albeit there are diversities of gifts amongst Believers yet they have all the same Spirit 1 Cor. 12.4 13. But behold here a rare fansie The Quakers require either at least the same measure or else a larger measure of the Spirit than the Apostles had for turning the Psalms into Meeter What will no less measure of the Spirit than the Apostles had serve to understand Poetry and the Notes of Musick Must we be immediatly Inspired for these two O brave Morology The Quakers it seems will not allow a Boy to sing a Song nor a Minstreller to play his Tune both which requires something of Musick without immediate Inspiration forsooth Spectatum admissi risum teneatis amici The Quakers it seems do not like to be Precenters lest perhaps they get little Salary Lastly They ask what the Psalms were that were sung in the Primitive times Ans They were certainly the same that we now sing seeing these only are written in the Scriptures though the Quakers may have other Psalms in their wild Scripture-Book within and appointed by God to be sung as beside that we are Ordained to sing Psalms and there is no other to choose upon is clear from 2 Chron. 29.30 where the Church of Israel sang praises to God with the words of David and Asaph says the Text by the command of the good King and great Reformer These that would see any further concerning some scruples about Psalms-singing let them read worthy Mr. Durhams Exposition of the Song of Solomon from page 48. to page 53. where they may find some doubts resolved which I purposely here omit because there they may be found though little or nothing here medled with be there touched Ninth QUERY Whether or not your Directory Confession of Faith and Cathechisms be an Infallible Rule for you and your People to walk by or whether or not equal with the Scriptures or above the Scriptures and whether of them is the better Book and whether or not have ye an Infallible Spirit to give forth such a Directory or Catechism or Confession of Faith as ye have done and whether or not the Scriptures are not a better Directory than any ye can make which were given forth by the Holy Ghost by the holy Men of God who had the Infallible Spirit SVRVEY This Inspirer of the Quakers is surely no Spirit of Truth but a manifest Deviser of Lies seeing almost in every Sentence that drops from his mouth he impudently slanders the Church of God in Britain for who ever heard that any Protestant Church did hold any thing of Ecclesiastical Constitution formally as such for an Infallible Rule But on the contrary it hath always been the Doctrine of all Protestant Churches and as much of the Church of Britain as any other as may be seen in the fourth Article of the 31. Chapter of her Confession of Faith that all Synods and Councels since the Apostles days are liable to Error and that therefore their Constitutions formally as such are not to be made the Rule of Divine Faith and Religious Practice and yet there is much more hope of an unerring Spirit in a whole Synod of Orthodox Church-Guides than in any Brainsick Quaker falsly pretending thereunto The Quakers do not here quarrel with our Directory Confession or Catechism as to their subject sentence and the particular definitions which they contain or else they should have instanced the particulars which they judge to be wrong and not agreeable to the Stripture that we might have known what to vindicate which until they do I cannot gratifie them with particular defences Their quarrel therefore here is at the very common form of a Directory Confession or Catechism in a Church and that Church-Guides should presume to Constitute these and so all Churches are concerned in this affair seeing all of them have their Confessions Catechisms and Directories and yet no doubt this quarrel is chiefly intended against the Directory Confession and Catechism of the Church of God in Britain Therefore that we may in the general vindicate these we shall begin with the Directory Therefore first a Church-Directory may be taken in a large and improper sence as comprehending rules concerning parts of the publick Worship of God it self and the religious manner thereof as their immediate object directly regarded and if these Rules teach and direct no other Worship nor any other religious manner of the Worship but the very same which the Scripture directs and teaches then they can never be found fault with seeing even every particular Minister hath authority and is obliged by his Office to teach and enjoyn his Flock the Worship of God and the religious manner thereof from the Scripture yea that is his chief work and I must still think that a Synod of Ministers conveened in Christs name have no less authority nor can be any less obliged Such Rules there are in our Directory as the Rules appointing the Sabbath-day to be kept holy Psalms to be sung Ministers to do their work faithfully diligently c. all which are very Scripture-Rules particularly taught therein and their immediate objects are constituent parts or religious manners of the Worship But Secondly a Church-Directory may be taken in a more strict and proper sence as restricted to and meerly comprehending Rules or Directions concerning the External Circumstances of the Publick Worship and Government of Gods House And for vindicating our Directory in the general as was explained taken in this proper notion We must observe first that as it is utterly impossible to exerce any action except under the vesture of several circumstances So likewise the publick Worship of God cannot be performed except under the vesture of various Circumstances as needs no demonstration Secondly I must observe that as the vesture of unbeseeming undecent and disorderly circumstances in the exercise of Gods Publick Worship doth very much deform and disgrace the work as all may know and so cannot but very much hinder Edification and beget Scandals So the Vesture of comely decent and orderly circumstances therein doth greatly beautifie and adorn the work by the Rule of Contraries and so doth promote and advance Edification and Growth which by the contrary are exceedingly letted and hindered Thirdly I must observe that these External Circumstances of Gods Publick Worship are not in the Scripture particularly defined and determined seeing it is no where of Scripture particularly defined what time of the day or night the publick Worship shall begin how long it shall last what order shall be observed in reading preaching praying singing hearing c. But only they are therein determined in the general as to their common form of order and decency that decency and order must be observed therein seeing all things must be so done in the Church 1 Cor. 14.40 which command is manifesty transgressed by the undecency and disorder of one small Circumstance and so it plainly injoyns to maintain order and decency in all the Circumstances
is plain seeing they would never have been commended for examining and trying his Doctrine by the Scriptures except the Scriptures were the Rule or for making that a Rule for examining and receiving of Doctrines of Faith which is no Rule of matters of Faith Nay for this they would have been deservedly discommended Fifthly The Scriptures are able to make us Wise unto Salvation 2 Tim. 3.15 Therefore they contain the Rule of Faith and Duty The Consequence is easie seeing without the Rule of these we cannot be wise unto Salvation but plainly ignorant of the way thereunto having no Rule to direct us Sixthly the whole Scriptures were given by Inspiration of God and they were written purposely for the Churches Instruction and Learning as is before shewed Therefore they must surely be the Rule of Faith and Duty for I am sure there is nothing wanting here that is requisite to the Constituting of them for a publick Rule or else let the Quakers if they can shew us what that is for I can not perceive it without the Spectacles of their Eagle-eyed Inspirer Seventhly That Doctrine must be the Rule of Faith and Manners which in all matters of Faith and Manners we ought to observe and take heed to as a Doctrine full of shining light for our instruction and direction but that is the Scriptures Therefore the Scriptures are the Rule of Faith and Manners The Major is clear nor do the Quakers deny it The Minor is laid down in 2 Pet. 1.19 20. where Peter after his rehearsing of the glorious Revelation on the Mount at the Transfiguration which was as glorious a Revelation as any else he addeth That they had a more sure Word of Prophecy whereunto they did well to take heed as unto a light shining c. knowing this first that no Prophecy of the Scripture is of any private Interpretation here it is clear that it is the Scriptures which he calls the more sure Word of Prophecy and prefers before all transient Revelations not as if the Scriptures were more certain in themselves Quoad se than Gods immediate voice from Heaven but because they are a more sure way in regard of us Quoad nos they being a Written yea Sealed and Sworn Evidence and Contract of the whole Bargain and Terms of Salvation and Life delivered into our custody to be perused by us upon all occasions and this gives more assurance in regard of our weakness than a passing Revelation and is more ready for our constant direction than a transient Revelation which we cannot always command nor retain often in our memory till we understand nor are all men able to bear them That on the Mount made the Disciples roave and mistake exceedingly Mark 9.6 The Quakers answer in their Confession of Faith or Principles of Truth page 135 136 140. That by the more sure Word of Prophecy the Apostle means the Light within us and so they deny our Minor But contrariwise the 20 Verse there where he cautions the interpreting of the Scripture-Prophecy clearly coheres with the 19 Verse as a caution subjoyned concerning the same thing which he had there called The more sure Word of Prophecy and so by the more sure Word of Prophecy must be meant the Scriptures because of the clear coherence Secondly I must demand of the Quakers to shew if they can How the Dictat or Light within is more sure than Gods immediate Voice from Heaven such as that was at the Transfiguration I have shewed how