After transcribing the 13th verse, which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual, your Lordship adds, “From which last passage it appears, that the words which the Holy Ghost is said to teach, must be the prophetical revelations of the Old Testament, which were discovered to the apostles by the same Spirit.” I cannot apprehend, how this appears. I cannot as yet see any connection at all between the premisses and the conclusion.
Upon the whole, I desire any calm and serious man, to read over this whole chapter; and then he will easily judge, what is the natural meaning of the words in question: and whether (although it be allowed, that they were peculiarly fulfilled in the apostles, yet) they do not manifestly belong, in a lower sense, to every true minister of Christ? For what can be more undeniable than this, that our preaching also is vain, unless it be attended with the power of that Spirit, who alone pierceth the heart? And that your hearing is vain, unless the same power be present to heal your soul, and to give you a faith which standeth not in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God?
14. “Another passage that (your Lordship thinks) has been misapplied by enthusiasts, but was really peculiar to the times of the apostles, is 1 John ii. 20. and 27. (page 35.) Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.——But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you: And ye need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie. And even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.” “Here the apostle arms the true Christians [♦]against seducers, by an argument drawn from the unction from the Holy One, that was in or rather among them: that is, from the immediate inspiration of some of their teachers.” page 37.
[♦] “again” replaced with “against”
Here it rests upon your lordship, to prove (as well as affirm) 1. That ἐν should be translated among: 2. That this unction from the Holy One means, “The inspiration of some of their teachers.”
The latter your lordship attempts to prove thus: “The inspired teachers of old were set apart for that office, by an extraordinary effusion of the Holy Ghost: Therefore page 38. [♦]The unction from the Holy One here, means such an effusion.” I deny the consequence; so the question is still to be proved.
[♦] Printer incorrectly started a new paragraph here.
Your lordship’s second argument is drawn from the 26th verse of the 14th chapter of St. John’s gospel,
Proposed in form, it will stand thus:
“If those words, He shall teach you all things, relate only to a miraculous gift of the Holy Ghost, then these words, The same anointing teacheth you of all things, relate to the miraculous gift: