A DISCOURSE Concerning the TRIAL OF SPIRITS. WHEREIN Inquiry is made into men's 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 fanatics; 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 Majesty's Chaplains in Ordinary. London, Printed by B.W. for E. Advise, at the Bishop's Head, over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill. 1683. To the Right Worshipful Sr. Edward Worseley, Knight, Colonel of one of the Regiments of the Country Militia, and Deputy Governor 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 yourself; I cannot but present these Papers to you, as being the Inheritor of your Father's Estate, and Virtues 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 enthralled, and the designed mischiefs that were likely to befall him from persons that thirsted after Royal Blood, who were most monstrous and irreconcilable 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 yourself; And 'twas 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 expelled, 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 privilege, 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 always wished 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 Being's, would continue to preserve your most Loyal and exceedingly devout self; Your most Virtuous 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, Nou. 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 villainies 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 breathes 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 loath to believe it, we are now convinced of by a woeful experience; an experience which had been purchased by our utter ruin, unless God's Providence, assisting, and favouring the wisdom of our Superiors, 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 ruin and destroy the Principles of Christianity under a show to advance them: And though we were unwilling to think that men who seemed 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 God's 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 show of advancing the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, and, to lift up his Sceptre, our Sovereign's must first be broken in pieces: when disorders tending to subversion and ruin, 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 villainy 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 exchanged for dross, and we are ready to be made the companions of Owls, or what is worse, of Thiefs and Murderers; 'tis high time to bring forth the Touchstone, to inquire into the value of things before we receive them, that counterfeit coin may not claim the same privilege with what is instamped with Caesar's Image, nor an entrance opened for the Pope of Rome, riding in a Kirk, born on the backs of those that know not what they carry: that they may bring Popery in triumph to us, like the Grecians lodged in the belly of that Wooden and insensible Horse, that entered Troy and sacked the City, and so gained that by an easy strategem, which ten years siege could not effect. For these and such like reasons (if men will now hearken to any) I have chosen this Subject to Discourse on, that, if possible, we may separate the chaff from the wheat; distinguish betwixt the Doctrines of Apostles, and those of Devils, and mark out the Spirit of Antichrist, that it may be known from that of our Saviour, that names may no longer confound things, nor Satan be received by any of us, though he transforms himself into an Angel of light; lest we mistake that for Samuel in his Mantle, which only the Witch of Endor raises. And therefore let us not believe every Spirit, but try the Spirits whether they are of God, because many false Prophets are gone into the world. And from these words, I shall raise my Discourse. In this Epistle, S. John endeavours to confirm Christians in the profession and practice of the Christian Religion, notwithstanding all Objections to the contrary; and therefore gives them sufficient caution to beware (1.) Of such Heresies as destroy the foundation, such as interfered with the great Doctrines and Authority of the Messiah; such as under some great pretences of purity, and preciseness, might introduce Factions and Schisms, and dissolve that strict love and union which ought to be among the Professors of the Gospel: These things some were prone unto in the first and early times of Christianity: As soon as the Church had put forth leaves, the Caterpillars were ready to devour them: (2.) Because the Church of Christ was planted in the midst of Jewish Superstition, and Heathen Idolatry; and a Sect was now sprung up in the world that, under the names of Christians, had provided Principles which in times of danger might equally suit with both, or either, and so could shelter themselves from one storm, and raise another, if the wind blew from either quarter: The Apostle therefore bids men to beware of Idolatry, this being a plain renunciation of their Religion, as Heresy would both maim and wound it: Little children (says he) keep yourselves from Idols: and what he closes his Epistle with, is, what we all close our prayers with: And that we may be also delivered from the insinuations or Society of both these sorts, let all the people say, Amen. From the consideration of this design of our Apostle, we may plainly see how suitable this whole Epistle is to the present humours and distractions among us, and how soon, were the advice embraced, it would cure us of those languishing distempers, under which we seem to faint and die: The extremities of disease vex and torture us, and no sooner have we got off a cold fit, which makes us almost shake and shiver into ashes, but the hot one comes on, which fires and almost is ready to consume us; Nay, a strange mixture of both encounter us, rather than we shall recover and live, and those things which the vigour and strength of our constitution is able to baffle whilst separate and apart, being conjoined, create a new disease, which troubles the Physician, and puts him to the utmost of his skill; though I hope it will never be able to baffle him, or leave us to be a prey to vermin, or the great disease and pest of men: Let us follow the rules of this Apostle, that what ever injuries our bodies may suffer (which in too many are Martyrs already by the great fears and uncertainties of their minds) our souls may be safe and secure, and kept unblameable to the coming of the Lord Jesus: Let us be united in our common profession, not staggered with the high pretences of others; nor let us yet relax our diligence from the discourses of any that will at all adventures be secure among ourselves; But whatever notions of infallibility on the one hand, or present and particular inspiration on the other, shall be presented to us, to debauch us from our Principles; Let us well examine before we believe; receive nothing that may contradict natural Religion, or what is superadded in the word of God, that public and plainly declared revelation, to which there need no additions to make the man of God wise unto salvation: But let us follow the Apostles advice, and try the Spirits whether they are of God, because many false Prophets are gone out into the world. By the word Spirit, here is plainly meant any one that under a pretence of Inspiration or assistance from the Spirit, publishes any new▪ Doctrine to the world, in the age of the Gospel, and so includes both Papists and Enthusiasts; The one tying the Spirit to the Chair of the Pope, the other to their own Dreams and Fancies: And this interpretation, as it is generally assented to, is plain and open to every man that will either consider the scope of the Epistle, or the reason of this advice of the Apostle, why we should not believe every Spirit, because many false Prophets are come forth into the world; and therefore we are to examine the Doctrines, which any pretender to the Spirit teaches, lest we are led by the authority of any into snares, that may captivate and destroy our souls. Now although this caution of Saint John, primarily relates to the Gnostick defection; yet it is a direction to all Ages, and may guard us from all the pretensions of men that, under a specious authority from the Spirit of truth, vent false Doctrines to the World, in any period of the Christian Religion; Because both the Duty and the Argument to enforce it will be of a perpetual concernment, as long as false Prophets come forth into the world. Yet because the Gnostics are most immediately reflected on, as being the Antichrist, so early appearing in the Christian world, to defeat this Religion under a denomination from it, boasting some extraordinary knowledge, when they were men both ignorant and vile; we must inquire into the particular reason, why the Apostle in this place cautions men to beware of these, whose faults were so scandalous, that they seem manifest to all: The reason of this (next to that which is more general, the proneness of men to any error that may gratify themselves, and become either their security or pleasure) is the same, why the sin against the Holy Ghost shall neither be forgiven in this world, nor in the world to come; because the Gnostics plainly destroyed the Gospel, although by a different Argument from the former: The former against whom that severe, though deserved, Sentence was pronounced, invalidated all our Saviour's Miracles, which proved his Doctrine to be Divine, and himself the Messiah sent from God, by attributing them to the power of the Devil; but the Gnostics did in effect the same thing, by retaining, upon occasion, the Ceremonies of the Jews, which our Saviour had abolished, if he were owned as a person sent from God to void the old Law, and establish a new: So that those who embraced what he came to vacate, in effect denied him to be come in the flesh; and consequently destroyed the obligation of the Gospel, by renouncing the Messiah, whose authority established this new Law as a Rule to the World: Nay, by this rejection of the Son, they disowned the Father, who, by a voice from Heaven, and giving him power to work Miracles, gave a testimony to his Person and his Doctrine: And therefore our Apostle (reflecting upon these men) says; Who is a liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son: whoso denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father, but he that acknowledgeth the Son, the same hath the Father also, (1 John. 2 Chap. 22.23.) And in the 4 th' Chap. 3. v. Every Spirit (or teacher) that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is not of God; and this is that Spirit of Antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come, and even now already is it in the world. CHAP. II. HAving thus given an account of part of this Epistle of S. John, together with those, of whom the Apostle cautions men to beware; I shall farther explain and illustrate the words, to render them yet more useful to ourselves by considering in them, (1.) A Caution, (2.) An Exhortation, (3.) The reason of both. The Caution is; Not to believe every Spirit: The Exhortation, To try the Spirits, whether they are of God: The Reason both of this Caution and Exhortation is, because many false Prophets are gone out into the world. I begin with the Apostles Caution: Beloved, believe not every Spirit; If all that men utter pretending to be inspired, were without any severe consideration to be entertained, and what they deliver, were to be believed, there would no more need the Apostles caution than our own care: But when we live in an Age, in which Propositions and Doctrines are delivered, that too plainly contradict each other; some of which are impious and abominable; others at first audit, foolish, and ridiculous; and a third sort, that tend to disturbance and ruin, wasting Property, making our Kingdoms large Aceldamas, and our Cities the places of dead men's sculls, and are apparent enemies to human Society: When, under the pretence of a Catholic Religion, Doctrines of purity, proposals to advance the Sceptre of Christ's Kingdom, Principles shall be insinuated, that if pursued, with that furious zeal, which they require, will effectually destroy those things indeed, which men endeavour to maintain in words; If our blessed Saviour may thus be fought under his own Banner, the cause of God cover abominations, murder be acted for the glory of our Maker, Blasphemy be spoken by the assistance of the Spirit, and the method to render Princes glorious, shall be by stabbing, or beheading: If the most horrid wickedness shall be palliated under the cloak of Religion, a new Commandment shall be pretended for breach of the old, and the Moral Law shall daily be violated by inspiration: If men under pretensions to the guidance of that Spirit which inspired the first deliverers of the Gospel, to be a Rule to succeeding Ages and Generations, shall hang out new lights to the world, that take away all the glory of the old, and preach to us another Gospel, bearing their Christ only pictured on their Standards and Banners, and their Gospel to us on the points of Swords: Nay, when the Spirit, in the propagation of the Gospel, neither prescribed nor used such methods, but quite contrary, those of faith, and patience, humility, and self-denial, which did not interfere with the Government of Princes, but made men actively, or passively, to obey: And when the same Spirit has expressly declared, that in the latter times there would be such a falling away from the faith, that men would so far depart from the standing rules of the Gospel, as to give heed to seducing Spirits, and doctrines of Devils, (1 Tim. 4.1.): Nay when the great Lord and Author of our Religion has acquainted the world, that many false Prophets should arise, with such earnest pretences, and strong delusions, that should almost shake the very Elect, (those whom he had chosen to put his Name and Character upon) with, Lo here is Christ, or lo there; exalting several, though false Messiahs: It will become us to consider any new pretensions beyond the rule we have already learned, and not to receive Opinions at adventure, but to make a more strict, and considerate, enquiry, and not to believe every Spirit. And that (1.) Because we have already entertained a standing Rule of Faith and Manners, by which all Christians ought to be directed to the final period and consummation of Ages: And though this great and Characteristical Principle of Protestants, is contradicted both by the Papists and Enthusiasts, whilst the former equal their Traditions with the Scriptures, and the latter their own fancies and dreams; both upon occasion, bestowing such ignominious titles on the Bible, that they would think it uncivil if they should be given to any of their own writings: Yet S. Paul tells us, that the Scriptures are able to make us wise unto Salvation; and being given by inspiration from God, cannot be false without supposing him a liar: Nay, the Apostle goes on in their commendation, that they are profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God (much more the people) may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works, (2 Tim. 3.15, 16, 17.). The design of that Gospel which we have embraced, sufficiently declares it to be a full and complete rule of life; that, which if followed, brings peace and welfare to us here; and eternal happiness in that life which is to come: For it teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in the world; and to look for a blessed hope and immortality; for which the former way of living prepares us: (Titus 2.11, 12, etc.). Nay, so perfect and complete is this rule, and so designed to direct us to the end of the world, that the Apostle denounces a Curse against any that teach another Gospel, or Rule of life, different from, or contradictory to, this; though an Angel from Heaven should prove to be the deliverer: And repeats it twice in the same Chapter, that it may be sufficiently declared, and stand as a memorial to all Ages: (Gal. 1.8, 9). And Saint John, in the close of his Revelations, sufficiently reproves all new pretensions, by telling the world, that, if any man shall make additions to this, which was complete before, God shall add unto him the Plagues that are threatened in it: And if any shall take away from it, his part shall be taken out of the book of life, (Rev. 22.18, 19). The perfection of the Scriptures is a point which Protestants have always held, as that which, as it is most true, so it is their most sure defence against all the assaults of Rome, and others: And this is what the Ancient Fathers tried Doctrines by of old, and reproved Heretics, by what was written: Although, according to the Education or disposition of those that opposed them, they wanted not, but made use of, Arguments from Reason and Philosophy, and the natural Religion of mankind. Now the Scripture being a safe, because it is a true, Rule; and true because given to us by Authority from God, who gave sufficient testimony to it, by inspiring, and encouraging the deliverers of it; and farther, it is attested by signs, and wonders, and divers Miracles: And a safe rule it is, because it has all that tends to the perfection of our natures, and the saving of our souls, and is complete in the delivery of all the Articles of the Christian Faith, and all the necessary Rules of life; And is declared to be standing and perpetual; as well to abolish the old Law to the Jews, as to open a door of hope to the Gentiles; and to obviate all the contradictions of either: Nay, it sufficiently becomes its own interpreter, when men are assisted by those ordinary advantages which Education, and the grace of God gives them; If they consult their Guides, diligently compare one place with another, and are humble, and modest, in their inquiries: How then can we believe every Spirit? Rashly receiving Opinions at adventure; since this standing Rule may be contradicted by them; or opposed under a seeming shelter of its own; whilst men wrest it to others ruin, as well as to their own destruction. Secondly, To believe every Spirit, is to unman ourselves, render us ridiculous, and expose us to the contempt and scorn of all considering men in the world. For since, not only S. John, but continual experience assures us, that there are false Prophets in the world, and that they vent contrary Doctrines to those that are true; To attempt to believe every Spirit, is to attempt impossibilities; And this is not only foolish, but unreasonable; since no man can possibly believe contradictory Opinions to be, at the same time, true. But suppose they are received successively to one another: Yet it argues great levity and inconstancy in men, to be carried about with every wind of Doctrine; want of judgement to be so easily persuaded; and that they were careless in their first choice, who are so readily prevailed upon for a second: That they never were settled upon the old foundation, who, on all occasions, remove to a new; and were not true to their first Love, who cannot be constant upon the sight of another, but alter their affections upon every view of a new face, and are pleased with all the parts of variety. Now, these are blemishes in the minds of men; mutable tempers, without any considerable reason, being blots, and a disparagement to mankind, whose rational souls give them the privilege of thinking, and enable, and admonish, them to consider well before they choose: And when thus they have, by argument and judgement, made their choice; They are not to be easily moved from it: Unless upon as wise, and deliberate thoughts, and stronger reasons than those by which they yielded to the truth of the first Opinion, they remove from it, and choose another. He that is unsettled in his mind, or no longer fixed than another object is presented, creates such disturbances to himself, that he makes his life troublesome and tragical, and is much to be pitied, (if his unquietness will permit him to stay at home, and not make others share with him) and lamented by all those who know the sweetness of settlement and resolution; that have considered what they can, upon fitting circumstances, part with; And what they are resolved to adhere to with all the hazards of their lives, and Fortunes. Alas! the wavering man has no peace; though, for his own reputation, he may often pretend it: But, as S. James says, he is like a wave of the Sea, driven with the wind, and tossed, (Jam. 1.6.). Like a diseased, sick man upon his Bed, he tumbles about from place to place, and carries always a Windmill in his head, which grinds him according as the wind veers, and turns; He neglects his Calling (if he has any); Or, if he has none, better employments, to drive with a strange Phanatic fury about the world, ready to overturn all he meets with, to inquire concerning news, and projects, that he may embrace all, and be true to neither: And so the man renders himself unfit to be either a friend or a Christian, and becomes a fool by those methods by which he would yet be accounted wise. But he that has well measured his principles by the rule of God's word, and has distinguished betwixt what is fundamental, and what is circumstantial; who has bound his life to a stake, died daily in his own thoughts, and resolved well, when it is Religious to suffer decently; How far he is able, upon just occasion, to comply with the commands of men vested in lawful Authority; and where the points and limits are, beyond which he must not step a foot; But, if he perish, he will perish there, that so he may not eternally perish: This man stands unmoved at tempests and storms, does his duty according to his station, and the just commands of his lawful Superiors: And, if the Heaven's fall, justice shall always be done by him: He can be, otherwise than his place requires, unconcerned at seeming tempests that threaten, or that thunder which begins the storm: He knows when his life, or estate, or liberty, must be Sacrificed; when by lawful Authority, willingly; and when by unlawful, it must be by force taken: And, therefore goes on cheerfully, and faithfully, as far as he can, on the side of Law, and just Authority, putting it in Execution; and stops when an higher Rule will permit him to go no further: And certainly, as this prevents all anticipation of evil, so is it such a steady and well considered resolution, that is more manly and rational than to be driven like the Clouds in the Air, and to be always like the Sea in motion, sometimes forward, and sometimes backward, without any fixed rest or quiet; Or, by being so ready to believe every Spirit, to entertain none kindly as we ought. Thirdly, We must not believe every Spirit; because, if we give ourselves too great a liberty, it will be difficult, indeed impossible, to discern those that are true from the false. If we once get into the Wilderness, we may travel forty years there, and neither know when we are in, or out of the way, and wander about, God knows whither: We may murmur and repine, and blame each other, whilst the fault will yet remain in ourselves, and our very travail becomes our punishment, till at last we die and perish in a Wilderness, which becomes the entrance 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 control 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 ourselves 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 spewed 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 persuade 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 men's ambition; as if their secular interest or opinion were to be their guide; or fancy, 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 (says 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 (says 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 trial 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 men's lives, have been so long ago completed. For by inclining to believe any new revelation beyond the Scripture, we suppose that an insufficient Rule: (the sufficiency of which true, English, Church Protestant's have always defended with success): And, if the revelation be contrary unto it, it makes that Spirit that dictated the first, a liar, if the latter be received and supposed true. But grant what men, of such an easy 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 satisfy 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 always uniform and consistent with itself, 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 man's 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 Christ's 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 ourselves, 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 persecution, than we at any time oppose them all: And if the Holy Spirit be but one, (as yet I hope I may without much assuming or confidence affirm he is) if it be always consistent with itself, there can be but one inspiration at one time true, and the rest that pretend differently from this, make, at once, themselves, and God a Liar; whilst they suppose him to contradict himself, and they become the publishers of such contradictions. Besides, if the Spirit, these wild men pretend to, does inform their minds of the principles they deliver by an immediate illumination, or impulse upon their spirits; either they feel the stroke made upon them by this invisible power, so that they can tell the time (as the Prophets of old) when the Word of the Lord comes to them; or else they are raised by degrees into a presumption, that they have this Spirit which thus forces them to declare new Doctrines to the World: If they pretend to know when the stroke and impulse is made; why does not one immediately of a Fisherman become an Apostle without any study, or former gradual practice? without being bred in the Schools of the Jesuits; or by long hearing the Cant, at home, by which he is educated and trained to it; why does he not on a sudden rise up and publish such consistent Doctrines, as may be suitable to the reason of those whom he would persuade to embrace them; or at least, not thwarting and contradicting the natural Religion of mankind? But since we find this impossible among them; or the utmost of their skill, to be by some mechanic operation, or perhaps, by an unaccountable influence from the Prince of the Air: Why should any be startled at, or give credit to new Apostles, when our Rules are completed by those, that were commissioned of old? If we search into the bottom of these things, we shall find them, either voluntary Cheats, when those that own them, make them subservient to bad designs; or such, as men, being deceived themselves by a bad constitution, a corrupt education, or a suggestion from the Devil under the form of an Angel of Light, endeavour, either through ignorance or subtlety, to impose upon easy believers. For, (1.) There is no promise for such immediate inspirations to dictate new Rules of life, made to any, but to Apostolical men in the first Age of the Gospel, who were to deliver what was to be the standing Law to all succeeding Generations: And therefore there is no ground of hope for such things as these, in the present Age wherein we live: Because inspiration being an immediate influence from God himself, his Will enlarges or restrains this power to us; and whenever men expect with reason any thing from him, it must be grounded upon a promise, on which we may hope and rely, because all God's Promises are as certain as his Truth, and that equally certain with his Being: There being, therefore, no promise of this made beyond the Age and Lives of the Apostles, as no men can now rationally expect any inspiration to confirm their pretensions, so neither can others with sobriety believe them. (2.) Inspirations to prescribe new Rules to the World are so needless after a complete Law is already given that is to be so lasting and perpetual as the Gospel, that were they now to be found amongst men; if they should be contrary to it, they would abolish and destroy the Gospel: But if the pretenders are inspired only to the propagation of the same truths revealed there, this second inspiration will appear needless, and so tax the wisdom of God, to do so great and extraordinary a thing to no purpose; because there are the same rules already revealed, written down in the first age, and by the special providence of Almighty God (notwithstanding the diligent and furious attempts of the powers of the Earth to interrupt the conveyance) handed down from age to age, and yet remaining public and open amongst ourselves, in our own language, that all may read and understand: The continuance of men distinct from the multitude, who by a different manner of living and Education, are enabled, and bound by a special duty, to read, and interpret these Scriptures to the people, renders a new inspiration useless to deliver these things to the world, which art and human industry can do: God might, indeed, if he had so pleased, have continued his Doctrines and Rules of life, by writing them daily in every man's breast, and inspiring every individual amongst us; But if he had done so at first, there had been no need of the Twelve Apostles, nor our Saviour's own preaching to the world, but only to be born and die, and rise again: and if it were afterwards continued, it would render preaching, and reading a written word useless, ease us of much pains and toil; and all our inspired and blown up men of giving themselves or others the trouble to come to preach or to hear them at a Conventicle. And so inspired men compendiously preach away their own Office: Yet our Saviour constituted a standing Ministry, whom he has promised to be with to the end of the world, (Mat. 28.18, 19). And S. Paul tells us that when our blessed Lord ascended up on high, he constituted in his stead, to continue his Office of teaching, and presiding over, his Church, some Apostles, some Prophets, some Evangelists, some Pastors and Teachers; several orders and degrees of men suitable to Ages, and various Employments, to preserve the Institutions, Doctrines, and order of the Gospel; for the perfecting of the Saints; for the work of the Ministry; for the edifying of the body of Christ; To remain so long till all that should be gathered out of the successive ages and generations of men, might come in the unity of the faith, and the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, (Ephes. 