the Scriptures are called and are so in regard of us but I cannot understand how the Light within can be or be called so Thirdly The Testimony of other Scriptures produced and to be produced will not permit this violent Gloss Again They ordinarily answer to this Scripture That in it we are only appointed to take heed to the Scriptures until the day dawn and the day-Star arise into our hearts that is as they expound till the Holy Ghost be bestowed on us but no longer But contrariwise First by this answer they retract their former Gloss upon the Text and confess the more sure Word of Prophecy here to be meant of the Scriptures and not the Light within Secondly By this answer they overturn one of their own chiefest Principles viz. That all men ought to follow the Light within for now they yield That such as have not received the Holy Ghost and these are not few are exhorted here to follow the Scriptures and not the Light within them Thirdly Hereby they insinuate That the Scriptures in their Opinion serve for nothing to Renewed Men and Believers who are born of the Spirit and Sealed therewith Joh. 3.5 Rom. 8.9 Eph. 1.13 and so the Scriptures as they will are recommended only to Men unrenewed and so that blessing pronounced upon the Readers Hearers and Keepers of the things written in the Scriptures Revel 1.3 and 22.7 is designed and belongs only to unrenewed Men seeing the reading hearing and keeping of the things written therein whereunto the blessing is annexed belongs only to them as the Quakers will What Does not Paul Peter and John direct all their Epistles and the Book of the Revelation to the Churches the Saints and them that had obtained like precious Faith with them delivering them many Rules of Faith and Manners therein See their Inscriptions I pray and these will inform you better Eightly That must be the Rule of Faith by which we are commanded to try the Spirits 1 John 4.1 seeing we cannot try the Spirits or Doctrines without the Rule for that were to try them by guess But that whereby we are commanded to try the Spirits must certainly be the Scriptures seeing the Quakers do not as yet openly profess the Popish Lesbian Rule of Believing as the Church of Rome does and it cannot be the dictat or light within that we are to try them by seeing that is as fallible as their Light whose Doctrines I try and George Keith a Ring-leading Quaker confesses the possibility of their declining from Infallibility both in Speaking and Writing and consequently in Examining or Judging too in his Quakerism no Popery page 33. and beside the Dictat within hath no Divine Institution to be the Rule and if it were the Rule then the Dictat within every diverse Man would be the Rule to try the Dictat or Dectrine proceeding from the Dictat in another which would make the Dictat of every Man both Superior and Inferior to the Dictat of another Superior when it tries and examines and Inferior when it or its Doctrine is tried and examined which is repugnant Ninthly John shews us 1 John 4.6 That the true and sound imbracing of their Doctrine now written in the Scriptures is a manifest evidence of the Spirit of Truth and the rejecting of it a manifest evidence of the Spirit of Error and so their Doctrine written in the Scriptures must be the Rule of Faith and Manners For How shall it be an evidence
was some necessity for his arising to be Baptized with Water that he might go where there was Water Seeing then the Circumstances of these Texts will not permit these improperly so called Baptisms to be meant therein and its certain that some sort of Baptism is meant therein or else the word Baptize must be razed out of them It inevitably follows that Baptism with Water must be therein meant or else no Baptism at all which Impudence it self dare not say and so much the less seeing the Circumstances of these Texts do very well agree with the Circumstances of Baptism in other Texts where the word Water is expresly added And in these Texts we see what care the Apostles took for the speedy Administration of the Baptism therein mentioned to the Disciples appearing such and to all appearing such And these things evidently prove our Antecedent of this second Argument Thirdly our third principal Argument for proving Baptism with Water to be an Ordinance of Divine Institution under the New Testament is taken from Act. 2.38 which Text I have now proved to be meant of Baptism with Water where Peter Injoyns Baptism with Water to all these New Testament Disciples as a necessary Sacred Symbol or Pledge for Sacred it must be in regard of its Sacred and Spiritual signification of a Spiritual Benefit of the Remission of Sins For his Injoyning them to be Baptized for the Remission of Sins doth plainly hold forth some necessity thereof though not by necessity of Mean yet by necessity of Precept Therefore Baptism with Water must be an Ordinance of the New Testament Divinely Instituted For certainly Cancelled Jewish Ceremonies much less Humane inventions or any thing not appointed of God could never thereafter be necessary for Justification or Remission of Sins though sometimes they might be necessary for avoiding the Offence and stumbling of weak brethren as Act. 15.29 and 16.3 Fourthly whoever under the New Testament hath probably received the Spirit of Grace hath a right in the Churches Court unto Baptism with Water and she is bound to admit them thereunto Therefore Baptism with Water is surely an Ordinance of the New Testament Divinely Instituted or otherwise these could never have any Right thereunto in her Court nor she be bound to admit them into it without a Divine appointment making it due unto them but on the contrary they should be bound to abstain from it and she to Discharge them therefrom as unwarrantable Will-worship in the Scriptures Condemned Colos 2.20 21 22. These things clearly prove the Consequence The Antecedent is proved by Peter Act. 10.47 where he says Can any man forbid water that these should not be Baptized which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we where by the Holy Ghost as often else where Act. 1.5 and 8.16 17. and 19.6 is meaned the Miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost as is clear from the Context So then Peter Argues here from these Gifts of the Spirit bestowed on them as a probable Evidence though not an Infallible one See Mat. 7.22 of the Spirit of Grace bestowed on them That therefore they had a Right unto Baptism with Water and no man could Debar them from it for that were absurd as the Expression bears Can any man forbid c. So then according to the Apostle a probable Evidence of the Spirit of Grace received doth immediately infer a Right in the Churches Court to which his Discourse is here directed unto Baptism Water and so whoever hath probably received the Spirit of Grace hath that Right and the Church is bound to admit them to it and they are as absurd as Quakers that would Debar them from it These things plainly prove the Antecedent Fifthly there is one Baptism mentioned Ephes 4.5 which is certainly an Ordinance of Divine Institution and belongs to the New Testament as can never be gotten denyed But that must be Baptism with Water and can be no other for when Paul says There is one Baptism either he means of one properly so called which is Baptism with Water seeing the signification of the Word Baptize Primarily and properly agrees unto it or else he means there is one Baptism Improperly and Metaphorically so called but that cannot be seeing there is not one but many of these sorts of Baptisms as we have already seen whereof therefore to mean it would be a contradiction to the Text. Sixthly Baptism with Water is necessary to Salvation under the New Testament viz. by necessity of Precept and so as not the simple privation of it when it cannot be had but the Contempt of it when it may be had is Damnable Therefore Baptism with Water must be an Ordinance of Divine Institution under the New Testament The Consequence is manifest seeing a material piece of Divine Worship necessary to Salvation not appointed of God is a Will-worship necessary thereunto which is repugnant to the Scriptures I prove the Antecedent The Baptism mentioned Mark 16.16 is there made a necessary Antecedent of Salvation under the New Testament by the plain Sentence of the Text But the Baptism there mentioned is Baptism with Water Therefore Baptism with Water is necessary to Salvation under the New Testament The Major needs no more proving I prove the Minor because the Baptism mentioned in that Text of Mark doth in adult persons we shall speak afterwards of Infants pre-require Faith in Christ as the Text shews without which some way appearing by external Signs they have not a visible Interest and cannot be accompted Disciples by the Church but the Baptism of Doctrine does not pre-require that or else no man might be admitted to partake of the Gospel-Doctrine but such as before-hand probably believe and so it should never have been Preached to the Gentile-world Nor does the work of Conversion pre-require Faith in Christ to a mans partaking of it self otherwise it should pre-require it self without which there can be no such Faith before partaking of it self that is it self without it self which is repugnant Nor yet can it be meant of enduing with the extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit seeing these were never necessary to Salvation as this Baptism mentioned in the Text is And I am sure the Quakers will not say that Baptism here is meant of the Baptism of the Cross under which they do not use to seek shelter or in any other Text that we have named seeing the Apostles and other Ministers of Christ are the immediate Administrators of the Baptism mentioned here and in all of these but were not so of the Cross they had no Commission for that Seeing then there is a Baptism meant herein Mark 16.16 And it cannot agree with any of these Improperly so called Baptisms but only with Baptism with Water which is properly so called it must Inevitably be meant of Baptism with Water wherewith it agrees or let the Quakers prove that it disagrees with that too and then I am sure it shall agree with none at all and
