word of God to declare from God his call is not by man neither doth he go to man to be approved for he that preached the true Gospel consulted not with flesh and blood and so it is now the same thing do we witness and to be Ministers of the everlasting Gospel called not by man but by God Thus far E. B. Let the light in R. F. his natural conscience judge whether I said not truly when I referred to E. B. his Book as pleading onely for an immediate call and that none preach the true Gospel but such as have that call and then let the light of the Scriptures above cited to Timothy and Titus judge whether such as they laid hands on were Ministers or no and whether the Gospel they preached was true Gospel or not By Ed. Burroughs verdict such were not called of God because they had a hand in their call nor could they preach true Gospel because their call nor could they preach true Gospel because their call was but mediate But praised be God we neither stand nor fall to these mens verdicts the Lord himself by the Scripture shall judge them and us And as to All have not call to office who have outward liberty of preaching that which E. Burroughs saith about the Ministery called by earthly powers or at Oxford c. according to Scripture I distinguish between their outward encouragement and call to office Earthly powers are to give outward liberty to such as by the Godly-learned are tryed and approved as men fit to have publique liberty and encouragement 2 Chro. 17. 7 8 9. The call to office in the Church is by the Church Again we must distinguish between Pauls not consulting with flesh and blood whether he had a true call or the true Gospel being immediately called and taught by Probation an approbation requisite for whom Jesus Christ and ordinary mens refusal to be tryed and approved either for the obtaining of outward liberty or office for the Rule is clear as to ordinary officers 1 Tim. 3. 10. Let these also first be proved which also presupposeth the Bishops and Elders to be under the command of Christ for submission to a tryal as the Deacons first and before they be chosen to the work And as concerning those who assume liberty to teach it is commended in Hezekiah 2 Chron. 30. 22. that he spake comfortably unto all the Levites that taught the good knowledge of the Lord And in the Angel of the Church of Ephesus Rev. 2. 2. that he had tryed them which said they were Apostles and were not and had found them lyars which is the plain case now in controversie between us and the Quakers whether they be Apostles seeing they pretend to immediate calling and whether we are Pastors and Teachers who are called by the Church or whether they are not lyars who say they are Apostles and bring not the doctrine and zeal of true Apostleship Till the Lord doth more discover them and all pretenders to one call or other I must attend R. F. and examine what he further offereth All thy mediate calls and sendings will not prove thee to be as Paul and Timothy was that had the gift within him and the testimony by the holy Ghost as they had Rep. 1. I pretend to no such call of an Apostle an officer in every Church as was Paul or of an Evangelist an assisting officer to the Apostles where they saw fit to send him as was Timothy Titus and others 2. All that R. F. saith of his immediate call will not prove him to be called as Paul was by a voice from heaven for then haply he might have heard sounding in his ears Richard Richard why dost persecute me with thy calumnies and reproaches Or Farnworth Farnworth why dost throw dirt upon my face by pretending to honor me as the word of God and ownest not my Scriptures to be my word Why dost deny my Spirit to be what he is c. 3. I acknowledge the gift within and testimony by the holy Ghost when they are found in us to be the best Letters Inward call to be tried by the outward fruits testimonial as to an inward call but these suffice not to prove the outward call unless the fruits of that inward gift and testimonial appear If the gift and testimony within would carry it before men as to the man himself that hath them and that R. F. did know it in those that he dis-owns for the Ministers of Christ I think he would not crucifie them so often with the ignominious title of Romish Priests and Hirelings but how shall he or we be known among men if our words and works without be not called forth to bear witness of what is within By thy words thou R. F. shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned Mat. 12. 37. I am to answer at the same Bar and to be tryed the same way Our words must be tryed by Gods word and our works also by the same Rule If Scripture of Old and New Testament be the Scripture of God there have been counterfeits of an immediate call and some mediately sent of God by man who with their mediate call have been and still are approved of the Lord. Section 46. TO this Section R. F. saith nothing in his wonted shew of words but is wholly silent where I had noted that as they cry up their own pretended immediate Call so they condemn any mediate call as carnal for mediate say * Glory of the Lord c. pag. 6 7. they is carnal and natural I granted there is a call of man by man which is carnal and I instanced in such people as make choice of carnal men by the hands of a carnal common forein Eldership But this is not our Question they fight All mediate calls not carnal against the most orderly call if man hath any hand or voice or consent testified about it Hence it is that R. F. will not vouchsafe with patience to take notice of the two Scriptures which I desired the Reader to compare viz. Acts 14. 23. with chap. 20. 28. where the Elders called by the Churches and set apart by their and the Apostles fasting and prayer are said to be the Holy Ghost's Bishops such as He made Overseers Accordingly are all Elders Pastors and Teachers called if called of God Even Evangelists were called of God by man Mark by Barnabas and Paul * Acts 13 5. Timothy Titus Silas or Sylvanus and others by * Acts 16. 3. Titus 1. 5 Acts 15. 40. Paul much more fixed Officers set in every Congregational Society As the Apostles had a power Paramount under Christ to call and take Evangelists to their assistance so the Churches had a power from Christ to chuse their Pastors Teachers Elders Deacons and to set them apart by prayer and fasting and what power they had then they have still who are Churches or companies of
a covenant of works His Doctrine is b Ib. 175. That there is no certain ordination from eternity upon any soul particularly which is yet to be born but onely a common universal foreseeing of grace which will suit with the light in every man held out by Quakers as the beginning of Christ and the good use of that light as that grace foreseen He jerks at c Ib. page 182 our feeding upon bread and cup of Christ and so doth R. F. In many other things they are agreed He hath stampt a name upon his book of Election d Ib. page 195 The longer the better liked the more sought the more found which I hope will among those that shall be saved never prove true but the contrary The longer the more loathed the more sought and searched the more detected and the more found the more rejected notwithstanding all his Teutonick Sublimations There is a Dialogue between Launcher and Love-well printed with J. Behme's two Letters which is said to be none of his but it harmonizeth with his Doctrine and the Quakers who build up a kingdom of works upon as sandy a foundation A passage most notorious is this * Dialogue between Launcher and Lovewel p 89 Christ hath his deserving and I shall have mine written in opposition to the application of Christ and of his merits by faith and another is like hereunto a Ib. page 112 He hits the nail on the head who perceiveth that all his wen-lacing is that men believe to become as Adam was before the fall Not Christ as a Redeemer then but the improvement of what Talent men have and trusting thereunto in the mutability of their own wills must bring them unto life if they will have it so Such kinde of stuff or worse if worse may be these men have learned haply at home from Will. Erbury of late in his Call to the Churches which book was brought me by the same She-disciple that brought R. F. his Answer before who gave it out that he was the fore-runner to the Quakers as John Baptist was to Christ it seems then he was to decrease as they were to increase but I am of the minde though he hath by his packet of Letters and pamphlets helpt towards their increase yet they shall decrease and consume away with the last piece of Antichrists skin and bones He denies it * Call to the Churches by W Erbury page 4. to be Gospel that few shall be saved and expostulates the matter in these terms What Gospel or glad tidings is it to tell the world that none shall be saved but the Elect and Believers He calls Christ a Legal Teacher and saith if you will believe him The Gospel he taught was but in part that which was proper onely to the Jewish Church not that to be preached to the world And * Ib. page 6. the gospel which the Apostles preached to the world 't was not that which they wrote to the Churches nor yet what they read in the Scriptures of the Prophets But the Gospel was a mystery which in the light of God they could manifest to men and make all men see themselves in God that 's in Christ and * Ib. page 9. God in our flesh as in Christs that is according to the Familistical conceit God dwelling as much and after the same way in our flesh as in Christs For the mystery of faith was more saith he then men imagine and it may be more then Paul wrote to the Romans and Churches of Galatia Here are sweet suggestions to set people a quaking indeed among the devils and to look from the Scripture for another Gospel though there be no other then that which Paul preached and wrote to the Galatians cap. 1. 