Those who so cry up the Spirit as to cry down ordinances and the ministry do not have the Spirit of God. In the NT, when vision and inspiration were in use, the Spirit did not teach men immediately, but referred them to an outward ministry. A famous instance you have hereof in the Ethiopian eunuch who, reading in his chariot the prophecy of Isaiah, the Spirit did not interpret to him the meaning hereof but bid Philip go and expound it. So, when Christ revealed himself to Paul, He did not teach him Himself, but bid him go to Damascus and there it should be told him what he should do. We have the like example in Cornelius. The Spirit did not teach him immediate, but bid him send for Peter, and he should tell him what he ought to do. By these examples we see how the Lord has honored the ministry. And, therefore, those who cry up the Spirit so as to cry down the ministry, as expecting to have the immediate teaching of the Spirit, doubtless have not the Spirit of God.
. . . Those who pretend to the Spirit, and yet boast of the effects of the Spirit, in future revelations rather than in present motions to holy duties, are deceived by a satanic delusion. There are many in these days who will take upon them to tell you future contingent events, but this can be nothing else but a delusion of the devil, because the gifts of the Spirit in foretelling future events is now ceased and does not remain in the Church.
Christopher Love (1618–51), The works of Christoper Love, 1, 115-116. (HT: Rich Barcellos)
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