are not all of their own works that be out of the light and the Faith that is the gift of God And are not all in their will-worships that are not in the worship that Jesus Christ the Heavenly man set up above Sixteen hundred years Since that is in the Spirit and the truth So must not every man come to the truth and to the Spirit in their own hearts if they come to the worship Jesus Christ Set up And are not your Catechisms Confession of Faith and Directories your own works and your own worship which ye have set down for People to fall down and do worship to and be Saved by And have ye not set up this since the Apostles days and since Christ set up his worship SVRVEY Because this Survey will divide it self into three Subjects and it would be too long together therefore I shall order it into three Sections The First shall Vindicat us from a Popish Salvation or justification by works or Inherent Righteousness and shall fix a Popish justification upon the Quakers The Second shall very breifly confuted their Popish justification The Third shall overturn an exception made by the Quakers against the charge of a Popish justification which we justly lay to their door SECT 1. Vindicating us from a Popish Salvation and Justification and fixing a Popish Justification upon the Quakers The great scope of this Querie is to make us seem guilty of holding a Popish Salvation by works albeit the whole Christian World knoweth what a lewd Calumny this is It having been the constant Doctrine of ours and all other Protestant Churches against the Papists that the good works of the Saints are not the causes or Meritorious procurers of their Salvation and it is founded upon Scripture-Testimony as clear as the Sun For eternal Life is none of our merit and due but is the Free gift of God Rom. 6 23. And by grace not by works we are Saved Ephēs 2 5 8 9. not by works of Righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he Saveth us Tit. 3.5 And the best of our works are in this Life imperfect as is proven and so they cannot merit any good but Contrarily every defect and short coming of our Duty Merits Damnation and the Curse Deut. 27 26. Galat. 3 10. And if our good works could merit then we might trust to them which the Apostle dare not do Philip. 39 Nor is there any proportion betwixt our best works and eternal Life Rom. 8 18. And therefore they cannot merit it The whole Protestant Church hath no less always abhorred the Doctrine of justification by our own Inherent Righteousness and good works from the same clear Evidence of the Scripture for which see Rom. 3 Chap. from Vers 20. to the end and the whole Chap. following As also Galat. 2 16 21. and 3 10 11. and 5 4. Philip. 3 9. and seeing that is still imperfect in this life it can neither be the cause nor Condition of our justification before God in whose sight no man living shall be justified Psal 143 2. viz. by any Righteousness inherent or inward in himself Nevertheless albeit our inherent Righteousness and good works be not necessary to Salvation as Efficient or Meritorious causes thereof yet they are necessary indispensably thereunto by necessity of presence or as pure Antecedents without which no man is Saved excepting these that Die Immediately after Conversion and Infants from the Actual performance of good works For which see Mat. 3.10 and 5.20 and 25. from vers 34. to the end and Rom. 2.9 10. and 8.13 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Galat. 5.21 and 6.8 Heb. 12.14 And albeit our inherent or inward Righteousness be neither the Cause nor Condition of our justification before God yet it is still an inseparable Concomitant of justifying Faith For which see Rom. 8.1 9 10. 2 Cor. 5.17 Jam. 2.17.20 1 Joh. 3.3 But what if the Quakers be Guilty of a Popish justification Do not the Quakers hold justification by a Righteousness wrought within them and formally inward and inherent in themselves in this they joyn hands with the Papists in one of their most Fundamental Errors which does indeed contradict the very Design and Current of the Gospel which is to Teach us to seek Righteousness for justification in Christ and not in our selves yea and the very plain Design of Christs Death See Rom. 3.25 and 10.4 Galat. 2.16 21. and 5.4 But the Quakers endeavour to elude this our Charge pretending that they are far from holding justification by their own Inherent Righteousness with the Papists but by the alone Imputed Righteousness of Christ Thus they pretend in their Confession of Faith pag. 4.21 22. But the Quakers will not so Cheat and deceive the Christian world for first in that 21. pag. Cited where they purposely handle this Question and pretend as is now said they deny us to be justified by a Righteousness received of us by Faith calling that but an Act of the Creaturely skill and an Imputation which is an Act of mans Spirit and forging and a Fiction and Imagination in the Creaturely will and power Hence then they deny us to be justified by the Righteousness received of us by Faith and so consequently by the Imputed Righteousness of Christ seeing the Righteousness of his Obedience and Sufferings Imputed to us in Justification is not a diverse Righteousness from the Righteousness of Faith but is one and the same as is clear from Rom. 3.21 22 24 25. and 4.6 11 13 22 23 24. and 9.30 and 10.4 10. Galat. 2.16 and 3.8 and 5.5 Secondly this justification held by the Quakers must either be by the Righteousness received by Faith or else by the Righteousness of the Law and its works for there is no other third sort of Righteousness known to compet in this point but these are always stated as the only two Members of the Distinction for which see Rom. 3.28 and 4.2 3 4 5. and 9.30 31 32. and 10.3 5 6. Galat. 3.11 12. But the Quakers plainly deny the Justification held by them to be by the former yea they Scoff and Mock at that more than ever Papist did as is evident from their preceeding Language Therefore they do inevitably hold Justification by the latter wherein they manifestly joyn hands with the Papists for all their pretexts to cover it Again in the fore-Cited 22. page of their Confession they have these words and because say they we are against the latter viz. Justification by a Righteousness received by Faith whereof they were last speaking we are Clamoured upon as if we denied the Imputation of Christs Righteousness when it is only to these that are not made Righteous by it to walk as he also walked Here they hold Justification by a Righteousness Making their walk Righteous which is the plain inherent Righteousness of our Life and Conversation But the Quâkers in that last Cited pag. of their Confession go on and add that it
Quakers are but Men at the most and I think scarce that by the forfeiture they have made of their Reason Sixthly They object from Jam. 1.21 where the Apostle Exhorts us That laying aside all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness we would receive with meekness the Ingrafted Word which is able to save our Souls Therefore say they the Word which we are to receive is an Ingrafted Word within us Ans First The Original word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be as well rendred Apt to be Ingrafted and then where is the Argument I pray Secondly The context will not allow the Quakers Gloss for it 's a Word that we are to receive and hear and which is able to save our Souls a Character not given to the Light or Dictate within any whereof Scripture but to the Scripture it is expresly given 2 Tim. 3.15 and we cannot in proper speech be said to receive or hear a Dictate within which we have already and is not audible properly Therefore they cannot gain their point here without diverting the words from a proper to an improper sence for which they must shew some necessity of the Analogy of Faith or else it cannot be granted then Thirdly The Apostle does not here Exhort us to commit our selves to the conduct of the Light and Dictate within as our Rule but he exhorts us to receive the Word of God the length of Ingrafting that is so as it may take root and so grow and become fruitful in us and that we let it not pass out at one ear as it comes in at the other being forgetful and negligent hearers and so the meaning clearly is Receive the word not forgetfully and negligently but receive it Ingrafted and rooting-wise Any Man by reading the context downward may see that James there opposes receiving of the Ingrafted Word or Word Ingrafted to the receiving of the Word forgetfully superficially and carelesly and not to the receiving of an External Word as the Quakers here expound taking the grounds of their Gloss out of their own Brain-sick heads alone being no ways grounded on the Context or agreeable to any other place of the Scripture whereas our Exposition is clearly founded on the Context and evidently arises therefrom and hath also the warrant of other Scriptures Nothing here then for the Quakers Seventhly They object wonderfully but it 's a lying wonder like the rest from Heb. 6.1.2 where the Apostle Exhorts these Hebrews That leaving the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ they would go on towards perfection not laying again the foundation of Repentance from dead works and of Faith towards God of the Doctrine of Baptisms and laying on of hands of the Resurrection of the Dead and of Eternal Judgment See the Quakers Confession page 63 68 77 80. where they urge this Text against the Law so they call the whole Scriptures and against the Priests so they call the Ministers of the Gospel as all know and against Baptism with Water and the Lords Supper Answ But so abusing and wresting the Text for banishing of External Ordinances out of the Church they with the same breath infer That there ought or needs not be any of the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ in the Church for the Apostle Exhorts to leave these also and that in the first branch of the Exhortation And did Paul in earnest Exhort them to reject these Did he Exhort them to reject the Foundation of Repentance and of Faith towards God which here he calls these Principles The Building will surely go to Ruine then when the Foundation is gone Is not that a brave Doctrine come from an immediate Dictate Any Man though half blind may see that the Apostle means that they should not stick always at the learning of the first common Catechetical or Rudimental Principles of Religion which he taxes them for ignorance of in the close of the former Chapter but that having laid the Foundation of these not thrown them away as the Quakers here expound they should aspire and indeavour after a further Proficience and Growth in the Knowledge of Christ and Gospel Mysteries Eightly The Quakers object in this Query That in the Primitive World Enoch Noah Abraham Isaac and Jacob c. had not any written Word to be the Rule of Faith and Manners and therefore they mean to infer and George Keith explains it fully in his Quakerism no Popery page 109. 