time for men to guide their belief and conversations The Apostle tells us that as there is but one God and one Lord with undoubted authority over the whole World so there is but one Spirit to influence the minds of men one Baptism that enters them into the Church of Christ and but one Faith to be embraced by them And therefore the Church is but one Body Eph. 4.4 5 6. How then can we reasonably admit the pretence of any mans inspiration that avers he speaks from the Dictates of the Spirit which is within him to publish any Rules of Religion different from what we have received before And if such a pretender means only his own Spirit the soul which acts within the body we can understand no more than his judgement and opinion Though phrases by such canting are rendered equivocal to startle the infirm but are foreign to our purpose when reflected on by considering men We well know that the design of Christianity was to unite the World under one profession and in religious affairs to subject it to the same rules of life How then can any with Religion or modesty pretend another inspiration for new directions when the former if they were ever true are sufficiently in the New Testament declared to be perpetual and obligatory till Christs coming to judgement when he shall pass sentence upon the whole World and deliver us into our everlasting states no less than his Mediatory Kingdom back unto the Father These are such inconsistent things that none but mad men can now expect any inspirations to deliver new Doctrines to the World 2. I would fain learn of any bold man that publishes under a pretence of inspiration new Doctrines different from the old how he knows himself to be inspired We find those that were formerly so besides some certain token to themselves which neither we nor our pretenders can now give a certain account of though we may some probable conjectures could work Miracles for the settlement of belief both in themselves and others But no such things appear now though lying wonders are published to the World carrying only the testimony of those that invent the story or others that are hired to sacrifice the truth to the confidence of an impostor and therefore one would think such things as these should at the utmost only deceive the simple whilst they that ensnare them having other designs beyond their reach vent what they do not believe themselves that they may accomplish their own carnal ends by the religious easiness and simplicity of others For upon the view of those various Sects visible either abroad or among our selves that any way pretend to be inspired to what they deliver to others we find them publishing by this authority doctrines to be believed and Rules of life quite different nay opposite to one another and pursue each other according to the advantages they receive with a greater eagerness and hotter
to endeavour to imprint Characters on the Air you may inscribe more durable Divinity on the dust which every wind drives to and fro or impress more lasting footsteps on the Shore which the next Tide washes away S. Jude tells us at the 12 th Verse of his Epistle that they are Clouds without water without any weight to ballance them and are not only light as the Air but as inconstant too S. Peter sayes that they are Wells without water Clouds that are carried with a tempest but yet such to whom the midst of darkness is reserved for ever 2 Pet. 2. ch 17. Certainly such men must needs be wrong who by frequent shifting declare to the world that they do not know which opinion is right but like sticks and straws are carried with the stream and alwayes swim down with the River Their faith must needs stagger who thus expose it to every stroke and certainly he must dye and perish that with a naked breast is willing to receive all the wounds that his adversaries will give him If such men are to be deem'd religious sober men would become prophane and if these are they that make a Church the more rational part will enter into a Conventicle or any place distant from these What! must a man be a Fool to become a Prophet or cannot he be spiritual unless he be mad Must Religion that brings peace to the world be the only bone of contention among men which they cast at one anothers heads Shall that which teaches us self-denyal patience humility and obedience be pleaded for a breach of all these Shall our Saviour's Kingdom be of this World notwithstanding his own protestation to the contrary Or those that are zealous for the Doctrine of S. Paul propagate it by that Sword which yet S. Peter was rebuked for using Will men be bold to assume to themselves the names of Christians and yet act more cruelties than the Turks Or call the holy Jesus their Master and yet openly violate all his Laws Can they bow their knees to him and yet presently carry him away to be crucified Can men think it reasonable that a faith should be manured with the blood of others that was planted at first in the Martyrdom of Believers Or can any be supposed to have received power from on high to constitute our Saviour a divider of inheritances when he himself has refused the Office and gave the person a rebuke that desired him to accept it by asking him that question Luke 12.14 Man who made me a judge or a divider over you In vain is it for men designing disturbances in the World to pretend that they follow the commands of Heaven when they knock the Crown of our Saviour against their Sovereigns or fight withone Scepter against the other unless they can reach high enough to pull the Sun and the Stars from the Firmament that no light may shine upon the World Or void the Gospel by inspiration The Protestant world is too wise now to be again thus fool'd Men must chuse a night for such designs as these and stay yet a little longer if they intend to meet with Bats and Owles The age is not dark and melancholy enough to bring in Monkery among these nor has ignorance that Mother of Popish devotion yet sufficiently prepared our minds to receive the Doctrines of Papists or Enthusiasts Nor are the brains of rational and sober men yet beat out that there may be room for Dreams and Visions Nor have we so forgotten the Scriptures as to be guided only by pretended inspiration or to be frighted out of our Faith and Principles by every new and unexpected apparition Nor are we so ignorant of mens devices as to be baffled out of our Religion by those that are deceived themselves Or to accomplish designs of malice or ambition would subtily endeavour to impose on others We know the difference betwixt virtue and vice and have a Rule to judge Doctrines and Preachers by and know how to judge of those that now pretend to present inspiration and those that follow such pretenders And we well hope that we shall not twice in the same age be catch'd and entangled in the same snare To prevent which dismal and fatal ruine permit me in the last place to exhort you to what I cannot command with the sacred Apostle though the World was then also to be gain'd by intreaty