through him is Communicated unto them they are prone and inclined unto Evil though Thousands of Thousands be ignorant of Adam's Fall neither ever knew of the Eating of the Forbidden Fruit so also many may come to feel the Influence of this Holy and Divine Seed and Light and be turned from evil to good by it though they knew nothing of Christ's Coming in the flesh through whose Obedience and Sufferings it is purchased unto them And as we Affirm it is absolutely needful The History is profitable with the Mystery that those do believe the History of Christ's outward Appearance whom it pleased God to bring to the Knowledge of it so we do freely Confess that even that outward Knowledge is very Comfortable to such as are subject to and led by the Inward Seed and Light For not only doth the sense of Christ's Love and Sufferings tend to humble them but they are thereby also strengthened in their Faith and incouraged to follow that Excellent Pattern which he hath left us Who suffered for us as saith the Apostle Peter 1 Pet. 2.21 Leaving us an Example that we should follow his steps And many times we are greatly Edified and Refreshed with the gracious Sayings which proceed out of his Mouth The History then is profitable and comfortable with the Mystery and never without it but the Mystery is and may be profitable without the explicite and outward Knowledge of the History Quest. 5 But Fifthly This brings us to another Question to wit Whether Christ be in all men or no Which sometimes hath been asked us and Arguments brought against it because indeed it is to be found in some of our Writings How Christ is in all men That Christ is in all men and we are often heard in our publick Meetings and Declarations to desire every man to come to know and be acquainted with Christ in them telling them that Christ is in them It is fit therefore for removing of all Mistakes to say something in this place concerning this matter We have said before how that a Divine Spiritual and Supernatural Light is in all men how that that Divine Supernatural Light or Seed is Vehiculum Dei how that God and Christ dwelleth in it and is never separated from it also how that as it is received and closed with in the heart Christ comes to be formed and brought forth but we are far from ever having said That Christ is thus formed in all men or in the Wicked For that is a great Attainment which the Apostle travelled that it might be brought forth in the Galatians Neither is Christ in all men by Way of Vnion or indeed to speak strictly by way of Inhabitation because this Inhabitation as it is generally taken imports Vnion or the Manner of Christ's being in the Saints As it is written I will dwell in them and walk in them 2 Cor. 6.16 But in regard Christ is in all men as in a Seed yea and that he never is nor can be separate from that Holy pure Seed and Light which is in all men therefore may it be said in a larger sense that he is In all even as we observed before The Scripture saith Amos 2.13 God is pressed down as a Cart under sheaves and Christ Crucified in the Vngodly though to speak properly and strictly neither can God be pressed down nor Christ as God be Crucified In this respect then as he is in the Seed which is in all men we have said Christ is in all men and have preached and directed all men to Christ in them who lies Crucified in them by their Sins and Iniquities Christ Crucified in man by Iniquities that they may look upon him whom they have pierced and Repent whereby he that now lies as it were slain and buried in them may come to be raised and have Dominion in their hearts over all And thus also the Apostle Paul preached to the Corinthians and Galatians 1 Cor. 2.2 Christ crucified in them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek hath it This Jesus Christ was that which the Apostle desired to know in them and make known unto them that they might come to be sensible how they had thus been Crucifying Christ that so they might Repent and be Saved And forasmuch as Christ is called that Light that inlightens every man The Light of the World Therefore the Light is taken for Christ who truly is the Fountain of all Light and hath his Habitation in it for ever Thus the Light of Christ is sometimes called Christ i. e. that in which Christ is and from which â—e is never Separated § XVI Sixthly It will manifestly appear by what is avove-said that we Vnderstand not this Divine Principle to be any part of Man's Nature nor yet to be any Relicks of any good which Adam lost by his Fall in that we make it a distinct separate thing from man's Soul and all the Faculties of it Yet such is the malice of our Adversaries that they cease not sometimes to Calumniate us as if we preached up a Natural Light or the Light of man's natural Conscience Next there are that lean to the Doctrine of Socinus and Pelagius who perswade themselves through mistake and out of no ill design to Injure us as if this which we preach up were some natural Power and Faculty of the Soul and that we only differ in the wording of it and not in the thing it self Whereas there can be no greater Difference than is betwixt us in this matter For we certainly know that this Light of which we speak is not only distinct The Faculties of Man's Reason but of a different Nature from the Soul of man and its Faculties Indeed that man as he is a rational Creature hath Reason as a Natural Faculty of his Soul by which he can discern things that are Rational we deny not for this is a Property Natural and Essential to him by which he can know and learn many Arts and Sciences beyond what any other Animal can do by the meer Animal Principle Neither do we deny but by this Rational Principle man may apprehend in his Brain and in the Notion a Knowledge of God and Spiritual things yet that not being the right Organ as in the second Proposition hath more at length been signified it cannot profit him towards Salvation but rather hindereth And indeed the great Cause of the Apostasy hath been that man hath sought to fathom the things of God in and by this natural and rational Principle and to build up a Religion in it Anti-Christ in the Temple of God neglecting and overlooking this Principle and Seed of God in the heart so that herein in the most universal and Catholick Sense hath Anti-Christ in every man set up himself and sitteth in the Temple of God as God and above every thing that is called God For men being the Temple of the Holy Ghost as saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 3.16 when the
Rational Principle sets it self up there above the Seed of God to reign and rule as a Prince in Spiritual things while the Holy Seed is wounded and bruised there is Anti-Christ in every man or somewhat Exalted above and against Christ. Neverthless we do not hereby Affirm as if Man had received his Reason to no purpose or to be of no Service unto him in no wise we look upon Reason as fit to Order and Rule man in things Natural The Divine Light and Natural Reason distinguished For as God gave two great Lights to Rule the outward World the Sun and Moon the greater Light to rule the Day and the lesser Light to rule the Night so hath he given man the Light of his Son a Spiritual Divine Light to Rule him in the things Spiritual and the Light of Reason to Rule him in things Natural And even as the Moon borrows her Light from the Sun so ought men if they would be rightly and comfortably ordered in natural things to have their Reason enlightned by this Divine and pure Light Which Inlightned Reason in those that obey and follow this true Light we Confess may be Vseful to man even in Spiritual things as it is still subservient and subject to the other Even as the Animal Life in man regulated and ordered by his Reason helps him in going about things that are Rational The Light distinguished from Man's natural Conscience We do further rightly distinguish this from man's natural Conscience for Conscience being that in man which ariseth from the natural Faculties of man's Soul may be Defiled and Corrupted it is said expresly of the Impure Tit. 1.15 That even their Mind and Conscience is defiled But this Light can never be Corrupted nor Defiled neither did it ever Consent to Evil or Wickedness in any for it is said expresly that it makes all things manifest that are reprovable Eph. 5.13 and so is a faithful Witness for God against every Vnrighteousness in man CONSCIENCE defined Now Conscience to define it truly comes from Conscire and is that Knowledge which ariseth in man's heart from what agreeth contradicteth or is contrary to any thing believed by him whereby he becomes Conscious to himself that he transgresseth by doing that which he is perswaded he ought not to do So that the Mind being once blinded or defiled with a wrong belief there ariseth a Conscience from that Belief which troubles him when he goes against it Example of a Turk As for Example A Turk who hath possess'd himself with a false Belief that it is Vnlawful for him to drink Wine if he do it his Conscience smites him for it but though he keep many Concubines his Conscience troubles him not because that his Judgment is already defiled with a false Opinion that it is lawful for him to do the one and unlawful to do the other Whereas if the Light of Christ in him were minded it would Reprove him not only for committing Fornication but also as he became obedient thereunto Inform him that Mahomet is an Impostor as well as Socrates was informed by it in his day of the falsity of the Heathens Gods Example of ◠Papist So if a Papist eat flesh in Lent or be not diligent enough in Adoration of Saints and Images or if he should Contemn Images his Conscience would smite him for it because his Judgment is already blinded with a false Belief concerning these things Whereas the Light of Christ never Consented to any of those Abominations Thus then man's natural Conscience is sufficiently distinguished from it for Conscience followeth the Judgment doth not Inform it but this Light as it is Received removes the Blindness of the Judgment opens the Vnderstanding and rectifies both the Judgment and Conscience So we Confess also that Conscience is an Excellent thing where it is rightly Inform'd and Inlightned Wherefore some of us have fitly Compar'd it to a Lanthorn The natural Conscience compared to a Lanthorn and the Light of Christ the Candle and the Light of Christ to the Candle A Lanthorn is useful when a Clear Candle burns and shines in it but otherwise of no use To the Light of Christ then in the Conscience and not to man 's natural Conscience it is that we continually Commend men this not that is it which we preach up and direct People to as to a most certain Guide unto Life Eternal Lastly This Light Seed c. appears to be no Power or natural Faculty of man's Mind because a Man that 's in his Health can when he pleases stir up move and exercise the Faculties of his Soul he is absolute Master of them and except there be some natural Cause or Impediment in the way he can use them at his pleasure but this Light and Seed of God in man he cannot Move and Stir up when he pleaseth but it moves blows and strives with man as the Lord seeth meet For though there be a possibility of Salvation to every man during the day of his Visitation yet cannot a Man at any time when he pleaseth or hath some sense of his Misery The Waiting upon the Movings of the Light and Grace stir up that Light and Grace so as to procure to himself Tenderness of heart but he must Wait for it which comes upon all at certain times and seasons wherein it works powerfully upon the Soul mightily tenders it and breaks it at which time if man Resist it not but close with it he comes to know Salvation by it Even as the Lake of Bethesda did not Cure all those that washed in it but such only as Washed first after the Angel had moved upon the waters so God moves in love to mankind in his Seed in his heart at some singular times Setting his sins in order before him and seriously Inviting him to Repentance offering to him Remission of Sins and Salvation which if man accept of he may be saved Now there is no man alive and I am confident there shall be none to whom this Paper shall come who if they will deal faithfully and honestly with their own hearts will not be forced to acknowledge but they have been sensible of this in some measure less or more which is a thing that man cannot bring upon himself with all his Pains and Industry This then O Man and Woman is the Day of God's gracious Visitation to thy Soul which thou shalt be happy for ever if thou Resist not This is the Day of the Lord which as Christ saith is like the Lightning Matt. 24.27 John 3.8 that shineth from the East unto the West and the Wind or Spirit which blows upon the heart and no man knows whither it goes nor whence it comes § XVII And lastly This leads me to speak concerning the manner of Quest. 7 this Seed or Light 's Operation in the hearts of all men which will shew yet more manifestly how we differ vastly from all
in a certain respect to lay aside the outward Knowledge of Christ or the Knowledge of him after the flesh in these words 2 Cor. 5.16 17. Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh yea though we have known Christ after the flesh yet now henceforth know we him no more Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a New Creature old things are passed away behold all things are become new Whence it manifestly appears that he makes the Knowledge of Christ after the flesh but as it were the Rudiments which young Children learn which after they are become better Scholars are of less use to them because they have and possess the very Substance of those first Precepts in their minds As all Comparisons halt in some part so shall I not affirm this to hold in every respect yet so far will this hold that as those that go no further than the Rudiments are never to be accounted Learned and as they grow beyond these things so they have less use of them even so such as go no further than the outward Knowledge of Christ shall never Inherit the Kingdom of Heaven But such as come to know this New Birth to be in Christ indeed to be a New Creature to have Old things past away and all things become New may safely say with the Apostle Though we have known Christ after the flesh yet now henceforth know we him no more Now But by the Work of Light and Grace in the heart this New Creature proceeds from the Work of this Light and Grace in the heart It is that Word which we speak of that is sharp and piercing that Implanted Word able to save the Soul by which this Birth is begotten and therefore Christ hath purchased unto us this Holy Seed that thereby this Birth might be brought forth in us which is therefore also called The Manifestation of the Spirit given to every one to profit withal for it is written that by One Spirit we are all baptized into One Body And the Apostle Peter also ascribeth this Birth to this Seed and Word of God which we have so much declared of saying 1 Pet. 1.23 Being born again not of Corruptible Seed but of Incorruptible by the Word of God which liveth and abideth for ever Though then this Seed be small in its Appearance so that Christ Compares it to a grain of Mustard-seed which is the least of all seeds Matth. 13.31 32. and that it be hid in the earthy part of man's heart yet therein is Life and Salvation towards the sons of men wrapt up which comes to be Revealed as they give way to it The Kingdom of God is in the Seed in the hearts of all men And in this Seed in the hearts of all men is the Kingdom of God as in Capacity to be produced or rather Exhibited according as it receives depth is nourished and not choked Hence Christ saith that the Kingdom of God was in the very Pharisees Luke 17.20 21. who did Oppose and Resist him and were justly accounted as Serpents and a generation of Vipers Now the Kingdom of God could be no other ways in them than in a Seed even as the Thirty-fold and the Hundred-fold is wrapt up in a small Seed lying in a barren ground which springs not forth because it wants Nourishment and as the whole body of a great Tree is wrapt up potentially in the Seed of the Tree and so is brought forth in due season and as the Capacity of a Man or a Woman is not only in a Child but even in the very Embryo even so the Kingdom of Jesus Christ yea Jesus Christ himself Christ within who is the hope of glory and becometh Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption is in Every man and woman's heart in that little Incorruptible Seed ready to be brought forth as it is Cherished and Received in the love of it For there can be no men worse than those rebellious and unbelieving Pharisees were and yet this Kingdom was thus within them and they were directed to look for it there so it is neither lo here nor lo there in this or the other Observation that this is known but as this Seed of God in the heart is minded and entertained And certainly hence it is even because this Light Seed and Grace that appears in the heart of man is so little regarded and so much overlooked that so few know Christ brought forth in them Calvinists Papists Arminians and Socinians Errors denying the Light to be Saving The one sort to wit the Calvinists they look upon Grace as an Irresistible Power and therefore neglect and despise this Eternal Seed of the Kingdom in their hearts as a low insufficient useless thing as to their Salvation On the other hand the Papists Arminians and Socinians they go about to set up their natural Power and Will with one Consent denying that this little Seed this small Appearance of the Light is that Supernatural Saving Grace of God given to Every man to save him And so upon them is verified that saying of the Lord Jesus Christ This is the Condemnation of the World that Light is come into the World but men love Darkness rather than Light the reason is added because their Deeds are Evil. All Confess they feel this but they will not have it to be of that virtue Some will have it to be Reason some a Natural Conscience some Certain Relicks of God's Image that remained in Adam So Christ as he met with Opposition from all kinds of Professors in his Outward Appearance so doth he now in his Inward It was the Meanness of his outward Man The Meanness of Christ's Appearance in the flesh that made many despise him saying Is not this the Son of the Carpenter are not his Brethren and Sisters among us Is not this a Galilean and came there ever a Prophet out of Galilea and such like Reasonings For they expected an Outward Deliverer who as a Prince should deliver them with great Ease from their Outward Enemies and not such a MESSIAH as should be Crucified shamefully and as it were lead them into many Sorrows Troubles and Afflictions So the Meanness of this Appearance makes the Crafty Jesuites the pretended Rational Socinians and the Learned Arminians overlook it desiring rather something that they might exercise their Subtilty Reason and Learning about and use the Liberty of their own Wills And the Secure Calvinists they would have a Christ to Save them without any Trouble to destroy all their Enemies for them without them and nothing or little within while they mean while be at Ease to live in their Sins secure Whence when all is well Examined the Cause is plain it is because their deeds are evil that with one Consent they Reject this Light The Nature of the Light for it Checks the Wisest of them all and the Learnedest of them all in secret it Reproves them neither can all