4 th'. from the 8 th'. to the 13 th'. Verse:). Now the establishment of such a standing Ministry throughout the ages of the Christian Church, which is to endure until the Judgement of the Great day, sufficiently baffles all expectations of any particular and continued inspirations, to effect the same which the Ministry assisted by the received Rule and ordinary conduct of God's Holy Spirit can well accomplish; The constitution of the one is so opposite to, and inconsistent with the other, that none but madmen can believe both; and none but those that are diseased and Lunatic, can expect inspiration to such purposes, that ever considered the constitutions of Christianity, it evacuating all the Oeconomy of the Gospel. (3.) Suppose there were such an impulse or inspiration to be expected; Yet how should those, who are to be guided by what they that pretend to it deliver, know that they are really inspired, who so confidently conduct and lead the people; since they do no real Miracles, nor use such convincing arguments, either from the nature of those Principles they propound unto the world, their coherence with any thing already revealed, their agreeableness to the nature of God, or the welfare of men, to persuade any reasonably to embrace them: If it be pretended that the inspiration itself is a sufficient authority to him that delivers Principles to the world, and reason enough for any to embrace them; Yet, however, the inspiration must still be proved, as it has always been, by Miracles; And those not false, but real: Because, otherwise, every one, that has confidence and wickedness enough to pretend to an impulse and Call from Heaven, may impose what he pleases on the world, and they must, without examination, believe it: This indeed would be a ready way to render the reason of men useless, and degrade them into the silly nature of a Beast, that, being bridled and saddled, is turned which way soever the rider pleaseth: Nay, it would be an extraordinary and new method; as miraculous, nay more than the pretenders inspirations, to make the parts of a contradiction both true, if all those who presume that they are inspired are to be believed: For nothing can be more apparent to us than that various Sects, opposite to one another, distant to a total separation, pretend all to be thus inspired; And if what upon this they presume to deliver, is to be received by those to whom the message is directed; And they pretend it is directed unto all: How can we, since their confidence is equal, know which to adhere to, since all come by the same authority; And it is impossible to receive the opinions of all, because they contradict one another: 'Tis true, we find some men among us that have run through all the signs of the Zodiac, and their want of constancy and resolution, not being directed to the Pole, has caused them to tremble and shake like a Needle through all the points of the Compass; Yet this has been by degrees; not at once, but by succession: But in the case we have now in hand, many pretend to have things revealed, that yet thwart and encounter one another, and all at the same time: To embrace, at once, these several propositions, is plainly impossible; and if we consider, to make our choice, we are either apparently obstinate and wilful, when all come with the same authority; or else we openly forsake the Argument of Inspiration; and stand, and examine these Doctrines by a rule; and instead of believing every Spirit, we try them. But if men will, notwithstanding these plain and palpable absurdities, presume still to thrust such wild pretensions upon the world, and the proof of their Doctrines shall be by confidence, not argument; I would willingly have them to consider▪ as well as ourselves, what their pretended inspiration means, and what that impulse usually effects upon their own minds; that makes them so confident that they are inspired from above? Can it be supposed (or do they feel in themselves) any thing more than their own melancholy, or thoughts brooding to hatch an Opinion? Do they find any more than their persuasions heightened, and their assurance, of what they were before willing to believe, bold and strong, and thus inflaming them with a zeal to maintain what inordinate thoughts have produced strong resolutions to propagate in the world? If it be so, (as certainly it is) every man who is thus raised, will have the same authority with another; and opposite opinions (which is yet impossible) must at once be embraced by men, because the authority, upon which their certainty is grounded, is felt by all, though understood by neither: And to others there seems the same confidence and assurance in the teachers of these different Opinions. Our own reason therefore, without an inspiration, will readily teach us that, since the Holy Spirit of God (to an inspiration from which all these several men pretend) is but one, and what it delivers, always consistent; these men cannot be inspired: But they take their dreams for a converse with Spirits, their melancholy fancies for inspirations, the diseases of their bodies for the accomplishments of their minds, and their own thoughts to be Revelations: And, in short, only think themselves awaked when they are indeed asleep. Nay, we may farther raise our distrust and boldness towards these men; Because we know that confidence, assurance, and real belief of what has entered into the minds of men, receive degrees of accession and strength, as well by thought, conversation, and argument, as by any impulse that can be imagined; Nay, many times, subtlety, pride, impudence and wilfulness, will maintain a thing with as great eagerness and zeal, as if men had been really inspired. The Devil can do much to heighten men's persuasions; and they may do much to heighten their own; and arguments, that men conjecture to arrive at a complete demonstration of a point, will make them as tenacious of an opinion (especially where they may appear singular) as any impulse or inspiration. Now in the midst of such perplexing causes, that are able to produce the same effect, it will be difficult, if not impossible, for men, that adhere not to a Rule of trial, to come to a particular and exact determination; and to satisfy either others or themselves to what cause they may attribute the effect. If they pretend to be able to distinguish betwixt a good and a bad cause, where the effect yet seems to be the same: Or to know the cause by the different impressions, variety of impulses make upon their Spirits, by which an object is conveyed to their understandings; and by a distinct method, by which the images of things become figured in the brain: This can be no conviction to others, until it is explained; Nor any to themselves, unless they certainly know, and understand it: Which, if they do, they are as well able to express this, as they are the proposition which, as they pretend, is revealed to them: But I fear this attempt will be in vain: Because I cannot find upon strict consideration and retirement, but that the motions of the Spirits must be always alike; and the same percussions upon, and convulsions in, the nerves, to cause the soul to understand and believe; whether it be truth, or falsehood that is represented, if it be received under the notion of truth; And if the object seems to be true, it makes a like impression as if it were so: Therefore it is impossible for the Enthusiast to distinguish an inspiration from God, from a suggestion by the Devil, if he forsakes th● Rule, and the public sentiments of good and evil. Therefore we see how unreasonable it is either to be startled with the vain pretences of men, or to give credit to every Spirit; since, upon such grounds, the Devil may be entertained for an Angel of light, and the discoveries we make, may as well be by the flames of Hell, as by beams darted from the Sun in the Firmament. CHAP. III. NOw from the▪ precedent Discourse, upon the caution of the Apostle, I infer (1.) The unreasonableness of such men, and their lamentable state, who shutting their eyes against the Sun, create a perpetual night to themselves, and love to wander in darkness and error, by being of such unsteady tempers, such easy and unmanly resolutions; shifting Churches and Opinions at every turn, concluding every Apparition to be an Angel of Light, and the dreams of men to be inspirations; And though principles of various shapes and faces are presented by men with the same confidence and pretence of inspiration: yet too many are so inconsiderate and easy, as to admit all by a continued succession, and live altogether in a circle, as if they were fixed like one of the Philosopher's intelligences in an Orb, turning it round, and riding themselves about with it: Or rather chained by some Magical charm, that they are condemned to run about the circle, and yet are never able to stand still long enough to disentangle themselves. And what a dismal state of life is this, never to possess rest and quiet? How pitiable is the condition of a man, that has his mind always tossed and ruffled? who has got such a paralytical distemper, as keeps his head always jogging; who entertains no principles long, and yet Religion is his perpetual burden: And well may it be so to him, who loads himself with such variety. These men put a veil over their own eyes, and blindfold themselves, that they may either be led by others, or stumble on they know not whither: These discern not truth from falsehood, nor make any difference betwixt opinion and demonstration; who every day are entangled in the midst of snares and absurdity, and wander about in a wild wilderness, when they think they are travelling through an inhabited Country: They are like Fowls flying in the air, who are hampered in Nets which others have placed on Poles to catch them, when they think they are mounted above hazard and danger. 'Tis a dreadful Judgement, when God, that gave men souls to discern, shall, for their own wilful blindness, deliver them up to the power of delusion to believe a lie; especially when we shall reflect upon what the Apostle informs us will be the consequence: That they may be damned who believe not the truth: (2 Thess. 2.11.). We find that this must naturally become the effect of such a wild principle: And the experience which we have of the irregularities and crimes of such persons sufficiently informs us, that their ways in this world lead down to the Chambers of Death, and in the other to the Vaults of Hell: Unless the greatest Villainies may be consecrated by such hallowed pretences, and wickedness may change its nature, by adding the highest degree to it, when men make God the Author of it: Then indeed the Government of Christ will quickly be inconsistent with that of our Sovereign; the Kirk may beat the Throne in pieces, and men may snatch away the King's Crown to cover their own heads withal: And it may be, after a while, an entrenchment on the Triple Crown, to be the Sovereign of three Kingdoms. The dismal consequences of such an unreasonable and loose opinion, we have no cause yet to forget: Or, if they had escaped our memories, and were buried in oblivion, the Authors of them, being afraid they should remain hid, will cause them to revive by fresh instances, that Charity itself may no longer cover them; but their repeated crimes may at once renew and preserve their Principles. God has permitted the pretenders to these new inspirations, at once almost to make a plain discovery of themselves; and yet he strengthens the hands of Authority to obviate the designs of both; and has caused the Religion of his own Church, taking its measures by the rules of the Gospel, to shine when it was almost covered with a Cloud; Lift up your eyes then, and behold its glory; Not to envy, but to delight in, it: Always to profess such a Faith as is Primitive and Apostolical, that delivers no other Principles to the world, but what our Saviour did before, what his Apostles commented on, and a Faith that their followers lived by: Principles that entrench not upon the rights of Secular Powers, that do not interfere with the just and lawful Maxims of State, that give no countenance to ambitious usurpations, nor any disturbances to the peace of the world; that are not wild and extravagant, but teach men humanity and obedience; that countenance no cruelties or murders, but rebuke the inordinate appetites of men, give a check to vice, and encourage virtue; that men passing the time of their sojourning here in the fear of God, and justice, and charity with their Neighbours, thwarting neither the Prerogative of the King, nor privilege of the Subject, may die with true peace of conscience in the favour of God, and gain a complete rest from their labours, when their gracious dispositions and habits shall be rewarded with eternal glory. Let us then, having thus fixed our Rules and Doctrines, attended with such ample rewards, continue steadfast in the profession of this Faith, and contend earnestly for it; since it is what was formerly delivered to the Saints. Let not novelties, that drag such vice and irreligion after them, that begin with Treason and end in Blood, be any more named among us with delight; But let every one that names the name of Christ, depart from such iniquity, as turns the world upside down, and makes its proselytes the real, and continued, troublers of Israel, as well as a sure plague to themselves; who vex all that give ear to them with the perplexing passions of hopes and fears about their eternal happiness, so much, that they lose all temporal peace themselves, and scare and disturb other men; whilst they keep them by their pretended inspirations in perpetual doubts and uncertainties of mind: For when they endeavour to believe every Spirit, it is very certain, they can believe none, and so they abandon God's Religion and their own peace, and run a round of endless perplexities and contradictions. (2.) From the Apostles Caution, and my discourse from it, we may easily judge of those persons, without the pretence of an extraordinary infallibility, that run after every new Doctrine, like weathercocks are turned with every wind, and follow after every Light, though it be but Will with a Wisp, or Jack in a Lantern, that brings them upon Precipices, or leads them into Boggs: These men, having vitiated their fight, disposed their organs for all impressions, and enlarged their eyes by frequent goggles beyond all proportion, that no new object may escape them, receive false representations of things with the same greediness that they receive true; and so mistake a Paper-Kite for a wandering Comet, and an enkindled Meteor for a true Star; Hecuba is as acceptable to them as Helen, and they embrace a Cloud instead of Juno: To endeavour to fix Principles in them, is but writing on the face of waters; and to endeavour to digest the thoughts of these into standing propositions, is 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. Judas tells us, at the 12 th' Verse of his Epistle, that they are Clouds without water, without any weight to balance them, and are not only light as the Air, but as inconstant too. S. Peter says, 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 always swim down with the River: Their faith must needs stagger, who thus expose it to every stroke; and certainly he must die 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 deemed religious, sober men would become profane; 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 another's heads? Shall that which teaches us self-denial, 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 ask 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 Sceptre 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 fooled; Men must choose a night for such designs as these, and stay, yet, a little longer, if they intent to meet with Bats and Owls; 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 men's devices, as to be baffled out of our Religion by those that are deceived themselves; Or to accomplish designs of malice, or ambition, would subtly 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 catched and entangled in the same snare; To prevent which dismal and fatal ruin, 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 gained by entreaty, 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 sense, 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 easy, 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 sheep's clothing, and to be real Worshippers of an Ass' Head, with which both Jews and Primitive Christians were falsely 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 take the Air, receive fire into their bosoms, and yet never fear burning; One might endeavour to beat a thousand, and we might run on the points of naked Swords, without more danger of wounds or death, than if we were at quiet in our Beds, or guarded in the midst of Troops and Armies: But whatever courage such strange Principles may seem to inspire men withal; Yet to be sure they are not breathed from Heaven, nor inspired themselves; These Doctrines may probably make stout Soldiers, but never will make a good Christian; Suited indeed they are to such as think a Sword the best mean to propagate Religion; which is the reason why the Turk embraces them: But they thwart and contradict such a Gospel as brought peace to all who will embrace it, and not propagate its belief, by war or blood, by open force or secret conspiracy: Alas! men had need to be wary, when eternal welfare is in hazard, and endeavour to play their game well, when their own Salvation lies at stake. We know, by sad and woeful experience, that many false Prophets are gone abroad into the world: And shall we, still, with an indifferent, though equal, affection pursue all? We may then lodge a viper in our bosoms, drink Poison instead of Potions, swallow a Serpent instead of a Fish, and eat the very stones for Bread: we may thus safely halt betwixt two opinions, and be both for God and Baal; Christ and Mammon may become equal, and it will be no matter what we worship, so as we worship any thing at all. But, 'tis a plain sign of a wanton palate that must be tasting every dish: And when the Manna is set before us, 'tis evident that we loathe it if we desire Quails: If the messengers of Satan may transform themselves into the Ministers of the Gospel, as well as the Devil into an Angel of light; we had need to view men before we entertain them, and examine Doctrines before we receive them. Will any rational and wise man venture on a precipice without necessity? or take pleasure in such hazard to have the vanity and glory of relating it, when one slip proves irrecoverable, and his fall bruises him all to pieces? And yet this is the state of those men who, at all adventures, attend the fancies and imaginations of others, or without trial receive their own; They are like persons travelling in a Wood, who may sooner meet with Beasts of prey, than any men either to relieve or direct them. How easy is it for those that are once out of the way, and travelling on without knowledge or direction, to be either lost like a man in a Wilderness, or run among the Tents of their enemies, or blunder upon that which they have lost their way to escape? They may mistake Rome in the dark to be their own City, and think Tiber to be the Thames; and may lodge there, if they are thus deluded, when they think they are safe in their own Beds: The Wolves are now abroad in the World, nay such as will neither be frighted with a Drum, nor yet be charmed and tamed by a Fiddle, or a Pipe. Let not the Sheep then approach them, nor the flock of Christ feed nigh them, lest the Shepherds themselves are forced to fly, when they can no longer govern, or defend, them: Those, therefore, that are Baptised into the Christian profession, that have vowed obedience to the institutions of the Gospel, aught to consider that their Religion is not now to choose; But that they have engaged in the Christian profession, and are to live according to its directions; And, therefore, are to be so far from believing any pretended inspirations, contrary to these Rules, that they must abandon them as impious and abominable; their everlasting welfare depends upon it; and eternity is not a thing to be played with; nor Salvation to be staked at hazard. No zeal, nor confidence, of others must shake, or alter, our resolutions; Nor must we change upon any extravagant motions of our own: We must not like Barnabas, (Gal. 2.13.) be carried away with the dissimulation of the Jews, nor taken with any gaudy Idolatry of the Gentiles; but hold fast the form of sound words, and contend with earnestness for that faith which was once delivered unto the Saints: We must adhere to that standing Ministry instituted by our Saviour, and continued to us through Ages and Generations, not forsaking the assembling ourselves together, as the manner of some is; Because if we thus sin wilfully, in renouncing our profession, when we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more Sacrifice for sin, but a certain fearful looking for of judgement, and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries, (Heb. 10.25.). For if those that despised Moses' Law, died without mercy, under two or three Witnesses; Of how much sorer punishment shall they be thought worthy, who tread under foot the Son of God, and count the blood of the Covenant a common thing, and by their wilful revolt, do despite to the Spirit of Grace? S. Paul tells us that Christ is the head of the Church, (the rest are only subordinate unto him) from whom the whole body fitly joined together, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying itself in love; And therefore he exhorts, that we be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lay in wait to deceive (Ephes. 4.14, etc.). And shall we, to whom our Faith is Ancient, be more easy to be drawn away, than they who had but newly received it? God forbid that we should so disgrace our profession, when they that are engaged in a false opinion, can die resolutely, though not for this only, yet without renouncing it: If they do much upon principles of honour, shall not we do more upon those of Religion? Shall we that have been bred into settled Maxims, be drawn aside by a madman or a fool, if he is but able to pronounce inspiration? This is the way to entertain any Doctrines of men, though never so wild, if they will be so hardy as to suffer for them, and to take the pack of a common Pedlar, for the burden of the Lord, if we find him to stoop and crouch under it: Thus we may be carried by the Spirit into the Wilderness, and take him for an Angel that ministers to us: But we are sufficiently cautioned against such mistakes, if we will but follow the directions of the Scriptures: For our Saviour has cautioned us against false Christ's, and false Prophets; and the Author to the Hebrews, advises men, that they should not be carried about with divers and strange Doctrines; because it is a good thing that the hearts be established with grace, (i. e. the Gospel) Heb. 13.9. And we had need all of us to receive it, and be exceeding cautious and wary in this; to guests at Wolves by their howling and devouring, let their clothing be what it will; that no subtlety may circumvent us, nor creeping into houses, lead the silly women captive; nor cause us to stray after them. We know the Devil is both cunning and diligent, and that he suits his temptations to the various interests and dispositions of men; that he walks about like a roaring Lion, but 'tis only to seek whom he may devour, (1 Pet. 5.8.). The Scribes and Pharisees were painstaking men; For they compassed Sea and Land to make a proselyte; but when they had made him, he became twice more the child of Hell than themselves: (Matth. 23.15.). Let us not, then, under the pretence of new discoveries, forsake that which has been from the beginning; but let the same mind be in us, which was in Christ Jesus; and according to S. Paul's advice, (Rom. 16.17, 18.) Let us mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine we have learned, and avoid them; because they are such as serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple. Then (as it follows) the God of peace shall bruise Satan under our feet shortly. Let us live in that unity, which our holy Religion prescribes to us, not raise or abett disturbances in the world, but endeavour to fulfil S. Paul's joy, and make our Minister's task easy, in being like minded, having the same love, being of one accord, and of one judgement; that nothing be done through strife, or vain glory, (Philip. 2. at the beginning.). For if we are drawn, by harkening to the various pretences of men, that yet account themselves inspired, to be always biting and devouring one another, we shall be consumed one of another: And this we are not only in our own age taught by experience; but the Apostle has long ago admonished men of this, (Gal. 5.15.). Let us live, therefore, like those that have professed rules of faith, and conversation; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace: And then, if we thus live in this world, we shall be entertained in the glory of the next. CHAP. IU. HAving thus discoursed the Apostles Caution, and evidenced to you, that every one that pretends to Revelation, is not to be believed: I proceed to the second particular I propounded, which contains a Direction, how we may disentangle ourselves from those perplexities, and different opinions, that various men, under the same pretention, puzzle us withal. But try the Spirits whether they are of God. Now as this is a metaphorical expression, taken from those who bring Metals to the Touchstone, that they may discern the difference betwixt them, that they may be able to value them proportionably to their worth: So to try the Spirits, is to examine the Doctrines that such pretenders deliver to the world, and to discern betwixt true and false; and accordingly judge whether they are from God or no. It was the duty of the Priests under the Law, to show the people the difference betwixt holy and profane, and to cause men to discern betwixt the clean and the unclean, (Ezek. 44.23.). And the duty is continued under the Gospel, in relation to the Doctrines and pretensions of men. For as our Saviour foretold, that many false Prophets would arise in his Name, with pretensions to his power and authority, so we find them too suddenly after this prediction to have gone abroad into the World: and even yet continuing their boldness and impiety, dividing the Church, and not only troubling particular men, but whole Societies, overturning Thrones, dissolving Government, amongst mankind, and raising confusions, not only in Secular, but Religious affairs: To prevent therefore such unsufferable disturbances, that Religion may not cover malice or ambition, nor give any countenance to the humours or impieties of men, we must endeavour to preserve this entire without any mixtures of villainy or imposture, and by some certain characters know what properly belongs to it, that we may not lie open to the fancies or designs of those who cunningly ruin our principles and profession. And, since new Lights are continually exposed to the view of men, which they too easily gaze at till their eyes are dazzled, we must endeavour to distinguish these blazing Comets from the true and fixed Stars in the Firmament, by which we are to be guided on Earth, and directed in our way to Heaven: We must try both Doctrines and those that publish them, whether they are of God, because many false Prophets are gone out into the world. If you will take an old Apostles advice against the pretended infallibility of new, he advises you, to prove all things, but still to hold fast that which is good: (1 Thess. 5.21.) We must try the Doctrines, Opinions, Examples, nay, even the Actions of all pretenders to revelation; (for by their fruits ye shall know them, says our Saviour). And what we call Tender Consciences, as well as those that are very raw, being rubbed often by reason of their former commissions, when they are not guided by a well balanced judgement, are most apt to have secret combats within themselves, and to be sensible of the least touch upon them: For the best things in this World have some inconvenience still attending them; and that which in some cases is good, with other circumstances becomes evil; and most men that have an itch upon their ears, have had a scab first upon their minds. The best Gold is most ductile, and a Tender Conscience, if the judgement be not the governor of the affections, is easily enslaved to such principles as suit with passion, and make impressions on the temperaments and bodily dispositions of men: A seal we know makes the fairest and most lasting impression upon such Wax as is first softened, and a tender Conscience, where the head is as soft as the passions pliable, easily receives the next Image, though to the blotting out and defacing the old: We had need therefore, when any man comes under a pretence of some new inspiration, to examine well both the person and his doctrine, and receive to our own the skill of others, especially those whom God has set over us in the Lord; we may otherwise forsake the true Israel, when Ephraim and Manasseh shall combine together, or singly encounter it. And we have been lately (and are not yet out of danger) so vexed with parties different from one another, whilst one extreme rides the other, that the caution against believing every Spirit, cannot too often be repeated, nor our trial of all Preachers and Doctrines be too frequently urged and practised. Our Saviour gives his Disciples a caution (who yet had the view of those Miracles which we only believe) that they should take heed that no man deceive them, (Mat. 24.4.): that they might not entertain a secret enemy instead of a bosom friend; And certainly we have much more reason to beware now, although there were false pretenders then: For if they durst, when our Saviour was in the world, design the subversion of his Gospel, when his infinite understanding could baffle their arguments, and his visible Miracles, rebuke their folly in setting up any Doctrine for Divine, that contradicted what he delivered; certainly much more now, when the Gospel is delivered, and Miracles for its confirmation are ceased; And men are not now to expect new, but to believe the old: Nay, when the Gospel itself is often perverted to evil designs, and under a pretence of men's Offering to God, they Sacrifice to the Devil. The Church is now, and our Religion in it, like a Ship at Sea, tossed in a storm, and, through the Providence of God, we are put into a Creek to careen and repair; Let us examine, therefore, all the leaky parts of the Vessel, and supply all the defects of Masts, or rigging before we put to Sea again; And mind what Passengers we take in, that they may neither blow us up, nor sink us. As the Apostle warns the Ephesians, so must I admonish you, that no man deceive you with vain words, (Ephes. 5.6.). As if any wickedness, by what authority soever coloured, could free those who teach or practise it, from the revenge of Heaven; For because of these things (says the Apostle) cometh the wrath of God on the children of disobedience. Here indeed, in this world, good men frequently suffer the same temporal evils with the bad; Because, being in the same community, and the offence being that of the whole Society, when the greater part become vicious, the Wheat is singed by those flames that burn the chaff; For the separation of these is not completed till a future state renders justice exact and glorious: And communities must be punished here, because in the other life these shall cease, and every man bear his own burden. It becomes us therefore, (since we must every one then answer for ourselves) to examine well our belief and practice; and not to deceive our own souls in being led by the false principles of another: Hence is it that S. Paul advises, that every man examine himself before he partakes at the Lords Table, (1 Cor. 11.28.). And in the second Epist. 13 th' Chap. 5 th' vers. he exhorts men to examine themselves whether they are in the faith, and to prove their own selves: And that a man should try his own work, that he may have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another; Because every one shall bear his own burden, (Gal. 6.4, 5.). But yet because many things in Religion, are placed beyond the examination of every man, whose duty 'tis to embrace them; I must here lay down some directions, and rules to limit such as may be otherwise apt to be extravagant, and extend this duty of trying Spirits, beyond their own power and capacity. And (1.) We that discourse of the Christian Religion, and are fully convinced that it is true, must take it as it is expressed to the world, in those Books of Scripture in which it is contained; Now these acquaint us that there are some set apart to be Guides to others, and therefore distinguish the Church, into Pastors and people; Into those that are Guides, and those that are to be conducted by them; Into learned and unlearned: But because all rules guide men no farther than they are designed; To render these proper and effectual, all collateral and subordinate helps are to be used in the application of the Rule: We must take, therefore, the help of the Learned, and rely on their honesty, and skill, in those things which an inferior Education (without such Miracles as are not now reasonably to be expected) cannot capacitate men to reach; Nor can they pass a judgement upon those things which they have not the advantage of knowing. Thus, that the Scriptures are truly Translated, must be taken for granted by those that cannot understand the Originals: And the Books which we receive, as the Rule of Faith, and directions for men's lives▪ must be supposed to have been written by those inspired men, whose names they bear, among those that have not leisure nor skill enough to prove them to be so by any argument or authority. And when these principles are settled, (2.) The Scriptures having some points more difficult to be understood; we must, farther, make use of our Guides, and those whom our Saviour has appointed over us to interpret to us such points in Religion which we are not capable of unridling ourselves; and not adventure above our strength in judging things which we have not learned: This becomes the natural modesty of mankind, and is more especially agreeable to that humility of mind, and those docile dispositions which become the Gospel: The contrary humours and actions of men are what make so many Schisms in the Church, and lay them open to the errors and impostures of those who, out of ignorance or design, easily prevail upon, and lead, the simple. In plain things (such as most of the duties of Religion are) every man of an ordinary capacity may well be able to judge for himself: But if they will enter into Controversy, especially such as have puzzled the learned, 'tis no wonder that they are led into mistakes, and their own obstinacy added to their ignorance, makes their error become an Heresy: Or if men will proceed in those things, of which they might be capable of understanding, by false measures and courses which are irregular, not relying, at all, on those helps and aids which reason dictates, and God hath both appointed, and allowed; 'Tis no wonder then that they impose upon themselves by false reasoning instead of true; or that they may be fit to receive the impressions of others when designing men impose upon them by any fallacious and alluring pretensions. (3.) Even in plain cases, when private men, that are not distinguished by any public character, judge for themselves, they ought to confine their opinions to themselves, and permit them only to have an influence on their own actions, they having no more power to impose them on others, than other private men have to impose theirs on them. For all private men being in this respect equal, none has authority to trouble others; but they must leave them to their own reason and choice, which is the same liberty that they claim themselves, by virtue of the natural privilege of men. (4) It must be supposed antecedently to the trial of the Doctrines of men, that pretend to inspiration, that under the same claim and title, some are true, and some false; For if all were true, there would be no need of trying Spirits; But we must, contrary to the Apostles caution, believe all who confidently affirm that they are inspired from above: Yet our own experience sufficiently informs us, that opposite Doctrines at the same time have been, and are still, vented in the world, with the same confidence, with the same pretention; And we know that the parts of a contradiction cannot, at the same time, be true; And, therefore, one being false, must by search and trial be differenced from the other; that men may discern what Doctrines immediately oblige them, being stamped with Divine authority; And what are to be rejected by them, being either the product of the dispositions of men's bodies, or evil projects and designs of men; Or else such as enter into them by the subtlety, power, or injections of the Devil. Now these things being thus stated; I proceed plainly to prove that it is the duty of every man to try and examine all pretenders to inspiration, whether they are of God or no, before they receive and entertain them as such. (2.) Give you some Directions how to know when any Prophet pretending to inspiration, comes from God: And (3) Make some application of the whole, because the expression and Doctrine is very useful. First, Then, to prove that it is our general duty to examine these pretended inspirations will appear, (1.) Not only from the Apostles direction, which, to those that own S. John's authority, is sufficient to enforce the duty, without any argument or reason for the thing; But also it is the great reason of giving rules to be the measure of what is strait or crooked; This is the general design of Laws, and those innate notions of virtue and vice implanted in the minds of rational men, and conferred upon them with their very beings. And this is the reason of Gods manifesting his will to the world, that by it men may be able to direct their lives, and regulate their belief, so as to preserve order and peace here, and procure to them happiness hereafter. Now to what purpose should these things be, were it not men's duty to examine things in Religion by them, since the revelation of Gods will to any creatures is a sufficient reason why they should obey it, and is to be the rule of their actions, for that time in which it is ordained to oblige. Secondly, It is the duty of men to examine Doctrines, whether they are of God; Because, in things of a more inferior concernment, it is not allowed reasonable among mankind to receive or embrace them without trial, and judgement upon them. No man will deal in the commodities of his trade, without either viewing them himself, or taking them on the skill and integrity of one whom he can trust, and confide in: None receives a sum of money, but that he will both number and examine the Coin; That so his goods may be proportionable to the price; And the Coin he receives may appear to be true, and not counterfeit. If we find a Quotation out of a Book, on which is concluded matter of moment, we will, before we settle our notion and belief, examine the Author on whose authority the case depends; Whether he is of sufficient credit to enforce that thing; and whether he be rightly quoted and represented: Mankind would otherwise continually be imposed upon; They might receive poison instead of food, and be placed here in this World only to be cheated and deceived; and enjoy their lives at greater hazards than the most inferior Beast that perishes. Things that are obvious to our outward senses, may, by their likeness to one another, or an artificial varnish, many times, deceive us; so that what our eyes behold, they cannot see: And may not the inward senses of our minds, by methods that are conformable to our faculties, be cheated by various and false representations? These things we have repeated experience of, and they need not any farther illustration. If therefore, in our temporal concerns there is so great occasion of wariness and observation; Have we not need to be more cautious in relation to spiritual, and the matters of religion? Or do we think our bodies superior to our souls; or things temporal, to be of greater advantage, than those that are eternal? If not; it is evident, that we must use trial in both; and our diligence must be advanced suitable to the dignity and value of our concern. Our Saviour uses such an example (from any I cannot take a better) when he rebukes the Scribes and Pharisees, that were so precise and scrupulous about smaller matters; Who could strain at a Gnat, but yet swallow a Camel: that could exactly observe the outward face and appearance of the Heavens; but would not take notice of the reverse, which was yet more to be considered by men; They could guests at the weather by rule and observation; But would not discern the signs of the times, neither in relation to the coming of the Messiah, nor the safety, or destruction, of Jerusalem, (Matth. 