6 7. in their own hearts and to lay down their lives in another way for the brethren as the fickle woman that brought me the book told me she had thereby learned then the Apostle intended 1 John 3. 16. viz. to die to the use of all our Gospel-ordinances for any of which he saith * Ib. page 19. we have not so much as Scripture As true as that * Ib. page 37. Christs coming again promised Acts 1. 11. was nothing but his coming in Spirit and Power in the Saints and in their flesh when they are most confused and dark Such kinde of cloudy interpretations in Scripture these men have drunk down no coming of Christ in body again is owned by many of them Christ had a body onely while he was upon the earth which W. E. intimateth in his marginal note * Ib. page 39. and inferreth Because the days of his flesh was when he was on earth therefore his being now in heaven is all in the Spirit for he is far above all heavens whereas the Apostle Heb. 5. 7. useth the phrase of days of his flesh to hold forth his state of infirmity and humiliation and not to deny his now being in Heaven in a true body glorified which Heaven where he is is far above all these heavens of air and sky visible to our eyes at present as his person which is not his manhood though the manhood is-united to his person is far above i. e. in dignity and immensity the Heavens as yet invisible to us and with the Godhead is not contained in the Heaven of Heavens But this of W. E. is like the notion and apprehension of J. Nayler who when he was asked by Justice Pearson Is Christ in thee as man answered Christ filleth all places and is not Sauls Errand to Damascus page 32. divided separate God and man and he is no more Christ whereas in Christ God-man his two natures are to be distinguished although his person is not divided Some strengthning to their fort of Babel our Quakers have received from the followers of Pelagius and Arminius who call Nature Grace as these magnifie Natures light and call it Christ within them who call the Notions of the Godhead the Elements and first Rudiments of Salvation as these call them the first Principles of Religion and the Corner-stone How come they to lead men from the Scriptures to the Creatures but that some had said before them Christ was and is preached in the Sun Moon and Stars And again how come they to say We cannot see how the Gospel of Christ is preached to every creature under heaven if it be not the Principle of light in the conscience if they were not acted by the same spirit Or how say they produce one Scripture that speaks of a natural light if they had not read or heard of some Arminian dictate to this purpose viz. The Scripture knows not the word natural in any such sense or signification wherein it should express or distinguish the unregenerate state of a man from the regenerate How do they jump in one minde concerning Peters being out of the state of justification when he denied his Master and about
perswasion and satisfaction with our selves and here is the ground of mens believing what we speak from and according to what is written Will R. F. or any say If our trust must be in the Lord we are not then to ground our faith on the Scriptures I must tell him from Christ that the not grounding a mans faith upon the Scriptures is an evidence that he grounds it not upon the Lord the very Scriptures will accuse such to be unbelievers for thus our Lord reasoneth against the Jews John 5. 45 46. There is one that accuseth you even Moses in whom ye trust For had ye believed Moses ye would have believed me for he wrote of me Section 6. I Had charged them with putting figurative Glosses upon plain Scripture R. F. pag. 7. shuffles in here and there a line or two for answer but nothing to the purpose onely in way of shift he hath these two subterfuges 1 In quoting John 1. 1 2 3. he addeth this is plain Scripture without figurative gloss the glosses are thy own Rep. 1. As plain Scripture as it is it is alledged by him to set all the rest of Scripture aside from being Gods word For what if by the Scripture-letter the world was not made but by Christ the Eternal Essential Word of which John speaks hath it not been sufficiently shewed in what sense the Scripture-letter is and is truly called the word of God 2. By his unreasonable reasoning he doth altogether hide and conceal from the Reader of his book what instance I gave in mine of their figurative gloss upon plain Scripture viz. 1 Cor 14. 34 35. By woman is meant the weak 1 Cor. 14. 34 35. vindicated with 1 Tim. 2. 11 c. corrupt part and by man the Spirit in either sex and by the Husband is meant Christ contrary to the true sense of the Apostle given by the same Apostle not onely in his reasons upon the place but in that first Epistle to Timothy 2. 11 12 13 14. This Gloss is theirs and yet unreasonably he calls it mine the fancy mine and the meaning 's mine which he denieth whereas I gave none but the Apostles own Hence I argue He who sets Paul against Paul or owns not Paul's plain exposition of himself but puts figurative glosses upon the Text contradicts the Scripture but thus doth R. F. with others He that would be further satisfied about his egregious glossings this way may read his Pamphlet of a sheet * Entit led A woman forbidden to speak in Church printed 1654. by it self A taste whereof whosoever meets not with that sheet may take as followeth a page 3. The woman or wisdom of the flesh is forbidden to speak in the Church b page 5. The Apostle saith Let your women keep silence in the Church he doth not say Let the Spirit of God keep silence in the Temple c page 7. It is carnality that is forbidden to intermingle with Spirituality If this be not to play with Scripture and grieve the Spirit that spake it I know not what doth A second subterfuge is in citing that Scripture I will pour out my spirit and your sons and your daughters shall prophesie and such may speak of the things of God Rep. 1. Who denies but they may speak according to their gift place and call but women endued but with an ordinary gift are set by and not allowed either the office of teaching or the liberty of a gifted-brothers place to speak to edification c. had they the gift as eminently as some Brethren have or so much as to ask a question for their own learning in the publick meeting place of a Church in order and every place and meeting of such a Church hath a publickness in it because they are commanded to be under obedience it becomes not their sex 't is usurping of the males authority they were the latter sex in creation the first in the transgression and are easily led into deceit as Eve was all which are the Apostles reasons 1 Cor. 14. 1 Tim. 2. and the holy Spirits not mine who dare contradict them and their true sense and scope dare contradict the Spirit to his face 2 Pauls limiting-order issued out from Heaven teacheth us how to understand Peter Act. 2. 17 18. taken out Act. 2. 17 18. opened of Joels prophecy viz. partly as allusions to the old Testament-times when God by dreams and visions by prophecies or predictions of future things revealed his minde in those ages past to a few and so the pouring out of the Spirit c. notes a large and abundant measure of saving grace in ordinary given to some of Gods servants of all sorts and sexes in all nations where the Gospel comes far excelling the ordinary measures of Saints before Christs ascension partly that some of Gods servants women as men daughters as sons should have a prophetical instinct of foretelling things to come which ever hath been a gift more then ordinary and out of a Church-order and course as Acts 21. 9. Philips four daughters and virgins were inspired withall or if any say why might not their gift of prophecy be the gift of explication and application of the Scripture to the profit of the hearer though it is not so probable yet then I say they were subject to the Apostles Rule aforesaid and were kept free from disorderly extravagancies 3 That standing Rule and order of Paul 1 Cor. 14. 34 35. leads us to the understanding of ver 31. ye may all prophesie c. i. e. as all called to the office of Pastor and Teacher 2 Cor. 14 31 vindicated must teach exhort c. so all the brethren gifted with the abilities of prophesying or speaking to edification exhortation and comfort may prophesie the exception of women breaks not the Rule for men but rather confirms the liberty to the brethren and to all of them so gifted which are but a few when the number is cast up in every Church And again what that meaneth Thou shalt not muzzle the 1 Tim. 5 18. cleared Ox that treadeth out the corn c. which the Apostle applyeth to the laboring Elders not to women as R. F. ver 17 of 1 Tim. 5. and at the end of the 18 verse there 's light given to the beginning of it for the laborer is worthy of his reward which words are a reason of the Prohibition and the Prohibition is not to open womens mouths in publick for himself Chap. 2. had stopt them by the injunction of silence but to beware of discouraging their preaching Elders and laboring Pastors and Teachers by abridging them of their honorable maintenance yea that Canon of the Apostle above mentioned is the Key to open all those Scriptures which R. F. produceth in his sheet aforesaid concerning Phebe Priscilla Mary Tryphena and Tryphosa Persis Rom. 16. and those women Philip. 4. Rom. 16 1 2. and ver 6 12. Phil. 4
