here undermine the true ground and rock, on which the church of Christ was to stand, and prevail against the gates of hell? Did he, by setting up this knowledge as the best, and only knowledge that an apostle need to have, break down the fences of Christ's vineyard, rob the church of all its strong holds, leave it defenceless, without a pale, and a ready prey to infidels? Who can say this, but that spirit of Antichrist, that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh? For as Christ's intending nothing, knowing nothing, willing nothing, but purely and solely the whole course of his crucifying process, was the whole truth of his being come in the flesh, was his doing the whole will of him that sent him, was his overcoming the world, death and hell; so he that embraces this process, as Christ embraced it, who is wholly given up to it, as Christ was, he has the will of Christ, and the mind of Christ, and therefore may well desire to know nothing else. To this man alone is the world, death and hell, known to be overcome in him, as they were in Christ; to him alone is Christ become the resurrection and the life; and he that knoweth this, he knoweth with St. Paul, that all other knowledge may, and will be cast away as dung. Now if St. Paul having rejected all other knowledge, but that of a crucified Saviour, which to the Jew was a stumbling block, and to the Greek foolishness, if he had afterwards wrote three such Legation volumes as the Doctor hath done, for the food and nourishment of Christ's sheep, who can have no life in themselves, but by eating the true bread that came down from heaven; must they not have been called, Paul's full recantation of all that he had taught of a Christ crucified ?

The other instance of delusion from book learning, relates to Mr. Green, who wanting to write on divine inspiration, runs from book to book, from country to country, to pick up reports wherever he could find them concerning divine inspiration, from this and that judicious author, that so he might be sure of compiling a judicious dissertation on the subject. All which he

might have known to be mere delusion, and lost labour, had he but remembered, or regarded any one single saying either of Christ or his Apostles, concerning the Holy Spirit, and his operations. For not a word is said by them, but fully shews, that all knowledge or perception of the Spirit, is nothing else but the enjoyment of the Spirit, and that no man can know more of him, than that which the Spirit himself is, and does, and manifests of his power in man.

"The things of God, saith St. Paul, knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." Is not this decisive upon the matter? Is not this proof enough, that nothing in man, but the Spirit of God in him, can know what the Spirit's work in man is, and does? The fruits of the Spirit so often mentioned in scripture, are not things different or separate from the Spirit, and if the Spirit is not always working in us, his fruits must be as absent from us as he is. St. John saith, "hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us." A demonstration that the Spirit can no other way make himself known to us but by his dwelling and working in us. St. James saith, "every good and perfect gift cometh from above:" But now does not he in reality deny this, who seeks for the highest gift of knowledge from below, from the poor contrivance of a common-place book? Again, "If any man lack wisdom, let him ask it of God;" St. James does not say, let him go to ask Peter, or Paul, or John, because he knew that divine wisdom was nothing else but divine inspiration. But Mr. Green has got together his ingenious, his eminent writers, his excellent, learned, judicious authors, his cool rational-morality doctors, (a set of men, whose glorious names we read no more of in the gospel, than of the profound Aristotle, or the divine Cicero) and these are to do that for him which the whole college of Apostles could do for no body. Now this doctrine, that nothing but the Spirit can know the things that be of God; and that the enjoyment of the Spirit is all the knowledge we can have of him, is a truth taught

as, not only by all scripture, but by the whole nature of things. For every thing that can be seen, known, beard, felt, &c. must be manifested by itself, and not by another. It is not possible for any thing but light to manifest light, nor for any thing but darkness to make darkness to be known. Yet this is more possible, than for any thing but divine inspiration, to make divine inspiration to be known. Hence there is a degree of delusion still higher, to be noted in such writers as Mr. Green; for his collection of ingenious, eminent, rational authors, of whom he asks counsel concerning the necessity, or certainty of the immediate inspiration of the Spirit, are such as deny it, and write against it. Therefore the proceeding was just as wise, as if a man was to consult some ingenious and eminent atheists, about the truth and certainty of God's immediate, continual Providence; or ask a few select deists, how, or what he was to believe of the nature and power of gospel faith. Now there are the Holy Spirit's own operations, and there are reports about them. The only true reports, are those that are made by inspired persons; and if there were no such persons, there could be no true reports of the matter. And therefore to consult uninspired persons, and such as deny, and reproach the pretence to inspiration, to be rightly instructed about the truth of immediate, continual, divine inspiration, is a degree of blindness, greater than can be charged upon the old Jewish Scribes and Pharisees.

