and destroying of them that saints may be kept and preserved sound and incorrupt in the faith or at least may be recovered out of errors into which they have fallen I shall give some few hints of these four particulars 1. Of the cause of Errors how they come to spring 2. Of the growth of Errors how theâ— come to spread 3. Of the cure of Errors what ought to be done to heal the persons of them and to destroy the Errors in them 4. Of the preservatives against errors when they are rife and not easily cured where they have taken root and how Christians may be kept untainted and undefiled of them 1. The causes of Errours are many by which meanes it comes to pass that many are leavened with them 1. There are many Apostate Christians who have put away a good conscience and concerning faith they have made shipwrack of it as the Apostle speaketh 1 Tim. 1. 19. and in Gods just Judgement it comes to pass many times that these have a Spirit of errour let lose upon them and these as the false Prophets and false Apostles of old go about as seducers and deceivers and say that they have dreamed and they have received a word from the Lord and they utter lyes and falsehoods in the name of the Lord these have a dextrous way of insinuation to ingratiate themselves among the people and to steale away their hearts from their sound and powerful Pastors and Teachers as the false Apostles bewitched the people and alienated their affections from the Apostles of Christ These serve not the Lord Jesus as the Apostle Paul speaketh Rom. 16. 17. but their own bellies and for filthy lucre sake make merchandize of the souls of the poore people 2. There are many persons of great parts and gifts and of unsanctified hearts and spirits these are apt to be puffed up with pride and to fall into the snare and condemnation of the divel 1. Tim. 3. 6. These are ambitious of glory and would fall under observation for singularity These are seldom wise to sobriety these have bin wont to abound in notions and conceptions to be greatly extravagant therein and Satan hath commission given unto him to enter into them to work effectually in them and by them they become notable instruments in his hands and he is a lying spirit in their hearts and tongues and these have the art and skill of putting off corrupt and adulterate Doctrine as if it had Gods touch and stamp upon it by the sharpness and acuteness of the parts and wits of these simple and more unwary Christians come to be beguiled 3. Many of the people are weake and injudicious and have not a good root of knowledge in them they do not know things in the reasons and causes of them but have received the notion of the truth without the ground of it they have not a deep insight but a superficiall knowledge onely and have seen the out side but know not the mistery within and so it comes that with every wind of Doctrine they are shaken Eph. 4. 14. through the slight of men and cunning craftiness for it is easy to present things with another face while persons look not after that which is within and the fraud and falshood comes not to be discerned for the net and the snare is not in sight and that which is specious is only presented 4. Many persons are ambitious after knowledge that they may increase it and are wholy given as the Athenians to understand news so they to understand Doctrine to arrive at higher notions and conceptions nor for the honour of God nor in affection to the truth but to furnish themselves unto discourse and to increase their repute and so they become swift in hearing and quick in receiving any new Doctrine and God gives them up to strong delusions that they may believe lyes 2 Thes 2. 10 c. who neither seek nor receive the truth in the love of it that they may be saved but that they may be praised 5. Persons that have a real inplantation into Christ and those that have onely a visible and formal inplantation but want a true ingraftment they live together not only in the world but in the Church of Christ also and are under some droppings and waterings of external enjoyments and have a name to live and yet are truly dead and the honour and praise of those that are saints indeed are put upon them Now God that discernes betwixt the sheep and the goats and seperates betwixt them and he also who unmaskes hypocrites and pluckes the vizard off from them he that can distinguish betwixt the natural complexion in his own people and the paintings of others who pretend to him but are none of his he in his providence brings an houre of temptation both upon the one and other he tryes them both with the wind of false Doctrine and heresie and for this end he doth it that they which are approved may beâ—e manifest and that the hypocrisie of the rest may be made detected that himself may have glory in his own and that the others may ly under shame 1 Cor. 11. 