pages needs no answer but that of Michael to the Devil who is the Author of such Stuff The Lord Rebuke thee This Method of Answering is no less Unreasonable than his Railing for it is either by supposing things not proved by him by concluding things not following from my Assertions or by manifest Perversions all improved by the height of Abuse to render the things that displease him Absurd and Ridiculous Of these I shall take notice in order First He supposeth Nothing to be the Gospel J. B. supposes nothing to be the Gospel save the Outward Preaching save the outward preaching and that there is no Gospel where there is not an outward Administration of it And this he never offers to prove What he saith to Contradict my Asserting the Gospel to be where the outward may not be will after be Examined Upon this his meer Supposition he accounts me Absurd pag. 226. and upon this Supposition he urges all mens not having Grace as not having the Gospel p. 235 236 240. That to preach the Light within is to despise the Gospel p. 244. That according to me the preaching of the Gospel is not necessary to Salvation Another of his Suppositions is That because the Light within is common to all therefore it can be nothing but Nature And upon this false and unproved Ground he Raileth and Enlargeth p. 229. where he calls it the Pelagian Grace of God that is Man's Free-will doubting whether I will say so much as did Pelagius Which is nothing to the purpose neither proveth his Inference which is false as the Scriptures brought by me in my Apology to prove There is a Saving Spiritual Grace given to all do Evince What he saith in Answer to any of them as it occurs will hereafter be considered And yet upon this false Inference he Concludes p. 233. The Height of the Quakers Divinity is but what a Natural Conscience can teach a Man-eater and to the same purpose p. 234. and then battereth against it p. 237. saying Christ in the Saints the Hope of Glory is not brought about by Nature Which I never said and therefore he but fights with his own Shadow as he doth upon the like Occasion pag. 231 232-236-238 241 256. where he saith That Men are not made partakers of the Priviledge of the Saints in their Natural State and the Scripture saith not There is any thing in the Heart of Man by Nature which produceth Christ in the Soul c. which things were never Asserted by me More of his Mistakes of this kind may be seen pag. 257 262 265. where he concludeth The Quakers Religion and Gospel to be nothing but what meer Nature teacheth But it is observable that in that almost one and only Argument which he bringeth to make this Inferrence good albeit much of his Work and Exclamations depends upon it he involves himself in a notable Contradiction For p. 234. n. 7. to prove There is no Vniversal Light or Seed that beareth Witness against all evil Deeds he asketh J. B. denies the Light to bear Witness against Evil in the Cilicians and Messagetians How came it that this Light and Seed did not bear Witness against the Cilicians who lived upon Theft and against the Messagetians who use their Wives in common and against such as used to kill Men and eat them Now these can make nothing for his purpose unless for this Reason that because these People Commonly and Avowedly did these things therefore they had no Light that Reproved them for them otherwise their doing of them will not Import the Light did not bear Witness against their so doing more than Men under the Presbyterian Ministry committing Adultery and Murder will import there was no Witness born against these Sins by the Presbyterian Preachers But he has overthrown this his Reason himself by affirming p. 232. and 235. J. B. overthrows his former Reason asserting the Law of Nature in every Man That there is a Natural Conscience or the Law of Nature left in every Man as God's Deputy informing of some good and testifying against some Evils of which elsewhere he particularizeth Murder and Adultery and yet here he saith It is observed there is hardly one point of the Law of Nature which some Nation hath not Violated not only by their Customs but by their very Laws If then their thus violating the Law of Nature do not prove they had not the Law of Nature or were not Reproved by it which he himself has Confessed all had then neither will their doing those things prove they had no Divine Light nor Seed or were not thereby Reproved for if it prove they had not that it will as much prove they had no Natural Conscience no Law of Nature which yet he confesseth is in Every Man ¶ 4. In this Chapter also he would Insinuate and Infer to render that which he writes against Odious That the asserting of an Universal Gospel by which Salvation may be possible to such as want outward Preaching renders outward Preaching needless but this Cavil used often before by him is already Answered in the 3 and 4 Sections and therefore what he repeats of this again here p. 229.236.245 needs no further Answer And whereas he asks upon this Occasion p. 244. The History of the Gospel is necessary How can the believing of the History of the Gospel be necessary as I say it is to such as hear it if they may be saved without it Because God Commands every one to believe these Truths to whom he bringeth the Knowledge of them albeit not them to whom he hath rendred it Impossible Has he forgotten their own Distinction of some things being necessary Necessitate praecepti that are not so Necessitate medii Neither do I intend by this Belief which the proposing of the outward Knowledge requires a Belief meerly Historical Necessitas Praecepti Medii as he malitiously would Insinuate I shall now take notice of his gross Perversions and Calumnies which as he advances I observe grow thicker and are in this Chapter very Numerous As first from my saying That we understand by the Light or Seed a Spiritual and Heavenly Principle in which GOD as he is the Father the Son and the Spirit dwelleth from this he infers p. 231. It may be he doth not acknowledge a Trinity c. But if there be any ground for such an Inference from these words of mine I leave it to all Rational men to Judge Pag. 255. Because I say It is Christ's Flesh and Blood which came down from Heaven he asks If Christ had no other Flesh and Blood and then as if I had answered He had not he Concludes Us Deniers of the Incarnation of Christ asking Whether the Death of Christ his Resurrection and Ascension and all the History of his Life be but Dreams and Lies Which Malitious Insinuation and Perversion is returned upon him as false and groundless And whereas he
and lead them out of Error and Blindness Don't Charge them and do worse for verily that will undo you in the End O that God would rend the Heavens and come down in Showers of Love and Quench the Flames that every-where devour his Creation That it would please him to still the furious Winds and calm the raging Seas and remove that Enmity which is the Ground of all and bring the Nations under his own heavenly Government where there is no need to Learn War against one another any more that they that have erred in Spirit Isa. 2.4 Isa. 29 29. Matt. 5.43 47. Ch. 18.21 22. Rom. 12.18 may come to Vnderstanding and those that have Murmured may learn Doctrine even the Doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ which is a Doctrine of Love Meekness Mercy Forbearance a Doctrine of Self-denial Humility and Holiness a Doctrine that Reconciles us to God and one to another And no Man can have the Benefit of the first that Hates his Brother and less that Kills him for the Love of this World O it is a Crying Sin with God a strong Judgment upon us and a sure Token both of more and nearer Calamities that we are so Hard-hearted and Vnsensible of it Nay it looks as if we were not to be moved unless God himself would appear in the Air and send Fire down to Consume all before our Eyes and our selves in the Conclusion of the Tragedy Is not the Wrath of God do we think Revealed sufficiently against us in the Faction Strife War Rom. 1.18 Gal. 5.19 23. Blood and Poverty that we see almost all over Europe this Day God Almighty make People sensible and weary of it and the Cause of it their Sins Sins against Light against Conscience and Knowledge their Vnfaithfulness to God and Man their Scandalous Immorality and most Inordinate Love of the World the Ground of all Contention and Mischief That so the Peace of God which passeth worldly Men's Understanding may fill all our Hearts through Repentance and Conversion Amen I have been the longer in my Notes upon this Occasion than I Expected but our present Condition in Europe drew it from me that needs an Olive-branch the Doctrine of Peace as much as ever Our Author's next Treatise was published 1679. being a Vindication of his Notable Apology for the Christian Divinity profest by the People called Quakers in Reply to the Exceptions made against it by one John Brown in his Book called Quakerism the Path-way to Paganism In which Vindication the Reader will find the Truth sifted from all the Durt and Rubbish with which her Malitious or Ignorant Adversaries have endeavoured to sully her Beauty and disfigure and bury her out of the Sight and Knowledg of the People The Defence being like the Apology performed with much Labour and Exactness and so fully and plainly that it leaves one would think no room for Objection with the Serious and Moderate Inquirer I do justly Esteem his Apology and this Vindication in the Front of his Polemical Works Though I cannot but every-where prefer those Labours in him and others that have least to do with Controversy and whose main and immediate Scope is the Engaging of the Soul into the Love of Holiness the End of True Religion for it leads into the Blessed Communion of the Father and of the Son and gives the Possession of those Comforts and Refreshments that no Tongue can Express nor Soul by any other means Enjoy For without Holiness it is determined no Man shall ever see the Lord that is with Peace Heb. 12.14 Yet Controversy handled in the Fear of God and in the Openings of his Light and Spirit that is ever present and sufficient to the Help of his People in all their Services has also its Edification especially where an Earnest and Tender Desire to Inform the Mistaken prevails above Private Interest or any Party or Personal Consideration for God will witness to such Labours and follow them with his Blessing With which I beseech him to Crown our Beloved Friend's Services in this and all other Respects that tend to the Exaltation of his Glorious Truth The last Tract our Author left us and which is the Conclusion of this Volume and Preface was writ and published 1686. and is Intituled The Possibility and Necessity of the Inward and Immediate Revelation of the Spirit of God towards the Foundation and Ground of true Faith proved in a Letter writ in Latin to a Person of Quality in Holland and now also put into English The Person to whom it was writ was a Learned Man especially in the New Philosophy very Free and Friendly but not Fool enough to Resign to this Doctrine as entirely as he ought yet I believe better Reconciled to it before he died As the Revelation of Sin Righteousness and Judgment of Mercy and Consolation what to Avoid what to Repent of what to Desire what to Do and where to wait for Power to Avoid and Do as we are thereby directed is the Revelation chiefly Insisted upon by us so those that come to Answer the Love and Mercy of God in the first part of this Revelation viz. the Sight of Sin shall know the Aboundings of it from Day to Day and from the Evidence and Authority of their own Experience shall be enabled nay constrained to pronounce this Testimony of the Revelation maintained by the People called Quakers 'T is true and according to Scripture I might Advance divers Arguments from the Nature of God and the Soul of Man and from what may be as well as what has been the Truth of this Revelation but that being done by our Author in this small Treatise in an Abstract and proper manner I chose rather to speak Scripturally and Experimentally And whoever is Lowly and Poor enough in Spirit to Try the Truth of what I say Shall Comprehend with all Saints the Height and Depth and Length and Breadth of the Love of God in Christ to the Souls of Men by the Revelation of that true Light and Spirit and Grace I have testified of in this Preface and which the Wisest of the Men of this World can at best have but a Shadow and Idea of Remember Life is more than Food and the Body than Raiment so is Bread better than Husks Substance than Shadow Realities than Imaginations of them which is the best of their Case that come not through the Obedience of the Truth and Discipline of Christ's Cross to enjoy them Reader It is a most Important Point of the first Consideration to Men without it no Knowledge of God nor of Christ that Reveals God and without that Knowledge no Salvation for the Souls of Men. Matt. 11.27 Joh. 17.3 So that this Volume ends with that which all Men must begin with if they will ever truly know God and possess Eternal Life viz. Revelation Now some will say Revelation why we have it Have we not the Scriptures Do you pretend to another Revelation No
W. M's Position in preaching Christ and gathering the Churches Whether their being the Instruments made these things sinful which were done not only by the command but by the power and vertue of Christ in them And seeing thou canst not deny but the Scriptures called by thee the Word of God were brought forth by the holy Spirit in the holy men of God and did flow as waters from the Spirit of God which gave them forth through the very first Pen-men of them because of the uncleanness which thou supposest to have been in them If thou say'st Nay thou contradictest thy former instance of Clean water receiving a Tincture of uncleanness from the unclean Pipe through which it passeth If thou say'st Yea to wit that the Scriptures were defiled and corrupted by the Pen-men of them I leave it to all of any sound Judgment whether you or we be most Esteemers of the Scriptures We who say They were pure words as Gold without any tincture of uncleanness or corruption as they came forth from the Spirit of God through the Pen-men of them Or You if you say That they were defiled with the uncleanness of the men through which they were given forth He who has any true understanding let him judge concerning these things Page 26. Thou blamest it as an Vnsuitable thing for a Quaker to say That that People to whom he is joined are the most Christ-like Christians this day upon the Earth And yet will any of you say less of your Way For if yours be not the best Way why do you plead so much for it Why do ye preach it up Why do you study to draw People to it and complain of those who have left it Now is not a good Principle a ready way to lead People to good Practices And are not these who are in the right Way of the Flock of Christ And is not Christ's Flock like unto him Can it therefore be an unsutable thing for one who supposeth himself to be of Christ's Flock to say The Flock with whom he is is likest to Christ Will any of you say less except ye grant your selves not to be of Christ's Flock We are not the most-Christ-like People say'st thou by what we outwardly appear because the Monks and Heremits therein excel us nor yet by what we inwardly feel because others different from us have felt as much As to the first thou hast shewed thy Ignorance of the very Appearance of Christianity for the Appearance of Christianity is not in fleeing the Society of Men or retiring the outward Man making Vows of voluntary Poverty for any one that hath the least knowledge in true Mortification may know that where a man's Meat and Provision is laid up for him and that there is no care of these things lying upon the Mind but a full liberty to live in Idleness which is the Monks Case it is an easie thing in Self-will to take on a demure deportment or to wear Hair-cloth or go barefoot which by custom becomes familiar And truly many of the Commons in Scotland are used to greater hardships than all that and yet are far from having the Appearance of Christianity But the matter is for People to be conversant in this World to have their Occasions and Business in it and to have dealing with the Spirit of it and yet to keep to the meek lowly simple Appearance using it as if they were not using it by keeping out of its Spirit and Way in all manner of Conversation This is to be like unto Christ who did not retire himself unto an Heremits lodge but conversed among Publicans and Sinners Now let Your Flocks and the Quakers be compared together in this particular and let the Light in all Consciences judge who are likest to Christ. Secondly To evidence that some different from us have had as much Inward feeling thou say'st Thou canst tell us of some who have had so much of the fear and dread of God upon their hearts that they durst not adventure upon Sin By this thou seemest to grant that there are inward feelings and enjoyments among the Quakers saying What good is it that you truly feel that persons different from you have not felt And how doth this consist with your judging the Quakers fallen into Apostacy and Delusion of the Devil and that they are possessed with the Devil Can such have inward feelings and enjoyments of God For my part I am glad to hear that any such have been who have had so much of the fear and dread of God upon their hearts that they durst not adventure upon sin and I should be glad and so I know would any of the Quakers be glad to meet with them But now such who have so much of the fear of God upon their hearts that they durst not adventure upon sin would they not love to be Perfect Would they dispute against Perfection and conclude it impossible Would such who dare not sin for a world sin every day yea every moment as you say ye do If they dare not sin would they not refrain from sin and cease from it And would they make use of that poor evasion which thou addest that therefore they would not willingly sin for a world As long as the dread and fear of God remains and stands over the heart sin is shut out and the Mind's will is to fear God and not to sin Thou canst tell us of others thou say'st who many years lived in the sweet sense of God's favour and have gone most triumphantly out of the world with strong perswasions of their Eternal Well-being But would such have pleaded for Continuance in sin Doth not Continuance in sin eclipse and take away the sense of God's favour And further would such have denied fellowship with God by Immediate Revelation Immediate Teachings of the Spirit as you do Would they have denied the Immediate Teachings of the Spirit as you do Do not some now living remember some of them who had these feelings and did bear an express Testimony to the imediate Teachings of the Spirit and Immediate fellowship with God and plainly declared That no preaching was profitable but that which came immediately from the Spirit and found fault with the Ministers that they preached from their Study and their Books and wished them to put away or burn their Books for that they were a hurt to them And some of those saw over and beyond and unto the end of your so called Ordinance of outward Bread and Wine Bread and Wine and said plainly It was but a shadow or figure and that those who witnessed the substance had no need of the other And though those and some others who witnessed such inward feelings and enjoyments of God were not called Quakers nor had their understandings so clearly opened as to many things as the People called Quakers have yet with the same life in some measure they have been acquainted which is the Quakers Way
express Words of Scripture and if in some of the Questions there be somewhat Subsumed of what in my Judgment is the plain and naked Import of the Words it is not to Impose my Sense upon the Reader but to make way for the next Question for the dependence of the Matter 's sake I shall leave it to the reason of any Vnderstanding and Judicious Man who is not byassed by Self-Interest that great Enemy to true Equity and who in the least measure is willing to give way to the Light of Christ in his Conscience if the Scriptures do not pertinently and aptly Answer to the Questions As I have upon serious Grounds Separated from most of the Confessions and Catechisms heretofore published so not without Cause I have now taken another Method They usually place their Confession of Faith before the Catechism I judge it ought to be otherwise in regard that which is Easiest and is Composed for Children or such as are Weak ought in my Judgment to be placed first it being most Regular to Begin with things that are Easie and Familiar and lead on to things that are more Hard and Intricate Besides that things be more largely opened in the Catechism and divers Objections Answered which are proposed in the Questions the Reader having past through that first will more perfectly understand the Confession which consisteth mainly in positive Assertions Not long after I had received and believed the Testimony I now bear I had in my view both the possibility and facility of such a Work and now after a more large and perfect acquaintance with the Holy Scripture I found Access to allow some time to set about it and have also been helped to accomplish the same I doubt not but it might be enlarged by divers Citations which are here omitted as not being at present brought to my Remembrance Yet I find Cause to be contented in that God hath so far assisted me in this Work by his Spirit that good Remembrancer the Manifestation of which as it is minded will help such as Seriously and Conscientiously Read this to find out and cleave to the Truth and also Establish and Confirm those who have already believed Which of all things is most earnestly desired and daily prayed for By FromVrie the Place of my Being in my Native Country of Scotland the 11th of the 6th Month 1673. ROBERT BARCLAY A Servant of the Church of CHRIST THE CONTENTS Chap. 1. OF God and the true and saving Knowledge of him Chap. 2. Of the Rule and Guide of Christians and of the Scriptures Chap. 3. Of Jesus Christ's being manifest in the Flesh the Use and End of it Chap. 4. Of the New Birth the Inward Appearance of Christ in Spirit and the Unity of the Saints with him Chap. 5. Concerning the Light wherewith Jesus Christ hath enlightned every Man the Universality and Sufficiency of God's Grace to all the World made manifest therein Chap. 6. Concerning Faith Justification and Works Chap. 7. Concerning Perfection or Freedom from Sin Chap. 8. Concerning Perseverance and falling from Grace Chap. 9. Concerning the Church and Ministry Chap. 10. Concerning Worship Chap. 11. Concerning Baptism and Bread and Wine Chap. 12. Concerning the Life of a Christian in general what and how it ought to be in this World Chap. 13. Concerning Magistracy Chap. 14. Concerning the Resurrection Chap. 15. A short Introduction to the Confession of Faith Chap. 16. A Confession of Faith containing Twenty Three Articles Article 1. Concerning God and the True and Saving Knowledge of him Art 2. Concerning the Guide and Rule of Christians Art 3. Concerning the Scriptures Art 4 Concerning the Divinity of Christ and his being from the Beginning Art 5. Concerning his Appearance in the Flesh. Art 6. Concerning the End and Use of that Appearance Art 7. Concerning the Inward Manifestation of Christ. Art 8. Concerning the New Birth Art 9. Concerning the Unity of the Saints with Christ. Art 10. Concerning the Universal Love and Grace of God to all Art 11. Concerning the Light that enlightneth every Man Art 12. Concerning Faith and Justification Art 13. Concerning Good Works Art 14. Concerning Perfection Art 15. Concerning Perseverance and Falling from Grace Art 16. Concerning the Church and Ministry Art 17. Concerning Worship Art 18. Concerning Baptism Art 19. Concerning Eating of Bread and Wine Washing of one anothers Feet abstaining from things strangled and from Blood and Anointing of the Sick with Oil. Art 20. Concerning the Liberty of such Christians as are come to know the Substance as to the using or not using of these Rites and of the Observation of Days Art 21. Concerning Swearing Fighting and Persecution Art 22. Concerning Magistracy Art 23. Concerning the Resurrection Chap. 17. A short Expostulation with and Appeal to all other Professors Chap. 18. A short Examination of some of the Scripture-Proofs alledged by the Divines at Westminster to prove divers Articles in their Confession of Faith and Catechism A CATECHISM c. year 1673 CHAP. I. Of GOD and the True and Saving Knowledge of Him Question SEeing it is a thing Vnquestioned by all sorts of Christians that the Hight of Happiness consisteth in coming to know and enjoy Eternal Life what is it in the Sense and Judgment of Christ Answer This is Life Eternal that they might know thee John 17.3 the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Q. How doth God Reveal this Knowledge A. For God who commanded the Light to shine out of Darkness 2 Cor. 4.6 hath shined in our Hearts to give the Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ. Q. How many Gods are there A. One God We know that an Idol is nothing in the World Ephes. 4.9 1 Cor. 8.4 6. and that there is none other God but one But to us there is but one God Q. What is God A. God is a Spirit John 4.24 Q. Among all the Blessed Glorious and Divine Excellencies of God which are ascribed and given to him in the Scriptures what is that which is most needful for us to take notice of as being the Message which the Apostles Recorded in special manner to declare of him now under the Gospel A. This then is the Message which we have heard of him and declare unto you That God is Light and in him is no Darkness at all 1 John 1.5 Q. What are they that bear Record in Heaven A. There are Three that bear Record in Heaven the Father 1 John 5.7 the Word and the Holy Ghost and these Three are One. Q. How cometh any Man to know God the Father according to Christ's Words A. All things are delivered to me of my Father and no Man knows who the Son is but the Father and who the Father is Luke 10.22 Mal. 11.27 John 14.6 but the Son and he to whom the Son will Reveal him Jesus saith unto him I am the Way the Truth and