of doing and darkly vailed over with Types and Ceremonies They heard of doing more then believing and the administration gendred as the Apostle saith Gal. 4. 24. unto bondage every carnal heart conceiving there was nothing ministred of righteousness or strength at all from another and being called and counted nothing but Law hence it is that the spirit of bondage is said more commonly to sute that Old administration The Church in this time was considered as an Heir in its minority As an Heir it was free but as an Infant or in its minority it was but as a servant under Tutors and Governors Gal. 4. 1. As an Heir true believers had then the Spirit of Adoption and Liberty As a Childe it had the spirit of fear and servitude And as it was but a dark and servile administration comparatively to what it is So 2. There was but a scanty proportion of graces and gifts as to the generality even of true believers they had little illumination and a small measure of sanctification I speak of the greater number of the Saints to what is and will be given since Christs Ascension from the greatest to the least 3. The dispensation of Grace and its covenant was but to a few families for a time and afterwards but to one nation springing out of those families under the new admistration the Covenant is made with all sorts of families and with some of every nation In stead of one there have been and are many Churches Acts 9. 31. and 15. 14. Every where God hath had and will have a people taken out from among the Gentiles or nations a select company for his Name 4. The seals and witnesses of the Testament are altered from Old to New and although the writings of the old copy remain i. e. the Books of the Old Testament because the substance of the covenant is there to be read and understood by the shadows yet there are new writings added i. e. the Books of the New Testament for clearer understanding and more assurance of faith when both are compared together The reason of the whole change of the old administration The reason of the change of old into new administration to the new in the particulars named was faultiness or imperfection It is the wisdom of God to proceed from ways less perfect to that which is more perfect Heb. 8. 7. If that first Covenant or Testament that is the first administration of the covenant of Grace had been fault less Heb 8 7. opened then should no place have been sought for the second How was it faulty 1. In that it made nothing perfect Cap. 7. 19. All in that old way especially the Sacrifices being typical and shadowy they of themselves could not take away sins therefore Christ whose body was fitted for a sacrifice he comes and puts by the shadows and types Heb. 10. 9. He takes away the first administration that he may establish the second the perfection of his own sacrifice and all that attends it in the new administration His blood stancheth all other blood stays the further shedding of the blood of Bulls and Goats and he coming by Blood and not by Water onely hath left to his Church a commemoration and obsignation of both in his new Institutions of Baptism and his Supper 2. In that people could not as it was dispensed after the maner of a covenant of Works though not so in it self possibly see how to stand or continue in it They stumbled at the Ceremonies and stuck in the Letter of the Law and could not see unto the end of that which is now abolished 2 Cor. 3. 13. But whence was the fault God was not to be blamed nor the substance of his Covenant but he lays the blame upon them who were willing to stand under such an administration and would not look to the kernel marrow and substance of it which was Christ But as it was the Jews infidelity which turned as to them that which was a covenant of Grace into a covenant of Works sticking in the rinde and bark of the Ceremony and which excluded and shut them out from the Grace of the covenant so do many thousands under the new administration the greater is their sin insist upon terms of doing and obeying the Light within them and God lets them go on and work their heart out if they will for life let them get it win it and wear it although he tells them it is impossible for if the Jews in all the Ceremonies of old should have lookt to Christ in them and beyond them the Gentiles should upon the first hearing of Christ believe on him and begin and end all their duties with the use of all New Testament Institutions in him or they will lose all their labor as did the Jews Arguments to disprove the Levitical Law as no covenant of works 3. I shall adde a few Arguments to disprove the Levitical Law from having been a covenant of Works 1. It was a covenant outwardly made with the people and that the people outwardly made with God by sacrifice Psalm 50. 6. But the covenant of Works was never made by sacrifice it admits of no expiation or atonement The sacrifices under the Law were shadows of that blood which is the blood of the everlasting covenant Heb. 13. 20. The blood of Christ the blood of the New Testament or the new administration of the covenant of Grace not to be altered but to abide for ever in its all-sufficient vertue and efficacy 2. That which carried all along with it remission of sins was no covenant of Works but of Grace but the Levitical Law had remission of sins going along with it for as the Apostle reasoneth Heb. 9. 22. with 18. without shedding of blood there is no remission whereupon the first Testament or * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 disposition of Christs will was not dedicated without blood but that there might be assurance of remission to believers even then that blood was shed which not being able to take away sin of it self did type out Christs blood which could and should effect it A covenant dedicated by blood first typical and then true is the same for substance 3. In the Levitical Law was a Mediator a Priest daily to offer and a high Priest once a year to offer the incense of mediation in the Holy of Holies in the covenant of Works there is no Intercessor or Mediator but we have in the covenant of Grace Christ our Priest and high Priest answering that in the new which was typed out in the old dispensation Heb. 9. 15. For this cause he is the Mediator of the New Testament c. and Ver. 12. by his own blood he entred in once into the holy place c. 4. In the Levitical Law was the Mercy-seat there is no Mercy-seat set up in a covenant of Works There was a common favor in it that God should vouchsafe to enter into
there is hyperbolical That seems simply and absolutely to be denyed which is to be understood but in part and comparatively in respect of the greater and more constant elaborate employment of preaching as is the Lords maner of speech Jer. 7. 22 23. But such as Paul Baptized as few as they were he did not Baptize short of besides or without a command And in short every one in his particular vocation the Apostle in his place the Pastor in his the Church in their relation the Husband in his place the wife in hers c. are to obey the commands given to those relations But Object 3 3. You go to duty as you call it by imitation from the Letter without Answ 1. Imitation properly respecteth examples and obedience precepts and it is but duty and obedience to hearken to Scripture-commands for imitation of holy and godly examples Jer. 6. 16. Philip. 3. 15 16 17. and chap. 4. 9. 2. While professors old and new decline the old and good paths let them beware of dangerous precipices of Apish Popish Monkish imitations and of un-warrantable pretences to the Prophets extraordinary Raptures and Postures such as those Isa 20. 2. Ezek. 4. 9 10. c. Object 4 4. You go to duty in your own wills and time your sacrifice is not accepted Answ 1. They that look rightly to a Scripture-command will eye the maner end and other circumstances and watch unto seasons of prayer reading hearing c. required in Gospel-times 2. Every duty or performance to which a Saint is duly tyed by a command respecting his relation and calling and consequently his person is accepted by God for the matter of it because he requireth it but his person is accepted as he is a Believer within the covenant of Grace and hath Christs righteousness reckoned to him for his justification and he is also accepted in the sincere Gospel performance of a duty not for the works sake but for Christs fake Object 5 5. You go without the moving of the Spirit in your own strength and you know not what a command from God in the Spirit is Answ This might be laid in a carnal mans dish and at an unbelievers door but being an objection against Saints to beat them off from performing duties by reason of a Scripture-command is as false as it is bold and daring For 1. Every true Saint hath the Spirit dwelling in him 2. There is no warrantable evidence that the motion is from Gods Spirit if it be not according to a Scripture command and if it be according to it it is as uncharitable as untrue to say the holy soul goes without the moving of the Spirit A command from God in the Spirit is no other What a command from God in the Spirit is for the matter of it then what already he hath commanded in the word of Scripture and that which he forms and stamps upon the fleshy tables of the heart by the Spirit of the living God so effectually that the mind understands it and the will obeyeth it in newness of spirit 3. The Spirit of God is free to move when he pleaseth in and upon the heart but the Saint is obliged to duty when through the flesh he is very dull and indisposed to it Matth. 26. 41. 4. He goes in his own strength to duty who follows Who act in their own strength the light of a natural conscience onely or undertakes it in the strength of his natural parts or moral abilities or common gifts of the Spirit but it is one of the greatest scandals which I have known cast upon the Scriptures and upon the Saints together to say they go in their own strength to duty who act by virtue of a Scripture-command for although Who in the strength of Christ they have not such movings and stirrings of the Spirit at one time as at another yet in sense of greatest deadness they act their faith for acceptation of their persons and believing the work is duty indeed trust not to the stock of grace within them but act faith again upon Christ for fresh influence and new supply in the present performance ordinance or exercise And another is like unto this that they know not what a command from God in the Spirit is when as Saints experience about a command 1 Past every Saint more or less hath had a twofold experience about the commandements of God and from him one in a legal way of ministration when the commandement comes as Paul speaketh of himself Rom. 7. ver 9. 10. that Rom. 7. 9. 10. opened is in the light of its spirituality striking at heart-corruptions which in their native rebellion rise up sin revived the more against the commandement and by the way it was the written-commandment as that opposed the Pharisaical pride of his heart and I died here is yet no Gospel mortification but legal consternation Paul is slain in his false perswasions and presumptuous hopes of getting life by his own blameless obedience to the Law Thus the Spirit of God sets home the law in its vigor of spirituality and rigor of exacting absolute freedom from the least swerving thought and takes off a soul from expecting life in his own righteousness or by the best frame of heart that he may reach unto and keeps him for longer or shorter time as he please under fears of the second death and of the first because of the second The other in a Gospel dispensation 2 Present is experience by the Saints when they are through Gospel-enlightning faith and renovation made to understand what the covenant of Grace is and what a Gospel-command The covenant of Grace calls for satisfaction at Christs hands and hath it The Gospel command from God in the Spirit is not some sudden impulse or rare impression upon the soul which few Saints meet with but it is every Scripture-precept which the Spirit of faith holiness and liberty works the heart to a sweet compliance withall according to the measures of grace received amidst the present and constant conflict with in-dwelling sin This was Pauls experience after conversion as he lays it forth Rom. 7. from ver 14. to the end and in the following Chapter The command wherewith he had no compliance before as to the spirituality of it now he consenteth to and delighteth in and complains against that contrary frame of corrupt nature which remained though it reigned not and rebelled in him but as sin served it self and its own ends grace and the new creature made him serviceable to the law of God the Scripture-command with which he and his new nature was reconciled and he that cannot finde something of this experience will not finde himself a Saint he that elasheth with Scripture-commands so far discovers himself to be unregenerate Let E. B. and R. F. a little more examine themselves by what spirit they are acted while they decline the Scripture-Gospel-Rule 5. Head of Scripture-contradiction
that in Chap. 17. or after his distinct consecrating words of blessing and thanksgiving and his giving and their taking of the bread and wine at the end of the whole action for John 18. 1. compared with Mat. 26. 30. the prayer after the Sermon ended and the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hymn sung by them all they go forth over the Brook Kedron into a Garden in Gethsemane near to the Mount of Olives It appeareth by what is said it was a distinct Supper from the rest attended with solemn Speeches Prayers and Praises in prose and in a Song If all the Quakers drink in James Naylers Doctrine they will then take up Prayer and Thanks at meals which many have laid down they will be frequent in singing Hymns even as oft as they eat and drink it must be done if they will believe what he saith the lord hath revealed unto him But some will be wiser I hope then some other and hear reason as it divinely lyeth in the Scripture The Scripture calleth the instituted bread and wine this bread and this cup and this cup of the Lord 1 Cor. 11. 26 27. And this bread it calls Christs body and this cup the cup of the new Testament and the wine Christs blood Will J. N. or any of his friends be so profane as to call every piece of bread he eateth and every draught of drink with such an Emphasis and such a title Will he make no meals of any thing but of bread and drink or will he have all his own and Believers drink to be of the fruit of the vine Thus the Scripture describeth the Lords Supper to consist for the outward matter of bread and wine as I have before proved for R. F. his conviction The Scripture neither from Christs mouth nor Pauls pen saith As oft as ye eat and drink it is the Lords Supper but as oft as ye do this eat of this bread drink of this cup ye do shew the Lords death till he come What boldness is it to make that temporary and of short continuance which the Apostle saith is to be held up till he cometh 1 Cor. 11. 26. And such a coming he speaks of there as in other of his Epistles but especially consult 1 Thess 5. 2. 2 Thess 2. 1 2. Secondly You will finde him suggesting to the lost bewildred soul * Love to the lost pag. 43. That the Church at Jerusalem did continue in the Apostles doctrine c. and breaking bread from house to house did eat their meat with gladness c. What then If their breaking bread and eating meat be confounded that in ver 42. with that in ver 46. here was confusion in the Churches greatest purity which J. N. denieth If bread and wine was distinctly used after the Lords institution and apart from their civil repasts and meals then he hath nothing makes for his transfigured Supper from this Scripture But ver 42. speaks of Church-ordinances by themselves Acts 2. 42. 46. cleared and ver 46. of Family-repast as distinct from the other and the latter words explain but the former their breaking bread domatim or at home is said to be eating meat which was not the Lords Supper J. Nayler reads it daily breaking bread from house to house but 't is not so read or to be read though 't is a truth to be supposed they did daily take their ordinary repasts more then once a day but they continuing daily with one accord in the Temple c. There is nothing of certain ground for daily use of the Lords Supper but Acts 20. 7. will shew us the primitive practise of assembling every first day of the week for that breaking of bread at the Lords Table and so Tremelius out of the Syriack hath it 1 Cor. 11. 20. When ye come together In die Domini nostri on our Lords day ye do not eat and drink as is meet And if it be read after the Greek as we read it When ye come together into one place c. it sheweth the eating and drinking of the Lords Supper was and should be by the Churches respectively as that at Corinth for one in some one place together and civil ordinary meals should be as they were at Jerusalem at first in their own houses 1 Cor. 11. 34. Thirdly saith J. N. * pag as above In their eating and drinking at all seasons they were to do it to the Lord and therein to have communion with his Body and his Blood and for that end were to keep themselves pure from all pollution It is a truth nor they nor we are to sin in any action but whether we eat or drink c. do all to the Lord and his glory we are not to feed without fear we are to keep from all excess do all in a mortified way think and speak of Christ at dinner and supper but this must not nullifie or make void the peculiar Ordinance of the Lords Supper but rather we must frequently observe it as a solemn help to purity and mortification influential into our whole conversation Communion with Christ and his Body and Blood is to be perpetually held up in all our actions natural civil and sacred by faith and the communion of his Spirit but the communion with him in the use of the memorative signs of his body and his blood viz. bread and wine solemnly set apart by his special appointment for that end is yet an advancing work distinct by it self from other actions of ordinary communion Fourthly J. Nayler in the place aforesaid presumeth when the Christians were to eat with Gentiles-unbelieving they were to partake of the Table of the Lord as is plain 1 Cor. 10. which is neither plain nor true understood of the same time place and company as this man holds it forth for their eating with the Infidels was at best when there was no meat offered to idols or no knowledge of it no scruple made about it but a civil correspondence and there was more then Bread and Wine the onely outward materials at the Lords Table even whatsoever was sold in the shambles ver 25. Besides the place and company where and with whom they did eat and drink at the Lords Table was in some one Meeting-house or other as the house of Gaius Rom. 16. 23. for one where the whole Church and onely the Church did participate It is to no purpose what he saith afterwards * Page 44. Whether they eat or drank they were to do it to the Lord as at his Table for every like is not the same and although different actions meet in the same general ultimate end yet there are special subordinate ends to each of them Fifthly he addes There is no other thing can keep from feeding in the lust and eating to the lust but to eat in remembrance of Christs death til he come c. And I subjoyn It is not our eating every day in fear