19. And the Apostle John saith they went out from us because they were not of us which is appliable to false Doctrine and error and heresie they left the truth and those that adhered to it and they went out after error 6 Many persons forsake or never put themselves in to that order which Christ hath appointed for Saints to walk in in which they might be watched over and so kept by which meanes they are in a state as sheep without shepheards and when the Wolfe commeth they become a prey for the shep are not able through weakness and simplicity to defend themselves if there be no shepheard to provide for their safety and poor weak well meaning Christians are less able sheep will fly from danger though that doth not save â—hem alwayes but Saints many times mistrust no evill and so decline not the danger The Apostle declares how he himself watched for the space of three yeers with many teares to prevent this evill of the flock being devoured by Wolves and he calls the Elders of Ephesus together and gives them this charge that they would take heed to themselves and to the flock over which the holy Ghost hath made them overseers to feed the Church of God that is with sound incorrupt doctrine and he renders this reason because after his decease grievous Wolves should enter in not sparing the flock and men of perverse minds amongst themselves Acts 20. 28 29 30. And it is to be observed that such persons how wise soever how holy soever they do professe to be and really may be who cast off Ordinances and Churches and Ministry and say there are now no Pastours nor Teachers nor flocks committed to them as in Primitive times there were and so withdraw themselves from the vigilancie of
scatter the clouds nor clear up their judgements Now Church admonition is the best expedient to bring them to repentance as the Apostle speaks of Hymeneus I have delivered him up to Satan saith he that he may learne not to blaspheme that is by denying a doctrine which he ought to have professed And so such scales of ignorance which were by sin contracted are by Church-censure removed many times Obj. But what if such persons be very holy in their lives and very profitable in their Communion must they notwithstanding undergo the censure of the Church Sol. 1. There is no holinesse but what flows from the doctrine of the Gospel rightly entertained and held by faith Therefore so long as they waver in the faith in points of great concernment and moment their holinesse must of necessity be waved also the Apostle saith Gal. 1. 7 8. Though I or an Angel from heaven bring any other Gospel and yet he means it of circumcision held by some as necessary to salvation let him be accursed 2. Such persons that are pertinacious in a corrupt opinion are evil leaven and their Communion cannot be so profitable as it is like to be hurtful to the fellowship to which they do belong 3. If they be Saints which do so greatly erre from the faith there ought to be so much the more compassion shewed to them and the greatest love and compassion that can be shewed lies in this to use the last remedy to them when other remedies fail and are ineffectual and it is the greatest cruelty to withhold any means which God hath sanctified for the healing of such as from Exod. 23. appears 5. What one Church of Jesus Christ doth this way in the execution of censure justly and according to rule all the Churches ought to ratifie for if such who are bound by any Church on earth be bound also in heaven then all the Churches in the world have not power to acquit or lose from it therefore in their walking towards such persons great or small they ought to confirme it by having no Communion nor fellowship with such that so such persons may come to see the miserable condition that they are in and may be ashamed and if any Churches or Christians should walk otherwise they sin against Christs ordinance and harden such persons in their sin and hinder their repentance and returning to the truth and will draw the blood of such souls upon their heads If this course were held with such who erre grossely and will not be healed it would awaken those who have left their first faith and are turned after fables and might recover them and would bring a trembling upon the rest that stand firme and unshaken and might preserve them from the like temptations and then there would be no cause for the interposing of the Magistrate which some do relish so evilly The fourth and last thing that I am to discusse is what the preservatives are by which persons may be kept in times in which errours are rife and the danger great in that respect 1. Let every person that pretends to saintship look to his implantation into Christ that it be right and true and that it be firme and sure and then it is to be hoped that he will abide in the Vine and the Vine in him and then he is more likely to stand fast in the faith for there is one that is able to keep him from falling and will keep him and if he fall he shall rise againe for there is one that is able to raise him and will raise him The greatest security of the Saints that they shall not depart from the faith is in their union and communion with Christ 2. Let persons commit themselves to God to be kept by him who can strengthen and settle and establish those that rest on him and wait for him while persons have leaned to their own understanding and have not looked up to the rock that is higher then they and come out of themselves and put their trust in him and begged his teaching and leading they have become vain in their thoughts and have erred from the truth 3. Let persons get a good root of knowledge within themselves and not attain onely to a generall knowledge of things but come up to a particular knowledge of them and know all things in the causes thereof so farre as Scripture gives light or as they have been taught for then though some other thing may be presented to them then what they have received yet the reasons of the things which they have beleeved will not be so soon answered in their souls If persons have but a forme of knowledge within them it is soon overturned 4. Let the love of the truth be laboured after as well as the knowledge of it for