Secondly Those who through Vnwatchfulness the secret Corruption of their own Hearts and the mysterious or hidden Temptations of the Enemy have fallen into his Snares and so have come under the Power of some Temptation or other either of Fleshly Lusts or of Spiritual Wickedness who being seasonably warned by those that keep their Habitation and faithful Overseers in the Church have been again Restored by unfeigned Repentance not kicking against the Pricks but have rejoiced that others watched over them for their good and are become Monuments of God's Mercy unto this Day 3. Self-separating troublesome Opposers Thirdly Such who being departed from their first Love and Antient Zeal for the Truth become Cold and Lukewarm and yet are ashamed to make open Apostacy and to turn back again so as to deny all the Principles of Truth they having had already such Evidence of Clearness upon their Understanding yet not keeping low in their own Habitations but being puffed up and giving Way to the restless Imaginations of their Exalted and Wandering Minds fall out with their Brethren cause Divisions begin to find Fault with every thing and to look at others more than at themselves with swelling Words to talk of and preach up a higher Dispensation while they are far from living up to the Life and Perfection of this present like unto such who said we will not have this Man to rule over us cry out of Formality and Apostacy because they are not followed in all Things and if they be reproved for their Vnruliness according to the good Order of the Church of Christ then they cry out Breach of Liberty Oppression Persecution we will have none of your Order and Government we were taught to follow the Light in our Consciences and not the Orders of Men. Well of this hereafter but this gave the Rise of this Controversy Which leads me to that which I proposed in the second Place SECTION III. Whether there be now to be any Order or Government in the Church of Christ. IN Answer to this Proposition I meddle not at this Time with those that deny any such Thing as a Church of Christ I have reserved their Plea to another Place Neither need I to be at much Pains to prove the Affirmative to wit That there ought to be Government and Order in the Church of Christ Church-Order and Government granted unto the Generality of our Opposers both Papists and Protestants who readily confess and acknowledge it and have heretofore blamed us for want of it Though now some of them and that of the highest Pretenders are become so unreasonable as to accuse us for the Use of it improving it so far as they can to our Disadvantage For such is the Blindness of partial Envy that whereas the supposed Want of it was once reckoned Heretical now the present Performance of it is counted Criminal These then to whom I come to prove this Thing are such who having cast off the Yoke of the Cross of Christ in themselves refuse all Subjection or Government denying that any such thing ought to be as disagreeing with the Testimony of Truth or those who not being so wilful and obstinate in their Minds yet are fearful or scrupulous in the Matter in respect of the dangerous Consequences they may apprehend such a Thing may draw after it For the clearing then as well the Mistakes of the one as answering the Cavils of the other I judge the Truth of these following Assertions will sufficiently prove the Matter which I shall make no great Difficulty to Evidence First That Jesus Christ the King and Head of the Church Reason I did appoint and ordain that there should be Order and Government in it Secondly That the Apostles and Primitive Christians when they were filled with the Holy Ghost and immediately led by the Spirit of God did Practise and Commend it Thirdly That the same Occasion and Necessity now occurring which gave them Opportunity to exercise that Authority the Church of Christ hath the same Power now as ever and are led by the same Spirit into the same Practices The Abuse makes not void the true Vse As to the First I know there are some that the very Name of a Church and the very Words Order and Government they are affraid of Now this I suppose hath proceeded because of the great Hypocrisy Deceit and Oppression that hath been cloaked with the Pretence of these Things but why should the Truth be neglected because Hypocrites have pretended to it The right Institution of these Things which have been appointed and ordained by God must not nor ought not to be dispised because corrupt Men have abused and perverted them I know not any thing that hath been more abused and perverted in the whole World than the Name of a Christian shall we then renounce that Honourable Title because so many Thousands of Wicked Men yea Antichrists have falsly assumed it to themselves The Man of Sin hath taken upon him to sit in the Temple of God as God yet we must not therefore deny that God is in this Temple If the Synagogue of Satan hath assumed the Name of the Church of Christ and hath termed her Oppression and Violence the Power and Authority thereof therefore must not the Church of Christ and its Authority be exercised where it truly is according to his Mind This I prefix to warn all to beware of stumbling at things which are innocent in themselves and that we may labour to hold the steady even Path of Truth without running in either of the Extreams For that Jesus Christ did appoint Order and Government to be in the Church Church-Order appointed by Christ and the Form thereof is very clear from his plain Words Matth. 18.15 16 17 18. Ver. 15. Moreover if thy Brother shall trespass against thee go tell him his Fault between thee and him alone if he shall hear thee thou hast gained thy Brother Ver. 16. But if he will not hear thee then take with thee one or two more that in the Mouth of two or three Witnesses every Word may be established Ver. 17. 〈…〉 he shall neglect to hear them tell it unto the Church but 〈…〉 neglect to hear the Church let him be unto thee as an Heathenâ—â—â— and a Publican Ver. 18. Verily I say unto you whatsoever 〈◊〉 shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever 〈…〉 loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven From which â—cripture it doth manifestly and evidently follow First that Jesus Christ intended there should be a certain Order and Method in his Church in the Procedure towards such as Transgress Secondly That he that refuseth to hear two is become more guilty as hardned than in refusing to hear him that first reproved alone Thirdly That refusing to hear the Judgment of the Church or whole Assembly he doth thereby Exclude himself and shut out himself from being a Member and is justly judged by his Brethren
is so much the better that the Elders and greater Number do agree to it and if Wrong their Affirming of it will not make it Right And truly a Gathering where the Elders and greater Number are always or most frequently Wrong and the Younger and lesser Number Right is such as we cannot suppose the True Church of Christ to be And if any will plead that there is now no Infallible Judgment to be expected from the Spirit of God in the Church it no doubt will leave the Dissenters as much in the Mist and at as great a loss as those they Dissent from both being no better than blind men hitting at random which will turn Christianity into Scepticism And though we may acknowledge that this Vncertainty prevails in the generality of those called Churches yet we do firmly believe for the Reasons above declared and many more that might be given That the True Church of Christ has a more solid stable Foundation and being never separated from Christ her Head walks in a more certain steady and unerring Path. The CONCLUSION THE Substance then of what is Asserted and Proved in this Treatise resolves in these following Particulars A Summary Recollection of the whole First That in the Church of Christ when it Consists of a visible People for I speak not here of the Church in the dark Night of Apostacy that consisted not of any Society visibly united gathered into the Belief of certain Principles and united in the joint Performance of the Worship of God as Meeting together praying preaching c. there is and still must be a Certain Order and Government Secondly That this Government as to the Outward Form of it Consists of Certain Meetings Appointed principally for that End yet not so as to exclude Acts of Worship if the Spirit move thereunto Thirdly The Object of this Government is twofold Outwards and Inwards The Outwards relate mainly to the Care of the Poor of Widows and Fatherless where may be also included Marriages and the Removing of all Scandals in things undeniably wrong The Inwards respect an Apostacy either in Principles or Practices that have a Pretence of Conscience and that either in Denying some Truths already Received and Believed or Asserting New Doctrines that ought not to be Received Which again to subdivide may either be in Things Fundamental 1674 and of great moment or in things of less Weight in themselves yet proceeding from a Wrong Spirit and which in the natural and certain Consequence of them tend to make Schisms Divisions Animosities and in sum to break that Bond of Love and Vnity that is so needful to be upheld and established in the Church of Christ. And here come also under this Consideration all Emulations Strifes Backbitings and evil Surmisings Fourthly That in the True Church of Christ according to the Definition above given of it there will in such Cases of Differences and Controversies still be an Infallible Judgment from the Spirit of God either in one or other few or more Fifthly That this Infallible Judgment is only and unalterably annexed and seated in the Spirit and Power of God not to any particular Person or Persons Meeting or Assembly by vertue of any setled Ordination Office Place or Station that such may have or have had in the Church no Man Men nor Meeting standing or being Invested in any Authority in the Church of Christ upon other Terms than so long as he or they abide in the living Sense and Vnity of the Life in their own particulars which whosoever one or more inwardly departs from ipso facto loses all Authority Office or certain Discerning he or they formerly have had though retaining the true Principles and sound Form and may be not fall'n into any gross Practices as may declare them generally to be thus withered and decayed Sixthly That Jesus Christ under the Gospel hath ordinarily Revealed his Will in such Cases through the Elders and Ministers of the Church or a General Meeting whose Testimony is neither to be despised or rejected without good Cause Neither is their taking upon them Really to Decide any just Ground to charge them with Imposition or to quarrel their Judgment unless it can be proved that they are decayed and have lost their Discerning as above Seventhly That to Submit and Obey in such Cases is no detracting from the Common Priviledge of Christians to be Inwardly led by the Spirit seeing the Spirit has led some heretofore so to do and yet may And that every Pretence of Vnclearness is not a Sufficient Excuse for Disobedience seeing that may proceed from Obstinacy or a Mind prepossessed with Prejudice Yet say I not any ought to do it before they be Clear and who are every Right will not want Clearness in what They ought to do And Lastly That these Principles are no ways tainted with Imposition or contrary to true Liberty of Conscience And that they fundamentally differ from the Vsurpations both of Popery Prelacy and Presbytery or any other of that Nature Robert Barclay Robert Barclay HIS VINDICATION year 1679 WHEREIN The Scruples and Mistakes some have had touching his Book called The Anarchy of the Ranters are Cleared and the Ground upon which W. R's Papers against it are Built Removed the Substance of the Papers being briefly Answered by way of EPISTLE to FRIENDS who therein have or may be Concern'd Which may serve as an EXPLANATORY P0ST-SCRIPT to Robert Barclay's Book of GOVERNMENT Aberdeen-Prison the Sixth of the First Month 1679. Dear Friends and Brethren UNTO all my Dear Friends and Brethren unto whose Hands this Paper may come or who may be any ways more particularly Concerned in the Contents hereof The Salutation of my unfeigned Love in that Vnchangable Truth whereunto it hath pleased the Lord to Call me according to his great Mercy so as to be a Partaker in some measure of the Peace and Glory which in this Day is Revealed wherewith my heart hath been often filled as I have Waited in Faithfulness according to the Dispensation of Light Manifested in me and to me And since it hath pleased God to make me a Living Witness of the pretious Truth and to Commit unto me any Share of the Ministry thereof my Conscience bears me Witness in the sight of God that I have Laboured according to my Knowledge to follow Love and Peace with all my Brethren R. B's Ministry and to do those things which might tend to advance strengthen and confirm Vnity and Brotherly Love as also to Avoid what had a tendency to beget Strife Jealousies or Evil Surmises Likewise I have studied as well in my Publick Testimony His Writings as in my Writings to beware of any thing that to my Understanding might minister just Occasion of Stumbling or Offcence to the least of my Brethren or the youngest and weakest Babe in the Truth as such as are Conversant with me iâ— my own Country as well as those elsewhere where I have
Kingdom of Scotland and that thou may'st know which I hope thou shalt have no Reason to be troubled at that God is Raising up and Increasing that people in that Nation And the Nations shall also hereby know that the Truth we profess is not a Work of Darkness nor propagated by Stealth that we are not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ because we know it to be the Power of God unto Salvation and that we are no ways so Inconsistent with Government nor such Disturbers of the Peace as our Enemies by Traducing us have sought to make the World believe we are for which to Thee I dare Appeal as a Witness of our peaceableness and Christian patience Generations to come shall not more Admire that singular Step of Divine Providence in Restoring thee to thy Throne without outward Bloodshed than they shall admire the Increase and Progress of this Truth without all outward Help and against so Great Opposition which shall be-none of the least things rendring thy Memory Remarkable God hath done great things for thee he hath sufficiently shewn thee that it is By Him Princes Rule and that He can pull down and set up at his pleasure He hath often faithfully Warned thee by his Servants since he Restored thee to thy Royal Dignity that thy Heart might not wax Wanton against him to forget his Mercies and Providence towards thee whereby he might permit Thee to be soothed up and lulled asleep in thy Sins by the flattering of Court-Parasites who by their fawning are the Ruin of many Princes There is no King in the World who can so Experimentally testify of God's Providence and Goodness neither is there any who Rules so many Free People so many True Christians which thing renders thy Government more Honourable and Thy self more Considerable than the Accession of many Nations filled with slavish and superstitious Souls Thou hast Tasted of Prosperity and Adversity thou know'st what it is to be Banished thy Native Country to be Over-ruled as well as to Rule and Sit upon the Throne and being Oppressed thou hast reason to know how hateful the Oppressor is both to God and Man If after all these Warnings and Advertisements thou dost not Turn unto the Lord with all thy heart but forget him who remembred thee in thy Distress and give up thy self to follow Lust and Vanity surely Great will be thy Condemnation Against which Snare as well as the Temptation of those that may or do feed thee and prompt thee to Evil the most Excellent and Prevalent Remedy will be to Apply thy self to that Light of Christ which shineth in thy Conscience which neither can nor will flatter thee nor suffer thee to be at Ease in thy Sins but doth and will deal plainly and faithfully with thee as those that are Followers thereof have also done GOD Almighty who hath so signally hitherto visited Thee with his love so Touch and Reach thy heart e're the Day of thy Visitation be Expired that thou may'st effectually Turn to him so as to Improve thy Place and Station for his Name So wisheth so prayeth From Ury the place of my Pilgrimage in my Native Country of Scotland the 25 th of the Month called November in the Year 1675. Thy Faithful Friend and Subject Robert Barclay R B. unto the Friendly Reader Wisheth Salvation FOrasmuch as that which above all things I propose to my self is to Declare and Defend the Truth for the Service whereof I have given up and devoted my self and all that is mine therefore there is nothing which for its sake by the Help and Assistance of God I may not Attempt And in this Confidence I did sometime ago publish certain Propositions of Divinity comprehending briefly the Chief Principles and Doctrines of Truth which appearing not unprofitable to some and being beyond my Expectation well Received both by Forreiners though Dissenting from us albeit also Opposed by some Envious ones did so far prevail as in some part to Remove that false and monstrous Opinion which lying Fame and the Malice of our Adversaries had Implanted in the Minds of some concerning us and our Doctrines In this Respect it seem'd to me not fit to spare my Pains and Labour Therefore being acted by the same Measure of the Divine Spirit and the like Design of propagating the Truth by which I published the Propositions I judg'd it meet to Explain them somewhat more largely at this time and Defend them by Certain Arguments Perhaps my Method of Writing may seem not only Different but even Contrary to that which is commonly used by the Men called Divines with which I am not concerned for that I Confess my self to be not only no Imitator and Admirer of the School-men but an Opposer and Despiser of them as such by whose Labour I judge the Christian Religion to be so far from being bettered that it is rather destroyed Neither have I sought to Accommodate this my Work to Itching Ears who desire rather to Comprehend in their Head the Sublime Notions of Truth than to Embrace it in their Heart For what I have written comes more from my Hearth than from my Head what I have heard with the Ears of my Soul and seen with my inward Eyes and my hands have handled of the Word of Life and what hath been inwardly Manifested to me of the Things of God that do I Declare not so much minding the Eloquence and Excellency of Speech as desiring to Demonstrate the Efficacy and Operation of Truth and if I Err sometime in the former it is no great matter for I act not here the Grammarian or the Orator but the Christian And therefore in this have followed the certain Rule of the Divine Light and of the Holy Scriptures And to make an end what I have Written is Written not to feed the Wisdom and Knowledge or rather Vain Pride of this World but to starve and oppose it As the little Preface prefixed to the Propositions doth shew Which with the Title of them is as followeth ADVERTISEMENT IF Perhaps it be known to the Reader e're this come to his hand that there is a large Answer writ to the Latin Edition before this came forth by John Brown that little Presbyterian c. at his Brother Robert Macquair terms him in the Post-script though it be Esteemed that such as will seriously Compare it with this will judge no further Reply needful and that it appeared not to deserve any seeing a great part of it is a bundle of meer Railing and Abuse and that the said John Brown hath now Manifested himself to be a person so Furious Head-strong and Violent as he is become Unsupportable to the Chiefest of his own Non-conforming Brethren Yet there was a Reply written to it divers Months ago and may e're long come to Publick View if the Difficulty of Printing and Distance do not retard it In which the Reader may find Satisfaction and see that Furious Railer soberly Rebuked and
as is hoped solidly Refuted THESES THEOLOGICAE year 1675 To the CLERGY of what Sort soever unto whose hands these may come but more particularly to the Doctors Professors and Students of Divinity in the Vniversities and Schools of Great Britain whether Prelatical Presbyterian or any other Robert Barclay a Servant of the Lord God and one of those who in Derision are called Quakers Wisheth Vnfeigned Repentance unto the Acknowledgment of the Truth FRIENDS UNto You these following PROPOSITIONS are Offered in which they being Read and Considered in the Fear of the Lord you may perceive that Simple Naked Truth which Man by his Wisdom hath rendred so Obscure and Mysterious that the World is even Burthened with the great and Voluminous Tractates which are made about it and by their Vain Jangling and Commentaries by which it is rendred a hundred fold more Dark and Intricate than of it self it is which Great Learning so accounted of to wit your School Divinity which taketh up almost a Man's whole Life-time to learn brings not a-whit nearer to God neither makes any Man less Wicked or more Righteous than he was Therefore hath God laid aside the Wise and Learned and the Disputers of this World and hath chosen a few despicable and Unlearned Instruments as to Letter-learning as he did Fisher-men of old to publish his pure and naked Truth and to free it of these Mists and Fogs wherewith the Clergy hath Clouded it that the People might Admire and Maintain them And among several others whom God hath Chosen to make known these things seeing also have Received in Measure Grace to be a Dispenser of the same Gospel it seemed good unto me according to my Duty to Offer unto You these Propositions which though short yet are Weighty Comprehending much and declaring what the true Ground of Knowledge is even of that Knowledge which leads to Life Eternal which is here witnessed of and the Testimony thereof left unto the Light of Christ in all your Consciences Farewel R. B. The First Proposition Concerning the true Foundation of Knowledge SEeing the Height of all Happiness is placed in the true Knowledge of God This is Life Eternal to know the true God and Jesus Christ John 17.3 whom thou hast sent the true and right Understanding of this Foundation and Ground of Knowledge is that which is most necessary to be known and believed in the first place The Second Proposition Concerning Immediate Revelation Seeing no Man knoweth the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son Revealeth him Matth. 11.27 and seeing the Revelation of the Son is in and by the Spirit therefore the Testimony of the Spirit is that alone by which the true Knowledge of God hath been is and can be only Revealed Who as by the moving of his own Spirit Converted the Chaos of this World into that Wonderful Order wherein it was in the beginning and Created Man a living Soul to Rule and Govern it so by the Revelation of the same Spirit he hath Manifested himself all along unto the Sons of Men both Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles Which Revelations of God by the Spirit whether by outward Voices and Appearances Dreams or inward Objective Manifestations in the Heart were of old the formal Object of their Faith and remaineth yet so to be since the Object of the Saints Faith is the same in all Ages though set forth under divers Administrations Moreover these Divine Inward Revelations which we make absolutely Necessary for the building up of true Faith neither do nor can ever Contradict the outward Testimony of the Scriptures or right and sound Reason Yet from hence it will not follow that these Divine Revelations are to be subjected to the Examination either of the outward Testimony of the Scriptures or of the Natural Reason of Man as to a more noble or certain Rule and Touch-stone For this Divine Revelation and inward Illumination is that which is evident and clear of it self forcing by its own Evidence and Clearness the well-disposed Understanding to Assent irresistibly moving the same thereunto even as the Common Principles of Natural Truths move and incline the mind to a Natural Assent such as are these That the Whole is greater than the Part That two Contradictory Sayings cannot be both true or false Which is also manifest according to our Adversaries Principle who supposing the possibility of inward Divine Revelations will nevertheless Confess with us that neither Scripture nor sound Reason will Contradict it and yet it will not follow according to them that the Scripture or sound Reason should be subjected to the Examination of the Divine Revelations in the heart The Third Proposition Concerning the Scriptures From these Revelations of the Spirit of God to the Saints have proceeded the Scriptures of Truth which contain 1. A faithful Historical Account of the Actings of God's People in divers Ages with many singular and remarkable Providences attending them 2. A Prophetical Account of several things whereof some are already past and some yet to come 3. A full and ample Account of all the chief Principles of the Doctrine of Christ held forth in divers pretious Declarations Exhortations and Sentences which by the moving of God's Spirit were at several times and upon sundry occasions spoken and written unto some Churches and their Pastors Nevertheless because they are only a Declaration of the Fountain and not the Fountain it self therefore they are not to be esteemed the principal Ground of all Truth and Knowledge nor yet the Adequate Primary Rule of Faith and Manners Nevertheless as that which giveth a true and faithful Testimony of the first Foundation they are and may be esteemed a secondary Rule subordinate to the Spirit from which they have all their Excellency and Certainty For as by the Inward Testimony of the Spirit we do alone truly know them so they testify that the Spirit is that Guide John 16.13 Rom. 8.14 by which the Saints are led into all Truth Therefore according to the Scriptures the Spirit is the first and principal Leader And seeing we do therefore receive and believe the Scriptures because they proceeded from the Spirit therefore also the Spirit is more originally and principally the Rule according to that received Maxim in the Schools Propter quod unumquodque est tale illud ipsum est magis tale Englished thus That for which a thing is such that thing it self is more such The Fourth Proposition Concerning the Condition of Man in the Fall All Adam's Posterity or Mankind both Jews and Gentiles Rom. 5.12 15. as to the first Adam or Earthly Man is fallen degenerated and dead deprived of the sensation or feeling of this inward Testimony or Seed of God and is subject unto the Power Nature and Seed of the Serpent which he sows in mens hearts while they abide in this Natural and Corrupted State from whence it comes that not their words and deeds only but all their
and enjoyed but as hath been above observed it is by Walking in this Light that we have this Communion and Fellowship not by Walking in John which were Non-sense So that this Relative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must needs be Referr'd to the Light whereof John bears Witness that through that Light wherewith Christ hath lighted every man all men might come to believe Seeing then this Light is the Light of Jesus Christ The Light is Supernatural Saving and Sufficient and the Light through which men come to believe I think it needs not be doubted but that it is a supernatural saving and sufficient Light If it were not Supernatural it could not be properly called the Light of Jesus for though all things be his and of him and from him yet those things which are Common and Peculiar to our Nature as being a part of them we are not said in so special a manner to have from Christ. Moreover the Evangelist is holding out to us here the Office of Christ as Mediator and the Benefits which from him as such do Redound unto us Observ. 2 Secondly It cannot be any of the Natural Gifts or Faculties of our Soul whereby we are said here to be Inlightned because this Light is said to shine in the Darkness and cannot be Comprehended by it Now this Darkness is no other The Darkness is Man's Natural State and Condition but man's Natural Condition and State in which Natural State he can easily Comprehend and doth Comprehend those things that are peculiar and common to him as such That Man in his Natural Condition is called Darkness see Eph. 5.8 For ye were sometimes Darkness but now are ye Light in the Lord. And in other places as Acts 26.18 Col. 1.13 1 Thess. 5.5 where the Condition of man in his Natural State is termed Darkness Therefore I say this Light cannot be any natural property or faculty of man's Soul but a Supernatural Gift and Grace of Christ. Observ. 3 Thirdly It is Sufficient and Saving Arg. 1 That which is given That all men through it may believe must needs be Saving and Sufficient That by Walking in which Fellowship with the Saints and the Blood of Christ which cleanseth from all sin is possessed must be Sufficient But such is the LIGHT 1 Joh. 1.7 Therefore c. Moreover That which we are Commanded to believe in that we may become Arg. 2 the Children of the Light must be a Supernatural Sufficient and Saving Principle But we are Commanded to believe in this Light Therefore c. The Proposition cannot be denied The Assumption is Christ's own words Joh. 12.36 While ye have the Light believe in the Light that ye may be the Children of the Light To this they Object Object That by Light here is understood Christ's outward Person in whom he would have them believe That they ought to have believed in Christ that is Answ. that he was the MESSIAH that was to come is not denied but how they Evince that Christ intended that here I see not nay Whether Christ's ouâ—ward Person was the Light the place it self shews the Contrary by these words While ye have the Light and by the verse going before Walk while ye have the Light lest darkness come upon you Which words Import that when that Light in which they were to Believe was Removed then they should lose the Capacity or Season of Believing Now this could not be understood of Christ's Person else the Jews might have believed in him and many did savingly believe in him as all Christians do at this day when the person to wit his bodily Presence or outward man is far removed from them So that this Light The Light of Christ is not Christ's outward Man or Person in which they were commanded to believe must be that Inward Spiritual Light that shines in their hearts for a season even during the Day oâ— man's Visitation which while it continueth to Call Invite and Exhort men are said to have it and may believe in it but when men refuse to believe in it and Reject it then it ceaseth to be a Light to shew them the Way but leaves the sense of their Vnfaithfulness as a Sting in their Conscience which is a Terror and Darkness unto them and upon them in which they cannot know where to go neither can work any ways profitably in order to their Salvation And therefore to such Rebellious ones the Day of the Lord is said to be Darkness and not Light Amos 5.18 From whence it appears that though many Receive not the Light as the Darkness comprehends it not nevertheless this Saving Light shines in all that it may save them Cyrill Alex. Upon Joh. lib 1. cap. 11. Concerning which also Cyrillus Alexandrinus saith well and defends our Principle With great Diligence and Watchfulness saith he doth the Apostle John Endeavour to Anticipate and Prevent the vain Thoughts of men for there is here a wonderful Method of sublime things and Overturning of Objections He had just now called the Son the true Light by whom he Affirmed that every man coming into the world was Inlightned yea that he was in the World and the World was made by him One may then Object If the Word of God be the Light and if this Light Inlighten the hearts of men and suggest unto men piety and the understanding of things if he was always in the World and was the Creator or Builder of the World why was he so long unknown unto the World It seems rather to follow because he was unknown to the World therefore the World was not Inlightned by him nor he totally Light The World knew him not Lest any should so Object he divinely infers and the World knew him not Let not the World saith he Accuse the Word of God and his Eternal Light but it s own Weakness for the Son Inlightens but the Creature Rejects the Grace that 's given unto it and abuseth the sharpness of Understanding granted it by which it might have naturally known God and as a Prodigal hath turned its sight to the Creatures neglected to go forward and through Laziness and Negligence buried the Illumination and despised this Grace Which that the Disciple of Paul might not do he was Commanded to Watch therefore it is to be imputed to their Wickedness The Son Inlightens but Man through Negligence buries Illumination who are Illuminated and not unto the Light For as albeit the Sun riseth upon all yet he that is blind receiveth no benefit thereby none thence can justly accuse the brightness of the Sun but will ascribe the Cause of not seeing to the Blindness So I judge it is to be understood of the Only Begotten Son of God for he is the true Light and sendeth forth his brightness upon all but the God of this World as Paul saith hath blinded the minds of those that believe not 2 Cor. 4.4 that the Light of the
their Logick silence it nor can the securest among them stop its Voice from Crying and Reproving them within for all their Confidence in the outward Knowledge of Christ or of what he hath Suffered outwardly for them For as hath been often said in a Day it strives with all wrestles with all and it 's the Vnmortified Nature the first Nature the old Adam yet alive in the Wisest in the Learnedest in the most-zealous for the outward Knowledge of Christ that denies this that despises it that shuts it out to their own Condemnation They come all under this Description Every one that doth Evil hateth the Light neither cometh to the Light lest his deeds should be Reproved Joh. 3.20 so that it may be said now and we can say from a true and certain Experience as it was said of old Psal. 118.22 Matth. 21.42 Mark 12.10 Luke 20.17 Acts 4.11 The Stone which the Builders of all kinds have Rejected the same is become unto us the Head of the Corner Glory to God for ever who hath chosen us a First-Fruits to himself in this day wherein he is arisen to plead with the Nations and therefore hath sent us forth to preach this Everlasting Gospel unto all Christ nigh to all the Light in all the Seed sown in the Hearts of all that men may come and apply their minds to it And we Rejoice that we have been made to lay down our Wisdom and Learning such of us as have had some of it and our Carnal Reasoning to Learn of Jesus and sit down at the feet of Jesus in our hearts and hear him who there makes all things manifest and reproves all things by his Light Eph. 5.13 The Wise and Learned in the Notion Crucifiers of Christ. For many are Wise and Learned in the Notion in the letter of the Scripture as the Pharisees were and can speak much of Christ and plead strongly against Infidels Turks and Jews and it may be also against some Heresies who in the mean time are Crucifying Christ in the small Appearance of his Seed in their Hearts O! better were it to be Stript naked of all to account it as dross and dung and become a Fool for Christ's sake thus knowing him to Teach thee in thy heart so as thou may'st witness him Raised there feel the virtue of his Cross there and say with the Apostle I glory in nothing save in the Cross of Christ whereby I am Crucified to the World and the World unto me This is better than to write Thousands of Commentaries and to preach many Sermons And it is thus to preach Christ and direct people to his Pure Light in the Heart None are saved by the Knowledge of the History but by the Operation of the Light of Christ in the Mystery that God hath raised us up and for which the Wise Men of this World account us Fools because by the Operation of this Cross of Christ in our hearts we have denied our own Wisdom and Wills in many things and have forsaken the vain Worships Fashions and Customs of this World For these divers Centuries the World hath been full of a dry fruitless and barren Knowledge of Christ feeding upon the husk and neglecting the kernel following after the shadow but strangers to the Substance Hence the Devil matters not how much of that Knowledge abounds provided he can but possess the heart and rule in the Will Crucify the Appearance of Christ there and so keep the Seed of the Kingdom from taking Root For he has led them abroad lo here and lo there and has made them wrestle in a false Zeal so much one against another contending for this outward Observation Contentions about outward Observations and Lo-here's c. and for the other outward Observation seeking Christ in this and the other External thing as in Bread and Wine contending one with another how he is there while some will have him to be present therein this way and some the other way and some in Scriptures in Books in Societies and Pilgrimages and Merits But some Confiding in an External Barren Faith think all is well if they do but firmly believe that he died for their sins past present and to come while in the mean time Christ lies Crucified and Slain and is daily Resisted and Gainsaid in his Appearance in their hearts The Call of God to blinded Christendom Thus from a sense of this Blindness and Ignorance that is come over Christendom it is that we are led and moved of the Lord so constantly and frequently to Call all Invite all Request all to turn to the Light in them to mind the Light in them to believe in Christ as he is in them And that in the Name Power and Authority of the Lord not in School-Arguments and Distinctions for which many of the Wise men of this World account us Fools and Mad-men we do Charge and Command them to lay aside their Wisdom to come down out of that proud airy brain-knowledge and to stop that mouth how Eloquent soever to the worldly Ear it may appear and to be silent and sit down as in the Dust and to mind the Light of Christ in their own Consciences Which if it be minded they would find as a sharp two-edged Sword in their hearts and as a fire and a hammer that would knock against and burn up all that Carnal gathered natural Stuff and make the stoutest of them all Tremble and become Quakers indeed Which those that come not to feel now and kiss not the Son while the day lasteth but harden their hearts will feel to be a certain Truth when it is too late To conclude as saith the Apostle All ought to Examine themselves whether they be in the Faith indeed and Try their own selves for except Jesus be in them they are certainly Reprobates 2 Cor. 13.5 Part 2 § XXV Secondly That which remains now to be proved is That by the operation of this Light and Seed some have been Proved and may yet be saved to whom the Gospel is not outwardly preached nor the History of Christ outwardly known That many by the Light may be saved that have not the outward Knowledge of Christ. To make this the easier we have already shewn how that Christ hath died for all men and consequently these are Inlightned by Christ and have a measure of Saving Light and Grace yea that the Gospel though not in any outward Dispensation is preached to them and in them so that thereby they are stated in a possibility of Salvation From which I may thus Argue Arg. To whom the Gospel the Power of God unto Salvation is manifest they may be Saved whatever Outward Knowledge they want But this Gospel is preached in Every Creature in which is certainly comprehended many that have not the Outward Knowledge Therefore of those many may be saved But to those Arguments by which it hath been proved that all men have a
becomes extinguished in them and they become dead as to it and so it retires and devolves it self again into Christ who is the righteous heir of Life and he gives the Title and true Right again immediately to whom it pleaseth him even to as many as being turned to his Pure Light in their Consciences come again to walk in his righteous and innocent Life and so become true Members of his Body which is the Church So the Authority power and heirship is not annexed to persons as they bear the bare Names or retain a Form holding the meer shell or shadow of Christianity but the promise is to Christ and to the Seed in whom the Authority is Inherent and in as many as are one with him and united unto him by purity and holiness and by the inward Renovation and Regeneration of their minds Moreover this pretended Succession is contrary to Scripture-definitions and nature of the Church of Christ and of the true Members For first The Church is the house of God the pillar and ground of Truth 1 Tim. 3.15 But according to this Doctrine the house of God is a polluted Nest of all sort of Wickedness and Abominations 1. The House of God is no polluted Nest no Atheist nor Pretender here can rest made up of the most ugly defiled and perverse Stones that are in the Earth where the Devil rules in all manner of Vnrighteousness For so our Adversaries Confess and History informs the Church of Rome to have been as some of their Historians acknowledge and if that be truly the House of God what may we call the House of Satan or may we call it therefore the House of God notwithstanding all this Impiety because they had a bare Form and that vitiated many ways also and because they pretended to the Name of Christianity though they were Anti-Christian Devilish and Atheistical in their whole practice and spirit and also in many of their principles Would not this infer yet a greater Absurdity as if they had been something to be accounted of because of their Hypocrisy and Deceit and false pretences whereas the Scripture looks upon that as an Aggravation of Guilt and calls it Blasphemy Rev. 2.9 Of two wicked men he is most to be abhorred who covereth his Wickedness with a vain pretence of God and Righteousness even so these abominable Beasts and fearful Monsters who look upon themselves to be Bishops in the Apostate Church were never a whit the better that they falsly pretended to be the Successors of the Holy Apostles unless to Lie be commendable and that Hypocrisy be the Way to Heaven Yea were not this to fall into that Evil condemned among the Jews Jer. 7.4 Trust ye not in lying words saying the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are these but throughly amend your ways c. as if such outward Names and things were the thing the Lord regarded and not Inward Holiness or can that then be the Pillar and Ground of Truth which is the very Sink and Pit of Wickedness from which so much Error Superstition Idolatry and all Abomination springs Can there be any thing more contrary both to Scripture and Reason Secondly The Church is defined To be the Kingdom of the Dear Son of God into which the Saints are Translated 2. Christ is the Head his Body undefiled being delivered from the power of darkness It is called the Body of Christ which from him by Joints and Bands having nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the Increase of God Col. 2.19 But can such Members such a Gathering as we have demonstrated that Church and Members to be among whom they alledge their pretended Authority to have been preserved and through which they derive their Call can such I say be the Body of Christ or the Members thereof or is Christ the Head of such a corrupt dead dark abominable stinking Carcase If so then might we not as well affirm against the Apostle 2 Cor. 6.14 That Righteousness hath fellowship with Unrighteousness that Light hath communion with Darkness What Fellowship hath Christ with Belial that Christ hath Concord with Belial that a Believer hath part with an Infidel and that the Temple of God hath Agreement with Idols Moreover no man is called the Temple of God nor of the Holy Ghost but as his Vessel is purified and so he fitted and prepared for God to dwell in and many thus fitted by Christ become his body in and among whom he dwells and walks according as it is written I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people It is therefore that we may become the Temple of Christ and people of God that the Apostle in the following verse exhorts saying out of the Prophet Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you and I will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my Sons and Daughters saith the Lord Almighty But to what purpose is all this Exhortation and why should we separate from the Vnclean if a meer outward Profession and Name be enough to make the True Church and if the Vnclean and Polluted were both the Church and lawful Successors of the Apostles inheriting their Authority and transmitting it to others Yea how can the Church be the Kingdom of the Son of God as contra-distinguished from the Kingdom and Power of Darkness and what need yea what possibility of being Translated out of the one into the other if those that make up the Kingdom and Power of Darkness be real Members of the True Church of Christ and not simple Members only but the very Pastors and Teachers of it But how do they Increase in the Increase of God and receive Spiritual Nourishment from Christ the Prop. 01 Head that are Enemies of him in their hearts by wicked works and openly go into perdition Verily as no Metaphysical and nice Distinctions that though they were practically Priests frivolous Distinction of Enemies to God by Practice and Members of his Church by Office as to their own private states Enemies to God and Christ and so Servants of Satan yet they were by virtue of their Office Members and Ministers of the Church and so able to Transmit the Succession I say as such invented and frivolous Distinctions will not please the Lord God neither will he be deluded by such nor make up the glorious Body of his Church with such meer out-side Hypocritical Shews nor be beholden to such painted Sepulchres for to be Members of his Body which is sound pure and undefiled and therefore he needs not such false and corrupt Members to make up the Defects of it so neither will such Distinctions satisfy truly tender and Christian Consciences especially considering the Apostle is so far from desiring us to Regard that as that we are
Spirit and Will and not from in and by the Power of God he sinneth in all and is not accepted of God Prov. 21. ver 4. For hence both The ploughing and praying of the wicked is sin as also whatever a man acts in and from the Spirit and Power of God having his Vnderstanding and Will influenced and moved by it whether it be Actions Religious Civil or even Natural he is accepted in so doing in the sight of God and is blessed in them From what is said it doth appear Ja. 1.25 how frivolous and impertinent their Objection is that say They Wait upon God in praying and preaching To pray and preach without the Spirit is Offence to God since Waiting doth of it self imply a passive Dependence rather than an Acting And since it is and shall yet be more shewen that preaching and praying without the Spirit is an Offending of God not a Waiting upon him and that praying and preaching by the Spirit pre-supposes necessarily a silent Waiting for to feel the motions and influence of the Spirit to lead thereunto and lastly that in several of these places where praying is commanded as Matth. 26.41 Mark 13.33 Luke 21.36 1 Pet. 4.7 Watching is specially prefixed as a previous preparation thereunto so that we do well and certainly conclude that since Waiting and Watching is so particularly commanded and recommended and this cannot be truly performed but in this inward Silence of the mind from mens own Thoughts and Imaginations This Silence is and must necessarily be a special and principal part of God's Worship § XII But Secondly II. This silent Waiting the Devil cannot counterfeit The Excellency of this silent Waiting upon God doth appear In that it is impossible for the Enemy viz. the Devil to Counterfeit it so as for any Soul to be deceived or deluded by him in the Exercise thereof Now in all other matters he may mix himself-in with the natural Mind of Man and so by transforming himself he may deceive the Soul by busying it about things perhaps innocent in themselves while yet he keeps them from beholding the Pure Light of Christ and so from knowing distinctly his Duty and doing of it For that Envious Spirit of man's Eternal Happiness knoweth well how to accommodate himself and fit his Snares for all the several Dispositions and Inclinations of men if he find one not fit to be engaged with gross Sins or worldly Lusts but rather averse from them and Religiously inclined he can fit himself to beguile such an one by suffering his Thoughts and Imaginations to run upon Spiritual matters and so hurry them to work act and meditate in their own Wills For he well knoweth that so long as Self bears rule and the Spirit of God is not the principal and chief Actor Man is not put out of his reach so therefore he can accompany Prop. 10 the Priest to the Altar the Preacher to the Pulpit the Zelot to his Prayers yea the Doctor and Professor of Divinity to his Study and there he can chearfully suffer him to labour and work among his Books Altar Prayers Pulpit Study cannot shut the Devil out yea and help him to find out and invent subtle Distinctions and Quiddities by which both his mind and others through him may be kept from heeding God's Light in the Conscience and waiting upon him There is not any Exercise whatsoever wherein he cannot enter and have a chief place so as the Soul many times cannot discern it except in this alone for he can only work in and by the natural man and his Faculties by secretly acting upon his Imaginations and Desires c. and therefore when he to wit the natural man is silent there he must also stand And therefore when the Soul comes to this Silence and as it were is brought to Nothingness as to her own workings then the Devil is shut out for the pure Presence of God and shining of his Light he cannot abide because so long as a man is thinking and meditating as of himself he cannot be sure but the Devil is Influencing him therein but when he comes wholly to be silent as the Pure Light of God shines in upon him then he is sure that the Devil is shut out for beyond the Imaginations he cannot go which we often find by sensible Experience For he that of Old is said to have come to the gathering together of the Children of God is not wanting to come to our Assemblies And indeed he can well enter and work in a Meeting that 's Silent only as to words either by keeping the Minds in various Thoughts and Imaginations or by stupifying them so as to overwhelm them with a spirit of heaviness and slothfulness but when we Retire out of all and are Turned in both by being diligent and watchful upon the one hand and also silent and retired out of all our Thoughts upon the other as we abide in this sure place we feel our selves out of his Reach Yea often-times the Power and Glory of God will break forth and appear just as the bright Sun through many Clouds and Mists to the dispelling of that Power of Darkness which will also be sensibly felt seeking to cloud and darken the Mind and wholly to keep it from purely Waiting upon God § XIII Thirdly The Excellency of this Worship doth appear in that It can neither be stopped III. The Worship of the Quakers not stopt nor interrupted by Men nor Devils nor interrupted by the malice of Men or Devils as all others can Now Interruptions and Stoppings of Worship may be understood in a twofold respect either as we are hindered from Meeting as being outwardly by Violence separated one from onother or when permitted to Meet together as we are interrupted by the Tumult Noise and Confusion which such as are malicious may use to molest or distract us Now in both these respects this Worship doth greatly overpass all others For how far soever people be separate or hindred from coming together yet as every one is inwardly gathered to the measure of Life in himself there is a secret Vnity and Fellowship enjoyed which the Devil and all his Instruments can never break or hinder But Secondly it doth as well appear as to these Molestations which occur when we are met together what advantage this true and Spiritual Worship gives us beyond all others seeing in despite of a Thousand Interruptions and Abuses one of which were sufficient to have stopped all other sorts of Christians we have been able through the Nature of this Worship to keep it Vninterrupted as to God and also at the same time to shew forth an Example of our Christian patience towards all even oftentimes to the reaching and convincing of our Opposers For there is no sort of Worship used by others which can subsist though they be permitted Prop. 11 to Meet unless they be either Authorized and Protected by the Magistrate or defend
no such thing nor yet are often-times sensible of it must needs stand in the Enticing Words of man's Wisdom since it is by the meer Wisdom of man it is sought after and the meer Strength of man's Eloquence and Enticing words it is uttered and therefore no wonder if the Faith of such as hear and depend upon such preachers and preachings stand in the Wisdom of Men and not in the Power of God The Apostles declared that they spake not in the words which man's Wisdom teacheth but which the Holy Ghost teacheth 1 Cor. 2.13 But these Preachers confess that they are Strangers to the Holy Ghost his Motions and Operations neither do they Wait to feel them and therefore they speak in the words which their own natural Wisdom and Learning teacheth them mixing them in and adding them to such words as they steal of the Scripture and other Books and therefore speak not what the Holy Ghost teacheth Thirdly This is contrary to the Method and Order of the primitive Church mentioned by the Apostle 3. True Church's method was to speak by Revelation 1 Cor. 14.30 c. where in Preaching every one is to Wait for his Revelation and to give place one unto another according as things are Revealed But here there is no waiting for a Revelation but the Preacher must speak and not that which is Reveald unto him but what he hath prepared and premeditated before-hand Lastly By this kind of Preaching the Spirit of God which should be the Chief Instructor and Teacher of God's People 4. The Spirit is shut out by Priests to be the Teacher and whose influence is that only which makes all Preaching effectual and beneficial for the edifying of Souls is Shut out and man's natural Wisdom Learning and Parts set up and Exalted which no doubt is a great and chief reason why the Preaching among the generality of Christians is so Vnfruitful and Vnsuccessful yea according to this doctrine the Devil may preach and ought to be Heard also seeing he both knoweth the Truth and hath as much Eloquence as any But what availes Excellency of speech if the Demonstration and Power of the Spirit be wanting which toucheth the Conscience We see that when the Devil confessed to the Truth yet Christ would have none of his Testimony And as these pregnant Testimonies of the Scripture to prove this part of Preaching to be contrary to the Doctrine of Christ so do they also prove that of ours before affirmed to be Conform thereunto Object § XX. But if any Object after this manner Have not many been Benefitted yea and both Converted and Edified by the Ministry of such as have Premeditated their Preachings yea and hath not the Spirit often concurred by its Divine Influence with preachings thus premeditated so as they have been powerfully born in upon the Souls of the Hearers to their Advantage I answer Though that be granted which I shall not deny it will not infer that the thing was good in it self more than because Paul was met with by Christ to the Converting of his Soul riding to Damascus to persecute the Saints that he did well in so doing Neither particular Actions Answ. nor yet whole Congregations as we above observed are to be measured by the Acts of God's Condescension in times of Ignorance But besides Paul Persecuting was Converted is therefore Persecuting good it hath often-times fall'n out that God having a regard to the Simplicity and Integrity either of the Preacher or Hearers hath faln in upon the heart of a Preacher by his Power and holy Influence and thereby hath led them to speak things which were not in his premeditated Discourse and which perhaps he never thought of before and those passing Ejaculations and unpremeditated but living Exhortations have proved more beneficial and refreshful both to Preacher and Hearers than all their premeditated Sermons But all that will not allow them to Continue in these things which in themselves are not approved but contrary to the practice of the Apostles when God is raising up a people to serve him according to the primitive purity and spirituality yea such acts of God's Condescension in times of Darkness and Ignorance should ingage all more and more to follow him according as he Reveals his most perfect and Spiritual Way § XXI Having hitherto spoken of Preaching II. Of Prayer how the Outward is distinguisht from the Inward now it is fit to speak of Praying concerning which the like Controversy ariseth Our Adversaries whose Religion is all for the most part Outside and such whose Acts are the meer products of man's natural Will and Abilities as they can Preach so can they Pray when they please and therefore have their set particular Prayers I meddle not with the Controversies among themselves concerning this some of them being for set Prayers as a Liturgy others for such as are ex tempore Conceived it suffices me that all of them agree in this that the Motions and Influence of the Spirit of God are not Necessary to be previous thereunto and therefore they have Set Times in their publick Worship as before and after preaching The Priests set times to Preach and Pray deny's the Spirit and in their private Devotion as Morning and Evening and before and after meat and other such occasions at which they precisely set about the performing of their Prayers by speaking words to God whether they feel any Motions or Influence of the Spirit or not so that some of the Chiefest have confessed that they have thus Prayed without the Motions or Assistance of the Spirit acknowledging that they sinned in so doing yet they said they look upon it as their Duty to do so though to Pray without the Spirit be Sin We freely Confess that Prayer is both very profitable and a necessary Duty commanded and fit to be practised frequently by all Christians but as we can Do nothing without Christ so neither can we Pray without the concurrence and assistance of his Spirit But that the State of the Controversy may be the better understood let it be considered First That Prayer is twofold Inward and Outward Inward Prayer is that Secret turning of the mind towards God whereby What Inward Prayer is being secretly touched and awakened by the Light of Christ in the Conscience and so bowed down under the sense of its Iniquities Vnworthiness and Misery it looks up to God and joining issue with the secret Shinings of the Seed of God it breaths towards him and is constantly breathing forth some secret Desires and Aspirations towards him It is in this sense that we are so frequently in Scripture commanded to Pray continually Luke 18.1 1 Thess. 5.17 Eph. 6.18 Luke 21.36 which cannot be understood of Outward Prayer because it were impossible that men should be always upon their Knees expressing words of Prayer and this would hinder them from the Exercise of those Duties no less positively Commanded
withal and contend for Arg. § VII But again If Water-baptism had been an Ordinance of the Gospel then the Apostle Paul would have been sent to Administer it but he declares positively 1 Cor. 1.17 That Christ sent him not to Baptize but to Preach the Gospel The Reason of that Consequence is undeniable because the Apostle Paul's Commission was as large as that of any of them and consequently he being in special manner the Apostle of Christ to the Gentiles IV. That Water-baptism is no Badge of Christians like Circumcision of the Jews if Water-baptism as our Adversaries contend be to be accounted the badge of Christianity he had more need than any of the rest to be sent to baptize with Water that he might Mark the Gentiles Converted by him with that Christian Sign But indeed the Reason holds better thus that since Paul was the Apostle of the Gentiles and that in his Ministry he doth through all as by his Epistles appears labour to wean them from the former Jewish Ceremonies and Observations tho' in so doing he was sometimes undeservedly judged by others of his brethren who were unwilling to lay aside those Ceremonies therefore his Commission tho' as full as to the Preaching of the Gospel and New Covenant-Dispensation as that of the other Apostles did not require of him that he should lead those Converts into such Jewish Observations and Baptisms however that Practice was Indulged in and Practised by the other Apostles among their Jewish Proselytes for which cause he thanks God that he baptized so few 1 Cor. 1.14 intimating that what he did therein he did not by vertue of his Apostolick Commission but rather in Condescendence to their Weakness Paul was not sent to baptize even as at another time he Circumcised Timothy Our Adversaries to evade the Truth of this Testimony usually alledge Object 1 That by this is only to be understood that he was not sent principally to baptize not that he was not sent at all But this Exposition since it Contradicts the positive Words of the Text Answ. and has no better Foundation than the Affirmation of its Assertors is justly rejected as spurious until they bring some better Proof for it He saith not I was not sent principally to baptize but I was not sent to baptize As for what they urge by way of Confirmation from other places of Scripture where not is to be so taken as where it 's said Confir I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice which is to be understood Matth. 9 13. Hos. 6.6 that God requires principally Mercy not excluding Sacrifices I say Refu◠this Place is abundantly Explained by the following words and the knowledge of God more than burnt-Offerings by which it clearly appears that burnt-Offerings which are one with Sacrifices are not Excluded But there is no such word added in that of Paul and therefore the Parity is not demonstrated to be alike and consequently the Instance not sufficient unless they can prove that it ought so to be admitted here else we might interpret by the same Rule all other Places of Scripture the same way As where the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 2.5 That your Faith might not stand in the Wisdom of Men but in the Power of God it might be understood it shall not stand Principally so How might the Gospel by this liberty of Interpretation be Perverted If it be said That the Abuse of this Baptism among the Corinthians in Object 2 dividing themselves according to the Persons by whom they were baptized made the Apostle speak so but that the Abuse of a thing doth not abolish it I Answer it is true it doth not provided the thing be lawful and necessary Answ. and that no doubt the Abuse abovesaid gave the Apostle occasion so to write But let it from this be considered how the Apostle excludes Baptizing not Preaching tho the Abuse mark proceeded from that no less than from the other For these Corinthians did denominate themselves from those different Persons by whose preaching as well as from those by whom they were baptized they were Converted as by the 4 5 6 7 and ver of the 3 d Ch. may appear and yet for to remove that Abuse the Apostle doth not say That Preaching is a standing Ordinanc◠and not to be forborn he was not sent to preach nor yet doth he rejoice that he had only preached to a few because preaching being a standing Ordinance in the Church is not because of any Abuse that the Devil may tempt any to make of it to be forborn by such as are called to perform it by the Spirit of God wherefore the Apostle accordingly Chap. 3.8 9. informs them as to that how to Remove that Abuse But as to Water-baptism for that it was no standing Ordinance of Christ but only practised as in Condescendence to the Jews and by some Apostles to some Gentiles also there so soon as the Apostle perceived the Abuse of he let the Corinthians understand how little stress was to be laid upon it by shewing them that he was glad that he had administred this Ceremony to so few of them and by telling them plainly that it was no part of his Commission neither that which he was sent to Administer Query Some ask us how we know that Baptizing here is meant of Water and not of the Spirit which if it be then it will exclude Baptism of the Spirit as well as of Water Answ. I Answer Such as ask the question I suppose speak it not as doubting that this was said of Water-baptism which is more than manifest For since the Apostle Paul's Message was To turn people from Darkness to Light and Convert them to God That which Converts to Christ is Baptism of the Spirit and that as many as are thus turned and converted so as to have the Answer of a good Conscience towards God and to have put on Christ and be arisen with him in Newness of Life are baptized with the Baptism of the Spirit but who will say that only these few mentioned there to be baptized by Paul were come to this or that to turn or bring them to this Condition was not even admitting our Adversaries Interpretation as principally a part of Paul's Ministry as any other Since then our Adversaries do take this place for Water-baptism as indeed it is we may lawfully taking it so also urge it upon them Why the word Baptism and baptizing is used by the Apostle where that of Water and not of the Spirit is only understood shall hereafter be spoken to I come Part II now to consider the Reasons alledged by such as plead for Water-baptism which are also the Objections used against the Discontinuance of it Object I § VIII First some Object That Christ who had the Spirit above measure was notwithstanding baptized with Water As Nic. Arnold against this These John 2.34 Sect. 46 of his Theological Exercitation Answ.