as appears by his kind compellation Beloved A word that is used I will not say practised too by men that love fornication in Religion and too often without a metaphor by those who are far differrent from the spirit and life of our Apostle Yea so often that it takes up time in their discourses fills the room of sence and is therefore worn out and as they manage it is grown ridiculous Yet let me exhort men that are beloved of the Lord and not without reason by me also and all honest Christians not to believe every Spirit not to be so soft and easie when you have received a standing Rule so well proved and conveyed to the world to admit of new Doctrines that contradict it or to attend persons that boldly assume as if they were inspired with an equal confidence as if all were Apostles There are many in the world that from S. Paul's advice to prove all things keep themselves in the midst of doubts and perplexities and never love to travel long but where Clouds cover the face of Heaven and attend only to such Doctrines whose darkness keeps them in perpetual ignorance and so the sound is grateful only when it is uncertain And thus with them to prove all things is only to hear without examination and never to hold fast that which is good At this rate a ravening Wolf may be received though he has not so much as sheeps cloathing and to be real Worshippers of an Asses Head with which both Jews and Primitive Christians were falsly charged would be a thing of great merit and honour But shall the cause of God be any longer a cloak for the malice of the Devil the infernal Lake be placed in the Skies or men that have their wits about them mistake the flames of Hell for Heaven Shall the Devil lead us with as good assurance as if he were an Angel of light Or any walk by so loose a principle as cannot distinguish betwixt false Prophets and true Many men are such strange fatalists that they become altogether indifferent in their Choice and concluding their Fortunes to be written on their foreheads they care not whether they make any at all This is an Opinion which when in its consequence pursued will make those that really espouse it and with equal reason to be as regardless of temporal welfare as they are of their eternal and take a great deal of pains and care either to do ill or nothing at all to any purpose Then indeed men might as securely go into a Pest-house as
have been need of any standing Rule so the Apostle would not have commended these Jews for comparing the New Testament with the Old nor for searching the Scriptures to know whether the Apostles Doctrine was true since he came to preach by virtue of inspiration Fourthly 'T is our duty to try the Spirits that is to examine the Doctrines and Opinions of those who pretend to be guided and acted by the Spirit Because there are several advantages that accrew to men by a diligent examination of these things As 1. It is the only way to avoid the insinuations of those who under this pretence captivate and enslave the affections of many leading them into a false Religion and deceiving them of the priviledges and rewards of the Gospel And so their peace and happiness is dissolved here and they purchase eternal misery hereafter The taking away this liberty of enquiring from men is what supports the Church of Rome when having deprived men of their sight they lead them which way they please and spirit them into the chambers of death when they think they are going to the land of the living This is what causes many to believe the Priests gain to be their own godliness whilst ignorance begets a strange devotion and instead of being lead by the Spirit of God they are hurried away by that of delusion And then Egypt or a Wilderness will be as pleasant as the Land of Canaan and the Night become as glorious as the Day to such as have no eyes to see it The want of tryal and examination of these things makes the Sects among our selves to be catched and halter'd by the subtilty of others till they are betrayed into the hands of those who use them as Stalking horses to catch others till the Jesuits cast their Net over them and then the Romans come and take away our Kingdom To forbid this tryal and judgement of things is to render the faculties of a man useless to degrade him into the nature of a Beast and to bring a strange Metempsychosis amongst us by transplanting mens souls into other creatures whilst their bodies live and act in the world Or to make them in religious affairs which are the greatest concernments they have here to forsake the Law of God and the Testimony to seek unto them that have familiar Spirits Or unto the Wizzards that peep and mutter when a people should seek unto their God and not for the living to the dead Isa 8.19 2. By a serious tryal and examination of the Doctrines of men that pretend to inspiration we shall in all probability keep our faith sound and entire For there being among Christians but one true Faith as well as Baptism and one God the Father of our Lord Jesus Since there may be many Articles of Belief exhibited to men different from the true It must needs become the only means to keep our faith sound and blameless by examining things before we receive them and trying men that pretend to inspiration before we entertain their Doctrines in our minds or make them the objects of our belief A Ship that equally spreads her Sails to all the Storms and contrary Winds must not only lengthen her Voyage and be toss'd in the midst of the Waves and Tempest But frequently be in danger of a Wreck if it be not lost and overwhelmed There is no less hazard in the matters of our faith If we permit it without care to lay open to every wind of doctrine we may then not only be toss'd to and fro but at once make shipwrack of faith and a good conscience The Devil is both a Thief and a Murtherer so he was from the beginning and still walks about as a roaring Lyon seeking whom he may devour And how easie is it for him to enter the minds of men and to steal away their faith or hinder it from a vital influence upon their actions if the doors of their souls continually are open and are not at all lock'd or barr'd He may then come to us in his own shape without transforming himself into an Angel of light and both solicite and enslave our minds whilst we let him pass without examining And yet in Ports subject to invasion and Garrisons that may be capable of surprize we allow continual Watch and Ward and Orders to them are so strict in time of danger that none who is not publickly known to be a friend may enter without a strict examination lest he betray the place and let in the enemy No less advantage is it to the mind to preserve our faith spotless and unblemish'd to have a Sentinel alwayes at our Senses through which our souls make their sallies lest the adversary again enters with them and they are destroyed by the same way in which they hoped to preserve themselves We must guard our minds and have a watchman alwayes upon the Tower that our understandings themselves