Proof II.

Jesus Lord

himself gives for the reason, saying, Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. So that the apostle's words, being reduced to an argument, do very well prove the matter under debate, thus:

If that which appertaineth properly to man, cannot be discerned by any lower or baser principle than the spirit of man; then cannot those things, that properly relate unto God and Christ, be known or discerned by any lower or baser thing than the Spirit of God and Christ.

But the first is true: therefore also the second. The whole strength of the argument is contained in the apostle's words before-mentioned; which therefore being granted, I shall proceed to deduce a second argument, thus:

That which is spiritual can only be known and discerned by the Spirit of God.

But the revelation of Jesus Christ, and the true and saving knowledge of him, is spiritual :

Therefore the revelation of Jesus Christ, and the true and saving knowledge of him, can only be known and discerned by the Spirit of God.

The other scripture is also a saying of the same No man apostle, 1 Cor. xii. 3. No man can say that Jesus can call is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. This scripture, &c. which is full of truth, and answereth full well to the enlightened understanding of the spiritual and real Christian, may perhaps prove very strange to the carnal and pretended follower of Christ, by whom perhaps it hath not been so diligently remarked. Here the apostle doth so much require the Holy Spirit in the things that relate to a Christian, that he positively avers, we cannot so much

as affirm Jesus to be the Lord without it; which inSpiritual sinuates no less, than that the spiritual truths of the truths are gospel are as lies in the mouths of carnal and unspirby carnal itual men; for though in themselves they be true, yet men. are they not true as to them, because not known,nor

lies spoken

uttered forth in and by that principle and spirit that ought to direct the mind and actuate it; in such things they are no better than the counterfeit representations of things in a comedy; neither can it be more truly and properly called a real and true knowledge of God and Christ, than the actions of Alerander the Great, and Julius Cæsar, &c. if now transacted upon a stage, might be called truly and really their doings, or the persons representing them might be said truly and really to have conquered Asia, overcome Pompey, &c.

This knowledge then of Christ, which is not by the revelation of his own Spirit in the heart, is no more properly the knowledge of Christ, than the prattling of a parrot, which has been taught a few words, may be said to be the voice of a man; for as that, or some other bird, may be taught to sound or utter forth a rational sentence, as it hath learned it by the outward ear, and not from any living principle of reason actuating it; so just such is that knowledge of the things of God, which the natural and carnal man hath gathered from the words or writings of spiritual men, which are not true to him, because conceived in the natural spirit, and so brought forth by the wrong organ, and not proceeding from the spiritual principle; no more than the words of a man acquired by art, and brought forth by the mouth of a bird, not proceeding from a rational principle, are true with respect to the bird which utters them. Wherefore from this scripture I shall further add this argument:

If no man can say Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost; then no man can know Jesus to be the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.

But the first is true: therefore the second.

From this argument there may be another deduced, concluding in the very terms of this assertion: thus,

Like the

prattling of a parrot.

Assert. 3. proved.

If no man can know Jesus to be the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost, then there can be no certain knowledge or revelation of him but by the Spirit.

But the first is true: therefore the second. §. VII. The third thing affirmed is, That by the Spirit God always revealed himself to his children.

For making the truth of this assertion appear, it will be but needful to consider God's manifesting himself towards and in relation to his creatures from the beginning, which resolves itself always herein. The first step of all is ascribed hereunto by Moses, Gen. i. 2. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. I think it will not be That reve- denied, that God's converse with man, all along lation is by from Adam to Moses, was by the immediate manithe Spirit of God. festation of his Spirit: and afterwards, through the whole tract of the law, he spake to his children no otherways; which, as it naturally followeth from the principles above proved, so it cannot be denied by such as acknowledge the scriptures of truth to have been written by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost: for these writings, from Moses to Malachi, do declare, that during all that time God revealed himself to his children by his Spirit.

Object.

Ans.

Sanctum

Sanctorum.

But if any will object, That after the dispensation of the law God's method of speaking was altered;

I answer: First, That God spake always immediately to the Jews, in that he spake always immediately to the High-Priest from betwixt the Cherubims; who, when he entered into the Holy of Holies, returning, did relate to the whole people the voice and will of God, there immediately revealed. So that this immediate speaking never ceased in any age.

Secondly, from this immediate fellowship were none shut out, who earnestly sought after and waited for it; in that many, besides the HighPriest, who were not so much as of the kindred of

out from

Levi, nor of the prophets, did receive it and speak from it; as it is written, Numb. xi. 25. where the Spirit is said to have rested upon the seventy elders; None shut which Spirit also reached unto two that were not in this immethe tabernacle, but in the camp; whom when some would have forbidden, Moses would not, but rejoiced, wishing that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that he would put his Spirit upon them, ver. 29.

This is also confirmed Neh. ix. where the elders of the people, after their return from captivity, when they began to sanctify themselves by fasting and prayer, numbering up the many mercies of God towards their fathers, say, verse 20. Thou gavest also thy good Spirit to instruct them; and verse 30. Yet many years didst thou forbear, and testify against them by thy Spirit in thy prophets. Many are the sayings of spiritual David to this purpose, as Psalm li. 11, 12. Take not thy holy Spirit from me; uphold me with thy free Spirit. Psal. cxxxix. 7. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? Hereunto doth the prophet Isaiah ascribe the credit of his testimony, saying, chap. xlviii. 16. And now the Lord God and his Spirit hath sent me. And that God revealed himself to his children under the New Testament, to wit, to the apostles, evangelists, and primitive disciples, is confessed by all. How far now this yet continueth, and is to be expected, comes hereafter to be spoken to.

diate fel

lowship.

§. VIII. The fourth thing affirmed is, That these Assert. 4. revelations were the object of the saints' faith of old. This will easily appear by the definition of faith, Proved. and considering what its object is: for which we shall not dive into the curious and various notions of the school-men, but stay in the plain and positive words of the apostle Paul, who, Heb. xi. describes it two ways. Faith (saith he) is the substance What faith f things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen: hich, as the apostle illustrateth it in the same hapter by many examples, is no other but a firm

is.

of faith,

quens.

and certain belief of the mind, whereby it resteth, and in a sense possesseth the substance of some things hoped for, through its confidence in the promise of God: and thus the soul hath a most firm evidence, by its faith, of things not yet seen nor come to pass. The object of this faith is the promise, word, or testimony of God, speaking in the mind. Hence it hath been generally affirmed, that the The object object of faith is Deus loquens, &c. that is, God Deus lo- speaking, &c. which is also manifest from all those examples deduced by the apostle throughout that whole chapter, whose faith was founded neither upon any outward testimony, nor upon the voice or writing of man, but upon the revelation of God's will, manifest unto them, and in them; as in the example of Noah, ver. 7. thus, By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. What was here the object of Noah's faith, but God speaking unto him? He had not the writings nor prophesyings of any going before, nor yet the concurrence of any church or people to strengthen him; and yet his faith in the word, by which he contradicted the whole world, saved him and his house. Of which Abraham's also Abraham is set forth as a singular example, being therefore called the Father of the Faithful, who is said against hope to have believed in hope, in that he not only willingly forsook his father's country, not knowing whither he went; in that he believed concerning the coming of Isaac, though contrary to natural probability; but above all, in that he refused not to offer him up, not doubting but God was able to raise him from the dead; of whom it is said, that in Isaac shall thy seed be called. And last of all, in that he rested in the promise, that his seed should possess the land, wherein he himself was but a pilgrim, and which to them was not to be

Noah's faith.

faith.