16. 2, 3.). And is it not strange, after so solemn a rebuke, that men, professing faith in the reprover, should yet run into the same error, and not examine a business that is of the greatest concernment, when, yet, they will be extremely diligent, in what is of a far less value? Alas! what is time, in comparison of eternity? Or our abode here, when set in opposition to what state we shall be in hereafter? There is no comparison at all betwixt them; And, therefore, we ought to be much more inquisitive about what we receive for Doctrines, either to be believed, or practised (since on them depends our eternal welfare), than we should be for the greatest concernments of this world; Which if they die not, and perish with the using, and make themselves wings, that they may fly away; Yet a very small time shall determine their use, as to us: And then, according to our espousals and practice of Religion, we must enter into eternal bliss, or misery. Thirdly, It is our duty to try the Spirits, because the examination of the Doctrines and Opinions of men, in God's name vented to the world, is approved and commended in Sacred Writ. As the Woman's Alabaster Box of Ointment is recorded in the Scripture, that this persons piety and kindness to our Saviour might not escape the notice of posterity; But wheresoever the Gospel should be preached in the world, this action should be told for a memorial of her, (Matth. 26.13.): So we want not such examples, and approbations of them, as may recommend the diligence and inquiries of men, before they receive principles under pretence of inspiration, to all posterity to read and imitate: Thus the Bereans were accounted More Noble by S. Paul, than than those of Thessalonica; because, when the Gospel was preached to them, they did not receive it at all adventures, but examined, whether the relations agreed with the predictions of the Prophets, and the rules of life were coherent with the principles of Humane Nature, the Being and Attributes of Almighty God, the Notions and Reason of Mankind; But, more especially with the Scriptures which they had already received: Which they searched daily, that they might by them be enabled to know, whether the Doctrines delivered were true (Acts 17.11.). Had God appointed any infallible Judge upon earth, or resolved always to fix his Laws in the minds of men by any new authorized revelations, or any particular and extraordinary discoveries: As there would not 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, 'Tis 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 accrue 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 privileges 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 trial and examination of these things, makes the Sects, among ourselves, to be catched and haltered by the subtlety 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 trial 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 men's 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 trial 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 tossed 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 tossed to and fro, but at once make shipwreck of faith and a good conscience. The Devil is both a Thief and a Murderer; so he was from the beginning; and still walks about as a roaring Lion, seeking whom he may devour: And how easy 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 locked or barred? He may then come to us in his own shape, without transforming himself into an Angel of light; and both solicit 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 surprise, we allow continual Watch and Ward; and Orders to them are so strict in time of danger, that none, who is not publicly 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 unblemished, to have a Sentinel always 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 always 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 ruin our souls. This is the way to keep ourselves 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 public faith, that betrays those Articles men should believe; Safety or ruin depends upon it; Because not only Baptism and the outward Ordinances of our Saviour's 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 shipwrecked their belief in the midst of error; and for this, they were delivered unto Satan, (1 Tim. 1. 19, 20.). If the Orthodoxy of men's judgements 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 unto swift destruction, (2 Pet. 2.1.). And, if there were not great caution to be used in relation to men's Principles and Belief, Faith would not have been made the condition of the Gospel, nor the qualification to justify a sinner. (3.) By a strict examination of Principles and Doctrines, we may preserve the peace of our own consciences; For if conscience in things pertaining to Religion, consists in the agreement of our notions, with the will of God revealed unto men; Then the trial of Opinions (under whatever pretence they seem to be conveyed) by this rule, and accordingly either rejecting or receiving them, must much conduce to the peace and quiet of our own minds, which are regulated by the same rule, by which we examine Doctrines and Opinions. And can there be a greater advantage to men on Earth, than full satisfaction, and a quiet conscience, settled upon an unalterable and firm foundation? Contentment, in the enjoyments of this world, is that which makes the meanest Peasant as happy as his Prince, and creates a level amongst mankind; How much greater delight than must that satisfaction advance men to, which relates to things of an everlasting concernment, that causes the pangs of death ro vanish, and the fears of Hell and torment to depart; that carries us with all steadiness and peace, through all the billows and storms of the World, into that blessed Haven of rest and tranquillity, where we shall know no trouble any more? This is enjoying a perpetual Feast, a pleasure beyond the greatest sensuality, exceeding what men can otherwise possess, or as much as invent or think upon: For what are then all the concernments or advantages of the world▪ when in matters of Religion I am fixed and settled? If I live in misery, it cannot be long; nature will soon have spun her thread, if no accident cuts it off; And if, having my Religion fixed upon such Principles which cannot deceive me, I regulate my actions by their directions, death must then be welcome to me, because it gives me the fruits of my hope, and enters me into the joy of my Master, who from earth (having suffered an antecedent separation of soul and body) entered visibly into his own glory, and has made a passage to the same for those who live in the belief of what he has revealed, and the practice of that Religion which, in fullness of faith and indisputable assurance, they have had a well grounded confidence in. (4.) This trial and examination of the Doctrines and Opinions of others, will make men endeavour to live without disturbance in that Society of which they are members. Nothing disturbs the Government of the world so much, as doubtings and disputes about Religion: But this, when found out by a regular enquiry, and truly established in the minds of men, gives the greatest and most effectual checks to all the breaches made upon enclosures, and those irregularities and invasions that are committed upon the properties of men: This forbids the Prince to be a Tyrant, and admonishes the Subjects to be obedient to the Laws; to become Subject for conscience sake, and not to rebel against the powers of this world, lest they receive damnation in the next, (Rom. 13.). But when men are apt to entertain the furious Principles of others, when conveyed to them under the specious pretence of Spirit, and inspiration; With what ease are they ensnared, when they are either lazy, or refuse to examine? There is nothing then so ruinous to Society: nothing that puts men more into confusion; nothing that dissolves the bands of Community, and breaks Order into a Chaos, but they will attempt under the covert of Religion; and conclude they do service unto God, when they are immediately offering to the Devil: For, the sense of Religion being the greatest tye upon mankind; what will they not attempt or suffer, when their actions, let them be never so full of villainy, shall under pretence of the authority, or inspirations, of others, be adopted into the number of virtues, and heroic acts, and their sufferings be advanced to Martyrdom? Justice shall be violated, when it shall be the act of Religion, to gain a Crown from the head of him that rightly wears it; And then they will make a way to the accomplishment of their design, though they pave it throughout with the carcases of the slain. But if such Principles, that ruin Religion under its name are well examined, and submitted to the trial of reason and the Scriptures; and new inspirations are measured by those that are old: We shall easily conclude that such a Doctrine cannot come from God, that teaches men to do the works of the Devil; nor the Principles that tend to confusion among mankind, ever proceed from a God of Order; But they are, upon the first audit, to be damned to the place from whence they took their original, and must be concluded to come from Hell, which thus fire and consume the world. And so you see that the several advantages, which accrue to men upon trial of those that pretend to inspiration, may be so many encouragements to the thing; and so many arguments to recommend the duty to all those who, by the Devil and his agents, do not love to be led captive. Finally, To what purpose were faculties given to us that are able to judge, and, according to judgement, to make our choice in matters of Religion, if by a pretence of any one's inspiration, the natural powers of our souls must cease, or else be rendered useless; They being suspended by a pretention of authority that, without examination, cannot appear to us to be Divine? Nay, why should the Apostle impose such a task upon us, which, without the use of every man's particular faculties, becomes impossible? No choice will then be left in Religion to the generality of men; But it will become a necessary thing; and we are bound, like machines, to move always by the impulse of another; nay quite contrary, to what we were obliged before, if the pretender to inspiration change his note, and plays to us on a contrary string. Would it not be strange for any man to preach to, and exhort, stones; Or argue to one that were not capable of any impression? Or could S. John be so unreasonable as to impose the trial of Spirits on men that either have no faculties to examine, or have their senses tied up by a superior power? Must all false Prophets be rejected; and is there a necessity of men's believing what Doctrines have been revealed from Heaven; and must they not yet try the Spirits, and use their own faculties to examine them? To deny this may indeed be suitable to some Doctrines of the Church of Rome; Yet it cannot but be plain to a Protestant; or any other reasonable man, that has not his faculties given him in vain; that such arguing, and such belief serve only to justify imposture under the pretence of truth, and to blind men's eyes, that they may be led into a ditch; This is to make fools of others, that they that cheat them may be accounted wise; and those, who are thus imposed upon, disclaim the use of their own reason, and have eyes of their own, but see not; which is all one as to have none at all: And it must appear very strange, that any man, having a clear sight, should yet refuse to guide himself, but choose to be led about like a Dog in a Halter. CHAP. V. THere is yet one Argument more why we should try and examine Doctrines, that are pretended to be the effects of inspiration; and that is what the Apostle makes the reason of his Caution and Direction, because many false Prophets are gone out into the world: Now since these are many, enough to boast the advantage of their number, to the staggering many weak men, and frightening that Authority which should suppress them, and yet they remain false Prophets, under what specious pretences soever they appear; There is great reason why we should prove and try them, that we may not be led away with the error of the wicked, and extremely hazard, if not ruin our souls. For, in matters of Religion, especially where divers Opinions of the same thing are exposed to us, our first business must always be, according to our capacity and power to settle our minds by a fixed choice of such Principles and fundamentals, of which we have such good assurance as may fully convince us that they are true, and not false; and according to these to direct our lives: Which can never be done without enquiry, and judging, for ourselves, of those Doctrines that, under pretence of a Divine Authority, are, by any, propounded to our belief. Since, therefore, there are so many false Prophets fluttering in the world, there is reason that we should examine and try them; and not believe every one that boldly affirms he came from God; lest we entertain thiefs and robbers, in the room of hearty and honest friends; and instead of receiving a faithful Guide, we retain one that deludes us out of our way, till at last he lodges us in the chambers of Hell, instead of carrying us up to Heaven. But since no man comes with so great a pretence as immediate inspiration, or to deliver Gods will to the world, but that he will offer something to recommend both himself and message; since he knows he speaks to men having the same faculties with himself, who have, at least, their own reason to guide their choice, and cannot, if they are at all considerate, be rash in their entertainment of those Doctrines, wherein their eternal welfare is concerned; It must of necessity quicken our endeavours to try and sift the Doctrines of men to the utmost of our power, and the more because of the plausible Arguments that deceivers insinuate themselves by into the hearts and affections of others; whose poison may appear wholesome to the eye, that yet gripes and swells the bowels: Amongst many things, therefore, that render false Prophets difficult to be discerned, I shall instance in some, that, upon the view of them, and discovery of their deceit, we may use the utmost diligence in our trial, and be the better prepared to entertain those Rules, by which we may discern true inspiration, from that which is false, and only pretended. First, They will inveigh against the Principles you have already received, and those that are the guides of your souls; As well knowing that a new building cannot be erected on that ground on which another stood, without demolishing the old, removing the materials, and clearing the foundation: And this they always do in proportion, according to the degrees of alteration which they design; till, at last perhaps, they introduce among you golden Calves, instead of the worship of the God of Israel: And if their enterprise be thus crowned with a joyful success, their language will be like that which we read (1 King. 12.18.). Behold, O Israel, the Gods that brought thee out of the land of Egypt! and than we must with prostration worship them. False Prophets will come to you in sheep's clothing, the ravening Wolf shall not appear till he has an opportunity to devour you: The Principles of these would fill us with too much horror and amazement, should they appear all at once, and that before prejudice were removed; They endeavour, therefore, to gain by a gradual advancement upon us; abating the strength of custom and education; first startling, and then seducing us; using methods to invalidate the old, before they settle new Principles: Nay, if they can but make us indifferent betwixt both, either by argument or debauchery, their work then waits only a fitting opportunity: But if the resistance be so great that they cannot wholly captivate at once, they will assault where we are weakest, baffle us by degrees, and introduce one point dependently on another, till at last we become wholly theirs, before we are sensible of so great a change as they by succession have wrought among us. 'Tis a vast advantage they gain against us, if they can but render us lazy in our inquiries, or cause us to undervalue our Guides; Which they will never be wanting in, as long as an evil tongue can asperse, or secret whisper can do men injury, who are not present to answer for themselves; Nay, as long as boldness can confront modesty; Or men that assume not equal advantages, may be either sworn, or Hectored, into silence. Let these designing men but once bring your Teachers into contempt, and it will not be long ere they drive them into corners: The former has been long attempting, and not without considerable success; God▪ defend us against the latter, lest the people are destroyed for want of knowledge, and ignorance becomes the Mother of devotion: For we know what such devotion means. Thus was it in our Saviour's time; the Jews branded him for an impostor and deceiver, that so they might argue his Doctrine to be false; and rather than own, that his Miracles should prove divine, they blasphemously attributed them to the power of the Devil, (Matth. 12.24.): And the Servant is not above his Lord; But the same Spirit, that in this manner, disparaged▪ the Master of the household, will not be more kind to the family: but will make us, if he can, as he did the Apostles, lustrating Sacrifices to expiate for the City, and a strange spectacle both to Angels and to men. But (Secondly) These projecting men that come to you with inspired Doctrines, till they kill and slay and take possession, will gloze over their false principles with all possible art and cunning; there shall be no Treason against the person of a Prince, when it is their pleasure first to depose him; and if he come to an untimely end, they kill the man but not the King, and all shall be, not murder, but, the execution of Justice, when they sentence him by a Church-authority superior to his own: Rebellion then is a just vindication of their own right, and they only break their Sovereign's Sceptre, that Christ's alone may be exalted: The murdering those that have Sacred Characters impressed upon them, is taking him that hindereth, out of the way, and all the usurping Tyrannies in tne world, are exercised only to bring in such a blessed confusion, that ambitious men may from the spoils of others, build their own Nests on high, and this shall be called, the seating the Lord Jesus on his Throne, though his Religion be made their own footstool: But if they find the eyes of men open, or their stomaches too nice to digest such hard things as these; and that they refuse to embrace Devils when the flames appear through their thin garments, and they are not cut long enough to hide their cloven feet: They will effect by stratagem what they cannot by open force, and an ambush shall destroy what a Field-Army cannot: They will hide their leaven in some measures of meal, till in the end all is leavened; blend truth and error together, and like the Gnostics, make a Religious mixture that shall have something of the Jew and something of the Christian, that may look like what others profess, but still add something of their own, that poison may be swallowed in a sweetened potion, where men may take, and yet never taste it: The Saducees could deny the Resurrection from the dead, and yet adhere to the Books of Moses: The Pharisees could admit the Commandments of God, and yet void them by their own Traditions: The Arrians could own Christ to be the Saviour of the world, and yet grant him only to be a Creature; And the Socinians can acknowledge him the Redeemer of mankind, and yet deny him to be a God by nature: And amongst all these, and many more, error is entertained for the sake of those truths that cover it; and, not distinguishing betwixt the precious and the vile, men often receive them both together: The Papists profess the Apostles Creed, but add as many Articles of their own: And those that are averse to these, will yet embrace many errors, and are the more easily led towards them when they are dispersed amongst a great many truths: But when we consider, that one mouthful of pestilential Air may infect and destroy the man, it is but reasonable all should be wary in choosing out wholesome habitations; and since a little poison may make us swell and burst asunder, this may be more effectual to destroy, than all the food we swallow with it can be to save and preserve us in full strength and vigour; and by how much the more difficult it is to discern it, the more careful we ought to be. Thirdly, False Prophets, will be more difficult to be discerned, and therefore more strictly to be examined by us, because they will make their erroneous Doctrines to receive a seeming countenance from the Scriptures: These are what we own to be our Rule, and by these we judge of Doctrines and Opinions, and therefore are unwilling to believe that to be false, which many Texts are brought to prove: Thus the Devil tempted our Saviour, (Matth. 4.6.), when he would attempt the ruin of mankind, and the disappointment of our Redeemer; nay, of the whole most blessed and glorious Trinity, in contriving and carrying on such wonderful providence▪ by persuading him to cast himself down from the Pinnacle of the Temple, to make him sin in the destruction of himself, and anticipating that death upon the Cross, by which he was to become our Sacrifice, he might tempt Providence and hazard himself: If thou be the Son of God (says he) cast thyself down; for it is written, He will give his Angels charge over thee, and with their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone; rendering the Text plausible to his purpose, by omitting that part of keeping him in all his ways: But this was such a trial of skill, as rendered the Devil exceeding foolish, because he that knew all things, could not be ignorant of what he had omitted, which was the key to open that promise. Yet from this attempt of the Devil upon our Saviour, have the deceivers of mankind throughout all Ages endeavoured to insinuate false Doctrines into the belief of others, by bringing Texts of Scripture to prove them: The instances are many and well known to those that are conversant in Books and Writings, or have given themselves the variety and temptation to hear men of different opinion from us: But alas! How easy is it for one of no extraordinary skill, to wrest the Scriptures, both to his own, and others ruin? Nay, S. Peter tells us, that it is the common guilt of the unskilful and unlearned: (2 Epist. 3.16.): How much more than may designing men, that by guile endeavour to catch the ignorant, this way impose upon their understandings, by pretending Scripture, to prove and countenance their false opinions: especially among such as admit Texts for the sake of their number, not their weight, and more regard the sound of the words, than the sense which is couched under them? 'Tis no difficult matter to mistake the sense of any Writing, and then to plead it according to our own purpose and design: Nor is it impossible for men to quote divers Texts, that to ignorant men, may, by their sound, seem to countenance their opinion, that in their true meaning are nothing for them, or else confirm a contrary proposition: This the Papists and Dissenters know; and this we are acquainted with ourselves, when we view Books whose Margins adorn them with multitudes of Texts, which they pretend to prove the same thing by, and yet, upon a more strict examination, do not at all make for their purpose: And commonly when men multiply these beyond necessity, to prove what is certainly confirmed by few that are plain and pertinent, their Doctrine is either doubtful or false; or else they do it to take up time, and fill their discourses which their own barrenness cannot supply: Because all Scripture, being of Divine Authority, if in any place it be plain and pertinent to the point which it is brought to confirm, one Text is as good as a thousand; and to quote many, if some be impertinent, the whole possibly may be suspected: And therefore 'tis not wisdom to do it, but in points much controverted among Christians; and in those especially for which the argument to prove them can be no other than Divine institution. Fourthly, If false Prophets cannot find (as they never can, and therefore deal in obscure places, where the Text is as dark, as the places retired, into which they creep to lead silly women captive) I say if they cannot find plain Scripture to countenance their opinions, they will yet pretend visions and revelations; which the perfection of the Scriptures disallows, nor have they any argument to prove them, besides confidence and a bold presumption: Yet some are apt frequently to cry a Vision from the Lord, when it is the fruit of their own fancies, whilst their souls dream when their body's sleep, or are indisposed whilst they are awaked: We easily know how far the depraved dispositions of our bodies work upon our minds, and how easy it is for men, proportionable to their melancholy or joy, to frame different opinions of things: (which by the way renders many signs of grace, that some men for their own advantage exhibit to the world, altogether vain and deceitful). But, notwithstanding all these things, we find, by too woeful an experience, how men, either not fixed, or fearful, are prevailed upon by such pretensions: So that it proves a difficult task to hinder their error, or to reduce them from it. For all former rules, to those that entertain so wild a principle, are set aside; and Reason must not be heard against Revelation: Yet since God is but one, and all Propositions are true or false; since we find different, nay, contrary Opinions vented to the World, under the same pretence, 'tis an argument why we should prove and try them; and the rather by how much the more difficult true inspiration is to be distinguished from that which is false, and what comes from God to be discerned from what proceeds from the constitution of our bodies, the variety of objects presented to our sense, or what the Devil injects into our minds, and thereby employs, and captivates our thoughts, and this way frames an Opinion. Fifthly, False Prophets will give accents to what they deliver, with such art and elocution, as may make great impressions on a multitude; and suit their voice to the constitutions of those whom they design to delude, with such elevations and cadencies as may agree with the joyful, and the melancholy; as if a man must first be skilled in Song, before he is capable to become a Preacher; or a Fiddler were in the next capacity to be a false Prophet to delude the World; But besides these suitable percussions upon the nerves of men, to make a grateful reception in the understanding; They add to it a great deal of their own passion, which many mistake for a true zeal, they can be loud when they are not rational, and what is wanting in sense, they can supply by noise; and great action shall pass for an argument; and a goggle of the eye for clear demonstration: They will put their blood and Spirits into such nimble motions, that they will seem as if they were ravished from themselves, and the parts of their bodies were just running away from one another. This strange fury is called zeal, and many men are apt to receive every thing for true, which is thus recommended by a Religious fury; not thinking that zeal is determined by its object, and according to what it is conversant about, becomes either good or bad. With what zealous acclamations and repeated outcries did the Jews call for the crucifixion of our Saviour, whilst they tried, saying, Crucify him, Crucify him; (Luke 23.21.): and the more Pilate endeavoured to release, the more zealous were they to put him to death, and more instant in requiring his blood. In this, men of false and corrupted Principles exceed those that are possessed of true; truth being usually conveyed with simplicity, because reason and understanding receives and fortifies it; but Error must be managed by art and cunning, because its nature cannot recommend it: We read of men, in the 7 th' of Hosea, that though they devoured their Kings and Judges, strayed away into the Groves and Woods, from the Worship of God to that of an Idol; so that none (says God) calleth upon me, yet they were as hot as an Oven. And those false Prophets mentioned by Jeremiah, that spoke peace to those that despised their Maker, and to such as walked after the stubbornness and imagination of their own hearts; saying, No evil shall come upon you; were eager to deliver what they had no Commission to do, and exceeding zealous to publish the Message of which God refused to be the Author; I have not sent these Prophets (says God) yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied, (Jer. 23.21.). So that we may be easily deceived, if we are drawn into our belief by the heat and eagerness of those that endeavour to impose upon us, if we have no other way to difference a fire that warms and relieves, from that which will both scorch and burn us. Sixthly, False Prophets that go abroad into the world, will frequently boast the number of themselves, and startle men with the glory and multitude of their proselytes. But Egypt had many Magicians and Sorcerers in Pharaohs time that could confront the Rod of Aaron, and boldly vie Miracles with Moses: Baal's Priests were four hundred and fifty, and the Prophets of the Groves four hundred: and what proportion could Elijah bear to such a multitude as these? The Arrians, among the Christians, were so numerous, that Athanasius seemed to engage against the World; And the Papists boast an Universality, as well as Antiquity of their Church; Nay, the fanatics also tell us of their number, and take all opportunities to show themselves, in the greatest and most formidable body; Not only to put frights upon Authority; but to gain beholders and Proselytes too: Herod and Pilate, for such ends as these, shall become friends; And Ephraim and Manasseh shall join together to make an argument from the increase of number, though Manasseh be against Ephraim, and Ephraim against Manasseh. And abundance of men (especially such as neglect to examine the Principles of their Religion) are led on by company and example; they follow the Herd though to their own ruin, and will run on with the Flock or Covey till the Fowler spreads his Net over them; Though arguing to the truth from the numbers that profess it, would for some time have concluded our Religion to have been false, and given the cause both to Jews and Heathens; The Turk may yet boast the number of his Proselytes, and the Devil brag that his name is Legion. Seventhly, False Prophets will often plead the strictness of their lives, and will come with Holiness written upon their Foreheads, how little soever be in their hearts; They will often be very precise and scrupulous; and though they can swallow Camels, yet they will strain at Gnats; they will be very tender in smaller matters, that they may be thought such as great sins never seize on; like the Pharisees in the Gospel, they will pay tithe of Mint, Anise, and Cummin, although they omit the weightier matters of the Law: None among the Jews were more outwardly grave and formal, than these; they made broad the Phylacteries, those scrolls of Parchment, on which the Law was inscribed, that they might be capable of more Texts of Scripture, than other men's, to show their great opinion of the Law; they enlarged also the fringes of their Garments beyond the proportions of other men, that they might not only be badges of their distinction and separation, but evidence them to be exceedingly Religious; because they were commanded by God to be worn to remember them of the Law, as well as to difference the Jews from other Nations, and to prevent Idolatry, as often as they looked upon these Fringes, which the God of Israel commanded them to wear, (Numb. 15.38.). Scrupulous were these men in relation to all the circumstances of Religion, but they regarded not so much the substance of it, nor what these things were ordained to signify and represent. We read of some in the Apostles days, that had a form of Godliness, who yet denied the power thereof, (2. Tim. 3.4.). And this continues still in the World, and will, so long as Religion is capable of being vailed with hypocrisy, and one man cannot discern the inside of another: 'Tis but being strict in outward appearance, and a wicked man may be accounted a Saint; and if open and scandalous sins be avoided, mens inside may be full of rottenness and corruption, and they be canonised still: Thus the Devil may be taken for an Angel of light, if he can but hide his malice and his flames; And men may cheat their Neighbours, commit adultery, or secret murder, if their actions escape the notice of others, and they make not themselves a spectacle to the world: This the Ministers of Satan do, like him, acting deeds of darkness within, whilst yet a Candle is hung out at their doors; that are earnest for reformation in other men, but do not at all reform themselves; only they endeavour to cover those faults which yet they will not strive to amend: If they bless God with their