After Jesus Christ came the Evangelists and Apostles. Of the same spirit which he had possessed immeasurably, these had their several portions; and though these were[10] limited, and differed in degree front one another, they were sufficient to enable them to do their duty to God and men, to enjoy the presence of the Almighty, and to promote the purposes designed by him in the propagation of his gospel.
[Footnote 10: 2 Cor. 10. 18.]
CHAP. II.
Except a man has a portion of the same spirit, which Jesus and the prophets and the apostles had, he can have no knowledge of God or spiritual things—Doctrine of St. Paul on this subject—This confirms the history of the human and divine spirit in man—These spirits distinct in their kind—This distinction farther elucidated by a comparison between the faculties of men and brutes—Sentiments of Augustin—Luther—Calvin—Smith—Taylor—Cudworth.
The Quakers believe, that there can be no spiritual knowledge of God, but through the medium of his holy spirit; or, in other words, that if men have not a portion of the same spirit which the holy men of old, and which the Evangelists and Apostles, and which Jesus himself had, they can have no true or vital religion.
In favour of this proposition, they usually quote those remarkable words of the Apostle Paul;[11] "for what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of a man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God." And again—"but the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."
[Footnote 11: 1 Cor. 2.11, &c.]
By these expressions the Quakers conceive that the history of man, as explained in the last chapter, is confirmed; or that the Almighty not only gave to man reason, which was to assist him in his temporal, but also superadded a portion of his own spirit, which was to assist him in his spiritual concerns. They conceive it also to be still farther confirmed by other expressions of the same Apostle. In his first letter to the Corinthians, he says,[12] "Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God;" and in his letter to Timothy he desires him[13] "to hold fast that good thing which was committed to him by means of the holy Ghost, which dwelled in him" Now these expressions can only be accurate on a supposition of the truth of the history of man, as explained in the former chapter. If this history be true, then they are considered as words of course: for if there be a communication between the supreme Being and his creature man, or if the Almighty has afforded to man an emanation of his own spirit, which is to act for a time in his mortal body, and then to return to him that gave it, we may say, with great consistency, that the divinity resides in him, or that his body is the temple of the holy spirit.
[Footnote 12: 1 Cor. 6. 19.]
[Footnote 13: 2 Tim. 1. 14.]