which govern both our choice and affections be not ensnared into false principles which will defile our actions and ruine our souls This is the way to keep our selves harmless and undefiled the sons of God in the midst of that crooked and perverse generation amongst whom we live and hereafter to shine like Stars in the midst of the Firmament for ever This is the design of Saint Paul's exhorting men to hold fast the form of sound words 2 Tim. 1.13 and of his thanking God that the Romans then though since they have departed from it obeyed from the heart the form of doctrine delivered to them Rom. 6.17 and of S. Jude's exhorting all Christians to contend earnestly for that faith which was once delivered unto the Saints in the third Verse of his Epistle For whatever any men boldly say we have as much reason to examine our belief as our actions and to take as great care of the principles as we do in the practice of our Religion For not only our reason concludes this because the understandings are the principal faculty of our souls But for that these direct our wills and influence all the actions of our lives And God will not accept of those who exchange their Creed for any publick faith that betrayes those Articles men should believe Safety or ruine depends upon it Because not only Baptism and the outward Ordinances of our Saviours institution are required to the ordinary salvation of men But he that believeth not shall be damned Mark 16.16 Hymeneus and Alexander not minding these things put away Faith and a good conscience and shipwrack'd their belief in the midst of error and for this they were delivered unto Sathan 1 Tim. 1. 19 20. If the Orthodoxy of mens judgments and opinions of things were not of great and eternal concernment in the times of the Gospel the old statutes might be still embraced or the Law of Nature remain the only direction unto men without any farther revelation But S. Peter tells us of errors that are damnable which entitle men
an evasion is a palpable error is apparent from the institution of our Saviour as recorded by all the Evangelists that mention it in all the Gospels where this is repeated For as the essential parts are always set down so we have prescribed Bread and Wine which by a solemn consecration are blessed and separated from common uses to signifie Christs Body and Blood and in a separate manner to represent Christ dead and not united under one Symbol And to whomsoever he gave the Body represented by the Bread the same person received the Blood signified by the Wine contained in the Cup As it appears upon the view of Christs own institution If it be Objected upon the grant of this which none can deny that the Apostles then only received And that the Romanists themselves allow it to the Priests It may from thence with a greater colour be argued that the whole Sacrament ought only to be continued to the Clergy And that the Laity should not receive so much as a part And then the argument will sooner deprive them of all than any one part of it But that I may totally invalidate this scruple and at the same time prove the Papists to be erroneous Let us view the institution as repeated by S. Paul who has in this proved Rome to have err'd and clearly frees us from their imposture Though S. Peter sayes nothing of it 1 Cor. 11.23 I have received of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he brake it and said Take eat this is my Body which is broken for you this do for a remembrance of me After the same manner also he took the Cup when he had supped saying This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood This do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me Now the whole design of this repetition of the first Institution is to rebuke those disorderly practices of the whole body of the Church of Corinth and to regulate all by the Institution of our Saviour And all together as well people as Clergy are told that as often as they eat this Bread and drink this Cup they shew forth the Lords death till he come If this then is to be continued in the Church as a Memorial of Christs Death till his coming again to judge the World which the Church of Rome will not deny It must be an error thus to depart from the first Institution of Christ and the succeeding practice of his blessed Apostles to say nothing of other Ages of the Church to give to the people an half Communion which the Priests will not be contented with themselves and to deliver them only a part of the Sacrament This certainly is such an error as does not only void their infallibility but a crime too Unless the greatest Sacriledge be a vertue And in plain language it certainly concludes that either the Scriptures or the the Romanists are not infallible Secondly I instance in their Prayer in an unknown tongue I mean a language unknown to the people I cannot but wonder if we had no directions in the Book of God concerning this matter that any persons should be so stupid as to petition from God they know not what and to offer that under the notion of a reasonable service which they do not understand For how can that be presented with Faith which they know not whether it be such as God will accept and as becomes them to offer The Priest here may curse the people in the name of the Devil when they think they are bless'd in the name of God But not to prosecute any absurdities consequential to this irrational practice besides what the Scriptures mention designing not at present to handle these things at large 'T is a direct contradiction to that of S. Paul 1 Cor. 14. Chap. 14 15. and 16 Verses For the Apostle having laid down this general direction that all things in the publick Worship should be done to edification He affirms that praying and blessing in unknown tongues did not accomplish this end vers the 12 th and 17 th 1. Because he that prayes in an unknown tongue though he understands it himself becomes unprofitable unto others v. the 14. 2. Because no man that understands not can give his assent or breath forth a wish by saying Amen to a Prayer or Blessing in an unknown tongue ver the 16 th And the Apostle from the whole inferrs this as a rule unto himself That when he prays with the Spirit i. e. in an unknown tongue which was then an immediate gift of the Spirit he would pray with understanding also i. e. so as he understanding it himself might become fruitful unto others by giving them its just interpretation that they who understood not divers languages might be able to say Amen when they were rendered into their own So that it must be an error in the Church of Rome to enjoyn their publick Prayers to be made in an unknown tongue Unless they will invalidate the Scriptures of S. Paul by a blind and unwritten authority from S. Peter Lastly They have lost their pretended infallibility by determining that monstrous and absurd Doctrine of Transubstantiation It cannot be expected when I introduce this point as a proof of another that I should expatiate upon all the absurdities that attend so