mouths, they care not if they blaspheme him in their hearts, because their business is not to recommend themselves to God, but unto those men whom they designingly delude: God himself complains of such Atheistical hypocrites, that turn things upside down, that seek to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark; They draw near me (says God) with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me; but have removed their heart far from me, (Isai. 29.13.). And there is yet sufficient cause of lamenting the sad state of Professors of Christianity, who are still beguiled with good words into ill practices, and under a pretence of Religion are drawn to renounce it. But yet in the midst of such various Principles preached to the World with noise and confidence; with great zeal, though little reason, (which therefore as an enemy some disgrace and vilify) they distract the minds of those that are unsettled, disturb the peace of all Society, both Civil and Religious, draw men into Heresy and Schism, and every evil work, and make them think those Prophets inspired with the breath of God, that swell only with their own passion, and disgorge themselves in fire and brimstone among mankind: And the Doctrines that cause these disorders, they manage with such art, and such suitable applications, and have so many plausible pleas to the World, by which they spread them with too much success over the minds of men: That it must fully convince us of a necessity to use diligence in our inquiries, and to try the Spirits whether they are of God; and so much the more, because many false Prophets are gone out into the world. And thus I have done with the Arguments and Reasons why we should examine the Doctrines of those that come to preach Religion among us, let their pretensions of Authority be what they will; Though they arise as high as inspiration, and aver their Commission to be from Heaven. CHAP. VI I Proceed now to my second Particular proposed, about this duty of trying Spirits; And that is to give you some Directions how to know when Doctrines propounded, as coming from God, are indeed revealed from Heaven, and the Deliverers to be believed as inspired from above, and accordingly to be entertained in the world. Now because men are apt sometimes to rely on false characters of trial; and there being several marks set up, by men of various humours and interests, to guide them in their way to Heaven, by which they pretend they are able to direct themselves and others, and try Doctrines and Opinions: I shall make some brief reflections on them, that no prejudice may remain to hinder us from embracing the true methods of trying men's Propositions in Religion; Especially those who come with so great an authority as inspiration. And (1.) We meet with many in the world, who suppose what they call the Church, which they make as narrow and little as they can, to be either that into which they ultimately resolve their Faith; or at least to have such Authority as to determine all points in Religion, and what rules are to be accepted as Divine, and therefore by her judgement all Spirits and Doctrines are to be tried, and determined. But this Guide will many times be uncertain; Nay false too, if a Society of men, called the Church, agree upon such Principles as are erroneous; which we find a thing not impossible, when our present experience may inform us, that Rome, which would be the only Church; and many separate Congregations in the World, who yet assume the honour of a Church, err in Articles of the Christian Faith, and in many ways of Discipline and Manners: And this is no wonder at all, when we consider that a Church is a Society of men; and that every man is capable of error; and that all Councils are managed by votes; and these many times are given wrong, not only through ignorance or inadvertency, but humour and interest so far prevail in the opinions of many, that we cannot yield their determinations to be infallible: Especially since we often find great Assemblies managed by the tricks and devices of a few, whose designs, being beyond the reach of the multitude, draw them by degrees into the consent to what, had they foreseen, they would never have yielded. Were the promises, indeed, of an infallible direction from the Spirit of God, made to all ages of the Church, and tied to the Assemblies which Christians call Councils; we could not reasonably dispute their determinations, but must obey them: But the promises of this nature being confined to the first planters of the Gospel, that were to publish an infallible Rule to the world, and neither made, nor useful, to future Generations, but only to prove the certainty of the Gospel, to which every Christian is to submit both his Faith and Practice, it being a rule in all things necessary to salvation▪ The things now ordained by any Church, or Society of men (whatever authority they may claim above us) as necessary to salvation, have neither strength, nor authority, unless it may be declared that they may be taken out of holy Scripture▪ And therefore General Councils may err, and have erred in things pertaining to God, as our Church declares in the twenty first Article: 'Tis true indeed, the Church of the Jews had the Oracles of God committed to them; They were, custodes legis, the keepers of the Law: So the Church among the Christians, has the Gospel committed to her custody, and has a power to determine in indifferent matters; To order all the circumstances in Religion, for decency, order and edification; and Authority to restrain such Controversies as tend to make a Schism and separation, and dissolve that unity which Christians are frequently exhorted to keep: So that although the Church be a witness and keeper of Holy Writ, yet as it ought not to decree any thing against the same; So besides the same, ought it not to enforce any thing to be believed for necessity of salvation: as our Church declares in her twentieth Article. I shall not deny, (nor could I without singular pride and Arrogance) but that Fathers and Councils, and all Congregations of holy and judicious Christians, much more Bishops and Governors of the Church, treating about a point in Religion, attempted to be introduced a new, or being old, is controverted in the world; are with great deference to be attended to: For every man's reason will urge this obligation to himself; That his own judgement is rendered suspected, when it opposes the common and united determination of persons that cannot justly be reproached with want either of skill or honesty; And 'tis ordinary for men to mistrust the sight of their own eyes, when a multitude of others, having the same advantage, cannot behold what a single person pretends to see. And in Religious affairs, and such matters as are of great moment, when persons of learning, piety, and authority in the holy Church of Christ, assemble with solemnity, and have a real intention to employ, with all faithfulness and diligence, those parts which God has blessed, and increased, to them by the advantage of a peculiar education and study, invoking a Divine influence upon their endeavours to find out the truth and meaning of any difficult and controverted proposition; We have great reason to incline to the belief of what these shall deliver for truth; Unless the contrary be so apparent to us, upon sufficient enquiry, that there is no cause of hesitation at all. This being the moderate opinion of our own Church, we are opposed in it both by the Papist and Fanatic; The former asserts that major est autoritas Ecclesiae quam Scripturae. That the Authority of the Church is greater than that of the Scripture: And that Traditiones sunt pari pietatis affectu cum Scripturis recipiendae: Their Traditions are to be received with the same affection and devotion as the Scriptures: And truly the latter come not far short of these; but as much confine (when it is in their power) the belief as well as practise of their members to the determination of their Assemblies; and little differ from the Roman infallibility in the end and design: For if any Churches among ourselves do yet affirm as they have formerly declared, that the Kirk of Scotland, was to be the pattern of their Reformation; then I am sure they expect the same submission, both in opinion and practice, to their Assemblies determinations, as a Popish Council do to their Canons; or the Pope himself to his Decrees: For to the Assembly held at Glasgow (1638) they swore that for judgement and practice, they would adhere to the Determination of it; though perhaps they knew not what it would determine. But to leave the persons of those that stretch the power of a Church beyond the Authority God has given her: There are three Reasons which plainly show that any Church, or Council of men, cannot lay down any Propositions, which derive their utmost Authority from themselves, that may be the ultimate Rules by which the Doctrines and Opinions of others are to be judged. (1.) Because God to whom our Religion relates, has appointed a rule that being superior to the inventions of men, must bind their fancies and opinions in these things, and determine their Faith with those general actions that are deemed Religious. To what purpose were the Scriptures given to the World, if they were not to be Rules and Directions to men? Nay, God being the Creator of all things, and in reason claiming the Supreme Sovereignty over the things which he has made; It is in his power to impose what Laws he will upon the world; and 'tis most suitable to his goodness to reveal them: That men may not err for want of knowledge; nor their thoughts contradict the will of their Maker: Now this he has done in the holy Scriptures, which are sufficiently authorized by his own Sanction, in that Miracles attended their first publication, which are, as it were, the Broad Seal of Heaven, that prove them Gods own Act and Deed, when they no way contradict the natural Notions, and the prime foundations of the Religion of men: The Scriptures therefore being thus given and confirmed to us, must either be our Supreme Direction, and an infallible guide in matters of Religion; or else they were delivered to no purpose, or to cheat and delude mankind: The former consists not with the wisdom of God; and the latter would contradict both his goodness and his truth: All the difficulty than will be, whether this Rule is sufficient to guide us in the Doctrine and practice of Religion, so that we need not any new inspiration, or any rules to be superadded, beyond the sense of Scripture itself, to conduct men in their way to Heaven? And consequently, whether we may by them judge of all Doctrines and Opinions without the help of the Roman infallibility, or what is the same in another dress, the unerring Spirit of the Enthusiast? But admitting the Scriptures to be of Divine Authority, they themselves are a sufficient testimony of their own perfection, whilst they declare that they proceeded from Divine inspiration, to be profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works, (2 Tim. 3.16.). (2.) No Canons or Decrees, of whatever bears the name of Church, or Council, can be a Rule of trying Doctrines in Religion, so as to be ultimate and Supreme; Because all the conclusions and propositions of these, are themselves the Doctrines and Opinions of men, either with, or without, the pretence of inspiration; and all Doctrines are to be tried themselves; For this must be included (as I have sufficiently proved) in S. John's direction, try the Spirits whether they are of God: That therefore which is subject to an higher Tribunal, cannot be itself the highest; nor what is appointed solely to aid us in our trial and examination of Opinions; nor the utmost Rule by which we must examine them. Lastly, If the Doctrines of the Prophets and Apostles of old, nay, of Christ himself, the Saviour of the World, were liable to the examinations of men; (it being natural to mankind to try the truth of any Propositions, before they believe them): Then, certainly, no assembly of men can now in reason pretend such authority to impose their own Doctrines upon the World, as Rules for all to submit unto, without any farther examination: And, if they must be examined at all, it must be by something of greater credit and authority in the World. Now that the Prophets of old were to be tried, whether true or false, is plain to any that will give themselves leisure to consider, not only that, otherwise, there could be no such thing as a false Prophet in the determination of men, (true and false having the same evidence) but that God himself gave directions under the Old Testament how to know the one from the other; (Deut. 13.1. and chap. 18.22.), which rules had been vain and insignificant, if, by these, men were not to try them. Hence is it, that those that attribute great authority to Christian General Councils, do not think their Canons obligatory (unless the things included in them bind antecedently, by their own nature, or a superior Law) till they are received in those Nations and Churches to which they are sent. (2.) As the Doctrines of the Prophets were to be examined, so were also those of the Apostles: Hence was it, that S. Paul, who was extraordinarily called to be an Apostle, God himself supplying him with Unction and Ordination, by giving him authority from Heaven; and our Saviour descending by an apparition from the Clouds, to invest him with dignity and power: Hence it was (I say) that this great Apostle, in his Call dignified beyond his Brethren, commends the Bereans (Acts 17.11.) because they searched and examined his Doctrines, whether they were true or false, by those Scriptures they had already received, and by comparing his Doctrines with the Natural Religion of Mankind, with what our Saviour and other Apostles preached; and most probably with the Scriptures of the Old Testament, that they might be assured, that what he delivered was consonant to that which was there exhibited concerning the Messias: And therefore these were of more pliable, and ingenuous, and gentile tempers, than those of Thessalonica, who were more regardless of these concerns; as S. Chrysostom comments upon this Text. (3.) The Doctrines even of our Saviour himself, (though never man spoke like him) were liable to examination by those that heard, before they entertained them: And certainly if any might recommend propositions upon his own authority, he might, who was the Wisdom of the Father; in whom all fullness dwelled; Nay, the fullness of the Godhead was, as it were, enclosed in his own body: Yet he bids the Jews to search the Scriptures, and to consider how well his Person and his Doctrines agreed with the ancient Predictions in relation to him; and, accordingly, either to receive, or reject, him: For these (says he) are they which testify of me; And in them ye think ye have eternal life: (John 5.39.) So that it is plainly evident, from the beginning, that no Doctrines, under pretence of what inspiration soever, were to be received by men without examination: But, as those of the Apostles were to be compared with what our Saviour delivered; his again to be measured, not only by his own divine authority, but this also was to be proved by the Law and the Prophets, and the Prophets themselves by those Rules which God had given to the Jews to judge by: So is there not reason, that the doctrines of men pretending to Christianity, under what authority soever they are published, should still be examined by a superior Rule; even by what the primitive Planters of our Religion have left for our perusal and direction, viz. the doctrine of Christ and his holy Apostles? which privilege (whatever Romanists plead for themselves) to hide from, or deny to, others, is the greatest cruelty and irreligion; Enough it is to render any doctrine suspected, that thus hides and runs to corners, and avoids all the trials of men: And we have great reason to mistrust those who take away men's judgement of discretion, valuing them only like Beasts that perish, whilst they are not persuaded, but whipped to their work, and many times crippled under their burden, when yet they know not what they carry. Thus I have (though more largely than my first thoughts designed) not only stated the use and authority of the Church in her Synods and Councils in the examination of Doctrines and Opinions, but showed you withal, that as their Decrees are not infallible, so neither are they the highest Rules by which we judge of the Doctrines of men: Had it been otherwise when our Saviour came to plant his Gospel, the infallibility of the Jewish Sanhedrim had justly condemned him for an Impostor, and all the Christian Religion delivered, and authorized, by him, had proved only a Fable and a Dream. CHAP. VII. THe most considerable Adversaries that oppose this way of stating the Church's Authority in determining points of Faith, seem to many to be the Romanists: and therefore this Chapter will briefly confute their high pretences to a strange Infallibility, by which they have introduced as strange Doctrines into the Christian Religion. And, indeed, there was never a Law, yet, so plainly penned, but that the inventions of men (who make it their business to render Laws, both Divine, and humane, subservient to their Secular interests) will blunt its edge, and endeavour to make it their own property, by altering, or over-urging its design. The same use has been made of Texts of Scripture, by the two Opponents of the Church of England, enlarging, or diminishing, the Infallibility promised to the Apostles, that it may the better countenance their own pretences: Some restraining the promises expressing the holy Spirits miraculous assistance in the guiding the Sacred Penmen of the Gospel, to the Roman Church; And others extending it to every man of their own persuasion, or at least to the Ministers and Elders of their Churches: I shall here therefore spend a few leaves to show that the Papists can have no ground in the Scripture to build their infallible determinations on, nor any reason at all to maintain their infallibility. I know not how it comes to pass that other Churches must forfeit their interests in the promises of the Gospel, that the Romanists may proudly arrogate them to themselves; Or any reason why the right of others must sneak or stoop to their bold usurpations: As if their Church could not well be Head of the World, unless we allow it to have all the Brains too; and dash them out of the Sculls of others, to fill their head till their understandings become incomprehensibly infallible, that all the race of Christians in the world, may receive Rules only from them; and give up the natural freedom of their minds to enlarge the Pope's Empire and Authority; As if they only were like the Jews of old, to whom were committed the Oracles of God; And these they might either keep to themselves, or allow them to others as they see occasion: This makes a reproof to them (like Rebellion against a Prince) a crime so great, that nothing but death can sufficiently expiate: Among them, 'tis but calling any one Heretic, and a dressing him up with pictures of Devils, and presently he is exposed to the flames: And this is such a Sovereign power of life and death, that it reaches not only the body, but the soul. Thus as some flea the truth, to prove it naked; and instead of declaring it, expose it: So others pretending to its safe custody, permit none to understand it but themselves; And so the rest must swallow a Serpent for a Fish, and eat stones instead of bread: As if imposing cheats upon the World, were the best way to prove a man insallible; and deluding others, were the only Argument to evidence, that we are not deceived ourselves: This is the great secret of the Roman Empire, that does not only silence Disputes, but forbid Enquiry: That does not only stop the mouths, but crack the skulls of mankind, taking away our judgement of discretion, and our choice, and Metamorphosing men into Beasts: And then they put the yoke upon us, and whip us on to toil and drudgery; that their own Pastures may be covered with Flocks, and their Valleys stand thick with Corn, whilst the high Hills laugh and sing. For if it be once supposed that their Church is infallible, whatever they determine must be true; And when we have vowed obedience to them, 'twill be too late afterwards to make enquiry. A powerful way this is to reconcile men, when contradictions themselves may thus meet, and at any infinite distance embrace, when the Romanists please to declare them true. If this one point be but admitted, 'twill be ridiculous to dispute the rest: For all the Articles must certainly be true, which a Church, has determined that cannot err: This is a new way, indeed, to walk by faith, and not by sense; to pull out our eyes that we may see the better; And instead of captivating our understandings to the obedience of Faith, to deliver up our reason to another man. This is perfectly to enslave ourselves, when Christ has made us free; to entangle our necks in the yoke of bondage, and to leave the burden of the old Law, for the greater load and oppression of a new: And to make ourselves like gentle Beasts, ready trapped and furnished for others to ride us. Let the Church of Rome once be infallible, and then they become as omniscient as Apollo; All their determinations are ex Tripod; And we must then become as silent as in the Grave, and make ourselves a prey to these Worms: We must kneel down at the Pope's feet, and make ourselves fit to be trod upon. But our reason is so properly our own, that as no man has a right over it, so is it strongly fortified within us, that none is able to take it from us, unless we will deliver it up ourselves: If we will suffer the Philistines to deprive us of our strength, and put out our eyes, they will certainly, then, make sport with us; And if we yield so great a Point, as they unjustly challenge from the Old Testament, and the New, we deserve, then, to be made a Spectacle, when they have no reason to prove their Authority, but because they have a mind to rule, and we become such fools as to obey: The Prophets than may prophesy falsely, and the Priests bear rule by their means, when the people shall love to have it so; and what will you do in the end thereof? (Jer. 5.31.) Seneca says, of men that are curious about trifles, operose nihil agunt (De brev. vitae cap. 13.) that they are very industrious about nothing; and though the studying of many of our Modern Controversies, is like an Emperor's locking himself into his Closet, that he may be very busy in catching Flies; and we may say of some great Controvertists in the world, what Seneca says of those that took abundance of pains to find out a few unprofitable experiments; that by this they did not appear more learned, but troublesome, (Vid. ut sup.) Yet when, by admitting a Principle, our reason is destroyed, and our Religion in an eternal hazard, by being at the devoir of another altogether as fallible as ourselves; and of whose honesty we cannot always be assured: We must then rally our Arguments to resist, or suffer ourselves to be led into slavery. That there is not, therefore, a foundation from any Text, for the Romanists pretended Infallibility, nor any Argument grounded upon reason, I shall endeavour briefly to make appear: And therefore we may, yet, believe ourselves to be men, and the Pope himself to be no other. Because (1.) There is no absolute promise of entire Infallibility, made to men in the whole Book of God; but only with limitation and restriction. I readily grant that there are promises of Infallibility in some Texts; But these were made good in the Apostles, and the seventy Disciples; And yet though delivered in general terms, they are to be restrained not only to the persons to whom our Saviour spoke; but to things necessary for them to know, in relation to that end for which they were inspired: And these were only such truths as our Saviour delivered to be the standing rules for Posterity to guide themselves by, in relation to their eternal welfare: This is plain both from the latter part of the Verse, of which the promise of the Spirits guiding into all truth, (Joh. 6.3.) is the former; And from the comparison of this Text with another; In the Verse of which this Text is a part, we have this added to confirm the promise, lest any should think the revelation of the Spirit should not prove equally certain with the declaration of our Saviour: He shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: Whatsoever he shall be commissioned to inspire you with, that shall he communicate unto you: Which is still included in these two particulars; (1.) In what our Saviour himself had delivered to them; Or (2.) In what he should suggest to them, to make their defence before Kings and Rulers, which need not at all concern them, whose ignorance in the Laws might cause them to fear; because the Holy Ghost should teach them, in the same hour, what they ought to say, (Luke 12.11, 12.). This only is superadded; And he will show you things to come: Which must either relate to the Gnostick defection, and the perdition of the Jews, which our Saviour had predicted, (Matth. 24.). Or else to the Spiritual nature of Christ's Kingdom, which the Apostles were so prejudiced against, to inform them, that this, with some other things, which they could not bear whilst he was with them in the flesh, they should at last be satisfied in, (Joh. 10.12.). Or else it must include those predictions of Prophets, more frequent in the Primitive times of Christianity; such was that of Agabus, (Acts 11.28.), who foretold the Famine that should come to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar: And that prediction of S. Paul's bonds and imprisonment, (Acts 21.11.): All which considered together, brings the promise of the Spirit, and infallibility, to the Apostles, under determinate restraints and limitations. But (2.) This will further appear, if we compare the promise of guiding into all truth, with that other, relating to the Holy Ghost, (Joh. 14.26.); where the Apostles are told, that he should teach them all things, (more plainly those which our Saviour had delivered) and bring those things to their memory which they might forget, though before declared: He shall teach you all things, (says he) and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. So that it appears that the Apostles had not the Spirit without measure; though they may be said, to be filled with the Holy Ghost; And that this promise of infallibility to them, was made in a limited and restrained sense. Secondly, Supposing the promises of Infallibility were made in never so enlarged a sense, yet they are to be restrained to the persons to whom they were at first made, as to the unerring conduct: and I might easily make it appear, that they cannot in their full sense concern any but the Apostles themselves, and the first Preachers of the Christian Religion: Because the end of this extraordinary inspiration was to make them capable of prescribing to us an infallible and unerring rule; Which being accomplished, there is no farther occasion of an infallible inspiration. For to what end should this be continued to one, or a certain number of men, unless they were, upon new emergencies, to deliver new Doctrine to the world? If it be necessary to the understanding of what has been already prescribed; the Laws of the Gospel will not only want one of the most excellent qualifications of a Law, that it be plain and easily intelligible; But the same necessity will argue infallibility useful to all, which renders it thus necessary unto some: For if it be therefore necessary to some, that they may become Guides to others; Since their conduct, in relation unto others, must consist in advice, and declaring that sense of the Law, which could not be understood without them; (all which must be expressed by word or writing) every man has as much need of infallibility that he may not misunderstand the interpretation, as any have to prevent their misapprehensions of the Law, if there can be no peace without infallibility. Now that all men have not infallibility is as readily yielded, as it is to be proved that the Pope has none. Thirdly, If there were, now, this infallibility amongst men, there must be a perpetual revelation: For, if the perfection of the humane nature could here render any men infallible, we may well conjecture that many might have been in every age, that might have been Directors to the rest: Or if it had been founded in humane nature, why should not an equal perfection render all mankind infallible? Either of them being granted, will invalidate the necessity of a Divine Revelation; and turn the word of God into a story; and do despite to the spirit of grace; if rendering it useless and a fable will do it; For to what end should any men be inspired, when they were, before, infallible in themselves? The infallibility therefore, which we discourse of must proceed from a strong, and certain, inspiration; And whatever is delivered by virtue of this, is of equal authority with the Scriptures themselves: And then none can be safe in his life, or fortunes, when ever any inspired man makes it his pleasure to take them away: Nay, if we are conscientious, we must yield them up upon demand, lest haply we may be found fighters against God. And this appears in the Romanists themselves, as well as others taught by them; The more conscientious any of them are, the more readily do they yield to the impositions of their superiors; and, they have reason for it, if they think them to be absolutely infallible. For no private evidence of a thing must subvert their faith in the Church's determination; and so much the more triumphant is their faith, by how much the more it captivates their understandings: As it is so much the more meritorious, by how much the less it has of evidence; So the greater the Objections are that meet and encounter the Church's determinations, their faith is rendered the more glorious and full of victory: Let the Doctrine then be never so wicked in itself, or consequences; the conscientious believer of the point of Roman Infallibility, must neither see the one, nor the other; But renounce all the evidence of his reason, and if occasion be, (as there is sometimes) of his senses too. For what evidence can reasonably be attended to, that bears a testimony against that which is infallible? This than must be a ready method to change the nature of good and evil, and the eternal Law instamped upon our minds, if the mutation proceeds from the Roman Chair. Nay, the nature of things need not be changed, if the Pope please to change their names: Men may borrow then, and never pay, if he pleases to cancel the debt; Ruining families, and overturning Kingdoms will become noble, and a glorious exploit; Nay, religious acts, when he is at leisure to adopt them into the number: Burning Cities, and murdering Princes, shall be accounted means of propagating the Gospel, if he please once to determine, that we may do evil, that good may come of it; And blowing up the Estates of Kingdoms is presently holy, if he will but sanctify the Powder, and Canonize the man that has the courage to attempt it: So powerful is this Doctrine of Roman Infallibility, that it can change the Devil into an Angel of Light: And, let the Pope himself be never so wicked, his determinations are all true and good, and he may remain his Holiness still: He may subvert by degrees, or all at once, the whole Doctrine of Christianity, (though from thence he receives his pretensions of authority) if he pleases to declare it a Fable, when it shall no longer comport with his advantage; Nay, he has already so blended it with the Religion of the Jews, and practice of the Heathens, that Christianity is so buried in an heap of rubbish, that 'tis an hard matter to gather it up out of such a great confusion of ruins: The substance is lost in the midst of Ceremony; internal devotion is interrupted by a pompous Scene of Pageantry and Show; and yet the evidence of our senses must be rejected in the Doctrine, which they so much applaud in practice. And yet (Fourthly), Notwithstanding all the Roman pretences to Infallibility; If there are any promises made of it, they do as well concern other Churches as themselves: For if these promises were made to the Apostles in general (as is very plain from the circumstances of their delivery) if they were not terminated in them, but reached also the whole succession of those by virtue of whom Christ's promise was made good, of being with the Apostles, always, to the end of the world; Then either all Churches must be infallible or none; especially all that are able to derive their succession from any Apostle, or Apostolical men that were once Bishops, and presided there: And if so, than the Church of Jerusalem must be infallible, because S. James the less was appointed their Bishop, either by our Saviour himself, (as some say) or else immediately by the Apostles (as others.). The Church of Alexandria, because this was the Bishopric of S. Mark, must become as infallible as that of Rome; That of Constantinople, because founded by S. Andrew; That of Ephesus, because S. John was seated there. Nay those, also, of Smyrna, Pergamus, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea, because this Apostle laid the foundations of them: Nay, and our own Church of Britain too (which our adversaries will hardly yield infallible) because Simon the Zealot preached here, wrought many Miracles, and at last suffered Martyrdom for the Faith of Christ, and our Native Soil has the honour of his Bones; if the Greek Menologies may obtain any credit amongst men. But to bring this business nearer to an head: If this infallibility will not be allowed to all Churches of the Apostles planting, nor to those over which they more especially presided, (as they certainly will never yield it, whose interest it is to keep it unto themselves); Yet why should not Antioch become infallible, which was a Church of S. Peter's planting at least seven years before he came to Rome? Must the elder Sister become a fool, that the younger may appear infallible? Or must we deny the privilege of Antioch, because it would invalidate that of Rome? The latter seems their most probable conjecture; though 'tis easily proved S. Peter was at Antioch, but eagerly disputed, whether ever he was at Rome. But allowing S. Peter to have been at Rome; and not only so, but to have been Bishop there, and the present Pope to be his Successor, (which yet is hard for them to prove, especially when the Succession is to be traced through their Anti-popes', and Pope Joan must become an Holy Father too), How came this promise of infallibility to be fixed only upon S. Peter, when it was spoken to the whole Apostolical College? If you will say, that the infallibility can be fixed but in one; and that we