persons will be unwilling to relinquish that truth which they have found much sweetnesse in 5. Let the Scriptures be diligently searched into and perused and studied and let them be compared together and let Scripture intepret it selfe and let one Scripture give the sense of another Scripture when persons take up some one or two single scriptures and runne away with them without comparing them with other Scriptures they are led aside to error 6. Christians ought to take heed whom they hear what they hear and how they hear because of many Seducers and Deceivers that are gone abroad into the world and because there are many spirits of Antichrist who yet pretend to Christ 7. Christians ought to become wise unto sobriety and not to think of themselves above what is meet but to have humble and low thoughts of themselves for if once Christians be lifted up they readily fall in this snare of the Devill which is Error and Heresie 8. Christians ought to walk up to that light of truth that they have attained to because there is a promise belonging to such who will live in and practise the truths which they know John 7. 17. 9. Saints ought to consider that they have no more of the grace of faith then they hold of the doctrin of faith for they therfore beleeve because they have such a word of God to ground their belief upon if then they hold not that Word their belief will fall with it and then must needs be shaken as much in the grace of faith as they are in the ground of faith 10. Let them consider that there is no godlinesse but what grows out of the Gospel and springs from the truths of it if therefore the doctrine of grace in Christ be once overturned in the soule all godlinesse will be soon overturned with it 1 Tim. 6. 3. Tit. 1. 1. 11. Let them consider that if once they become unstable in the faith they become unstable in all their wayes for it is as when a tree is not firmly deeply and surely rooted in the earth but is loose in the ground it growes not flourisheth not nor is fruitful like to other
with his Fathers and Christ may read all the decrees of the Father in himself in his own wisdome and will And he is called the wisdome of the Father and the admirable counsellour 1 Cor. 1. 24. Esay 9. 6. And the Disciples attributed to him the knowing of all things John 16. 30. and John 21. 17. 4. It is inconsistent to the place which he cites that Christ should be absolutely ignorant of the day and hour of judgement to the context on every hand for Christ had told all the forerunners of it the things that should precede and something that should follow the temper of men of that age when it should be the security that should be in the world at that time he himself was to be the person that must come as Judge and he was to depart and then to come and he was to appoint every one his work till he come till the very day and hour of his coming the parable declares so much and could he then be ignorant of the day and hour it is against sense and reason Christ then had knowledge of the very precise time of judgement and yet he had not knowledge he saith so himself how is it to be understood as he was the Son of man according to the man-hood he had not the knowledge thereof but as he was the Son of God he had the knowledge thereof Col. 1. 15. was next produced by me to prove the eternal generation of Christ by it But he had perverted the true sense of it before he came to it and made use of it to serve his own purpose by it while he was pleading for that unchrist-like doctrine which he had received and was ingaged to maintain it And in this place he only tels me he had spoken to it and with a scornful jeere prayes me to consider it again and by my next to let him hear what part thereof it is in which Christs eternal generation may be seen Rep. In this text of Col. 1. 15. Christ is called the first born of every creature and his eternal generation was meant by it which I have proved already in my other Treatise and shall yet again manifest it 1. First-born is not the same with first created 1. because it cannot be proved by Scripture that Christ was created at all therefore not that he was first created 2. In the beginning he was but no mention of any beginning that he had 3. There is expresse mention that heaven and earth were first created for in the beginning they were created and before the beginning nothing was created 4. Christ was born according to the flesh but he was not the first-born but in fulnesse of time was born therefore in reference to his humanity and as he was the seed of the woman he is not called first-born 5. First born and first-begotten are termes equivalent and point at one and the same thing viz. or some person that did perform such an act as begetting of Christ 6. First-born first-begotten and only-begotten are alike congruous and may equally so far as concerns the truth of the thing be attributed to Christ so that whatever is the meaning of such titles or names there is a peculiarity therein to Christ and Christ hath therein no fellows and so it can neither be applyed to creation nor to ordinary and temporary generation for it cannot be said that Christ was onely created nor onely generated and begotten nor onely born for there were numerous creatures created and innumerable generated in the ordinary way But Christ was alone so begotten and so born of God as none else were 7. Christ speaks of himself that which none other can speak but he God possessed me in the beginning of his way before his workes of old possessed me how As Eve possessed Cain for the word is one in the original and it is rendred gotten and indeed he must be begotten so the Lord possessed Christ got Christ begot Christ in the beginning of his way and when was that beginning in the beginning of the world no it was before his works of old or ever the earth was and the earth was the first together with the heavens in the beginning yet Christ was before not in the beginning of the creation but in the begininng of Gods way now Gods way was from everlasting therefore Christs going forth hath been from of old from everlasting Mich. 5. 