§. XII.
1. Common.First, This could not be any special, peculiar, or extraordinary Privilege, but that which is common to all the Saints, it being a general Epistle, directed to all them of that Age.
2. Certain.Secondly, The Apostle proposeth this Anointing in them, as a more certain Touch-stone for them to discern and try Seducers by, even than his own Writings; for having in the former Verse said, that he had written some Things to them concerning such as seduced them, he begins the next Verse, But the Anointing, &c. and ye need not that any Man teach you, &c. which infers, that having said to them what can be said, he refers them for all to the inward Anointing, which teacheth all Things, as the most firm, constant, and certain Bulwark, against all Seducers.
3. Lasting.And Lastly, That it is a lasting and continuing Thing; the Anointing which abideth. If it had not been to abide in them, it could not have taught them all Things, neither guarded them against all Hazard. From which I argue thus,
He that hath an Anointing abiding in him, which teacheth him all Things, so that he needs no Man to teach him, hath an inward and immediate Teacher, and hath some Things inwardly and immediately Revealed unto him.
But the Saints have such an Anointing:
Therefore, &c.
I could prove this Doctrine from many more Places of Scripture, which for Brevity’s Sake I omit; and now come to the second Part of the Proposition, where the Objections usually formed against it are answered.