may as well discourse of many Omnipotents, as many Infallibles: (and certainly 'tis to be proved with equal success, were the infallibility not capable of restraint) Yet why must it be fixed upon S. Peter, and not on any other of the Apostles? S. Paul, though a later Apostle, has as much to plead for a settlement of it upon the Gentiles, as ever S. Peter to fix it upon the Jews. Nay, the Romanists themselves have greater reason to derive it from S. Paul, than ever they had for deriving it from S. Peter; Unless they acknowledge themselves to succeed the Circumcision, of which S. Peter was only Bishop. But perhaps they will plead Infallibility from Supremacy: and afterwards (if occasion serves) plead Supremacy from Infallibility again. Yet still S. Paul will bid as fair for the Supremacy too, if we take time to examine his Plea. Saint Paul was not only designed to his Apostleship by the Grace of God, before he had any merit in himself, being a chosen Vessel to bear Christ's Name amongst the Gentiles, when he was appointed to his Office from his Mother's Womb, (Gal. 1.15.); But his Conversion was attended with Miracles, and from a Persecutor, when the design was laid, and his malice big against the Christian Church, he was struck down with a dart from Heaven, and convinced by that Light which made him blind: He was brought to this Religion with Pomp and Ceremony, and ushered into the Church with a train of circumstances that were Heralds to his honour, and proclaimed him great (Acts 9): Nor was he greater in his Apostleship, than in his sufferings: For, after a large Catalogue of his miseries (2 Cor. 11.), he made the Tragedy complete by his death: He was thrown into Prison with S. Peter; And (if Baronius may be credited) the Pillars are yet remaining, at which they were both bound and scourged: And had he not been a Roman, he might have been crucified with S. Peter: But being such (like a Person of Honour) he was beheaded: In the time he lived he laboured more abundantly than the rest of the Apostles; (1 Cor. 15.10.): Nor was he in any respect behind the very chief of them (2 Cor. 11.5.): He neither yielded to the argument of interest, when he received his first conviction; nor did he, when he was baptised or illuminated from above, and by inspiration had received a sufficient Commission to preach the Gospel, go to derive his authority from the Apostles, as if he had been inferior unto them; But he straightway preached Christ in the Synagogues; though to the amazement of all that heard him (Acts 9.20, 21.): He was not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, though his former zeal another way, might be and was objected to him; And, that he might sufficiently evidence the truth, and the honour, of his Apostleship, he went into the untrodden paths of the World, where none had adventured to preach the same Doctrine before him: For so (says he) have I strove to preach the Gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another's foundation, (Rom. 15.20.): All this we have drawn into a narrow compass (Gal. 1.16, 17.); But it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood; neither went I up to Jerusalem to those which were Apostles before me. As he was most justly styled The Apostle of the Gentiles; For the care of all their Churches lay upon him, (and I hope the Romans were not then Jews; let them be whatever they will since) and came more upon him every day (2 Cor. 11.28.). He opposed the principal Officers of the Church at Jerusalem, and gave no place by subjection, no not for an hour, since they that seemed to be somewhat, added nothing in conference to his knowledge; but perceived him to be appointed the Apostle of the Gentiles, as well as S. Peter was the Apostle of the Jews; when they came to Antioch, he withstood Peter to the very face, because (says he) he was to be blamed, for that both he himself had dissembled with the Jews, and had persuaded James and Barnabas into the same compliance; And, upon the whole, neither of them walked according to the truth of the Gospel; And all this difference was upon no smaller point than this, that a man is not justified by the works of the Law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, (Gal. 2.): 'Tis plain S. Paul had here, in a proper sense, the right hand of fellowship; not only in that they admitted him into the society of the Apostles; but they gave him the pre-eminence among them: And S. Peter had a great deal of reason to do it, if a Scholar ought to respect his Instructor: For 'tis plain, that S. Paul informed him in a point that he knew not, or dissembled before; though he knew enough to be the Apostle of the Circumcision, a Province, to which he was then designed: so that the Romanists claiming Supremacy from S. Peter, will add no great proof to their infallibility; nor this be sufficiently evinced by the derivation of their succession from him: Unless the second Chapter to the Galatians be razed out of the Sacred Canon; Or the denial of a justification by faith, without the ceremonial works of the Law, becomes a point, in the determination of which, infallibility is not at all concerned: Or else 'tis lawful for them to reject this authority of S. Paul, if they still embrace the doctrine of S. Peter. Fifthly, Supposing there had been an infallibility made to S. Peter, and from him derived to the Church of Rome; yet what shall we now do for direction? since neither they nor we know where to find it, upon a diligent search into their own opinions of it. For some place it in a General Council; some in the Pope and this together; some in himself and College of Cardinals; and some again in the Pope alone. If this Infallibility be placed in a General Council, it will be as eagerly disputed when it may be said to be General; Some giving Councils so fair an Epithet, when others do as confidently deny them to be such: The infallibility therefore cannot be found here; Unless it remains in such a Council, where all the circumstances and qualifications can be found, that are able to give it such a denomination; When the interests of Princes and Churches shall be determined previous to the Assembly; and all are agreed who shall summon it: And when this difficult (if not impossible) task is accomplished; If they must all conclude in one opinion; I fear this can never be: Or if things must be determined by the major Vote, and this makes infallible truth, how came the greater part to be infallible, when the lesser number are so far from being inspired at all, that they give their Votes contrary to the truth? Nay, by shifting the Tables to a new point, many of those may, by these rules, become infallible who, in another, had erred just before: but if the approbation of the Pope must be added to the determination of the Council, the infallibility, then, will rest in himself: Because, if he pleases to be of a contrary opinion, he can make void the Votes of the Council, by refusing to comply with their determination; And consequently they are not infallible in that which wants the Supreme evidence of the Pope's assent. But, if after all this (supposing their united concurrence) infallibility should not rest in this Assembly; but in the Pope and his College of Cardinals; Then the Arguments for obedience to the General Council, taken from their infallibility in determining, are superseded by an higher Authority; Though the same inconveniences obviate the infallibility of these, which do attend the former opinion: Finally, suppose that it rests in the Pope alone: Then if it be his privilege as a man, it will be the endowment of the rest of mankind; And then they will need none of his single determinations: If he is infallible as he is Pope; Then, either all his Speeches are infallible, or else when he determines about matters of Faith: If the former be true; Then he cannot possibly deceive; And consequently, he would not prove so able, and successful, a Statesman as he is, if he could not sometimes dissemble his opinion: If the latter position be affirmed to be true; Then either all his Propositions concerning Faith, must be infallible, and there is no disputing with him; Nor is it lawful for him at any time to oppose in a School question, where the Orthodox part is usually held by the respondent, for fear his Propositions should become infallible, and truth be rendered incapable of being held; Or else he becomes only infallible, when he is gravely seated, and determines from his Chair; And if this be the case of us mortals; We must not only stay for resolution, till he is dressed and clothed in all his Robes, and Pontificals, any of which (for aught I know) being wanting, he may fail in his determination, and our Faith fail for want of some Ceremonial accoutrement: But supposing all this to be done, if he cannot be infallible till he is in his Chair; Then the Chair seems more infallible than himself: Yet when all this is accomplished (for aught we know, or ever can) he may not be a lawful Pope: For if he be unbaptised, he cannot be a Priest; and if he is no Priest, he cannot be a Pope; And if the intention of the Priest that Baptised him, and of the Bishop that gave him the order of Priesthood, be required to make both valid; If, at his Baptism, he met with an untoward Priest; Or, at his Ordination, with an ungodly Bishop, that performed the Ceremonies, without minding what they were about, suspending their intention, at those times, either through malice, or inadvertency, or designing the contrary, the whole business is still spoiled; And the Chair will not bestow infallibility upon one that is indeed no lawful Pope. But what shall we think of the Anti-popes', when two are chosen, (as it has been possible) and they both struggle for the Chair, where rests the infallibility then? Or what becomes of it in the interval betwixt the death of the last, and the Election of a new? Let even the Chair keep it for the next that shall possess it; And I wish it would always sit there, and never endeavour to trouble us: If they will perish in their own folly, I know no help, being quite tired with exposing their Opinion. Upon the view of the whole, we see the Proposition is made good, that, since their own Opinions are so different about the Seat of Infallibility, neither they, nor we, know where to find it. Sixthly, If there were this infallibility in the Church of Rome, and they had agreed where to fix it; so that they are sure they once knew how to find it: Yet it plainly appears that it is now lost; since their whole Church has determined, and yielded to many things plainly erroneous; and quite opposite to the authority of the Scriptures: I shall at present only instance in three, though I might produce a Catalogue of more. The (1.) Is the taking away the Cup from the people. (2.) Prayer in an unknown tongue. (3.) The Doctrine of Transubstantiation. First, I instance in taking away the Cup, in the blessed Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, from the people; as an error determined by the Church of Rome. By Cup, I mean the Sacramental Cup, and not that of Ablution, by which the Romanists have shifted from the doubts of some ignorant Objectors. Now that the detention of the Cup, (notwithstanding all endeavours of 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 signify Christ's 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 Christ's 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 erred, and clearly frees us from their imposture; Though S. Peter says 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 broke 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 show forth the Lords death till he come. If this, then, is to be continued in the Church as a Memorial of Christ's 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 Sacrilege be a virtue: 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 blessed 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): 'Tis 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 public 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 prays 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, infers 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 enjoin their public 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 contained 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 changed 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 destroys 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 my understanding, by the testimony of my senses, concerning their own proper objects, where there is a true medium, and a just distance: If this, which thus seems to me to be Bread and Wine, may yet not be so; but the substantial Body and Blood of our Lord: Then, I can have no sufficient evidence that the Christian Doctrine was revealed from Heaven. For the proof of this depending upon the certainty of those Miracles which were at the first wrought for the confirmation of it. And these depending upon the certainty of their senses, who were then eyewitness to the Miracles; And, if the senses of all mankind may together be deceived about this Sacrament, the same possibility might make them so, when the Miracles were wrought to prove the Gospel: And then we have no certainty of our Religion; but the whole Gospel may prove a fable, and its greatest confirmation be nothing but an imposture. This is enough to make the sin against the Holy Ghost, to be introduced into the World, with pomp and ceremony, and to render it authentic, by an infallible authority. If it be said that, in relation to the first confirmation of the Gospel, our senses were free, and then could not be deceived; But that now, since the Christian Religion was sufficiently authorized, this very Doctrine thus confirmed, ties up our senses; since 'tis rational to submit them to Divine revelation: I Answer; That, if the New Testament did, any where, thus impose upon the faculties of men; It would (1.) Be difficult, upon the same grounds, for me to believe that mine eyes were not imposed upon, when I read the words. (2.) Supposing that I did read them true; And that were sufficiently confirmed, that I understood what I read; Yet since no other Text can be pleaded for Transubstantiation besides, This is my Body; Why must I, of necessity, understand that by these words I am commanded to believe contrary to my senses; When, by a plain and easy construction, agreeable to the usual Sacramental phrases, particularly those which were used about the Passeover, my senses are still left unto their liberty? And no more than saying, This is my Body, That is; This Bread represents, or signifies my Body; will express the sense, and baffle the Objection. 'Tis so common to parallel this expression, with I am the vine, the way, the door, and That Rock was Christ; This is my Covenant; This Cup is the New Testament, etc. Where the Verbs are construed by represented, signified, and the like; That I am ashamed we should be put to continued repetitions, by the daily appearance of a baffled Adversary. Thus we see, by these three instances of erroneous determinations of the Church of Rome, that, if ever they had infallibility, they have lost it: Unless truth and error are reconciled, and infallible falsehood be a proper expression. Seventhly, If notwithstanding all the premises, the Romanists will yet hold the conclusion, and affirm themselves to be infallible; We must call upon them to prove it by Miracles. For this can no way become the privilege of the Church of Rome, but by immediate inspiration to those that pretend it; And whoever pretends to inspiration, aught to prove it by Miracle, when the Scripture does not command us to believe it. The Apostles proved their infallibility by Miracles: We must demand, therefore, the same from those that will pretend to the same privilege; Since the promises they challenge to themselves, are completed in the Apostles. Nay, 'twill not be enough to tell stories instead of Miracles; Nor to produce something done among them, of which, the cause being behind the Curtain, no natural account can be given: But they must be attended with such circumstances as may sufficiently prove them to be Divine. And, when this is accomplished (which is impossible), the infallibility pretended must be proved necessary to the Salvation and conduct of men: Otherwise we shall doubt of the Miracles themselves, because they confirm an unnecessary thing, and what supposes the insufficiency of the Scriptures. I might add more Heads of Argument; but these are sufficient to baffle the strength of this proud Capitol. CHAP. VIII. HAving in the former Chapter spent a very large Parenthesis upon the Roman Infallibility; for fear that I may not be well understood by some, whose unthinking honesty may make them jealous of their power, and cause them to conclude, that I allow not Authority enough to Synods and Councils; And that being no more than a private Minister, I assume too much judgement to myself, in making use of my faculties without leave. I answer, that I have sufficient leave from the Articles and Canons established in the Protestant Church of England, for what I have already wrote concerning this matter: Yet I shall farther explain the same thing; to show that I am willing to attribute as much Authority and Honour to the best established Church in the World, and the Governors of it, as any man can possibly do who does not pluck out his eyes to do them service. Therefore, notwithstanding what has been said of the Roman Infallibility; I readily yield that Fathers and Councils, and all Congregations of holy, and judicious Christians, much more the Bishops and Governors of the Church, solemnly assembled to treat concerning the truth or falsehood of any Point, introduced into Religion, are reverently to be attended to; Reason urging a regard to those who, by the advantage of study, or the prospect they have obtained from an higher ground, and according to the age in which they live, are probably capacitated to assist our judgements, and to determine a Controversy better than ourselves. When persons of learning, piety, and Authority, also, in the Church of Christ shall assemble in his name, with a real intention to find out the truth of any difficult, and disputed, Proposition, humbly begging the Divine assistance, and blessing on their endeavours; We have great Reason to incline to their determinations, when neither secular interests, or a blind passion, or the force of others gains their Votes, and procures their assent. Nay, when these are our own lawful Governors, (though nothing can force our belief) we may, in an improper sense, call their determinations infallible (quoad nos); Because, for the peace and Government of the Church, to avoid Schism, and to preserve an Ecclesiastical union among us, it will be necessary that they bind us not to contradict them publicly, by any external solemn act, since we ourselves have our assent virtually implied in Canons or Laws made by those who publicly represent us: Although we are not obliged to believe every Proposition, thus determined, to be exactly true; Unless it be propounded to us with sufficient evidence to convince our judgements, if we have abilities to inquire into the Proofs themselves. To restrain the external acts and discourses of men, when they oppose the public Sanctions, and constitutions of those who are fixed in such places of Authority, is plainly necessary to keep peace and order in any Society; much more in such a one as is purely Christian, that we may be regular and uniform in our practice; and that there may be no divisions among us; And that the common Acts which we are to join in, as a Body or Society of Christian men, may not be disturbed by particular members withdrawing from them, or rendered indecent, or invalid, by noise, or confusion. But yet there is no obligation upon any man to resign either his sense or reason in any point of which he is a capable Judge; But only to captivate it to the obedience of faith in such points as are apparently revealed by God, though the points themselves may be above the determination of the faculties of men. And therefore no Authority can oblige us to contradict the Scriptures, in their standing Laws of Faith and Manners; Because these aught to be a Law both to our Governors and ourselves, antecedently to the Laws and Canons of men. Hence is it that we reject the pretences of aspiring men, to any absolute and complete infallibility, by virtue of any promise supposed to be made to the Successors of the Sacred Apostles: Because there is no such promise made to any but the Apostles, and the first Writers and Publishers of the Christian Religion, whose Writings are to be our standing Rules in all things absolutely necessary to Salvation: Nay, the end and design of the first Divine and infallible guidance, was only to introduce a new Law, superstructed upon the Old Law of Nature, and to free Religion from the corrupt glosses and customs of men, who abusing their Authority, had falsely imposed things on others; To obliterate the old Ceremonial injunctions prescribed to the Jews; To draw the Gentiles from their Heathen Idolatry, and to erect the Christian Church among men, that all Nations might flock to it, be sheltered in one Fold, being redeemed from the power of the destroyer, and feed together under the Government and conduct of Jesus Christ, the great Pastor and Bishop of our souls. Hence was it that our Saviour promised the immediate and infallible guidance of the Spirit to his Apostles, that, being before of meaner capacities, they might be able to understand his Laws so well as to publish them to the World, as the standing Rules to all future Generations. But this rule being once completed, by the informations which our Saviour gave to his Apostles whilst he was with them; And by the continued inspirations and assistances which they received from the holy Spirit, after his Ascension into Heaven, to explain some things, and bring others to their remembrance, and to enable them to preach the Gospel to the World, and to publish the Doctrines and Rules of it, in Writing, to be the standing Law of Religion, to which all future ages might have recourse for guidance, both in Faith and Manners: When this Law was fully and completely written, which was to be the great and only Rule of men's Religion, there was no need of a standing infallibility, to interpret what was so fairly written, that in things absolutely necessary to Salvation, none but Idiots can possibly be mistaken, and none but Knaves will endeavour to misled them. For there is no man, who has humility enough to use the help of the learned in Religion, and grace enough to implore the ordinary assistances of the Divine Spirit, (which God gives to those that ask him) but, if he endeavours, with sincerity, to live according to what he already knows, and faithfully, and honestly, applies his rational faculties, to the diligent search of Divine truth, he shall certainly attain such degrees and advancements of knowledge as shall be sufficient to make him wise unto Salvation, if he does not too much strive to be wise above what is written: And if after all this, he chance to fall into any error, through the naked infirmities of human nature, it shall be such as will be consistent with the foundation; nor will it be so severely laid to his charge, as to be the cause of condemning him hereafter, when it was not in his own power to help it. The Scriptures, certainly, were first designed to be the Rule of Faith and Manners. And a rule ought to be so plain, that all, who are to take their measures by it, may be able, by some means or other, to compare their belief and actions with the Rule, and also to pass a judgement upon the whole: Nay, if we reflect upon our own rational powers, together with those assistances we are directed to, and make use of these when we consider the Scriptures themselves, we must of necessity yield this to be true; Unless we will be perverse and obstinate in every thing. For if we think upon the quality of those persons to whom our Saviour and his Apostles applied themselves in their usual discourses, we shall find that they spoke not, in their Sermons, nor wrote their Epistles, only to the Rabbins among the Jews, nor only to the Philosophers among the Gentiles; Nor were there, at the first, many Rich, or Noble, called; But the Poor had the Gospel preached to them. The Apostles declared their Doctrine, freely to the multitude; Nay, so did our blessed Saviour himself; And, therefore, they must preach it in such language as all might be capable of understanding, and receiving, it, if prejudice did not resist the impression. For their design being to plant Christianity in the World, to make Proselytes to the Kingdom of Heaven, and, in the belief and practice of this Religion, to bring the lapsed race of men once more to God, by dissuading them from the error of their ways, and by guiding their feet into the way of peace; Why should any think that they delivered the matters of men's future, and everlasting concerns, and the present Laws to guide them by, in so mysterious a manner, or such muffled language, that the end of all their discourses might be lost by their speaking unintelligibly to the people? Now since the souls of men, that are not too much hindered by a very bad constitution of their bodies, have all the same principles of Reason, and every Individual has a proper judgement peculiarly his own, and either we understand the languages, and schemes of speech, in which the Doctrines, and Rules of life delivered by Christ and his Apostles, were written: Or, else, we receive them faithfully translated, (especially in necessary Doctrines and rules, which the Critics themselves cannot well torture, because they are oftener than once delivered) from several pious and learned men, who more perfectly and completely understood them. Why should things, therefore, that were, at first, plain to the capacity of the meanest, be so obscure to us, that we must want a guide who is infallible to direct us, almost, in all our ways; and what is worst of all, he splits us, at last, against a stone? If God has not thought it fit to bridle mankind so, as to curb them from becoming sinners, but has, in this, left them to their own 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 ourselves, 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 choose fairly for themselves; And therefore, methinks, 'tis 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 judgements, 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 foretelleth, matter of fact, though he does not signify God's 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 myself 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 publicly discover themselves to be Popishly affected, who are very apt to spy 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 Rome's 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 fancies, 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 fancies upon other men: But if every thing of this nature, and men's 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 called for instead of Mortar, 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 man's 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 deemed abortive, and the fruits of madness would receive the characters of sobriety and discretion: The greatest Lunatics 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 satisfy themselves in the trial of Spirits, and guidance of themselves. First, There are some that build much on what they style 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 Widow's 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 Heaven to it, and a sufficient guide to future action, and an assurance that it was both lawful and just. Many men when they have for some time brooded upon a thing, they are apt then to petition Heaven, to inform them of the lawfulness or convenience, or the unlawfulness or inconvenience of it: And having ended their devotion, finding their thoughts to run still in the same channel, into which they had turned and confined them before, they conclude this to be a sufficient warrant for them to prosecute, and accomplish their design; And the eagerness of their intention, which proceeds only from their predeterminated resolution, they foolishly take for the conduct of the Spirit, which, they are willing against all reason to think, thus guides them to conclude the lawfulness of their desire. And this is no inconsiderable hint, because, in this method, many wicked and unlawful actions claim God's patronage to justify and defend them: And what impious, and most bloody designs have been attempted, and carried on, by the impressions upon men's minds, after they have pretended to seek the Lord, and thus gained what they have called a Return to their prayers, I need not now particularly relate; History has reported, and will yet more discover them to the World: This one thing has raised Rebellion, Murdered Princes, in design and act, violated all Sacred Obligations, and lays Religion at the feet of every fresh and fanciful pretender. At this rate we shall cheat our neighbours by a secret impulse, and murder Gods Anointed by a special command, and no man can be safe in his Life and Fortune, if a praying Hector, or a dreaming Enthusiast has a mind, and power, to take them away: Nor will he long be without a Warrant, when by winking hard, and directing his thoughts, he may impress his own mind as he pleases, and with a melancholy, or sturdy confidence, proclaim God to be the Author of it. But, alas! God is then only, in a true and proper sense, said to hear, or make returns to our prayers, when he bestows on us, those good and lawful things which we have, with humility and devotion, begged; And if any man, pondering on a wicked design of his own contrivance, in this case prays to God for his direction; and, after his prayer, finds the sinful impression still remaining; This proceeds from his own vicious, and Diabolical inclination, but not from the impulse of God's Spirit; And it can, by no reasonable person, be accounted Gods answer to his prayers; Unless he will suppose the great Maker of Heaven and Earth, to be willing to offer the greatest violence to his own nature, and to nurse and cherish, what he would hate in himself, in those who are the workmanship of his own hands. No greater reproach can be given to the Divine Majesty than this, by those who acknowledge, and adore, his Being: For they make him the Patron to men's sins; as if his essential purity and goodness could permit him to instigate any to the commission of those things, which his justice, notwithstanding, must, and cannot choose but, punish: Such apprehensions of the Supreme God, would, oftentimes, make the Author of peace, to be guilty of the worst War, and the shedding the best blood in a Kingdom; The God of Order, would become the cause of the greatest confusions among mankind, and, in plain terms, give himself the Lye. It cannot be safe, therefore, to make what we are apt to call an answer to our prayers, a rule of actions, unless they agree with Gods written word, and then there will be no need of a new Warrant; For the word of God as it is the best, so it must be to us the only, general direction in our taking the measures of good and evil. If, at any time, the following strong impressions made upon our minds may be safe to guide us, after we have sought to God for particular directions, it must, as I conceive, be only in things that were indifferent before, that he may influence our prudential choice in matters which he has left to our own option: And, even in this case, we must have a care that we do not fully resolve beforehand, lest we are found to be dissemblers with God, and have no real hesitation in our own judgements; But if, in such things, we have occasion to make any applications to him, we must be sure to leave room for his direction, and that we know not which way to determine ourselves by any of the Laws of Good and Evil: The lawfulness of either part must be evident, and we must desire an influence on the government of our choice only in the prudential determination, with reference to the good consequence, or success. I cannot apprehend that any evil can attend this, it being a solemn acknowledgement of a Supreme Being, who has the Government of the whole World, of our own weakness, and inability to guide ourselves without his assistance, and consequently of our dependence on him, which are great reasons for our adorations and prayers: But yet the good that may, in particular, attend the pursuance of this must be left to God's secret conduct, and to the intrigues and influence of his providence, which no man is able to discover; Unless he could pry into the consults of Heaven, and disclose the secrets of an infinitely wise, and powerful Being, when, besides what he has already revealed, there is not a keyhole to peep through. For my own part, I love not to be wise above what is written, or to be bold in prescribing Rules in those cases in which God has been pleased to give us none; but shall confine myself to the Law and to the Testimony, and look upon the Scripture as my certain Rule, thus guiding myself in this World, that I may at last through God's mercy and the Merits of my Redeemer arrive at my proportioned glory in the next. But, Secondly, Another false Rule of trying Opinions, Doctrines, and resolutions in Religion, set up by some▪ is every man's private judgement and determination; When, in the mean time, it takes not its measures from God's Word, nor the general notions of Good and Evil, but from a peculiar, private Spirit got into a single man's thoughts and apprehensions. Now to this head may be reduced what madmen call lights, and revelations; What those Enthusiasts, that will be Saints in spite of all their profane actions, and dub themselves Holy in the midst of their own irreligion, call Conscience; And what others, of a more smooth and gentle disposition, stile Reason, that they may advance the powers of mankind to the degrading, if not expelling, the benign operations of the Holy Spirit of God. In a word; This seems to be the foundation of judgement, and the Rule of discerning Spirits and Doctrines amongst Quakers, Anabaptists, Independents, and the rest of our Separatists (speaking in the general), of all that follow the Socinian Principles, and is the foundation of Popery itself, when those of the Roman Communion mistake the result of their Governors' 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 fancy and opinion may frequently be mistaken for reason, illumination, Conscience, nay, the dictates of the holy Spirit itself; 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 Penmen to record. (2.) By inclining as well as authorising 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 God's 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 privileges) can entitle 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 fancy 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 fancy, opinion, or a strong persuasion of their own minds: they are nothing but the agreement of our judgements with God's 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 Superior 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; fancy, interest, and the humours and impious mistakes of men would pass for conscience, and a safe guide, and introduce such a medley 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 Thiefs, being filled with nothing but Sacrilege 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 proved their own. When the Sun for a season shines upon them, and the Heaven's 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 established 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 judged: 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 itself, 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 justify all lucky Usurpations; To determine right and wrong by combat; 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 Villainy 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 Hosannas from the multitude, and their cry shall shortly be, Crucify him, Crucify him: These things are the subject of common observation; It was holy David's 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 spoke of the prosperity of the wicked; He observed, 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 compassed them as a chain, and violence covered them as a garment, their eyes stood out with fatness, and they had more than heart could wish, (Psal. 73.). And Solomon observes, that, as to the changes of prosperity and adversity, all things come alike to all, there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not; As is the good, so is the sinner, and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath, (Eccles. 