111. neither now is the written Word our Rule Answ A brave consequence forsooth as if I should say Christ was not come in the Flesh in the Primitive World Ergo neither as yet is he come Or in the Primitive World there were no Scriptures written Ergo neither afterwards I was not born in the Primitive World am not I born as yet then I can hardly believe so for Non-entities cannot act and write as I am doing just now The External manner of Dispensation used with those of the Primitive World can do nothing to the Quakers now who live not in the Primitive World except perhaps by conceipt and fancy but in the last times after the word of God is committed to writing and we commanded to observe that as our Rule George Keith a Man more cunning than his Neighbours albeit he acknowledges the Scriptures for a compleat External Rule yet he contends with all his might That the Dictate within is the Principal Rule and the Scriptures but a Secondary Rule he will allow the second Room or the Footstool to the Scriptures but the Throne in the Palace and chief Seat in the Quakers Synagoue must be reserved for their great Diana the Dictate within Therefore though this great Dagon hath broke his neck already before the Ark yet to defend his Honour lying in the Dust He objects Ninthly Quakerism no Popery page 9. 13. That the Testimony of the Spirit within is greater than the External Testimony of the Scripture and therefore the Dictate within must be the Principal Rule not the Scriptures But first I Answ That George Keith drives the Plough before the Oxen for he must first prove or else nothing to his point that every Man is furnisht with an immediate Dictate of the Spirit within him which we deny any Man to have and he shall never prove to reveal to him Infallibly the Doctrine of Salvation and then and not till then it may be to the purpose to prove it 's Mens principal Rule by its Greatness for be it great or small it can be no Rule to them who have it not more than the Sun can enlighten me when he Shines not in my Hemisphere and so the Argument is a meer impertinence For An sit is before Quid sit Let him prove then and he shall be great Apollo that every man hath such an immediate Dictate within him and then he comes time enough to prove that it and not the Scriptures is his greater and more principal Rule Secondly let the Testimony of the Light within be
that we plead for Lastly It is too clear in experiencce that Men of corrupt minds through addictedness to their own fore-conceived private Opinions or through ignorance which by docility and diligence might have been prevented or removed or through malice against the Truth or for advancing some Carnal design c. do frequently by false Glosses and wrested Sences and none busier than Quakers by violence indeavouring to make them speak the language of their Interest abuse and cast a mist upon very clear Scriptures in order to Peoples understanding especially of meaner capacities Therefore it is in this case necessary by the Context the Analogy of Faith and comparison with other Scriptures c. That these Scriptures be vindicated from such false Glosses and their Genuine and true Sence demonstated and cleared The Antecedent needs no more proving for alas it is too manifest in experience that every Erronious Teacher violently wrests and perverts the Sence of the Scriptures as much as he can in favour of his Heretical Doctrine and thereby leads many into damnable Delusions The Consequence is also manifest seeing when the Scriptures are abused and wrested it is necessary for the preservation of their true meaning and so of the truth in the Church and for preventing of black Soul-damning Errors and the manifest ruine of poor Souls to say nothing of the Glory of God which all Men are bound to defend according to their place and means that they be vindicated and their true sence and meaning demonstrated and cleared and this work is especially called for from such as labour in the Word and Doctrine who must be able to convince the Gain-sayers of the Truth and stop their Mouths Tit. 1.9 11. Secondly I Assert against the Quakers who we see from their Query deny it That the true Genuine and sound Interpretation of the Scriptures is an Ordinance of Divine appointment reaching even to the end of the World I prove it First To teach People the Mind and Will of God from the Scriptures is an Ordinance of Divine Institution reaching to the end of the World But to Interpret the Scriptures truly is to teach People the Mind and Will of God from the Scriptures Therefore to Interpret the Scriptures truly is an Ordinance of Divine Institution reaching to the end of the World I easily prove the Major because that God hath appointed Teachers and teaching in his Church and that unto the end of the World till that day when all the Saints shall come to a state of compleat Perfection is clear from Matth. 28.19 20. Ephes 4.11 12 13. and that it is the Mind and Will of God they are appointed to teach I am sure no man can deny and that it is from the Scriptures they ought to teach Gods Mind and Will is most evident seeing these are the Rule of our Faith and Manners and the Word of God as is proved before wherein Gods Mind and Will concerning our Faith and Manners is revealed And the immediate Inspiring of the Doctrine of Salvation is long since ceased in the Church as all the other extraordinary Gifts and George Keith himself may both speak and write in a mixture The Minor of the Argument is also manifest seeing to bring forth shew clear and demonstrate the Genuine and true meaning of the Scriptures or of the Spirit speaking therein is to teach the Mind and Will of God from the Scriptures or else we are not 〈…〉 the wiser concerning the Mind and Will of God in the Scriptures by knowing the true meaning thereof which is ◠flat contradiction But to Interpret the Scriptures truly is to bring forth shew clear and demonstrate the Genuine and true meaning thereof or of the Spirit speaking therein or else a true Interpretation does not make known the true meaning which again is a contradiction Therefore to Interpret the Scripture truly is to teach the Mind and Will of God from the Scriptures Secondly The Levites Expounded the Scriptures to the People Nehem. 8.7 8. and their doing thereof is Recorded there as highly commendable Therefore Scripture-Interpreting had certainly a Divine Institution at that time The Antecedent is clear in the place cited I prove the Consequence because if it had not been at that time of Divine Institution that practice and deed of these ordinary Officers of that Church would not have been commendable but most blameable as an Innovating an◠up-setting of a publick Office and Ordinance in Gods House of their own meer Invention and wanting a Divine Institutio◠to warrant it See Levit. 10.1 2. Deut. 5.32 Jerem. 19.5 6. I hope the Quakers will not say that that Practice and Dee◠of these Officers was extraordinary and done by a particula◠command relating only to that one single action of these Officers or only to these Individual Officers For first there is no ground can be given of such an Assertion and so it is altogether groundless Secondly if these had any particular Command let it be shewed Thirdly these were but ordinary Officers and there is no footstep of their acting extraordinarily in any thing can be be shewed Lastly I have shewed before that Scripture-Interpretation is ordinarily needful in the Church for her Instruction and Edification and so that practice of these Levites could not be of such an extraordinary nature as is pretended seeing practices of that nature are not wont to be ordinarily needful Having proved that Scripture-Interpreting had a Divine Institution under the Old Testament the Quakers must either yield it to be an Institution still as yet in force which we plead for or else they must say that Scripture-Interpreting was an Ordinance meerly Jewish and Ceremonial all which kind of Religious Ordinances are indeed abrogated But it 's most false that Scripture-Interpreting was a Jewish Ceremony for there can no ground be given for this and so it must be reckoned a groundless Fable Secondly Scripture-Interpretation is as yet needful in the Church we see but Jewish Ceremonies are not so as all know Thirdly The Apostles still continued and constantly retained Scripture-Interpretation in the New-Testament Church even while they were bending their Doctrine against the continuance and retaining of Jewish Ceremonies for an instance whereof see Pauls Epistles to the Romans Galatians and Hebrews where much of his work is the citing and explaining several Scripture-Texts of the Old-Testament But sure it is the Apostles did not still continue and constantly retain Jewish Ceremonies in the New Testament Church and even while they were bending their Doctrine against the doing thereof by others for though the Apostles might sometimes condescend to the practice of a smaller Ceremony for the weaks sake yet this was not a constant retaining of them but only done upon some occasional emergencies Therefore surely Scripture-Interpreting cannot be a Jewish Ceremony Thirdly If Scripture-Interpreting be not an Ordinance of Divine Institution and that to continue under the New Testament to the Worlds end Then though all