and moderation as it ought to be that will mortifie a lust but onely give a check of restraint Bodily exercise of fasting profiteth little that way Acting of faith upon Christs death every day will do much as well out of meals as at them yea he that doth not remember Christ at his plowing and sowing when he lieth down when he riseth up goeth out or cometh in or at other times as at break-fast dinner or supper will go near to forget him then But that we may never forget him and his death and his power and love to take away our sin he hath left us his solemn sacred Supper as an instituted means of a Remembrance of him to be used as oft as with conveniency we can meet at his Table Let not J. Nayler or any man upbraid us with eating and drinking in a Self-solemnity once a moneth or three times a year The superstitious observation of times by man set up is laid down I think by all the Godly in the three Nations as to that business None have impositions upon them for once a moneth Were hearts and purses large enough in all the Churches they might meet every first day of the week our Christian Sabbath-day a day that the Lord hath made for solemn conventions and exultations Psal 118. 24 at the Lords Table Let him look to the idols in his own heart and beware of imposing upon others his New-model or putting off his Gibeonitish old clouted shooes and mouldy bread I mean his pieces of old Familism For what shall we make of that passage * Love to the Lost pag 45. It must needs be so viz. to spend upon their lusts with such as do not discern his body in their eatings who is the Body of all creatures but a chip of the old block H. N. the old father of the pretended Family of Love his Doctrine to incorporate Gods Essence into the creatures and the creatures into his For said he In the beginning one God and one man had in all one order being and nature And God was all that the man was and the man was all that God was Accordingly saith J. N. He is the Body of all creatures and filleth all things in heaven and in earth but by them that are in the lust Christ is not discerned present who is the fulness and vertue of every creature Here is it may be an Ubiquitarian mystery Christs glorified Body deified and to be discerned every where in every creature But will the lost soul be carried away with this winde of doctrine so diverse and estranging from and contrary to the blessed Apostles intention 1 Cor. 11. 29. where by not 1 Cor. 11. 29. vindâ—cated cleared discerning the Lords Body he holdeth forth their sin who confound their own meals with the Lords Supper whereas 't is the duty of all the Churches and every Communicant to distinguish both notionally and practically between that Bread and Wine instituted and set apart for special sacred spiritual use and common ordinary food used for civil repast and corporal nourishment The Bread at the Lords Table is to be discerned as a pledge sign and memorial of the Lord Christ his natural body once broken and crucified The Wine is to be discerned as the sign pledge and memorial of his natural blood shed in the garden and upon the cross And the relation which Christ hath unto his appointed signs together with mystical union and special spiritual presence promised and given to the true partaker of the signs is to be discerned also all which James Nayler is ignorant of or wilfully shuts his eyes with his fellow-creature R. F. who threw off the ordinance because he wanted the assurance that he expected But how to reconcile these two mens writings about the Lords Supper I was at a loss while the one saith Wheat bread and red wine is not souls food as before and the other dictateth The Lords Supper was to be at all seasons when they eat and drank one would have the Supper to be altogether within the other would have it to be at all times when men eat with moderation and without excess it is well if they understand themselves until I compared their other words viz. of R. F. The Lord is come in to sup with me with James Naylers God's Son the fulness and virtue of every creature which all know who come to his Supper where the Father and the Son are come in and sup with the creature And hereby as by other of their expressions it appeareth they do both of them cast off the external visible ordinance of the use of particular bread and wine at some times for the ends appointed and resolve it into an imaginary transformed communion of God in and with every creature which so it speaks like H. N. the old branded Familist they care not how unlike the Holy Scripture they write as one said long since of his first followers Section 40. THat they may with the fairer shew make void the Lords institution at his Table they have devised false Interpretations of that place in 1 Cor. 11. 26. one of which 2 Cor. 11. 26. vandicated I discovered in this Section to which R. F. answereth nothing although I had it out of one of his Pamphlets viz. of shewing the Lords death till he came to his disciples after his resurrection which to mention onely carrieth confutation in the forehead J. Nayler notwithstanding its grosness favors this sense and addes another First he gratifies R. F. in his sense by reading or writing it in the Praeter tense * Love to the lost page 43. They were to do it in remembrance of him shewing his death till he came Now Pauls words are plainly respecting the time to come till he come i. e. till the very instant hour of his coming for the * Adverb of time notes duration having 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 another Adverb and Particle added to it which imply a drawing out of the time that should the Lord stay never so long ere he comes the Supper is to be continued till that coming of his which I hinted in the former Section was his coming the second time as it is called Heb. 9. 18. in that humane nature which at his first coming he assumed into the unity of his person The word for he come used by Paul is the same and in the same subjunctive Mood as in Luke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 9. 26. when he shall come in his own glory and in his Fathers c. so it might be read in Paul as our Latine * Beza Translation hath it usquequo venerit and Tremelius out of the Syriack usque ad adventum ejus even till his very appearance in the clouds For that meaning must stand whatsoever J. Nayler * Love to the Lost pag. 46. secondly addes to the former Fiction viz. That Christ charging his disciples to wait for his coming at
agrees with the saying of Christ Matth. 6. 6. Matth 6. 6. vindicated when thou prayest enter into thy Closet c. as if the publique ordinance may not stand with the private for the most retired and secret duties are to fit and make ready for the publique onely 't is our Lords scope there to confine a private prayer to a private place as it is the Apostles order from the Lord 1 Cor. 14. 14 15 16. when 1 Cor. 14. 14 15 cleared vindicated we pray publiquely in Church-conventions all which have a publiqueness in them to pray so as others may be edified thereby who are Saints and those who occupy the room of the unlearned may testifie their consents by saying Amen which they could not do if either the person praying spoke onely to his own hearing or in the heart not with an audible voyce to others or when they heard him they could not understand him because he exprest himself in an unknown tongue All that I drive at with the Apostles and our Saviours scope is that every ordinance and outward part of worship be owned in its place and that this of publique prayer may not be disowned ere the more because of these mens crying up their praying by the Spirit in opposition to the Churches publique prayers which the Primitive Church at Jerusalem Act. 2. 42. attended and continued in and which the present Saints and Churches in these nations hold up according to president and precept R. F. in another Pamphlet of his * Truth cleared of Scandals pag. 2. saith they are led by the Spirit and he maketh intercession for them according to the minde and will of God But their practise shews they are not in this led by the Spirit when they cross the minde and will of God by refusing to joyn with the Saints in a publique prayer we acknowledge that no wicked mans prayer is accepted publiquely or privately made by him It is their duty to pray but not their priviledge who are destitute of the Spirit and out of Christ But to profess prayer from the second birth while yet they know not how to pray as they ought but as the Spirit maketh intercession with sighs and groans which are J. Parnells words * Shield of truth p. 14 15 is to contradict their doctrine of perfection And to give a dash at all our publique prayer as the long prayer of the Pharisees is to strike at the Spirit and contradict the Scripture allowance of the publiqueness and length of prayer upon occasion while we give no allowance to Pharisaical ends and pretences but can approve our persons and hearts to God in Jesus Christ our persons in Christs righteousness reckoned to us by faith our hearts so far as renewed by the grace and power of his in-dwelling Spirit James Nayler hath expressions one would think of this tendency that complies with our doctrine in his common place of Worship * Love to the Lost p. 8 9. wherein he instanceth in no part of worship but prayer he acknowledgeth as we teach The worship of the true and living God stands out of mans will and before any man can rightly worship God he must wait to know the Spirit But now let the lost soul beware of his counsel where should they wait you must saith he know the light and in it wait till therein you finde the Spirits leading acting and ordering This counsel if followed keeps men off from the positive parts of worship revealed in the Scripture The light that every man hath as he comes into the world which is the light they nourish up people in in opposition to Scripture-light makes known nothing of publique ministery Church officers therein of water-Baptism Lords Supper publique order of prayer c. nor of Christ mediator nor of the The Spirit of Prayer to be found in the publâ—que ministery Spirit of promise nor of one promise of grace or gracious acceptation in Christ Had not the lost soul better counsel while he was under publique ministery to attend there for the coming of the Spirit the Spirit of faith and prayer where God useth to give it Acts 10. 