2. his decrees were from everlasting and God was ever working therefore it is explicated verse 23. I was set up from everlasting in the beginning the one interprets the other the beginning of Gods way is from everlasting Thus I have found eternal generation in these words first born and in his next let him evade it if he can I shall now come to the consideration of Col. 1. 16. By him were all things created c. and John 1. 3. All things were made by him and without him was made nothing that was made In answer to which he thinks he hath acted his part gallantly but let us hear what it is that he saith He puts the Scriptures into an argument after this sort He by whom all things were made is the most high God but all things were made by Jesus Christ therefore Jesus Christ is the most high God He grants the major in reference to the principal agent but denies it in reference to an instrumental agent And saith he asserts Jesus Christ to be onely an instrumental agent in the creation of the world Rep. I have already in many places of my other Treatise because he often harps upon Christs instrumentalnesse to the Father in creating all things confuted this assertion yet if he have any thing to say in the defence of it I am willing to discusse it with him And he produceth four reasons for the confirming of his position I shall try the strength of them 1. The book of the creatures speaks onely of one first cause and principal agent of all things of a Trinity of persons in unity of essence as principal agents in the work of creation the whole creation is silent Rep. 1. If the book of the creatures were wholly silent yet if the book of the Scriptures be not silent we are to attend the book of the Scriptures if the book of the creatures would have taught us all things that we ought to believe concerning God what need had there been of the book of the Scriptures 2 The book of the creatures doth teach many things which we understand not from them the defect is in us not in it we are dul in apprehending and slow of heart in beleeving what the book of the Scriptures doth teach us therefore may not conceive aright what the book of the Creatures doth teach us 3 The heathen Philosophers from the principles of Reason have acknowledged a Trinity of Persons in the unity of Essence as Morneus a French Lord in that exquisite piece of his called The truenesse of
and therefore cannot leave a distinct impression in any work His second Argument by which he would prove Christ to be but an instrumental Agent in creating the world is fetch'd from Reason his words are these The second reason proceeds from the verdict of pure Reason If Reason may obtain credit she will tell us that there could be in the work of Creation but one principall agent because there is by nature but one God for if there were two principall agents there must be two Gods the terms being convertible Repl. 1. There is neither pure Reason nor cleer Reason to be found among men and while he pleads so earnestly for Reason he loseth himself and the Truth in corrupted and darkened Reason which he too much follows and being in pursuit after Reason what it will present he turns aside from Scripture and attains not the knowledg of the Truth which he would seem to contend for Rep. 2. He argues from plurality of Agents in the Creation to plurality of Gods which would have force and strength in it if we held plurality of Agents really and essentially distinct from one another but if the Agent be one in essence and personally onely more then one which is the doctrine we hold no such absurd consequence will follow that there should be two or more Gods because there are two or more Agents personally but not essentially differing from one another 3. His third Reason issues from the nature of Christs being Christ is the image of the invisible God and so is distinguished from God because the image and the thing whereof it is an image is not the same in that nothing can be the image of it self Col. 1. 15. Repl. Where it is said that Christ is the image of God God is there taken Synechdochically or personally for the Father as will appear if you compare it with Heb. 1. 3. where he is called the express image of his Fathers person Now Christ may be the image of the Father and yet not the image of himself for though God taken essentially do not differ from himselfe and therefore he cannot in that sense be the image of God and be God himself because he should then be the image of himself yet God taken personally for the Father may differ from himself taken personally for the Son that is one person may doth differ from another and one may be the image of another the Son of the Father and may in that sense be the image of God and yet not of himself though he be God But he renders a reason why Christ is called the image of God Because saith he God did manifest his divine glory and dominion over the creature through him chiefly for which reason also man is called the image and glory of God 1 Cor. 11. 