9.2.): This indeed may prove that there shall be a future account; But neither can the goodness or wickness of a party be evidenced by such external characters; much less the truth or falsehood of opinions, confirmed from the smiles or frowns of Providence. But I need not at present argue this point farther; since those that when prosperous, invented it as a rule to walk by, and as an argument to confirm their party, and a bait to draw Proselytes, and Abettors, to them, are now confuted by their shameful overthrow; And it would sink them more, should it be used with any severe enlargement, since their honour lays in the dust, and I hope it will never rise again. I shall leave this therefore as a term of Religion, and a fallible rule only taken up to serve a turn, and proceed to those methods and ways, by which we may discern true Doctrines from false inspirations. CHAP. IX. ANd (First,) As to the Trial of the Doctrines and Opinions of those that vent them with great confidence and zeal, as if they were divinely inspired; we must consider, that those to whom these Doctrines are propounded, are reasonable creatures, And this will be yielded without any reasoning about it, unless we have a mind to degrade ourselves, as well in speculation, as many do in practice, to the beasts that perish: nay, any objection formally framed against this supposal, would prove what the Objector endeavours to deny, that men had discursive faculties, and his own confutation would be included in his Objection, whilst that would prove him able to syllogise, and reason. Secondly, Men being rational and intelligent beings, it follows, that they are able to discern the truth or falsehood of propositions, sufficiently propounded to their consideration, in terms that exceed not the expressions of the sense of one man to another; and in matters that are not elevated above humane capacities; our discourses otherwise to one another, would be no more, than the chirping of Birds, the speech of Parrots, or the jabber of Monkeys to each other; and would be nothing more than an uncertain distinct sound, without any signification. Thirdly, We must consider too, that it is not suitable to the Nature of God to impose upon the faculties of men, so as to delude and cheat them with any equivocal and false propositions; especially when he designs them as a Rule to men to guide them in their concerns and actions in this World, or in the way to their everlasting peace: Because the notion men have of him, the truth of which he has evidenced to the World, renders him a Being of all possible perfection; otherwise we should suppose God to be liable to the common frailties and infirmities of men. Now, if he be supremely perfect, he must, according to our own reason, and those faculties that are implanted in us, be one of infinite Truth and Goodness, If he be the first, he will not deliver propositions unto men, that are plainly, or more obscurely, false; And, if he be a good Being, he will not give Rules that may deceive us, if we use those faculties he has bestowed on us, to find out their meaning and intention; The contrary to this would cheat the World, and then he would make creatures (or at least seem to do it) that he might, with great circumstance and solemnity, subtly lead them into eternal ruin; Which to suppose, is as great blasphemy against the Divine Nature, as can be invented by the worst of creatures that have made themselves malicious; And as foul an infamy as can be cast upon Gods being, by the worst of men; since he desires not the death of sinners themselves; but rather that they should return from their wickedness and live: This is confirmed by those threats he denounces against them to frighten them from eternal ruin; by all those promises he has annexed to repentance; by all his exhortations to them to amend their lives; by all the instruments and helps to Religion which he has graciously afforded them, by all that sorrow and trouble he expresses whilst men remain in that state of sin which entitles them to eternal misery; And by sending his only Son into the World, to offer himself a Sacrifice for them, that Divine Wrath and Justice being appeased, they might be capable, according to the Rules and Directions he proposed, and the Aids and Assistances he has given them, to recover themselves out of those snares in which they were entangled, and to guide themselves into the way of peace. Fourthly, From hence it follows, that there are sufficient Means and Ways afforded us, by which we may, as reasonable creatures, judge of true directions and false; so that we may not spend our time in uncertainties in matters of such vast and infinite concernment. God's promise of Heaven and eternal bliss, would be to as totally insignificant, if it were made either upon such conditions as we knew not, or had not sufficient abilities with his influence to perform them: And to what purpose would it be, to tell the World, that in keeping Gods Commandments, there is great reward, if we knew not what the Commandments were? We could not make sense of that Thanksgiving of our Saviour, (Matth. 11.25.) I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, (the Rabbis amongst the Jews, and the Philosophers among the Gentiles) and hast revealed them unto babes; to persons of a more inferior rank and capacity; if those whom he here calls Babes, had not means to know the certainty of the Revelation, and to arrive at complete and distinct notions of the things that were revealed; And in vain would it have been for S. Paul to have spoken the hidden things of God in a mystery; (the Doctrine of Christ's coming into the World, hid under Jewish Types and Shadows, and obscurely treated of by the Prophets, in comparison to the Light which then appeared) or to have treated of such Doctrines of the Gospel, which discovered things, which neither eye had seen, nor ear heard, nor did they ever enter into the heart of man, when God revealed them by his Spirit (1 Cor. 2.) and not by any Logical demonstration; which blinded the Governors amongst the Jews, and confounded the Philosophers among the Greeks, who, according to their accustomed way of proof, expected another method of probation, than the demonstration of the Spirit, and of power: It had been, notwithstanding, an impossible attempt for the Apostle to have endeavoured to reduce any of these, or other men, that knew themselves to be endued with reason, to the belief of the Gospel, which was proved Divine by the testimony and revelation of the Spirit, if sufficient means were not afforded them to know, and distinguish Divine Revelation, from imposture and pretences. The things delivered were above the reach of humane reasonings, and Philosophy then gave check to their belief, and custom and education had impressed them with different, nay, contrary notions of things: It must be supposed therefore, antecedently to their reception of the Gospel, that as S. Paul was able to give them evidence, that those Doctrines he delivered to them, were revealed from Heaven, so there were some Methods and Rules, by which they might be able to know the revelation, and not receive it upon his bare testimony: Nay, to what purpose would it be for S. John to direct men to try the Spirits, if we had not sufficient means to know, whether they were from God, or no? Fifthly, This must be granted too, that there are false Pretensions and Doctrines of men vented in the World, under the notion of true; And true and false under the same pretence of inspiration: The Apostle tells us, that many false Prophets are gone out into the world: And our Saviour (to prevent a rash belief, and thereby an Apostasy from the Gospel, or trusting in another Messiah,) acquaints the World, that there would arise false Christ's and false Prophets, (Mark 13.22.): And therefore they should not believe and entertain them, although according to their different principles and designs, they should cry out, Lo! here is Christ; or Lo! there: And S. Peter tells us, that, as there were false Prophets formerly amongst the people, so there should be false Teachers among the Christians, who should privily bring in damnable heresies, denying the Lord that bought them; and, that many should follow their pernicious ways: (2 Pet. 2.1, 2.). Nay, S. Paul tells us of those, who, in a voluntary humility, and worshipping of Angels, intruded into those things which they never saw; being vainly puffed up in their fleshly minds; who, yet, departed from the head, Christ himself who is the head of the Church; making the coming to God by the Mediatory application to an Angel, a demonstration of their humility, and so rejecting the intercession of our Saviour the only Mediator betwixt God and man, (Col. 2.18.). But our own Age is so fruitful in examples of this kind, that the possibility of men's false pretences to revelation, and of their venting corrupt Doctrines to the World, needs no other argument to prove it, than our own experience; Nor need we rake in the dust of false Prophets, in past Ages, when we have, to our great grief and trouble, living monuments, on which these things are to be read, and seen. Yet (Sixthly,) Notwithstanding all this, we must maintain that there is such a thing as true inspiration; This is plainly implied by S. John, to whom I must adhere; For it would be ill Logic to infer that, because the Apostle adviseth us not to believe every Spirit, therefore we should give credit unto none; But rather that some are to be believed: Especially when we take in his direction with it; Try the Spirits whether they are of God: This argues that some Doctrines came from Heaven, and some men were inspired from above, although many false Prophets were gone abroad into the world. Should the contrary be held by any among us, it would not only invalidate the Doctrine of Moses, and the Prophets under the Old Testament; But of Christ, and his Apostles under the New; it would conclude the intercourse betwixt God and men to be an impossible Chimaera, and turn all Divinity into a Fable; And at once render our time misspent and lost, whilst I am writing, and others reading such Doctrines as these, and all disputes concerning any positive and instituted Religion, the foolish talk and inventions of men, that busy themselves to deceive others, and give trouble to their own flesh; When man's reason might supply all: But such a fancy I suppose to be too wild and extravagant, to be admitted in such an age of the world as this; Especially among those, who have frequented Christian Assemblies, and have heard discourses, proving the truth of the Old Testament, or the New; That have read the Jews Arguments for their Law, or the Christian Fathers Apologizing for the Religion of the Gospel: Nor indeed, can any deny the truth of Gods conversing with men, that reject not his Omnipotence; or else doubt of the nature and capacity of their own souls: To be sure they must deny the Scriptures to be the Word of God, and affirm all his appearances to men to be a fable; Since from them we are assured, that all Scripture was given by inspiration from God, (2 Tim. 3.16.). And therefore to men, that acknowledge this, I must be supposed to direct this discourse, as well as S. John does in the Text so frequently recited, who supposes that there is a Divine inspiration, before he advises men to separate the pretences of false Prophets, from the Doctrines of those that are true: 'Tis in vain otherwise to persuade men to exercise their faculties, assisted by Rules; or to make any discrimination at all, where there is no foundation for the conclusion of a difference. Seventhly, Therefore, The trial of the Doctrines and Rules of men pretending inspiration, having thus far been brought on towards a conclusion: The determination of our assent and choice in matters of such huge and vast moment, on which the welfare of our souls depends, must be directed by what, sufficiently, without fallacy, evidences those Doctrines which we receive from others, or are led into the belief of from our own reasonings, are certainly such as came from God, and that we are not imposed upon by our own temperament, or the subtlety of others: The evidence therefore for a Divine revelation must be greater and stronger than any argument framed to the contrary; Because in all the discoveries of truth, my belief is to be determined according to evidence, and the greatest probability guides the rational choice of men; And all that act suitably to themselves, embrace the proposition that comes nearest to truth and certainty: But where two things seem equal in their proof, a rational man only hesitates and doubts, and gives up his assent to neither: And therefore had the Magicians of Egypt equalled the Miracles Moses wrought in the presence of Pharaoh, as well as they did in turning rods into Serpents, and Rivers into blood, and causing Frogs to come up before him; They need not, at that time, have acknowledged Moses' power disproportionable to their own, nor distinguished their own Miracles from his, by saying, This is the finger of God; And Pharaoh himself might have had an equal argument to detain the Israelites, as they had for the command of God to depart out of the Land of Egypt. But when the Miracles on their side, far exceeded the Wonders on the other, his own resolution became his Law, and Pharaohs obstinacy still increased, till it was the ruin of himself and followers, who all perished in the Red Sea. Ahab forsook the commandments of God, and worshipped Baalim, and led the people into Idolatry, joining the Service of Baal with the God of Israel; And thus halted betwixt two opinions, till the trial betwixt their Sacrifices was determined on Elijah's side, who was the Prophet of the Lord; Whilst fire came down from Heaven, and consumed the Sacrifice upon Gods own Altar, which Baal could not effect on his: But then the people determined their choice, and gave their assent, that the Lord is God; and presently slew the Prophets of Baal, for whom before they had great esteem, (1 Kings 18 th' Chap.). Hence was it also that our Saviour said concerning the Jews, who, by Miracles evidencing Moses' Commission, had justly received the Law of Moses; That if he had not superseded their Religious Customs, which till his coming were justly established, by showing his Authority, and Gospel, to be Divine, by greater Miracles than those that introduced and established the Law, they had done well to adhere to it, and to look upon the Gospel as an imposture: Because, a new Doctrine pretending to be Divine, and evacuating that which, having proof from Heaven, was established before, must be confirmed with greater Miracles, than that which it pretends to abolish: Therefore (says our Saviour) If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin, (John 15.24.). Which way of trial will (by the way) hold good to the end of the World: From all which, it is plainly manifest, that all the Opinions and Doctrines of men, pretending to inspiration, if they are rationally to be received by us, must come with such Evidence and Authority, as may surmount all difficulties and Objections to the contrary. So that if any men should now pretend Miracles to give testimony to any Opinions that contradict the Doctrines of the New Testament, they are not sufficient to command our assent, and to determine our belief; Unless they are greater than any which Christ and his Apostles did, to confirm their Doctrine, which these new Opinions do oppose and contradict. Eighthly, In this trial of men pretending inspiration for the Doctrines they deliver, we must be sure that the evidence they give for such inspiration, be peculiarly Divine, and such as cannot be given to men by any thing inferior to the power of God. It is not the grave deportment of the inspired; nor the colour or shape of their faces; Nor the seeming innocence of their own lives, extraordinary austerities, or a less decent, and morose, living, that retires them from the conversation of the World; It is not a peculiar habit; nor any uncouth or sluttish garments; 'tis neither feeding upon Locusts and wild Honey; nor yet eating with Publicans and Sinners, that proves a Prophet to be Divine: Nor is it a full and copious expression, attended with abundance of zeal and passion; nor, yet, a slow and pumping delivery, as if their notions were too big for their words, and their words too large for their mouths, that will evidence them to come from God: 'Tis neither their natural parts, or acquired ornaments; the antiquity of error, nor the glory, or number of those that are proselyted to it; 'tis neither the rendering error plausible by distinction, nor glozing it over with misrepresented testimonies of others, or pretending some latent Authority from the most obscure places pf the Scripture, or rendering those obscure, to countenance their Dotrine, that are plain and open to the contrary, that must lead us from Divine truth, into Diabolical error, and make the God of truth to patronise a lie. In a word; 'Tis not an Argument from the success an Opinion has in the world, (though Providence, thereby, seems, with some, to be entitled to it) nor any countenance from the Authority of men, nor the iterated affirmations of him that pretends to be thus inspired, that are sufficient to prove his Doctrines true: Because all these things have frequently been public attestations to those that are false: But there must be such evidence to those Propositions which are pretended to come immediately from God, as that by which he has always confirmed his Laws to the world; Something beyond the power of nature, that cannot be paralleled by men or Devils; The Broad Seal of Heaven must be annexed, that neither nature nor art is able to counterfeit. And this (Ninthly,) must be real Miracles, (in which the Spirit of Prophecy is included.) There have been many wonders effected in the world, and more stories of these than are true, which the Romanists glory as much in, as if they were Miracles, if their art can hide their craft & subtlety from those that are more curious and inquisitive: The Pagan Priests led the van, assisted by the power of subtle Daemons, to gain the people's worship to themselves, or to those Images which they animated, and moved: And how far the Romanists have followed them in this cheat and imposture, has been sometimes too apparently discovered; And would be more, would they but be as ingenuous in their confessions, as they are witty in their subtle, though impious, inventions. The philosophical knowledge of natural causes, together with an industrious application, will make some extraordinary and unusual effects look like Miracles: For the most of men, being, by reason of an inferior education, ignorant of many effects of Art and Nature, which men of more refined understandings easily discover the causes of, are apt to attribute those things to the immediate operation of the first cause, which are results from those that are second; Art will do much, and Nature more: And the Devil, many times, makes more strange and unusual appearances, being assisted with the knowledge of both: And how many times do men admire the slight of a Juggler, till, perhaps, they make discovery of his Craft; and attribute that to the power of the Devil, which he ingeniously does by slight of hand? Nay, the sport that Devils make in the Air, we often take as the voice of God's Thunder, and tremble, and are afraid at the Storm: But, yet, there is as much difference betwixt true Miracles, and very real Wonders, as there is betwixt Heaven and Hell; or the power of Nature, and that which first made and continues it, who can either suspend its power, or alter its effects. Or as there is betwixt Nature and Art, which though the latter imitates, it can never equal; no more than the former vye with the God of Nature: Miracles (especially such as are above the power of any thing inferior unto God) have always been received by men, as sufficient attestations of Divine Truths: These were those Divine Testimonies, by which the blessed Jesus evidenced his Commission to the World, and added God's authority to the reasonableness of his Doctrine. When S. John the Baptist sent his Disciples to him, to know whether he were the Messiah, of which he knew himself to be Forerunner; our Saviour returned no answer but this, Go your way (says he), and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the Gospel is preached: (Luke 7.22.): By this intimating, that such Miracles were sufficient to convince him that he was the Messiah, to whom such power was given from above: Thus he endeavours also to convince the Jews by the argument of his Miracles; The same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me— (John 5.36.). Now, as by this argument our Saviour proved his own Commission; so when he sent forth his Apostles and the first Planters of his Religion into the World, he gave to them the same power to work Miracles for confirmation of their Doctrine. Heal the sick (says he) cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out Devils, (Matth. 10.8.): And accordingly they proved their Doctrine to be Divine, and confirmed their Commissions to the World; preaching (as S. Paul did, (1 Cor. 2.4.) not so much by Logical argument, or in the manner of the Grecian Philosopher's way of reasoning; But in demonstration of the Spirit, and of power: When they argued from the Old Testament to the New, and did Miracles to confirm all. This has been God's method, in the World, of evidencing his Mission of Prophets unto men, to declare his Messages to them, by which he attested his own inspirations; which, the most confident affirmations of the persons inspired, without such plain and public attestations, could never have created a belief of; Especially if they delivered Articles of Faith, and things not demonstrable to the reason of mankind. Thus when God gave Moses authority to lead, and preside over the Israelites, he endued him with a power to work Miracles to attest his Commission (Exod. 4.): And when the Prophets were to make any new Revelation to Princes or people; or when God sent them on any strange errand, he added confirmation to their authority, by giving them power to foretell something which he brought to pass; or else to work some extraordinary Sign, or Miracle; that those to whom the Message was sent, might be convinced, that God sent the Prophet. But yet, because it is often so difficult for men to distinguish betwixt a Miracle and a Wonder, who know not the utmost power of Art or Nature; Especially, they are ignorant of the skill and force of Devils; God has still (in the last place) given Rules for our farther direction in this weighty affair; That the fancies of men may not by any subtlety whatsoever be imposed upon with the seeming authority of Divine Inspiration: God knew that the Devil would endeavour in this to imitate the Divine Power, as well as appear like an Angel of light, when either might impose delusions upon the World; That the art and industry of designing men, might, by a previous acquaintance with Natural Causes, so alter their simplicity by mixtures and experiment; or meet with such a strange disposition of nature, lucky to them, as by the application of these, to the present conjunction of their own intentions, they might take advantage to insinuate their subtle and false Doctrines into the minds of the vulgar, or credulous, and many times into those that were more rational and learned; Or else by a fortunate prediction of something that might come to pass, assume to themselves the honour and authority of Prophets, and then impose upon, and delude, the World. For the prevention, therefore, of such great, and otherwise, unavoidable mischiefs; the most gracious God, out of his infinite love to mankind, has given them three other Rules, by which they might, and may, measure Prophets and their Doctrines. (1.) If any pretended their authority by foretelling things to come; If they failed in any of their Predictions, 'twas a sign that God never sent them to deliver that, which the Prediction was an argument to confirm: And that, not only because the great God never confirms his Truths to the World by falsehood or deceit: But, because he has cautioned us not to believe them: In the 18 th' of Deut. v. 22. When a Prophet speaketh in the Name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, this is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken; but the Prophet hath spoken it presumptuously; Thou shalt not be afraid of him. (2.) Supposing that one who took upon him the name of a Prophet, and should work Wonders (as Antichrist and others under the New Testament) for confirmation of his Doctrine and Authority; Yet, if his Doctrines tend to the evacuating principles implanted in the minds of men, and destroying the reasonable propositions of the Natural Religion of mankind; it was an apparent sign of a false Prophet. For, says the Text, If there arise among you a Prophet, or a Dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spoke unto thee, saying, Let us go after other Gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; Thou shalt not hearken to the words of that Prophet, or that Dreamer of dreams, Deut. 13. at the beginning. (3.) In relation to both Natural, and Instituted, Worship; God having now given us a Rule, no pretention of Prophecy, or Miracle must ever draw us into the opinions of men that thwart or contradict the Divine Establishments already confirmed by the same argument; And this is evident, partly from that forequoted Text (Deut. 13.), where the reasons, why that false Prophet should not be received, that endeavoured to draw men from the innate Principles of Natural Religion are▪ (1.) Because God, by permitting that false Prophet, proved men's steadfastness in Religion. (2.) Because, whatever Signs and Wonders were done to confirm a Doctrine, men were so far to adhere to the true God, as to walk after him, and to fear him, to keep his commandments, to obey his voice, to serve, and to cleave unto, him. But this is yet more fully proved from Isa. 8.20. When any should endeavour to draw the people unto Wizards, and to such as had familiar Spirits; The Prophet advises them to try all by the Law and the Testimony; because, if any speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. And if these directions were good under the Law, much more will they satisfy any reasonable men under the Gospel; this being the last public declaration of God's Will, that he intends to make to mankind, till the final period and general dissolution: For though we, says the Apostle, or an Angel from heaven preach any other Gospel, let him be accursed (Gal. 1.8.). And he tells the World, that, at the final period, God shall judge the secrets of men according to the Gospel, (Rom. 2.16.). Therefore the Gospel is to be the standing Law to the end of the World: Nor needs there any other, it being the end of the Mosaic Constitutions, and such a complete 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, discharged myself: 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 Millstones, that seem to join to grind it in pieces: And Religion, like our Saviour upon the Cross, is almost crucified betwixt two Thiefs: 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 fanatics; 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 Saviour's Ascension; so that these Promises were made good, by the apparent Descent of the Holy Ghost; And to show, 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 show 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 divers 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 always 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 Soldier's 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 splendour, 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 sat 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 men's 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 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 signify the clearness and perspicuity of the Gospel; but to inflame 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 spite, and flourish on the tops of Crosses and Gibbets; to shine gloriously in the midst of flames, and triumph over death itself, though its members were killed all the day long. This gave the Apostles the prevision of those things, which, in our Saviour's 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 Cornerstone, which, though rejected of men, was in itself 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 (occasioned 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 superior to their own, whilst to avoid one Rock, they run upon another: To escape that Enthusiasm which has too much disturbed the World, and led men into darkness and error, they reject the conduct of God's Holy Spirit, when he would lead them into the way of truth. Men are so cautious lest they should infringe the uncontrollable liberty of their own wills, that they entrench 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 profane 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 control 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 farewell 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 complete Idea of him. Shall I deny the Creation of the World, because I know not the manner of its Maker's 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 Being's 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 senseless 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 ourselves, 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 (says 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 puzzled 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, 'tis not unreasonable to believe the influence of God's Spirit upon the minds of men: For (1.) 'Tis 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 easy 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 easy, supposition: Though, whilst we remain in these bodies, 'tis 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 dipped 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 God's 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, always tied continually to invigorate us without any new influences from above: God governs the World by his Providence, and supports this great system of Being's 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 decays, 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 (says 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 men's 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 God's 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 rejoicing is this (says 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 reassumes 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 ourselves, to think any thing as of ourselves; 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 fervency and devotion for them: For, if ye, being evil, (says 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 ourselves: 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 enticing 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 Satan, 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 ourselves uncapable of the favour, by testifying our unwillingness to receive it, by perpetually opposing, and disputing against it. For (Last,) 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 God's 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 ourselves, to pursue the dictates of our own reason, and to stand only upon our own legs without any superior 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 ourselves; Because he has given us of his Spirit, (1 John 4.13.). And S. Paul fully agrees with S. John: For (says 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 judgement upon ourselves; 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 ruives; But will, hereafter, re-edify, 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 Christ's: 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 than grieves himself. These expressions therefore must, certainly, intent 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 itself (says the Apostle) bears witness with our Spirits, that we are the children of God, (Rom. 8.16.). It did not only testify 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 concur 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 mortify 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 ourselves for its reception, by endeavouring, what in us lays, 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) says, that we are only workers together with God, (2 Cor. 6.1.). And, 'tis 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 inquire into his work and business in this world, amongst men who were rational and intellectual Being's; Who might (as some men are apt to think) have, well enough, propagated Christian Doctrine, when they had heard it from our Saviour's 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 show, 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 ways of truth. In the promises where Christ (who was truth itself) 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 prefixed 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 loath to think that any Being's are above their great capacities and reasonings: Yet it has been always believed 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 John's 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 Son's 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 Penmen of the most excellent Principles of the Christian Religion; And that it might, by their means, be, in its purity, free from mixture, delivered to all the succeeding generations of mankind. And now (by the way), what a slender plea have any Enthusiasts, of this age, for any new revelations of Doctrine beyond what Christ preached to the World? Since the Holy Ghost himself was never promised to the very Apostles, to any such end and purpose. For, it cannot, with any reason, be supposed, but that Christ whilst he was preaching in the world, delivered a complete Body of his Doctrine: And had he not; (whatever becomes of a jus divinum, for the government of the Church) He had, certainly, been less careful than Moses. And, yet, the Author to the Hebrews says; He was faithful to him that made, or appointed him; as, also, Moses was faithful in all his house, (Heb. 3.2.). But, not to endeavour to work Miracles, and restore sight to such as are resolved to be still blind, and to shut their eyes against the light of the Sun; because it will discover that their deeds are evil, when darkness does at once as well increase, as inspire, wilfulness or melancholy: To leave, also, any farther explication of the Doctrine of the Trinity; Which I have hinted to you, as well to mind you of the solemnity of a necessary Festival of our Church, as to cause men to adore what they cannot understand; to admire that with which they cannot be familiar; to praise what they cannot comprehend; and to believe that Mystery which is plainly revealed; Though they cannot unriddle the thing itself: To come more closely therefore to the business I have in hand; The Holy Ghost promised, is said to be the Spirit of truth: And this not only, (1.) Because he is Spiritus verax (as Slichtingius would have it, to comport with his endeared notion of afflatus divinus); Nor, only, is he a true Spirit, either in original, or operation; in opposition to what is gross, and sensual: Nor (2.) because he truly and really proceeds from the Father; And consequently has Authority enough to produce a faith in us, which must be Divine: Nor (3.) because, being in unity with that Father and Son, from whom he does proceed, he must be truth itself, (as S. John styles him: 1. Epist. 