but this they say is subjective and not objective of which before As to what is subjoined of the Inward Call of the Spirit Answ. in that they make it not Essential to a True Call but a Supererogation as it were it sheweth how little they set by it since those they admit to the Ministry are not so much as questioned in their Trials whether they have this or not Yet in that it hath been often mentioned The Call of the Spirit preferred to any other by Primitive Protestants especially by the primitive Protestants in their Treatises of this Subject it sheweth how much they were secretly Convinced in their minds that this Inward Call of the Spirit was most Excellent and preferrable to any other and therefore in the most noble and heroick Acts of the Reformation they laid claim unto it so that many of the primitive Protestants did not scruple both to despise and disown this Outward * Succession Call when urged by the Papists against them But now Protestants having gone from the Testimony of the Spirit plead for the same Succession and being pressed by those Modern Protestants denying the Call by the Spirit whom God now raiseth up by his Spirit to Reform these many Abuses that are among them with the Example of their Fore-fathers practice against Rome they are not at all ashamed utterly to deny that their Fathers were Called to their Work by the Inward and Immediate Vocation of the Spirit cloathing themselves with that Call which they say their Fore-fathers had as Pastors of the Roman Church For thus not to go further affirmeth * Who gives himself out Doctor and Professor of the Sacred Theology at Franequer Nicolaus Arnoldus in a Pamphlet written against the same Propositions called A Theologick Exercitation Sect. 40. averring That they pretended not to an Immediate Act of the Holy Spirit but Reformed by the virtue of the Ordinary Vocation which they had in the Church as it then was to wit that of Rome c. § IX Many Absurdities do Protestants fall into by deriving their Ministry thus through the Church of Rome As first Absurdities Protestants fall into by deriving their Ministry through the Church of Rome They must acknowledge her to be a True Church of Christ though only Erroneous in some things which Contradicts their Fore-fathers so frequently and yet truly calling her Anti-Christ Secondly They must needs acknowledge that the Priests and Bishops of the Romish Church are True Ministers and Pastors of the Church of Christ as to the Essential part else they could not have been fit Subjects for that Power and Authority to have resided in neither could they have been Vessels capable to receive that power and again Transmit it to their Successors Thirdly It would follow from this that the Priests and Bishops of the Romish Church are yet really true Pastors and Teachers for if Protestant-Ministers have no Authority but what they received from them and since the Church of Rome is the same she was at that time of the Reformation in doctrine and manners and she has the same power now she had then and if the power lie in the Succession then these Priests of the Romish Church now which derive their Ordination from those Bishops that Ordained the First Reformers have the same Authority which the Successors of the Reformed have and consequently are no less Ministers of the Church than they are But how shall this Agree with that Opinion which the primitive Protestants had of the Romish Priests and Clergy to whom Luther did not only deny any Power or Authority Luther affirmed that a Woman might be a Preacher but contrariwise affirmed That it was wickedly done of them to assume to themselves only this Authority to Teach and be Priests and Ministers c. For he himself affirmed That every good Christian not only men but even women also is a Preacher § X. But against this Vain Succession as asserted either by Papists or Protestants The pretended Succession of Papists and Protestants Exploded as a necessary thing to the Call of a Minister I Answer That such as plead for it as a sufficient or necessary thing to the Call of a Minister do thereby sufficiently declare their Ignorance of the Nature of Christianity and how much they are strangers to the Life and Power of a Christian Ministry which is not entail'd to Succession as an outward Inheritance and herein as hath been often before observed they not only make the Gospel not better than the Law but even far short of it For Jesus Christ as he regardeth not any distinct particular Family or Nation in the gathering of his Children but only such as are joined to and leavened with his own pure and righteous Seed so neither regards he a bare outward Succession where his pure immaculate and righteous Life is wanting for that were all one He took not in the Nations within the New Covenant that he might suffer them to fall into the Old Errors of the Jews or to approve them in these Errors but that he might gather unto himself a pure people out of the Earth The Jews Error of Abraham's outward Succession Now this was the great Error of the Jews to think they were the Church and People of God because they could derive their Outward Succession from Abraham whereby they reckoned themselves the Children of God as being the Off-spring of Abraham who was the Father of the Faithful But how severely doth the Scripture rebuke this vain and frivolous pretence Telling them That God is able of the stones to raise Children unto Abraham and that not the outward Seed but those that were found in the Faith of Abraham are the true Children of faithful Abraham Far less then can this Pretence hold among Christians seeing Christ rejects all outward Affinity of that kind Matth. 12.48 c. Mark 3 33. c. These saith he are my Mother Brethren and Sisters who do the Will of my Father which is in heaven And again He looked round about him and said who shall do the Will of God these said he are my Brethren So then such as do not the Commands of Christ as are not found Cloathed with his Righteousness are not his Disciples and That which a man hath not he cannot give to another and its clear that no Man nor Church though truly Called of God and as such having the Authority of a Church and Minister can any longer retain that Authority than they retain the power The Form of Godliness is entailed to the Power and Substance and not the Substance to the Form life and righteousness of Christianiy for the Form is entailed to the Power and Substance and not the Substance to the Form So that when a Man ceaseth inwardly in his heart to be a Christian where his Christianity must lie by turning to Satan and becoming a Reprobate he is no more a Christian though he
performed in Spirit and in Truth and all of us have our Share and Testimony therein as God moves thereunto Even those who are outwardly silent as these who speak when as both agree together in one Spirit and with one Heart and Soul join together in the same SECTION VI. Of BAPTISM Wherein their Fourth Section concerning Water-Baptism is Answered IN their stating the Question they say The Question is not Whether Infants ought to be Baptized Or who have the Power of Administring Baptism Whereas indeed these Two are a great part of the Question betwixt our Adversary and us For as touching Infant-Baptism R. B. his Thesis doth expresly say It is a meer Human Tradition Infant Baptism an human Tradition and it is well known that all the Quakers so called are of the same Mind and do not the Students undertake to Confute the Quakers Principles How is it then that they leave out so considerable a part of Quakerism as tâ—ey call it Is this Quakerism Canvased to pick and chuse at some and pass by others Yea Infants-Sprinkling with Water on the Forehead is so considerable a part of the Question betwixt them and us that if that be disproved or if they cannot prove that to be a Gospel-Institution they fall short exceedingly seeing that is the only Baptism in use among them of the National Church Again it is so great a part of the Question Who have the power of Administring Baptism that by this the Controversy stands or falls None have Power now to Administer Water-Baptism For one of our main Arguments against Water-Baptism as remaining a Duty upon all Christians is That none are to be found that have the Power to administer it And the Administration cannot be without a lawful Administrator The Question then really is Whether these who have no Immediate Call to administer Water-Baptism as John had have Power to administer it Again Whether those who have no other mediate Call to Baptize but what they have by the Church of Rome which is no true Church as the best Protestants affirm have power to Administer Baptism And this Question is the more proper in this Place seeing J. M. the Students Master confesseth his and his Brethrens Call and Ordination to be by the Church of Rome and that they have no other but what is conveyed down to them from the Apostles Times by that Apostate Church But let us now Examine their Arguments for Water-Baptism in general The First is Baptism with Water is to continue in the Church The Students Argument for its Continuance as long as Christ's Presence is to continue with his Apostles and them who teach the Doctrine that they taught But Christ's Presence is to continue with his Apostles and them who teach the Doctrine that they taught to the End of the World Therefore c. Where it is to be observed That they think all is Safe as to the Minor and therefore they altogether pass it by Now although it is sufficient to invalidate the Argument if the Major be false yet we have somewhat of great moment to say to the Minor that is enough to overturn any Baptism that they have For we put them to explain who these are That all along since the Apostles have taught the Doctrine which the Apostles taught For the Words are liable to divers Senses If they mean the Church of Rome and her Bishops and Teachers we altogether deny that they have taught the same Doctrine which the Apostles taught And we suppose the Students if they follow their Master J. M. will not affirm it And indeed for the same Reason the best primitive Protestants denied that the Church of Rome in their Day had any lawful Ordination at all seeing she continued not in the Apostles Doctrine and Faith As that famous Protestant Sadeel doth argue at great length lib. de legit voc min. where he affirmeth Sadeel's Testimony concerning a Succession of Faith from the Apostles That the Succession of Faith is as the Soul which gives Life to the Succession of the Bishops as unto a Body but that Succession without this Faith is a dead thing and unprofitable Carcase Now the same Reason doth militate as strongly against Water-Baptism and that also called the Supper upon our present Adversaries Principle That none have Power to administer the one or the other but those who have a mediate outward Call conveyed down from the Apostles by a visible Succession of ordained Bishops and Presbyters For we say There hath been no such Visible Succession nor visibly Ordained Bishops and Presbyters who all a long have had the true Faith and taught the true Doctrine of the Apostles therefore their Ordination and Power to administer the Sacraments is void and null And this is further confirmed by the Authority of Cyprian Cyprian of Baptism who taught with great Earnestness That the Baptism of all Hereticks was void and no Baptism But so it is by our Adversaries Confession That the Church and Bishops and Teachers of Rome have been Hereticks for many hundred Years before the Reformation Therefore We say then the Argument is fallacious as to the Minor supposing what is not to be supposed in their Sense viz. That either the Teachers of the Church of Rome or any other claiming a Visible and Mediate Call from the Apostles Times conveyed through a Visible Church unto them have taught the Doctrine which the Apostles taught a thing we altogether deny And it lieth on them to prove But that Christ hath had some all along who have both believed and taught the Doctrine of the Apostles and that his Presence has been with them we acknowledge but we deny that these have been all a long a Visible Church and Teachers having a Mediate Call and Ordination and in this we agree with the best Protestants For indeed the True Church hath been hid even as a few Grains of Corn among an exceeding great Quantity of Chaff and Stubble The True Church hath been hid and she who hath called herself the Church by reason of her outward Succession was not the True Church though some of the True Church lay hidden in her as Corn is hid in a great Quantity of Chaff And that the Church is properly to be placed in the alone Grains of Corn and not in the Chaff Sadeel doth also shew out of Augustine Ep. 48. Another Fault we find in the Students Argument that supposing Water-Baptism had been commanded to the Apostles by Christ Matth. 28. which yet we altogether deny it insinuateth That it was as long to Continue as Christ's Presence with his Church For if Teaching had Continued though Baptism with Water had Discontinued as our Adversaries grant That Anointing with Oil and miraculous Curing the Sick is discontinued yet the Promise was ground enough to encourage them And if all be still binding that Christ Commanded to his Apostles why go they not forth The Partiality of
had the thing declared unto them retiring to the inward Testimony of the same Spirit in themselves did feel Vnion therewith and such as went along did not only find a true liberty which might have sufficed but some of them a necessity to Concur with it And as for the carrying of the Hat and Cloak it was altogether Extrinsick being neither Essential nor Circumstantial to the thing nor so looked upon by these who did it Yet the Carping thereat shews in the Proposer a Critical mind very void of seriousness which the Lord as of purpose to starve hath permitted him to build that part of the Query in relation to A. H's Wife upon a false Report the thing being a manifest Vntruth And in Answer to the second Proposition of the Premisses it 's the alone immediate Testimony of the Spirit of God that can truly discover all false Pretenders and Delusions which if any can let them deny without overturning the Basis of all Christian Religion and rendering the Faith of the Saints in all Ages Vncertain R. B. A CATECHISM AND Confession of Faith Approved of and Agreed unto by the GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE PATRIARCHS PROPHETS and APOSTLES CHRIST himself CHIEF SPEAKER In and Among them Which containeth A True and Faithful Account of the Principles and Doctrines which are most surely believed by the Churches of Christ in Great Britain and Ireland who are reproachfully called by the Name of Quakers yet are found in the one Faith with the Primitive Church and Saints as is most clearly demonstrated by some plain Scripture-Testimonies without Consequences or Commentaries which are here Collected and Inserted by way of Answer to a Few Weighty yet Easie and Familiar Questions fitted as well for the Wisest and Largest as for the Weakest and Lowest Capacities To which is added An EXPOSTVLATION with and APPEAL to all other Professors By R B. a Servant of the Church of Christ. JOHN 5.39 40. Search the Scriptures or Ye search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have Eternal Life and they are they which testifie of me that ye might have Life LONDON Printed for Thomas Northcott in George-Yard in Lumbard-Street 1691. THE PREFACE TO THE READER READER SInce first that great Apostacy took place in the Hearts and Heads of those who began even in the Apostles days to depart from the Simplicity and Purity of the Gospel as it was then delivered in its Primitive Splendor and Integrity innumerable have been the manifold Inventions and Traditions the different and various Notions and Opinions wherewith Man by giving way to the vain and airy Imaginations of his own unstable Mind hath burdened the Christian Faith So that indeed first by adding these things and afterwards by equalling them if not exalting them above the Truth they have at last come to be substitute in the stead of it so that in process in time Truth came to be shut out of doors and another thing placed in the room thereof having a Shew and a Name but wanting the Substance and Thing it self Nevertheless it pleased God to raise up Witnesses for himself almost in every Age and Generation who according to the Discoveries they received bore some Testimony less or more against the Superstition and Apostacy of the time and in special manner through the appearing of that Light which first broke forth in Germany about One hundred and fifty years ago and afterwards reached divers other Nations the Beast received a deadly Wound and a very great Number did at one time Protest against and Rescind from the Church of Rome in divers of their most gross and sensual Doctrines and superstitious Traditions But alas It is for matter of lamentation that the Successors of these Protestants are Establishing and Building up in themselves that which their Fathers were pulling down instead of prosecuting and going on with so Good and Honourable a Work which will easily appear The generality of all Protestants though in many other things miserably Rent and Shattered among themselves do agree in dividing from the Church of Rome in these two particulars First That every Principle and Doctrine of the Christian Faith is and ought to be founded upon the Scripture and that whatsoever Principles or Doctrines are not only not contrary but even not according thereto ought to be denied as Antichristian Secondly That the Scriptures themselves are Plain and Easie to be understood and that every private Christian and Member of the Church ought to read and peruse them that they may know their Faith and Belief founded upon them and receive them for that Cause alone and not because any Church or Assembly has Compounded and Recommended them the Choicest and Most-pure of which they are obliged to look upon as Fallible Now contrary to this their known and acknowledged Principle they do most vigorously prosecute and persecute others with the like Severity the Papists did their Fathers for believing things that are plainly set down in the Scriptures and for not believing divers Principles for which themseves are forc'd to recur to Tradition and can by no means prove from Scripture To shew which I shall not here insist having alotted a Chapter for it in the Book it self because to put it here would swell beyond the bounds of a Preface Oh! How like do they shew themselves I mention it with Regret to the Scribes and Pharisees of Old who of all men most cried up and exalted Moses and the Prophets boasting greatly of being Abraham's Children And yet those were they that were the greatest Opposers and Vilifiers of Christ to whom Moses and all the Prophets gave Witness yea their chief Accusations and Exceptions against Christ was as being a Breaker of the Law and a Blasphemer Can there any Comparison run more parallel seeing there is now found a People who are greatly Persecuted and bitterly Reviled and Accused as Hereticks by a Generation that cry up and exalt the Scriptures And yet this Peoples Principles are found in Scripture Word by Word though the most grievous and indeed the greatest Calumny cast upon them is that they Vilifie and Deny the Scriptures and set up their own Imaginations instead of them To disprove which this Catechism and Confession of Faith is Compiled and presented to thy Serious and Impartial View If thou lovest the Scripture indeed and desirest to hold the plain Doctrines there delivered and not these Strained and Far-fetch'd Consequences which Men have invented thou shalt easily observe the whole Principles of the People called QUAKERS plainly couched in Scripture-Words without Addition or Commentary especially in those things their Adversaries Oppose them in where the Scripture plainly decideth the Controversie for them without Nicities and School-Distinctions which have been the Wisdom by which the World hath not known God and the Words which have been multiplied without knowledge by which Counsel hath been darkned In the Answers to the Questions there is not one Word that I know of placed but the
Principle in and by which this Salvation * Jew and Gentile Scythian and Barbarian partakers of the Salvation of Christ. of Christ is exhibited to all men both Jew and Gentile Scythian and Barbarian of whatsoever Country or Kindred he be And therefore God hath raised up unto himself in this our Age faithful Witnesses and Evangelists to preach again his Everlasting Gospel and to direct Prop. 7 all as well the high Professors who boast of the Law and the Scripture and the outward Knowledge of Christ as the Infidels and Heathens that know not him that way that they may all come to mind the Light in them and know Christ in them the Just One 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom they have so long killed and made merry over and he hath not Resisted James 5.6 and give up their sins iniquities false faith professions and out-side righteousness to be Crucified by the Power of his Cross in them so as they may know Christ within to be the Hope of Glory and may come to walk in his Light and be saved who is that True Light that inlightneth Every man that cometh into the world PROPOSITION VII Concerning Justification As many as Resist not this Light but Receive the same it becomes in them a Holy Pure and Spiritual Birth bringing forth Holiness Righteousness Purity and all those other blessed Fruits which are acceptable to God by which holy Birth to wit Jesus Christ formed within us and working his Works in us as we are sanctified so are we justified in the sight of God according to the Apostle's words But ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God 1 Cor. 6.11 Therefore it is not by our Works wrought in our Will nor yet by good Works considered as of themselves but by Christ who is both the Gift and the Giver and the Cause producing the Effects in us who as he hath Reconciled us while we were Enemies doth also in his Wisdom save us and justify us after this manner as saith the same Apostle elsewhere According to his Mercy he hath saved us by the washing of Regeneration and the Renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3.5 § I. THE Doctrine of Justification comes well in order after the Discussing of the Extent of Christ's Death and of the Grace thereby Communicated some of the sharpest Contests concerning this having from thence their Rise Many are the Disputes among those called Christians concerning this point and indeed if all were truly minding that which justifieth there would be less noise about the Notions of Justification I shall briefly review this Controversy as it stands among others and as I have often seriously observed it then in short State the Controversy as to us and open our Sense and Judgment of it and Lastly prove it if the Lord will by some Scripture-Testimonies and the certain Experience of all that ever were truly Justified Observ. I § II. That this Doctrine of Justification hath been and is greatly vitiated in the Church of Rome is not by us questioned though our Adversaries who for want of better Arguments do often make Lies their Refuge have not spared in this respect to stigmatize us with Popery The Method of Justification taken by the Church of Rome but how untruly will hereafter appear For to speak little of their Meritum ex Condigno which was no doubt a very common Doctrine of the Romish Church especially before Luther though most of their modern Writers especially in their Controversies with Protestants do partly deny it partly qualify it and seem to state the matter only as if they were Propagators and Pleaders for Good Works by the others denied Yet if we look to the Effects of this Doctrine among them as they appear in the generality of their Church-members not in things disapproved but highly approved and commended by their Father the Pope The Pope's Doctrine of Merits the most beneficial of all his Revenues and all his Clients as the most beneficial Casuality of all his Revenue we shall find that Luther did not without great ground oppose himself to them in this matter and if he had not himself run into another Extream of which hereafter his Work would have stood the better For in this as in most other things he is more to be Commended for what he pulled down of Babylon than for what he built of his own Whatever then the Papists may pretend or even some good men among them may have thought Experience sheweth and it is more than manifest by the universal and approved Practice of their people that they place not their Justification so much in Works that are truly and morally good and in the being truly renewed and sanctified in the mind as in such things as are either nor good nor evil or may truly be called Evil and can no otherways be reckoned Good Papists Justification depends upon the Pope's Bulls than because the Pope pleases to call them so So that if the matter be well sifted it will be found that the greatest part of their Justification depends upon the Authority of his Bulls and not upon the Power Virtue and Grace of Christ Revealed in the heart and Renewing of it As will appear First from their Principle concerning Proof I their Sacraments which they say Confer Grace ex opere operatô Their Sacraments So that if a man partake but of them he thereby obtains Remission of sin though he remain as he was the Vertue of the Sacraments making up the want that is in the man So that this Act of Submission and Faith to the Laws of the Church and not any Real Inward Change is that which justifieth him As for Example If a man make use of the Sacrament as they call it of Penance so as to Tell over his Sins to a Priest Papists Penance though he have not true Contrition which the Lord hath made absolutely necessary for penitent sinners but only Attrition a figment of their own that is If he be sorry he hath sinned not out of any love to God or his Law which he hath Transgressed but for fear of punishment yet doth the Virtue of the Sacrament as they affirm procure to him Remission of Sins so that being Absolved by the Priest he stands accepted and Justified in the sight of God This man's Justification then proceedeth not from his being truly Penitent and in any measure inwardly Changed and Renewed by the working of God's Grace in his heart but meerly from the Authority of the Priest and Virtue of the Sacrament who hath pronounced him Absolved so that his Justification is from somewhat without him and not within him Secondly This will yet more appear in the matter of Indulgences Proof II where Remission of all Sins not only past Papist-Indulgences but for Years to come is annexed to the Visiting such and such Churches and Reliques saying