7. Repl. Christ according to his manhood may be called the image of God because of that glory and dominion that he was lifted up to for he was made head of all principality and power but he was the image of God in an higher way also viz. as he was a Son Heb. 1. 2. 3. which Sonship was before this collated Lordship which he had for he was a Son before there was any creature to rule over as himself hath confessed and if a Son then the image of his Father but this was discussed in my former Treatâ—se therefore I might have passed it over in silence He saith further that Christ is called the first-born of every creature Repl. The urging and the answering of this is but to weary the Reader with frivolous repetitions therefore I referre him to what hath been represented already both in the former and in this present Treatise concerning this Title First-born of every creature To conclude The force of this argument lies in this whole Christ is a creature and therefore but an instrumental Agent to prove the Antecedent he produceth Col. 1. 15. produced before He might have cited rehearsed all those Arguments Scriptures of his which he brought before wherewith he filled many pages as aptly fitly as he hath mentioned these but with little profit or delight to the Reader I shall conclude my answer to this argument that when ever he shall be able to prove Christ to be a creature I will yeild him to be an instrumentall Agent But then it must be done with repetitions I now come to answer his fourth reason which he saith doth spring from the manner of Christ's working saith he though Christ had an hand in the Creation of the world yet was it not originally of him 1 Cor. 8. 6. All things are of the Father but not of but by Jesus Christ the Father is made the first cause and originall of all things and Christ the instrument of the Father 2. In that it is said in Scripture that God acted by him in the work of creation Ephes 3. 9. where it is said that God created all things by Jesus Christ so in Heb. 1. 2. Repl. I find no new strength of argument here but what I have met with before have largely answered before in that former Treatise of mine to which I referre the Reader for I am ashamed to follow him in his causlesse iterations and repetitions yet I shall add something to what I have represented seeing he gives me an occasion As there is a distinct order of subsisting so there is a distinct order of working And the divine essence subsisting in three persons these persons work in three distinct manners the Son being begotten of the Father worketh from the Father The Son can do nothing of himself but what he seeth the Father do John 5. 19. And the Father begetting the Son worketh by the Son Col. 1. 16. 20. and in very many more places So the Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and from the Son worketh from them both in John 16. 13. He shall not speak of himselfe but as he hears so shall he speak and he shall take of mine and shew unto you yet neither the Son nor the Holy Ghost do work as instruments The Son doth not for that is the subject in hand to be discussed nor doth the Greek particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is here translated by shew so much for it is prefixed to the works of the Father as well as to the works of the Son Gal. 1. 1. Paul an Apostle not of men nor by men but by Jesus Christ and God the Father Here we may observe three things 1. That these particles or prepositions are not always distinguishing particles putting difference betwixt thing and thing to which they are applyed but they many times are promiscuously used and are confounded for of and by applied to men do import the same thing 2. The particle by doth not declare the person to whom it is applied to be an instrument for it is applied to the Father equally as to Jesus Christ But he will not assert the Father to be an
Saviour or an unequal Saviour to Christ because Christ and not he is called a Saviour And is not Christ called both the blessed hope and the great God our Saviour Are not both titles put upon him as due to him And though they are used by the Apostle to distinguish the persons of Father and Son from each other when they are spoken of together yet both these are applyed to both persons and are proper to him alone that is the most high God But he saith Scripture doth prefer God in the work of salvation before our Lord Jesus Christ making him to be the principal Agent therein when it declares that the work of Christ in saving was from the purpose of God who appointed him for it from the precept of God who injoyned him to it and from the presence of God who assisted him in it Reply But where doth Scripture witness this of God the Father in reference to the whole of Christ He saith Scripture doth abundantly set forth all these but he doth not quote any one place for proof of them but would have us receive it upon his word That God purposed to save by Christ considered as David's and Mary's son considered according to his Manhood that God enjoyned him as such that God assisted him as such God being taken essentially and properly for Father Son and holy Ghost and not improperly and personally for the Father will be granted and it will be plentifully made out by Scripture but that the Father purposed without the Son and holy Ghost and commanded and enjoyned without the Son and holy Ghost and assisted without the Son and holy Ghost this is denied For as the