'This promise was made with a peculiar respect to the apostles': a Tillotson sermon for Whitsuntide

In regard to the apostles; the Holy Ghost is promised to be a guide and teacher, to reveal to them, and instruct them in some truths which our Saviour, whilst he was with them, had not so fully acquainted them withal, because of their present in capacity and unfitness at that time to receive them. "I have many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth."

In his sermon 'Of the Coming of the Holy Ghost, as a Guide to the Apostles', on the text John 16:12-13, Tillotson points to the gift of Pentecost as fundamental to the nature of the Christian faith. Regarding "those truths [in] which the disciples were fully instructed in after the coming of the Holy Ghost", he understands these to be the divine illumination, by means of the Holy Spirit, which led the Apostles to discern how their mission was to embrace the Gentiles:

That our Saviour did not design the setting up of any temporal kingdom in this world; but that his kingdom and government was to be spiritual, not managed by any external force or compulsion, or by laws, the violation whereof he would vindicate by the temporal sword ... Another truth which our Saviour here probably intended, was the abrogating the Jewish dispensation. And this likewise they must needs be extremely prejudiced against; because their law was given by God, and looked upon by them, not as a temporary, but a perpetual institution. And this truth we find that the apostles were afterwards instructed in, when the Holy Ghost was come upon them. And, therefore, in the council at Jerusalem, the apostles released the gentiles from the observance of Moses's law, as a thing which they were perfectly instructed in by the Holy Ghost ... And though before his ascension he had given them an express command to "go and teach all nations," yet it seems it was a good while before they understood this command in the latitude in which our Saviour intended it. For it is plain, from the history of the Acts, that until Peter was sent to Cornelius, and better instructed in this matter by a vision from heaven, they had not at all preached the gospel to the gentiles, being persuaded that it was unlawful to do it: but, by the command of our Saviour to "go and teach all nations" they understood that they were to preach to the Jews dispersed in all nations. But after this vision to Peter, and when they saw that the Holy Ghost fell upon the gentiles, in the same manner that it had done upon them, then, and not before, they were instructed in this truth.

Thus, the promise that the Holy Spirit would guide the Apostles "into all truth" concerned salvific matters. It was not a promise "that his Spirit should lead his disciples into the knowledge of all natural truths, and instruct them in all the depths of philosophy, and in the mysteries of all arts and sciences". The "plain and obvious sense of this promise" is how the Holy Spirit guided the Apostles to proclaim the faith to the Gentiles:

if we go that way, which is the only reasonable way of limiting general words, then the plain meaning of this promise will be this: that because our Saviour had forborne to reveal several truths to his disciples, which they were not then capable of, he would supply this difficulty afterwards by his Holy Spirit, who, after that he was risen from the dead, and ascended into heaven, should descend upon them, and instruct them fully in those truths, which he, in condescension to their prejudice and incapacity, had in his life-time forborne to do; that is, he would take a fitter season to instruct them fully by his Spirit, in all those truths which, whilst he was upon earth, they were not so capable of receiving. 

Grounding the gift of Pentecost, therefore, in the Apostolic mission to the Gentiles, Tillotson challenges any notion that the dominical words of his text can be legitimately read to infer a gift of infallibility bestowed upon the Church in general, or one church in particular:

from the explication which I have given of this promise of our Saviour's, of sending his Spirit to lead his disciples into all truth, it very plainly appears, that there is no ground or colour of ground from this text, for the pretended infallibility of the Romish church; and yet this is one of those texts, which their great masters of controversy do urge us withal, for the proof of their infallibility; a sign that they are much at a loss for good arguments to prove it by, otherwise they would never summon a text so very remote from their purpose ... There is nothing in the tenor of this promise, nor any other reason, from whence it may appear, that this promise ought to be extended any farther than to the persons to whom it was made; because this promise was made with a peculiar respect to the apostles, and their employment, and for reasons proper to the first state of the church; and not common to all ages; therefore it cannot with reason be extended to all after-ages of the church.

Rather than regarding Tillotson's reading of this dominical promise as somehow restricting the Church's access to divinely revealed truth, bestowed by the Holy Spirit, it actually centres the Church's life on divinely revealed truth, rather than on the uncertainties, contradictions, and divisions of ecclesial life. How does the Holy Spirit lead the Church into all truth? By gathering the Church around the infallible Apostolic proclamation that is the Scriptures:

It is true, that this promise was made to the apostles, not merely for their own sakes, but for the benefit of the church; for God thereby promiseth, that his Spirit should reveal those truths to them, that they might declare them to the church: but it does not from hence follow, that any other persons, in succeeding ages of the church, should have the same immediate assistance of the Holy Ghost which the apostles had; because, being once revealed to the church, there was no need of a new revelation of those truths in every age ... There was reason why this assistance should be afforded to the apostles in the first preaching of the gospel; but after it was planted, and the doctrine of Christianity consigned to writing, there was no need of such an infallible assistance afterwards.

Tillotson wise reserve regarding exalted ecclesiastical claims, not least that of infallibility (whether papal, conciliar, or a more general claim), is the very thing which draws the Church to the Scriptures, there to be refreshed, guided, and united by divinely revealed truth, bestowed by "the Holy Ghost .. Who spake by the Prophets". Reading Tillotson's sermon, I cannot help but think of the similar wise reserve and focus on the Scriptures seen in the petition of the Prayer for the Church Militant:

beseeching thee to inspire continually the universal Church with the spirit of truth, unity, and concord: And grant, that all they that do confess thy holy Name may agree in the truth of thy holy Word, and live in unity, and godly love.

__________

Tillotson's Sermon CXCVIII, 'Of the Coming of the Holy Ghost, as a Guide to the Apostles', is found in The Works of Tillotson, Volume VIII.