prodigious a determination As that the same Body may be in a thousand places at once that there may be admitted a penetration of dimensions That a Body may be somewhere where it was not before without changing its place That the whole Body of Christ may be contain'd within the small compass nay in every little part of a Wafer That it may be eat every day yet remain the same still That an irrational creature a Mouse for example may feed upon the Body of our Lord That one thing may be chang'd into another thing which did exist before That a Body may be in a place after the manner of a Spirit Nay that Christ may give his own Body to be eaten by his Disciples whilst yet he remained alive and entire at the Table These and such like are the absurd consequences of Transubstantiation which men must swallow with the substantial Body and Blood of Christ in the Roman Sacrament of the Lords Supper And they require too large a discourse for me to expatiate upon each severally and apart I shall therefore instance in one absurdity or rather a foundation of great impiety such as destroys the authority of the Gospel if this Doctrine of Transubstantiation proves true and is not an error And that is That it destroyes all the certainty of our senses For if that which has the colour and appearance of Bread That which my taste informs is such That which by touching and handling of it seems to be Bread by as great an evidence as can appear to
choice that if they will sin it may be their own act and deed Why should we think that he has chained them so fast one to another that they cannot err or wander out of the way unless they break that link which ties them all to an Infallible Chair But alas such is our condition here that we may as well expect to free mankind from the commission of sin as to restrain all men from error Nay there is as great a necessity that the lives of men should be void of the one as there is that they should be free from the other As much reason there is for men to be holy in all manner of conversation as there is for all to be sound in the faith since if we have faith we may have it to our selves but the actions of our lives have an influence upon others Why therefore should there not be an irresistible power set up to restrain men from vice as well as a standing infallibility to keep them from error Since God then who will judge men hereafter for those things which are properly their own has not thought it fitting to set up the one I cannot but suspect that he never designed to fix the other but to leave men to their own faculties to which he has added sufficient assistances to judge and to chuse fairly for themselves And therefore methinks 't is more reasonable to believe that since men cannot pretend to both it would be more modest to pretend to neither especially since we have no authority whatever power any have gained or usurped among us from reason or revelation to advance any among the Race of men to be an infallible Judge in Religion farther than his sentence proceeds according to the Laws of the Gospel And by this I cannot find that he has done any more beyond the faculties we have received as we are men than to give us a Rule sufficient to judge Doctrines by and Laws by which we are to govern our practice together with some superadded means to help our judgments and direct our Opinions by the Authority of Magistrates who are an Ordinance of God by the instructions of his Ministers who are also of Divine institution and the common assistances of his Holy Spirit to guide us into all necessary truths which tend to the promotion of our eternal happiness And so the final success is left to our own liberty and choice either in a refusal or compliance with them Because I cannot believe but that God acts suitable to the nature of human creatures in all his general dispensations to men that so he may in our future state with equal justice inflict punishment or give us a reward according to his promise And indeed to write strictly to be sound in the Faith would not be praise worthy if it were so ordered that we could not err Nor need S. Paul have so carefully exhorted to this if we might have been so easily preserved from all diseases and deviations in Religion by the infallibility of S. Peter and those who plead their Title from him I am sure that an Apostle acquaints the Church of Corinth that there must be also Heresies among them that they who are approved may be made manifest 1 Cor. 11.19 By which he proves and fore-tells matter of fact though he does not signifie Gods approbation but only his permission of them And the reason why he suffered error and division to be introduced among them by the perverseness or curiosity of any was that such as united in the true Faith might brighten and shine forth with the greater glory and like the Sun in the Firmament might triumph over Clouds and darkness There is no foundation therefore to erect the Popish infallibility on nor for any Church to set up such a Tribunal among themselves Having thus as I hope cleared my self from any great and unpardonable miscarriage in this point I shall briefly proceed in reflecting upon some mistakes of others that are false Rules to judge Doctrines and Spirits by Wherein private Enthusiasts are most notoriously guilty These smell Popery at a distance and can hardly promote any design without pretending that it is suddenly to be introduced into the most Protestant and best established Church in the World But they too publickly discover themselves to be Popishly affected who are very apt to spie errors in the Pope and yet so transfer them to themselves and steal them away that they may have the Monopoly of them and retale them to others under new names when they are in the possession of another Master These will not allow the Pope to be infallible but are apt to conclude themselves to be so And thus they fetch Candles from Romes Altars that they may set them up in their own Breasts As if there were no difference betwixt the holy Spirits guiding men into truth and walking by the light of their own fires What either a disease and weakness in their bodies or their minds has made a representation of to their phancies so long till their brooding thoughts have at last produced something which they may justly call their own These things they are apt to think or at least to say are the dictates of the Spirit and accordingly they will adventure to guide themselves and impose their own enjoyed phancies upon other men But if every thing of this nature and mens wild discourses the effect of this were to receive the stamp of Divine Authority and become infallible guides of action So strange a confusion would be made among us and such a monstrous Babel would be erected that Trowels would be call'd for instead of Morter and men would cry out for Bricks before they had gotten Straw to make them Their tongues would be so various and unintelligible that a Teutonick language could never reconcile them nor be able to discover them nor give