to be understood Spiritually can only partake of Flesh as Spirit of Spirit As the Body cannot feed upon Spirit neither can the Spirit feed upon Flesh. And that the Flesh here spoken of is spiritually understood appears further in that that which feedeth upon it shall never dye but the Bodies of all men once dye yea it behoved the Body of Christ himself to dye That this Body and Spiritual Flesh and Blood of Christ is to be understood of that Divine and Heavenly Seed before spoken of by us appears both by the Nature and Fruits of it First it 's said It is that which cometh down from Heaven and giveth life unto the World now this answers to that Light and Seed which is testified of Joh. 1. to be the Light of the world and the Life of men The Spiritual Light and Seed is as Bread to the Hungry Soul For that Spiritual Light and Seed as it receives place in mens hearts and room to spring up there is as Bread to the hungry and fainting Soul that is as it were buried and dead in the lusts of the World which receives life again and revives as it tasteth and partaketh of this heavenly Bread and they that partake of it are said to Come to Christ neither can any have it but by Coming to him and believing in the appearance of his Light in their hearts by receiving which and believing in it the Participation of this Body and Bread is known And that Christ understands the same thing here by his Body Flesh and Blood which is understood Joh. 1. by the Light inlightening every man and the Life c. appears for the Light and Life spoken of Joh. 1. is said to be Christ he is the true Light and the Bread and Flesh c. spoken of in this 6 of John is called Christ I am the bread of Life saith he Again They that received that Light and Life John 1.12 obtained power to become the Sons of God by believing in his Name so also here Joh. 6.35 He that cometh unto this Bread of Life shall not Hunger and he that believes in him who is this Bread shall never Thirst. So then Christ's Outward and Spiritual Body distinguished as there was the outward visible Body and Temple of Jesus Christ which took its Origin from the Virgin Mary so there is also the Spiritual Body of Christ by and through which he that was the Word in the beginning with God and was and is GOD did Reveal himself to the Sons of men in all Ages and whereby men in all Ages come to be made partakers of Eternal Life and to have Communion and Fellowship with God and Christ. Of which Body of Christ The Patriarchs did eat of the Body and Flesh and Blood of Christ. and Flesh and Blood if both Adam and Seth and Enoch and Noah and Abraham and Moses and David and all the Prophets and holy men of God had not eaten they had not had Life in them nor could their inward Man have been nourished Now as the outward Body and Temple was called Christ so was also this Spiritual Body no less properly and that long before that outward Body was in Being Hence the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 10.3 4 that the Fathers did all eat the same spiritual meat and did all drink the same spiritual drink for they drank of that Spiritual Rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ. This cannot be understood otherwise than of this Spiritual Body of Christ which Spiritual Body of Christ tho it was the saving Food of the Righteous both before the Law and under the Law yet under the Law it was vailed and shadowed and covered under divers Types Ceremonies and Observations yea and not only so but it was vailed and hid in some respect under the outward Temple and Body of Christ or during the continuance of it so that the Jews could not understand Christ's Preaching about it while on Earth And not the Jews only but many of his Disciples judged it an hard saying murmured at it and many from that time went back from him and walked no more with him Joh. 6.60 66. I doubt not but there are many also at this day professing to be Disciples of Christ that do as little understand this matter as those did and are as apt to be offended and stumble at it while they are gazing and following after the outward Body and look not to that by which the Saints are daily fed and nourished For as Jesus Christ in obedience to the Will of the Father did by the Eternal Spirit offer up that Body for a Propitiation for the Remission of Sins and finished his Testimony upon Earth thereby in a most perfect Example of Patience Resignation and Holiness that all might be made Partakers of the Fruit of that Sacrifice so hath he likewise poured forth into the Hearts of all men a measure of that Divine Light and Seed The Divine Light of Christ doth make the Saints Partakers of his Body wherewith he is Cloathed that thereby reaching unto the Consciences of all he may Raise them up out of Death and Darkness by his Life and Light and they thereby may be made Partakers of his Body and there-through come to have Fellowship with the Father and with the Son Quest. § III. If it be asked How and after what manner Man comes to partake of it and to be fed by it Answ. I Answer in the plain and express words of Christ I am the bread of Life saith he he that cometh to me shall never hunger he that believeth in me shall never thirst Joh. 6.35 55. And again For my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed So whosoever thou art that askest this Question or read'st these lines whether thou account'st thy self a Believer or really feel'st by a certain and sad Experience that thou art yet in the Vnbelief and find'st that the outward Body and Flesh of Christ is so far from thee that thou canst not reach it nor feed upon it yea tho thou hast often swallowed down and taken-in that which the Papists have perswaded thee to be the Real Flesh and Blood of Christ The Lutherans and Calvinians Opinion of the Flesh and Blood of Christ in the Supper so called and hast believed it to be so tho all thy Senses told thee the Contrary Or being a Lutheran hast taken that Bread in and with and under which the Lutherans have assured thee that the Flesh and Blood of Christ is Or being a Calvinist hast partaken of that which the Calvinists say tho a Figure only of the Body gives them that take it a Real Participation of the Body Flesh and Blood of Christ though they neither know how nor what way I say if for all this thou find'st thy Soul yet barren yea hungry and ready to starve for want of something thou longest for Know that that Light that discovers thy
was not Changed yet the Body was there c. And indeed Calvin's ingenuous Confession Commended I am inclinable very favourably to Judge of Calvin in this particular in that he deals so ingenuously to confess he neither Comprehends nor can Express it in Words but yet by a feeling Experience can say The Lord is spiritually present Now as I doubt not but Calvin sometimes had a Sense of this Presence without the Vse of this Ceremony so as the Understanding given him of God made him justly reject the false Notions of Transubstantiation and Consubstantiation though he knew not what to establish instead of them if he had fully Waited in that Light Eph. 5.13 that makes all things manifest and had not laboured in his own Comprehension to settle upon that External Ceremony by affixing the Spiritual Presence as chiefly or principally though not only as he well knew by Experience there or especially to relate to it he might have reached further unto the Knowledge of this Mystery than many that went before him § XI Lastly If any now at this day from a true Tenderness of Spirit In tenderness of Conscience at Ignorance God winketh and with real Conscience towards God did practise this Ceremony in the same Way Method and Manner as did the Primitive Christians recorded in Scripture which yet none that I know now do I should not doubt to affirm but they might be Indulged in it and the Lord might regard them and for a season Appear to them in the Vse of these things as many of us have known him to do to us in the Time of our Ignorance providing always they did not seek to Obtrude them upon others nor Judge such as found themselves Delivered or that they do not pertinaciously Adhere to them For we certainly know that the Day is Dawned in which God hath arisen and hath dismissed all those Ceremonies and Rites The Day is Dawn'd that God is Risen and Worshipped in Spirit and is only to be Worshipped in Spirit and that he Appears to them who Wait upon him and that to Seek God in these things is with Mary at the Sepulchre To seek the Living among the Dead For we know that he is Arisen and Revealed in Spirit leading his Children out of these Rudiments that they may Walk with him in his Light To whom be Glory for ever Amen PROPOSITION XIV Concerning the Power of the Civil Magistrate in Matters purely Religious and pertaining to the Conscience Since God hath assumed to himself the Power and Dominion of the Conscience who alone can rightly instruct and govern it therefore it is not lawful for any whosoever by vertue of any Authority or Principality they bear in the Government of this World Luke 9.55 56. Matth. 7.12 13 29. Tit. 3.10 to force the Consciences of others and therefore all Killing Banishing Fining Imprisoning and other such things which are inflicted upon Men for the alone exercise of their Conscience or Difference in Worship or Opinion proceedeth from the Spirit of Cain the Murtherer and is contrary to the Truth Providing always That no Man under the Pretence of Conscience prejudice his Neighbour in his Life or Estate or do any thing destructive to or inconsistent with Human Society in which Case the Law is for the Transgressor and Justice is to be administred upon all without respect of Persons § I. LIberty of Conscience from the Power of the Civil Magistrate hath been of late Years so largely and learnedly handled that I shall not need but to be brief in it yet it is to be lamented that few have walked answerable to this Principle each pleading it for themselves but scarce allowing it to others as hereafter I shall have occasion more at length to observe It will be fit in the first Place for clearing of Mistakes to say something of the State of the Controversy that what follows may be the more clearly understood By CONSCIENCE then as in the Explanation of the Fifth and Sixth Propositions I have observed is to be understood That Persuasion of the Mind which arises from the Vnderstanding's being possessed with the Belief of the Truth or Falsity of any thing Which though it may be False or Evil upon the Matter yet if a Man should go against his Persuasion or Conscience he should commit a Sin because what a Man doth contrary to his Faith though his Faith be wrong is no ways acceptable to God Hence the Apostle saith Whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin and he that doubteth Rom. 14.23 is damned if he eat Though the thing might have been lawful to another and that this doubting to eat some kind of Meats since all the Creatures of God are good and for the Use of Man if received with Thanksgiving might be a Superstition or at least a Weakness which were better removed Hence Ames de Cas. Cons. saith The Conscience although erring doth evermore bind so as that he sinneth who doth contrary to his Conscience because he doth contrary to the Will of God although not materially and truly yet formally and interpretatively So the Question is First Whether the Civil Magistrate hath power to force Men in things Religious to do contrary to their Conscience and if they will not to punish them in their Goods Liberties or Lives This we hold in the Negative But Secondly as we would have the Magistrate avoiding this Extream of Incroaching upon Mens Consciences so on the other Hand we are far from joyning with or strengthening such Libertines as would stretch the Liberty of their Consciences to the Prejudice of their Neighbours or to the Ruin of Human Society We understand therefore by Matters of Conscience such as immediately relate betwixt God and Man or Men and Men that are under the same Persuasion As To meet together and worship God in that way which they judge is most acceptable unto him and not to incroach upon or seek to force their Neighbours otherwise than by Reason or such other Means as Christ and his Apostles used viz. preaching and instructing such as will hear and receive it but not at all for Men under the Notion of Conscience to do any thing contrary to the moral and perpetual Statutes generally acknowledged by all Christians In which Case the Magistrate may very lawfully use his Authority as on those who under a Pretext of Conscience make it a Principle to kill and destroy all the Wicked id est all that differ from them that they to wit the Saints may rule and that therefore seek to make all things Common and would force their Neighbours to share their Estates with them and many such wild Notions as is Reported of the Anabaptists of Munster which evidently appears to proceed from Pride and Covetousness and not from Purity or Conscience And therefore I have sufficiently guarded against that in the latter part of the Proposition But the Liberty we lay claim to is such as the
Head is that which God requires of us in our worshipping of him 1 Cor. 11. But if we make our Address to men in the same manner where lyeth the difference Not in the outward signification but meerly in the intention which opens a door for the Popish veneration of Images which hereby is necessarily excluded Secondly Men being alike by Creation though their being stated under their several Relations requires from them mutual Services according to those respective Relations owe not worship to one another but all equally are to return it to God because it is to him and his Name alone that every knee must bow and before whose Throne the four and twenty Elders prostrate themselves Therefore for men to take this one from another is to rob God of his Glory Since all the duties of Relations may be performed one to another without these kinds of Bowings which therefore are no essential part of our duty to man but to God All men by an inward instinct in all Nations have been led to prostrate and bow themselves to God And it is plain that this bowing to men took place from a slavish fear possessing some which led them to set up others as Gods when also an ambitious proud spirit got up in those others to usurp the place of God over their Brethren Thirdly We see that Peter refused it from Cornelius saying he was a man Are then the Popes more or more excellent than Peter who suffer men daily to fall down at their feet and kiss them Peter and the Angel refused Bowing This Reproof of Peter to Cornelius doth abundantly shew that such Manners were not to be admitted among Christians Yea we see that the Angel twice refused this kind of bowing from John Rev. 19.10.22.9 for this reason because I am thy Fellow-Servant and of thy Brethren abundantly intimating that it is not lawful for Fellow-Servants thus to prostrate themselves one to another And in this respect all men are Fellow-Servants Object If it be said John intended here a Religious Worship and not a Civil I answer that is to say not to prove Neither can we suppose John at that time of the day so ill instructed Answ. as not to know it was unlawful to worship Angels only it should seem because of these great and mysterious things revealed to him by that Angel he was willing to signifie some more than ordinary Testimony of Respect for which he was Reproved These things being thus considered it is remitted to the judgment of such as are desirous to be found Christians indeed whether we be found worthy of blame for waving it to men To forbear Bowing to man is no Uncivility nor Pride nor Rudeness Let those then that will blame us consider whether they might not as well accuse Mordecai of Vncivility who was no less singular than we in this matter And forasmuch as they accuse us herein of Rudeness and Pride though the testimony of our Consciences in the sight of God be a sufficient guard against such calumnys yet there are of us known to be Men of such Education as forbear not these things for want of that they call good Breeding and we should be very void of reason to purchase that Pride at so dear a rate as many have done the exercise of their Conscience in this matter many of us having been sorely beaten and buffeted yea and several months imprisoned for no other reason but because we could not so satisfy the proud unreasonable humours of proud Men as to uncover our Heads and bow our Bodies Nor doth our innocent practice in standing still though upright not putting off our Hats any more than our Shoos the one being the covering of our Heads as well as the other of our Feet shew so much rudeness as their beating or knocking us c. because we cannot bow to them contrary to our Consciences Which certainly shews less meekness and humility upon their part than it doth of rudeness or pride upon ours Now suppose it were our weakness and we really under a mistake in this thing since it is not alledged to be the breach of any Christian precept are we not to be Indulged as the Apostle commanded should be done to such as scrupled to eat flesh And doth not persecuting us and reviling us upon this account shew them to be more like unto proud Haman than the Disciples or followers of the meek self-denying Jesus And this I can say boldly in the sight of God from my own experience and that of many thousands more that however small or foolish this may seem yet we behoved to chuse death rather than do it and that for Conscience sake And that in its being so contrary to our natural Spirits there are many of us to whom the forsaking of these Bowings and Ceremonies was as death it self Which we could never have left if we could have enjoyed our peace with God in the use of them Though it be far from us to judge all those to whom God hath not shewn the evil of them under the like hazzard yet nevertheless we doubt not but to such as will prove faithful Witnesses to Christ's Divine Light in their Consciences God will also shew the evil of these things § VII The Third thing to be treated of APPAREL in its Vanity and Superfluities dissallowed is the Vanity and Superfluity of Apparel In which first two things are to be considered the Condition of the Person and the Country he lives in We shall not say that all Persons are to be cloathed alike because it will perhaps neither sute their Bodies nor their Estates And if a man be cloathed soberly and without superfluity though they may be finer than that which his servant is cloathed with we shall not blame him for it The abstaining from superfluities which his condition and education hath accustomed him to may be in him a greater act of Mortification than the abstaining from finer Cloaths in the servant who never was accustomed to them As to the Country what it naturally produces may be no Vanity to the Inhabitants to use or what is commonly imparted to them by way of Exchange seeing it is without doubt that the Creation is for the use of man So where Silk abounds it may be worn as well as Wool and were we in those Countrys or near unto them where Gold or Silver were as common as Iron or Brass the one might be used as well as the other The iniquity lies then here First When from a lust of vanity and desire to adorn themselves men and women not content with what their condition can bear or their Country easily affords do stretch to have things that from their rarity and the price that 's put upon them seem to be pretious and so feed their lust the more And this all sober men of all sorts will readily grant to be Evil. Secondly When men are not content to make a true use
Master Jo. M. would not assign the Jesuit a ground to prove the Truth of the Protestant Religion and therefore say they R. B ' s. Practices agree exactly with the Jesuit's Morals and give an egregious Specimen of his Jesuitical Honesty which makes us suspect him to be a Jesuited Emissary This is a false Calumny disproved by their own Account where pag. 8. upon this occasion they Confess R. B. said only that their Master desired the Jesuit to prove that the Protestant Religion had no ground for it Will they deny this Let them read the very first four Lines of their Master's first Answer to the Jesuit's Paper pag. 3. and they will find he put the Jesuit to prove his Minor which was That the Protestant Religion had no such ground As it doth not therefore follow that I. M. assigned not afterwards a Ground so neither will R. B. his repeating this infer that he said he did not assign such a Ground Yea in Contradiction to themselves pag. 60. They acknowledge he told their Master named the Scripture as a Ground c. So it is manifest they have given here a Specimen of their Iesuitical Honesty And because they could not Answer they forged lies to fill up the Paper and things not to the purpose as pag. 57. where offering to Reply to this Retortion they say But for Answer it is well known R. B. was brought up in a Popish Colledge and it is thought by many that he is a Iesuited Emissary c. Is not this a pungent Answer Reader R. B. was educated in a Popish Colledge The Objection about R. B's Education Answer'd Ergo say the Students Our Answer is not that which the Iesuit used against our Master It seems the Students are offended that R. B. hath forsaken Popery or otherwise their charging him with his Education must be very impertinent as indeed it is no less Foolish than if we should upbraid Luther Calvin and all the first Reformers as Papists for being so Educated And though it is no wonder their Folly and Malice led them into this Impertinency yet it might have been expected that their gratitude to the Bishop of Edinburgh who was pleased to permit their Book to be Printed might have hindered them from this Folly seeing he was Educated in the same Popish Colledge R. B. was and ows some of his Philosophy to it whereas R. B learned only there a little Grammar and came thence in his 15 Year but the Bishop was there professing Popery in his more mature Age. So if this reflect any thing upon R. B. it will much more against the Bishop which they will do well to clear and be sure not to omit when they write next or else acknowledge their Impertinency herein It seems they wanted strength of Reason to evite the Retortion which makes them thus rove offering also to prove That their Master did assign a ground which was never denied and that he was Defendent so was R. B. also What is that to the purpose unless to make the Retortion the stronger and shew they cannot get by it But pag. 60. they say That whereas the Iesuit pressed their Master that Hereticks did say their Religion was conform to the Scripture as well as he and so the Scripture was no peculiar ground for him more than for Hereticks They say their Master answered That it was not a pretended but real Conformity unto the Scripture that demonstrates a true Religion c. and upon this they inquire what follows Alledging They argued from being as good and not pretending and so fall a railing saying That the light of our Consciences is ecclipsed by a new-found Light and that we mis-represent them malitiously This Railing is for want of better Reasoning but seeing they are so blind as not to see whether they will see it or not we shall tell them and we hope let the Reader see what follows here from Jo. Menzies the Students Master who saith to the Jesuit It is not enough that Hereticks say the Scripture is a ground for their Religion unless it really be so and that other Hereticks saying so doth not infer that it is as little a ground for his own to wit J. M's Religion Very well The Quakers tell the Students That it is not enough that Hereticks declare they have the Spirit unless it be really so and their saying they have it while they have it not doth not infer that our saying we have it is as little a ground for us Who but such as are as Childish as the Students will affirm there is here any difference But further they confound most ignorantly the Internal Testimony of the Spirit with the Declaration of having the Spirit which are two different things It was incumbent upon them to have proved The Internal Testimony of the Spirit is above the pretence of Hereticks unto it that the Internal Testimony of the Spirit is as good an Evidence for Hereticks as for us which they have not offered to do Next they have not proved that the Declaration of Hereticks is as good as ours neither can they unless they can prove ours to be false which they neither have nor can do But they have egregiously fallen in that Inconveniency they would fix upon us pag. 58.59 where in answering R. B's Retortion shewing them That if Mens being deceived contradicting themselves or one another who say the Spirit is the Rule did infer the Spirit not to be a certain Rule then Mens being deceived contradicting themselves and one another who say the Scripture is the Rule would the same way infer that the Scripture is not the Rule Here they are miserably put to it and therefore not ashamed to deny that they plead not against the Spirit 's being a Rule for these Causes The contrary for which is known to all that are acquainted with these Controversies And for Example let them read their so much applauded W. Mitchell his Dialogue and his Sober Answer so called where he makes this the chief Cause yea themselves for the same reason within two pages to wit pag. 60. and 61. plead against the Teaching of the Spirit affirming that * But besides will not their Master's Answer above mentioned meet well with them here that since these Sects and Saints did as both they and the Quakers confess but pretend to the Spirit that because they did but pretend therefore the Quakers do but pretend also no more than because some Hereticks do pretend their Religion is conform to the Scripture therefore I. M. doth so too Because the Georgians Familists and pretended Saints as Francis and Loyola c. pretended the Inward Teaching of the Spirit and had an outward shew of Godliness therefore the Spirit 's teaching to deny Vngodliness is as good an Evidence for them as for the Quakers Who but the Students would run themselves into such miserable Contradictions But to give the Reader an evident Demonstration of the
