abounding grace of God is plain in the 17 18 and 19 verses where the Apostle lays his argument for grace and righteousness through Christ in its similitude to the influence of Adam's sin by imputation For if by one mans offence death reigned by one verse 17. Therefore as by the offence of one judgement came upon all men verse 18. For as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners verse 19. much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ verse 17. so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men to justification of life verse 18. so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous verse 19. And further to clear this truth if clearer evidence may be possible the consideration of verse 14. will contribute a good measure Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam ' s transgression who is the figure of him that was to come There are two respects wherein at least many of those over whom death reigned from Adam to Moses did not sin after the similitude of Adam's transgression First They did not sin against a revealed Law which Adam did in eating the forbidden fruit and there was no revealed Law or Covenant of life expresly given from God after Adam's time before the fall untill Moses Secondly They did not all sin actually and in their own persons as Adam did yet death reigned over Infants who were in respect of actual sin Innocents And by what Law did Infants suffer death if not as they were included in Adam the first man and his offence becoming theirs thereby according to those words 1 Cor. 15. 22. For as in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive So that if it were not by the imputation of Adam's sin Children or Infants suffered a penalty without all Law which is contrary to the Apostles words Rom. 5. 13. But sin is not imputed when there is no Law But there was a Law then in force viz. the penalty of Adam's sin which by imputation reached to his posterity And in this very respect Adam was the figure of him that was to come viz. Jesus Christ So that if the righteousness of Christ of that one man Christ Jesus be not imputed to justification of all his children by faith or that are considered by God in Christ the whole frame of the Apostles arguing is but trifling and concludes nothing of what it seems to aim at which is not to be admitted by a Christian There are four Objections among others I have met with against the evidence of these Texts to the Doctrine I have vindicated Object 1. Christ was our example and therein did answer to Adam as his figure for sin came into the world by Adam's example and so righteousness by Christs Answ This is an old error and what error so old and rotten that the Quakers will not embrace who live in error as their element The Texts I have quoted have not the least appearance of sin entring the world by example and the Infants over whom death reigned were not capable of sinning by example Object 2. There might be a derivation of Adam's corrupted nature to all his posterity and so all of them might be guilty of sinfull dispositions and habits in their own persons yet by generation from Adam and not by imputation of his sin committed in his own person so the righteousness that justifies may be derived in spiritual regeneration whereby the soul is disposed and enabled to work righteousness by that spiritual life and vigour it receives from him as its root Answ That cannot be the meaning for then the condemnation spoken of would be by all and every one which though it be true that dispositions to sin are derived from Adam by natural generation and dispositions to holiness by regeneration from Christ yet cannot be the meaning of these Texts for the emphatical word which as upon the hinge the whole argument turns is the word one by one mans offence by the obedience of one whereas if the Objection did hit the meaning the Apostle must rather have said So by all or every mans offence condemnation came upon all But there is no mention of that middle thing mans corrupt disposition to knit condemnation to Adam's sin as a more original and remote cause Also it should then be in or into all and not upon all Object 3. The condemnation that came upon all and that reigned from Adam to Moses was but temporal death and what is that to eternal or to bear a proportion with justification to life spiritual and eternal Answ It is more than you prove or can prove that it was but corporal and temporal death and we can prove that it was the guilt of eternal death if we go no further to fetch the proof than from what is opposed to it in the last verse of the Chapter righteousness to eternal life And temporal death is not remitted or discharged to those who enjoy the benefit of the grace by the second Adam Jesus Christ Object 4. The Apostle James saith What doth it profit my brethren though a man say he hath faith and have no works can faith save him Was not Abraham our Father justified by works c. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified and not by faith only To the first Instance in the Objection I answer The saying a man hath faith is not sufficient to render him justified or to justifie him Secondly A dogmatical or historical faith cannot justifie or so act on the promise and Covenant as to put us under the imputation of justifying righteousness for such a faith the Devils have and there is a vast difference between believing the History of the Gospel and believing in Christ And this is the dead faith the Apostle speaks of verse 17. To the second Instance Abraham's works though they justified his faith yet they did not justifie his person And the History of his offering up his Son doth give evidence for this Exposition Now I know that thou fearest God seeing thou hast not with-held thy Son thine only Son from me And I will shew thee my faith by my works To the third Instance which seems to joyn works with faith in justification that is our works I answer That although justifying faith is not without works yet faith justifies without works as a man cannot have seeing eyes if he have not lungs and heart and brains which are essential to life and the living motion of every member yet the eye only sees and not the lungs or brains c. but if you should pluck the eyes out of the head they would so alone be to little purpose So works are essential to the being of justifying faith yet faith alone is in the act
understand the whole written Word as written that is the body of the Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament Law and Gospel without distinction and by the Spirit the inward immediate teachings of the Spirit of God they are in both mistaken For it is as certain as that the following words are truth that by the Letter here is meant the Law as given forth by God from Mount Sinai and by the Spirit the Covenant of Grace especially as expressed in the New Testament under the administration of the Redeemer But if the ministration of death written and engraven on stones was glorious c. for if the ministration of condemnation be glory c. All these passages express and explain the same thing called the Letter in the 6. Verse and that it was the Law given forth by God before it was written not only as written the matter and manner of which was glorious but in terribleness insomuch that Moses said I exceedingly fear and quake and it was death for any to touch the Mountain yea the Israelites were ready to dye with fear at the appearances of God on that Mount Sinai at the giving forth of the Law And as the manner of giving it forth by God so the matter of it was mortal nothing but death was written in the forehead of it going alone The Law worketh wrath That is the Law of meer Commandments And the Commandment which was ordained to life I found to be unto death for sin taking occasion by the Commandment deceived me and by it slew me Thus it is plain what is meant by the Letter the Law of meer Commandments as given forth on Mount Sinai That by the Spirit is to be understood the Covenant of promise in the hand of the Mediator is as certain and not of the Scripture or written Word in general for in the 6. Verse it is opposed to the Letter of the New Testament not of the Letter that is the Gospel not the Law and it is called the Spirit in three respects First As the New Testament or Covenant of promise especially in the hand of Christ promiseth and conveyeth soul-quickning grace in a good measure to sanctifie and enable and dispose the soul to keep the Laws of God Secondly As by the New Testament or Covenant life and spirit comfort and refreshment is put into the hearts of poor drooping sinners under the sense of the severity of the Law and their liableness to the punishment of it Thirdly And chiefly the intent and mind of the Spirit in the terrible dispensation of the Law of Works was by discovering mans woful estate to make the promises of the Gospel or the new Covenant sweet and welcome and to put souls on embracing the redemption through Christ So that the matter of the pure New Testament or Covenant in the hand of the Mediator was that which God especially aimed at to promote by the Letter or the meer Law of Commandments in which alone there was not the least appearance of mercy or mans welfare implied CHAP. XII The Quakers hold it is a sin and the sin of Idolatry to believe and live according to the instructions and holy examples expressed in and by the Scriptures except we have them by immediate inspiration and at first hand as the Apostles received them SECT I. I Am now come to the highest round of their Ladder and I know not what one step of sin beyond it except the unpardonable one they could charge those with who walk by the light of Scripture day Samuel whose rebuke to Saul for his sin in the matter of the Amalekites was expressed in the keenest and highest terms compared his sin but to Witchcraft Iniquity and Idolatry And if this charge againstus were as true as it is that they so charge us it is high time to serve the Scriptures as Hezekiah served the Brazen Serpent And brake in pieces the Brazen Serpent that Moses had made for unto those days the Children of Israel did burn Incense to it and he called it Nehushtan that is Brass nothing of a Deity in it but a little piece of Brass So it were fit the Scriptures should be demolished