marks to know the first Builders by when they are dispersed into divers Countries But every mans head would still tilt against another and bring a kind of damnation upon the World The Society of Devils would be more regular than men who must live without God or Beelzebub The births of reason would be deem'd abortive and the fruits of madness would receive the characters of sobriety and discretion The greatest Lunaticks would be most Religious and we should pay the greatest veneration to a Fool. But since things are not come to this pass yet I shall briefly examine a very few false Rules by which some among us satisfie themselves in the tryal of Spirits and guidance of themselves First There are some that build much on what they stile the Return of prayer when they have made a Fast the Prologue to contention and a long Prayer has been the Breakfast when they resolved to dine upon Widows houses yet they have too frequently thought or at least endeavoured to cause others to believe that what has happened after their prayer has been the return from
their Governours Opinions enacted into Laws for the true dictates of the Holy Ghost inspiring the Pope or presiding at their Councils and infallibly assisting in their determinations But none of these things taken as they are propounded can possibly be a safe Rule much less the highest conduct in matters of Religion When we shall consider that though they may be helps to judge upon the view of the Rule Yet phancy and opinion may frequently be mistaken for reason illumination Conscience nay the dictates of the holy Spirit it self and according to the common inferences about these matters are so concluded and believed by men that consult their own faculties But this will yet be more evident if we consider 1. That the holy Spirit of God does not in any ages since he inspired those that delivered the Scriptures to be the rule of life either illuminate or direct mankind in the things relating to their eternal peace in any other manner than 1. By those Scriptures allowing the faculties of human nature and the general propositions of Religion among mankind which he inspired the Sacred Pen-men to record 2. By inclining as well as authorizing some men being prepared by education and study to continue a succession of that Ministry which our Saviour appointed to endure to the end of the World to explain the difficulties in Religion unto others And 3. Confirming by a secret and inexplicable operation which is easily believed by all that affirm Gods Grace or Providence and in consequence his Being the propositions contained in the Scriptures unto the minds of men and inclining their faculties to believe and embrace them Which influence is obtained by prayer to him that is of a docil disposition as well as given in our Sacred Baptism till such time as we either resist or renounce it all which shall be more evident before I make an end Now none of these though great priviledges can intitle any to that illumination or immediate guidance which wild men make the rule of their faith and conductor of their actions But they may mistake and be confident in it their own phancy and high opinion proceeding either from thoughtfulness or disposition for immediate motions from the Spirit of God And 2 As for the consciences of men if they mistake them not for phancy opinion or a strong persuasion of their own minds they are nothing but the agreement of our judgements with Gods word for thus much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports which is knowledge with another and includes the relation of our understandings to a Rule These are so far therefore from being a rule themselves that they are to be governed by another and cannot be proper consciences without it Being therefore guided by a Superiour Rule they cannot be safe conductors themselves and if conscience as taken by those that plead hardest for it were once allowed its full latitude phancy interest and the humours and impious mistakes of men would pass for conscience and a safe guide and introduce such a medly and mixture in Religion that every one under the covert of this would do what is good in his own eyes even as when there was no King in Israel The Church of Christ would be turned into a Babel and our houses of Prayer into dens of Thieves being fill'd with nothing but Sacriledge and confusion Thirdly Some make such Providence as crowns their opinions with success to be an argument that their opinions are true But to evince the invalidity of this needs no other than this observation That when the same things are covered with a Cloud their Authors punished or the propagation of their tenets becomes improsperous the same men will not admit of the same argument Nor permit others to defend their opinions by the same medium with which they prov'd their own When the Sun for a season shines upon them and the Heavens smile then behold the hand of the Lord is with them But when a prosperous ray refreshes others and they receive not the countenance they had before but have the frowns and discouragements of Superiors Behold now wickedness is seated in high places The holy Seed are led into the Wilderness and persecution attends the Elect of God and Canaanites possess the Holy Land But if success were an argument for inspiration and smiling Providences a rule to judge Doctrines by Numa Pompilius might have had an argument for the inspirations from his Nymph Aegeria and for the truth of his Religion he establish'd among the Romans The Jews might have been lost in the Wilderness and have justified the making their Gods to go before them They had ceased to have the marks of a Church and would not have been the people of the Lord when they were carried into Egypt or Babylon Nay by this they might have justified their condemning the great Messiah and Pilate and the Roman Guards might have had an argument for executing him The Primitive Christians must be condemned and the Apostles inspiration be proved an imposture if a dark Providence be that by which the Doctrines of men are to be judg'd Mahomet must have been deemed a true Prophet when he gathered so many Proselytes in the East And the great Turk be yet as holy as he has been for the most part prosperous in the World Nay Popery it self must then be embraced if the glory and prosperity of opinions must prove them true and success becomes the measure of Religion This is a way to justifie all lucky Usurpations To determine right and wrong by combate and the longest Sword may justly measure out the largest Possession and the property of mankind must submit to power A Rebel then may lawfully possess his Sovereings Throne if he has strength enough to force the brightest Majesty to an exchange And if this principle be fully pursued the men that own it may bow the Knee and say to an Usurper God save the King This will make many times the greatest Villany to have more Authority than Virtue and Innocence and force true Religion to be vanquished by a false Nay he that by this rule is taken for a Prophet to day may be an Impostor to morrow though he continues in the delivery of the same Doctrine Because a man may receive Hosanna's from the multitude and their cry shall shortly be Crucifie him Crucifie him These things are the subject of common observation It was holy Davids long ago And it will be so to the end of the world whatever Jews or Millenaries may dream That the wicked will sometimes be in great power when the righteous hang down their head like a bulrush When the Psalmist spake of the prosperity of the wicked He observ'd for some time that there were no bands in their death but their strength was firm and sound They were not in trouble like other men but plagued less than those that were better Therefore pride compass'd them as a chain and violence covered them as a garment their