such and such Prayers so that the person that so doth is presently Cleared from the guilt of his sin and justified and accepted in the sight of God As for Example He that in the great Jubilee will go to Rome and present himself before the Gate of Peter and Paul and there receive the Pope's Blessing or he that will go a Pilgrimage to James's Sepulchre in Spain or to Mary of Loretta is upon the Performance of those things promised forgiveness of Sins Now if we ask them the Reason how such things as are not morally good in themselves come to have Virtue they have no other Answer but because of the Church and Pope's Authority who being the great Treasurer of the Magazine of Christ's Merits lets them out upon such and such Conditions Thus also the Invention of Saying Mass is made a Chief Instrument of Justification Papists Mass what it is for in it they pretend to Offer Christ daily to the Father a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the sins of the living and the dead so that a man for Money can procure Christ thus to be Offered for him when he pleases by which Offering he is said to obtain Remission of Sins and to stand Justified in the sight of God From all which and much more of this Nature which might be mentioned it doth appear that the Papists place their Justification not so much in any Work of Holiness really brought forth in them and real forsaking of Iniquity as in the meer Performance of some Ceremonies and a blind Belief which their Teachers have begotten in them that the Church and the Pope having the Absolute Dispensation of the Merits of Christ have power to make these Merits Effectual for the Remission of sins and Justification of such as will perform those Ceremonies This is the true and real Method of Justification taken by the generality of the Church of Rome and highly Commended by their publick Preachers especially the Monks in their Sermons to the People of which I my self have been an Ear and an Eye-witness However some of their Modern Writers have laboured to qualify it in their Controversies Luther and the Protestants opposing the Pope's Doctrine of Works fell into th' other Extream of No good Works necessary to Justification This Doctrine Luther and the Protestants then had good Reason to deny and oppose though many of them ran into another Extream so as to deny good Works to be necessary to Justification and to preach up not only Remission of sins but Justification by Faith alone without all Works however good So that men do not obtain their Justification according as they are inwardly sanctified and renewed but are justified meerly by believing that Christ died for them and so some may perfectly be Justified though they be lying in gross Wickedness as appears by the Example of David whom they say was fully and perfectly Justified while he was lying in the gross sins of Murder and Adultery As then the Protestants have sufficient ground to quarrel and confute the Papists concerning those many Abuses in the matter of Justification shewing how the Doctrine of Christ is thereby vitiated and overturned and the Word of God made void by many and useless Traditions the Law of God neglected while foolish and needless Ceremonies are prized and followed through a false Opinion of being Justified by the Performance of them and the Merits and Sufferings of Christ which is the Only Sacrifice appointed by God for Remission of sins derogated from by the setting up of a Daily Sacrifice never appointed by God Papists Device to get Money and chiefly devised out of Covetousness to get money by so the Protestants on the other hand by not rightly establishing and holding forth the Doctrine of Justification according as it is delivered in the Holy Scriptures have opened a door for the Papists to accuse them as if they were Neglecters of good Works Enemies to Mortification and Holiness such as esteem themselves Justified while lying in great sins by which kind of Accusations for which too great ground hath been given out of the Writings of some Rigid Protestants the Reformation hath been greatly defamed and hindered and the Souls of many Insnared Whereas who will narrowly look into the matter may observe these Debates to be more in specie than in genere seeing both do upon the matter land in one and like two men in a Circle who though they go sundry ways yet meet at the last in the same Centre For the Papists they say They obtain Remission of Sins and are justified by the Merits of Christ as the same are Applied unto them in the use of the Sacraments of the Church Papists Belief of Justification meets in the same Centre with the and are dispensed in the Performance of such and such Ceremonies Pilgrimages Prayers and Performances though there be not an inward Renewing of the mind nor knowing of Christ inwardly formed yet they are remitted and made Righteous ex opere operato because of the Power and Authority accompanying the Sacraments and the Dispensators of them The Protestants say That they obtain Remission of Sins Protestants Belief So saith the Westminster-Conf of Faith Chap. 11. Sect. 1. and stand Justified in the sight of God by Virtue of the Merits and Sufferings of Christ not by Infusing Righteousness into them but by pardoning their sins and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous they resting on him and his righteousness by Faith which Faith the Act of believing is not imputed unto them for Righteousness So the Justification of neither here is placed in any Inward Renewing of the Mind or by virtue of any Siritual Birth or Formation of Christ in them but only by a bare Application of the Death and Sufferings of Christ outwardly performed for them whereof the one lays hold on a Faith resting upon them and hoping to be Justified by them alone the other by the saying of some outward Prayers and Ceremonies which they judge makes the Death of Christ Effectual unto them I Except here being unwilling to wrong any what things have been said as to the necessity of inward Holiness either by some Modern Papists or some Modern Protestants who in so far as they have laboured after a Midst betwixt these two Extreams have come near to the Truth as by some Citations out of them hereafter to be mentioned will Appear Though this Doctrine hath not since the Apostasy so far as ever I could observe been so distinctly and evidently held forth according to the Scriptures-Testimony as it hath pleased God to Reveal it and preach it forth in this day by the Witnesses of his Truth whom he hath raised to that end Which Doctrine though it be briefly held forth and Comprehended in the Thesis it self English state of Controversie yet I shall a little more fully Explain the State of the Controversy as it stands betwixt us and those that now Oppose
not my present Business to Inquire year 1676 and all these Differences of Ceremonies that are betwixt them are only Approved by the Romanists as such which are Indulged to them by the Pope who pretends out of a Fatherly Care and Compassion to Yield these things unto them Which if it be true is done by him rather to uphold the Shew of his Authority and because Distance of Place and other Incommodities hinder him from pressing more upon them since in Places nearer Hand and where fitter Opportunities have been presented he hath shewn himself very Zealous and Violent to bring all to a ready Obedience to the least of his Commands As by many Examples could be largely proved Yet some are of the Mind that all these Stories and pretended Acknowledgments of Patriarchs to the Romish See are but the meer Effects of the Policy of that Court to uphold their Grandure and nothing better but pretty Comedies to amuse the Vulgar and Credulous and augment their Reverence towards the Pope and his Clergy But whatever be in this it is abundantly manifest That there can be nothing more Contrary to this Vniversal Love and Charity than Romish Principles and that no Man of that Religion without deserting his Principles can pretend to it As to the other Principle of Persecution Persecution practised and Wars fomented in the Church of Rome how much it is Preached and Practised in the Church of Rome will need no great Probation Those that are acquainted with or have heard of the Spanish Inquisition of the many Inhuman Butcheries and Massacrees committed both in France and the Netherlands upon Men meerly for the matter of their Consciences the many Plots Consultations Combinings and Wars contrived fomented and carried on by the Bishops of Rome themselves and the Chief of their Clergy yielding large and voluntary Contributions thereto for to Ruin and Root out the Dissenters from the Romish Society after Luther appeared Cannot but see how Natural and Consequential it is to Romish Principles so to do and thence also observe how Contrary and Opposite these things are to Vniversal Love and Charity and how much they act the Hypocrite when they pretend Christian Charity to any that differ from them And this manifestly appears in these Two which none of them that has Vnderstanding to know or Honesty to Confess their Principles can deny I might also add a Third which albeit by some Popish Doctors in some Nations it be Denied yet is no less firmly Believed and Contended for by other Eminent Persons among them especially Bellarmine and approved by the Pope himself to wit The Popes Power to Depose Princes in case of Heresy and give their Kingdoms to others allowing them upon that account to Fight against them and accounting their so purchasing of them lawful Small Offences heretofore would have provoked to this Sentence as appeared in the Example of Hildebrand and others but of late he is more sparing and deliberate in his Denuntiations finding his Authority less Regarded The Pope's Abbreviated Power of Deposing Princes in Case of Heresy and his Power to bring to Obedience much Abbreviated But surely this Principle cannot Consist with Vniversal Love when that which by all is acknowledged to be an Ordinance of God doth not secure the lawful Administrators thereof from the Bitterness of it year 1677 If you will not allow a King to be a King albeit his Right and Title so to be is every way as good as such among your selves unless he be of your mind certainly there is but small hopes of your Charity to other Persons There might be much more said and enlarged as well upon this as other things which sufficiently evidenceth The Church of Rome can have no just claim to this Universal Love which I purposely to avoid all manner of prolixity do omit Protestants Principles The great variety or Doctrines among Protestants so called will make it somewhat harder to decipher them particularly in this matter yet to take first notice of those who by their most publick Confessions as well as by their Possession of whole Nations are most Commonly and Universally understood to bear that name to wit the Lutherans and Calvinists 1. Lutherans and Calvinists seems most Regular And because of their Vnity as well as of several others in that Doctrine and Practice of Persecution Persecution their Doctrine and Practice I shall make my first Observation from thence which being not only held by them but also by several others Dissenting from both of them may be termed the more the pity A general Doctrine of Protestants How far this contradicts Vniversal Love is before-mentioned But as to them it has this Additional Aggravation which is very Considerable That they do and that upon their owned Principles so rigorously persecute one another not permitting one another the free Exercise of their Conscience in their respective Dominions albeit they acknowledge that they Agree in Fundamentals and that they have both upon the same design of Reformation departed from Antichrist How then can these Men pretend to any thing of Vniversal Love or Charity who upon so small Difference by themselves not esteemed Fundamental do deny one another the very Common and Natural Benefits of the Creation And of this the Island of Great Britain can give good Evidence England instanced at Variance For albeit the Protestants there be in a sense all Calvinists or at least not at Variance in that which was and is the great Controversy among the Lutherans and Calvinists abroad and that their Difference lies only in the matter of the Government of the Church and some other Ceremonies many of which Calvin himself confesseth not to be of that Consequence for which the Godly should be at Variance Yet how little Charity they have to one another and how great and Irreconcilable Prejudice and Malice is openly known to the World So that upon this account the Prelatick Party has Persecuted the Presbyterian and the Presbyterian them as they respectively found themselves in a Capacity to do it not only to the Ejection of the Clergy for this difference out of their Function and the Excommunication and publickly Cursing one of another Excommunicating one another but also to the Turning in and out of State-Officers to the Imprisoning Forfeiting Banishing yea and Judicial Execution both of private and publick Persons Not to mention the horrible Devastations and publick Wars whereby this Island became as a bloody Tragedy to the ruin of thousands of Families Wars and Bloodshed which took its rise from their Differences and was carried and fomented from the very Pulpits under this Notion Also those common and usual Denominations wherewith they used and yet do design on one another are not unknown as Self-seeking and self-separating Hypocrites seditious Incendiaries presumptuous Rebels and on the other hand Proud and Bloody Prelates Ignorant and Vngodly Curates Wicked and Hateful Malignants Idolatrous and
Sincere Love in the Lord which we had to our Dear Brother Robert Barclay and Christian Respect which lives in us to his Blessed Memory and our Real Esteem and Value of his Faithful Testimony great Industry and Labour of Love for promoting the Ever-living Truth as it is in Christ in his Day and Time We whose Names are underwritten do sincerely Own and have Satisfaction and Vnity in Truth with this fore-going Preface and Relation in the behalf of him the said Robert Barclay and his Great and Memorable Service Labours and Travels in the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ To whom be the Glory and Dominion for ever London the 15. of the 7th Month 1691. George Whitehead Patrick Livingston Alexander Seton Benjamin Antrobus Francis Stamper Iohn Vaughton and Iohn Field GEORGE FOX HIS TESTIMONY CONCERNING Robert Barclay A Testimony concerning our Dear Brother in the Lord Robert Barclay who was a Wise and Faithful Minister of Christ and Writ many Precious Books in the Defence of the Truth in English and Latine and after Translated into French and Dutch He was a Scholar and a Man of Great Parts and underwent many Calumnies Slanders and Reproaches and Sufferings for the Name of Christ but the Lord gave him Power over them all He Travelled often up and down Scotland and in England and in Holland and Germany and did good Service for the Lord and was a Man of Repute among Men and Preacht the Everlasting Gospel of Christ Freely turning People from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan to God And his Father was a Noble Man for the Lord and his Truth and died in the Lord And after when his Son Robert had fulfilled his Ministry and finished his Testimony he also died in the Lord and is Blessed and at Rest and Ceased from his Labours and his Works follow him Much more might be Written concerning this Faithful Brother in the Lord and Pillar in the Church of Christ who was a Man I very much loved for his Labour in the Truth but I shall leave the Rest to his Country-men And the Lord Raise up more Faithful Labourers in Christ Jesus to stand in his Place and preserve his Tender Wife and Children in the Truth Amen! The 13th 9th Mo. 1690. G. F. A TESTIMONY to the Memory of ROBERT BARCLAY By his Faithful Friend William Penn. SUrprizing was the News of the Death of Dear Robert Barclay to me particularly from the Share I claimed in him and the Esteem I had for him But that which gave Weight to my Sorrow was the Loss that thereby comes to the Church of God and especially in Scotland For his Many and Excellent Gifts by Nature Acquisition and Grace his Zeal and Integrity his Labour and Love so effectually shewn in the time he lived both in his Ministry Writings and other Services and that he lived no longer who was so well fitted to live for the Service and Honour of the Truth and the good of God's People must render his Death more Afflicting to all those that desire to be reckoned of that Number It was a Complaint of Old that the Righteous were taken away and none layed it to heart I pray God that the Taking away of this Accomplished Minister of Christ in the Prime of his Age with other Precious and Honourable Brethren of late may be laid close to heart by the Friends of God especially where his and their Service lay and he and they have been most Conversant The Overcasting of so many bright Stars almost together and of the First Magnitude in our Horizon from our Bodily View is not the least Simptome or Token to me of an Approaching Storm and perhaps so dreadful that we may have fresh cause to think them Happy that are delivered from the Evils and Miseries that may ensue But this also calls every one home to his own Dwelling and Tent to find and feel him that Repairs all Losses and Supplys all Wants and is All to a Faithful People that they can need or desire This Worthy Young Man of God whose Character I write as well for their Example and Encouragement that have or hereafter may receive the Eternal Truth in which he lived and died and lives forever as for a Testimony to the Power and Goodness of God in raising him up to his Church and to his lasting Memorial in the Churches of Christ which is blessed for ever was the Son of Collonel David Barclay descended of the Barclays of Mathers in the Kingdom of Scotland an Ancient and Honourable Family among Men and of Katherine Gourdon from the Gourdons of the House of the Duke of Gourdon He was born at Edinburgh in the year 1648. Educated in France had the advantage of that Tongue as well as the Latine He returned to Scotland about 1664 being 16 years of Age where by the Example and Instruction of his Honest and Worthy Father that in his Absence had Received the Everlasting Truth and his Converse with other Servants of God he came to See and Tast an Excellency in it and was Convinced about the year 1667. and Publickly owned the Testimony of the true Light enlightning every Man and came Early forth a Zealous and Fervent Witness for it enduring the Cross and despising the Shame that attended his Discipleship and received the Gift of the Ministry as his greatest Honour in which he laboured to bring others to God and his Labour was not in vain in the Lord. He was much exercised in Controversy from the many Contradictions that fell upon the Truth and upon him for its sake in his own Country chiefly in which he ever acquitted himself with Honour to the Truth particularly by his Apology for the Christian Divinity Professed by the People called Quakers which contains a Collection of our Principles our Enemies Objections and our Answers Augmented and Illustrated closely and amply with many Authorities for Confirmation Also his Book of Church-Government distinguishing between Tyranny and Anarchy Imposition and Lawlessness occasioned by the Scruples of some and Partialities of others that had a tendency to a Division among us They are standing Books of sound Judgment and good Service to the Truth and Church of God Nor must his Scripture-Catechism be forgotten in that it opens the Mind of Truth upon points of Doctrine in the words of the Holy Ghost excluding all Humane Glosses or Interpretation which is an easie safe and peaceable Method the tendency of it being to Silence and Commend the Curiosity of Man to the Text which all own and there leave Controversy as the best Method to Vnity and Peace next that of the Spirit it self And indeed it was exactly suitable to his own Disposition that preferred Truth before Victory and Peace and Vnity before Nicities and a good Life before Worldly Learning We sometimes Travelled together both in this Kingdom and in Holland and some parts of Germany and were Inward in divers Services from first to last
