Hereby know ye the Spirit of God
This is a rule by which believers may know whether a man
professing to have the Spirit of God, and to be called and sent
by him, and whether the, doctrine he preaches, is of him or not:
every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in
the flesh,
is of God;
or of the Spirit of God; that is, every doctrine which carries
this truth in it; or every man that owns, and professes, and
publishes this doctrine concerning Christ, is on the side of God
and truth; and which contains several articles in it, respecting
the person and office of Christ; as that he existed before he
came in the flesh, not in the human nature, or as man, or as an
angel, but as the Son of God, as a divine person, being truly and
properly God; so that this confession takes in his divine
sonship, and proper deity, and also his true and real humanity;
that the Messiah was incarnate, against the Jews, and was God and
man in one person; and that he was really man, and not in
appearance only, against the heretics of those times: and it also
includes his offices, as that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ,
the Messiah, which the Jews denied, and that he was the anointed
prophet, priest, and King; and so is a confession or
acknowledgment of all the doctrines of the Gospel, which came by
him, as a prophet; and of his satisfaction, sacrifice, and
intercession, as a priest; and of all his ordinances and commands
as a King; and that he is the only Saviour and Redeemer of men.
Now, whoever owns and declares this system of truth, "is of God";
not that everyone that assents unto this, or preaches it, is born
of God; a man may believe, and confess all this, as the devils
themselves do, and yet be destitute of the grace of God; but the
spirit, or doctrine, which contains these things in it, is
certainly of God, or comes from him; or whoever brings these
truths with him, and preaches them, he is, so far as he does so,
on the side of God and truth, and to be regarded.