as having nothing of divine authority stamped upon them When I have established this Charge by the mouths of two or three Witnesses it will be time to leave off pouring in more where the measure is already running over All people may search the Scriptures and see how you have been deceived by your Teachers who have caused you to seek your lost God in carnal and dead observations which they have not any Scripture for Who this lost God should be except Jesus Christ who is ascended above the visible Heavens is not to be imagined by those who are acquainted with the Quakers Tenets and Phrases as will appear more plainly where I treat on their Idolatry and if so as there is reason to believe there are two grand parts of Idolatry we are charged with in complying with the Scripture Precepts and Institutions as in Preaching Prayer Church-order Baptism Lords-supper The first is a false object of worship which all of them that ever I met with in print or otherwise will not deny that to be which is given to the man Christ Jesus who was crucified between two Thieves at Jerusalem The second is false worship for the matter which is Idolatry although it were intended to the true God as the object the sacrificing of Children was intended ultimately to the true God yet it was gross Idolatry And they have built the high places of Tophet which is in the Valley of the son of Hinnom to burn their Sons and Daughters in the fire which I commanded them not neither came it into my heart But you will say how is this charge for walking according to Scripture instructions and examples seeing he doth expressly exhort to trying by the Scriptures whether they do not thus I answer that they take not any thing in the Scripture to be obliging but what comes by immediate inspiration as the Scriptures were given to the Prophets and Apostles and whatever we do however consonant to the precepts there expressed is all contrary to the Scriptures with them as I have proved already if not by immediate inspiration and motion of the Spirit If this be not clear we shall pump clear by and by And this is Babylon the mother of Harlots viz. to read and practice as the Saints did and the Apostles in the Scripture of the New Testament and the abomination of all uncleanness That many Children have been brought forth of flesh and blood and of the will of man that is our choice and not passive obedience to the motions of the thing within which is the birth that persecutes the son and heir And not one of them must stand though ever so seemingly glorious for the day is come and the true birth is
set them up and is present with and in them we will quickly in that point turn Quakers But alas the proof that he hath done so is but this they limit his leadings in Spirit that is the Quakers fancies but if he intended the Spirits leadings in a true sence it is very strange that the Gospel and Law of works should be both sick of one disease that which was ordained to life I found to be unto death The Ordinances of the Gospel were ordained to enlarge and raise the spirits of the Saints but quite contrary they are found to limit and imprison the spirit sure it must be Satans Spirit and not Christs to whom the Ordinances are such chains That I may shew you the Quakers Babel let us hear Isaac Pennington's Light speak contrary to the light of G. Fox When Israel was bent to seek after the Lord and applied their hearts to wait upon him in fasting and earnest supplications wherein my heart hath often had the testimony that they were accepted of him and had many times the seal of his presence and power among them yea my heart did truly unite with and enjoy the Lord in what was then given forth and I can never deny the truth and worth of that dispensation though I know it was swallowed up by the breaking forth of a more lively dispensation This he saith he found about the beginning of the late troubles How doth this agree to G. Fox's nailing all those forms to Christs Cross at his death and then blotting out these Ordinances But yet I. P. will needs have them swallowed up now though he gave them leave to live 1600 years more mercifully however than G. who would have them stifled in the womb or crucified so soon as born But Pennington is so cruel by that time he arrives to p. 38 that he saith Such of the people of God as do not follow the Lord perfectly out of the things City of abomination visible worship but be found in any part thereof when the Lord cometh to judge her the Lord will not spare her nor the spirits of his dearest people who are found there c. Both by the Scripture and their own confession Christ did not long since dwell in those Ordinances which we call Gospel-Ordinances and the Quakers Babylons forms and abominations Untill they shew us better grounds for Christs remove than the secret witness of the Spirit within them which we can prove to be a Spirit of delusion by Scripture reason and sense it self let none who follow not Christ blind-fold have the worse opinion of Ordinances for all the Quakers talk I now come to particulars and begin with the Gospel-Ministry SECT III. They deny and subvert the Ministry of the Gospel