bring about the Peace of Christendom But this cannot be accomplished in you until you have first believed in the Light of Jesus Christ wherewithal you as well as all Men are Inlightned and which is given you as a sufficient Guide and Leader to lead out of Darkness to lead out Strife to lead out of the Lusts Jam. 4.1 from which the Wars come unto the Ways of Righteousness and Peace which leads not to destroy but to Love and forgive Enemies It is the minding of this and being led and guided by it that only can fit you for so great and good a Work for this is the Fruit of the Father's Love to Mankind and the Gift of God Isa. 49.6 Luc. 2.32 even Christ Jesus who was given for a Light to enlighten the Gentiles and for his Salvation unto the Ends of the Earth So it is by turning to this and following it and obeying it in which is sufficiency and which gives Power to the Receivers of it to become the Sons of God that the true Nature of Christianity can be brought forth and Restored and by which Kings and Princes Rulers and People may be brought out of Lust Envy Warring and Strife to true Peace with God and one with another And therefore the Cause of all the Mischief that is in Christendom is because this Light has not been minded nor regarded in the Heart but has been hated and overlooked as a low and insufficient thing and therefore the Seed of the Kingdom this Gift of the Father's Love this little Leaven this Pearl of great Prize and this Talent being hid in the Ground Condemned and Despised and the World and Worldly Mind being set over it notwithstanding all the Preaching and Praying and Professing of Christ in Words that has been only one outward Shew and Appearance by which Men might the more easily be deceived and live more securely in their Wickedness the Innocent Life of Christ hath not been known and all Christendom has brought forth bitter and sower Grapes under all their Talk and Forms of Worship and not the sweet and peaceable Fruits of Righteousness Which can never be brought until all come to him to the Light of Christ in their Consciences to follow and obey it and acknowledge it The Light of Christ leads to Life and to Truth and Peace as that which is given them of God and sufficient to lead them to Life and Salvation For as this is thus received and entertained the true Nature of Christ will be begotten and brought forth in People and then the Contrary Nature in which the Enmity and Strife is will die and pass away And so Truth and Peace will come to be settled and firmly established And for this End the Lord God Almighty is arisen and arising in his own Power and Glory who out of his Infinite Compassion having regard to the present distracted and desolate Condition of Christendom as seeing them Strangers to his Life and Power and led and guided at Will to the utter Ruine and Destruction both of Body and Soul by the Adversary of Mankind's true Happiness that he might Reveal the Light of his Truth even of True Christianity to those who have the Name only hath turned many who are Strangers and Enemies thereunto in their Minds by wicked Works to this precious Light by which Judgment has been laid to the Line Esa. 28.17 Mat. 12.20 and Righteousness to the Plummet in them and the evil Works and Nature in them have been Judged and Condemned and they have willingly abode under it until it hath been brought forth to Victory in them And many of them who have been Wise according to the Wisdom of the World have learned to lay it down at the Feet of Jesus that they might receive from him of his Pure and Heavenly Wisdom being contented in the Enjoyment of that by the World to be accounted Fools And also many of them who were Fighters and even Renowned for their Skill and Valour in Warring have come by the Influence of this Pure Light to Beat their Swords in Plough-shares Esa. 2.4 and their Spears in pruning-hooks and not learn Carnal War any more being Redeemed from the Lusts from which the Fighting comes And there are Thousands whom God hath brought here already who see to the End of all Contention and Strife and that for which the World Contends And albeit the Devil be Angry at them The Rage of the Devil against the Lord's Chosen and Rage against them in the meer Nominal and Literal Christians because he knows they strike at the very Root and Foundation of his Kingdom in Mens Hearts and therefore he prevails in his Followers to wit in these Literal Nominal Christians to Persecute Kill Beat Banish and Imprison and many ways vex them Yet because the Lord has Chosen them to be a First Fruit of that Glorious Work which he is bringing about in the Nations therefore they hitherto have notwithstanding of all that Opposition and yet shall Prosper By a Patient Enduring in the Spirit of Jesus they do and shall OVERCOME And therefore there is nothing can so much tend to the Good and Vniversal Peace of Christendom than for all and every one to mind this Gift of God in themselves and not only to suffer but to rejoyce at the Preaching and Promulgating of the Vniversality of this glorious Light whereunto God is now calling many For as the Resisting and Slaying of this in themselves as well as in those who come in the Name of God to declare it is the Cause of all the Mischief that Christendom labours under so also it s being received and taking Place would remove and do it away Be not therefore easily Engaged by the Enemy to slight and reject those things as foolish and weak and too low for you to Consider or give Place unto for thereby the Enemy always laboured to vail and darken the Counsel of God and hindred it from being received by Men. 1 King 2.8 Luc. 21.2 Mat. 27.20 Job 18.40 Thus the King of Israel despised the Counsel of Micah at the Instigation of his Mocking Prophets but Remember that you profess to be Followers of Jesus who was loaden with many Reproaches accounted a Disturber and to whom Barrabas a Murderer was preferred by the Counsel and Advice of the wise Rabbies and great Professors among the Jews and Remember that you profess your selves to be Owners of that Gospel whose First and Chief Ministers and Preachers were accounted Foolish and Illiterate Men Act. 2 7. ch 4 13. ch 17 18 19 20. ch 21 28. ch 24 5 6. ch 25 7. Movers of Sedition Idle Bablers and Turners of the World upside Down And therefore be not easily frighted by these and such like Reports and Reproaches from hearing those whom God hath Called and Chosen that in and amongst them he may be glorified and by them may Restore that in reality in the so called Christian
Prejudice against such Books is because so much is to be found in them against my Old Errors for I cannot but know saith he that whoever reads these must see my Nakedness and Folly without much Study As for this Imagination we must take it with much more upon Trust but this helps to prove the Needlesness of his large Examination ¶ 6. At his usual rate of Perverting he goes on to say That the Account I make of all the Learned Men of the World is that they are Scribes and Disputers of the World c. But for proof of this we have nothing He Confesseth the Words to be those of the Apostle and how he proveth that I have a different Meaning from the Apostle I know not After he hath Commended his Learned Men and loaded the Quakers with Reproaches he concludes this Paragraph page 8. with another Falshood and yet he will have it Remarked to wit That according to my Judgment the Pure and Naked Truth of God was never unfolded nor Declared until the Generation of the Quakers arose But where he finds me saying so he tells not and indeed cannot since such a thing was never Asserted by me For Answer to my saying That God has laid aside the Wise and Learned and made use of Illiterate Men as to Letter-Learning after he saith It is Affirmed without Proof not considering how Improper it was not to Expect any formal Probation upon the Occasion and manner it was delivered he gives us divers Citations out of the Apostle Paul warning against Seducers All which I acknowledge to be True but the Question lieth in the right Application And yet since albeit he believes they very Appositly agree to us he thinks it not his present Business to Demonstrate it it will need no Reply After he has proceeded in his Tenth page according to his usual sort of Railing affirming the great Difference betwixt our Doctrine and that of the Apostles he brings forth a mighty Charge That I usurp the Throne of God and Judge of Men's Hearts and Intentions but how Guilty himself is of that Crime hath been in part already shewn and will hereafter more appear But why do I so because I say The Clergy have Clouded the Truth The Clergy Clouding the Truth that the People might Admire and Maintain them that the Common People might Maintain and Admire them But have not Protestants and that truly Asserted this of the Popish Clergy and is not the Thesis directed to such Will it not then hold True according to his own Judgment of a great yea the greatest Part of those to whom it is directed what then will become of his Clamours Yea if it were needful I could give Instances of very Mean Thoughts he and his Party have of many of the Protestant Clergy yea and Reflections not much if any thing inferiour to this to verify with how little Ground he quarrelleth me here As for his Malitious Aspersion That there are shrewd Presumptions our Stock lies at Rome he should have produced some of them if he could We could never yet Obtain for this Old Calumny from our Adversaries the least Probation and it will be found as hard for him to prove it as he may think it for such who strongly Affirm Their great IDOL the COVENANT was Contrived at Rome and came from thence As for his Reflections upon our Church as being All Eyes and Ears it will be proper to speak of it in its own Place Next to prove the Positions of the Quakers to be such as overturn and destroy the Gospel he bringeth page 11. divers Citations out of Mr. Norton and Mr. Stalham as he terms them adding More may be had out of Mr. Hicks J. B.'s False witnesses contributing to his bulky Book But such Witnesses will have small Credit with Impartial Readers If he himself had dealt Impartially he should have first read our Answers to them ere he had given them such Authority It were Easie for me by way of Reply to Transcribe what our Friends have written particularly by way of Answer to them did I as much Affect to have my Writings bulky as it seems he doth He closeth up this with a Fit of Railing and after he has quarrelled me pag. 12. for having an high Conceit as he imagines of my Theses he falls fresh to that Work again telling They have Weight to sink into the bottomless Pit the poor Soul that embraces them I never sought any should Receive Doctrines as Truth upon my Bare Testimony and therefore he needs not Vpbraid me with so doing And whereas on the Contrary as himself immediately Observes I leave what I say to the LIGHT in every Man's Conscience it shews with how little Reason he made his former Alledgance After he has pleased himself with making an Impertinent Conjecture of the Import of these Words that so he might if he could render them Ridiculous he cometh at last to the True Vnderstanding of them And truly he needed not fear at my being offended that he should make a Judgment of what I writ according to his Conscience but he went the wrong way to Work when his Labour is to pervert and wrest and make them speak what they do not This apparently proceeds from Malice and Prejudice and the Light of his Conscience if he had minded it would never have prompted him so to do Thus I am come to the End of the First Chapter ¶ 7. In the Second Chapter Intituled Of the true Ground of Knowledge I find he cannot Contradict what is Asserted by me only because he must be Carping he makes a Noise that Joh. 17.3 cited by me So much of the Sentence was not set down in the First as Second Edition What a pitiful Cavil this is the Reader may easily judge since the Place was noted it was enough though never a Word had been set down but this with him is a bad Omen Let the Judicious judge of this Man's Judgment in the Matter But because he cannot Quarrel at what is said he will quarrel That so much is not said as he judged meet But he may be pleased to understand that I judged my self under no Necessity to Advise with him what was Needful for me to Write But saith he since I take upon me to Teach the whole World it is strange it should be so Natural for this Man to write Vntruths since I direct my Theses only to the Christian World But if it may render me odious such Peccadillo's pass with him it seems but for Piae Fraudes I intended never to write of those things concerning which we do not differ from others But let us see wherein he accounts me Defective I have Written nothing saith he of the Nature and Attributes of God I write not to Atheists but Christians who already acknowledge and I judge it not my Work to write Books to perswade Men of that they already profess to believe But I write not Expresly and
Expostulateth with and Lamenteth over Jerusalem But for Answer to all this albeit these Places were granted all of them to be particular yet so much is gained by them Some that did perish had a day of Visitation contrary to J. B.'s false Position that some that did perish had a Day of Visitation in which they might have been saved And thus his Doctrine Salvation was never possible to any but to such as must necessarily be saved is overturned and he should at least have answered them as to this Further all the Scripture-Proofs and Complaints are not particular but some of them general and one general one is enough to prove my Assertion albeit as to that I may see what he saith hereafter to Answer that as to the Vniversality it is more particularly proved in my Apology such as Gen. 6.3 which is spoken of Men Indefinitely And whereas he supposeth This striving of God with Men to be only by his Word and Servants meaning the outward Word he doth but beg the Question Likewise that of Micah 6.8 he hath shewen thee O Man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love Mercy and to walk humbly with thy God where the Word but doth shew this is all that is required and that no more is Required than is shewen to Man Indefinitely Others might be mentioned And whereas in this and other Places he saith My Argument will not prove that Men have Power to lay hold on Salvation without the Grace and Spirit of God It is true For as I never affirmed any such thing as is above observed so I never intend to bring any Argument to prove it Pag. 222 N. 14. in answer to 1 Pet. 3.20 brought by me he saith I fore saw it would be answered that the long-suffering of God there mentioned was not unto Salvation But the Man is Vnhappy in his Conjectures of other Mens Thoughts It will not follow it was not to Salvation because the Parties towards whom it was remained Obstinate and so perished And albeit the Apostle Peter 2 Pet. 3.15 be speaking to his Brethren who might have been advanced in Grace yet he shews not how it thence follows that the Long-suffering there mentioned is restricted to them only The Text saith no such thing And what though this Epistle of Peter was not particularly directed to the Romans to whom Paul wrote yet this being a general Epistle Included the Church of Rome among the rest And others had need to have seen Paul 's Epistles to the Romans since aâ—cording to him it was a part of their Principle and only Rule of Faith and Manners But to overturn what I observed here from Peter's taking notice of Some Wresting Paul 's Writings he bringeth nothing but his own Affirmation His Answer to what I urge from the Riches and Bounty of God towards Men spoken of Rom. 2.4 which could not be if Salvation were Impossible to them is That the Riches there mentioned is understood of the good things of this Life Contrary to the express Words of the Text J. B.'s Explanation of the Riches of God's Goodness c. contrary to the Text. which shews That the Nature of that Riches and Long-suffering is to Lead to Repentance and ver 7. Eternal Life is proposed as the Reward of such as by not despising of those Riches are led to Repentance and continue in well-doing And whereas he adds This cannot be done by the meer Strength of Nature without the Grace of God I never said so And therefore like to this Calumny is what he saith p. 225. where that he may take occasion to Rail and Reflect he would make his Reader believe that I argue That because Men can do evil they have therefore a Power to do good and then pleases himself to add These are Quaker like Inferences that want all solidity and no little of Sobriety At last he desires me to prove The Talents saving Grace that by the Talents mentioned Mat. 25.15 is understood Saving Grace But if he think that be not meaned by them I would know of him what is meaned For it is observable he doth not because de dare not deny that Saving Grace or the means of Salvation is meaned by them Doth not Christ make use of this Parable to Compare the Kingdom of Heaven to it and is it not of the same Import with the former of the Ten Virgins five whereof who had Oil in their Lamps I suppose he will Confess this was Saving Grace entred with the Bridegroom Is it not said to those that Improved their Talents Well done good and faithful Servant enter into the joy of thy Lord It is much the Man had Confidence to insinuate so much as a Denial that Saving Grace is here meaned As to what he adds of this being not Vniversal and not proving that Men have Power of themselves without Divine Help and Grace I have answered it above ¶ 3. I come now to his Tenth Chapter Intituled Of Vniversal Grace and Light where he grows warm to purpose and Rails almost Constantly He is scarce well entred this Chapter when he accounts the further Piece of our Divinity as he terms it and against which himself writes as Non-sense and the foaming of a distracted Brain yea p. 228. such as he doubts whether it can be understood at all pag. 230. whos 's Meaning is Vnintelligible But what need he bestow near forty Pages J. B. bestows near 40 pages to refute Vnintelligible Nonsense as he calls it to Refute Vnintelligible Nonsense For if it be so he cannot be sure he has Refuted it since no man can be sure he has answered that sufficiently he doth not Vnderstand And his Malice has so Over-driven him that he writeth down his own Judgment saying pag. 227. Some may justly blame him for spending Words and wasting Time upon such a non-Sensical self-Contradictory Proposition Yet the Man will be doing that for which he Confesseth he is justly Blameable and so much the more as he further Confesseth p. 261. That non-Sense cannot be well Answered Of this Violent Railing take one Instance p. 248. where in Answer to my saying That the Light of Christ will not Consent to any Abomination but taketh away Blindness openeth theVnderstanding and directeth the Judgment and Conscience J. B. 's Railing Stuff against the Quakers he addeth And while the Quakers preach up this as a sure Guide to Life Eternal they are abominable Pelagian and Socinian Deceivers who should be fled from as the most impudent and sworn Enemies of the Grace of God and of his Gospel that ever appeared out of the bottomless Pit a company of pure Pagan-Preachers whose Doctrine is Paganism and driveth thereunto The Reader may judge of the rest which he may find in Terms no less Abusive very frequent pag. 227 233 234 237 238 240 248 258 260 261 266. All which Railing as it occurreth in these