5. Chap. 6.); and, consequently, cannot be guilty of a falsehood, unless we suppose that God may lie; which the Apostle assures us is impossible, (Heb. 6.18.): And reason also concludes such a Being to be void of this, to whom we ascribe all possible perfection. But (Last,) he is called a Spirit of truth, in relation to his Office and Employment; Because he guides others into truth; Though from the precedent acceptations, and account given, of his appellation, we may reasonably infer his capacity to instruct, and guide, others into all truth: And that the Apostles, who were so miraculously guided, delivered nothing to be the rule of men's lives, but what was true and came from God, and therefore what they delivered, is to be both believed, and obeyed. And thus I am come to the last and principal particular, that I aim at in this Part of my Discourse, in which is contained the Office of the Holy Ghost in this particular, and the substance of this promise; viz. He will guide you into all truth. Now this Conduct of the Spirit of truth, must be considered two ways, (1.) As it related to the Apostles, and first Disciples of our blessed Saviour. (2.) As it concerns the whole Church of Christ, that is, or shall be, Militant in this World. First, Let us consider the holy Spirit of God, as influencing and directing the Apostles, and first planters of Christianity, to whom this promise was principally made; And, as it did concern all, so was it promised to all, to guide them into all those truths that completed the Articles of the Christian Faith, or were to be left as standing directions for the lives and actions of those, who should embrace this Religion. He does not call S. Peter out, and make this promise of infallibility to him, excluding all the rest from this advantage: Nor does he here accost him in the name of the other Apostles; as he does in that other Text, on which the Pope superstructs his Supremacy: We find, indeed, S. Thomas, S. Philip, and S. Judas interrupting his discourse, by proposing questions for him to explain: But, the last time he spoke to Peter, we find him at once rebuking his confidence, and foretelling his sin; Nay, a crime so great, as to deny him, (John 13.38.). And, therefore, all the rest of his intervenient discourse, can concern him no more than it did his Brethren: And 'tis well if, at present, it did as much; which, if others would be contented with, we might easily grant it, and must do so, if we would not prove his Epistles to want an inspiration from above. This promise then, concerning the Apostles and primitive planters of the Christian Doctrine, so far as it was useful to their extraordinary conduct, we must examine, and inquire what assistance the Spirit gave them, to guide them into all truth. And this he did in five particulars. First, By an improvement of their understandings; Ordering, and directing, the Ideas of their minds, that they might be able to frame adequate conceptions of the truths, which they were to deliver to the World; And as he that created the eye, can see, and he that form the ear, can hear; So he that made the Soul itself, and endued it with all its faculties, and powers, must needs be able to impress the understanding with any notions he is pleased to infuse by the powerful operations of his Holy Spirit. Now that he did exert such an influence, had we no testimony▪ from the Scriptures themselves, will easily appear to any sober and considerate inquirer, that shall compare the education, and condition, of the Apostles with those admirable Doctrines, which they delivered unto the world. Though S. Paul was bred at the feet of Gamaliel, yet his learned Education made him but the greater persecutor of the Christians, and more prejudiced against the Doctrine of our Saviour; Till he was converted by a Miracle, and a light had first dazzled his eyes, and struck him blind, whilst a greater did illuminate his understanding, and, by its brighter glory, darken and blot out those prejudicated notions that seemed before to irradiate his mind: Though S. Luke was born and bred in an University, the City of Antioch, the Metropolis of Syria, a place furnished with Schools of literature; Though he had applied himself to the study of Physic, to which Philosophy was a necessary preparative; Though be had studied in the Schools of Greece, and Egypt, and seasoned his mind with learned accomplishments, so far improving the abilities of his nature; And, though, to all this, he was a Jewish Proselyte, and so far prepared for the Kingdom of God; Yet all this signified but little, and would certainly have opposed Christianity with the greater strength, and more subtlety, had he not been first converted to this Religion, and accompanied Saint Paul; received the notices of those early, and first, transactions of our Saviour, and his Disciples, and been guided by the Holy Spirit of God, in recording the History and Doctrine of our Saviour, and his Apostles. But, if we make the strictest enquiry into those twelve Apostles, which our Saviour sent to preach his Doctrine abroad in the World, we shall find them all by their Education, either too much prejudiced, or unprepared, to invent, or propagate, such a Religion: The greater part were a few rugged and inconsiderable Fishermen, that knew only to catch Fish, and mend their Nets when they were broken, and either eat, or sell their Fish when they had caught it. And how unfit these were to preach rules of life to the world, to make known Riddles, and explain Mysteries; To maintain their Faith against the learned disputes of Rabbis, and Philosophers, or to commit a System of Christian Doctrine to writing for future ages to live by, and that it might become the rule for men's actions; Let any reasonable men judge. It must needs, therefore, be a greater argument of a larger inspiration, that these men were so slenderly prepared by nature or Education: And, by how much the meaner these were, by so much the more powerful were the operations of the Spirit, to guide them into all truth. But, besides the consideration of this, we have a more sure word of Prophecy, to ascertain their inspiration from above; Since all Scripture is given by inspiration of God; (2 Tim. 3.16.). And, since no man can possibly know those Laws by which God will govern the World, till he pleases himself to make them known; It must needs be, that he must impregnate the minds, and inform the understandings, of those whom he designs to be the Penmen of his Laws; And this he did, as to Moses and the Prophets under the Old, so, to the Apostles in the New Testament, by his Holy Spirit: Therefore was he to teach them all things, by informing their understandings, (John 14.26.). And, by guiding them into all truth, (John 16.13.) Secondly, The Holy Spirit of truth, guided the Apostles, and first publishers of his sacred Doctrines, by quickening their memories; That what their Master had, before, taught them, the Disciples, now, might remember for the benefit of others. The memories of men, by reason of their own weakness, and the multitude of objects which daily present themselves to the mind, and that variety of converse, and numerous disturbances they meet with in a World, full of noise and humour, are very apt to slip many things which they ought to register, and, when they are entered, to lose the record. Hence is that admonition of the Author to the Hebrews; that we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip; (Heb. 2.1.). The Apostles, therefore, (who were men of like passions with ourselves), had an extraordinary power assisting their memories; That those things might again recur, which they had heard from our Saviour, at that time when by his-absence he was uncapable of repeating, and orally to deliver that Doctrine which, before, they had the advantage of hearing: The Spirit, then, by an immediate impression, put their Spirits into such a motion, and proposed such objects to their consideration and understanding, and so ranged the particles of the brain, that the same images presented themselves, and they had the same Ideas, and apprehensions which possessed their minds, when the trutns were first delivered to them: Or, if I may be any way extravagant in endeavouring to describe the manner of framing this miraculous effect; Yet sure I am that some way or other, this was done, or the promise of the Holy Ghost was not fully accomplished; For (says the Text) the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you, (John 14.26.). Thirdly, This Holy Spirit of Truth inclined the wills of the Apostles and first Planters of Christianity, to publish those things which were impressed upon their understandings, and their memories now perfectly retained; and to commit these truths to Writing, that future Ages might be able to read, what they could neither see nor hear: To exhibit no more than what they had received for the Divine Rule; and to live, also, suitable to their Doctrine, to avoid the suspicion of Cheat and Imposture. Now, though this influence might seem to be unnecessary to such as had imbibed the Christian Doctrine with their understandings, because their wills might seem immediately to follow what their understandings dictated to be true; and the reasonableness, and admirable excellency of this Doctrine might be motive enough to persuade, as well to its practice, as belief: Yet we find, by a woeful experience, that the wills of men do not always follow the dictates of their understandings; But that we violate Laws, which yet we are convinced to be true and good: If it were not so, few men would embrace vice, and offer injury to the Precepts of Christianity; which all men, of reason and discretion, must needs acknowledge to be excellent in themselves, and infallibly sealed and authorized by God; who has by a miraculous hand, attested them to the World. It was necessary therefore, that the Apostles and first Publishers of the Gospel should be made willing, as well as able, to accomplish all those things which might tend to the propagation and assurance of the Gospel: And we cannot conjecture that so sudden an alteration could be made, as we find in the Apostles, who, by their Trade and Education, were rough and stubborn, (this being generally observed of Mariners) so as to be brought to acknowledge such gentle precepts so opposite to their customs, and inclination, without a superior influence mollifying their tempers, and the powerful operation and persuasions of God to make them willing in the day of his power. When Paul therefore was converted by a Miracle, and brought to the acknowledgement of that Jesus whom he had persecuted; that glorious light which shined upon his understanding, rectified also the perverseness of his will, and inclined that to follow his Conviction; so that he became not disobedient to the Heavenly Vision, but showed both to the Jews and Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance, (Acts 26.19, 20.). Fourthly, The Holy Ghost led the Apostles into all truths of the Gospel, by working Miracles to confirm their Doctrine. These are the great Seal of Heaven, that sufficiently authorise whatever they are brought to give testimony unto: For these being either visible effects beyond the power of natural Causes, or some strange and extraordinary alterations of nature, by laying a restraint upon its usual operations; Or causing it to take a different course by a strange composition of second Causes, or a powerful concurrence of some Agent not included in the immediate Cause; They argue some superior operation: And we must attribute them to God, or the Devil. Accordingly have men used to difference them, as they tend to a good, or a bad, design: Hence we find in the Old Testament, two characters of a false Prophet, and consequently as many of a true, as I have hinted immediately before, (1) If the sign, or wonder, that he gives for confirmation of what he pretends, in its design destroys natural Religion, i. e. what proceeds from the common reason of men. For if there arise among you a Prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and the sign or wonder come to pass which he gives thee; If this be wrought to draw men from the Worship of the only one God, to pay Divine homage to a false one, or to many; The sign was permitted only to prove them; And such a Prophet was not only to be accounted false; But to be put to death for his villainy and imposture, (Deut. 13. at the beginning). (2.) When the Prophecy was not true, and the thing foretold followed not, 'twas a sign that the Prophecy was bold and presumptuous, and what he, that is a God of truth, never commissioned the Prophet to deliver, (Deut. 18.22.). When signs, therefore, and wonders, were really effected, that tended to the advancement of Religion; establishing what was written in men's hearts, and destroying all that God had forbidden; and fixing nothing contradictory to what had been confirmed to the Jews, but what did prefigure this new method, and, at such a particular period of the World was predicted that it should be destroyed; They must needs confirm the truth which those men delivered, who had sufficient power and authority to work them. Miracles were things rationally acknowledged to be sufficient signs of the Divine Commission of those who were permitted to work them; when they carried, especially, such characters of a Divine Power in their nature, or in their frequency, and continuation, as no Devil could be supposed to have granted to him; Nor any man could possibly effect to do mischief in the World: Thus, when Moses delivered the Law, his Speech was followed with Thunderings and Lightnings, and the noise of the Trumpet, and the smoking of the Mountain (Deut. 20.18.). Which sufficiently confirmed the Divinity of the Moral, and prepared the people for an obedient reception of the Judicial, and Ceremonial, Law. And thus was it also at the delivery of the Gospel. When S. John the Baptist sent two of his Disciples unto Christ, to know whether he were the true Messiah, that was to give Laws unto the World; Our Saviour returns this answer; Tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, (Luke 7.22.). These Miracles, so full of goodness and Divine influence, were a sufficient attestation of his Doctrine. Hence he makes the same reply, also, to the Jews, when they proposed the same question: The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me, (John 10.25.). And therefore says he of the same persons; If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had had no sin; If I had not done Miracles far beyond Moses and the Prophets, whom yet, upon the authority of what these did, they believe; they might reasonably have pleaded their Law against me; Which, then, had been blessed with as noble an establishment, as what I now pretend to deliver: But now that I do such works which no man ever yet did before me; they have no cloak at all for their sin, nor any excuse for their unbelief, (John 15.24.). Now, as Miracles argued the truth and Authority of our Saviour's Doctrine; So they led his Disciples into the same truth: For, from those Miracles which they saw him do in confirmation of his Doctrine, they might reasonably be induced to believe what he delivered to them; and when the power was yet continued to themselves, they might well infer that they were still guided into the truth: Since the Holy Ghost thus sealed it to themselves and others; and they had so powerful, and Divine, a testimony to what they apprehended, and delivered. Thus when they had received that Commission from our Saviour, to go into the world, and to preach the Gospel to every creature; They went forth and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following, (Mark 16.20.). The same is attested by the Author to the Hebrews, that God bore the Apostles witness, with signs and wonders, and divers miracles, and distributions of the Holy Ghost, according to his will, (Heb. 2.4.). This is the testimony he gave unto the truth, by the Miracles which were wrought by those who published and owned the Doctrine of our Saviour, evidenceing its Divinity to themselves, and others: For we (say the Apostles) are witnesses of these things, and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him, (Acts 5.32.). Lastly, The Holy Spirit guided the Apostles and Primitive Disciples into all truths of the Gospel, by an extraordinary support in the midst of great, and raging, persecutions. Both Scripture, and Ecclesiastical History, informs us, what trials and conflicts these had for the profession of their Faith, and a firm adhesion to the Christian Religion. Their whole lives were a continued tragedy, which did not end, but in blood, and death: The state of the Church was such in those days, that All that would live godly in Christ Jesus, must suffer persecution, (2 Tim. 3.12.). Nothing but cruelties from their severe Adversaries, attended the profession and publication of the Gospel; Which was the principal foundation of that Argument, of S. Paul, to prove the hopes and certainty of the Resurrection, If, in this life only, we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable, (1 Cor. 15.19.). Hence the Apostle argues the Hebrews to patience and courage in the midst of sufferings, from the reflections upon what they had already overcome; That they might not, by a future cowardice, lose the reward of their former adventures. Call to mind (says he) the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions: By having their Estates made a prey to their enemies; by being made a gazing stock to the world; by bearing reproaches and tortures themselves, and being companions to those, who were so used, (Heb. 10.32.). They got their bread with the peril of their lives; As the expression is (Lament. 5.9.); And, for the sake of Christ they were killed all the day long, and no more accounted of than as innocent sheep appointed to the slaughter; As S. Paul applies that of the Psalmist, (Rom. 8.36.). And, if we view the ends of their lives, we shall find nature always anticipated, and they snatched away by a violent fate, still swimming to Heaven in their blood. One is crucified, another beheaded, a third is stoned, a fourth has his brains beat out with a Club; Another is hanged by the neck against a Pillar, after whips and scourges had made a Prologue to the Tragedy; One is flayed alive, another thrust through with a Spear; and a third dragged about the craggy part of a street, till his flesh was torn off, and horrid pains compelled him to expire. It would be endless to account for the dismal tortures which the Apostles, and Primitive Disciples endured, their whole age being full of clouds and storms; And the release from one torment, was but the entrance upon another: They daily went in danger of their lives, which, were, indeed, but continued deaths, and repeated tragedies: Now, what a wonderful confirmation must this add to their own faith, as well as seal its truth to posterity, that they should have such multiplied tortures, as anxious and cruel, as the malice of enraged Adversaries could invent and execute; and yet would not accept deliverance, if they must purchase it with the denial of their Faith; They must needs be animated to the belief of those truths, in the profession of which they were so encouraged, by a Divine power, and the comforts of the Holy Ghost, that they suffered torments beyond their own strength to endure; Nor did the rage and persecution of their Adversaries overcome them; Especially when we shall consider too, that they could smile in the midst of flames, and look upon their own blood with joy; When they could account Martyrdom a Crown, and such deaths as were most painful and cruel, they could travel through, as the nearest passage to their eternal reward: Which, whilst they viewed in a steady and well fixed contemplation, they were able to conclude their afflictions to be light, and to endure but for a moment; And that the future reward overbalanced them both in weight and duration. They could glory in what the justice and custom of the world accounted shame; and rejoice that they were deemed worthy to suffer for it (Acts 5.41.). They were always dying, and yet lived; were able to account tortures chastisements, and could still rejoice in the midst of sorrows, (2 Cor. 6.)▪ They could approve themselves the Ministers of God in patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments; and that black Catalogue which S. Paul has recorded to posterity; It must certainly convince both themselves and others, that the hand of God did yet support them, and that the Doctrine was true which they delivered, for which they were miraculously prepared, and now strengthened in their sufferings for it, by the comforts▪ and assistance of the Holy Ghost. They knew themselves to be a company of rude and illiterate men, (or at least some of them were) not polished either by art or Education, for converse with the learned Rabbis amongst the Jews, or the subtle Philosophers amongst the Gentiles; and yet they baffled, and could silence both, had not their force reached farther than their argument. And therefore (says S. Paul) where is the wise? where is the Scribe? where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? (1 Cor. 1.20.). S. Stephen; who was but a Deacon to the Apostles, was yet so full of faith, and so endowed with the power of the Holy Ghost, that he did not only amaze the people with the greatness of his Miracles; but when many disputants were ranged against him, he did not only smartly encounter, but overcame them too; For they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke, (Acts 6.10.). They were fain to leave their reasoning, and consult their subtlety; and had no way to stop his mouth, but by a shower of stones, that took away his breath; What could such men as these have done, when they were brought before the Council of the Jews, or Tribunals of the Romans? Where all the subtle quirks of Law, and all the inventions that malice could contrive, should be used to entangle their innocence by craft; had not the Holy Ghost assisted them in making their defence, loosened their tongues, and informed their understandings. This was what was promised them before, and now as certainly and fully accomplished; For when our Saviour sent forth his twelve Apostles, and told them how they should acouter themselves; what were the contents of their Commission; and how they should demean themselves: He acquaints them also what dangers they were likely to encounter with; They were sent forth as Sheep in the midst of Wolves; Every one would endeavour to devour them; And therefore they should be scourged in the Synagogues; and be brought before Kings and Governors, upon their Master's account. But (says he), When they shall deliver you up, let it not trouble you, that ye are not well skilled in the Law, where subtlety may cause a Criminal to escape, when ignorance may draw the innocent into punishment: For it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak; For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you, (Matth. 10.19.). Now men that had such extraordinary confirmations of their Apostleship, and found these assistances from the Holy Ghost, must needs be fully convinced of those things that were imprinted on their understandings, and would attest their Divine authority unto others, to whom they were obliged to declare and publish them, when they themselves were so fully persuaded, as not only to suffer all the inconveniencies of this life, that could be brought upon them by the subtlety of the Politicians of the World, but all the tortures and cruel deaths, which malice was able to inflict. And thus did the Holy Spirit of truth, guide the Apostles into all truth. But yet (notwithstanding all this) It must be considered that though the Apostles and primitive Disciples of our Saviour, had thus the conduct of the holy Spirit; Yet it was never intended to guide them into all truths of all kinds; For this were to extend a promise beyond what was ever designed by the Holy Ghost. Truth is a word of a large interpretation; it runs through all Arts and Sciences, and is as comprehensive as all the objects and understandings of men: For, wherever there is a conformity betwixt the object and a rightly prepared intellect, there is truth: Nay, there is too often truth in that which we do not understand. The Spirit therefore did not design, in his sacred and infallible conduct, to extend the capacities of the sacred Apostles, to an infinite comprehension, so as to cause them to know omne scibile; every thing that is capable to be known: For that were not only to make a new creation, but to put them beyond the capacity of Creatures; Nay, though he is Omnipotent, to go beyond his own power, in making Being's as infinite as Himself. Nor did the Spirit in the guidance of the Apostles into all truth, intent their information, in the truths of all the Arts and Sciences extant in the World: He did not design to instruct them in the art of Syllogism; Nor 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 Physic; 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 Arithmetic; 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 Heresy: 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 settled 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 housed in these bodies of clay, are darkened 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 always 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 itself, 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 Being's, 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 completely 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 God's 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 ways, (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 quickening 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 complete 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 complete System of Divinity; men's own Doctrines, and not Christ's, want Traditions to confirm them, and 'tis the pride and covetousness of a Sect of men, that would make all Christians groan with their burden, and void God's 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, when rightly understood, to make the man of God perfect: And, if they are able to furnish the Minister; certainly, they are sufficient to instruct the people: Nay, to make them throughly furnished to all good works, and are able to make them wise unto salvation through faith which is in Jesus; (2 Tim. 3.15, 16, 17.). Hence is it that these are so far from being taken from the adult, that they are to be exposed to children's Learning; Or else, it would not have been Timothy's commendation, that, from a child, he had known the Scriptures; And if such Eulogiums were made in the honour of the Old Testament, much more praises must be given to the New, which shows us a way to be justified from those things, from which we could not be justified by the Law of Moses (Acts 13.39.); and brings life and immortality to light (2 Tim. 1.10.). The Doctrines, in the Gospel, preached by Christ, and enlarged upon by the Apostles, through the powerful inspiration of the Holy Spirit, are sufficient, accompanied with those means appointed for their delivery, and the ordinary assistances given to those that attend them with humility, to guide men into all those truths requisite to be known in relation to their eternal welfare. And, therefore, blessed are they, (says our Saviour) that hear the word of God and keep it (Luke 11.28.). From hence draw we the water of life; and these are the fresh springs of salvation, at which mankind may satisfy themselves. Here have we directions to demean ourselves in all our various conditions in the World, that we may endure both the Sunshine and the Storms: that prosperity may neither swell, nor adversity consume us: S. Paul's advice, therefore, to Timothy, must be attended by us also; To continue in the things which we have learned, and have been assured of, knowing of whom we have learned them; and that, because evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived (2 Tim. 3.13, 14.). Let the infallible men of mystical, and unintelligible, demonstration, endeavour to prove what they cannot defend, but by their old argument of force and fire; Let them blaspheme the Holy Ghost in the Apostles, whilst, yet, they pretend to its inspiration themselves; Let those argue against the Scriptures being a Rule, when rightly understood, that can defend their Doctrine, only by a counterfeit tradition; Having no greater argument against the sufficiency of the Scripture but because it consumes their Hay and Stubble; And that they can there neither fetch Wood to burn us, nor Stones to destroy us: But, let us, who are of the day, be sober, and be wise to that which is good: And, then, as God formerly subjected Satan to the seed of the Woman, for that by the Serpent he deceived their simplicity, and stained their innocence; so, though now he endeavours by subtle impostors to beguile soft and ignorant minds; he shall not always triumph in his villainy; But the God of peace shall bruise him under our feet shortly (Rom. 16.20.) The Providence of God is a great deep; the reason of man is not able to fathom it; And, though he may, for the punishment of our sins, the trial of our virtue, or to make our adversaries ripe for destruction, permit some to erect their Plumes, and lead captive unwary souls in triumph; yet, though he that standeth must take heed lest he fall, let us, according to S. Paul's advice, hold fast the form of sound words (2 Tim. 1.13.); and contend earnestly for that faith which was once delivered unto the Saints (Judas, ver. 3.); and withdraw from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after what has been delivered (2 Thess. 3.6.); And, if we walk according to this rule, peace shall be upon us, and mercy (Gal. 6.16.): We need not then be afraid of the winds and storms, nor yet of him that kills the body, if we truly fear him that can destroy the soul; Which none but God himself can do: For (says our Saviour), whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doth them, is like a wise man who built his house upon a rock; and though the rain descend, the floods come, and the winds blow, and beat upon that house, it falls not (Matth. 