that Christ enlightens men in such a way of outward distance as the Body of the Sun being so many thousand miles above the Clouds enlightens our natural Eyes but comes not near us otherwise than by its influence and rayes for Christ is near unto every one no less than his influence for in him we live and move and have our being And this nearness of his unto all men in a day is more than that general Presence in respect whereof he abides with all the works of his hands for as much as he is in them to enlighten them that they may believe John 1.9 compared with Vers. 7. Page 11. Here because thou canst not deny but that there is Light in all men thou sayst It is commonly called the Light of Nature and that some remainders of Knowledge and Principles of Good remain in Man after the ruins of God's Image in him as when a City is demolished some Foundations of Houses do still remain But how is this consistent with what you say to wit That there is no good thing at all in men unconverted and that man fell wholly from God and that Adam 's fall was not in part but wholly as to all things that are good And that we derive nothing from him but that which is corrupted and defiled But the Scriptures Testimony is plain that since the fall the free Gift or Grace of God is come upon all unto Justification of Life It is not said Justification is come upon all but the free Gift or Grace of God is come upon all unto Justification so that all may be justified if they did close with it Rom. 5.8 And God so loved the World John 3.16 And this is the condemnation of the World that Light is come into it verse 19. which is after the fall And whatever any may conceive that remained in Man of the Image of God after the fall that could not have any power to convince man of evil or enable him to do any thing that is good if it were not visited and influenced a-new from the Fountain of Light and Life but it would remain as a thing without all Life and Vertue as a Candle extinguished For by the fall the Lamb the Witness came to be slain and remained so until the Spirit of Life again was sent from God into it to give it life and power to witness against mens Transgressions for a witness that is wholly dead cannot witness unto particular things of Fact against men as this inward Witness in all men doth who do not again crucifie it in themselves And seeing Christ tasted Death for every man and the Grace that brings Salvation hath appeared to every man and the Gospel is preached in every Creature as it is according to the Greek in Hebr. 2. Tit. 2. Col. 1.23 It is manifest that the Illumination given to every man is a new and fresh Visitation of God's love in Christ freely given unto them for Salvation Now as to the word Nature if it be rightly understood there shall be no great difference about it For if by Nature thou understandest the Nature that is corrupt and fallen and that which simply is derived from Adam then we deny that that Nature can claim any right to this Light or that it can be said to proceed from that Nature But if thou understandest by Nature the Nature that is spiritual and heavenly and is derived from Christ the second Adam the quickning Spirit the Lord from Heaven then I say the Light may properly be called the Light of that Nature in which sense is to be understood that place of the Apostle Rom. 2. verse 14. cited by thee where he saith The Gentiles which have not the Law did by Nature the things contained in the Law For who will be so gross as to say that the Gentiles by the corrupt Nature could do the things contained in the Law which is pure and holy But by that Nature which is one with the Law to wit Divine and Heavenly they might do them So that thou canst not but still be accounted a wilful Enemy to the Light whilst thou opposest it and dost not turn to it and by it come to see the evil of thy ways and forsake them Page 12. Though it be here asserted in name of the Quakers that the Scriptures are of excellent and blessed use yet thou wilt not believe it and alledgest They will not make the due use of them for these Reasons First Because a Bible thou sayst is not to be seen in all our Meetings But that will infer nothing at all for we meet not to read the Scripture but to wait on the Lord and be taught of him and receive from his Spirit what he pleaseth to administer either in our selves or through the Mouths of his Servants and we meet to worship God whose worship is to be performed in Spirit and in Truth and not in External Reading Thou say'st Christ took the Book of the Prophet Isaiah and read out of it But was not this the performance of a Legal Duty and in condescendency to the Jews manner for it was in the Synagogue But did he ever constitute it as a part of the Christian Worship for one man to take the Bible and speak upon it and all the rest to be excluded from speaking while he prattles his own barren empty Notions about it shew me where that was the practice or order among the Apostles and primitive Christians In the Churches way 1 Cor. 14. there is no such thing but on the contrary vers 29. Let the Prophets speak two or three and let the other judge if any thing be revealed to another that â—its by let the first hold his peace for ye may all prophecy one by one that all may learn and all may be comforted By which it plainly appears there was no such setled custom among them but it is one of the main Inventions brought-in in the Apostacy whereby barrenness and driness hath entred and whereby the quickning unlimited Life has been stopped from flowing through many Vessels It is true the Apostles at times cited Scriptures out of the Law and the Prophets to shew their fulfilling or to open the mind of the Spirit concerning them which is frequent in our Meetings to cite Scriptures and open them in the same Life and Spirit that gave them forth in the order of the Spirit but not in the order and way of man's Wisdom and Spirit as is your way which savours more of Aristotle's School than of the Church of Christ. Secondly As to what thou sayst That it is not our way to encourage the People to read the Scriptures and to try Doctrines by them 't is utterly false for we desire that all may come to try Doctrines even by the Scripture but we bid them also come to the Light in them to read and try Doctrines and understand the true sense of the Scriptures therein and if People did so we
and frequenting the Ale-house and decking themselves with vain Apparel 10. They love well to hear that they may be Members of the Church though they have no infallible of Evidence Holiness 11. They love to hear of your Doctrine of Election and Reprobation 12. And of your Doctrine Once in grace and ever in grace whereby they feed themselves in presumption and carelesness Many other particulars could be mentioned but these may serve enough to shew Quakers Principles not acceptable to Hypocrites that your Principles are pleasing to the wicked and hypocrites and ours displeasing Next to come to experience where are the Drunkards the Swearers the Whore-mongers the envious licentious Persons the Scorners the Mockers whether are they yours or ours If our Principles be so acceptable unto them why do they not inroll themselves among us why do they oppose us at our Meetings at Aberdeen and else-where and curse and rant and use all manner of filthy Communication and are ready to stone us in the streets And none more found so doing than that young Fry and Spawn of the Priesthood who are bread at your Nurseries of Learning Now whose Church-Members are those yours or ours Is not the Proverb verified of you Fowls of one Feather fly together Thou closest with addressing thy self to God with a notorious lye saying Follow with thy blessing that which WE have been about meaning the Quaker and thy self but it was none of the Quakers work the Dialogue not being any real Conference Is not this to deride and take the Name of God in vain Some Things of Weighty Concernment proposed in Meekness and Love by way of QUERIES to the Serious Consideration of the Inhabitants of Aberdeen which also may be of Vse to such as are of the same Mind with them elsewhere in this Nation Added by way of APPENDIX to Truth Clear'd of Calumnies Question 1. WHether it be a thing any-wise warrantable in Common Equity or true Christianity for any Person or Persons to take â—iberty both in Pulpit and Print to speak against a People as Dangerous and Heretical and yet wholly to debar that People from Vindicating themselves in either of these ways so far as they can Or whether it can be supposed that any Persons except they wholly give up themselves Implicitly to believe the Accusers can make a true Judgment in that Case upon the Accused especially considering the Maxim of Law Quicunque inauditâ alterâ parte c. i. e. He that without hearing both Parties pronounceth Judgment though he decide the Right upon the matter hath not done the part of a Just Judge To which add the Consideration of these Passages of Scripture 1 Thess. 5.21 Prov. 18.13 Isai. 40.2 Quest. 2. Whether then it was not contrary to the Laws both Divine and Humane for the Priests in Aberdeen to importune the Magistrates to make search for that Book lately published in Vindication of the People called Quakers Or whether such a Practice hath any Warrant except what flows originally from the Spanish Inquisition as being directly contrary to Equity and to the Scriptures above-mentioned Quest. 3. Whether also it was not both Anti-scriptural and Popish in G. M. to prohibit his Hearers from reading of that Book by comparing it with Poison Whether that was not to keep People in Darkness and Dependance upon him or with how little Reason could he desire such a thing considering he asserted it to contain an ample Confession of all those Errors he had charged them with And if so whether it be likely that it could prove dangerous the Errors being so gross and monstrous which by him and his Brethren are charged upon that People that their confessing them would rather scare People than engage any to like them Quest. 4. And whether G. M. his bidding People abstain from that Book as Poison without trial of what is in it be not like unto the Papists way who bid their Neighbours abstain from the Protestants Books as Poison And whether may not even Poison be tried though not by eating it in a way that is not hazzardous to the Tryer especially seeing that which some may call Poison may be afterward found by sound Trial to be good and wholesom Food yea Medicine to expel such poisonable Doctrines as your Priests infuse into People Quest. 5. And seeing G. M. bids his Hearers abstain from the Quakers words as Poison doth he not endanger such to be poisoned whom he sends or allows to come to our Meetings to hear what is spoke And what knoweth G. M. but his Spies may be touched so that it may be said as it was then Is Saul also among the Prophets Quest. 6. And seeing G. M. counts our Words as Poison why doth he bring them forth so much among his Hearers if he thinks he gives strong Antidotes against them I have heard some of his own Hearers say That that which he calls the Poison wrought more effectually to perswade even out of his Mouth than all his Antidotes could do to disswade Quest. 7. Whether the latter part of that Allegance of G. M. viz. That all they had charged on the Quakers was confessed to in that Book be not a manifest untruth in respect the greatest Charges alledged by him against the Quakers are therein utterly denied As for instance the matter of Pelagianism in page 25. the matter of Popery in page 34. and of Arminianism page 65 c. Quest. 8. Whether the said G. M. hath not manifested very much deceit in saying also publickly That the said Book asserts it not only to be a thing easie but pleasant for wicked people to keep holy the Sabbath-day and to perform the spiritual duties commanded to be performed thereon unless he understands them to be simply the disposing to hear a man talk an hour or to and to have all the rest of the day to spend in Idleness vain Communication and frequenting the Ale-house c. which are the words mentioned page 72. Quest. 9. Whether it be any way unsutable to the Law of Charity or to the meek Spirit of Christ to use plain and downright dealing calling a Lye a Lye Or whether any be to be blamed for so doing considering the practice of all the Prophets and of Christ's and of his Apostles how sharply they dealt with false Teachers as may appear by the Scriptures Isai. 56.11 Lev. 23. to verse 33. Ezek. 34. Hos. 4. from 6. to 10. Ibid. 5.1 Mich. 3.5 Matth. 3.7 John 8. Quest. 10. Whether then they be not prejudiced who Accuse the Quakers for using the same terms seeing they are willing to make the Application manifest by comparing the fruits of the present pretended Preachers with those that were of old As for instance whether it be a breach either of Moral Civility or Christian Meekness to say John Menzies lied in asserting Robert Barclay to have been educated in a Jesuites-Colledge seeing it is utterly false Quest. 11. And whether David Lyall
Foolish Fashions of this World But we felt as we were obedient all these things to be for Condemnation and that as we obeyed the pure Manifestation of the Light of Jesus in our Hearts there was no Hesitation We might and should have parted with all those things at the first and what occasioned such Scruples was but that which drew back through being unwilling to give pure Obedience to the Cross of Christ for as many as gave Obedience and believed in the Light found no Occasion of stumbling but such as believed not were Condemned already because they believed not in him that Appeared Now the Boldness and Courage and Efficacy of these Messengers Testimony wrought such Astonishment The Courage of the Messengers Fear and Amazement in the Hearts of such as were Ingenuous that many began to be inwardly pricked as in the Days of old and the Foundations of many began to be shaken and some that were asleep were awakened and many that were dead and buried in the Graves of Sin and Formality and Superstition and Idolatry of all Sorts were Alarmed and many were brought in from the Hedges and the High-Ways and the Truth was received by Thousands with great Cheerfulness and a Readiness of Mind and the Feet of those were beheld to be beautiful upon the Mountains that brought the Glad Tidings of these good things And great Lowliness and Simplicity of Heart was upon such that were newly Convinced of the Truth and Deep Humiliation of Spirit and Subjection to the Power both in themselves and in those who were over them in the Lord and had gathered them into the Truth But as it was in the Gatherings of Old so it also fell out in this Day all kept not their first Love As among those Thousands which Moses led out of Egypt and carried through the Red Sea who had sung Praises to God upon the Banks of Salvation many Carcases fell in the Wilderness some who Murmured and longed to return again to the Flesh-pots of Egypt Opposition and and some for Opposing and Contradicting the Servant and Servants of the Lord whom the Lord had made Use of to lead them out of Bondage in saying Ye take too much upon you hath the Lord indeed only spoken by Moses hath he not spoken also by us And as among these Multitudes which were gathered by the Apostles there were many who continued not faithful to the End some returned back again with the Sow to the Puddle after they were washed some embraced the present World some again separated themselves Separation entring being sensual and without the Spirit despising Dominion and speaking Evil of Dignities their Mouths speaking great swelling Words being puffed up and not abiding in these things which they were taught of the Apostles So it is to be lamented that among these many Thousands whom the Apostles and Evangelists whom God raised up in this Day for the gathering of his Seed and People out of spiritual Egypt and Babylon into his pure Light and Life did bring forth and gather there are that have fallen upon the right Hand and the left Some are turned back again into Egypt running into the same Excess of Lust and Riot from whence they were once purified and Redeemed some could not bear the Reproach of the Cross of Christ and were by and anon offended in him some could not bear the Tribulations Sufferings and Persecutions which came for the Truth 's sake and the Seed in them was soon scorched with the Heat of the Day And some not abiding in Subjection to the Truth in themselves were not contented with that Place and Station in the Body which God had placed them in but became vainly puft up in their Fleshly Minds intruding into those things which they have not seen and would needs be Innovators given to Change Innovators causing Divisions and introducing new Doctrines and Practices not only differing but contrary to what was already delivered in the Beginning making Parties causing Divisions and Rents stumbling the weak and denying despising and reviling the Apostles and Messengers of Christ the Elders of the Church who loved not their Lives unto Death but through much Care and Travel and Watchings and Whippings and Bonds and Beatings in daily Jeopardy gathered us by the mighty Power of God in the most pretious Truth Yet in all this there hath nothing befallen us but that which hath been the Antient Lot of the Church of Christ in the Primitive Times Now He that was careful for his Church and People in old times hath not been wanting to us in our Day The good Shepherd of Israel his Care over his Church and People but as he has again Restored the Truth unto its primitive Integrity and Simplicity and as he has delivered our Understandings from these false Doctrines and Principles which prevailed in the Apostacy so he hath not gathered us to be As Sheep scattered without a Shepherd that every one may run his own Way and every one follow his own Will and so to be as a Confused Mass or Chaos without any Order but He even the LORD hath also gathered and is gathering us into the Good Order Discipline and Government of his own Son the Lord Jesus Christ therefore he hath laid Care upon some beyond others who watch for the Souls of their Brethren as they that must give account The several Stations in the Church 1 Cor. 4.15 16 17. There are then Fathers that have begotten us unto Christ Jesus through the Gospel of whom We ought to be Followers and to remember their Ways which be in Christ. There are then Fathers and Children Instructors and Instructed Elders and Young Men yea and Babes there are that cannot cease but must Exhort Instruct Reprove Condemn Judge or else for what End gave Christ the Gifts mentioned Ephes. 4.11 12 And how are the Saints perfected and the Body of Christ Edified of those who come under the Cognizance and as it were the Test of this Order and Government I may chiefly sum them up in three sorts though there be divers others little subdivided Species of them 1. Profane Backsliding Apostates The First is Those that turn openly back to the World again through finding the Way of Truth too narrow These have not been capable to do us any considerable Hurt for being as Salt that has lost its Savour they mostly prove a Stink among those to whom they go And I never knew any of them that proved any ways steadable to those to whom they go I find other Professors make but small Boast of any Proselytes they got out from among us I hear little of their proving Champions for the Principles of others against us And indeed for the most part they lose all Religion with the Truth for I have heard some of them say That if ever they took on them to be Religious they would come back again to the Quakers c. 2. Unwary Repenting Sinners
as a Heathen and a Publican And lastly That the Church Gathering or Assembly of God's People has Power to Examin and call to an Account such as appearing to be among them or owning the same Faith with them do Transgress and in Case of their refusing to hear or Repent to Exclude them from their Fellowship and that God hath a special Regard to the Judgment and Sense of his People thus orderly proceeding so as to hold such bound in Heaven whom they bind on Earth and such loosed in Heaven whom they loose on Earth I am partly Confident that no rational Man will deny but that these naturally follow from the above-mentioned Scripture and if there should be any found so unreasonable as to deny it I could prove it by necessary and unevitable Consequences which at present as taking it for granted I forbear to do If it be reckoned so great a Crime to offend one of the little ones that it were better for him that so did that a Milstone were hanged about his Neck and he were drowned in the Depth of the Sea without Question to Offend and gainsay the whole Flock must be more Criminal and must draw after it a far deeper Judgment Now if there were no Order nor Government in the Church what should become of those that Transgress How should they be again Restored Would not this make all Reproving all Instructing The End of Church-Order all Caring for and Watching over one another void and null Why should Christ have desired them to proceed after this Method Why doth he place so much Weight upon the Judgment of the Church as to make the refusing of Hearing it to draw so deep a Censure after it which he will not have to follow the refusing to hear one or two apart though the Matter be one and the same And so as to the Substantial and Intrinsick Truth of the Thing there lies the same Obligation upon the Transgressor to hear that one as well as all for that one adviseth him to that which is right and good as well as the whole and they do but homologate or Confirm that which that one hath already asserted Yet Jesus Christ who is the Author of Order and not of Confusion will not have a Brother cut off or reputed a Publican for refusing to hear one or two but for refusing to hear the Church And if it be Objected That the Church of Rome and all other false Churches make use of this Scripture and cover their Persecution and Cruelty Objection and Oppression by it and thou sayst no more than they say I answer I suppose no man will be so unreasonable as to affirm that the Church of Rome abusing this Scripture will make it false in it self but how we differ in our Application of this Scripture shall be spoken of hereafter I am not now claiming Right to this Power as due to us that is reserved for another place but this I say is that which I now aver to be manifest from the Scripture-Testimony and to be in itself an unquestionable Truth That Jesus Christ intended there should be Order and Government in his Church which is the Thing at present in hand to be proved which if it be so really true as it cannot be denied then I hope it will also necessarily follow that such who really and truly are the Church of Christ have Right to exercise this Order and Government Secondly That the Apostles and Primitive Christians did practise Order Reason II and Government we need but to read the History of the Acts of which I shall mention a few pregnant and undeniable Testimonies Church-Order Practised by the Apostles and Primitive Christians In Elections· as we may observe in the very first Chapter of the Acts from Verse 13. to the End where at the very first Meeting the Apostles and Brethren held together after the Ascension of Christ they began orderly to Appoint one to fulfil the Place of Judas it may be thought this was a needless Ceremony yet we see how the Lord countenanced it I hope none will say that the Apostles appointing of these two Men or of him upon whom the Lot did not fall Contradicted their Inward Freedom or Imposed upon it but both agreed very well together the one in the Will and Movings of God in Appointing and the other in the same in submitting to their Appointment Moreover after they had received the holy Ghost you may read Acts 6. so soon as there was an Opportunity how they wisely gave Order concerning the Distribution of the Poor in Distributions for the Poor and Appointed some men for that Purpose So here was Order and Government according to the Present Necessity of the Case And the Lord God was well pleased with it and the Word of God encreased and the Number of the Disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly Might they not have said then as some say now We will give our Charity to whom we see Cause and we will take no Notice of your Appointments and Orders Whether would God have approved of such yea or nay Thirdly When that the Business of Circumcision fell in whether it was fit or not to Circumcise the Gentiles We see the Apostles saw not meet To suffer every one to follow their own Minds and Wills They did not judge W. M. in his Queries as one confusedly supposeth That this Difference in an outward Exercise would commend the Unity of the true Faith nay they took another Method It is said expresly Acts 15.6 And the Apostles and Elders came together to consider of this Matter and after there had been much disputing about it no doubt then in Differences occurring there were here Diversities of Opinions and Judgments the Apostles and Elders told their Judgments and came also to a positive Conclusion Sure some behoved to submit else they should never have agreed So those that were the Elders gave a positive Judgment and they were bold to say That it pleased not only them but the Holy Ghost By all which it doth undeniably appear that the Apostles and Primitive Saints practised a Holy Order and Government among themselves and I hope none will be so bold as to say they did these Things without the Leadings of the Spirit of God and his Power and Authority concurring and going along with them The Apostles Doctrine concerning Order in the Church And that these Things were not only singular Practices but that they held it doctrinally that is to say it was Doctrine which they preached that there ought to be Order and Government in the Church is manifest from these following Testimonies 1 Cor. 4.15 16 17. 15. For though you have ten Thousand Instructors in Christ 1 Cor. 4 15 16 17. yet have ye not many Fathers for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel 16. Wherefore I beseech you be ye Followers of me 17. For this Cause have I sent unto
