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.
Proof II.No Man can call Jesus Lord, &c. The other Scripture is also a Saying of the same Apostle, 1 Cor. xii. 3. No Man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. This Scripture, 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. Spiritual Truths are Lies spoken by Carnal Men.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 insinuates no less, than that the Spiritual Truths of the Gospel are as Lies in the Mouths of carnal and unspiritual Men; for tho’ in themselves they be true, yet are they not true as to them, because not known, nor 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 Alexander the Great, 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.
Like the Pratling of a Parrot.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 Pratling 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.