7.24.). The God of truth, having now given us a standing rule by the glorious inspiration of his Holy Spirit, expects that it should be the general measure of our actions: And, as no sign would be given of our Saviour's death and resurrection, besides that of the Prophet Ionas; so no rule can be expected by us, besides the Gospel, to the universal period and general Conflagration: Hence is it that S. Paul puts all under the severest curse, that pervert this, or preach another Gospel; And he does not only anathematise men, but passes the same sentence upon Angels, if at any time they should prove so bold and impious; Nay, he doubles the curse, to testify his faith, and proclaim the irrepealable duration of the Gospel: But though we, or an Angel from heaven preach any other Gospel unto you, let him be accursed, (Gal. 1.8.). What was indicted by the inspiration of the Spirit, is certainly true, and we may confide in it; What is added by the wit of men, may possibly be false; and therefore it is not to be be looked upon as infallible, any farther than it can be proved, either directly, or by consequence, from the Scriptures themselves. This is the rule which the ancient Fathers disputed against the Heretics by; and this must be the measure and rule of our faith, it being so full and plain, that no new Article must be added to our Creed; nor any other rules of duty contradictory to these; all necessary things being so easy, that any person of any ordinary capacity, using the methods of Gods own institution, may soon arrive at knowledge enough to save him, if his will does not rebel against his understanding, and he faithfully practices what he knows: Nor could the end of God's Law ever be obtained, or men be left inexcusable, if it were so obscure, that it could not unriddle itself. For the end of all Laws, being the obedience of those that are bound by them: How can men obey that, which they cannot, by any means, understand? And, if it cannot (by the ordinary helps of the learned in it) interpret itself, there must, then, be a new inspiration to interpret what was inspired before: And then there will be two inspirations, where one would have served: Because he that can interpret a Law plainly to the World, might have made it plain at its first delivery: Unless, perchance, we may think it wiser to do any thing with toil and pains, which may be performed with ease and pleasure: 'Tis true indeed, that many men by ignorance or wilfulness, when they forsake the Guides of God's appointment, heaping Teachers to themselves, having itching ears, may be, and are, led into divers errors, under the specious pretence of truth. And thus those amongst the Galatians, who in those early days troubled the Church, perverted the Gospel of Christ, (Gal. 1.7.): But this is no argument against the sufficiency or plainness of the Scripture, in things necessary to our eternal salvation: For they are, usually, more obscure Texts, that are to exercise the more Learned and Critical part of men, upon which Heresies are founded; And this, too frequently is occasioned by men that wrack and torture their understanstandings, to conceive such things as are not here perfectly to be known; Or, if they are to be fathomed by other men, yet are above the reach of those, who thus ignorantly and erroneously apprehend them: Thus S. Peter (speaking of S. Paul's Epistles) says, that in them there are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrist (as they do also the other Scriptures) unto their own destruction, (2 Pet. 3.16.). But another sort there are too, that have too much subtlety to be accounted ignorant; Who are some of he perverse disputers of the world, that first suit their Tenets to their interest, and, then, violently press the Scriptures to prove what they were never intended for: We should never, else, have heard, This is my Body, brought to prove that absurd Doctrine of Transubstantiation: Nor Feed my Sheep, to prove the Pope's Supremacy: Nor He will guide you into all truth, to prove his Infallibility: Nor, He shall be saved, yet so as by fire, to prove a Purgatory: When all these Texts are capable of fairer and more plain interpretations to another, and more coherent, sense; But that the ambition of some men would entitle themselves to the government of the rest; And then frame others belief to render them tame for such a tyranny, and to be subject to whatsoever they will impose, when all this while they suit the Articles of the Church's Faith, to the increase of their own Wealth, the better to support their Pride and Usurpation. Nay, on the other side, we have those amongst ourselves, who call the Pope names, and yet embrace his Doctrine; And tie that infallibility, which they rob the Roman Chair of, to their own single and Enthusiastic determinations; Who, by misunderstanding some Texts of Scripture, direct themselves by a private impulse, and then muster these to defend it: But the Flower is not the less fragrant, for that the Spider thence will suck for poison; Nor does the Scripture cease to be a safe, and sufficient Rule to those, who soberly apprehend and follow it; Notwithstanding some may wrest and misapply it: Nor does the Spirit, at any time, contradict itself: He having, therefore, inspired some men to commit a Rule to writing for future Generations, to read and understand, and put forth a Law that is sufficiently plain and perspicuous; And men having reason and understanding enough, assisted by the Spirits ordinary directions to guide themselves by the measures of this Rule and Law into all truth: He expects, now, that they should order themselves as they do by all human Laws; That is; to believe upon the Authority of the Imposer; and live proportionably to so great a favour; and labour to understand what he has put into their power to know: Remembering that of wise Agur; Add thou not unto God's words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar, (Prov. 30.6.). The authority, God has given to the Governors of his Church, empowers them to command or alter circumstantials, that all things may be done decently and in order: In these we are to obey them that have the rule over us, and to submit ourselves, (Heb. 13.17.): But no men are authorized to usurp the Throne of God himself; To create new Articles of Faith; Or impose other primary rules of duty, than what they find written in the Scriptures; They are only to confirm, and explain, them: For, as we must not think of men, so neither of Doctrines, above what is written: Our language and design, must be the same with S. Paul; To deliver that which we also received, (1 Cor. 15.3.); So may we be workers together with God; And when the world in the wisdom of God (that is; by the works of God, which demonstrate his wisdom) knows not God; it may please him, by the foolishness of preaching, (i. e. what some men account folly) to save them that believe, (1 Cor. 1.21.). And this leads me to the next particular in which the Holy Spirit of God guides us, that are remote from the Apostles Age, into all truth which they delivered: By inclining the minds of some men, to continue that Ministry that must have its succession unto the end of the World: And this is the second way of the Spirits conduct. That in all Religious Constitutions, which have been in the World, there has been a separate, and appointed, Ministry, is more notorious than to spend words in the proof of it; 'Tis too deeply planted in the minds of men, and it bears an equal date with the Law of Nature fixed in us: Without this, public Worship cannot have its constant and orderly Being; And had not this been established with the constitution of Christianity, it would not only have been in a worse condition, than any Religion which has possessed the world; But, than any Trade, or Occupation among us, to the obtainment of which, men must be learners, before they become able Workmen; Or▪ are permitted to exercise their particular Callings amongst any well ordered, and embodied, Society. The separation, therefore, of some men from the generality of Christians was first made by our Saviour himself; When he called the Apostles, and sent forth the seventy Disciples to preach the Gospel unto human creatures. And, when the time of his departure from the world was come; When he was to be received into his Father's Kingdom, in such a triumph as became a Conqueror, and one to whom all power was given; He delivers his full Commission to his Apostles; substituting them, in his own stead, to rule his Church, and to ordain their Successors; That, like the Tribe of Levi, they might be legitimate, and by a continued and distinguishable descent, they might be perpetuated to the end of the World. As my Father sent me (says Christ) so send I you, (John 20.21.). Or, as S. Matthew describes it; All power is given to me both in Heaven and in Earth; Go ye, therefore, and teach all Nations, Baptising them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: And lo! I am with you always (to wit; in the exercise of this power, by yourselves, and Successors,) to the end of the world, (Matth. 28.18, 19, 20.). These are some of those gifts our Saviour gave unto men, when he ascended upon high, (Ephes. 4.8.) For, he gave some Apostles; and some Prophets; and some Evangelists; and some Pastors, and Teachers: For the perfecting of the Saints; for the work of the Ministry; for the edifying of the body of Christ: This is to endure, till we all come into the Unity of the Body of Christ, to increase 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, styled 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 God's Providence Rules the World, though we can neither discover his Counsels, nor are able to account for the manner of his operation; As he disposes of Crowns and Kingdoms, determines our days, 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 God's people may not perish for want of knowledge; But there may be some always to preach the Word, and to convey Christ's 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 ways 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; 'Tis a natural way to inform ourselves 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 extremes, 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 dressed by one of a different persuasion: Or to drink in the same Cup with a Moor, when he is a person of a wholesome Constitution, until it has undergone the Ceremony of Washing: Truth, in this World, will be blended with error; and 'tis 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 mixed with it. 'Tis 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 excel in their inspiration; yet there cannot appear the same danger, where the Spirit only assists our understandings to apprehend those truths which are already delivered, 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, (says 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 Ideas 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 Saviour's 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 strengthening 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 proved 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 Logic, (1 Cor. 2.14.): Hence is it, that S. Judas 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 ourselves 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 ourselves. This is what S. Austin says, 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 ourselves: I have showed 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 ourselves: 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 baptised 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 complete rule for our lives: The duties of a Christian are, either concerning God, others, or ourselves: 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 ourselves (Matt. 22.39.): And as to ourselves, 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 ourselves. 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 complete 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 smoothed the way that leads to it: It has given some description of the state itself, 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 Counsels of Princes; nor does he elevate men's 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 men's false pretensions to inspiration from the Holy Spirit of God, upon due examination of others writings, and mine own thoughts raised for aught 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 Superior benediction upon human endeavours, which I have attempted in some part, to prove, and vindicate; And to show, 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 God's 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 God's 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 Being's: And those that so studiously and industriously endeavour to give a check to men's 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 ruin 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 another's. 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 public 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 dim: And then having settled yourselves 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 superior power: But our option, in relation to Principles of Religion, must be directed by a superior 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: Satan gets great advantages upon unsteady minds: And 'tis easy to make a new impression upon those heads that are always soft, and therefore fit to receive any: Who have no notions of things fixed and settled, but the images and representations, that are the Book in which they read all their Propositions, interfere with each other, and are either confused, or else are crumbled and broken in pieces: Besides, Religion is of that nature, that if we play with it, as a thing indifferent, or change the true Principles for those that are false; We either lose it quite in the midst of variety, or 'tis with great difficulty, if ever we recover it: This the Apostle plainly tells us, (Heb. 6.4.). It is impossible, or (as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there signifies) very difficult, for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted of the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come; If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance. Hence is it that our Saviour charges men to take heed what they hear, (Mar. 4.24.): And S. Paul exhorts men to hold fast the form of sound words, (2 Tim. 1.13): And S. Judas urges, that we should earnestly contend for the faith, which was once delivered unto the Saints, (third ver. of his Epistle). Let us, therefore, that are grounded in our Religion, behave ourselves as men that are resolved; And not by any means, be frighted from our Faith, by the ghastly looks, the bold threats, or the pretences, of new Revelations from any: But, let those Scriptures we have already received, and our shorter Creeds drawn from them, be the standing and perpetual Rule of our Faith: For variety will disturb us while we live, and almost distract us when we come to die; and, in all probability, deprive us of our future happiness. We cannot but be sensible of the dreadful condition of those men that are ready to depart out of this, before they have prepared for another world; Who have all their guilts standing round about them, and affrighting them with their ghastly appearances, when they are tossed and tumbled upon a Bed of sickness, when they can see nothing but death before them, and the dismal prospect of a blacker and worse state beyond it. And when, to all this miserable and frightful scene of things, shall be added inward pangs and convulsions of mind, doubled and heightened either by the falsehood or uncertainty of those Principles by which we direct our eyes in this view; How tragical and horrid must our condition be? When our Spirits, that should support us under the infirmities of our bodies are so wounded within us, that they are a torment to themselves; and our own doubts and vexatious uncertainties about those Principles of Religion, that can only guide us through the Chambers of death, and let in the light from some glorious Regions beyond the grave, so increase upon us, that we are miserably tortured betwixt hope and fear; when our settled belief of future things can only render our passage pleasant, and our condition tolerable. Now, since a settlement of our Principles in matters of Religion, is of greater concernment to us, than the settlement of our Estates; Because these only serve to defray the charges of our Bodies, whilst they ride Post through a shorter stage, when those prepare us for, and enter us into Heaven, and must maintain us through all the Ages of an endless Eternity: And since the Principles of Christianity are the most excellent in themselves, and have the best evidence of their Divine Authority, of any precepts of Religion extant in the World; And we have exhibited, in Sacred Writ, a method to find out what has been revealed from Heaven; Let men's pretences be what they will, under whatsoever plausible denomination, Who, that is rational, will not conclude it to be both his duty and his interest, if he has a veneration for God, or a due reverence and regard to his own being, to settle himself upon the foundations of Christianity, and upon these to build his belief and practice, till at last, through the merit of the great Redeemer of men, he reaches Heaven? Not to pluck the Stars out of the Firmament, but, by the will and favour of Almighty God, to ascend above them, and enjoy an happiness suitable to man's glorified capacity in those blissful Regions, that can neither admit of a decay or period; but shall continue their state, and to true Christians their happiness in them, through all the endless, unmeasurable, spaces of a boundless and incomprehensible Eternity. And now to conclude this exhortation with Arnobius' Argument, and persuading Rhetoric, at the latter end of his First Book against the Gentiles: If men have gentle souls, capable of impression, they cannot (under pretence of other rules) offer any injury to Christ, nor reproach his Religion, but embrace both, if but upon this account only, that they promise to them prosperous things; Things to be wished for, and earnestly desired: Can any one refuse to give honour and obedience to the Son of God, who was the Messenger of glad tidings, who vanquished the shades and darkness of the grave, and brought life and immortality to light; Who always preached such Doctrines as cannot hurt the minds of any, but fill them with a more secure expectation? O ingratum & impium seculum! as he goes on; O ungrateful and wicked Generation! If a Physician should come to you out of a far Country, and should promise you such an universal Medicine, that would infallibly cure you of all diseases; would you not presently run after him, pay all the signals of Courtship and Honour, and receive him with all kindness and hospitality? Would ye not wish his Medicines to be infallible, by the application of which you are promised freedom from those miseries that attend your bodies even to the utmost period of your age? Nay, though the thing were yet doubtful, would you not (being inflamed with the love of your own welfare) commit yourselves to his conduct, and not obstinately refuse to drink even his unknown potion, in hope of your own health and safety? Eluxit atque apparuit Christus rei maximae nunciator, etc. Christ, the proclaimer of great tidings, has now shined, and appeared in the World; What cruelty then, what barbarous inhumanity, what insuperable pride is it with a supercilious disdain, to contemn him who brings such glad tidings unto men? Let us embrace therefore his joyful Message, give credit to that which affords such hope, and pay all reverence and honour to him, who is the messenger of him that made us; Who came into the World, to seek and to save that which was lost; And to give to us eternal life; Men may (if they please) contradict the kind promises of our Saviour, and suppose a future state impossible; But 'tis more impossible for any man to prove his denial; Or, with any certainty, to convince himself, that there is no such state of men hereafter: Since 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 fight for it; Therefore let men's belief of a future immortality, and a joyful state, evidence itself 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 ourselves to newness of life, will leave us still dead in our sins: Credere se in Christum quomodo dicit (says 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, (says 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 irresistible 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 bosom. 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 system 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 than does it become most glorious, when it is followed with an holy and Religious life: The former may proceed from hypocrisy; But attended with the latter, it makes the whole Trinity to rejoice, and secures to ourselves 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 (says our Saviour): Nay, this in an especial manner rejoices the holy Spirit of God, whose proper work it is to sanctify; And a vicious life is said to grieve him: And how acceptable a Sacrifice the whole is, appears in what he says by the Psalmist, (Psal. 50.23.): Whoso offereth praise, glorifieth me; And to him that ordereth his conversation aright, will I show the salvation of God. Praises and thanksgivings are the natural results of a sense of mercies and favours impressed 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 prevailed 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 ourselves, 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 (says 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 ourselves in this duty of Prayer, since so great an advantage attends its devout and hearty performance; and to public 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, cautioned 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 says) 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 referred to some brief Creed, or summary of the Christian Faith▪ delivered to him by the Apostle; Though we find them now Burlesqued, and flouted at▪ But, alas! with as little wit as reason. From hence finally was it that S. Judas 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, ourselves, 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 engross 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, always, 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 hypocrisy, and to qualify ourselves for our future ascent to God's 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 Martyr's Crown; S. Paul did not think so, when he forbade 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 ourselves; And let us imitate the Holy Spirit under the Gospel, by guiding ourselves 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 lies, 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 itself, has sent his Holy Spirit unto us, to guide us into the ways of truth: Whatever guilt, therefore, any person may, by the iniquity of times, striking in with his own easy 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 surprise 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 Ideas in our brains of such seeming things, as never were, nor ever shall be; And so we lead ourselves 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 politic men of the World, who by such means intent 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 ecstasy or frenzy; And than their pretensions grow so big, that they become proportionably tall too, till they aspire to the storming the Walls of Heaven, attempting to blow open the everlasting Gates, that they may pry into those things which are locked up from the inquiries of men; And thus being puffed and swelled up, it proves only to be Tympany and disease, when we think we have true conceptions, and when our own thoughts have raised our fancies, we conclude, that the Spirit overshadows us, and our obscure opinions, or strange propositions, raised by the sudden transports of our minds, are too often, with confidence enough, boldly averred to be the immediate dictates of the Holy Ghost. Want of true and ingenuous education, and thereby the more exact assistances of reason, causes many of those who would be accounted more spiritual than other men, to think themselves inspired from above, when an unusual fear, a sudden joy, or a powerful disease has brought Convulsions into their Nerves, and seized their reason and judgement with a Palsy, so that all their notions are joged into a confusion, and their faculties can neither embrace or pursue their proper objects. But by what means soever the thoughts or expectations of such men are lifted to an height, waiting for an impulse, sighing and groaning for an unusual influence: Vain are those hopes, where there is no promise, and uncertain that rule of determination of things which appears to be fallible and deceitful; And yet thus are all the expectations of those who think the Spirit guides them into truth by other means than what I have already showed you, or to any rules and measures of religious actions, than what are plainly laid down in the Word of God, or thence drawn by a fair and truly Logical deduction: If you should be at the trouble to examine a little all the pretended impulses of men, their great variety will evince their folly, and their opposition to each other, their deceit and falsehood. Is there any Sect, pretending to Enthusiasm, that does not peremptorily, and with the greatest confidence, assert the Spirits internal seal to their principles, although just opposite to each other, and all perhaps contrary to the Scripture? This is the great fountain, which yet divides into so many streams, whose waters all have different tastes according to the channels in which they run, and the variety of soil through which they pass: This is made the cause of separation, which in itself is still but one; This makes men divide from one another, and all from that Church to which they should belong; proving each others Doctrines erroneous, and all still by the same Spirit: As if the God of order delighted in division; and different Religions, like variety of creatures, proclaimed God's Wisdom and his Power; When he has now enjoined one faith to the whole World, and sent his Son to set up his Banner for all Nations to flock to it. Divers Languages indeed were once a character of inspiration from the Holy Ghost, but different Creeds were never yet the fruits of him, that is but one. That truth which the Spirit guides men into, can be no other than the plain uniform rules of the Gospel; and whoever pretends to any inspiration to deliver a Doctrine different from this, blasphemes the Holy Ghost, and makes God a liar, whilst he pretends his inward seal publicly to attest an open falsehood. But if there were such a thing as the Spirits impulse in these ages of Christianity, we should have some certain characters, by which we might know it, as the Prophets and Apostles must be supposed to have had; and, if we make it an argument to convince others, we must work Miracles to attest its original: The latter none of the Enthusiasts pretend to; Or when ever their madness has attempted this testimony, no sooner do they dubb themselves by the names of Prophets, but they are discovered to be plain Cheats: If they pretend a way to evidence to themselves that they are inspired with a divine breath, to give them a warrant for doctrine or action not consonant to the Writings of the Apostles; it does not only render the Scriptures insufficient, but makes God to contradict himself, and wounds that Eternal Truth of the Deity into which we ultimately resolve our belief: But let us come to the examination of the impulse itself, and we shall perceive in the midst of what uncertainties such men must be miserably tossed, who suppose what they deem such to be sufficient warrant for what they then think on and propose to themselves: What strange and impious actions have been the consequences of such supposals, I need not now relate, because they have made such noise and ruins among ourselves, that they are still fresh among us. But to proceed with this supposed impulse or impression upon men's minds, by which, deserting the Scriptures, some Enthusiastical men will take the measures of their doctrines, or actions: I know not what they mean by it, unless it be the heightening our persuasion, making our belief of a thing bold and strong, and our resolutions to act and maintain it, fixed and zealous; And if this be what they make a rule, or a character of the Spirits guidance, since we find but little difference, when we view this supposed operation in persons of various, nay, opposite principles, we must either conclude what all deliver under this pretence to be true, or else it is not safe to conduct any: The former is too wild a position for any that pretend to sobriety, to espouse; and therefore the latter must be true: Besides, every man's reason may sufficiently inform him, that our persuasions, and determinations of things, become as well settled and fixed, and have their various elevations or depressions, as well by the strength or weakness of arguments, duly weighed and attended to, as by any impulse which can be imagined: How then shall we be able to know what our reason dictates, and what we are confirmed in by strength of argument, from what the Holy Spirit now seals by an impulse, or impression upon our minds? How shall we distinguish betwixt a strong fancy, a settled opinion, and this pretended inspired Doctrine? Nay, how can we difference (without recurring to the eternal Laws of good and evil, which will render this new impulse useless) the impressions of the Spirit, from a secret temptation, and a subtle suggestion from him who is our greatest adversary? If we dare adventure to be so Critical, as to pretend to new discoveries, and such a rare ability to distinguish betwixt the motions which these several impulses make: Since there can be but one sort of action in the spirits of a man, (if the perception be not above reason miraculous) the same convulsions and percussions on the Nerves, to cause the soul to understand and believe, whether it be a truth or falsehood, that is represented; a truth from God, or a diabolical delusion; How can the rarest and most artificial Enthusiast distinguish betwixt 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 itself. 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 itself, there can be no such Ideas supposed, of such different aspects, that in them we can read good and evil, without some more superior 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 God's Word; then the impulse itself 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 itself, 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 Christ's, 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 accomplished 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 God's rules, and man's 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 God's 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 Penmen to an exact delivery; but he has confirmed 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 backed with great names, being confidently averred with boldness and zeal, are no other than wild notions, and, exorbitant fancies; Things, that if Satan, who pants and breathes for our eternal ruin, can once persuade us to an embracement of; he than 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 easy 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 persuade such to embrace any thing, who have no better rule, than their own persuasions? 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. 'Tis 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 persuade 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 easy to be entreated; full of mercy▪ and good fruits, without wrangling, and without hypocrisy: And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for them that make peace. Thus I have endeavoured to free the inspirations of the Holy Spirit, from the bold claims of Papists and fanatics, when they plead its conduct, and appropriate it to themselves, in those false Doctrines which they publish to the World. What now remains to finish this Discourse, but only to beg, that we would be persuaded to avoid these obstructions to the compleatment and perfection of our Religion; and to practise the contrary that may perfect our obedience to the truth; that we would give unto God an undivided heart: that we would not halt betwixt two opinions, and mix Christianity with other principles different from it. That we would not think the Cross so grievous to be born, when the reward of a Crown is proposed with it. That we would not be so fond of our natural dispositions, but submit our inclinations to God's commands; that we would more seriously endeavour to make our faith conquer our senses, in things that are not their proper objects; that the spirituality of that Worship which the Gospel prescribed, may be more strictly practised and intended by us. That we would endeavour to alleviate the burden of those duties, that Christianity prescribes, by the rational considerations of their excellency and rewards. That we would allow ourselves more leisure for consideration, and thoughtfulness, by a retirement from the hurries and business of the World; that we would banish the love of the World from our hearts, especially when detracting from the love of God, and the interest of Religion. That we would distinguish well betwixt zeal and passion, and let good things determine our affections. That we would not wilfully misunderstand the Gospel, to support either a principle or a faction. That we would watch against the insinuations and subtleties of the Devil, who like a roaring Lion, walks about, seeking to devour us. That we would beware of pride and obstinacy of mind, which hates conviction, and strengthens error. That we would not be partial in the choice of the duties of Religion, since the same authority enjoins all, and true obedience must be universal. That we would banish coolness, and not be indifferent in our choice of Religion, but be strict in the examination of our principles; that in the proof of all things, we may hold fast that which is good. Finally, That we would not imbibe such Opinions, as in their nature or consequences, are destructive of Christianity, that we may not ruin by particular conclusions, what we seem to hold to, and profess in the general. And (Lastly), That we would admit such evidences of what Christianity enjoins us to believe, as the nature of the things are capable of, since the expectation of more is unreasonable, and a farther demand is altogether against the Laws of discourse; and we require what is impossible to be done. This advice, if we cordially embrace, will prepare us for obedience to the truth, and hinder us from being shaken with every wind of Doctrine, and tossed always in the midst of uncertainties; our judgements then will be fixed and settled; and if we add our sincere endeavours to live according to the principles we receive, and pray to God to assist us in our duties, we shall gain peace of conscience here, and hereafter an eternal Crown of Glory: Which God of his infinite mercy grant to us all, for Christ Jesus sake, to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be ascribed by all rational creatures, that are capable of performing it, all Glory and Adoration now and for ever. Amen. FINIS. Books Printed for, and are to be Sold by Edward Advise at the Sign of the Bishop's Head, over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill. A Discourse of Prayer: Wherein this great Duty is stated, so as to oppose some Principles and Practices of Papists and fanatics; as they are contrary to the Public Forms of the Church of England, established by her Ecclesiastical Canons, and confirmed by Acts of Parliament. By Thomas Pittis', D.D. one of His Majesty's Chaplains in Ordinary. Advice to the Readers of the Common-Prayer, and to the People attending the same: With a Preface concerning Divine Worship. Humbly offered to Consideration, for promoting the greater Decency and Solemnity in performing the Offices of God's Public Worship, administered according to the Order established by Law amongst us. By a well-meaning (though unlearned) Laic of the Church of England, T. S. The Life of the Learned and Reverend Dr. Peter Heylin, Chaplain to Charles I. and Charles II. Monarches of Great Britain. Written by George Vernon, Rector of Bourton on the Water in Gloucestershire. The Crafty Lady: Or the Rival of Himself: A Gallant Intriegue. Translated out of French into English, by F. C. Ph. Gent. FINIS.