the black Hereticks that ever were in the World should at once arise from the dead and alass there are too many of them still alive in their Successors and should in favour of their accursed Delusions most grosly abuse and wrest the holy Scriptures as all Hereticks do and pervert invert and deprave the meaning thereof and so of God speaking therein Yet no man even the most eminently gifted Ministers of Christ were bound by vertue of any standing Appointment or Law of God otherwise Scripture-Interpreting will clearly have a standing Divine Institution to step out and by the grounds of Context the Analogy of Faith or comparison with other Scriptures more clear c. to refute these false wrested meanings vindicate the Texts abused and clear and demonstrate their Genuine and true meaning But that is most false absurd and impious For then the most eminently gifted and able Ministers of Christ whose special Office is to labour in the Word and Doctrine and are bound to their utmost or else to nothing at all to preserve and promote the purity of the meaning of the Scriptures among the people and to convince and stop the mouths of the Gainsayers thereof Tit. 1.9 11. might lawfully without the breach of any standing Divine Appointment or Law stand and look on and see the Scriptures abused perverted and depraved in their meaning and instead of their true meaning horrible falshoods fictions and blasphemies fathered upon them and so on God whose Word they are to the highest dishonour of God imaginable the treading under foot of the precious Truth the over-flowing of the Christian World with Soul-damning Errors and the manifest ruining of poor Souls without indeavouring to prevent remedy or hinder the same by the exercise of a talent that God hath given them If that be not absurd false and impious nothing can be such Nay it involves a contradiction to say that Ministers who are required to convince the Gainsayers of the Truth and so of the true meaning of the Scriptures and to stop their mouths might lawfully suffer these things to be done and not oppose themselves for the defence of Gods truth according to their abilities and occasions The Quakers being beaten from their former standing and being loth to allow us the benefit of Scripture-Interpretation as thereby fore-seeing the danger of their Heretical Interest do betake themselves to another shift and alledge that however necessary or Divinely appointed Scripture-Interpretation may be yet Men that are Fallible may not Interpret the Scriptures Therefore it will be necessary for us to prove the contrary which before we do that the state of the Question may be cleared I grant that these whose Explications formally as such and as raught by them are Authentical and Faith-worthy must of necessity be Infallible or immediately Inspired The Quakers must seek after such Explications as these in the Canonical Writings of the Prophets and Apostles For it is not so with the ordinary Ministers of the Church whose Explications are not formally as such and as taught by them Authentical and Faith-worthy nor is it lawful for any Man so to receive them but allanerly upon the accompt of their agreement with and demonstration from the Scriptures whose Infallible Testimony is sufficient to warrant and assure the meaning delivered Secondly I grant that in the matter of Scripture-Interpretation the Supream and Magisterial Authority from which there is no appeal but it ought to be simply stood to resideth in the Scriptures themselves or in the Spirit their Author speaking therein seeing their Verdict and Sentence in places speaking to the purpose more clearly and such means as reside in them are the alone Rule and Directory of our Interpretations thereof in places more dark and obscure as appears from many things aforesaid The Authority therefore which our Ministers have for Interpreting Scripture is only a Ministerial Authority for Interpreting the Scriptures by their own Verdict and Sentence as the Rule and Judge of their Interpretations whereunto they are Subjected and by whose determination they stand or fall as true Interpretations or forged wrestings seeing the Scriptures are the Rule of Faith by which we are to try and judge Mens Doctrines in matters of Faith having premised these things for clearing our mind and preventing mistakes I Assert that Men who are not endued with an Infallible gift and so are not Infallible but Fallible may Interpret the Scriptures And I prove it For first These Levites that expounded the Scriptures Neh. 8.8 were not Infallible in their Gift seeing there is no proof or evidence thereof possible to be produced nor had they any other extraordinary thing accompanying them in their Birth Call Doctrine or Works or else let it be shewed nor was it any Priviledge of the Ordinary Officers of that Church to be Infallible and yet their Practice thereof is there Recorded to their high Commendation and as Edifying to the People Therefore Teachers that are not Infallible may Interpret Scripture Or else their practice thereof should have been condemned as unlawful instead of being commended Secondly A Fallible Teacher may have a far greater and more distinct knowledge of the meaning of the Scriptures than many other Men also Fallible seeing it is his special Office to labour in the Word and Doctrine and if he does his Duty he is much more in searching of the Scriptures than Men of other particular Callings and hath many more helps and means for it than the commoner sort of Christians and bulk of the People neither have all Men an equal knowledge in any thing Therefore a Fallible Teacher may Interpret the Scriptures The consequence is easie seeing whatever measure of Scripture-meaning such a Man discerneth beyond others he may I hope seasonably make it known to them for their Instruction and Edification May he not Nay I do not see so well how he may not Thirdly if all that Interpret the Scriptures must necessarily upon that accompt be Infallible then no man now adays may presume to Interpret them seeing there is no man now adays Infallible as is before often shewed But that is most false seeing it is now proved that Scripture-Interpretation is an Ordinance of Divine Institution reaching to the end of the world and so it binds and obliges all according to their ability and the Churches exigency whose Office it is to labour in the Word and Doctrine and from the Word to Teach people the mind and Will of God even to the end of the world albeit they be not Infallible but fallible Nor heard I ever of a Divine Institution reaching to the end of the world and yet obliging no body and if this oblige any man it cannot miss the Teachers Lastly seeing the Quakers affirm that Scripture-Interpreting doth necessarily require an Infallible Gift we must require them to exhibit the grounds of their affirmation or else it will be readily thought that they affirm so without any ground and so it must be
accompted a meer blind conjecture and a groundless Fable All the ground that ever I learned from them is this viz. Because a man of a fallible Gift cannot assure people of the meaning Ans It is true there can no assurance thereof arise unto them from such a mans Infallibity which he hath not and as little from a Quaker pretending to it but can give no evidence to make it appear But what then can he not give them assurance thereof from the clear Infallible Scriptures by whose Testimony the meaning is to be Demonstrated we are not to Build our Faith upon the mans Gift but upon the Scriptures that can give as great assurance as any Infallible Gift seeing they are the Infallible Word of God To the Law and to the Testimony if mens Doctrines agree not with these receive them not Lastly I assert against the Quakers who with peremptory Certifications seem to deny it in this Query That when the Scriptures are explained by the Scriptures the meaning held forth and delivered is Scripture-Rule and so it is no addition as the Adversaries here alledge nor is it our meaning but the meaning of the Scriptures and so we may still pretend Scripture-Rule for all that I prove it First the meaning of the Scriptures represented and Taught by themselves is certainly Scripture-Rule for seeing the Scriptures are our Rule as is proved the meaning Taught by them is the very Enunciat Doctrine the Soul and Sentence of that Rule as is palpable But when the Scriptures are explained by the Scriptures the meaning held forth and delivered is the meaning of the Scriptures represented and Taught by themselves and the contrary involves an incurable Contradiction Therefore when the Scriptures are explained by the Scriptures the meaning held forth and delivered is certainly Scripture-Rule Secondly Scripture-Doctrine Taught by the Scriptures is Scripture-Rule or else nothing can be such if that be not But when the Scriptures are explained by the Scriptures the meaning held forth and delivered is Scripture-Doctrine Taught by the Scriptures seeing the meaning of the Scripture is surely Scripture-Doctrine nor can these be diverse or else the Scriptures should mean what they Teach not and Teach what they mean not which is repugnant Therefore when the Scriptures are explained by the Scriptures the meaning held forth and delivered is manifestly Scripture-Rule Lastly if when the Scriptures are explained by themselves the meaning held forth by them be not Scripture-Rule then the Scripture-Rule is some other thing really distinct from the meaning of the Scriptures held forth thereby But that is impossible to be or to be explained for so the Scripture-Rule should by it self mean nothing seeing another meaning then that which is held forth by the Scriptures it can never have Ergo when the Scriptures are explained by themselves the meaning held forth is Inevitably Scripture-Rule But say the Quakers in this Query Interpreting of the Scriptures is an adding to them against which the Plagues are Denounced Rev. 22. Chap. Ans This Objection proves if it prove any thing that all Scripture Expounding by men fallible or not so is utterly unlawful as an adding to the Scripture-Rule But I deny that Interpreting of the Scriptures is an adding to the Scripture-Rule let the Quakers Try if they can prove it for their big Assertion is not current for Proof for I have shewed before that Scripture-Expounding is necessary in the Church and of Divine Institution to