hire The Mystical sense viz. the still further intendment of that Law was a Divine ordination that they who preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel i. e. the Ministers of the Gospel ought to be provided for 1 Cor. 9. 9 12. Now as some Scriptures will bear a literal sense with the moral and the mystical there are yet other Scriptures that will not therefore in the fourth place such Texts as these are to be interpreted tropically Par. What do you mean by that Min. Such a figurative expression whereof there are several sorts which you will meet with in the reading of the Scriptures Some are metaphorical which is a borrowed expression when another thing is made use of to express our meanings by and cannot be taken literally as that of John 15. 1. I am the true Vine and my Father is the Husbandman The Prophet Isaiah prophecying of the admirable effects of Christianity useth these expressions Chap. 11. 6 7 8. The Wolf shall dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard shall lie down with the Kid and the Calf and the young Lion and the Fatling together and a little Child shall lead them And the Cow and the Bear shall feed their young ones shall lie down together and the Lion shall eat straw like the Ox and the sucking Child shall play on the hole of the Asp and the weaned Child shall put his hand on the Cockatrice den Do you suppose that this Scripture is to be understood literally as if a time were coming when there should be a perfect reconcilement among the Creatures their natural antipathies being taken away No these are but so many metaphorical representations of the excellent temper of Christianity that the doctrine thereof will effect a real change in our natures That that savage waspish crusty humour of our natural dispositions shall by the Christian laws and the Spirit of Christ be transformed even into the meekness and innocency of a Lamb. And when our Lord bids us put out and cut off our offending eyes and hands he hath no design to provoke us to dismember our selves no 't is our darling sins and beloved vices which he levels at Again as some Scriptures are to be interpreted metaphorically so others allegovically which is by continuing of a Trope and this you have in the case of Hagar and Sarah Sinai and Sion which the Apostle calls the two Covenants and saith they are an Allegory Gal. 4. 24. c. to the Chapters end for so far you will find the explication of the Allegory continued Again there are other Scriptures which must be interpreted by an Hyperbole which is another kind of Trope or Figure when the truth of the thing affirmed lies not in the letters but in the priviledge of the phrase as John 21. 25. And there are also many other things which Jesus did which if they should be written every one I suppose that the World it self could not contain the Books that should be written Where the Evangelist takes a Rhetorical liberty that he might with greater elegancy express that our Saviour was not idle in this life but marvellously busie and active in it In other places God represents himself to us after the manner of men as attributing to himself eyes ears and hands walking sleeping repenting and the like it being the great mercy of God in so revealing himself and his dispensations to mankind that thereby he may accommodate himself to the understandings of men in such expressions as suit most with their weak capacities and common apprehensions by which he may make the more sensible impressions on us like to that Prophet who shrunk himself into the proportions of that Child whom he meant to revive Par. What do you infer from all this discourse Min. The necessary use of Learning lest we confound the senses of Scripture and take that Allegorically which we ought to take literally and that literally which we ought to take figuratively And what disorder this may create I leave to your self to judge After all these there remains a necessity of being acquainted with such Histories as give us a relation of those Rites Opinions Customes and Proverbs in use among the Jews and neighbouring Nations to which the Scriptures in many places have particular references without the knowledge whereof 't is impossible we should understand a Book of so great Antiquity or read it with that judgment estimation relish and delight as we should do did we discern the references and allusions that in it are frequently made to them Par. If you please we will pass to the next particular you told me of viz. That there is great use of Learning now for the right timing of Scripture What mean you by that phrase Min. That is to observe to what period of time the Histories and especially the prophecies in Scripture have a peculiar and proper relation and if due care be not taken therein the mischiefs that may arise from your want of circumspection will be innumerable Par. Explain your meaning by some instance and shew where any one Prophecy hath been mis-timed by the Quakers Min. What do you think of that famous Prophecy of Joel so much abused by Quakers Joel 2. 