Father without the Son and holy Ghost made not man but the Trinity sate in Councel Let us make man so it was in the work of Salvation it was an act of Councel The Father gave the Son and the Son gave himself emptied himself every Person concurred and wrought in the work so far as concerns efficiencie All decreed it all acted in it as one principal Agent and onely the Humanity of Christ was Instrumental And if we consider the Material and Meritorious cause of mens salvation God the Father or God in the person of the Father is far from being the Principal cause thereof for he is no cause at all for the Father took not flesh upon him nor was Mediator either of Satisfaction or Intercession he made not the Atonement but this was the Son's sole work he did all in it he was the person that was made of a Virgin and was made under the Law he was the person that was made flesh and manifested in flesh and hath a peculiar right in this respect to the denomination of Saviour And though all was acted and endured in and by the flesh that he assumed for he bare our sins on his body on the tree yea and in his soul also when he cried out My God my God c. in such manner yet if that flesh had not been supported by the Godhead of the Son which assumed it it would have been crumbled to dust and powder by that weight of wrath that lay upon it So that it was by the vertue and power of the Godhead that such actings and such sufferings were and all was accounted as done and suffered by the Son though the Son as the Son was not capable of it but by assuming flesh into the unity of his person and so it came to be reckoned as his work and it was in account as if the Lord of glory had been crucified and as if the blood of God had been spilt and the merit was from the excellencie of the person of the Son that did and suffered all But he further saith That the Scripture revealeth the Lord Christ to be in the work of salvation but an instrumental Saviour For this saith he see Tit. 3. 4 5 6. which puts it past all question But after that the kindness and love of God and our Saviour towards man appeared not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Lord. Reply Here is in these words of his First A bold assertion viz. That Scripture revealeth Christ to be but an instrumental Saviour Secondly A peremptory Conclusion that Tit. 3. 4 5 6. puts it out of question Thirdly A defective and insufficient probation or confirmation he alledgeth the words of the Text as if they did carry with them conviction of what he asserts in the very letter of them when as there is no such matter 1. Scripture is so far from revealing such a thing of Christs instrumentalness that it reveals the contrary to it in Heb. 1. 3. it is said That Christ by himself purged away our sins but of any instruments can it be said that by himself he doth any thing Doth an instrument act by himself that is by his own vertue and sufficiency and by himself that is without the power of the principal efficient Is an Instrument any thing out of the hand of the chief Agent Also in Heb. 7. 25. it is said That Christ is able to save to the utmost But is any Instrument able to save to the utmost Hath he the ability within himself So that it may be said of him that he is able What greater thing can be predicated of the principal efficient or chief Agent then that he is able to save to the utmost This is too high an expression for an Instrument And in Psal 89. 19 it is said of Christ whom David typified that God had laid help upon one that was mighty If Christ be onely but an Instrument what needs he to be mighty in himself for every Instrument if it be mighty through the might of another as the Rams horns were it is sufficient What needed the choice of a mighty one if the Saviour be onely instrumental The weaker the Instrument the more honour will the Principal Efficient have The excellencie of Power is known to be of God when the instrumental means is Weakness and Foolishness Why also could not the blood of Goats have cleansed the Conscience but the Blood of JESUS CHRIST God's Son was necessary if an Instrument may be a Saviour Doubtless a word of Institution would have made the one as effectual as the other But indeed there is no might that any creature-Instrument is capable to be recipient or the subject of that can save to the utmost because it requires an infinite power to conquer Sin and Satan Death and Hell to abolish these and to bring Life and Immortality to light to effect a first and second Resurrection for men who were to be saved Secondly The Scripture that he alleadgeth out of Titus 3. 3 4 â— hath no such thing engraven upon it as he produceth it for such that he that runs may read it