you Timotheus who is my beloved Son and faithful in the Lord who shall bring you into Remembrance of my Ways which be in Christ as I teach every where in every Church Here the Apostle Paul is very absolute First In that he desires them to be Followers of him Secondly In that he sends a Teacher yea a Minister and Eminent Bishop or Overseer of the Church for to put them in Mind of his Ways which be in Christ as he taught in every Church No doubt there were Apostates and Dissenting Spirits in the Church of Corinth that gave Paul Occasion thus to write as he testifies in the Beginning of the Chapter How he was Judged by some of them he shews how they were grown high verse 8. Now ye are full now ye are rich ye have reigned as Kings without us c. Might not these Dissenters of the Church of Corinth have reasoned thus against Paul Dissenting Reasonings against Church-Government Did not this Paul teach us at first to mind the Measure of Grace in our selves and follow that for no doubt that was Paul's Doctrine but now he begins to Lord it over us and tells us we must be Followers of him Might not they have judged the Beloved Timothy to be far out of his Place Might they not have said It seems it is not God that moved thee and sent thee here by his Spirit but Lordly Paul that seeks Dominion over our Faith It seems thou comest not here to preach Christ and wish us to be Followers of him and of his Grace in our Hearts but to mind us to follow Paul's Ways and take notice how he teaches in every Church We are not concerned with him nor with his Messenger nor with none of your Orders and so forth Doth not this run very plausible I question not but there was such a Reasoning among the Apostate Corinthians let such as are of the same kind among us examine seriously and measure their Spirits truly hereby Yea he goes yet further in the following Chapter vers 3 4. Vers. 3. As absent in Body 1 Cor. 5.3 13. The Power of giving Judgment in the Church but present in Spirit have judged already as though I were present concerning him that hath so done this Deed. Verse 4. In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ when ye are gathered together and my spirit with the Power of our Lord Jesus Christ c. Would not one think this to have been a very presumptuous Word and yet who dare offer to Condemn it From all which I shall shortly observe that it seems it was judged no Inconsistency nor Contradiction to be Followers of the Grace in themselves to be perswaded in their own Hearts and also to be Followers of the Apostle Paul and of his Ways because his Ways and Example was no other than the Spirit of God in themselves would have led them to if they had been obedient Therefore he found it needful to charge them positively to follow him without adding this Reason Next the great Argument the Apostle uses to perswade them hereunto upon which he mainly insists because he had begotten them into the Truth Ye have not many Fathers As of Fathers for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel wherefore I beseech you be ye Followers of me So he makes that as the Cause which the same Apostle also in his Expostulation with the Galatians putting them in mind how he preached the Gospel to them at first and Chap. 4. Vers. 15. Where is then the Blessedness ye spake of for I bear you Record if possible ye would have plucked out your own Eyes and given them unto me We see then that the Lord hath and doth give such whom he hath furnished and sent forth to gather a People unto himself And Overseers Care and Oversight over that People yea and a certain Authority in the Power over them to bring them back to their Duty when they stray at any Time and to Appoint yea and Command such Things as are needful for Peace and Order and Vnity's sake and that there lies an Obligation upon such as are so gathered to Reverence Honour yea and Obey such as are set over them in the Lord. To be Obeyed For saith the same Apostle 2 Cor. 2.9 For to this End also did I write that I might know the Proof of you whether you be Obedient in all Things and Chap. 7. Vers. 13 15. Yea and exceedingly the more joyed we for the Joy of Titus because his Spirit was refreshed by you all Verse 15. And his inward Affection is more abundant toward you whil'st he remembreth the Obedience of you all how with Fear and Trembling you received him Betrayings of the Enemy Now this will not at all Infer as if they had been Implicitly led of Old or that such as having the same Authority to exercise it now sought Dominion over their Brethrens FAITH or to force them to do any thing beyond far less contrary to what the Lord leads us to by his Spirit but we know as they did of Old that the Enemy lies near to BETRAY under such Pretences And seeing in case of Difference the Lord hath and doth and will Reveal his Will to his People and hath and doth raise up Members of his Body to whom he gives a Discerning and Power and Authority to Instruct Reprove yea and Command in some Cases those that are faithful and low in their Minds keeping their own places and minding the Lord and the Interest and Good of his TRVTH in the general over all The Murmurer shut out shut out the Murmurer and the Spirit of God leads them to have Vnity and concur with their Brethren But such as are heady and high-minded are inwardly Vexed that any should Lead or Rule but themselves And so it is the high Thing in themselves that makes them quarrel with others for taking so much upon them pretending a Liberty not sinking down in the Seed to be willing to be of no Reputation for its sake The Honour of Truth prostrated by Divisions Such rather than give up their own Wills will study to make Rents and Divisions not sparing the Flock but prostrating the Reputation and Honour of the Truth even to the World minister to them an Occasion of Scorn and Laughter to the hardning them in their Wickedness and Atheism Besides these Scriptures mentioned I shall set down a few of many more that might be Instanced to the same Purpose Scriptures for Submission and Lowliness of Mind and Esteem of the Brethren Ephes. 5.21 Submitting your selves one to another in the Fear of God Phil. 2.3 Let nothing be done through Strife or Vain glory but in Lowliness of Mind let each esteem other better than themselves Verse 29. Receive him therefore in the Lord with all Gladness and hold such in Reputation And 3.17 Brethren be Followers together of me and mark them which walk
so as ye have us for an Ensample And 4.9 Those Things which ye have both learned and received and heard and seen in me Do and the God of Peace shall be with you Col. 2.5 For though I be absent in the Flesh yet am I with you in the Spirit joying and beholding your Order and the Stedfastness of your Faith in Christ. 1 Thess. 5.12 And we beseech you Brethren to know them which Labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you Verse 13. And to Esteem them very highly in Love for their Work 's Sake and be at Peace among your selves Verse 14. Now we exhort you Brethren warn them that are unruly comfort the feeble-minded support the weak be patient toward all Men. 2 Thess. 2.15 Therefore Brethren stand fast and hold the Traditions which ye have been taught whether by Word or our Epistle 2 Cor. 10.8 For though I should boast somewhat more of our Authority which the Lord hath given us for Edification and not for your Destruction I should not be ashamed Now though the Papists greatly abuse this place as if hereby they could justifie that Mass of Superstition which they have heaped together yet except we will deny the plain Scripture we must needs believe there lay an Obligation upon the Thessalonians to observe and hold these Appointments and no Doubt needful Institutions which by the Apostles were recommended unto them and yet who will say that they ought or were thereby Commanded to do any thing contrary to that which the Grace of God in their Hearts moved them to 2 Thess. 3.4 And we have Confidence in the Lord touching you that ye both do and will do the Things which we Command you Verse 6. Now we Command you Brethren in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye withdraw your selves from every Brother that walketh disorderly and not after the Tradition which he received of us What more positive than this The Authority of the Church no Imposition and yet the Apostle was not here any Imposer And yet further Verse 14. And if any Man Obey not our Word by this Epistle note that Man and have no Company with him that he may be ashamed Thus Hebr. 13.7 Remember them which have the Rule over you who have spoken unto you the Word of God whose Faith follow considering the End of their Conversation Verse 17. Obey them that have the Rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your Souls as they that must give Account that they may do it with Joy and not with Grief for that is unprofitable for you Jude 8. Likewise also these filthy Dreamers defile the Flesh despise Dominion and speak Evil of Dignities I might at length enlarge if needful upon these Passages any of which is sufficient to prove the Matter in Hand but that what is said may satisfie such as are not wilfully blind and obstinate For there can be nothing more plain from these Testimonies The Primitive Christians Order practised in the Church than that the Ancient Apostles and Primitive Christians practised Order and Government in the Church that some did Appoint and Ordain certain Things Condemn and Approve certain Practices as well as Doctrines by the Spirit of God That there lay an Obligation in Point of Duty upon others to obey and submit That this was no Encroachment nor Imposition upon their Christian Liberty nor any ways contradictory to their being inwardly and immediately led by the Spirit of God in their Hearts And lastly That such as are in the true Feeling and Sense will find it their places to Obey and be one with the Church of Christ in such like Cases And that it 's such as have lost their Sense and Feeling of the Life of the Body that Dissent and are disobedient under the false Pretence of Liberty So that thus it is sufficiently proved what I undertook in this place Thirdly I judge there will need no great Arguments to prove the People of God may and do well to Exercise the like Government upon Reason III the very like Occasion For even Reason may teach us that what proved good and wholsome Cures to the Distemper of the Church in former Ages will not now the very like Distempers falling in prove hurtful and poisonable especially if We have the Testimony of the same Spirit in our Hearts not only allowing us but commanding us so to do Distempers of the Church require a Cure now as of old It is manifest though we are sorry for it that the same Occasions now fall in we find that there are that have eaten and drunken with us at the Table of the Lord and have been Sharers of the same spiritual Joy and Consolation that afterwards fall away We find to our great Grief that some walk disorderly and some are puffed up and strive to sow Division labouring to stumble the weak and to cause Offences in the Church of Christ What then is more suitable and more Christian than to follow the Foot-steps of the Flock and to labour and travel for the good of the Church and for the removing all that is hurtful even as the holy Apostles who walked with Jesus did before us If there be such as walk disorderly now must not they be admonished rebuked and withdrawn from as well as of Old Or is such to be the Condition of the Church in these latter Times that all Iniquity must go unreproved Must it be Heresy or Oppression to watch over one another in Love To take Care for the Poor To see that there be no Corrupt no Defiled Members of the Body and carefully and Christianly deal with them for Restoring them if possible and for withdrawing from them if incurable I am perswaded that there are none that look upon the Commands of Christ and his Apostles the Practice and Experience of the primitive Church and Saints as a sufficient Precedent to authorize a Practice now that will deny the Lawfulness or Vsefulness hereof but must needs acknowledge the Necessity of it But if it be Objected as some have done Do not you deny Objection that the Scripture is the adequate Rule of Faith and Manners and that the Commands or Practices of the Scripture are not a sufficient Warrant for you now to do any thing without you be again Authorized and led unto it by the same Spirit and upon that Score do you not forbear some things both Practised and Commanded by the primitive Church and Saints Well I hope I have not any thing weakned this Objection but presented it in its full Vigour and Strength to which I shall clearly and distinctly answer thus Times alter the Vsefulness of things Commanded First Seasons and Times do not alter the Nature and Substance of Things in themselves though it may cause Things to alter as to the Vsefulness or not Vsefulness of them Secondly Things commanded and practised at certain Times and Seasons fall of
themseves when-as the Cause and Ground for which they were commanded is removed As there is no need now for the Decision about Circumcision seeing there are none Contend for it neither as to the Orders concerning Things Offered to Idols seeing there is now no such Occasion yet who will say that the Command enjoin'd in the same place Acts 15.20 To abstain from Fornication is now made void seeing there is daily need for its standing in force because it yet remains as a Temptation man is incident to We confess indeed we are against such as from the bare Letter of the Scripture though if it were seasonable now to debate it we find but few to deal with whose Practices are so exactly squared seek to uphold Customs Forms or Shadows when the Vse for which they were appointed is removed or the Substance it self known and witnessed as we have sufficiently elsewhere answered our Opposers in the Case of Water-Baptism and Bread and Wine c. so that the Objection as to that doth not hold and the Difference is very wide in respect of such Things the very Nature and Substance of which can never be dispensed with by the People of God so long as they are in this World yea without which they could not be his People For the Doctrines and Fundamental Principles of the Christian Faith we own and believe originally and principally because they are the Truths of God whereunto the Spirit of God in our Hearts hath constrained our Understandings to obey and submit In the second place we are greatly Confirmed The Joint-Testimony of the Apostles c. to the Truths of God in our Hearts Strengthned and Comforted in the Joint-Testimony of our Brethren the Apostles and Disciples of Christ who by the Revelation of the same Spirit in the Days of old believed and have left upon Record the same Truths so we having the same Spirit of Faith according as it is written I believed and therefore have I spoken we also believe and therefore we speak And we deny not but some that from the Letter have had the Notion of these Things have thereby in the Mercy of God received Occasion to have them Revealed in the Life for we freely acknowledge though often calumniated to the contrary that Whatsoever Things were written aforetime were written for our learning that we through Patience and Comfort of the Scriptures may have Hope So then I hope if the Spirit of God lead me now unto that which is good profitable yea and absolutely needful in order to the keeping my Conscience clear and void of Offence towards God and Man none will be so unreasonable as to say I ought not to do it because it is according to the Scriptures Nor do I think it will savour ill among any serious solid Christians for me to be the more confirmed and perswaded that I am led to this Thing by the Spirit that I find it in it self good and useful and that upon the like Occasions Christ Commanded it and the Apostles and Primitive Christians practised and recommended it Now seeing it is so that we can boldly say with a good Conscience in the Sight of God that the same Spirit which leads us to believe the Doctrines and Principles of the Truth and to hold and maintain them again after the Apostacy in their primitive and ancient Purity as they were delivered by the Apostles of Christ in the Holy Scriptures I say that the same Spirit doth now lead us into the like holy Order and Government to be exercised among us as it was among them being now the like Occasion and Opportunity ministred to us therefore what can any Christianly or Rationally object against it For that there is a Real Cause for it the thing it self speaketh A Real Cause for the same Order and that it was the Practice of the Saints and Church of old is undeniable what kind of Ground then can any such Opposers have being such as scrupling at this do notwithstanding acknowledge our Principle that this were done by Imposition or Imitation more than the Belief of the Doctrines and Principles seeing as it is needful to use all Diligence to Convince and Perswade People of the Truth and bring them to the Belief of it which yet we cannot do but as Truth moves and draws in their Hearts it is also no less needful when a People is gathered to keep and preserve them in Vnity and Love as becomes the Church of Christ and to be careful as saith the Apostle That all things be done decently and in Order and that all that is wrong be removed according to the Method of the Gospel and the good cherished and encouraged So that we conclude and that upon very good Grounds That there ought now as well as heretofore to be Order and Government in the Church of Christ. Head III. That which now cometh to be examined in the Third place is First What is the Order and Government we plead for Secondly In what Cases and how far it may extend and in whom the Power Decisive is Thirdly How it differeth and is wholly another than the oppressive and persecuting Principality of the Church of Rome and other Antichristian Assemblies SECTION IV. Of the Order and Government which we plead for IT will be needful then before I proceed to describe the Order and Government of the Church to consider what is or may be properly understood by the Church for some as I touched before seem to be offended or at least afraid of the very Word because The Power of the CHVRCH The Order of the Church The Judgment of the Church and such like Pretences have been the great Weapons wherewith Antichrist and the Apostate Christians have been these many Generations persecuting the Woman and warring against the Man-child And indeed great Disputes have been among the Learned Rabbies in the Apostacy concerning this CHVRCH what it is or what may be so accounted Which I find not my place at present to dive much in but shall only give the true Sense of it according to Truth and the Scriptures plain Testimony What the word Church signifies properly The word CHVRCH in it self and as used in the Scriptures is no other but a Gathering Company or Assembly of certain People called or gathered together for so the Greek Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies which is that the Translators render Church which word is derived from the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Evoco I call out of from the Root 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Voco I Call Now though the English word CHVRCH be only taken in such a Sense as People are gathered together upon a Religious Account yet the Greek word that is so rendered is taken in general for every Gathering or Meeting together of People and therefore where it is said The Town-Clark of the Ephesians dismissed the Tumult that was gathered there together the same Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used Acts 19.41 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he dismissed the Assembly or the Church dimisit concionem A Church then in the Scripture-Phrase is no other than a Meeting or Gathering of certain People which if it be taken in a Religious Sense as most commonly it is are gathered together in the Belief of the same Principles Doctrines and Points of Faith What a Religious Church is whereby as a Body they become distinguished from others and have a certain Relation among themselves and a Conjunct Interest to the maintaining and propagating these Principles they judge to be right and therefore have a certain Care and Oversight over one another to prevent and remove all Occasions that may tend to break this their Conjunct Interest hinder the Propagation of it or bring Infamy Contempt or Contumely upon it or give such as on the other hand are or may be banded together to undo them just Occasion against them to decry and defame them Now the Way to distinguish that Church How to distinguish the true Church from the false Gathering or Assembly of People whereof Christ truly is the Head from such as falsly pretend thereto is by considering the Principles and Grounds upon which they are gathered together the Nature of that Hierarchy and Order they have among themselves the Way and Method they take to uphold it and the Bottom upon which it standeth which will greatly contribute to clear all Mistakes Forasmuch as Sanctification and Holiness is the great and chief End among true Christians which moves them to gather together therefore the Apostle Paul defines the Church in his Salutation to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 1.2 Vnto the Church of God which is at Corinth them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be Saints so the Church is such as are Sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be Saints The Power and Authority Order and Government we speak of The Churches Care over its Members c. is such as a Church Meeting Gathering or Assembly claims towards those that have or do declare themselves Members who own believe and profess the same Doctrines and Principles of Faith with us and go under the same Distinction and Denomination whose Escapes Faults and Errors may by our Adversaries justly be imputed to us if not seasonably and Christianly Reproved Reclaimed or Condemned For we are not so foolish as to concern our selves with those who are not of us far less who stand in Opposition to us so as to Reprove Instruct or Reclaim them as Fellow-Members or Brethren Yet with a respect to remove the general Reproach from the Christian Name with a tender Regard to the good of their Immortal Souls for the Zeal we owe to God's Glory and for the Exaltation and Propagation of his Everlasting Truth and Gospel in the Earth we have not been wanting with the Hazzard of our Lives to seek the Scattered Ones holding forth the Living and Sure Foundation and inviting and perswading all to Obey the Gospel of Christ and to take Notice of his Reproofs as he makes himself manifest in and by his Light in their Hearts So our Care and Travel is and hath been towards those that are without that we may bring them into the Fellowship of the Saints in Light and towards those that are brought in that they may not be led out again or drawn aside either to the Left hand or the Right by the Workings and Temptations of the Enemy These Things being thus cleared and opened we do positively Affirm that we being a People gathered together by the Power of God which most if not all of those that arising among our selves do Oppose us herein have acknowledged into the Belief of certain Principles and Doctrines and also certain Practices and Performances by which we are come to be separated and distinguished from others so as to meet apart and also to Suffer deeply for our Joint-Testimony there are and must of Necessity be as in the gathering of us so in the preserving of us while gathered Diversities of Gifts in the Church Diversities of Gifts and Operations for the edifying of the whole Body Hence saith the Apostle 1 Tim. 5.17 Let the Elders that rule well be counted worthy of double Honour especially they who labour in the Word and Doctrine And this we suppose neither to be Popish nor Antichristian let our Opposers say it as oft as they can without reckoning the Apostles such Secondly Forasmuch as all are not called in the same Station some rich some poor some Servants some Masters some married some unmarried some Widows and some Orphans and so forth it is not only convenient but absolutely needful that there be certain Meetings at certain Places and Times Meetings about Business as may best sute the Conveniencies of such who may be most particularly concerned in them where both those that are to take Care may Assemble and those who may need this Care may come and make known their Necessities and receive Help whether by Counsel or Supply according to their respective Needs This doth not at all contradict the Principle of being Led inwardly and immediately by the Spirit else how came the Apostle in that Day of the Powerful pouring forth of the Spirit of God to set apart Men for this Purpose established by the Apostle sure this was not to lead them from their Inward Guide yea of the contrary it is expresly said Look ye out among you Seven Men of honest Report full of the Holy Ghost and Wisdom whom we may appoint over this Business Sure they were not to undertake a Business being full of the Holy Ghost which might import a Contradiction to their being led by it So we see it is both fit and suitable to the Apostle's Doctrine to have Meetings about Business Now if any should be so whimsical or conceited as to scruple their being at set Places and Times though these be nothing relative to the Essential parts but only Circumstances relating to the Conveniency of our Persons which we must have Regard to so long as we are cloathed with Flesh and Blood and such Notionists as are against this Godly Care work far more in their vain Imaginations than they reduce to Practice being like unto such of whom the Apostle James testified who content themselves with saying to the Naked Be â—loathed and to the Hungry be fed while they offer not in the least to Minister to them those Things which are needful for Cloathing and Feeding of them Yet shall we not scruple to make it appear that it is not without very good Ground that we both appoint Places and Times Convenient Places to Meet in And first As to the Place I say as before it is with our Bodies we must meet as well as with our Spirits and so of Necessity we must convey our Bodies unto one Place that we may speak and act in those Things we Meet for