28. And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophecy your old men shall dream dreams your young men shall see visions Which Prophecy they apply to this present Age therefore they say That the Quakers have an extraordinary Spirit according to the prediction thereof Par. But have not the Quakers reason to time that Prophecy to this present Age wherein we live and do we not see the Prophecy fulfilled in them Min. I cannot tell how to undeceive you better than in the words of a Learned Commentator upon that place who tells us that that Prophecy was cited and applyed by St. Peter Acts 2. to the times of the Gospel It shall come to pass afterward or in the last dayes saith God that I will pour out my Spirit or of my Spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophecy your old men shall dream dreams your young men shall see visions And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those dayes will I pour out my Spirit or of my Spirit and they shall prophecy Whatsoever can be collected from this place to the benefit of the Pretenders will receive a short and clear answer by considering the time to which this prediction and the completion of it belonged and that is expresly the last dayes in the notion wherein the Writers of the New Testament constantly use that phrase not for these dayes of ours so far advanced toward the end of the world which yet no man knows how far distant it still is but for the time immediately preceding the destruction of the Jewish Polity their City and Temple That this is it appears not
of sin not from the imputation of it and we confess sin was the occasion of our Saviours sufferings but it was our sin not his own He offered himself to suffer all the miseries of life and death which we had deserved and it was as just in God to inflict them on him as it is in a Creditor to make the Bonds-man who is able and willing to pay the debt of an indigent Bankrupt And thus Christs sufferings do still more strongly prove they are the just desert of sin since even a surety for sinners cannot escape them Par. The satisfaction which you have given me invites me to give you some further trouble in the resolution of my remaining doubts You cannot be ignorant how the Quakers fasten the charge of Pbarisaism upon the Clergy in having their Pulpits exalted and do they not herein manifest an horrible pride and come within the lash of that reproof of our Saviour Mark 12. 38 39. Beware of the Scribes which love to go in long cloathing and love Salutations in the Market-places and the chief Seats in the Synagogues Min. What our Lord condemned in the Scribes and Pharisees was their pride in chusing the high places in the Synagogues in a vain presumption that they exceeded all men in Learning and Holiness herein the Quakers discover not our pride but their own Ignorance for it is not for preeminence that we use our Pulpits but for convenience not that our persons but that our voices may be exalted and herein we aim not at glory to our selves but edification to our People and this is according to the example of Ezra Neh. 8. 4. who did erect a Pulpit of wood not in obedience to the Ceremonial Law because it was no where commanded by it but that he might stand above the People that he might be the better heard while he interpreted the Law to them But I beseech you let us not so far humour the Quakers as to take notice of all their idle impertinencies and cavils but if you have any thing of moment to object against us I am ready to give a reply to it and further to engage you to give credit and attention to what I say I profess to you that I have not spoke any thing hitherto but what I am perswaded in my Conscience is agreeable to sacred truth and I hope you will believe me without an Oath Par. An Oath would be so far from giving me any assurance of your sincerity that I should for that be the rather moved to question it for what more expresly forbidden than swearing what so contradictory to that sacred truth you profess to own I have not much convers'd with Books but I have heard that the primitive Christians whose Piety was approv'd as Gold in the Furnace of a dreadful persecution practis'd such an honest and ingenuous simplicity to that exactness and accuracy that they accounted it a disparagement to be put to an Oath But seeing you hold the lawfulness of it I hope you will prove it out of Scripture and if you can make it in any case a Duty and an act of Religion I shall then change my Opinion of this generation which I esteemed most impious and on the contrary think it very Religious through the multitude of Oaths that are so frequently in it Min. Pray tell me how the Quakers instruct you concerning an Oath Par. That I shall do presently out of a Book I lately met with intitl'd Antichristianism reproved written by Rich. Hubberthorn in answer to a Book of Mr. Tombs who it seems did vindicate the lawfulness of an Oath lawfully administred wherein Hubberthorn endeavours to make it out that all Oaths are utterly unlawful by Christ's command and therefore all such as do vindicate them are guilty of the charge of Antichristianism Min. Before I proceed in this Controversy you must tell me whether or no Oaths were ever lawful Par. Hubberthorn will answer you for his words imply that they were Therefore he tells Mr. Tombs that he failed in his instances of Abraham Isaac David and others swearing for they lived under the