44. and promiseth to pour it out Prov. 1. 22 23. with 20. 21. verses How true is that which J. Nayler hath in the same place according to our Scripture-doctrine when a man hath been doing evil neglecting good and then he runs to act a worship to get peace the prayer becomes abomination for he that regards impurity the Lord will not hear his prayers nor accept his worships that 's Cains sacrifice and Esaus prayers but either must your worship be performed in one that never sinned or it cannot be accepted with the pure God Yet here is his mis-guidance of lost souls 1. That he would lead them off from joyning with him that makes long prayers such a one he seems to speak of who hides his wickedness with pretence of godliness but he makes no difference of any that serve Christ and his people publiquely in the nation as if they were all such to be separated from 2. He directs to the commands in Spirit in opposition to the Scripture-Letter for thus he delivers himself * Page 11. All the Saints have their commands in Spirit but yours is in the letter and so of another ministration for the literal ministration is done away in the spiritual As if the Spirit did not give out his commands by the written letter or the Scripture and his power also by the reading and hearing of it and by praying according to the rules and patterns of prayer therein contained But something O ye lost souls you will finde when the great Shepherd seeks up his lost ones and brings back that which is gone astray Ezek. 34. 16 ever and anon that alienated your hearts from the Scripture by the spirit of Contradiction that is in these mens Teachings and Writings 15. Head of their Scripture-contradiction Concerning Singing Section 42. I Gave account of their express words We are against all your Davids Praises and Prophecies in meeter contrary to Ephes 5. 19. Col. 3. 16. and other Scriptures R. F. * Page 21. makes me this return Singing of Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs we are not against but own but your Poetry we deny Rep. He might as well say your translation of them into English meeter we deny But if Psalms Hymns and spiritual Songs be owned they are either Davids and other of the Saints penning and the Spirits inditing in the Scripture or of their own composing if they own none but of their own composing they reject Davids and what was left for Psalms cannot be sung without meeter or due measures of speech our use in Scripture contradicting both it by that rejection and themselves also by owning Psalms Hymns and Songs and dis-owning meeter or Poetry for never was there Song Hymn or Psalm sung forth as it ought to be but it had
some modulation musical measure or tune What is Poetry but a confined speech or words bound up into verses of so many feet Or what is meeter but a form of words ordered into set pauses and rests and sung in its due measures And what better Poetry then that in the Scripture which is translated and ordered as suteth best to our own mother Tongue for singing and teaching others to sing Davids words and praises with Davids spirit But saith R. F. We deny your teaching people to sing lyes in hypocrisie saying they are not puft in minde when they are puft in minde and they have no scornful eye when they have Rep. 1. We call none to sing that which is not true for the matter and we exhort them to sing in a sincere maner with an upright heart 2. A sincere heart may sing that or other Psalms as Davids frame of spirit more then his own yet with desires and breathings after a farther measure of humility weanedness of affection from the world faith joy in the holy Ghost c. 3. If the wicked take the name of God in vain sin lies at their door we warn them against hypocrisie For this man therefore to say We teach people to sing lyes in hypocrisie is to speak a falshood in plain English He may think his tongue and pen is his own and none shall control him yet I would have him remember Psalm 52. ver 2 4 5. 16 Head of their Scripture-contradiction Concerning Elders and Ordination Section 43. ORdaining of Elders was not by man said one this I noted as contrary to Acts 14. 23. where by the direction and assistance of the Apostles with the suffrages or consenting voices and gestures of the Brethren in the Churches Elders Teaching and Ruling were ordained or being chosen were set apart to their office by Prayer and fasting in every Church R. F. * Page 21. represents me as if I had not truly quoted James Nayler his Discovery of the man of sin Page 38. and calls the wise-hearted to read that book and it will witness and clear him and the truth declared in it Rep. Agreed let the wise-hearted read all that book if they please and gather up more of his Errors to witness against it then I have done But for that which concerneth Ordination I again affirm saith J. Nayler that the ordaining of Elders by the direction of the Spirit was not by man nor of man nor any created power c. The wise-hearted here appealed to will soon grant that which they never denied That the direction of the Spirit was his own not mans and the gift of the holy Ghost was his gift But if the holy Ghost makes use of the Apostles and of the Churches to chuse and set Elders apart as he did then the wise-hearted will conclude agaist J. Nayler this call is not immediate but mediate a call of God by man or by the ministery and service of man and is not disproved by what he hath said to the contrary What hath R. F. to say against it This I say The holy Ghost made Overseers and so Elders in the Church Acts Acts 20. 28. vindicated 20. 28. and the holy Ghost is not such men as you are Rep. 1. It were well for R. F. if he knew what or who the holy Ghost is Under that Head of the Trinity as before Section 7. he was no person in his judgement distinct from the Father and the Son and now he tells us he is not such men as we are Why what is he Is he a man or Angel speak out R. F. tell us what he is in thy judgement for in ours and according to the grounds of our faith laid down in Scripture he is neither such men as we or the Sect of men called Quakers nor is he such a person as man nor is he man or Angel but the very God And as he is God with the Father and the Son so he is a divine person distinct from the personal subsistences of the Father and the Son as hath been proved above 2. What the Father and the Son do he doth as to the making of Overseers or Bishops and Elders he gives the office he designs the officer he furnisheth the Elders with graces and gifts fitting for the function and he directeth the Church by his word and rule whom to chuse and set apart 1 Tim. 3. Yea he approveth of mens service in the setting apart of men to this as other offices he made use of the Prophets and Teachers at Antioch to separate him Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto he had appointed them as R. F. acknowledgeth but if he thinketh that which followeth and they were sent out by the holy Ghost cuts off Ordination by man it is a contradicting-thought to the very Scripture he quoteth Acts 13. ver 3. When they had Acts 13. 2 4. vindicated fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them they sent them away and yet are said to be sent forth by the Spirit because they were but instrumental to the Spirits sending but if he sends by them instrumentally he sends by them mediately If R. F. thinketh the Spirits sending in this maner doth not cut off Ordination by man then he contradicteth his fellow J. Nayler who saith Ordaining no not so much as of Elders was not by man 17. Head of their Scripture-contradiction Concerning Ministers maintenance Section 44. I Had noted what R. F. saith in another Pamphlet viz. The Apostle had a free spirit and was chargeable to no man building this assertion upon 2 Cor. 11. 9. and 2 Cor. 11 9. vindicated mounting it up against Ministers taking any maintenance He attends not the Apostles limitations I preached to you at Corinth the Gospel of God freely ver 7. With you I was chargeable to no man ver 9. nor how he used his liberty elsewhere to take wages ver 8. But he * Page 22. returns me some truth and some railing as his maner is Paul coveted no mans silver nor gold nor apparel but preached the Gospel freely and his hands ministred to his necessities That is truth and will stand as a witness against all proud covetous self-seeking hireling Priests in Scotland and elsewhere and at the Truth which witnesseth against your deceit thou art offended Rep. It no ways offendeth me that R. F. or any man can write out a Scripture-truth viz. That Paul was free of covetousness in outward manifest acts while he had the body of all sin within him take that truth with the other Rom. 7. but it offends me and much more the holy and true God when his words are alledged to bad ends and purposes and when more is collected from them then he intendeth as in this case of Ministers maintenance and in these instances of Preaching freely may stand with taking maintenance the Apostles words and practise For First Preaching the Gospel freely may stand with taking