alwaies to the end of the world But whether this be sollidly or slightly done I shall leave to the Reader to judge after I have presented it to his view The tenth Argument or Instance was this Inst 10. If Christ be a meer creature then how can he protect and defend and save and direct and rule and govern his Church in all the world in every condition and against all enemies he being at such a distance and remoteness from the Church and yet it is said of him that he is able to save to the utmost those that come to God by him Heb. 1. 25. and that he is with them to the end of the world And Christ stood by Paul and strengthned him in suffering Acts 23. 11. And Christ saith Rev. 3. 10. Because thou hast kept the word of my patience I will also keep thee from the hour of Temptation So that it is Christ now in heaven that keeps the saints on earth which being a meer creature he cannot do The Reader may easily observe that the force of this Instance lies in two particulars especially 1. If he be a meer creature how will he be able how can he have power to perform such acts as those are that are mentioned conducing to the safety and welfare of his Church having such enemies to conflict with and such evils to save from 2. How can he do it at such distance How can he do it he being in heaven and they being on earth What vertue is that that is in Christ as meer man that reacheth the Saints in all places and is sufficient to preserve and keep and rule and govern them He may also cast his eye upon the Scriptures which I quote of which Matth. 28. 20. is but one to which he refers me and the rest he passeth over in silence as if they were all of them answered in his answer to Matth. 28. 20. but let his answer to that text be surveyed and it will appear to be otherwise I shall re-mind the Reader of the sum of it These works of instructing comforting strengthning he doth in his absence by his Spirit whom the Father hath sent in his Name for the Spirit which came in Christs name was the instrument by which Jesus Christ did the work Doth this answer of his satisfie in reference to that Text in Heb. 7. 2. He is able to save to the utmost those that come to God by him Is this the meaning of it he is not able by himself to save to the utmost but by the Spirit who is his Instrument he is able If it be then Christ alone is not a sufficient Saviour but Christ and the Spirit together or rather Christ is insufficient but the Spirit is sufficient and yet but a creature and inferiour to Christ and his Instrument But the Apostles designe is to set out not the Spirits sufficiency but Christs sufficiency Much less is satisfaction given by this answer of his to Acts 23. 11. where it is said that the Lord stood by Paul and said be of good cheer Paul for as thou hast testified of me at Jerusalem so must thou bear witness of me at Rome Suppose this were done in a Vision yet the Vision is of Christ not of the Spirit I have not said that the Spirit stood by the Lord and it is the presence of Christ himself and the consolation of Christ himself that Paul in this Vision is instructed of though neither the Father nor the holy Ghost is to be excluded for Father Son and holy Ghost are all of them present with all saints alwaies and do all of them work the same work the order still observed So that when it is said that the Father and the Son do instruct or protect by the Spirit it must not be understood that they are causa adjuvantes causes helping one another for all of them are all-sufficient and all of them do effect the whole work in such an order of working much less that the Spirit is only operative and the Father and Son are inactive in the work and are onely authorative in it and do imploy the Spirit as their instrument as the lord of the house doth act things by his servants whom he imploys as messengers to effect such things or whom he appoints or designs for such undertakings for so would he have us to conceive of Christ that he doth nothing himself but is contained in heaven and is neither present nor acts any thing on earth but sends the Spirit to effect all for him and this Spirit is present and doth all that is done and Christ himself doth nothing For this is confuted in this Vision where the Lord shew himself present and he himself gives out the word of good cheer and effects it also by his own power The next Instance or Argument in order which he gives answer to I shall pass over reserving it to the last place and shall vindicate the Instance that follows as is last in the paper from that unkind dealing which it meets with from him The Argument is this Inst 11. If Christ be a meer creature then Prayer to him being now in heaven is altogether vain and frivolous in as much as persons may cry aloud long enough before Christ hear them at that distance but the Saints have bin wont not onely to pray to God in Christs name but to pray to Christ directly and immediately in Acts 7. 57. Rev. 22. 20. Lord Jesus receive my spirit Come Lord Jesus His answer is By the rule of the Gospel we are to pray to God or the Father in the name of Christ Jesus you have nothing to countenance prayer to Christ but the two Texts you mention If Stephen did pray directly to Jesus Christ his act might be warranted by the visible appearance of Jesus Christ as Lot prayed to the Angel being visible That in Revelation is no prayer but an intimation of the Churches desire after Christ's coming the like manner of speaking we have Rev. 6. 16. which is no prayer Repl. Here is a bundle of conclusions and monstrous untruths packed up together 1. He saith By the rule of the Gospel we are to pray to God or the Father in the name of Jesus Christ which being taken exclusively as he must needs understand it else he speaks at randome and not to the thing viz. that prayer to Christ is against the rule of the Gospel is very false and herein he condems the generation of Gods children and Stephen more especially who prayed to God the Son for every Text of Scripture that enjoyns prayer to God enjoyns it to the whole Trinity to Father Son and Spirit and not to the Father only because there is no God but he who is one in Essence and three in persons as hath been proved before And let him shew that rule that enjoyns prayer to God viz. the Father excluding the Son and the holy Ghost if he can and if he cannot let him