railing on the Ministers as the vilest persons and veriest cheats in the world making ill use of those Scripture words Smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered Next to the Scripture they lay not their batteries against any thing so much as against the Ministers of the Gospel and have so little honesty as to rake up all that is to be found on any one or any that pretend to be Ministers of Christ and cast it in the faces of all without distinction as equally guilty And for their more particular attempts those who are the most faithfull and serious are the objects of their greatest fury I shall not blot paper with their railing First They deny all Ministry that hath a mediate call to that office and imployment and their call to the Ministry we deny which is mediate But who can witness an immediate call from God and speak it the Gospel as they are moved by the holy Ghost and such travail from place to place and have no certain dwelling place this Ministry we own and witness Thou art corrected by the Scripture and the Apostle corrects thee who saith I have not received it of man nor by man and bid others look at Jesus the author of their faith Their Writings are abounding with matter of this nature We acknowledge that all the true Ministers of Christ ought to have an immediate call such as consists in grace and gifts and disposition to that worthy office and imployment and such as have not this immediate call we account unworthy of the thing and name but the Quakers pretended-immediate call is far from the Apostles as I have proved at large on the point of inspirations neither are the Ministers of Christ now Apostles as they were But if we call for the Quakers proof of their immediate call hear what Farnworth saith As for pretences we do not pretend that we are immediately call'd but we witness that we are And what is their witness their own fancy and their own say-so and we witness that such witnesses will carry the cause no where but in the fools Court who the wise man saith believeth every word And G. Fox's proof is as much to the purpose not of man the call of the Apostle while we pretend not to be Apostles And bid others look at Jesus the author of their faith as if that Text intended a faith that they were called to be Apostles which speaks of the faith of all believers who received it by the mediate Ministry of the Gospel For being moved by the holy Ghost which is by them made an essential mark of a true Minister we allow but yet affirm That those who are moved by the commands of the Spirit in the Scripture are moved by the holy Ghost especially when the Authority of God therein prevails with them As for having no certain dwelling place and leaving houses lands and possessions let them repair to William Pen and others of their Ministers for an Answer to it who have large possessions and brave habitations such as few Ministers whom they disclaim especially the poor non-Conformists enjoy and will not so easily as Pen's phrase is be fobb'd out of them as they fobb others out of the truths of the Gospel But indeed will you deny that the Elders that were ordained in every City by the appointment of Paul and by the hand of Titus had any mediate call or those spoken of Acts 14. 23. And when they had ordained them Elders in every Church and had prayed with fasting they commended them to the Lord on whom they believed If you will not believe these had a mediate call I despair of your believing any thing but what you list SECT IV. Another ground of their denying our Ministry is that they teach from the Scripture And the Word is immediate and all the Ministers of Christ preach the immediate Word and wait for it and the outward written words with ink and paper are mediate so then The written Word being preached from makes a man no Minister And of this sort are they that have their preaching to study and to seek at other mens mouthes or from the
be so eminently such as the meanest that hath the true form And that the Word Christ is only so analogically I have shewed and the definition of a Word in the second Chapter I desire Mr. Pen to consider better next time and not think every body else not a hairs breadth beyond his size SECT VI. A third Scripture I am willing to explain to fence the weak against the Quakers seductions is 2 Pet. 1. 19. We have also a more sure word of prophecy whereunto ye do well to take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place untill the day dawn and the day-star arise in your hearts This more sure word of prophecy refers to the voice from Heaven which Peter James and John heard expressed in Verse 17. and is by Peter affirmed to be rather to be credited than that or any other immediate revelation By the more sure word of prophecy is meant those prophecies written in the Old Testament which are called Verse 20. prophecy of Scripture and are called the light that shineth in a dark place as prophecies shine but with a dim light yet are welcome and give some light comparatively with providences which are the fulfilling of those prophecies The dawning of the day and the day-star arising in their hearts cannot be meant