first Covenant Min. If Hubberthorn by the first Covenant means the Covenant of works he shews a great deal of Ignorance and folly in saying that Abraham and others after him lived under that Covenant And therefore before I proceed any further upon this discourse concerning Oaths I shall make a digression to unfold this necessary point of Religion about the nature of the two Covenants wherein as in many other things the Quakers are grosly Ignorant and Erroneous You must know then that there is a twofold Covenant which God out of his gracious condescension hath vouchsafed to enter into with man according to the different state and condition he found him in The first was made with Adam for himself and his posterity whilst he remained in the state of Innocency And this by Divines is called the Covenant of works because an exact obedience was required from him and a reward promised him upon that obedience Adam violating that Covenant and thereby falling from his Original happy state he and all mankind are made utterly uncapable of receiving any benefit thereby And now we are to consider man in another state viz. of sin and misery And Gods compassion was such that he was pleased to enter into a second Covenant with him according to the degenerate estate he was faln into and this is usually called a Covenant of Grace because a more superabundant measure of grace is seen and infinitely more favour shown in Gods entrance into Covenant with Man in his lapsed condition for his restitution and reconciliation than in his state of Integrity for his preservation This latter Covenant God made with Adam soon after his fall in these words The seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents head Gen. 3. 15. that is God shall send his Son Jesus who shall be born of the seed of the Woman and he shall destroy the power and dominion of the Divel And this afterwards he plainly repeated to Abraham Gen. 22. 17 18. And entails this promised seed to his Loyns But his Son Isaac that Type of this promised seed God commands him to offer up on Mount Moriab which command when he was about to execute a countermand stays his hand and a Ram is by Gods good Providence provided for a Sacrifice to intimate to us that the promised seed was not then to be offer'd up but should be suspended for a time and that in the mean time God would accept the Sacrifices of Rams Bulls Goats c. as Types and Figures that the promised seed should in due time offer up himself a full propitiatory Sacrifice Oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole World Now to say that Abraham Moses and David were under the first of these Covenants viz. the Covenant of works is notoriously false for that Covenant was but a small time in force and after Adam's fall
my self have I sworn saith the Lord for because thou hast done this thing c. Psalm 89. 35. Once have I sworn by my Holiness that I will not lie unto David are as if he had said As I am and as I am holy And for these or what other forms of Oaths we find in Scripture whether in more or fewer words they all do invocate God both as Witness and as Judge both to attest and revenge it if we perjure for the Swearers conscience does tell him that if God be called in to witness a lie he will both detect and revenge it All this is in the sense of every Oath So that that form in the close of our publick Oaths So help me God c. hath neither any thing new in it nor any more than is included in the sense of every Oath for execration is implyed and understood wheresoever it is not express'd even in those Elliptical forms of swearing us'd by God himself whether express'd by a bare attestation Ezech. 14. 16. Gen. 22. 16. Psalm 89. 35. or by a bare execration only as Psalm 95. ult according to that of the Learned Casuist Bishop Sanderson de juramento p. 15. Omne juramentum quocunque modo prolatum c. that is Every Oath in what manner soever it is utter'd either expresly or implicitely invocates God both as Witness and as Judge and even a bare attestation Subinfert execrationem as he saith infers an execration as its necessary consequent According to that of Plutarch Every Oath ends in a curse upon Perjury So that those mentioned forms used by St. Paul were as positive Oaths as any other you find in the Bible or any of those that are impos'd upon you by the Laws of the Land Par. I little thought that Oaths under the Gospel could have been so clearly made out Min. I shall confirm you yet by a further instance and it is that of the Angels swearing Rev. 10. 5 6. and we need not fear to imitate any thing that is done in Heaven where nothing but the will of God nothing evil and unholy can be done Our Lord has taught us to pray Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven that is as it is by the Angels whom he has propos'd to us as patterns for our imitation so that an Oath taken in due order can neither be evil in it self nor inconsistent with the heavenly conversation Par. But may not the Angels and we act under different dispensations so that that may be lawful and commanded them which to us may be forbidden Min. That the Angels and we are joyned in the same fraternity and tye of obedience even to the same Scripture is evident from the Angels confession Rev. 2 2. 