the Worlds end such as adding to the Scripture Rule is not and so they cannot be the same thing To add to the Scriptures is to impose some false meaning upon them disagreeing therewith or to set up any other Doctrine as of equal Authority with them I wish the Quakers would notice this who continually impose false meanings on the Scriptures and have set up a new Doctrine contrary to the Scriptures not only as of equal Authority with the same but above them O impudent wickedness But by the Scriptures to unfold clear and Demonstrate their own Genuine and true meaning hath not a shadow into it of adding to the Scripture-Rule seeing as is proved so the meaning delivered is the Scriptures own true meaning which therefore cannot be any addition thereunto But blind Arguments are all that can be expected from Brain-sick Doctors whom we find frequently speaking like men indeed in a mixture SECT II. Concerning Scripture-Consequence or Consequential Scripture I come now to the second Imperious condition which the Quakers like Dictators demand of us and that is that we do not draw Consequences from the Scriptures for Establishing our Doctrine otherwise that we never pretend Scripture-Rule more This I confess is a very unjust Cowardise That they should require us to throw down our Arms and then they will fight us I see the Quakers would fight a Dead man even out of Breath They 'l go to Wars in time of Peace I like the Jest well If the Quakers be so dastardly why did they not send their Queries to some Brute where they should have found a Party sutable to their mind which would not have troubled them with Consequences But as for us we must crave their Pardon seeing by our Creation and Essence we are Rational which chiefly consists in a Discursive or Illative Faculty fitted for discerning of Consequences of purpose that being furnisht with the principles of Nature or Grace we might be capable to perceive the particular Conclusions which they implicitly really and truly contain I shall not need to be long in Discussing this Question concerning Scripture-Consequence nor shall I need many words for clearing the state of the Question but in one word it is Whether or not that which by good Consequence is deduced and drawn from the Scriptures be Scripture-Rule We see by the Certification of the Quakers demand that they deny and take the Negative of the Question But I Assert that whatsoever by good Consequence follows or is deduced from the Scriptures is Infallible Scripture-Rule And I prove it For first Scripture-Doctrine is Scripture-Rule or else nothing can be such Now whatever by good Consequence follows or is deduced from the Scriptures must be Scripture-Doctrine otherwise a good Consequence might infer from the Scriptures that which is not Scripture-Doctrine or that which they Teach not or a Consequence inferring from the Scriptures that which they Teach not and is not their Doctrine should be a good Consequence which involves a direct Contradiction seeing so a Consequence manifestly evil should be a good Consequence Hence then whatever by good Consequence follows or is deduced from the Scriptures is evidently Scripture-Rule Secondly Christ plainly affirms Luk. 20.37 that that Scripture principle I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob does shew and Teach the Resurrection of the Dead Now it does not expresly and formally Teach that it says not expresly that the Dead shall Rise again but only it follows therefrom by
of Gods Publick Worship Lastly I must observe that it properly belongs to the Church-Guides and they are bound to see to the maintaining of decency and order in the Circumstances of Gods Publick Worship for seeing God commands to maintain decency and order therein and they are the Watchmen and Rulers who have the Care and Oversight of the Church Act. 20.28 Rom. 12.8 1 Thes 5.12 1 Tim. 3.5 and 5.17 Heb. 13.7 17. 1 Pet. 5.2 it must of necessity belong unto them and they must be thereunto obliged Having observed these things I hope I may assert that Church-Officers and Judicatures have Divine Warrant and Authority to make and set forth Church-Directories for regulating the External Circumstances of Gods Publick Worship in a decent and orderly way or so as they may be decent and orderly This assertion is clear from our preceeding Observations whereunto I shall add an Argument or two First therefore God commands Church-Officers and Judicacatures to maintain Decency and Order in the whole Circumstances of his Publick Worship as is clear from our preceeding Observations and yet he hath no where particularly condescended upon or defined these Circumstances as is before shewed also Therefore the Church-Officers and Judicatures have certainly Divine Warrant and Authority particularly to condescend upon define and determine them The Consequence which now only needs proving is easily proved for seeing God hath commanded Church-Officers and Judicatures to maintain Decency and Order in these Circumstances and yet hath not himself particularly defined and determined them either he hath given them Warrant and Authority particularly to define and determine the same which is the thing we plead for or else he hath commanded them to maintain Order and Decency in Circumstances never to be defined or ordered but left still to be confused undesined and unordered and so they must do it by random and blind chance Which is extreamly absurd seeing so he should have commanded Contradictions viz. order in Circumstances never to be ordered Secondly Church-Directories rightly regulating the External Circumstances of Gods Publick Worship so that they may be decent and well ordered according to the Scripture do conduce and contribute to set forward a Spiritual Good and Edification as is most clear from our preceeding Observations But it 's beyond all doubt that Church-Officers and Judicatories have Warrant and Authority to do such things as may conduce and contribute to set forward the Spiritual Good and Edification of the Churches of their Oversight or else they cannot have Warrant to do any thing Therefore sure it is Church-Officers and Judicatories have Authority and Warrant to make such Directories rightly regulating the External Circumstances of Gods Publick Worship in the Churches of their Oversight Thou wilt may be say that men can have no Authority to determine any part of Gods Worship not determined in the Scripture Therefore men can have no Authority particularly to determine these Circumstances not so determined in the Scriptures Ans The Antecedent I willingly yield but I utterly deny the Consequence seeing the things we now speak of and which alone are the immediate object of a Church-Directory in this strict and proper acception are no part of the Worship in their particular nature but are meer External Circumstances of that which is the Worship as is evident from all before-said These common Rules made by Church-Authority according to the general Precepts and Rules of Scripture do not of themselves bind Conscience nor doth the Authority from whence they immediately proceed of it self bind Conscience neither is their immediate object in its particular nature any part of Gods Worship as said is Nevertheless they being formed according to the general Precepts of Scripture for Order and Decency these bind Conscience and the general End of Edification it binds Conscience and Conscience is also bound not to despise but reverence lawful Church-Authority it being Gods Ordinance and we cannot contemn any of his Ordinances and be guiltless and therefore we may not in wilful conceit reject such Constitutions of the Church albeit out of the case of Scandal-giving and if it do not proceed from a contempt of Church-Authority or from some unruly Humor of Spirit we may upon causes just and reasonable lawfully sometimes intermit and forbear the observation of them These things I have said to prevent Objections And hence I hope it appears that Church-Officers have an Authority to Make and Constitute Church-Directories for ordering the External Circumstances of Gods Publick Worship according to the general Precepts of the Scripture albeit I grant that such Directories are not Infallible and so of themselves no Bond of Conscience nor Rule of Divine Faith As for our Confession and Catechism if the Quakers judge them to be unsound in any of their particular Definitions when the Quakers shall instance them it shall be time enough to make their Apology But while they declare themselves Enemies to the very common form of a Confession and Catechism in a Church herein they proclaim their Hostile mind against Ministers their feeding of the Flock and Edifying of the Body of Christ seeing these Compendious Breviaries of the most fundamental points of Scripture Doctrine and Christian Principles do exceedingly conduce for a method of easier learning and more distinct understanding of the same and that partly because of their succinct and compendious form shortly representing to us and quickly conducting and directing us to the most principal substance of the whole Scripture-Doctrine which is methodically summed in them and which by our own private Industry we could neither soon nor easily distinctly gather out of the whole body of the Scriptures and partly because of their greater Explication each of their Definitions or Enunciations being the perspicuous sentence of many parallel Scriptures compared together and so by their Consociated Beams and United Rays more powerfully Shining like so many Stars and Luminaries placed together into one Constellation and lastly because of their chained Conjunction being united placed and joyned together in a distinct and continual method These things do very much contribute not only to the more speedy learning but also to the more distinct understanding of the most necessary points of Scripture-Doctrine and so of the rest also as having some connexion with or relation unto these And hence also these methodized Models of the most Essential Principles of Scripture-Doctrine wisely formed from the Scriptures are a notable mean to guard people against Delusions and Errors which Corrupt Men are continually broaching in the Church seeing they being in that manner Succinctly and Methodically summed and so quickly learned and more distinctly understood are as it were a Measuring Line in every serious Mans hand to find out the truth or falshood of every Mans Doctrine What Ought not Ministers and have they not Authority to publish from the Scripture the Principles of Religion to the People and that in the most perspicuous and ready way they can have they
