what truth ? Not historical or scientific truth, but plainly revealed truth ; truth which He himself had taught, or made known by his authorized messengers. The Spirit is indeed a teacher ; and with- out his instructions there is no saving knowledge of divine thino-s, for the Apostle tells us, " The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him ; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Cor. ii. 14.) Spiritual discernment, therefore, is the design and effect of the Spirit's teaching. And the things discerned are " the things freely given to us of God," ^'. e,, as the context shows, the things revealed to the Apostles and clearly made known in the Scrip- tures.
The Apostle John tells his readers, " Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things " (1 John ii. 20), and again, ^er. 27, " 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 dven as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him." These passages teach what all evangelical Christians admit. First, that true knowl- edge, or spiritual discernment of divine things, is due to the inward teaching of the Holy Spirit ; and secondly, that true faith, or the infallible assurance of the truths revealed, is due in like manner to the " demonstration of the Spirit." (1 Cor. ii. 4.) The Apostle John also says : " He that believeth on the Son of God, hath the witness in himself." (1 John v. 10.) Saving faith does not rest on the testimony of the Church, nor on the outward evidence of miracles and prophecy, but on the inward testimony of the Spirit with and by the truth in our hearts. He who has this inward tes- timony needs no other. He does not need to be told by other men what is truth ; this same anointing teaches him what is truth, and that no lie is of the truth. Christians were not to believe every spirit. They were to try the spirits whether they were of God, And the test or criterion of trial was the external, authenticated revelation of God, as si)iritually discerned and demonstrated by the inward operations of the Spirit. So now when errorists come and tell the people there is no God, no sin, no retribution, no need of a Saviour, or of expiation, or of faith ; that Jesus of Nazareth is not the Son of God, God manifest in the flesh, the true Christian has no need to be told that these are what the Apostle calls lies. He has an inward witness to the truth of the record which God has given of his Son.
If the Bible gives no support to the Mystical doctrine of the
Onw /•>« fs,» o o
100 INTRODUCTION. [Ch. IV. - Mysticism.
inward, supernatural, objective revelation of truth made by the Spirit to every man, that doctrine is destitute of all foundation, for it is only by the testimony of God that any such doctrine can ■ be established. ' ■
Mysticism is contrary to the Scriptures. 2. The doctrine in question is not only destitute of support from Scripture, but it contradicts the Scriptures. It is not only opposed to isolated declarations of the Word of God, but to the whole re- vealed plan of God's dealing with his people. Everywhere, and under all dispensations, the rule of faith and duty has been the teaching of authenticated messengers of God. The appeal has always been " to the law and testimony." The prophets came saying, " Thus saith the Lord." Men were required to believe and obey what was communicated to them, and not what the Spirit revealed to eacli individual. It was the outward and not the inward word to which they were to attend. And under the gos- pel the command of Christ to his disciples, was, " Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved" (Mar. xvi. 15, 16), — believeth, of course, the gospel which they preached. Faith cometh by hearing. " How," asks the Apostle, " shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard ? and how shall they hear witliout a preacher ? " (Rom. x. 14.) God, he tells us, hath determined to save men by the foolishness of preaching. (1 Cor. i. 21.) It is the preaching of the cross he declares to be the power of God. (Verse 18.) It is the gospel, the external revelation of the plan of salvation through Jesus Christ, he says in Rom. i. 16, which " is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek ; for therein is the righteous- ness of God revealed from faith to faith." This idea runs through the whole New Testament. Christ commissioned his disciples to preach the gospel. He declared that to be the way in which men were to be saved. They accordingly went forth preaching every- where. This pi'eaching was to continue to the end of the world. Therefore, provision was made for continuing the ministry. Men called and qualified by the Spirit, were to be selected and set apart to this work by divine command. And it is in this way, so far, the world has been converted. In no case do we find the Apostles calling upon the people, whether Jews or Gentiles, to look within themselves, to listen to the inner Word. They were to listen to the outward Word ; to believe what they heard, and were to pray