that they should read natural Philosophy to the World He did not intend to teach them to call the Stars by their names or that they should by virtue of his instruction know their several motions distances or altitudes He did not intend Aphorisms in Physick Or to give to them Geometrical proportions Nor to breed them curious and expert Artificers though some of these have made themselves Apostles Nor to teach them the numbers of Arithmetick Or the Astrological signatures of things or times and seasons For these were not for them to know because the Father had put them into his own power Acts 1.7 And therefore as they were never so proud and bold so neither were they so unlucky as the Pope who must needs condemn a point in Geography and the tenet of Antipodes for a destroying Heresie So little did he know the universal Empire he pretended to that he did not understand the extent of it nor the Figure or Bounds or Inhabitants of that Earth over which he yet pretended an Authority The Holy Ghost therefore guided the Apostles into those truths only in Divinity which included the full Doctrine of the Gospel which our Saviour delivered that they might be able to preach them to the present age and commit them to writing for the use of all succeeding Generations The Spirit was not given to them to make them great Historians or Philosophers but Christians and to capacitate them to be the planters and founders of Churches not the posts and standards of dispute Or to be the leaders of Sects and Factions in Philosophy They were to erect a Pillar of truth setled upon a firm foundation Christ himself supporting the Building and this neither for Pasquins or Poetry but for a Rule and directory of standing Religion and Devotion CHAP. XII THE souls of men whilst hous'd in these bodies of clay are darkned and obscured notwithstanding all the windows of sense to let in the light of external objects to an intercourse with the mind For supposing our senses could alwayes make true and exact representations to our souls which yet we know are often deceived yet these could only convey such things as are the proper objects of the souls of men Those of an higher and more exalted nature that are not capable of an image must needs escape the perception of our outward senses and if reason it self when most disentangled from those fetters which our senses too often impose should endeavour to make propositions and inferences about the essences of those things whose spiritual natures evade our sense our notions could not be adequate to the things themselves nor could we fully comprehend what is infinite nor have a positive Idea of spiritual Beings though reason might conclude their existence Hence is it that all our definitions and descriptions of these are therefore imperfect because negative and though we may conclude what they are not we never could by humane power yet resolve compleatly what they are which makes Divine Revelation necessary and that we should have faith beyond our reason though we never believe without reason to assure us of the authority we confide in This being therefore our state and condition in this World we must as well praise Gods Goodness as admire his Power for sending us that Spirit of Truth which guides us into all truth that is necessary to conduct us to eternal happiness Now this Promise I told you I would consider two wayes 1. As it related to the Apostles and first Disciples of our Lord and Saviour 2. As it concerns the whole Church of Christ that is or shall be militant on the earth The first of these is already dispatched And therefore I now proceed to the second To view the Promise of the Spirits guidance as it concerns the Church throughout the several Ages and Periods of the Christian World I have already proved the divine influence on the minds of men though its immediate operation is too difficult to be explained as to the manner of its energy and work and that we have no reason to disbelieve the thing for that we know not the manner of its operation What therefore is now to be discoursed supposing the truth of its influence in general and that extraordinary assistance he gave unto the Apostles is How the Holy Spirit of God possesses the minds of those with truth who make themselves by holy dispositions and a due exercise of their rational faculties capable to receive it and what truths those are that the Spirit of God guides men into As to the first supposing that which has been already proved That the Apostles were inspired from above to receive a full revelation of those truths by opening their understandings and quickning their memories that concern the salvation of mankind and that they committed them to writing faithfully recording them for the use of posterity and that these are to be standing rules for all ages and generations to come I cannot find any other method the Spirit has used or does continue to guide the ages succeeding the Apostles into all truth but what is contained in these three particulars 1. By those Scriptures which he inspired the Apostles to publish and deliver 2. By inclining the hearts of some men to continue that Ministry which must endure to the end of the world And 3. By confirming those truths contained in the Scriptures unto the minds of men by co-operating with the external ministration by an internal work upon the understanding will and affections of those who are inclinable in the day of his power First then The Spirit of truth guides us into all truth by those Scriptures Christ and his Apostles delivered to be the standing rules for posterity These are those lively Characters in which we may read the Nature of God and the directions of our lives These are such an infallible rule of truth that they certainly guide those into it who soberly and conscientiously apprehend and follow them They convey peace of conscience here which is a thing valuable above Crowns and Kingdoms and hereafter give us such possessions as infinitely transcend the power of our thoughts and exceed all humane expectations These Holy Scriptures contain such a compleat body of Doctrine that they need not any additions to be made to them Let their own sense be but sufficiently explained and if they are permitted to speak their own mind they will neither want Apocrypha nor Traditions nor any new Revelation neither to render them a compleat System of Divinity Mens own Doctrines and not Christs want Traditions to confirm them and 't is the pride and covetousness of a Sect of men that would make all Christians groan with their burden and void Gods Word with their own pretensions however they are varnished with the plausible Epithets of ancient and Apostolical that make such additions to the Scriptures But the Holy Scriptures which were at first given by inspiration of God are able of themselves