few but will acknowledge the Care and Order in these Cases to be Commendable and Expedient Now I come to consider the things of another kind which either verily are or are supposed to be Matters of CONSCIENCE or at least wherein People may lay claim to Conscience in the acting or forbearing of them In which the great Question is How far in such Cases the Church may give positive Orders or Rules How far her Authority reacheth or may be supposed to be binding and ought to be submitted to For the better clearing and Examination of which it will be fit to Consider First Whether the Church of Christ have Power in any Cases that Quest. I are Matters of Conscience to give a positive Sentence and Decision which may be Obligatory upon Believers Secondly If so in what Cases and Respects she may so do Quest. II Thirdly Wherein consisteth the Freedom and Liberty of Conscience Quest. III which may be exercised by the Members of the true Church diversly without judging one another And Lastly In whom the Power decisive is in Case of Controversy Quest. IV or Contention in such Matters Which will also lead us To observe the vast Difference betwixt us and the Papists and others in this particular As to the First Whether the Church of Christ have Power in any Quest. I Cases that are Matters of Conscience to give a positive Sentence and Decision which may be Obligatory upon Believers I Answer Affirmatively she hath Answ. and shall prove it from divers Instances both from Scripture and Reason For First All Principles and Articles of Faith which are held doctrinally Articles of Faith are Matters of Conscience are in Respect to those that believe them Matters of Conscience We know the Papists do out of Conscience such as are zealous among them adore worship and pray to Angels Saints and Images yea and to the Eucharist as judging it to be really Christ Jesus and so do others place Conscience in things that are absolutely wrong Now I say 1. Proof from Right-Reason We being gathered together into the Belief of certain Principles and Doctrines without any Constraint or worldly Respect but by the meer Force of Truth upon our Understanding and its Power and Influence upon our Hearts these Principles and Doctrines and the Practices necessarily depending upon them are as it were the Terms that have drawn us together and the * Yet this is not so the Bond but that we have also a more inward and invisible to wit the Life of Righteousness whereby we also have Vnity with the upright Seed in all even in those whose Vnderstandings are not yet so enlightned But those who are once enlightned this is as an outward Bond and if they suffer themselves to be darkned through Disobedience which as it does in the outward Bond so it doth in the inward Bond by which we became centered into one Body and Fellowship and distinguished from others Now if any one or more so engaged with us should arise to teach any other Doctrine or Doctrines contrary to these which were Ground of our being One who can deny but the Body hath Power in such a Case to declare This is not according to the Truth we profess and therefore we pronounce such and such Doctrines to be wrong with which we cannot have Unity nor yet any more Spiritual Fellowship with those as hold them And so such Cut themselves off from being Members by dissolving the very Bond by which they were linked to the Body Now this cannot be accounted Tyranny and Oppression no more than in a Civil Society if one of the Society shall contradict one or more of the fundamental Articles upon which the Society was contracted it can be reckon'd a breach or iniquity in the whole Society to declare that such Contradictors have done wrong and forfeited their Right in that Society in case by the Original Constitution the Nature of the Contradiction implys such a Forfeiture as usually it is and will no doubt hold in Religious Matters As if a Body be gathered into one Fellowship by the Belief of certain Principles The Disbeliever of the Principles of a Fellowship excludes himself therefrom and scatters he that comes to believe otherways naturally scattereth himself for that the Cause that gathered him is taken away and so those that abide Constant in declaring the thing to be so as it is and in looking upon him and witnessing of him to others if need be to be such as he has made himself do him no Injury I shall make the Supposition in the general and let every People make the Application to themselves abstracting from us and then let Conscience and Reason in every Impartial Reader declare whether or not it doth not hold Suppose a People really gathered unto the Belief of the true and certain Principles of the Gospel if any of these people shall arise and Contradict any of those fundamental Truths whether has not such as stand good right to Cast such a one out from among them and to pronounce positively This is contrary to the Truth we profess and own and therefore ought to be rejected and not received nor yet he that Asserts it as one of us And is not this Obligatory upon all the Members seeing all are concerned in the like Care as to themselves to hold the right and shut out the wrong I cannot tell if any man of Reason can well deny this however I shall prove it next from the Testimony of the Scripture Gal. 1.8 But though we or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel unto you 2 Proof from Scripture than that which we have preached unto you let him be accursed As we said before so say I now again If any man preach any other Gospel unto you than that ye have received let him be accursed 1 Tim. 1.19 20. Holding Faith and a Good Conscience which some having put away concerning Faith have made shipwrack Of whom is Hymeneus and Alexander whom I have delivered unto Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme 2 John 10. If there come any unto you and bring not this Doctrine receive him not into your House neither bid him Rejoyce for so the Greek hath it These Scriptures are so plain and clear in themselves as to this Purpose that they need no great Exposition to the Unbyassed and Unprejudicate Reader Fore-seeing it is so that in the True Church there may men arise and speak perverse things contrary to the Doctrine and Gospel already received what is to be the place of those that hold the pure and ancient Truth Must they look upon these perverse men still as their Brethren Must they cherish them as Fellow-Members or must they judge condemn and deny them We must not think the Apostle wanted Charity who will have them Accursed and that gave Hymenaeus and Alexander over to Satan Hymenaeus and Alexander Instanced after that they had departed from
the true Faith that they might learn not to Blaspheme In short if we must as our Opposers herein acknowledge preserve and keep those that are come to own the Truth by the same means they were gathered and brought into it we must not cease to be plain with them and tell them when they are wrong and by sound Doctrine both Exhort and Convince Gainsayers If the Apostles of Christ of old and the Preachers of the Everlasting Gospel in this day had told all People however wrong they found them in their Faith and Principles Our Charity and Love is such We dare not judge you A wrong Charity and false Love to Cherish in Error is nor separate from you but let us all live in Love together and every one injoy his own Opinion and all will be well how should the Nations have been or what way now can they be brought to Truth and Righteousness Would not the Devil love this Doctrine well by which Darkness and Ignorance Error and Confusion might still continue in the Earth unreproved and uncondemned If it was needful then for the Apostles of Christ in the days of old to Reprove without sparing to tell the High-Priests and great Professors among the Jews That they were stubborn and stiff-necked and always resisted the Holy Ghost without being guilty of Imposition and Oppression or want of true Love and Charity and also for those Messengers the Lord raised up in this day to Reprove and Cry out against the Hireling Priests and to tell the World openly both Professors and Profane That they were in Darkness and Ignorance out of the Truth Strangers and Aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel if God has gathered a People by this means into the Belief of one and the same Truth must not they they turn and depart from it be Admonished Reproved and Condemned yea rather than those that are not yet come to the Truth because they Crucifie afresh unto themselves the Lord of Glory and put him to open Shame It seems the Apostle judged it very needful they should be so dealt with Tit. 1.10 when he says There are many unruly and vain Talkers and Deceivers especially they of the Circumcision WHOSE MOVTHS MVST BE STOPPED c. Were such a Principle to be received or believed That in the Church of Christ no man should be Separated from no man Condemned or Excluded the Fellowship and Communion of the Body for his Judgment or Opinion in Matter of Faith The Inlet to all manner of Abominations then what Blasphemies so horrid what Heresies so damnable what Doctrines of Devils but might harbour it self in the Church of Christ What need then of sound Doctrine if no Doctrine make unsound what need of Convincing and Exhorting Gainsayers if to Gainsay be no Crime where should the Vnity of the Faith be Were not this an Inlet to all manner of Abominations and to make void the whole tendency of Christ and his Apostles Doctrine and render the Gospel of none Effect and give a Liberty to the unconstant and giddy Will of Man to innovate alter and overturn it at his Pleasure So that from all that is above-mentioned we do safely Conclude That where a People are gathered together into the Belief of the Principles and Doctrines of the Gospel of Christ if any of that People shall go from their Principles and assert things false and contrary to what they have already received such as stand and abide firm in the Faith have Power by the Spirit of God after they have used Christian Endeavours to Convince and Reclaim them upon their Obstinacy to Separate from such and to Exclude them from their spiritual Fellowship and Communion for otherways if this be denied farewel to all Christianity or to the maintaining of any sound Doctrine in the Church of Christ. But secondly Taking it for granted that the Church of Christ or Assembly of Believers may in some Cases that are Matter of Conscience Quest. II pronounce a positive Sentence and Judgment without hazzard of Imposition upon the Members it comes to be inquired In what Cases and how far this Power reacheth I answer First As that which is most clear and undeniable In the fundamental Principles and Doctrines of Faith Answer in Case any should offer to teach otherways as is above declared and proved But some may perhaps acknowledge that indeed if any should Contradict the known and owned Principles of Truth and teach otherways it were fit to cast out and exclude such but what judgest thou as to lesser matters as in Principles of less Consequence or in outward Ceremonies or Gestures whether it be fit to press Vniformity in these things Consideration For Answer to this it is fit to Consider First The Nature of things themselves Secondly The Spirit and Ground they proceed from And Thirdly The Consequence and Tendency of them But before I proceed upon these I affirm and that according to Truth That as the Church and Assembly of God's People may and hath Power to Decide by the Spirit of God in Matters fundamental and weighty without which no Decision nor Decree in whatever Matters is available so the same Church and Assembly also in other Matters of less Moment The Decision of Matters of less Moment in the Church Obligatory as to themselves yet being needful and expedient with a Respect to the Circumstance of Time Place and other things that may fall in may and hath Power by the same Spirit and not otherways being acted moved and assisted and led by it thereto to pronounce a positive Judgment which no doubt will be found Obligatory upon all such who have a Sense and Feeling of the Mind of the Spirit though rejected by such as are not watchful and so are out of the Feeling and Vnity of the Life And this is that which none that own Immediate Revelation or a being inwardly led by the Spirit to be now a thing expected or dispensed to the Saints can without contradicting their own Principle deny far less such with whom I have to do in this Matter who claiming this Priviledge to Particulars saying That they being moved to do such and such things though contrary to the Mind and Sense of their Brethren are not to be judged for it adding Why may it not be so that God hath moved them to it Now if this be a sufficient Reason for them to suppose as to one or two I may without absurdity suppose it as well to the whole Body And therefore as to the first to wit Cons. 1 The Nature of the things themselves If it be such a thing the doing or not doing whereof that is either any Act or the Forbearance of any may bring a real Reproach or Ground of Accusation against the Truth professed and owned and in and through which there may a visible Schism and Dissension arise in the Church Against the Reproach of Truth by which Truth 's Enemies may be
not thence to take Occasion justly to Suspect the Effects and Fruits of the same Spirit in them even where it hath Appeared in things for which they may have somewhat more to say Surely with men of inward Tenderness this cannot but have great Weight And albeit that my Intentions were so Clear in this matter yet I will not say but the Lord whose Ways are unsearchable and past finding out may have purposed by those Papers seasonably to Reprove and single out a Wrong Spirit And therefore all concerned had need in true Tenderness and Godly Fear to beware how they shut out and turn by the Warnings and Admonitions of the Lord A Warning from the Lord. by seeking to Carp at and find fault with the Innocent Instruments least they be found foolishly like those Dogs to Run after and seek to bite the Stone because they cannot reach the Hand that threw it I have known this by manifold Experience to have been a Snare to many and therefore without the least Prejudice or Reflection upon any God knows out of true Tenderness and Love do desire it may be seriously weighed in the true Light by all that may feel themselves concerned in this matter Expl. I But now First as to the things Scrupled at whereas some did suppose That I did Ascribe to Friends Meetings an Absolute Jurisdiction over Mens Property in outward things Concerning Property See above pag. 207 208 209. therein I have been greatly Mistaken For I never intended any such thing but simply to hold forth that which by the Apostle to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 6. is urged That whereas there would a Manifest Scandal arise from Friends going to Law together Friends going to Law together that therefore such as will rather go to Law than seek to come to Agreement by the Interposing of Friends ought with a respect to their bringing such a Scandal to be Censured since it cannot be supposed that any such Difference as to outward things can fall out among Friends but some or other may be found who either by their own Knowledge or by Advice and Information of such as may be known in the Matter Controverted may bring it to an End Expl. II Secondly That whereas I say There will not be wanting in case of Controversy the Spirit of God to give Judgment through one or other in the Church of Christ Decision of Differences See above pag 227 232. so long as any Assembly can properly or in any tolerable sense be so called some have supposed that by those last Words I did Insinuate as if any Assembly Assuming to themselves the Name of the Church of Christ and having some shew of it may of right claim the Power of such Decision and ought accordingly to be Submitted unto Such a thing never entered me but was far from my Intentions For albeit that I Judge that an Assembly may sometimes deserve the Name of the Church of Christ or not to have lost the Claim albeit not altogether so Fresh and Lively at least in the generality of its Members and so under some Languishing and Hazzard to Decay if Life do not again come up more abundantly The seven Churches of Asia as may be seen in the Example of the Seven Churches of Asia whom notwithstanding of the several Weaknesses divers of them were under yet the Apostle or rather the Spirit of Christ by the Apostle dignifies with the Name of the Churches of Christ. Neither did I intend to make this Judgment necessary to Attend every particular Church or Assembly But by the Church there I understood it in a more Vniversal Sense that is Some or other among all the Churches of Christ who being spoken of in the Complex may be rightly termed the Church of Christ And this is manifest in the same Example of the Churches of Asia For albeit we might suppose there might have been wanting in each of them some to give forth this true Judgment concerning them yet in respect they were such as in some tolerable supposition might be termed the Churches of Christ albeit some of them had left their first Love and were near to have their Candlestick Removed Rev. 2.4 5 14 15 20. Chap. 3 16. and some had the Doctrine of Balaam and of the Nicolaitans and some suffered the Woman Jezabel and some were Luke-warm and ready to be Spewed out yet we see God would not suffer them to be without a Certain Judgment but gave forth one through the Apostle John who was a Member of the Church But to Esteem that any Assembly may be tolerably supposed to be the Church of Christ False Church where either the True Doctrines and Principles are wanting or the True Life and Power in some good measure is not felt and known is far from my thoughts Yea how far I am Contrary-minded may be seen at large in my Apology upon the Tenth Proposition now published in English page 194 195 196 200 201 202 c. * See Apol. Prop. 10. § V. and X. Thirdly Whereas it was thought strange that I should call Doctrines Expl. III and Principles the Bonds and Terms of our being together I understand it only of an Outward Bond Principles a Bond. and that I laid the stress upon it no further appears in that I Affirm Those Principles and Doctrines to be the product of Truth 's Power and Vertue upon the Heart which appears by what is printed upon the * See above pag. 213. Margent And William Rogers saying in his Papers That this was but like the Entertainment of Christ in the Manger shews too little of Christian Sobriety and too much of a Scornful Reflection for which I will rather chuse to Forgive him than therein to Contend with him For how much I value that Inward Bond to wit the Life of Righteousness beyond the Outward and that I esteem the Outward not at all to be valued but as it comes from the Inward may be seen throughout all I have Written in my Apology upon the Tenth Proposition and elsewhere And my Affirming Exclusion That any denying of any of the Truth 's Principles and Doctrines is a ground of Disowning Was only in respect that who do so do manifestly thence make it appear they have broken the Inward Bond first from which that Outward did naturally spring and arise Fourthly If any do suppose that by my Asserting The Ancient Apostolick Order was Established amongst us upon the right Basis and Foundation I intended that those particular Orders relating to Outward Expl. IV things that were among the Apostles either was or were to be Established among us they did much Mistake me For I never purposed any such thing Our Order and its Foundation but only to signify that by Establishing the Government and Authority in and upon the Spirit onely and such as are led by it we did Establish it upon the same Basis and Foundation where-upon that
Exercised in the Church in the days of the Apostles were built For I am far from believing that the most Exact Conformity to the Order and Method of the Church in the Apostles days Conformity from the Life or even to what may now be Appointed by the same Spirit without the Inward Life and Vertue go along signifies any thing for I know that nothing done by meer Imitation will any thing avail in the Worship and Service of God and therefore that No Act done without Conviction will any ways be profitable to the Doer Yet that hindreth not but that such as forbear to do what by the Testimony of God in his Servants is Commanded to be performed in the Church are Justly to be blamed and be judged therefore in respect that through Disobedience and Vnwatchfulness they have blinded themselves from the sight and knowledge of their Duty For if it should be said No man were to be Condemned for not doing that which he sees not to be his Duty Then no man were to be Condemned who had by Iniquity and Vnwatchfulness brought Hardness and Blindness upon himself The Hardned and blinded see not their Duty for all the Iniquities he commits afterwards And how would this tend to Establish Ranterism the substance of which is to bring their Consciences to that pass as not to be sensible of any Checks Then the Nations are not to be blamed for all their Idolatry Wickedness and Superstition for that they are not sensible of the Evil of it Whereas Truth teaches us to believe that had they been faithful to the small measure of Light in things more obvious it would have further opened and manifested other things The Jews Crucifying Christ ignorantly Then should not the Jews have been Condemned for Crucifying Christ since Peter says They did it Ignorantly And Paul testifies That if they had known they would not have Crucified the Lord of Glory Yea then all those that persecuted and burned the Protestant Martyrs Martyrs Instanced were not to be Judged for it because they suppose they did well in it even according to Christ's Testimony who says That in killing you they shall think they do God good Service Shall men then never be Condemned for doing evil or omitting their duty because they see it not What Absurdity would follow thereupon may easily appear And yet its strange that William Rogers in his Papers should labour so much against this Affirming very positively That nothing ought to be given forth in the Church of Christ but by way of Recommendation and not of Command Wherein he doth either greatly Mistake the matter as affirmed by me or otherways run into a far greater Inconveniency than he is aware For if he mean That no Man of or from himself only or by vertue of any Office or Place he either hath or hath born in the Church of Christ ought to Command any thing to be performed in the Church I freely Agree to it and have Asserted the same in very full and ample Terms But if he will say That no man albeit really moved by the Spirit of God ought to go further than a meer Recommendation It is a most Insolent Limiting of God under a false pretence of liberty and will necessarily Conclude that God hath not power to Command any thing unless Men be content to agree to it For the Controversy is here drawn to a Narrow Compass For he that will allow that God hath power to Command things to be practised in the Church and that those Commands must be Conveyed by Immediate Revelation through some of the Members of the Church and that it may fall out that some of the Members of the Church may through Weakness or Vnwatchfulness not be sensible they must either acknowledge that Such are to be Condemned or say that God hath not power to Command or that there is no such Revelation now-a-days as do the Priests and Truth 's Enemies or that Man is not Condemnable for disobeying God if he believe it not to be his Duty which is as much as to say that Vnbelief is no sin Now let these things be seriously Considered how this is or can be Avoided without granting the things Affirmed by me For what way can the Truth be Asserted the honour and just Authority of God Acknowledged the Necessity of the continuance of Immediate Revelation Affirmed and the Iniquity of Vnbelief not Justified and the just Judgment of God upon the Rebellious and Disobedient Vindicated without Affirming what I have done And if any can do this in words more wary than I have done I shall very readily Agree to it For that things may be proposed to the Church by way of Command and further than a meer Recommendation the whole Current of the Scripture shews not only to the Churches among the Jews where Moses and the Prophets do propose the Will of God to be performed very positively and peremptorily but even under the New Covenant as appears in the Eleventh of the Acts and in many places of Paul's Epistles particularly that on 2 Thess. 3.14 If any man Obey not our word by this Epistle note that man and have no Company with him that he may be ashamed This then being manifest with respect to those Times I would know of W. R. Whether Christ has now lost any of his Authority as he has left off to Rule his Church Immediately by his Spirit and whether so to Affirm be not grosly to Contradict the Antient and Primitive Doctrine of Friends Fifthly Whereas some did suppose that I did make the Difference Expl. V in the end but very small betwixt Decisive Judgment among Friends and among Papists and other Persons because I say Decisive Judgment They place the Decisive Judgment in the plurality of an Assembly made up of their Chief Teachers and Ministers And albeit I Limit it not to that yet I seem to Affirm that it most usually is so conveyed and so the difference only is that they make it always so and I most usually To this I Answer That if in Charity I may suppose this Insinuation comes not from Malice at least it proceeds from great Ignorance of the Popish Principle and it were better for such to be Silent than to Judge of things they do not understand For the Difference here is very great and Fundamental in respect both Papists and others do Affirm That men by vertue of an outward Succession or Vocation may have true Right to sit and give Judgment in such Assemblies Papists pleading Succession c. albeit they be void of true Holiness and have not the Grace of God which they say is no Necessary Qualification to the being of a Minister So that they place the power of Judgment not only in the plurality of Votes absolutely in which we differ from them but also in the Judgment of such as may without any absurdity by their own Principles be supposed to be all
