Of Communion with God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost

This being the state of things, that in our worship of, & Obedience to God, in our own consolation, sanctification, and ministerial employment, the Spirit being the Principle the life, soul, the all of the whole; yet so desperate hath been the malice of Satan, and wickedness of men; that their great endeavour hath been, to shut him quite out of all Gospel administrations.

This being the state of things, that in our worship of, & Obedience to God, in our own consolation, sanctification, and ministeriall employment, the Spirit being the Principle the life, soule, the all of the whole; yet so desperate hath been the malice of Satan, and wickednesse of men; that their great endeavour hath been, to shut him quite out of all Gospell administrations.

First his Gifts and Graces were not only decried, but almost excluded from the public worship of the Church, by the §. 3 imposition of an operous form of service, to be read by the minister; which to do, is neither a peculiar gift of the Holy Ghost to any; nor of the ministry at all. It is marvellous to consider what pleas and pretences were invented, and used by learned men, from its Antiquity, its composure or approbation by Martyrs, the beauty of Uniformity in the worship of God established, and pressed thereby &c. for the defence and maintenance of it. But the main Argument they insisted on, and the chief field wherein they expatiated, and laid out all their Eloquence was, the vain babbling repetitions and folly of men praying by the Spirit. When once this was fallen upon, all (at least as they supposed) was carried away before them, and their Adversaries rendered sufficiently ridiculous. So great is the cunning of Satan, and so unsearchable are the follies of the hearts of men. The sum of all these reasonings amount to no more but this: Though the Lord Jesus Christ hath promised the Holy Ghost to be with his Church to the end of the world, to fit and furnish men with gifts and abilities, for the carrying on of that worship which he requires, and accepteth at our hands, yet the work is not done to the purpose; the gifts he bestows, are not sufficient to that end neither as to invocation, nor doctrine, ⟨p. 297⟩