If therefore it be so, Why should any be so foolish as to deny, or so unwise as not to seek after this Spirit, which Christ hath promised shall dwell in his Children? They then that do suppose the Indwelling and Leading of his Spirit to be ceased, must also suppose Christianity to be ceased, which cannot subsist without it.
Query III. What is the Work of the Spirit?Thirdly, What the Work of this Spirit is, is partly before shewn, which Christ compriseth in two or three Things, [42]He will guide you into all Truth; He will teach you all Things, and bring all Things to your Remembrance. Since Christ hath provided for us so good an Instructor, why need we then lean so much to those Traditions and Commandments of Men, wherewith so many Christians have burthened themselves? Why need we set up our own carnal and corrupt Reason for a Guide to us, in Matters spiritual, as some will needs do? The Spirit the Guide.May it not be complained of all such, as the Lord did of old, concerning Israel, by the Prophets, Jer. ii. 13. For my People have committed two Evils, they have forsaken me, the Fountain of Living Waters; and hewed them out Cisterns, broken Cisterns, that can hold no Water? Have not many forsaken, do not many deride and reject, this Inward and Immediate Guide, this Spirit, that leads into all Truth; and cast up to themselves other Ways, broken Ways indeed, which have not all this While brought them out of the Flesh, nor out of the World, nor from under the Dominion of their own Lusts and sinful Affections; whereby Truth, which is only rightly learned by this Spirit, is so much a Stranger in the Earth?
[42] John 16. 13. and 14. 26.
A perpetual Ordinance to God’s Church and People.From all then that hath been mentioned concerning this Promise, and these Words of Christ, it will follow, That Christians are always to be led inwardly and immediately by the Spirit of God dwelling in them; and that the same is a standing and perpetual Ordinance, as well to the Church in general in all Ages, as to every Individual Member in particular; as appears from this Argument:
The Promises of Christ to his Children are Yea and Amen, and cannot fail, but must of Necessity be fulfilled.
But Christ hath promised, That the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Truth, shall abide with his Children for ever, shall dwell with them, shall be in them, shall lead them into all Truth, shall teach them all Things, and bring all Things to their Remembrance:
Therefore, The Comforter, the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Truth, his abiding with his Children, &c. is Yea and Amen, &c.
Again: No Man is redeemed from the Carnal Mind, which is at Enmity with God, which is not subject to the Law of God, neither can be; no Man is yet in the Spirit, but in the Flesh, and cannot please God; except he in whom the Spirit of God dwells.
But every true Christian is in measure redeemed from the Carnal Mind, is gathered out of the Enmity, and can be subject to the Law of God; is out of the Flesh, and in the Spirit, the Spirit of God dwelling in him:
Therefore every true Christian hath the Spirit of God dwelling in him.