to all the Saints that then were So that according to these mens Comment there should be a very unnecessary and foolish Redundancy in the Apostle's words as if he had said He is a Propitiation not only for the sins of all Believers but for the sins of all Believers Is not this to make the Apostle's words void of good sense Let them shew us wherever there is such a manner of speaking in all the Scripture where any of the Pen-men first name the Believers in Concretô with themselves and then Contra-distinguish them from some other whole World of Believers That Whole World if it be of Believers must not be the World we live in But we need no better Interpreter for the Apostle than himself who uses the very same Expression and Phrase in the same Epistle c. 5.19 saying We know that we are of God and the Whole World lieth in Wickedness there cannot be found in all the Scripture two places which run more parallel seeing in both the same Apostle in the same Epistle to the same persons Contra-distinguisheth himself and the Saints to whom he writes from the Whole World which according to these mens Commentary ought to be understood of Believers as if John had said We know particular Believers are of God but the whole World of Believers lieth in wickedness what Absurd Wresting of Scripture were this and yet it may be as well pleaded for as the other for they differ not at all Seeing then that the Apostle John tells us plainly that Christ not only died for him and for the Saints and Members of the Church of God to whom he wrote but for the Whole World Let us then hold it for a Certain and Vndoubted Truth notwithstanding the Cavils of such as Oppose This might also be proved from many more Scripture-Testimonies if it were at this Season needful All the Fathers so called and Doctors of the Church for the first four Centuries preached this Doctrine according to which they boldly held forth the Gospel of Christ The Heathens invited to Salvation none predestinated to Damnation and Efficacy of his Death Inviting and Intreating the Heathens to Come and be Partakers of the Benefits of it shewing them how there was a Door open for them ALL to be Saved through Jesus Christ not telling them that God had predestinated any of them to Damnation or had made Salvation Impossible to them by with-holding Power and Grace necessary to believe from them But of many of their Sayings which might be Alledged I shall only Instance a Few Augustine on Psalm 95. saith The Blood of Christ is of so great Proof 4 worth that it is of no less value than the Whole World Prosper ad Gall. c. 9. The Testimonies of the Fathers and Doctors of the first Church that Christ died for all The Redeemer of the World gave his Blood for the World and the World would not be Redeemed because the Darkness did not receive the Light He that saith the Saviour was not Crucified for the Redemption of the Whole World looks not to the vertue of the Sacrament but to the part of Infidels since the Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ is the price of the Whole World from which Redemption they are Strangers who either delighting in their Captivity would not be Redeemed or after they were Redeemed Returned to the same Servitude The same Prosper in his Answer to Vincentius's first Objection Seeing therefore because of one Common Nature and Cause in Truth undertaken by our Lord all are rightly said to be Redeemed and nevertheless all are not brought out of Captivity the Property of Redemption without doubt belongeth to those from whom the Prince of this World is shut out and now are not Vessels of the Devil but Members of Christ whose Death was so bestowed upon Mankind that it belonged to the Redemption of such who were not to be Regenerated but so that that which was done by the Example of one for all might by a singular Mystery be Celebrated in every one For the Cup of Immortality which is made up of our Infirmity and the Divine Power hath indeed that in it which may profit all but if it be not Drunk it doth not Heal. The Author de Vocat Gentium lib. 11. cap. 6. There is no Cause to doubt but that our Lord Jesus Christ died for sinners and wicked men and if there can be any found who may be said not to be of this Number Christ hath not died for all he made himself a Redeemer for the Whole World Chrysostom on John 1. If he Inlightens every man coming into the World how comes it that so many men remain without Light For all do not so much as Acknowledge Christ how then doth he Inlighten every man He Illuminates indeed so far as in him is but if any of their own Accord closing the Eyes of their Mind will not direct their Eyes unto the Beams of this Light The Cause of remaining in Darkness the Cause that they remain in Darkness is not from the Nature of the Light but through their own Malignity who willingly have rendred themselves Vnworthy of so great a Gift But why believed they not Because they would not Christ did his part The Arelatensian Synod held about the Year 490. pronounced him Accursed who should say That Christ hath not died for all or that he would not have all men to be saved Ambrose on Psal. 118. Serm. 8. The Mystical Sun of Righteousness is arisen to all he came to all he suffered for all and rose again for all And therefore he suffered that he might take away the sin of the World But if any one Believe not in Christ he Robbs himself of this general Benefit even as if one by Closing the Windows should hold out the Sun-beams The Sun-beams shut out heat not the Sun is not therefore not Arisen to all because such a one hath so robbed himself of its Heat but the Sun keeps its prerogative It is such a ones Imprudence that he shuts himself out from the Common Benefit of the Light The same man in his 11 th Book of Cain and Abel cap. 13. saith Therefore he brought unto all the Means of Health that whosoever should perish may ascribe to himself the Causes of his Death who would not be Cured when he had the Remedy by which he might have Escaped § IX Seeing then that this Doctrine of the Vniversality of Christ's Death is so Certain and Agreeable to the Scripture's Testimony and to the Sense of the purest Antiquity it may be wondered how so many some whereof have been Esteemed not only Learned but also Pious have been Capable to Fall into so gross and strange an Error But the Cause of this doth evidently appear in that the Way and Method by which the Vertue and Efficacy of this Death is Communicated to all men hath not been rightly understood or indeed hath been Erroneously Affirmed
and always have denied that Popish Notion of Meritum ex Condigno Nevertheless we cannot deny but that God out of his Infinite goodness wherewith he hath loved mankind after he Communicates to him his holy Grace and Spirit doth according to his own Will Recompence and Reward the good Works of his Children and therefore this Merit of Congruity or Reward God Rewards the good Words of his Children in so far as the Scripture is plain and positive for it we may not deny neither wholly Reject the Word in so far as the Scripture makes use of it For the same Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Merit is also in those places where the Translators express it Worth or Worthy as Matth. 3.8 1 Thess. 2.12 2 Thess. 1.5 8. concerning which R. Baxter saith in the above cited Book p. 8. But in a larger sense as Promise is an Obligation and the thing Promised is said to be Debt so the Performers of the Conditions are called Worthy and that which they Perform Merit although properly all be of Grace and not of Debt Also those who are called the Fathers of the Church frequently used this word of Merit whose sayings concerning this matter I think not needful to insert because it is not doubted but evident that many Protestants are not averse from this word in the sense that we use it The Apology for the Augustan Confession Art 20. hath these words We agree that Works are truly Meritorious not of Remission of Sins or Justification but they are Meritorious of â—ther rewards Corporal and Spiritual which are indeed as well in this life as after this life And further Seeing Works Prop. 8 are a certain fulfilling of the Law they are rightly said to be Meritorious it is rightly said that a Reward is due to them In the Acts of the Conference of Oldenburgh the Electoral Divines p. 110. 265. say Conference of Oldenburgh In this sense our Churches also are not Averse from the word Merit used by the Fathers neither therefore do they defend the Popish Doctrine of Merit G. Vossius G. Vossius of the word Merit in his Theological These concerning the Merits of Good Works saith We have not adventured to condemn the word Merit wholly as being that which both many of the Ancients use and also the Reformed Churches have used in their Confessions Now that God judgeth and accepteth men according to their Works is beyond doubt to those that seriously will read and consider these Scriptures Matth. 17.26 Rom. 2.6 7 10. 2 Cor. 5.10 James 1.25 Hebr. 10.35 1 Pet. 1.17 Rev. 22.12 § XIII And to conclude this Theam let none be so bold as to mock God supposing themselves Justified and Accepted in the sight of God by virtue of Christ's Death and Sufferings while they remain unsanctified and unjustified in their own hearts and polluted in their sins left their Hope prove that of the Hypocrite which perisheth Neither let any foolishly Imagine Job 8.13 that they can by their own Works or by the performance of any Ceremonies or Traditions or by the giving of Gold or Money or by afflicting their Bodies in Will-worship and voluntary Humility or foolishly striving to Conform their Way to the ouward Letter of the Law flatter themselves that they Merit before God or draw a Debt upon him The Hope of the Hypocrite shall perish but Grace is to the Humble or that any man or men have power to make such kind of things Effectual to their Justification lest they be found foolish Boasters and Strangers to Christ and his Righteousness indeed But blessed for ever are they that having truly had a sense of their own Vnworthiness and Sinfulness and having seen all their own Endeavours and Performances fruitless and vain and beheld their own Emptiness and the vanity of their vain Hopes Faith and Confidence while they remained inwardly pricked pursued and condemned by God's Holy Witness in their hearts and so having applied themselves thereto and suffered his Grace to work in them are become chang'd and renew'd in the spirit of their minds past from death to Life and know Jesus arisen in them working both the Will and the Deed and so having put on the Lord Jesus Christ in Effect are Cloathed with him partake of his Righteousness and Nature such can draw near to the Lord with Boldness and know their Acceptance in and by him in whom and in as many as are found in him the Father is well-pleased PROPOSITION VIII Concerning Perfection In whom this Pure and Holy Birth is fully brought forth the body of Death and Sin comes to be Crucified and Removed and their Hearts united and subjected to the Truth so as not to obey any Suggestions or Temptations of the Evil one to be free from Actual Sinning and Transgressing of the Law of God and in that respect perfect yet doth this Perfection still admit of a Growth and there remaineth always in some part a Possibility of Sinning where the mind doth not most diligently and watchfully Attend unto the Lord. § I. SInce we have placed Justification in the Revelation of Jesus Christ formed and brought forth in the heart there working his Works of Righteousness and bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit The question is How far he may prevail in us while we are in this life or we over our Soul's Enemies in and by his strength Those that plead for Justification wholly without them meerly by Imputative Righteousness denying the Necessity of being cloathed with real and inward Righteousness do consequently affirm These are the words of the Westminster larger Catechism That it is Impossible for a man even the best of men to be Free of Sin in this life which they say no man ever was but on the contrary that none can neither of himself nor by any Grace received in this life O wicked Saying against the power of God's Grace keep the Commandments of God perfectly but that every man doth break the Commandments in thought word and deed Whence they also affirm as was a little before observed That the very best Actions of the Saints their prayers their worships are impure and polluted Whether it is possible to keep the Commandments of God We on the contrary though we freely acknowledge this of the Natural Fall'n Man in his first state whatever his profession or pretence may be so long as he is Vnconverted and Vnregenerate yet we do believe that those in whom Christ comes to be formed and the New Part I Man brought forth and born of the Incorruptible Seed as that Birth and man in Vnion therewith naturally doth the Will of God so it is possible so far to keep to it Controversy stated as not to be found daily Transgressors of the Law of God And for the more clear Stating of the Controversy let it be considered § II. First That we place not this possibility in Man 's own Will
expressed by the Apostle Eph. 5.25 26 27. Even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word That he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish Now if Christ hath really thus answered the thing he Came for then the Members of this Church are not always sinning in thought word and deed or there is no difference betwixt being sanctified and unsanctified clean and unclean holy and unholy being daily blemished with sin and being without blemish § VI. Fourthly This Doctrine renders the Work of the Ministry the Proof IV Preaching of the Word the Writing of the Scriptures and the Prayers of the holy men altogether Vseless and Ineffectual As to the first Eph. 4.11 Pastors and Teachers are said to be given for the perfection of Saints c. till we all come in the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto a measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Now if there be a Necessity of sinning daily and in all things then there can be no perfection for such as do so cannot be esteemed perfect And if for Effectuating this perfection in the Saints the Ministry be appointed and disposed of God Pastors Teachers and Scriptures are given for the Perfecting of the Saints do not such as deny the possibility hereof render the Ministry Vseless and of no profit seeing there can be no other true Vse assigned but to lead people out of sin into righteousness If so be these Ministers assure us that we need never expect to be delivered from it do not they render their own Work needless what needs Preaching against sin for the reproving of which all preaching is if it can never be forsaken Our Adversaries are Exalters of the Scriptures in words much crying up their usefulness and perfection Now the Apostle tells us 2 Tim. 3.17 that the Scriptures are for making the man of God perfect and if this be denied to be Attainable in this life then the Scriptures are of no profit For in the other life we shall not have use for them It renders the Prayers of the Saints altogether Vseless seeing themselves do Confess they ought to pray daily that God would deliver them from evil and free them from sin by the help of his Spirit and Grace while in this world But though we might suppose this Absurdity to follow that their Prayers are without Faith yet were not that so much if it did not infer the like upon the holy Apostles who prayed earnestly for this End and therefore no doubt believed it Attainable Col 4.12 Labouring fervently for you in prayers that ye may stand perfect c. 1 Thess. 3.13 5.23 c. Proof V § VII But Fifthly This Doctrine is Contrary to Common Reason and Sense For the Two opposite Principles whereof the one Rules in the Children of Darkness Darkness and Light Sin and Righteousness Inconsistent together the other in the Children of Light are Sin and Righteousness And as they are respectively leavened and acted by them so they are accounted either as Reprobated or Justified seeing it is Abomination in the sight * Prov. 17.15 of God either to Justify the Wicked or Condemn the Just. Now to say that men cannot be so leavened with the one as to be delivered from the other is in plain words to affirm that Sin and Righteousness are Consistent and that a man may be truly termed Righteous though he be daily sinning in every thing he doth And then what difference betwixt Good and Evil Is not this to fall into that great abomination of Putting Light for darkness and calling good evil and evil good since they say The very best Actions of God's Children are defiled and polluted and that Those that sin daily in thought word and deed are good men and women the Saints and holy Servants of the Holy Pure God Can there be any thing more repugnant than this to Common Reason Since the Subject is still denominated from that Accident that doth most Influence it As a Wall is called White when there is much Whiteness and black when there is much blackness and such like But when there is more Vnrighteousness in a man than Righteousness that man ought rather to be denominated unrighteous than righteous If all daily sin where is the Righteous man then spoken of in Scripture Then surely if every man sin daily in thought word and deed and that in his Sins there is no Righteousness at all and that all his Righteous Actions are polluted and mixed with sin then there is in every man more Vnrighteousness than Righteousness and so no man ought to be called Righteous no man can be said to be sanctified or washed Where are then the Children of God Where are the purified ones where are they who were sometimes Vnholy but now Holy That sometimes were Darkness but now are Light in the Lord There can none such be found then at this rate except that Vnrighteousness be esteemed so And is not this to fall into that abomination above-mentioned of Justifying the Vngodly This certainly lands in that horrid Blasphemy of the Ranters that affirm There is no difference betwixt good and evil and that all is one in the sight of God I could shew many more Gross Absurdities Evil Consequences and manifest Contradictions plied in this sinful Doctrine but this may suffice at present by which also in a good measure The Blasphemy of the Ranters or Libertines the probation of the Truth we affirm is Advanced Yet nevertheless for the further Evidencing of it I shall proceed to the second thing proposed by me to wit To prove this from several Testimonies of the Holy Scriptures § VIII And first I prove it from the peremptory positive Command of Sect. II Christ and his Apostles seeing this is a Maxime ingraven in every man's Proof I heart naturally That no man is bound to that which is Impossible Since then Christ and his Apostles have commanded us to keep all the Commandments and to be perfect in this respect it is possible for us so to do Be ye Perfect c. Keâ—p my Commandments Now that this is thus Commanded without any Commentary or Consequence is evidently apparent from these plain Testimonies Matth. 5.48 7.21 John 13.17 1 Cor. 7.19 2 Cor. 13.11 1 John 2.3 4 5 6. 3.2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10. These Scriptures intimate a positive Command for it they declare the Absolute Necessity of it and therefore as if they had purposely been written to answer the Objections of our Opposers they shew the Folly of those that will esteem themselves Children or Friends of God while they do otherwise Secondly It is Possible because we receive the Gospel and Law thereof
the Holy Scripture signifies An Assembly or Gathering of many into one place The Etymology of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Church and signification of it for the Substantive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I call out of and originally from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I call and indeed as this is the Grammatical sense of the word so also it is the real and proper signification of the thing the Church being no other thing but the Society Gathering or Company of such as God hath called out of the World and worldly spirit to walk in his LIGHT and LIFE The Church then so defined is to be considered as it comprehends all that are thus called and gathered truly by God both such as are yet in this Inferior World and such as having already laid down the Earthly Tabernacle are passed into their heavenly Mansions which together do make up the One Catholick Church concerning which there is so much Controversy Out of which Church we freely acknowledge No Salvation without the Church there can be no Salvation because under this Church and its Denomination are comprehended all and as many of whatsoever nation kindred tongue or people they be though outwardly strangers and remote from those who profess Christ and Christianity in words and have the benefit of the Scriptures as become obedient to the Holy Light and Testimony of God in their hearts so as to become sanctified by it What the Church is and cleansed from the evils of their ways For this is the Vniversal or Catholick Spirit by which many are called from all the four Corners of the Earth and shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob By this the secret Life and Vertue of Jesus is conveyed into many that are afar off even as by the Blood that runs into the Veins and Arteries of the natural Body the Life is conveyed from the head and heart unto the extreamest parts There may be Members therefore of this Catholick Church both among Heathens Turks and Jews may become Members of this Church Turks Jews and all the several sorts of Christians men and women of Integrity and Simplicity of heart who though blinded in something in their Vnderstanding and perhaps burthened with the Superstitions and Formality of the several Sects in which they are Ingrossed yet being upright in their hearts before the Lord chiefly aiming and labouring to be delivered from Iniquity and loving to follow Righteousness are by the secret Touches of this Holy Light in their Souls inlivened and quickned thereby secretly united to God and there-through become true Members of this Catholick Church Now the Church in this respect hath been in being in all Generations For God never wanted some such Witnesses for him though many times slighted and not much observed by this World And therefore this Church though still in being hath been oftentimes as it were Invisible in that it hath not come under the Observation of the men of this World being as saith the Scripture Jer. 3.14 One of a City and two of a Family And yet though the Church thus considered may be as it were hid from wicked men as not then gathered into a visible Fellowship yea and not observed even by some that are Members of it yet may there notwithstanding many belong to it as when Elias complained he was left alone 1 Kings 19.18 God answered unto him I have reserved to my self seven thousand men who have not bowed their knees to the Image of Baal whence the Apostle argues Rom. 11. the being of a Remnant in his day § III. Secondly The Church is to be considered as it signifies a Certain Number of persons gathered by God's Spirit and by the Testimony of some of his Servants raised up for that end unto the belief of the true Principles and Doctrines of the Christian Faith who through their hearts being united by the same Love and their understanding informed in the same Truths gather The Definition of the Church of God as Gathered into a Visible Fellowship meet and assemble together to Wait upon God to worship him and to bear a joint-Testimony for the Truth against Error suffering for the same and so becoming through this fellowship as one family and houshold in certain respects do each of them watch over teach instruct and care for one another according to their several measures and attainments Such were the Churches of the primitive Times gathered by the Apostles whereof we have divers mentioned in the Holy Scriptures And as to the Visibility of the Church in this respect there hath been a great Interruption since the Apostles days by reason of the Apostasy as shall hereafter appear § IV. To be a Member then of the Catholick Church How to become a Member of that Church there is need of the Inward Calling of God by his Light in the heart and a being leavened into the Nature and Spirit of it so as to forsake Vnrighteousness and be turned to Righteousness and in the Inwardness of the mind to be cut out of the wild Olive-tree of our own first fall'n Nature and ingrafted into Christ by his Word and Spirit in the heart And this may be done in those who are strangers to the History God not having pleased to make them partakers thereof as in the fifth and sixth Proposition hath already been proved To be a Member of a particular Church of Christ The Outward Profession of the Members of the True Church as this inward Work is indispensibly necessary so is also the outward Profession of and Belief in Jesus Christ and those holy Truths delivered by his Spirit in the Scriptures seeing the Testimony of the Spirit recorded in the Scriptures doth answer the Testimony of the same Spirit in the heart even as face answereth face in a glass Hence it follows that the Inward work of Holiness and forsaking Iniquity is necessary in every respect to the being a Member in the Church of Christ and that the outward Profession is necessary to be a Member of a particular gathered Church but not to the being a Member of the Catholick Church yet it is absolutely necessary where God affords the opportunity of knowing it And the outward Testimony is to be believed where it is presented and revealed the sum whereof hath upon other occasions been already proved § V. But contrary hereunto the Devil The Members of the Anti-Christian Church in the Apostasy their Empty Profession that worketh and hath wrought in the Mystery of Iniquity hath taught his followers to affirm That no man however holy is a Member of the Church of Christ without the outward Profession and that he be Initiated thereunto by some outward Ceremonies And again That men who have this outward Profession though inwardly unholy may be Members of the true Church of Christ yea and ought to be so esteemed This is plainly to put Light for