9. who calls himself our Fellow-servant and of our Brethren the Prophets and of them which keep the sayings of this Book Par. But perhaps by that Book whose sayings he kept he meant no other than the Book of the Revelations Min. Suppose it were so yet that Book was indited by the same spirit that all the rest were so that whatsoever is allow'd in it cannot be contradicted or forbidden in any other Scripture All which serves to make that example of the Angel sufficiently valid to prove swearing lawful under the Gospel Par. But where do you read that St. Paul layed his hand on the Bible and kissed it when he swore as you do I thought you had held these necessary parts of a publick Oath Min. The laying on of the hand and kissing the Book we hold to be no essential parts of an Oath but only decent and comly ceremonies enjoyned by the wisdome of our Governours to make the act more solemn and to excite the Juror to a greater reverence and dread of the Majesty of God and his threatnings denounced in that Book Par. I have now nothing left to object but the forementioned Texts Matth. 5. 34. James 5. 12. whereof if you can give me as clear an account as you have done of my other doubts I shall hereafter be of your udgment and withal thankfulness acknowledge it an happy hour when I met with you but these Texts look so opposite to your design that I cannot as yet acquit my self of all fears of being Antichristian in thinking swearing lawful Min. By the same way of reasoning that the Quakers charge us with Antichristianism by vertue of those Texts I can prove them Antichristian Par. Shew wherein Min. You know that we are commanded by the Apostle to speak evil of no man Tit. 2. 3. The Quakers transgress this command by speaking evil of the Clergy therefore they do fall under the charge of Antichristianism Par. You are to consider in what sense the Apostle forbids us to speak evil of no man You are not to imagine his design in that Text is absolutely to restrain us from giving true characters of evil and unworthy men upon a just occasion then he himself had been faulty in speaking evil of Hymenaeus and Alexander the Copper-smith Besides how should we reprove or how should justice upon the most notorious offenders be administred if their faults may not be spoken of Therefore the words cannot bear a general interpretation but must be taken with a limitation for otherwise a monstrous train of absurdities must attend such an exposition But I do conceive that the words do relate to that horrid custome of reflecting upon the good names and reputations of men in their ordinary converse whereby we may deprive our Neighbour of that which is as dear to him as his life or livelyhood So that 't is speaking evil detractingly untruly or maliciously or without just occasion in our communication which is the thing there prohibited by the Apostle Min. I must confess you have given the true meaning of the Apostles words And I hope you will not abridge me of the liberty which you take your self in freeing the Texts under debate from a wrong construction of them Whereas you say I ought to consider in what sense the Apostle bids us speak evil of no man so let me tell you that you ought to consider too in what sense our Lord saith Swear not at all You are not to suppose that 't is our Lord's design to forbid all manner of Oaths upon what occasion and solemnity soever they may be tendred then as hath already been shewn St. Paul had not only been faulty in making so honourable a mention of an Oath Hebr. 6. 16. but much more faulty in taking an Oath himself and then both he and the Angel Rev. 10. had fall'n under the charge of Antichristianism Therefore according to your phrase the words cannot bear a general interpretation but must be taken with a limitation there being a peculiar and proper sense to which that prohibition is to be restrained Par. I 'm very willing to be informed therefore I beseech you explain these words Swear not at all together with those in James
endeavour to bring their silly and unstable Auditors into a contempt of Holy Scriptures and to justifie their pretences to New Lights and Revelations To proceed then whence learn they that the Word of God is quick and lively Par. Out of the Bible Heb. 4. 12. Min. What out of that Bible which they call a dead Letter Judge then whether these men are acted by the rules of sobriety and reason that call that Book a dead and sensless Letter from whence they fetch their reasons And where is the Religion of these men that take a sentence out of the Word of God to make it prove it self dead and stupid If those places quoted by them contain sense and reason why do they brand that Book with such contemptible characters by calling it dead and sensless But if those places do truly contain no reason in them why are the Quakers so sensless themselves to produce reasons from them Though the Leaves and Letters have no natural life in them is therefore the sense of the Scriptures dead And hath it no rational importance in it And are not the Quakers a company of fine Cheats to take a Bible as some in my presence have done and cry Look at this is this quick and lively as if the life natural and bodily sense were meant by that