their fellow-servants the Hazzard of which State thou knowest and many will feel when the Lord riseth up to Prey for his Eyes are upon the Righteous and his Ears are open to their Cries Though now he be Trying the Children of Men and permitting some to Suffer and others to do hard things yet a hope lives in me the time approacheth wherein the Lord will more manifestly Appear to the Joy and Refreshment of the single in Heart who Suffer with him and patiently Wait for him and for the Shame and utter Overthrow of his malitious Opposers And so One of the Particulars I would lay before thee is a Desire Search thy own Heart in the Light of the Lord. thou would'st yet in the Lord's Light search thy own Heart more till thou findest out what secret Affinity hath remained with thee to any of the Lord's Enemies in thy own Heart for if all were brought under the Government of the Son of God inwardly I am fully perswaded thy Outward Opposition to the Lord's Work could not long stand The Outward is a true Figure of the Inward and I know by true Experience all that Despight and disdainful undervaluing Epithetes thou squeezest up thy Engine to Coin which one may feel answers not fully thy own Satisfaction for bespattering and loading that People and their Principles is but alas a Mirrour-glass set up to represent the low mean The Mean Appearance of Christ despised by the Learned Rabbies unworthy Esteem thou bearest to the Light of Christ in its Inward Appearance in thee as a Reprover for whosoever turneth universally at the Reproofs of God's Light in the Conscience shall witness the pouring forth of his Spirit in larger manifestations according to Prov. 1.23 But that Spirit speaketh in thee of which Isaiah prophesied Isa. 53.2 3 c. concerning the outward Appearance of the same Christ our Head and the Captain of our Salvation whose Sufferings Death Resurrection and Glory we dearly own and wait from Day to Day more to feel the pretious Vertue thereof although he then was and now is Rejected and Despised of Men who hide as it were their Faces from him because his Outward Appearance was as a Root out of a dry Ground in whom there was no Form nor Comeliness nor Beauty that he should be desired by that Mind which was looking after great things add expecting much outward Glory and Advantage And so Christ's Appearance was mistaken by the Learned Rabbies in that Day notwithstanding they had Moses and the Prophets Testimonies and were not wanting in Reading the Letter as others now For as it was then it is now he was and is mistaken by all who seek any thing to glory in save the Cross of Christ. For the Wisdom of the Flesh hath and doth lift fall'n Man above the innocent Seed in themselves only through which they can see the Invisible Glory of the Kingdom of God and find an abundant Entrance unto the Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost whereof it Consists Wherefore take heed of being lifted up above the Seed Light Life and Spirit of Christ in thee and so thou wilt see matter to Work out thy Salvation in Fear and Trembling and wilt not sit down upon former Attainments or Experiences when the Life is gone The great Danger of Sin at the Waters of Strife Another thing I would put thee in Remembrance of in these present times is The great danger of Sinning at the Waters of Strife whereof Moses his Example may be a standing Monument to all Generations of whom it was said He was the meekest Man upon the Earth yet at the Waters of Strife he spake unadvisedly with his Lips because of which he was debarred from entring into the promised Rest. And are there not some living at this Day who with sorrow of Heart have observed the Heat and Bitterness of Spirit that hath arisen because Differences and Controversy concerning Religion have eaten out the Life of that Love and Tenderness that was with many And having hurt the green thing in themselves and one another hath brought on Death Darkness Dryness and sensible Withering and cannot chuse but so to do seeing bitterness of Spirit and Prejudice and such like Frames in Man or Woman separates from God Dwell in Love while there any one abides For God is Love and he that dwells in God dwells in love and Christ hath said Vnless ye abide in me ye cannot bring forth much fruit so not abiding in that pure Love to God and his Image in his Children hath caused many fall short and hath letted their Progress and made many lose sight of their Way and the Guide of their Youth and so they have not followed the Lord fully nor followed him in the Regeneration Renewing according to the Increase of Light and the Measures of his Manifestation whereby they should know even in this Life a being Changed from Glory to Glory as by the Spirit of the Lord. Thou mentionest in thy Postscript to J. B. pag. 557. Many who may remember with Shame and Confusion of Face their Laughing at and making light of the Appearance of that Prodigy and that it may cause some go groaning to their Grave being an Evidence that ye knew not the Signs of the Time and what they called you to do To which I answer Lightness and Laughing among People that lay claim to Religion is none of the least Causes of Mourning but I also believe if the Appearance of Quakerism so called had in the beginning been looked on The Fore-runner of the Downfall of a Man-made Ministry as the Fore-runner of the down-fall of a meer Man-made Ministery in these Nations it 's like it would have moved those who laughed most to have mourned most even then and Babylon's Merchant's would have cried Alas Alas But since now thou acknowledgest in the space of a Score of Years at most Thou seest Cause to mourn for that which ye then laughed at I am very willing to admit of your own Acknowledgment for a Ground of Hope that the Single-hearted among the Non-conformists may out-live all the Clamour they are now making against us and in less than as many years more may work through the Foggs and Mists that now darken their Vnderstandings concerning the Signs of this Time and look back with Shame and Confusion on their great Darkness that would have mourned for that which was matter of Joy And this is no far-fetched Consequence for ye had then and now the same Acquaintance with the Letter of the Scriptures and as much Humane Learning and Sharpness and Natural Abilities for an Acute Examen and so it follows by the Rule of Contraries and may it not be without presumption concluded Ye needed then and do now the help of the Spirit 's immediate Teachings in your own Hearts without which ye will not yet understand the Signs of this Time aright which if ye did The Lord is Staining
26. It is absurd to affirm Christ is in none but those with whom he is united 6 63. Christ's praying to save him from this Hour explained 783. what the Flesh and Blood of Christ is 861 901. Christian how he is a Christian and when he ceaseth so to be 269 270 273 281 282 283 285 394 410 412 418. the foundation of his Faith 294 295. his Priviledge ibid. when men are made Christians by Birth and not by conversion 405 406. they have borrowed many things from Jews and Gentiles 475 476. they recoil by little and little from their first Purity 486 509. the Primitive Christians for some ages said We are Christians we Swear not 555. and We are the Soldiers of Christ it is not lawful for us to Fight 562. Concerning the Life of a Christian what and how it ought to be 149 157. Every Christian ought to be concerned in the Work of the Lord 707 a Judgment of several sorts of Christians must be made from their respective Principles and not from the Practice of particular Persons 684. the Gathering of the Primitive Christians was an uniting of Hearts and not of Hands only 697 709. Christianity is made as an Art 273. It is not Christianity without the Spirit 281 283 296 297. It would be turned into Scepticism 423 424 484 491 492. It is placed chiefly in the renewing of the Heart 407. Wherein it consists not 450. what is and is not the mark thereof 484 486 492. why it is Odious to Jews Turks and Heathens 498. what would contribute to its Commendation 534. What the Cause is of all the Mischief in Christendom 711 713. the Essence or Being of Christianity placed in the true and real Conversion of the heart by vertue of the operation of the Light Seed and Grace of God 700. that there is nothing but the Name and nothing of the Nature of true Christianity among Christians is manifest in the Clergy 708 709 27. the Call of God to blinded Christendom 356. CHVRCH without which there is no Salvation what she is concerning her Members Visibility Profession Degeneration Succession 403 to 417. whatsoever is done in the Church without the instinct of the Holy Spirit is vain and impious 419. the same may be said of her that in the Schools is Disputed of Theseus's Boat 431. in her Corrections ought to be Exercised and against whom 508. she is more Corrupted by the Accession of Hypocrites 521. the Contentions of the Greek and Latine Churches about Leavened or Vnleavened Bread in the Supper 506. the Luke-warmness of the Church of Laodicea 411. there are Introduced into the Roman Church no less Superstitions and Ceremonies than among the Heathens and Jews 406. The Church of Rome's pretended Charity 688 689. the Church of Rome no Church 647. the Basis and Foundation of that Church stands in Confessing the Superiority and Precedency of Peter and his Successors and in believing that Infallibility is annexed thereunto 688. the True Church is distinguished from the False by its real Sanctification and true Holiness 203. what a Church is defined 208. the Notion and Definition of a Church which arises from the Universal Principle of Light and Grace doth Establish Universal Love 702. the Cause of the True Church's gathering to a Body was a Sense of their Want 697. such as are sanctified properly constitute the Church 226. who is the Head and who the Ministers thereof 139 144 167 168. God's Care over his Church and Heritage 191 192. Men may be said to be within the Church who want outward Preaching 805 807. the great property of the Church of Christ is pure Vnity in Spirit 217. The Ground of Division Separation and Schism in the Church 188. In the Primitive Church Condescension was practised in case of Weakness though those weak ones were not suffered to propagate their Scruples 223 224 In what Cases the Church of Christ may pronounce a positive Sentence and Judgment without the hazzard of Imposition upon either of the Parties Controverting 216 867. Circumcision a Seal of the Old Covenant 490 586. Clergy 428 430 433 436 437 507. The Clergy the greatest Promoters of Wars 708 709. they are so Impudent as to thank God for the Destruction of their Fellow-Creatures 709. upon the Charge of a Prince or State they will pray for those to whom before they wished Ruin and Destruction ibid. They cloud the Truth that the Common People might Maintain and Admire them 731. they acted the Mad Pranks of John of Leyden in the Civil Wars of England 668. See Protestants Clothes That it is not Lawful for Christians to use things superfluous in Cloaths 543 545 564 565. Comforter for what end he was sent 271 272. Commission The Commission of the Disciples of Christ before the Work was finished was more Legal than Evangelical 419. Communion the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ is a Spiritual and inward thing 148 149. that Body that Blood is a Spiritual Thing and that it is that heavenly Seed whereby Life and Salvation was of old and is now Communicated 593 594. how any become partakers thereof 496 497 498. it is not tied to the Ceremony of breaking Bread and drinking Wine which Christ used with his Disciples this was only a Figure 494 497 to 503. whether that Ceremony be a necessary part of the New Covenant and whether it is to be continued 504 to 515. Spiritual Communion with God through Christ is obtained 311. they that Witness Christ come need not Bread and Wine to put them in Remembrance of him 35 see Supper Community of Goods is not brought in by the Quakers 516 533 534. Complements see Titles Conscience see Magistrate Its Definition what it is it is distinguished from the saving Light 366 337 338 515 516. the good Conscience and the hypocritical 400. he that acteth contrary to his Conscience sinneth and concerning an Erring Conscience 516. what things appertain to Conscience ibid what sort of Liberty of Conscience is defended 517. it is the Throne of God ibid. it is free from the Power of all Men 527. Conscience and Reason are distinguished from the Saving Light of Christ in all Men 603. Clem. Alex. his Testimony 579. God alone can Inform and Inlighten the Conscience 704. Conversion what is Man's therein is rather a Passion than an Action 331. Augustin's Saying ibid. this is Cleared by two Examples 339 340. Conversion presupposeth having Light and Grace 8. Controversy Solid Controversies may be entertained for Clearing and Maintaining the Truth 730. Correction how and against whom it ought to be exercised 517. Covenant The Difference betwixt the New and Old Covenant-Worship 286 287 441 442 456 458 484. See also Gospel Law Courts see Princes Cross the Sign of the Cross 492. D. Dancing see Plays Day whether any be Holy and concerning the Day commonly called the Lord's Day 442 503. Whether the First Day of the Week has any more Inherent Holiness than any other Days
the Church of Christ is not to usurp Authority over their Fellow-Members 229. decisive Judgment explained 243. true and false Decision 244. unsettled Men Judging 683 684. Charitable and uncharitable Judgment 686. God the Judge of conscience 516 517. he that is Spiritual Judgeth all things 795 see Church Justification the Doctrine thereof is and hath been greatly vitiated among the Papists and wherein they place it 364 365 380 382 Luther and the Protestants with good Reason opposed this Doctrine though many of them ran soon into another Extream and wherein they place it and that they agree in one 366 387 370. it comes from the Love of God 367 379 380. to Justify signifies to to make really Just not to repute Just which many Protestants are also forced to acknowledge 370 371 374 377. The Revelation of Christ formed in the Heart is the formal Cause of Justification not Works to speak properly which are only an Effect and so also many Protestants have said 364 380. we are Justified in Works and how 364 370 371 380 387. this is so far from being Popish Doctrine that Bellarmine and others opposed it 365 369 385 386. We are Justified by Christ Jesus both as he appeared at Jerusalem and also as he was made manifest and revealed in us 19 20. Justification by the indwelling of Christ is denied by the Papists 78. Primitive Protestants Belief concerning Justification 79. concerning Faith and Justification 129 166. a twofold Justification 25. it is the making a Man just by an Inward Righteousness 77. 811. the Doers of the Law Justified 806. Antinomians Imputative Justification refuted 812. J. B's gross Opinion of it 814. no Man is Justified before he be sanctified 816 The real Justification falleth under the inward sensation of the Soul 817. K. Keith G. K. vindicated from our Adversaries malitious Insinuations against him 621. Kingdom of God 459 511 517. Christ's Kingdom needs no outward protection 846. the Kingdom of God is within you 803. the Kingdom of God is in the Seed in the Hearts of all Men 354. Kirk the Greedy Kirk become a Proverb 437. Knowledge the Heighth of Man's Happiness is placed in the true Knowledge of God 467. Error in the Entrance of this Knowledge is dangerous 267 268. Superstition Idolatry and thence Atheism hath proceeded from the False and Feigned Opinions concerning God and the Knowledge of him 269. the uncertain Knowledge of God is divers ways attained but the True and Certain only by the inward and immediate Revelation of the Holy Spirit 269 271. it hath been brought out of use and by what Devices 272 273. there is no Knowledge of the Father but by the Son nor of the Son but by the Spirit 268 274 275. the Knowledge of Christ which is not by the Revelation of his Spirit in the Heart is no more the Knowledge of Christ than the pratling of a Parret which hath been taught a few Words may be said to be the Voice of a Man 276 277. The Objection that the Apostle prefers the Knowledge of Christ as outwardly Crucified to all other Knowledge answered 9. his Inward Knowledge preferred 67. the true and saving Knowledge of God 115 161. the Knowledge of the History saves none 355. many by the Light may be saved that have not the outward Knowledge of christ 356 of the true Ground of Knowledge 728 733. the Difference between Head-Knowledge and the partaking of the Divine Nature 763 764. Monopolizers of Knowledge 889. 428 see Clergy The Christian Religion consists not in the Historical Knowledge of Christ 895. see Indians c L. Labour they wanted nothing whom God sent they labour'd with their Hands 435. Laces and Ribbonds 873. Laicks 429 432 433. Laity 433 507. Lake of Bethesda 338 339. Lamb see Paschal Lamb. Language the plain Language used in the Scriptures 58. concerning our using Thee and Thou which is the Singular Number to one person 61. to use the Plural instead of the Singular Number to one Person is no Indifferent thing 3 4. see Number the Singular Number to one person used in the Latine 539. how the Word You came to be used to a single person ibid. the Word Thou a greater Honour to one than You 540. Scripture-Dialect the plain Language 541. Law the Law is distinguished from the Gospel 287 384. the Difference thereof 287 493. see Gospel under the Law the People were not in any Doubt who should be Priests and Ministers 408. see Minister of the Law Worship The Testimony Law and Word is inward in the Heart 15 71. the ending of the Law and beginning of the Gospel 187. wherein the Law and Gospel differ 298 393 484. the outward and inward Law 286. the Law of Christ more perfect than of Moses 558. the Divine Law was implanted in Man's Nature before all Laws made by Man 701. J. B's Proof for what is meant by Law and Testimony 756. his Asserting the Law of Nature against his former Reason 793. Law of Moses see Legal Rites Lawyers by Tricks and Intricacies foment Controversies 209 Laying on of Hands 511. see Hands Learned the Lord is angering the Wise and Learned 885 Learning what true Learning is 421 422. Humane Learning is not the Qualification of a Minister 140 305 703 730. see Literature Schools of Learning Leaven J. B's Objection against the Word Fermentum Leaven or Fermentation a Leavening answered 855. Legal Rites had a Command as well as John's Baptism 857. Leonisis a Sect they have a great Shew of Truth 532. in the Margent Letter The Letter killeth quickneth not 393. like Pharisees the outward Law so now Professors plead the Letter 15. How the Letter killeth 18 76. Levi a Figure of Christ 655 Leyden John of Leyden and Ignatius Loyola their Practices resembled by W. M. and his Brethren 58 Liars their Punishment 557 Libertines see Ranters Liberty the true Liberty in the Church 222. breach of Liberty begets Jars ibid. a false Liberty 224. a wrong Spirit of Liberty 246. what Liberty we claim in things Religious 516 520 524 Lies 276. lying Titles 535. Christians not to speak a Lie 875. J. B s refuge of Lies 877. Light The innate Light is explained by Cicero 361 362. Light of Nature the Errors of the Socinians and Pelagians who exalt this Light are rejected 310 311. Saving Light see Redemption is universal it is in all 330 331. It is a Spiritual and Heavenly Principle 333 334. it is a Substance not an Accident 334 335. it is Supernatural and sufficient 346 348. It is the Gospel preached in every Creature 349 350. It is the Word nigh in the Mouth and in the Heart 350 351. it is the Ingrafted Word able to save the Soul 353. Testimonies of Augustin and Buchanan concerning this Light 363. it is not any part of Nature or Reliques of the Light remaing in Adam after the fall 337. it is distinguished from the Conscience 337 338. It is not a common Gift as the Heat of the
Fire and outward Light of the Sun as a certain Preacher said 357. it may be resisted 331 333 338 398 399. by this Light or Seed Grace and Word of God he invites all and calls them to Salvation 352 354 none of those to whom the History of Christ is preached are saved but by the inward Operation of this Light 353 355. it is small in the first manifestation but it groweth 353. it is slighted by the Calvinists Papists Socinians and Arminians and why 354. none can put it to silence 357. there are and may be saved by the operation thereof who are ignorant of the History of Christ 318 319 331 336 337 352 356 362. an answer to the Objection That none can be saved but in the Name of Jesus Christ 358 359 367. The Light within being believed in and obeyed leads to the use of the Scriptures 11. where the Light is there is Christ himself ibid. 63. the Light is not contradistinguished from the Gospel but is the same 64 some may have saving Light and Grace who after a certain manner may be said not to have the Spirit 66 The Light of Jesus Christ in Men will discover the Intents of the heart and flatter none 711. the Light is no Introduction to paganism 67. concerning the Light 123. the Light is come into the World c. 126 165. Light of Nature objected 693. The Light seed and Grace of God no part of Man's Nature 694. the Inward Principle of Life and Light described 699. Deaf People c. the Light may Influence which Writings c. cannot 759 805 302. Objections against the Universality of the Light 797 798. 't is sufficient and saving ibid. 't is not nature's Light 829. the Testimony of Cyrill Alex. of the Light 344 Life The Principle of Divine Life is never Idle 644. the Life of Words witnessed ibid. see Christ no Nourishment no Life 414. Lifeless Members what Church they make ibid. Literature Humane Literature is not at all needful 421 c. see Minister Sciences Liturgy 444 455. Logick 423 424. ‑ Aristotle's â—ogick by Papists and Protestants made the Hand-maid of Divinity so called 305 Lord There is one Lord 279 280. No Man can call Jesus Lord c. 276 468. the Name of the Lord how taken in Scripture 487 Lot Abraham's and Lot's bowing 874 Love Of a Love-Feast 509 510 679 694 704 Lucifer Lucifer's Spirit affecting honour 537 538 Lukewarmness of the Church of Laodicea 411. see Church Religion Luther 526. Luther and Calvin testifying against Persecution persecute themselves thereby encouraging Papists 526 527. Lutherans their Seditions against Reformed Teachers and Assault c. 292. their Principle of Persecution c. 690. they hold no Salvation without the Knowledge of Christ and the Scriptures 692 M. Macquare R. M's most abusive Railing against the Quakers and their Doctrine 880. and his shameless Flatteries to J. B. ibid. Magistrate Concerning his Power in-things purely Religious and that he hath no Authority over the Conscience 515 530. nor ought he to punish according to Church-Censure 517. concerning the present Magistrates of the Christian Word 563 564. Magistracy and the Offices thereof 157 159 171. is an Ordinance of God 710. its Lawfulness and Power 865. he bears not the Sword in vain 665. not to punish for Religious Matters but Evil in Civil Matters ibid. Priests call for the Magistrates Sword to defend their Doctrine against the Quakers 76 they make him their Executioner 667. Christ's Kingdom needs not outward Power to protect it 846. the Nature of the Gospel is Extrinsick from the Rule and Government of State 517. if Magistrates have Power to punish Hereticks then Nero was no Persecutor 521. then forcing a Conformity is not Compelling the Conscience as J. B. Asserts 865. see Heresies Mahomet prohibited all Reason and Discourse about Religion 527. he was an Impostor 338. Majesty your Majesty see Titles ‑ excellent Majesty 875 Maintenance Minister's Maintenance 142. must be voluntary not coercive ibid. 143. the Gospel to be made without Charge 168 434. his necessities to be answered 432 661. God sends no Man away faring upon his own Charges 435. the Abuses Priests Maintenance brings 436. in the Primitive Times no stinted Maintenance was sought by the Ministers ibid. who hire a Teacher may pay his Stipend 438. what kind of Maintenance is denied 661 662. what Maintenance allowed to Ministers in Scripture 840. Malchus his Ear cut off see Titles Man see Knowledge his Spirit knoweth the things of a Man and not the things of God 275. the Carnal Man esteemeth the Gospel-Truths as Lies 276. and in that State he cannot please God 282. the New Man and the Old 294 593. the Natural Man cannot discern Spiritual Things As to the First Adam he is Fallen and Degenerate 294 308 310 317 318. his Thoughts of God and Divine Things in the Corrupt State are Evil and Unprofitable 310. nothing of Adam's Sin is Imputed to him until by Evil-doing he Commit his own 311 315 316. in the Corrupt State he hath no Will or Light capable of it self to manifest Spiritual things 311 314 367. he cannot when he will procure to himself Tenderness of Heart 389. whatsoever he doth while he doth it not by in and through the Power of God he is not approved of God 452 453. how the inward Man is nourished 495 497. how his Vnderstanding cannot be forced by Sufferings and how his Vnderstanding is changed 521 522. the Heart of Man is deceitful 301 312. his Imaginations evil ibid. the Natural Man discerns not c. 313. the Fall of Man did affect both Soul and Body 762. how Man's Mind is changed 522 Manifestation see Seed Marchandize what it is to make Marchandize with the Scriptures 426 Marriages the Care taken about them by the People called Quakers 210 211. Martyrs of Protestant Martyrs 523 528 J. B's condemning Primitive Martyrs falsly as led by a Spirit of Error 736. Mass 441 448 454 474. ‑ the Popish Mass and Vespers 443. see Papists Mathematician 293 294 Meats and Drinks the Law was Meats and Drinks not so the Gospel 512. the observing of Meats Drinks Washings to be considered in a threefold respect 586. Mechanicks 431. they contributed much to the Reformation 432 Mediator see Christ. Meditation the Quakers are not against it 452 Meetings to have set Meetings to the Glory of God and the Good of the Church in their proper Times and Seasons doth not contradict the being led Immediately by the Spirit of God 204 235. Meetings to take Care for the Poor Widows and Orphans c. 206. the necessity of Meetings set Times and Places 442. Assemblies of Worship in publick described 444. Silent Meetings 445. a secret Travel in Silent Meetings 446. speaking to Edification in Meetings 446. the mocker in Meetings ibid. our Work and Worship in our Meetings 447. a sweet Sound of Thanksgiving and Praise in our Meetings 448. set Times and Places and the Use and