not Authority to feed the Flock and edifie the Body of Jesus from his own Word in the nearest method and have they not Authority to furnish and guard their People against damnable Delusions and Soul-ruining Errors in the most easie and successful manner they can If they have not Authority for and be not bound to do these things then they have not Authority for nor are they bound to do any thing Let all the Quakers in Britain answer but one mouthful of sence to it if Ministers whose Office must continue in the Church to the end of the World and till that day when all the Saints shall be compleatly perfected Matth. 28.19 20. Ephes 4.11 12 13. be not given to the Church for the very forementioned ends and if these be not the Incumbent Works of their Office But it 's vain to demand an answer which can never be found or sence from these who Impugning Grammar declare themselves Enemies to Sencespeaking And have not the Quakers also published a Confession of their black Faith Entituled The Principles of Truth viz. Per Antiphrasin for they should have said of Falshood Fiction Error Blasphemy and Calumnies printed in the year 1668. and we have also seen several of their sweet Catechisms But say the Quakers Is not the Doctrine of Christian Religion as good in the Scriptures as in any Confession or Catechism Ans Yes no doubt but what of that will that infer any thing against a Confession or Catechism in a Church whereby that good Doctrine of the Scriptures may be more speedily and distinctly learned I would rather think that the better the Doctrine of the Scriptures is the means contributing to our more ready and distinct learning thereof should be the more useful and warrantable So unfortunate are the Quakers that their own Weapons turns upon themselves Observe that this Objection of the Quakers if it could have proved any thing at all would have Militated as much against all Preaching as against a Confession or Catechism Hence though the Scriptures be a better Book than any Confession or Catechism in the World as formally Constituted by Ecclesiastical Authority yet a Confession or Catechism are not therefore unlawful or unwarrantable in a Church as I think is clear enough from what I have said But say the Quakers Whether or not have ye an Infallible Spirit to give forth such a Directory Confession and Catechism as ye have done Ans Hereby the Quakers refuse that any Man may direct according to the Scripture the External Circumstances of Gods Publick Worship or that any Man may Catechize or give an Account or Confession of his Faith which every Man in due Circumstances is bound to do Matth. 10.32 33. Rom. 10.9 10. 1. Pet. 3.15 but much more a Church partly for satisfaction to other Churches partly for distinguishing Orthodox Churches from Heretical Synagogues and partly for a short and clear publick Test of the Principles of her own Members except he be Infallible which any Man may see to tend to the banishing of all these Duties out of the World seeing there is no Man now adays Infallibly Inspired for such things But what great need I pray is there of Mens Infallibility in this Affair They are not to assure their Doctrine from their own Infallibility but from the Infallible Scripture shall not that be sufficient to assure it I cannot but think so To the Law and to the Testimony then instead of your Inspired Parts What should be answered to the last Article of their Query is manifest from what we have said already concerning a Directory and it 's needless to repeat Tenth QUERY Whether or not is your Sanctification your Justification and your Faith and Grace the gifts of these without sin as they are manifested within you Yea or Nay SVRVEY Here is an obscure Riddle a dark Aenigma which where to find the sence of is a little difficult but if it hath any sence they seem to Query Whether or not our Justification Sanctification c. be the gifts of our Directory Confession and Catechism whereof they were last speaking in the preceeding Query But what that term Without Sin stands for here is not easily Divined nor can it have any Errand or Connexion with the present Question and therefore I must throw it by as an insignificant and no less impertinent Cipher I answer therefore to their present Question That our Justification Sanctification c. are the Gifts of God only Rom. 8.32 33. Ephes 2.8 Jam. 1.17 and that the Question is void of sence seeing the bestowing of a gift is an action properly relative to an Intelligent Being for we do not receive gifts from Stocks Stonee or Brutes Notwithstanding this does not presently exclude the use of all ordinary means for their meaning in this Query is plain that our Justification Sanctification c. cannot be the gifts of God but must be the gifts of our Confession Catechism c. because forsooth we make use of these as ordinary means allowed of God for their proper ends above described For albeit our Corns be not the gifts of our Ploughs and Harrows nor the continuance of our Lives the gifts of our Food and Raiment but all these things are the gifts of God yet we may not lay aside all Ploughing and Harrowing and the Quakers I believe will not reject Food and Raiment Let them therefore either permit us the use of Confessions Directories and other inferior helps and means conducible in their own order or else by their own example persuade the world if they can never to Plough or Sow more never to Eat or Drink more This is enough for Answer to this Query which comes in but by way of Objection and Cavillation Eleventh QUERY Whether or not your Directory and Catechism and Confession of Faith be Gospel Yea or Nay and if so Whether it be not another Gospel than that which the Apostles Preached who said the Gospel was the Power of God Rom. 1.16 SVRVEY I have above at the Survey of the Ninth Query abundantly justified our Directory in the general as was there explained and proved that God hath given Warrant and Authority to Church-Guides and Judicatories for Making and Constituting these according to the general Precepts of Scripture for maintaining Order and Decency and promoting Edification in the Church and therefore I shall not here needlesly repeat any thing to that purpose Only I shall take notice that seeing the Quakers oppose these things they therefore declare that it is their mind that Church-Officers and Judicatories should not give Obedience to Gods Commands should slight Order and Decency and the Churches Edification There is the new-coined Directory of the Quakers let all Men judge if it be not an Instrument of the Devil But for Answer to their Query I say That there are several Rules in our Directory that materially considered are very Scripture-Rules particularly delivered therein as I shewed before at the Survey of the
therein as a work but under another Notion and Formality See I pray how he opposes them Rom. 3.27 28. and 4.2 3 4 5. and 9.32 and 10.5 6. Galat. 3.11 12. Yea the very Attributes of the Deity admit of a Formal Precision upon their divers Considerations and Connotations and I am sure the Attributes of God have as strict an Identity as the Predicates of any Essence beside can have And when he Quarrels such distinctions as not plain for Instruction I must answer him that then Confusion is certainly plain Doctrine as he thinks but qui bené distinguit bené docet But why is George himself so nice Quakerism no Popery page 52. to distinguish Faith as Receptive from it self as Inward Righteousness Unto this I will say with reason as he has said page 8. of his book without reason to a man of very great worth Turpe est Doctori immediate inspirato cum culpa redarguit ipsum The next thing that comes in this Query all the petty Questions whereof I will resolve in this Section is a Consequence which they draw from the Mill to the Moon Christ say they set up his worship above Sixteen Hundred years since in Spirit and in truth so must not every man come to the Truth and to the Spirit in their own hearts if they come to the Worship he set up Ans I shall not stand long in Taxing the Antecedent whereby they seem to insinuate that there was no Spiritual Worship and consequently Worshippers under the Old-Testament which is most evidently false for then these had no Faith in God nor love to or fear of him but were all Black Atheists and must all be Damned Christs meaning therefore in that place viz. Joh. 4.23 is not that there was no Spiritual Worship in the Church before that time but that the vail of Ceremonies wherewith the Spiritual Worship was as it were covered and hidden under the Old-Testament should be removed and taken away under the New and the Worship rendred more simple and more clear and the Spirituality thereof more appear and be expressed externally as it is plainly declared in the event 2 Cor. 3.13 with 18. as also the Context of the place shews that it is of the removing of that vail of Ceremonies whereof he speaks under which the Worship was tied unto Typical places But how shall it be inferred from that that the Worship under the New-Testament shall not be vailed with Ceremonies Types and shadows as before it was but shall be more simple manifest and clear that therefore every man under the New-Testament must come to the Truth and to the Spirit in his own heart here is a Consequence led by the Quakers in a weighty matter of Faith so quite blind and wild that the Chimeraes of Utopia may sooner break the Bars of Impossibility and the Bolts of their necessary Imprisonment then it shall ever be established with one grain weight or Scruple of either Scripture or Reason But of the Light within which here they aim at we have said enough already But say the Quakers near the close of this Query are not your Catechisms Confessions of Faith and Directories your own works and your own Worship that ye