of Christ known and received by faith to salvation and sanctification too in some measure for so he was risen in their hearts when the Apostle wrote this or else he would not have said them to have obtained like precious faith with him and others the Apostles and Saints which he doth in Verse 1. as the direction of his Epistle I therefore conclude that the sense is this He exhorts them to be intent on the prophecies whether verbal or figurative which had respect to not only the coming of the Messiah which they believed already but also the abolishing of the Mosaical rites and constituting in their room the spiritual and Gospel-administration till thereby they were convinced of that truth which is called the dawning of the day and the day-star with respect to its light and beauty and reality above the Mosaical ceremonies and rites which were but dim night-stars in comparison or till they were convinced that the day of the Gospel-realities was come and so the night-shadows of the Law to be done away The grounds I have for this Exposition are these added to the former Peter the Pen-man of this Epistle is said to be the Apostle to the Circumcision as the Gospel of Circumcision was to Peter And therefore we may gather that those to whom he wrote were Jews whom the Scripture speaks to be zealously addicted to the Law of Moses And this is farther confirmed by his direction of them to the heeding of the Scripture-Prophecies which few but the Jews were acquainted with or did own as worth the heeding except the converted Gentiles of whom there was no danger that they should Judaize unless moved thereunto by such of the Jews as needed this conviction This to me is sufficient I leave the grounds for others to consider One Text more I shall weigh and then I judge I have done enough to satisfie those that are willing how the Quakers abuse those Texts which are not so easily understood as some others to their own and others destruction To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles which is Christ in you the hope of glory From hence they conclude They have very Christ his Being and Essence within them It will not be easily refuted That the hope of glory is to be understood to be in them which being a hope in Christ the crucified Jesus was such a mystery as the Gentliles called foolishness But we preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness For Christ to be in them rightly understood would be no such hard matter for the Gentiles to believe who understood Metonymical phrases very well as to believe such a glory to be attained by faith in and obedience to the Laws of a man who died as a Malefactor and that this death of his should reconcile God to man with the addition of such a purchase But because it is a truth That Christ is in Believers I shall therefore fay that which with the blessing of the Lord to a willing mind to be instructed will prove convincing First The man Christ that was nail'd to the Cross the Quakers do not believe to be in them nor that he hath a being or life nor can he be in them in his person as a man if they had a sounder faith For the God-head of Christ that is with respect to his Being and Essence every where and every where alike Do not I fill heaven and earth saith the Lord So that with respect to the infinite Being of God who comprehends all things he is in every thing at all times and nothing can be void of his presence So that if this be it you mean the Saints have no more priviledge than any other creature whatsoever But it remains that Christ is in his people by his graces wrought by his Spirit which is his image and likeness by his love which hath a uniting nature to its object as we say such are one who love dearly Every man is where he loves more than where he lives And so also where he is beloved for that will make him frequently thought on and a man to be sensible of his good or hurt as if he himself enjoyed the one or suffered the other And he is said to live in the hearts of his people by faith as faith believes how lovely and desirable he is and so loves him and works all those other graces in the soul which are his image and do as effectually possess the soul for Christ and to his use and interest as a faithfull friend can do According to that Text That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love c. You know what the Scripture saith of faith that it worketh by love So that in very deed Christ both as God and Man doth live in all his Saints but not in his person but by the manifestations of his love and glory his works and image in and on the soul And this is enough to satisfie those that are sober and are contented with and rejoyce in those priviledges which God affords to his children which are enough to render them blessed rather than those which pride and ignorance will choose like our first Parents to be as Gods and pay dear for the delusion SECT VII Having stripped them of these Texts wherewith they fortifie their light within to be the Christ and Saviour and proved That the man Jesus of Nazareth in whom dwelt and now dwelleth the fulness of the God-head bodily is the Christ of God and not the man