becomes extinguished in them and they become dead as to it and so it retires and devolves it self again into Christ who is the righteous heir of Life and he gives the Title and true Right again immediately to whom it pleaseth him even to as many as being turned to his Pure Light in their Consciences come again to walk in his righteous and innocent Life and so become true Members of his Body which is the Church So the Authority power and heirship is not annexed to persons as they bear the bare Names or retain a Form holding the meer shell or shadow of Christianity but the promise is to Christ and to the Seed in whom the Authority is Inherent and in as many as are one with him and united unto him by purity and holiness and by the inward Renovation and Regeneration of their minds Moreover this pretended Succession is contrary to Scripture-definitions and nature of the Church of Christ and of the true Members For first The Church is the house of God the pillar and ground of Truth 1 Tim. 3.15 But according to this Doctrine the house of God is a polluted Nest of all sort of Wickedness and Abominations 1. The House of God is no polluted Nest no Atheist nor Pretender here can rest made up of the most ugly defiled and perverse Stones that are in the Earth where the Devil rules in all manner of Vnrighteousness For so our Adversaries Confess and History informs the Church of Rome to have been as some of their Historians acknowledge and if that be truly the House of God what may we call the House of Satan or may we call it therefore the House of God notwithstanding all this Impiety because they had a bare Form and that vitiated many ways also and because they pretended to the Name of Christianity though they were Anti-Christian Devilish and Atheistical in their whole practice and spirit and also in many of their principles Would not this infer yet a greater Absurdity as if they had been something to be accounted of because of their Hypocrisy and Deceit and false pretences whereas the Scripture looks upon that as an Aggravation of Guilt and calls it Blasphemy Rev. 2.9 Of two wicked men he is most to be abhorred who covereth his Wickedness with a vain pretence of God and Righteousness even so these abominable Beasts and fearful Monsters who look upon themselves to be Bishops in the Apostate Church were never a whit the better that they falsly pretended to be the Successors of the Holy Apostles unless to Lie be commendable and that Hypocrisy be the Way to Heaven Yea were not this to fall into that Evil condemned among the Jews Jer. 7.4 Trust ye not in lying words saying the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are these but throughly amend your ways c. as if such outward Names and things were the thing the Lord regarded and not Inward Holiness or can that then be the Pillar and Ground of Truth which is the very Sink and Pit of Wickedness from which so much Error Superstition Idolatry and all Abomination springs Can there be any thing more contrary both to Scripture and Reason Secondly The Church is defined To be the Kingdom of the Dear Son of God into which the Saints are Translated 2. Christ is the Head his Body undefiled being delivered from the power of darkness It is called the Body of Christ which from him by Joints and Bands having nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the Increase of God Col. 2.19 But can such Members such a Gathering as we have demonstrated that Church and Members to be among whom they alledge their pretended Authority to have been preserved and through which they derive their Call can such I say be the Body of Christ or the Members thereof or is Christ the Head of such a corrupt dead dark abominable stinking Carcase If so then might we not as well affirm against the Apostle 2 Cor. 6.14 That Righteousness hath fellowship with Unrighteousness that Light hath communion with Darkness What Fellowship hath Christ with Belial that Christ hath Concord with Belial that a Believer hath part with an Infidel and that the Temple of God hath Agreement with Idols Moreover no man is called the Temple of God nor of the Holy Ghost but as his Vessel is purified and so he fitted and prepared for God to dwell in and many thus fitted by Christ become his body in and among whom he dwells and walks according as it is written I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people It is therefore that we may become the Temple of Christ and people of God that the Apostle in the following verse exhorts saying out of the Prophet Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you and I will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my Sons and Daughters saith the Lord Almighty But to what purpose is all this Exhortation and why should we separate from the Vnclean if a meer outward Profession and Name be enough to make the True Church and if the Vnclean and Polluted were both the Church and lawful Successors of the Apostles inheriting their Authority and transmitting it to others Yea how can the Church be the Kingdom of the Son of God as contra-distinguished from the Kingdom and Power of Darkness and what need yea what possibility of being Translated out of the one into the other if those that make up the Kingdom and Power of Darkness be real Members of the True Church of Christ and not simple Members only but the very Pastors and Teachers of it But how do they Increase in the Increase of God and receive Spiritual Nourishment from Christ the Prop. 01 Head that are Enemies of him in their hearts by wicked works and openly go into perdition Verily as no Metaphysical and nice Distinctions that though they were practically Priests frivolous Distinction of Enemies to God by Practice and Members of his Church by Office as to their own private states Enemies to God and Christ and so Servants of Satan yet they were by virtue of their Office Members and Ministers of the Church and so able to Transmit the Succession I say as such invented and frivolous Distinctions will not please the Lord God neither will he be deluded by such nor make up the glorious Body of his Church with such meer out-side Hypocritical Shews nor be beholden to such painted Sepulchres for to be Members of his Body which is sound pure and undefiled and therefore he needs not such false and corrupt Members to make up the Defects of it so neither will such Distinctions satisfy truly tender and Christian Consciences especially considering the Apostle is so far from desiring us to Regard that as that we are
he hath not Can ungodly men that are not gracious themselves be good stewards of the manifold Grace of God Good stewardship of what of God's abounding Grace which is the Ability and Stewardship received And therefore in the following verses he makes an Exclusive limitation of such as are not thus furnished saying If any man speak let him speak as the Oracles of God and if any man Minister let him do it as of the Ability that God giveth which is as much as if he had said They that cannot thus speak and thus Minister ought not to do it for this If denotes a necessary Condition Now what this Ability is is manifest by the former words to wit the Gift received and the Grace whereof they are Stewards as by the immediate Context and dependency of the words doth appear neither can it be understood of a meer Natural Ability because man in this condition is said not to know the things of God and so he cannot Minister them to others And the following words shew this also in that he immediately subjoineth That God in all things may be glorified but surely God is not glorified but greatly dishonoured when Natural Men from their meer natural Ability meddle in Spiritual things which they neither know nor understand Fourthly That Grace is a most Necessary Qualification for a Minister Proof IV appears by these Qualifications which the Apostle expresly requires 1 Tim 3.2 Tit. 1. c. where he saith A Bishop must be blameless vigilant sober of good behaviour apt to teach patient a lover of good men just holy temperate as the steward of God holding fast the faithful Word as he hath been taught Upon the other hand He must neither be given to wine nor a striker nor covetous nor proud nor self-willed nor soon angry Now I ask If it be not Impossible that a man can have all these above-named Vertues How can a Bishop have these Vertues without the Grace of God and be free of all these Evils without the Grace of God If then these Vertues for the producing of which in a man Grace is absolutely necessary be necessary to make a true Minister of the Church of Christ according to the Apostles judgment surely Grace must be necessary also Concerning this thing a Learned Man and well-skilled in Antiquity about the time of the Reformation writeth thus * Whatsoever is done in the Church without the Ministry of God's Spirit is vain and wicked Whatsoever is done in the Church either for Ornament or Edification of Religion whether in chusing Magistrates or instituting Ministers of the Church except it be done by the Ministry of God's Spirit which is as it were the Soul of the Church it is vain and wicked For whoever hath not been called by the Spirit of God to the great Office of God and Dignity of Apostleship as Aaron was and hath not entred in by the door which is Christ but hath otherways risen in the Church by the Window by the favours of men c. truly such a one is not the Vicar of Christ and the Apostles but a Thief and a Robber and the Vicar of Judas Iscariot †Who is Judas Iscariot's Vicar and Simon the Samaritan Hence it was so strictly appointed concerning the Election of Prelates which holy Dionysius calls the Sacrament of Nomination that the Bishops and Apostles who should Oversee the service of the Church should be men of most intire manners and life powerful in sound doctrine to give a reason for all things So also * Franciscus Lambertus Avenionensis in his Book concerning Prophecy Learning Tongues and the Spirit of Prophecy Argentorat excus anno 1516 de prov cap 24. another about the same time writeth thus Therefore it can never be that by the Tongues or Learning any can give a sound Judgment concerning the Holy Scriptures and the Truth of God Lastly saith he the sheep of Christ seek nothing but the voice of Christ which he knoweth by the holy Spirit wherewith he is filled he regards not Learning Tongues or any outward thing so as therefore to believe this or that to be the Voice of Christ his true shepherd he knoweth that there is need of no other thing but the Testimony of the Spirit of God Object 1 § XVII Against this Absolute Necessity of Grace they Object That if all Ministers had the Saving Grace of God then all Ministers should be Saved seeing none can fall away from or lose Saving Grace Answ. But this Objection is built upon a false Hypothesis purely denied by us and we have in the former Proposition concerning Perseverance already Refuted it Object 2 Secondly It may be objected to us That since we affirm that every man hath a measure of True and Saving Grace there needs no singular Qualification neither to a Christian nor Minister for seeing every man hath this Grace then no man needs forbear to be a Minister for want of Grace Answ. I answer We have above shewn that there is Necessary to the making a Minister a special and particular Call from the Spirit of God which is something besides the Vniversal Dispensation of Grace to all according to that of the Apostle Hebr. 5.4 No man taketh this honour unto himself but he that is Called of God as was Aaron Moreover we understand by Grace as a Qualification to a Minister All have God's Grace which calls to Righteousness but all are not so leaven'd in its Nature to bring forth fruits a blameless holy life not the meer measure of Light as it is given to Reprove and Call him to Righteousness but we understand Grace as it hath Converted the Soul and Operateth powerfully in it as hereafter concerning the Work of Ministers will further appear So we understand not men simply as having Grace in them as a Seed which we indeed affirm all have in a measure but we understand men that are gracious leavened by it into the Nature thereof so as thereby to bring forth these good fruits of a blameless Conversation and of Justice holiness patience and temperance which the Apostle requires as Necessary in a true Christian Bishop and Minister Object 3 Secondly They ‖ So Nic. Arnoldus sect 32. upon These 4. object the Example of the false Prophets of the Pharisees and of Judas But first As to the false Prophets there can nothing be more foolish and ridiculous as if because there were false Prophets truly false without the Grace of God therefore Grace is not necessary to a true Christian Minister Answ. Indeed if they had proved that true Prophets wanted this Grace The false not the true Prophets want the Grace of God they had said something but what have false Prophets common with true Ministers but that they pretend falsly that which they have not And because false Prophets want true Grace will it therefore follow that true Prophets ought not to have it that they may be true
As this manner of Separating men for the Ministry is nothing like the Church in the Apostles days so great Evils have and do follow upon it For first Parents seeing both the honour and profit that attends the Clergy do allot their Children sometimes from their Infancy to it and so breed them up on purpose And others come to Age upon the same Account betake them to the same Trade and having these natural and acquired Parts that are judged the Necessary Qualifications of a Minister are thereby Admitted and so are bred up in Idleness and Pleasure thinking it a disgrace for them to work with their hands onely if they study a little out of their Books to make a Discourse once or twice in a week During the Running of an Hour glass whereas the Gift The Clergy's Study out of Books the Gift of God Neglected Grace and Spirit of God to call gift and qualify for the Ministry is neglected and overlooked And many Covetous Corrupt Earthly Carnal men having a meer shew and form but strangers to and utterly ignorant of the inward work of Grace upon their hearts are Brought-in and Intrude themselves and so through them death barrenness and darkness and by consequence Superstition Error and Idolatry hath entred and leavened the Church And they that will narrowly observe shall find that it was thus the Apostasy came to take place of the truth of which I could give many Examples which for brevity's sake I omit For so the Office Reverence and Respect due to it was annexed to the meer Name so that when once a man was Ordain'd a Bishop or a Priest he was heard and believed though he had nothing of the Spirit Power and Life that the true Apostles and Ministers were in that in a short time the Succession came to be of the Name and Title and the Office was thereto annexed and not of the nature vertue and life Which in effect made them to Cease to be the Ministry Ministers of Christ but onely a Shadow and vain Image of it The Marred Church Compar'd to Thesci pieced Boat which also decaying was in some Ages so Metamorphosed that not onely the Substance was lost but the very Form wholly vitiated alterated and marred that it may be far better said of the pretended Christian Church as was disputed of Theseus's Boat which by the piecing of many new pieces of timber was wholly Altered whether indeed it were the same or another But in case that the first had been of Oak and the last pieces put in but of rotten Fir and that also the Form had been so far changed as to be nothing like the first I think it would have suffered no Dispute but might have easily been concluded to be quite another retaining nothing but the Name and that also Vnjustly Secondly The Abuse following the Distinction of Laity and Clergy from this distinction of Laity and Clergy this Abuse also followes that good honest mechanick men and others who have not learned the Art and Trade of Preaching and so are not Licentiated according to these Rules they prescribe unto themselves such I say being possessed with a false Opinion that it is not lawful for them to meddle with the Ministry nor that they are any ways fit for it because of the defect of that Literatur do thereby neglect the Gift in themselves and quench many times the pure breathings of the Spirit of God in their hearts which if given way to might have proved much more for the Edification of the Church than many of the Cunned Sermons of the Learned And so by this means the Apostles Command and Advice is slighted who exhorteth 1 Thess. 5.19 20. Not to quench the Spirit nor despise prophesying Both Protestants and Papists exclude Mechanick men from Preaching who greatly contributed to Reformation And all this is done by men pretending to be Christians who glory that the first Preachers and Propagators of their Religion were such kind of plain Mechanick men and Illiterate And even Protestants do no less than Papists Exclude such kind of men from being Ministers among them and thus limit the Spirit and Gift of God though their Fathers in opposition to Papists asserted the contrary and also their own Historys declare how that kind of Illiterate men did without Learning by the Spirit of God greatly contribute in divers places to the Reformation By this it may appear that as in Calling and Qualifying so in Preaching and Praying and the other particular steps of the Ministry every true Minister is to know the Spirit of God by its vertue and Life to accompany and assist him But because this relates to Worship I shall speak of it more largely in the next Proposition which is concerning Worship The last thing to be considered and inquired into is concerning the Maintenance of a Gospel-Minister But before I proceed I judge it fit to speak something in short concerning the Preaching of Women and to declare what we hold in that matter Seing Male and Female are one in Christ Jesus and that he gives his Spirit no less to the one Womens publick Preaching and Praying Asserted than to the other when God moveth by his Spirit in a Woman we judge it no ways unlawful for her to preach in the Assemblies of God's People Neither think we that of Paul 1 Cor. 14.34 to reprove the Inconsiderate and Talkative Women among the Corinthians who troubled the Church of Christ with their unprofitable Questions or that 1 Tim. 2.11 That Women ought to learn in all silence not usurping authority over the man any ways Repugnant to this Doctrine because it 's clear that Women have Prophesied and Preached in the Church else had the saying of Joel been badly applied by Peter Acts 2.17 And seeing Paul himself in the same Epistle to the Corinthians giveth Rules how Women should behave themselves in their publick preaching and praying it would be a manifest Contradiction if that place were other ways taken in a larger sense and the same Paul speaks of a Woman that laboured with him in the work of the Gospel and it is written that Philip had four Daughters that prophesied Acts 21.9 And lastly it hath been observed that God hath effectually in this day Converted many Souls by the Ministry of Women and by them also Quest. IV frequently Comforted the Souls of his Children which manifest experience puts the thing beyond all Controversy Ministers Maintenance but now I shall proceed to speak of the Maintenance of Ministers The Ministers Food and their Maintenance Stated § XXVIII We freely acknowledge as the Proposition holds forth that there is an Obligation upon such to whom God sends or among whom he raiseth up a Minister that if need be they Minister to his necessities Secondly That it is lawful for him to receive what is necessary and convenient To prove this I need not insist for our Adversaries will readily grant