have set down they should have said set up for people to fall down and do Worship to and be saved by Ans Whose works soever these are I have at the Survey of their Ninth Tenth and Eleventh Queries sufficiently in the general vindicated them against all the Quakers Cavillations Secondly I have also vindicated our Church from the Doctrine of Salvation by works and I will not repeat Thirdly does the explaining and opening up or clearing of the Principles of Religion and our Christian Faith by Catechism Confession Vive-voice or otherways by the very deed done make men Guilty of holding a Salvation by works O brave the Apostles that were diligent in these things are much Guiltier then then we are As for the Worshipping of these and the Will-worship which here they are pleased to charge us with we shall meet with these in the next Query SECT II. Confuting the Quakers Popish Justification Upon this Debate I will not stand long it hath been so much tossed already betwixt our Writers and the Papists only I shall bring two or three forcible Arguments against our being justified before God by any Righteousness wrought or inherent within us my Assertion being That we are justified before God by the Righteousness of Christ without us Imputed by God unto us upon our apprehending and Imbracing of Christ and his Righteousness offered to us by Faith and not by any Righteousness wrought or inherent in us Before we prove that we are not justified by any Righteousness wrought or inherent in us but by Christs without us Imputed to us we shall premise this ground viz. that in the Scripture our own Law-righteousness and the Righteousness of our works are still taken for one and the same thing and stated in opposition to Christs Righteousness received by Faith in this point of Justification as I have often shewed before from these following Scriptures viz. Rom. 3. chap. from ver 20. to the end and 4.2 3 4 5.6 and 9.30 31 32. and 10.3 5 6. Galat. 2.16 21. and 3.11 12. and 5.4 Philip. 3.9 nor can the Righteousness of our works and our Law-righteousness be diverse upon any account that is possible to be shewn by any man and I pray consider the Scriptures that I have Cited which I may not stand to form into Arguments and which are so clear that they need not these things premised I Argue First we are justified before God by the Righteousness of Faith which is the righteousness of Christs obedience and sufferings without us for he did not obey and die within us as we have before proved Ergo we are not justified before him by a righteousness wrought or inherent within us seeing that which Christ wrought and suffered in his own Person before we were born without us was not then nor is it now over again by way of reproduction which if they say is still Popish enough wrought within us Secondly We are justified before God freely by his Grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Rom. 3 24. Eph. 1 7. Col. 1 14. Ergo we are justified by the satisfaction of Christ without us not by any righteousness wrought or inherent within us The antecedent is the Apostles I prove the consequence because first a man cannot be freely justified or pronounced righteous by a judge because he is personally in himself Inherently righteous for he is bound in all justice to pronounce a man righteous that is such and it is not done freely or gratis and if he do otherwise he does most unjustly Secondly I prove the consequence because this redemption whereby we are justified is in Jesus in whom the righteousness wrought or inherent in us is not except the Quakers Blasphemously will have every justified man to
any reproof from Christ or his Apostles though most material when they are reproving all the other vices of that Old-Testament-Church We may clearly see that these Apocryphal books are no part of Scripture-Canon or rule place them in what degree ye will next for that I care not but a part or all of these things misses none of these books As for what ye object Sir of many books wanting that might be useful as ye say in the Scripture-Canon I must tell you to cut short that I am not here concerned what books are wanting that is none of the present controversie but it is concerning some books viz. these called Apocryphal which ye will have added to the Canon with the rest that are known to be Canonical and which we deny to be Canonical and requires you the affirmers to prove that they are such and though not obliged as being the denyers yet we have proved they are not such And hereby I cut off your tedious rapsody of confused arguments whereby ye have wasted more paper in your Quakerism no Popery pag. 60.61.62.63 then all your work was worth But the Quakers have one grand principle of following the Dictate within as the principal rule at least which it would seem and George Keith also insinuates Quakerism no Popery pag. 49.59 103. will never reconcile with that other grand principle of Popery to believe as the Church of Rome believes But unto this I Answer that a great number we see of the direct principles of the Quakers are but meer Popish doctrines disguised nay all of their principles almost except some that are much worse being more Blasphemous then ever a Papist held and that of following the dictate within is but a reflex principle obliging them the more to follow their direct principles which we see are generally Popish And so when their great doctors teach their disciples to follow their Dictate within they do in effect teach them to believe as the Church of Rome does yet not so as to discover their design and make every man wise of their secret but subtilly under a disguise They are no fools Albeit they can desipere in loco Sir I have vindicated our Church from the Intire frivolous charge of Popery Calumniously cast upon her by you in your Quakerism no Popery and upon the other hand I have libelled against your eighteen real Popish principles from which ye can make no evasion or tergiversation they are all so clear in the preceeding survey And therefore I must here tell you that your Quakerism no Popery should have been called Quakerism no Verity for there is hardly one true word in it all which I do'nt say to irritate or exasperate you but rather with a desire from my heart if it be possible to convince you for I know you are a Scholar but alace your gifts and parts are ill Imployed against the truths laws and ordinances of Jesus which his dear purchase of them teaches their great value Be no more a stated Enemy to these or else dreadful and terrible shall the event be unto you and all who thus tread upon his truths and Blaspheme his Person as you do and trample under foot also his whole Institutions and ordinances A Second Postscript for Doctor Everards Ghost There is one Doctor Everard I wish he had been never heard who hath published a book which he calls Gospel Treasury opened up or the Holiest of all Un-vailing and this Book he hath divided into two parts In the first part whereof Pag. 150.206.347 he asserts that after we are regenerated it is no more we that think see speak goe wish will rejoyce but that it is God that does them and that it must be Christ the Son of God in us that loves God fears God obeys God and believes in God and says he though that may seem a Paradox yet it is a truth for Indeed and in truth says he there is nothing fears God but God nothing obeys God but God nothing loves God but God And again he affirms Pag. 442.443.444 part second that the good man is so swallowed up in God that wanting sense will desire he now as the word requires covets nothing but now God in him wills knows desires reads writes preaches gives prays hears and is all things for God says he desires not our works but our Sabbath and that himself in us without hindrance may work know praise pray hear crown and reward himself in us Thus the Doctor teaches the great sum of all which is That nothing obeys God but God only The Quakers seem to joyn with the Doctor in this his wild principle while at the last of their Queries here they seem to require our resting or not working and condemn our Confessions Catechisms c. upon that very ground because they are our works and to my sure experience I do know that this book of Doctor Everard hath predisposed several persons and been their preamble unto Quaking and therefore that this treatise may be somewhat compleat I resolve here to answer this principle of the Doctor and to confute it and two or three more of his positions that have some alliance with the principles of the Quakers Therefore first against the Doctors foresaid principle it is not God that believes in Christ crucified accepts and receives his righteousness for justification that looks for salvation through his merits It is not God that loaths himself for sin sorrows for his sin confesses his sin and denies himself c. And these are all works of obedience commanded of God and exercised in the godly and therefore the Doctors principle here is most false 2ly Angels and men are either obliged to obey God or not if not then they may doe what they please they cannot sin and so also fallen Angels and reprobate men are all most unjustly damned for their disobedience wherewith they cannot be justly charged seeing as is supposed they are not obliged to obey If then they be obliged to obey God then the holy Angels that stood obeys God or not if they do then something obeys God that is not God against the Doctors principle seeing Angels are not God I am sure if not then the holy Angels that stood are disobedient to God seeing they are obliged to obey God and yet does it not and that is to say the Angels that stood are fallen Angels 3ly If nothing obeys God but God then never any of all the creatures obeyed God to this day seeing none of them is God and all the creatures are equally guilty or not guilty of disobedience to God seeing not one of them ever obeyed him But these things are absurd Romances Fourthly whatever obeys God must be commanded to obey him seeing all obedience is to some command and Law But God is not commanded to obey seeing all the commandments are directed to creatures and God is not under the Law he hath given to them nor hath he any superior soveraign and though