allowance and maintenance three ways 1. When it is preached with a free and cheerful Spirit as it should be always by all the Preachers of the Gospel not by constraint but willingly 1 Pet. 5. 2. 2. When 't is preached not for filthy lucre that neither being the first nor last end of the Preachers service for then the wages they take becomes to them filthy lucre 3. When it is upon free-cost in respect of some such as 2 Cor. 11 7. cleared we preach unto They give they contribute nothing nothing is demanded of them but supplies are given and received from other persons or places This was the Apostles case in reference to the Corinthians he preached all upon free-cost to them took nothing of them but took he nothing of others Did he live upon the Air It 's fit for Ministers to live by Faith but wanted other Churches their Love or did he refuse supplies from elsewhere No ver 9. That which was lacking to me at Corinth the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied Secondly From the Apostles working with his hands Acts 20. 30. cannot be collected either that Ministers are Acts 20 34. vindicated bound to follow a trade for 't is ordained of the Lord they should live of the Gospel i. e. of the Allowance due to them for preaching the Gospel 1 Cor. 9. 14. and not of a trade 1 Cor. 9. 14. opened or that Paul and consequently others might not have forborn working for expresly he tells the Corinthians and others by them what was the minde of God and is to this day 1 Cor. 9. 6. Or I onely and Barnabas have we not power or liberty to forbear working Observe it Or I onely and Barnabas it seemeth other Apostles used their liberty every where Peter James and John had left their nets as to a trade of fishing thereby to get their livelihood long before as Matthew his Custom-house and Paul and Barnabas might have left their work of Tent-making as they had left off the trade But at Corinth because Section 44 Paul met so providentially with Aquila and Priscilla who by their occupation were Tent-makers and he had the skill he practised it with them Acts 18. 3. and at Ephesus and at Thessalonica 1 Thes 2. 9. he labored with his hands to minister to his necessities but there was no necessity from any direct precept that he must so labor or Sylvanus or Timotheus but saith he ver 6. we might have been burthensom as the Apostles of Christ Thirdly Although the Apostles example and what followeth Acts 20. 35. may stand as a witness against all Acts 20. 35. vindicated loyterers in the ministerial work and against all covetous self-seeking hireling Preachers in every place who make hire and gain the end of their preaching yet doth it not so much as once appear for witness against them who do what Paul himself did by rule viz. At some times and in some places take more allowance then otherwhile or where nor against them that live meerly upon the allowance of Providence for the preaching of the Gospel not having learnt a trade to help themselves withal and if they had may use or not use their skill and take pains as it may be a furtherance or hinderance to their Gospel-work And these things well pondered henceforth let not R. F. or others go about to binde up Ministers where God hath left them free nor envy or reproach their Calling with the names of Hirelings and Priests c. without distinction or difference as if all were such who have their outward livelihood according to Gods ordinance upon the account of preaching-work and labor unto which who is sufficient Let not J. Nayler send abroad his invectives against Town-teachers his common place concerning the ministery of Christ * Love to the lost pag. 60 6. is little better The Lord rebuke him with his fellow R. F. 18. Head of their Scripture-contradiction Concerning Immediate Calling Section 45. THey pretend as I noted to an infallible judgement and to a calling not by man but Immediate Whom God sends he sends forth immediately This spoken indefinitely and meant universally of all that God sendeth is contrary as I hinted to Gal. 1. 1. where Call to the Ministery either 1. Vnlawful of man meerly 2. Lawful and of God Paul speaks of a sending of man and by man and by Jesus Christ The sending of man is unlawful when one man sends another who hath no power to send or the man runs of his own head upon his own errand and either knows he is a deceiver or is deluded by Satan and thinks himself immediately called when 't is onely the voice of his Fancy and Imagination The sending of God is two-fold either mediate 1. By man 2. Immediate Gal. 1. 1. cleared or immediate both lawful God sends by mans ministery that is mediate or he sends at least at first without it Now Pauls call as it was not of man so at the first it was not of God by man but immediately by Jesus Christ Acts 9. R. F. * Page 22. is not herewith pleased but thinketh Gal. 1. Chap. will witness against what I say and why so because He that was immediately called and sent doth there witness the same Rep. I affirm that Paul at the first was immediately called so was he immediately converted were R. F. Ed. Burroughs J. Nayler J. Parnel and others therefore immediately sent because Paul was We have a Proverb I would not have it offend if I remember and mention it aptly seasonably and justly As the Bell tinketh so the Fool thinketh As for pretences we do not pretend to be immediately called saith R. F. and sent but we witness that we are Rep. But who will believe them that witness of themselves and have not the signs of such a Calling upon them but clash and interfere with the Prophets and Apostles Doctrine at every turn almost This is our present instance all mediate calls are cryed down and the immediate onely cryed up and mis-represented mis-applyed when as the Apostles who had the most immediate calls were not against the other way of Gods calling men by the Church and their own assistance of the Church in that work But the holy Ghost hath left their practice with his Rule obligatory to us 1 Tim. 5. 22. and 6. 14. with Titus 1. 5. yet will R. F. proceed to say * Page 22. We witness with him that thou accusest and that is Ed. Burroughs whose words in my former piece I onely hinted at now take them as largely though he hath much more to the same purpose as is needful * Warning to Underbarrow by E. B. p. 16. The Ministery called by the earthly powers by earthly Magistrates or at Oxford Cambridge or Newcastle all this Ministery who is here called is by man and their Gospel is of man which the true Gospel is not and he that hath the
or not it would something savor of an humble spirit But as some deem this exercise of the gift of Prophesie too high for a believing brother so he and those of his Spirit not in this guided by the Spirit of God think it too low for themselves and all other Teachers and therefore whosoever are not taught as immediately as the Apostles of the highest Form are no Teachers with them Hence he addes * Page 22. And thou that art not taught of him shews that thou speaks a vision of thy own heart and not from the mouth of the Lord. This is his judgement but erroneous enough and contradictious to the whole Scripture as not being the mouth of the Lord. And if I affirm as I did the true Prophets studied the Scripture True prophets studied the Scripture that is my imagination Rep. The true Prophets were either under the Old or New Testament before or since Christ 1. Before some of them studied the word who were at other times immediately inspired as I instanced in Dan. 9. 1. Dan 9. 1. vindicated If Daniel understood by books he read and considered what he read in those books what was prophesied of the captivity when it began when it should end and the writings of Jeremy were the Books as Daniel himself tells us by which he understood the number of the years c. Others were trained up in a ordinary way in the schools of the Prophets under Samuel at Ramah 1 Sam. 19 under Elijah at Bethel and Jericho although the Lord added impulses and inspirations more then ordinary and more immediately to some of these afterwards this is none of my imagination If R. F. goes on to charge it I shall still lay his Scripture-contradiction before him and at his dore it will lye till he repents of it for he chargeth not falshood upon me but upon the word of God whence I demonstrate what I affirm 2. Since Christ the true Prophets studied the word The Scriptures studied Gods Spirit going along therewith made them Prophets in ordinary of whom Paul speaks 1 Cor. 14. as it fitted A pollos and Timothy for Evangelists what hath R. F. to say against it no prophesie of the Seripture came in old time by the will of man then not studied but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the holy Ghost and the Scripture is of no private interpretation Rep. 1. By prophecy of Scripture 2 Pet. 1. 20 21. is 2 Pet. 1. 20. 21 vindicated meant the word and minde of God declared in writing God lest it not to mans will what and when and how he should write his Canon But he did immediately inspire and dictate to the Pen-men of Scripture matter maner and time It follows Scripture is to be studied because inspired of God not because the Secretaries of the holy Ghost wrote by his immediate inspiration therefore the Prophets and Teachers are not to teach others but as they are immediately inspired But it will follow from hence and make against R. F. as it did in the first Section and the sixth that if there is nothing of the will of man or private-selfish meaning and sense in the Scripture then is it a rule for Teachers as Scholars and they that will teach sound doctrine must teach from and according to the Scripture and therefore had need study and meditate on the Scripture that he may be a right man of God the title of a true Prophet throughly 2 Tim 3. 17. furnished to all the work of a Minister as of a Christian 2. This truth is not onely given forth by sound consequence but directly and expresly the will of God is laid down 1 Tim. 4. 