Unity of the Body of Christ to encrease our knowledge in the Christian Doctrine and prevent our being deceived and led into error Hence was Timothy's Office which he had received by the Ordination of S. Paul stiled a gift 2 Tim. 1.6 And lest these appointments should not be accounted the products and designation of the Holy Spirit These gifts are attributed to the Spirit Who is in himself one uniform Being though these were divers according to the variety of times and seasons And they are all such manifestations of the Spirit as are given to men to profit withal 1 Cor. 12. Now as Gods Providence Rules the World though we can neither discover his Councels nor are able to account for the manner of his operation As he disposes of Crowns and Kingdoms determines our dayes and disposes our Habitations though these things are accomplished by an order and train of second Causes severally designing and concurring to the end So does the Holy Spirit dispose the way of the Education of some and incline their minds to the Office of Ministers in the Church of Christ that Gods people may not perish for want of knowledge But there may be some alwayes to preach the Word and to convey Christs Doctrine from Generation to Generation That his Church being built upon the true confession of an Holy Faith as on a firm and well fixed Rock the gates of Hell may never be able to prevail against it Matth. 16.16 and 18. Now a sufficient number of such men distinguished by their Education and manner of living from those that are more encompassed with the noise and disturbing affairs of this life being prepared by a previous train of circumstances and having the advantages of their own parts and understandings And being by such means able to see into the notions of those that have gone before them having been used more to reading consideration and retirement than other men and to weigh the just consequences of things They must needs attain a competent ability in the matters of Religion to which they most apply themselves And they may be capable through the assistance of that Spirit who calls and gives them Authority in their Office to become instruments in his hands to guide men into the wayes of truth In all the Arts and Mysteries of the World we deem it a natural way to learn by obtaining one that is skilful himself to teach us the Principles and Grounds of his Knowledge And we more certainly and easily obtain our design when we have such a one to instruct us So is it in matters of Religion 'T is a natural way to inform our selves in those things that concern our Salvation when we have not only an an inspired Rule But men Educated into the knowledge of those things that prepare them for the understanding the Mysteries of Religion and are afterwards appointed by due Ceremony and the direction of the Holy Ghost to guide us into all truth Especially if in the last place we consider that the Spirit of truth confirms those truths contained in the Scriptures unto the minds of men by co-operating with the external appointed Ministrations by an internal work upon the understanding and affections That there is such a thing as a Divine illumination yet continued amongst Christians as our Church owns it by her Prayers so no man can reasonably contradict it Not that it does render any man infallible as the Romanists affirm Nor inspire men with any new Doctrine or Rules of life besides what it has revealed in the Scriptures as some Enthusiasts adventure to determine Yet we must not to avoid the extreams forsake so useful an Article of belief that gives God the glory of his power and keeps us dependent upon him and is so great a foundation of our prayers and praises Truth is not to be forsaken by the Jews because the Samaritans may be of the same opinion Nor shall I like the Jews in Barbary refuse to eat of that Meat which is dress'd by one of a different perswasion Or to drink in the same Cup with a Moor when he is a person of a wholsome Constitution until it has undergone the Ceremony of Washing Truth in this World will be blended with error and 't is the prudence as well as piety of a Christian to make a separation of the Wheat from the Chaff and not to slight and refuse the one because the other has been mix'd with it 'T is true indeed as Mr. Hales expresses it The Promise of the Spirit to the Apostles which should lead them into all truth was made good unto them by private and secret informing their understandings with high and heavenly Mysteries which never entered into the conceit of man And to us this promise is made good because what was written by Revelation in their hearts for our instruction they have written in their Books But yet this is not all the assistance the Spirit gives us For though he does not inspire us with any new Doctrine you he opens our understandings to the apprehension of the old I am far from admitting the conceit of an impulse to be the rule and measure of our lives because we know what mischiefs have overspread the World when propositions have been vailed with such a pretence and it may be our own as well as S. Austin's observation Tanto sunt ad seditionem faciliores quanto sibi videntur spiritu excellere Men are the more prone to sedition by how much the more they seem to excell in their inspiration yet there cannot appear the same danger where the Spirit only assists our understandings to apprehend those truths which are already deliver'd and inclines our wills and affections to embrace them when according to the direction of S. John we are not so credulous as to believe every Spirit but to try the Spirits whether they are of God or no 1 John 4.1 Now then only may we reasonably conclude our understandings to be influenced by the Spirit when our notions agree with the written Word For to the Law and to the Testimony sayes the Prophet if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no morning or light in them Isa 8.20 There are divers means natural in themselves and rationally appointed by Almighty God for the informing men in the truths that concern them Reading meditation and hearing the Word are proper methods to inform our understandings and to guide us into the way of truth But prayer is therefore wont to be superadded not only to compose our minds and make them fit for Divine Contemplation by a sequestration of our thoughts from those external objects that by intermixing themselves with those that are more spiritual confound our Idea's and notices of things and render our minds more loose and extravagant But because Prayer supplicates those aids and assistances of the Spirit that facilitate our apprehensions of truth by removing objects that crumble and disorder them and it