The reports, that are to be acknowledged as true, concerning the Holy Spirit, and his operations, are those that are recorded in scripture; that is, the scriptures are an infallible history, or relation of that which the Holy Spirit is, and does, and works in true believers; and also an infallible direction how we are to seek, and wait, and trust in his good power over us. But then the scriptures themselves, though thus true, and infallible in these reports, and instructions about the Holy Spirit, yet they can go.no farther, than to be a true history; they cannot give to the reader of

them, the possession, the sensibility, and enjoyment of that which they relate. This is plain, not only from the nature of a written history or instruction, but from the express words of our Lord, saying, "Except a man be born again of the Spirit, he cannot see or enter into the kingdom of God." Therefore the new birth from above, or of the Spirit, is that alone which gives true knowledge and perception of that, which is the kingdom of God. The history may relate truths enough about it; but the kingdom of God being nothing else but the power and presence of God, dwelling and ruling in our souls, this can only manifest itself, and can manifest itself to nothing in man, but to the new birth. For every thing else in man, is deaf and dumb and blind to the kingdom of God; but when that which died in Adam, is made alive again by the quickening Spirit from above, this being the birth which came at first from God, and a partaker of the divine nature, this knows, finds and enjoys the kingdom of God.

"I am the way, the truth and the life," saith Christ: this record of scripture is true; but what a delusion, for a man to think, that he knows and finds this to be true, and that Christ is all this benefit, and blessing to him, because he assents, consents and contends, it may be, for the truth of those words. This is impossible. The new birth is here again the only power of entrance-every thing else knocks at the door in vain; I know you not, saith Christ to every thing, but the new birth. "I am the way, the truth, and the life," tells us neither more nor less, than if Christ had said, I am the kingdom of God, into which nothing can enter, but that which is born of the Spirit.

Here again may be seen in the highest degree of certainty, the absolute necessity of immediate, divine inspiration, through every part of the Christian life. For if a birth of the Spirit, is that alone that can enter into, or receive the kingdom of God, come amongst men; that alone which can find Christ to be the way, the truth and the life; then a continual life, or breath

ing of the Spirit in us, must be as necessary, as the first birth of the Spirit, For a birth of the Spirit is only to make a beginning of a life of the Spirit; birth is only in order to life; if therefore the life of the Spirit continues not, the birth is lost, and the cessation of its breathing in us, is nothing else but death again to the kingdom of God, that is, to every thing that is or can be godly. Therefore the immediate, continual inspiration of the Spirit, as the only possible power and preservation of a godly life, stands upon the same ground, and is as absolutely necessary to salvation, as the new birth.

Take away this power, and working life of the Spirit, from being the one life of all that is done in the church, and then, though it be ever so outwardly glorious in its extent, or ever so full of learned members, it can be nothing else in the sight of God, but the wise Greek, and the carnal Jew, become a body of water-baptised christians. For no such an one can be in a better state than this; the wisdom of the Greek, the carnality of the Jew, must have the whole government of him, till he is born of, and led by the Spirit of God; this alone is the kingdom of God, and every thing else is the kingdom of this world, in which Satan is declared to be the prince. Poor miserable man! that strives with all the sophistry of human wit, to be delivered from the immediate, continual operation and government of the Spirit of God, not considering, that where God is not, there is the devil; and where the Spirit rules not, there all is the work of the flesh, though nothing be talked of, but spiritual and christian matters, I say, talked of; for the best ability of the natural man can go no farther, than talk and write notions and opinions, about scripture words and facts; in these he may be a great critic, and acute logician, a powerful orator, and know every thing of scripture except the Spirit and the Truth.

How much then is it to be lamented, as well as impossible to be denied, that though all scripture assures