Scripture which they so wretchedly abuse and prophane Suppose the King puts forth a Proclamation wherein he declares his Royal will and pleasure do you think it fit for every man that heareth it not first proclaimed to slight it and to say it 's a dead Letter Is not this a way to evacuate to the Vulgar all Commands and all Laws that are not given to every one by audible voice Yea and to render every thing insignificant that does not walk and speak Is not this the very immediate way utterly to make void the written Word and Laws of God and to send us streight either to Enthusiasms Dreams and Phantasms or else to oral Traditions c Is there not something of a Fanatical Jesuit here no doubt but these are fine wayes to decoy an illeterate multitude as being very agreeable to them who envy Learning because it is out of their reach and who are more desirous to be led by fancy than by Laws and therefore willing enough to have all Laws of God and Man call'd dead Letters to introduce their own fancies and pretended inspirations But I pray you consider is there no use of Books and Writings If you make void the Holy Scriptures because they are written you do by the same argument make void all Histories Records and all Quakers books also yea by this means you make void your father's Will and all the Deeds by force whereof your self or any man holds his Land and may as reasonably call them dead Letters as you do the Bible But if you think your written Deeds are valid or that your written Bonds do stand in full force and vertue according to the form they run in to empower you to recover your Debts why should not the written Word of God have as much force and be as powerful to the ends for which the Wisdom of God hath design'd it as any Writings you have about you are to establish your temporal Rights or to recover your dues If these have truth force and vertue in them why should you deny that the Holy Scriptures by those heavenly truths those divine promises and threatnings written in them have power and vertue by the grace of God to awaken and quicken the reader or hearer to New life and obedience which is the meaning of its being termed quick and lively Let me further argue with you Do we not understand one anothers minds by Epistles as well as Discourses by words that are written as well as words that are spoken may you not read sense as well as hear it And I appeal to your own conscience whether you may not read as good sense in the visible Letters of the Bible as you can hear either out of the mouth of a Quaker or a Jesuit And I cannot but wonder that you whose judgment I have formerly had a better esteem of should now be transported so far besides your reason and senses Will you call the Ten Commandements written by the finger of God on two Tables of Stone useless and insignificant characters because they were on Stone Can your eyes and reason read no sense in them and whilest you have read the commands and threatnings of God hath your Conscience been so dead as not to find any life and power in them And though you undervalue the Leaves and Letters yet dare you say that you had no reverence for the Word of God when you have heard it from the mouth of your Minister preached with a lively and audible voice Par. I thank you for the pains you have taken with me for now I perceive my mistake and must consess that in this point I have been led into an error for I should be very unreasonable if I should speak any more in behalf of those absurdities which I now see are lodged in it I shall only desire some further reasons from you why Revelations are not still to be expected by us Min. I shall think no pains too much provided you will henceforth use your Reason better than hitherto you have done in the attention you have given to the Quakers and that you will now learn to suspect the teachings of those men whom you begin to see and discover and hereafter have a greater value of the Holy Scriptures that more sure word of Prophecy we being sufficiently assured let the Quakers say what they please that God's Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our paths But for any new Revelations we need them not the Apostle having declar'd unto us that the Scriptures are able to make us wise unto Salvation thorow faith which is in Christ Jesus 2 Tim. 3. 15. To look then for more Revelations or a repetition of the former would be equally an act of impudence and infidelity Par. Why of impudence and infidelity Min. Would it not be an act of infidelity not to believe God when he plainly tells us that the Scriptures themselves are able to make us wise unto salvation through faith c. and to furnish us thorowly to all good works And is it not an act of impudence when God has plainly told us that we have sufficient not to be contented with them but to expect and call for more Par. I confess I begin to have no esteem for these pretenders to new Revelations so far as they are concern'd in that point yet I can hardly be reconcil'd to Learning because it is not to be acquired without study and industry whereas surely it is against that express command and promise given to the Disciples in Mark 13. 11. Take no thought before hand what ye shall speak neither do you premeditate but