15. Meditate upon these things Timothy an Evangelist must study that Epistle which Paul wrote to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 him and be wholly in them he must be taken up altogether therewith referre all his studies bend all his thoughts to the knowledge of the Scriptures And 2 Tim. 3. 17. with 16. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God c. that the man of God the minister of the Gospel may be perfect i. e. have a sacred library to converse with in all ages and be made a compleat Scholar able to teach reprove instruct and comfort out of Scripture store and furniture Hence we Bonus Textuarius bonus Theologus use to say A good Text-man a good Divine or an able man of God and he is likely to be a light and treacherous Prophet who slights the meditation of Scripture-Text and speaks onely quicquid in buccam venerit what comes next to his tongues end A fourth sort of ministers are Pastors and Pastors and Teachers mediately taught Teachers who having the grace of God and gift of prophecy are called out from among the Brethren to office and oversight of the flock as Bishops of the Lords institution These were not so immediately taught that I can finde in the Apostles times but rather by means and ways of the Lords appointment they were trained up and fitted for the office as by the exercise of their gift of Prophecy before-hand 1 Cor. 14. each Church being as a School of the Prophets and that of Corinth eminently so by their submission to tryal at election 1 Tim. 3. 10. And besides none but disciples of some years in nature and standing in grace and profession were called to the office of Pastor or teaching Elder now such disciples were first taught of others of catechized instructed in an outward way hence the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greek word for disciple comes of another that signifieth to learn by outward teaching Those that heard John Baptist were first called disciples whereof Andrew was one Simon Peters brother John 1. 40. They that heard and followed Christs Sermons were also called disciples and so we are all believers and members of the Churches till at Antioch they were also called Christians disciples as taught outwardly Chrians as anointed with the Spirit and partakers of Christs grace and gifts And such being chosen who were outwardly as inwardly trained up I conclude immediate teachings did not onely furnish men for a Teachers or Ministers function but mediate ways also which is both a warrant for them that desire the office of a Bishop first to study the Scriptures and an encouragement also for Churches to covet gifts and chiefly that they may prophesie and for University Scholars to give up themselves to present catechizings and exercises after Sermons as they have begun in the Colledges for the better storing of them with grounds of knowledge and discovery of such disciples as the Lord hath begun to teach inwardly by and with outward teaching that they may be issued forth for service in the ministery after grounds laid in their understandings and some experimental work of grace approved of if it might be in some of the Churches of Jesus Christ And oh that to this
of deceit we deny but a form of sound words the Scripture doth justifie being spoken by the Spirit of truth which we own and now the time is come that deceivers and such as you are cannot endure sound Doctrine but utters your folly to make your selves manifest and what generation you are of even of him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish 2 Thes 2. 2 Pet. 2. Rep. I leave all this with the former to the judgement of the intelligent Reader and of the righteous Lord onely I advertise that he may refer in these words to Section 26. as to this in hand and then by our forms of deceit he meaneth our putting off the Hat and against that we must set their putting off the Hat-band and by their form of sound words he must be construed of Thou and Thee and I still leave it to the Lords judgement where deceit is harbored and acted where Humility and Love is lodged and at what Sign it dwells good men may in time understand by Scripture-marks this for one 1 Cor. 11. 16. If any man seem to be contentious we have no such custom neither the Churches of God 13. Head of Contradiction to themselves Concerning Ordinances Section 29. I Noted here what they pretend to own viz. Praying in families with reading and instructing of Children and teaching according to the Apostles Doctrine but contradict it in their giving over the course of Family-prayer ordinarily Morning and Evening and at Meals nor do I hear they teach Children but what leads them to an imitation of their new forms R. F. * Page 30. as before asketh me touching that which they say they own And art thou offended at this Rep. 1. I am not offended at the practice pretended but at the bare pretence of the practice viz. at saying and not doing and at back-slidings from the old and good ways of the Lord. 2. I am offended at R. F. his denying as before our raising Points Reasons Vses Motives and Tryals from the words of Scripture and yet justifying their teaching according to the Apostles Doctrine for sure if all they reach be according thereunto it will go near to fall under some of those heads viz. of Motives Tryals Points Reasons or Vses and if they so teach one another in their families why do they condemn us for teaching after that maner in the publique assemblies 3. I am offended at R. F. his subtilty or ignorant simplicity all along that he puts off his Reader with answer to one part of the Contradiction but not to the other as in what followeth I observed they pretend to own all that is Gods Baptism the Lords Supper Church-fellowship Sabbaths c. but as I said 't is in a sense contradictious to the light that ever they had have or can have truly from Scripture This man speaks not to the latter part of the charge but onely to the former We do own that which is Gods free love and mercy to us and all that is Gods as Baptism the Lords Supper Church-fellowship Sabbath Rep. Here are fair words but what the sense and meaning of them is and how contradictious to Scripture and the ordinary use of the terms and phrases we may gather from what hath passed before See Part 1. Sect. 3. 8. 1. All Water-Baptism is dis-owned by them and he that saith he owneth Scripture-Baptism which comprehends the sign and the thing signified and doth dis-own all Water-Baptism he doth wittingly or unwittingly contradict himself 2. The Lords instituted Bread and Wine Supper they deny as was shewed Part 1. Sect. 39. contrary to the Scripture And he that saith he owneth all that is Gods and dis-owneth Bread and Wine as instituted by Jesus Christ to be used by the Churches as the outward visible sign and memorial of the Lords death to his second coming is beside himself as well as without his Book 3. All forms of Church-fellowship but their own they deny and that can be no true Church-fellowship of theirs which dis-own the Scriptures from being the word of God and rule of their fellowship and of their Church 4. As for a day of Rest one day in seven it was a mercy The Sabbath a mercy and a duty of God to Israel of old that he made known unto them his holy Sabbath Nehem. 9. 14. and I think it is a mercy still and a pledge of love that Gods holy Sabbath exchanged since Christs resurrection from the seventh to the first day of the week hath not ceased in any Age for the standing Rule and Law of the fourth Commandment obligeth to one day in seven whether the last or the first of the seven it is a mercy we have either but doth R. F. and his fellows own the outward part or rest of the Sabbath according to Gods command not that I finde in any of their writings hear one for all * Several papers pag. 19. The worlds Sabbath is without them and they have no rest but in a form without The Saints Sabbath is within where Christ is come to give them rest and they are ceased from their own works 5. It is the mercy and love of God to give a heart to look more into the inside of Ordinances then upon the outside but he that is unfaithful in the least is unjust also in much and he that breaks the least of God Commandments as to the outward part of an Ordinance and teach men so shall be called or reckoned the least in the kingdom of heaven 14. Head of their Self-contradiction Concerning Speech and Silence Section 30. THey sit silent for an hour or half or quarter and when others in though not of their company speak freely they check it as I observed with this or the like saying In the multitude of words there cannot want sin and yet they are in their Letters and Pamphlets full of tautologies c. R. F. passeth this Section over with deep silence but in this Pamphlet he hath verified the charge 1. Of multiloquious needless repetitions where he thinks Sect. 31 32. to vindicate the Scriptures by frequent and impertinent quotation of them And 2. Of Silence in many passages where it was necessary he should have vindicated himself and his Brethren from their own Contradictions 15. Head of their Self-contradiction Concerning Elders Section 31. THis Section also he lets pass as having nothing to say where I noted J. Naylers interfering viz. The ordaining of Elders was not by man and yet it was by the Spirit of God in the Apostles the Spirit made use of them then as he did of the Brethrens and Churches suffrages and prayers To grant an use was made of men in the call of Elders and yet to deny the Call was given of God by man is to speak Daggers and Contradictions as all along I have cleared it in fore-mentioned instances 16. Head of their Self-contradiction