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
it was fit for us to know or our frail capacities can receive so that we may accommodate the words of the Psalmist to the Holy Spirit Thou shalt guide us with thy counsel and afterwards receive us to glory Psal 73.24 These are the truths the Holy Ghost still guides us into as far as our frailty is able to comport with his methods and influence He does not now come amongst men to cause them to speak divers Languages or to work Miracles amongst those who have the Records of the Gospel Nor yet to reveal such secrets as the Father has put in his own power and properly belong to God alone He does not help us to search into the Closets and Decrees of Heaven no more than he discovers the Councels of Princes nor does he elevate mens understandings to distract themselves with things that are above them But having given the Law of Life he guides our feet into the way of peace CHAP. XIII HAving thus far accomplished my design in confuting mens false pretensions to inspiration from the Holy Spirit of God upon due examination of others writings and mine own thoughts raised for ought I know to the contrary either by my converses with or observations from other men for I dare not call any thing mine own so as to be any first inventor Having no Common-Place-Book to direct me Or else from some Superiour benediction upon human endeavours which I have attempted in some part to prove and vindicate And to shew in this all that I believe or can at this time explain in any measure unto others That there may be some farther use made of this writing I shall conclude all with a few brief Observations and Inferences from the whole or some parts of this Discourse And First Every man ought to judge for himself in matters or Religion that are proposed to his belief or practice as far as he has abilities and capacity to understand Because S. John exhorts all men to try the Spirits whether they are of God And this will neither seem to be absurd or impossible when we shall consider that we are men endued with rational faculties that we have the use of the Holy Scriptures in which all things are plain that are universally necessary to the Salvation of mankind That we have Guides appointed to help us in the interpretation of what is difficult and the Holy Spirit promised to assist us in all Which God gives to every one who in earnest prayer devoutly asks it And which is present with him in all emergences 'till by a vicious life he strangely grieves him and by an obstinate continuance in the habits of sin he provokes it totally to withdraw from him Were there an human Throne of infallibility erected to which all others might appeal and rest satisfied with the determinations of him that possesses it There would be no occasion of an Apostles direction to try the Spirits But since we are exhorted to prove all things that we may hold fast that which is good And the Scriptures direct us to no such human infallibility but assure us that what is not of faith is sin As it produces the greatest satisfaction to every man to settle his own notions in Religion So it is his duty to examine the Doctrines and Opinions of men propounded to his belief or which are designed to guide his practice before he believes and entertains them Making Gods Word his rule in all things that are plain and evident And taking the assistance of those Guides and Teachers which God has appointed and set over him in those points that are more difficult and obscure And this if done with that humility devout prayer for Gods assistance and true industry which becomes a man in so great a concernment as that of Religion will either find out all truth Or if he remain in any error it will be such as God will never condemn him for Since the most gracious God will never expect from mankind that their apprehension of things should exceed the cacapacity of their reception and what the means of his appointment cannot help them to Nor that either their belief or actions should ever exceed the power of their Beings And those that so studiously and industriously endeavour to give a check to mens reasoning and examination about the Doctrines they propound render their opinions things to be very much suspected And will give us to understand that their deeds are evil when they hate the light And as for that peace among Christians that the pretended infallibility in the Church of Rome or any where else boasts an establishment and continuance of Whilst Protestants are crumbled into Sects and Divisions We may easily reply that they have their Controversies as well as we and parties among them that oppose each other with an equal heat and eagerness in dispute with other mortals and are distinguished by their several denominations Even as the Jesuits difference themselves from all being such sworn Vassals to the Court of Rome that they endeavour to support it to the ruine of the Church Let the Romanists and others therefore first pull the Mote out of their own eyes and then they may the better see to pull the Beam out of anothers But why may not such peace and order as are convenient and perhaps as much as can ever be obtained be preserved among men professing Christianity by the publick Authority checking the disorderly actions of men without imposing setters on their belief Which it is altogether impossible to compel or punish either if men were so wise as to keep it to themselves and not trouble others by discourse I doubt not but it may be done as well as Authority keeps men in a tolerable order in relation to the management of secular affairs though he that administers it is not infallible Nor do all that are Subjects still concur in Opinion with him Preserve therefore your judgement of discretion and use it too that you may not be led like blind men when you have eyes to see and helps to assist them when they wax dimm And then having setled your selves in the true Religion Secondly Let me exhort you to stand fast in it Not to be like waves of the Sea rolling to and fro with every tempest and carried about with every wind of doctrine Not to be pleased with every new appearance in the world because variety in other things different from Religion is so grateful to the generality of men For in such things they may have their choice and not be limited by a superiour power But our option in relation to Principles of Religion must be directed by a superiour rule and guide And having once found out this we must not vary upon new pretensions from what this prescribes to us Lest having left those paths that should direct us we wander about we know not whither Sathan gets great advantages upon unsteady minds And 't is easie to make a new impression