there cannot so much as the shew of one solid Argument be brought from Scripture I confess Ministers may use Exhortation in this as much as in any other case Paul's Labour was a Gospel free of Charge even as the Apostle did to the Corinthians shewing them their Duty but it were fit for Ministers that do so that their Testimony might have the more Weight and be the freer of all suspicion of Covetousness and Self-interest that they might be able to say truly in the sight of God that which the same Apostle subjoins upon the same occasion 1 Cor. 9.15 16 17 18. But I have used none of these things Neither have I written these things that it should be so done unto me For it were better for me to die than that any man should make my glorying void For though I preach the Gospel I have nothing to glory of for necessity is laid upon me yea wo is unto me if I preach not the Gospel For if I do this thing willingly I have a reward but if against my will a Dispensation of the Gospel is committed unto me What is my Reward then Verily that when I preach the Gospel I may make the Gospel of Christ without Charge that I abuse not my power in the Gospel Thirdly As there is neither Precept nor Example for this forced and Reason III stinted Maintenance in the Scripture so the Apostle in his solemn farewel to the Pastors and Elders of the Church of Ephesus Paul Coveted no body's Silver or Gold guards them against it Acts 20.33 34 35. But if the thing had been either lawful or practised he would rather have Exhorted them to be Content with their stinted Hire and not to Covet more whereas he sheweth them first by his own Example that they were not to Covet or expect any man's silver or Gold Secondly That they ought to Work with their hands for an honest lively-hood as he had done And lastly he exhorts them so to do from the words of Christ Because it is a more blessed thing to give then to receive shewing that it is so far from a thing that a true Minister ought to aim at or expect that it is rather a Burthen to a true Minister and Cross to him to be brought upon Necessity so to lack Reason IV § XXX Fourthly If a forced and stinted Maintenance were to be supposed it would make the Ministers of Christ just one with those Hirelings whom the Prophets cryed out against No Hireling fitting the Gospel of Christ. For certainly if a man make a Bargain to preach to people for so much a year so as to refuse to preach unless he have and seek to force the people to give it by Violence it cannot be denied that such a one preacheth for Hire and so looks for his gain from his quarter Mich. 3 5. yea and prepares war against such as put not into his mouth but this is the particular special Mark of a false Prophet and a Hireling and therefore can no ways compete to a True Minister of Christ. Next That a superfluous Maintenance that is more than in reason is needful ought not to be received by Christian Ministers will not need much proof seeing the more moderate and sober both among Papists and Protestants readily confess it who with one voice Exclaim against the excessive Revenues of the Clergy And that it may not want a proof from Scripture Moderate Protestants and Papists exclaim against the Excess of the Clergy's Revenues what can be more plain than that of the Apostle to Timothy 1 Tim. 6.7 8 9 10. where he both shews wherewith we ought to be content and also the hazzard of such as look after more and indeed since that very obligation of giving Maintenance to a Minister is founded upon their Need and such as have opportunity to Work are Commended rather in Not receiving than in Receiving it can no ways be supposed lawful for them to Receive more than is sufficient And indeed were they truly pious and right though Necessitate they would rather incline to take too little than to be gaping after too much § XXXI Now that there is great Excess and Abuse hereof among Christians the Vast Revenues which the Bishops and Priests have The Excess of the Priests and the Bishops Revenues both Papist and Protestant do declare since I judge it may be said without any Hyperbole that some particular persons have more paid them yearly than Christ and his Apostles made use of their whole life time who yet wanted not what was needful as to the outward man and no doubt deserved it far better than those that Enjoy that Fulness But it is manifest these Bishops and Priests love their fat Benefices and the Pleasure and Honour that attend them so well that they purpose neither to follow Christ nor his Apostles Example nor Advice in this matter But it 's usually Objected That Christians are become so hard-hearted Object and generally so little heed Spiritual things that if Ministers had not a setled and stinted Maintenance secured them by Law they and their families might starve for want of bread I Answer Answ. This Objection might have some weight as to a Carnal Ministry made up of natural men who have no life power nor vertue with them and so may insinuate some need of such a Maintenance for such a Ministry but it saith nothing as to such as are called and sent of God They wanted nothing whom God sent they labour'd with their hands who sends no man away faring upon his own Charges and so go forth in the Authority and Power of God to turn people from darkness to Light for such can trust to him that sendeth them and do believe that he will Provide for them knowing that he requireth nothing of any but what he giveth power to perform and so when they return if he Inquire can say They wanted nothing And such also when they stay in a place being Immediately furnished by God and not needing to borrow and steal what they preach from books and take up their time that way fall a working of their lawful Imploiments and labour with their hands as Paul did when he gathered the Church of Corinth And indeed if this Objection had any weight the Apostles and primitive Pastors should never had gone forth to Convert the Nations for fear of Want Doth not the doctrine of Christ teach us to Venture all and part with all to serve God Can they then be accounted Ministers of Christ who are afraid to preach him lest they get not Money for it or will not do it until they be sure of their payment What-for serves the Ministry but to perfect the Saints and so to Convert them from that hard-heartedness But thou wilt say I have laboured and preached to them Object and they are hard-hearted still and will not give me any thing Then surely thou hast either not
burned for denying the Divinity of Christ if Calvin's Report of him be to be credited Which Opinion though it was indeed to be abominated yet no less was Calvin's Practice in causing him to be burned and afterwards defending that it was lawful to burn Hereticks by which he encouraged the Papists to lead his Followers the more confidently to the Stake as having for their Warrant the Doctrine of their own Sect-master which they omitted not frequently to twit them with and indeed it was to them unanswerable Hence upon this occasion the judicious Author of the History of the Council of Trent in his fifth Book where giving an account of several Protestants that were burned for their Religion well and wisely observeth it as a Matter of Astonishment that those of the new Reformation did offer to punish in the case of Religion And afterwards taking notice That Calvin justifies the punishing of Hereticks he adds But since the Name of Heresy may be more or less restricted yea or diversly taken this Doctrine may be likewise taken in divers Senses and may at one time hurt those whom at another Time it may have benefited So that this Doctrine of Persecution cannot be mentioned by Protestants without strengthening the Hands of Popish Inquisitors Protestant Persecution strengthens the Popish Inquisition and indeed in the end lands in direct Popery Seeing if I may not profess and preach that Religion which I am perswaded of in my Conscience is true it is to no purpose to search the Scriptures or to seek to chuse my own Faith by Convictions thence derived since whatever I there observe or am perswaded of I must either subject to the Judgment of the Magistrate and Church of that Place I am in or else resolve to remove or dye Yea doth not this Heretical and Anti-Christian Doctrine both of Papists and Protestants at last resolve into that cursed Policy of Mahomet Who prohibited all Reason or Discourse about Religion as occasioning Factions and Divisions And indeed those that press Persecution and deny Liberty of Conscience do thereby shew themselves more the Disciples of Mahomet than of Christ and that they are no ways followers of the Apostle's Doctrine who desired the Thessalonians 1 Thess. 5.21 To prove all things and hold fast that which is good And also saith Vnto such as are otherwise minded God shall Reveal it Phil. 3.15 not that by Beatings and Banishments it must be knocked into them § VI. Now the Ground of Persecution as hath above been shewn is an unwillingness to suffer for no Man that will persecute another for his Conscience would suffer for his own if he could avoid it seeing his Principle obliges him if he had Power by Force to establish that which he judges is the Truth and so to force others to it Therefore I judge it meet for the Information of the Nations briefly to add something in this Place concerning the Nature of true Christian Sufferings whereunto a very faithful Testimony has been born by God's Witnesses which he hath raised up in this Age beyond what hath been generally known or practised for these many Generations yea since the Apostacy took place Yet 't is not my Design here in any wise to derogate from the Sufferings of the Protestant Martyrs whom I believe to have walked in Faithfulness towards God according to the Dispensation of Light in that Day appearing and of which many were utter Enemies to Persecution as by their Testimonies against it might be made appear But the true faithful and Christian Suffering is For Men to profess what they are perswaded is right and so practise and perform their Worship towards God as being their true Right so to do and neither to do more in that because of outward Encouragement from Men nor any whit less because of the Fear of their Laws and Acts against it Thus for a Christian Man to vindicate his just Liberty with so much boldness and yet Innocency will in due time though through Blood purchase Peace as this Age has in some Measure experienced and many are Witnesses of it which yet shall be more apparent to the World as Truth takes Place in the Earth But they greatly sin against this excellent Rule that in Time of Persecution do not profess their own Way so much as they would if it were other ways and yet when they can get the Magistrate upon their Side not only stretch their own Liberty to the utmost but seek to establish the same by denying it to others The Innocent Sufferings of the People called Quakers But of this excellent Patience and Sufferings the Witnesses of God in scorn called Quakers have given a manifest Proof for so soon as God revealed his Truth among them without regard to all Opposition or what they might meet with they went up and down as they were moved of the Lord preaching and propagating the Truth in Market-places High-ways Streets and publick Temples though daily beaten whipped bruised haled and imprisoned therefore And when there was any where a Church or Assembly gathered they taught them to keep their Meetings openly and not to shut the door nor do it by Stealth that all might know it and who would might enter And as hereby all just occasion of Fear of plotting against the Government was fully removed so this their Courage and Faithfulness in not giving over their Meeting together but more especially the Presence and Glory of God manifested in the Meeting being terrible to the Consciences of the Persecutors did so weary out the Malice of their Adversaries that often-times they were forced to leave their Work undone For when they came to break up a Meeting they were forc'd to take every individual out by Force they not being free to give up their Liberty by dissolving at their Command And when they were haled out unless they were kept forth by Violence they presently returned peaceably to their Place Yea when sometimes the Magistrates have pulled down their Meeting-houses they have met the next Day openly upon the Rubbish and so by Innocency kept their Possession and Ground being properly their own and their Right to Meet and Worship God being not forfeited to any So that when armed Men have come to dissolve them it was impossible for them to do it unless they had killed every one for they stood so close together that no Force could move any one to stir until violently pulled down So that when the Malice of their Opposers stirred them to take shovels and throw the Rubbish upon them there they stood unmoved being willing if the Lord should so permit to have been there buried alive witnessing for him As this Patient but yet couragious way of Suffering made the Persecutors Work very heavy and wearisom unto them so the Courage and Patience of the Sufferers using no Resistance nor bringing any Weapons to defend themselves nor seeking any ways Revenge upon such Occasions did secretly smite the Hearts of
Testimony of Moses and the Prophets even than John who was the greatest But when we produce the Testimony of Moses and the Prophets and Apostles as an Evidence to the Truth of what we affirm I say it should be received by our Adversaries who own the Scriptures as their Chief and Only Rule For either they should Receive it or not Receive it if they should Receive it then they are faulty who in the late Dispute at Aberdeen did refuse to Receive the Evidence of the Scriptures as from us only because we say We have a greater to wit that of the Spirit within us although we own the Scripture as the greatest Visible and outward Evidence that we can give to our Adversaries If they should not Receive the Scripture-Evidence and Testimony as from us because we say we have a Greater to wit that of Christ himself immediately in us by his Spirit then they must needs also say for the same Reason That the Jews ought not to receive the Testimony of the Scriptures as an Evidence for Christ because he said He had a Greater And certainly he had a greater though they would not receive it nor could not as they stood in their Prejudice and Malice wherewith they were filled against him who did not receive him Now this I say with Freedom and Boldness of Spirit to all those whether Papists Anabaptists Prelatical or Presbyterian Professors who with one Mouth require of us an Evidence that we are Inspired or have a Measure of the Inspiration of the Spirit of God and Christ in us I offer unto all of you the Scriptures for an Evidence of this Truth viz. That the Quakers so called have a Measure of the Inspiration of the Spirit of God and Christ in them For according to the Scriptures-Testimony Christ the true Light enlighteneth every Man that cometh into the World and his Illumination is his Inspiration I profess sincerely in God's Fear That the Scriptures-Testimony is to me as full and plain and Convincing to prove this Truth viz. That an Illumination Manifestation and Inspiration of the Spirit of God is given to every Man is in every Man as to prove this Truth That Christ who according to the Flesh was born of the Virgin Mary was the promised Messiah Now if we can prove from Scripture That all Men have in them a Measure of this Divine Illumination and Inspiration by the Spirit of Christ we have gained our Point which is That we have also a Measure of the same in us for ALL MEN doth comprehend Vs called Quakers as well as other Men I see not what our Adversaries can with any Colour Object against this Evidence from Scripture but this That they will deny that the Scripture bears Testimony to this Vniversal Illumination or Inspiration of the Spirit of God in Men. But this brings the Matter of the Debate from being Personal to be Doctrinal and so puts us upon equal Terms at least with all our Adversaries especially Prelatical Anabaptist and Presbyterian and Independent Opposers whatsoever who say The Scriptures are their chief and only Rule And though our Adversaries say The Scripture doth not testifie to that Universal Inspiration of the Spirit of Christ in Men that moveth us not more than when the Jews denied That the Scriptures bore Testimony to him that was born of the Virgin Mary to be the Christ. We are able by the help of God to prove from Scripture the Truth of this Doctrine of Divine Illumination and Inspiration in all Men and consequently in the Quakers as much as they or any professing Christianity upon Earth can prove any Principle or Doctrine of their Faith Secondly We are able and do offer by the Grace of God against all our Opposers whatsoever to prove from the Scriptures-Testimony That this Universal Inspiration and Illumination of Christ by his Spirit in Men is a sufficient Evidence of Truth and Rule of Faith and Life in all Men and consequently in us called Quakers Thirdly that this Divine Inspiration and Illumination where it is not wilfully resisted and rejected but regarded and attended is a Greater Evidence than the Scripture is and witnessed by the Scriptures Fourthly and yet the Scripture is the Greatest Visible and Outward Evidence that either we or they can give of their Rule I shall conclude with a reasonable Demand to these Young-Men Masters of Arts their Masters and Teachers which is this Whether they own these Assertions Affirmations and Arguments of their Scholars in the late Dispute as followeth viz. That whatever is of God is God That the Scriptures according to the Quakers are Fallacious and can beguile us That the Baptism with the Holy Ghost is ceased And the rest of their Discourse inserted in this foregoing Treatise If Yea Let them declare so much to the People who are greatly stumbled at these their Expressions even divers of their own Church If Nay then let them publickly Reprove and Disown those Words otherwise not only we but many others will say Ye have both taught and allowed them so to Affirm G. K. Quakerism Confirmed OR A VINDICATION Of the Chief DOCTRINES and PRINCIPLES Of the PEOPLE called QUAKERS FROM THE Arguments and Objections of the Students of Divinity so called of Aberdeen in their Book entituled QVAKERISM CANVASED BY ROBERT BARCLAY AND GEORGE KEITH 2 Tim. 3.9 But they shall proceed no further for their Folly shall be manifest to all Men c. London Printed for Tho. Northcott 1691. Friendly Reader 1676. HAD we not more Regarded the Interest of the Truth for whose sake we can shun no Abasement than the Significancy of those with whom we have this Rencountre we should have rather chused to be silent than Answer them they being of so small Reputation among their own that neither Teachers nor People will hold themselves Accomptable for any of their Positions and seem zealous to have it believed they would not bestow Time to Read it nor yet hold themselves obliged to Approve it However since we certainly know That in the Second Part of their Book to which this Reply is they have scraped together most of the Chief Arguments used against us and borrowed not a little from G. M's Manuscripts with whose Work that yet appears not we have been these seven Years menaced Which like the Materials of a Building managed by Unskilful Workmen though they be by them very confusedly put together yet being the chief Things can be said against us we have throughly handled for the Reader 's Satisfaction which may be Serviceable to the Truth without Respect to the Insignificancy of those against whom it is written As for the first Part of their Book we have also Answered it but distinct from this it consisting of many Particularities of Matters of Fact which perhaps might have proved tedious to many Readers that may by This be Edified and think it of no great Consequence that the Students are proved Liars which even many
are Men that solemnly profess they have abstained from Personal Criminations but seeing they have belied the Apostle Paul as is above observed G. K. may take it patiently to be treated at this Rate by Men of such Circumstances But if they think to infer it because G. K. doth plead for the Liberty and Priviledge of Women they might as well plead That G. K. is too much addicted to a Perfect Holiness because he doth plead for it or that the Students are too much addicted to sin since they plead for the Continuance of it for Term of Life They are little less than inraged that G. K. should have alledged the Testimony of Augustine and Bernard interpreting this Place of the Flesh and therefore they labour like Men in a Sweat for a whole Page against this to no purpose the only Reason of G. K's citing them being because some of their Preachers cried out against this Allegory as a horrid abusive thing in some Quakers to shew them it is none of the Quakers Coining but already used by Men by themselves applauded and commended Upon this they ask Have not some of our Antagonists been observed to make a Welchman's hose of the first Chapter of Genesis If they mean us let them prove we have so done as we have already proved they have again they ask Have not some Quakers been bold to aver that there was never any such real Tree as the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil If they have let them instance and prove by whom it was spoken and writ and then they shall have an Answer As they proceed they give an egregious Specimen of their Folly alledging That if it did hold Womens Speaking in the Church Lawful as G. K. affirms that Women are not allowed to speak by Permission then a fortiori it is unlawful for them to speak by Commandment Who but the Students would talk at this rate As if a Commandment might not authorise a Man to do that which a bare Permission will not G. K's Arguments drawn from their own allowing Whores to speak and Women to sing they call Quibbles because they cannot answer which they Reply to only by Questions Do they allow Whores Authoritative Preaching affirming Women may sing Very well whether it be Authoritative or not whatsoever way they speak they keep not Silence and so the Apostle's Words are not taken strictly and literally which gains us the Cause and shews our Doctrine is no more directly against the Apostle's Words than their own Besides from this it followeth by the Students Confession that Women may as lawfully speak in the Church as the Licentiate Students whom the Presbytery permits to speak in the Church before they are Ordained They pass our chief Objection very overly drawn from 1 Cor. 11.5 where the Apostle gives direct Rules how Women should behave themselves in their publick Praying and Preaching alledging There are Rules given in Scripture concerning things that were never lawful but only permitted c. as of Polygamy under the Law But they should have remembred that these are Rules given by the Apostle to the Christian Church of Corinth And seeing the Students suppose That the Apostle gave directions to the Church of Corinth not only of things that belong not to them now but which are not lawful for them a Doctrine we question if their Masters will approve of or of the Consequence of which themselves are aware it remains for them to prove That these Two Rules forbidding Womens Speaking belong to us or is not of the number of these useless Rules more than that other concerning the manner of their Preaching So we hope this Solution it Impugned and desire they may be sure not to forget to bring us this Reason when they write next SECTION IV. Concerning the Necessity of Immediate Revelations to the Building up of True Faith containing an Answer to the Students second Section from pag. 78. to pag. 92. IN their stating the Controversy they say These Inward Revelations are not subjective Revelations or Divine Illuminations This is false for as we have above shewed one and the same Illumination that is Effective or Subjective is also Objective and the Objective is Effective Again they say The Question is not if Immediate Objective Revelations be possible or be sometimes made to some de facto This Concession will overthrow much of all their own Work For if they admit that any Person in our Time hath Immediate Objective Revelations admit Peter or John their former Argument will as much militate against this Real Immediate Immediate Objective Revelation asserted Objective Revelation granted by them as against those which they do not grant Seeing pag. 7. at the Letter A they say Suppose that the Spirit Reveal the Objects of Faith immediately none will deny that he is a Rule or rather Ruler to them who have him so A good Concession but which quite undoes their own Cause For now let us apply their former Argument against this Real Objective Revelation granted by them as thus We ought to believe That as the Rule of Faith of which there can be no Evidence given But There can be no Evidence in the World given of the Spirit that is in Peter and John Therefore c. Again if Peter and John say they can give an Evidence of the Spirit of God in them to wit their own Declaration in Life and Power as also the Immediate Testimony of the Spirit or the Scriptures-Testimony let us Apply in the last place their Argument used against us and see if it will not be as good against Peter and John whom they grant de facto according to their Hypothesis to have Immediate Objective Revelation The Argument is this That which as really agrees to Enthusiast Hereticks as to them can be no Evidence But That Evidence to wit their own Declaration and Saying that both they and their Adversaries have the Immediate Testimony of the Spirit witnessing to the Truth of it would as really agree to Enthusiast Hereticks Therefore c. Yea not only might they thus Argue against any Mens having Immediate Objective Revelation in our days but against the Prophets and Apostles having it seeing the Argument might every way be as strong against their having it as against our having it especially at such times as they wrought no outward Miracles in the sight of the People to whom they were sent as oft they did not When the Lord sent Jonas to preach to the Ninivites he wrought no Miracle in their sight Now let us put the Students in the Ninivites place and we shall find they could Argue as stoutly and hardily against Jonas as now they do against any Quaker They could tell him He could give no Evidence of the Spirit of God in him giving any such Message as for his Declaration it would not suffice because his saying he had the Spirit would be as good a ground for any other Enthusiast Heretick
Now none of these Men without manifestly contradicting their own Principles can pretend to have Love to any of those that are thus predestinated to Death For what sottishness were it and Inconsistency to pretend Charity to such so as to suppose a possibility of Salvation for those whom God hath Appointed to be Damned and to be Sons of Perdition For to say We ought to have Charity to all because we know not who is appointed to Life or may be called to it saith nothing to solve this Difficulty Reasons 1 Because even to such as may be supposed to be Elected I am not to have Charity so long as I see them in Wickedness and in any Vnconverted State for that were to walk against all true Judgment and a putting Light for Darkness and Darkness for Light a calling Good Evil and Evil Good which is expresly forbidden Next This were to make true Christian Love as blind as the Reasons 2 Heathens supposed their God of their Lustful Love to be For I ought to love Men for some Real Good I see in them as feeling them to partake of and grow in the Love of God and not upon a meer perhaps God may do them good perhaps they may be called unless I believed there were something of God in all given them in order to Call them Thirdly Seeing these Men do Believe and Affirm That as God Reasons 3 in this Case appoints the End so he doth the Means also They are not only obliged upon their Principle without all Charity to conclude as Damned and appointed to Damnation all such as have not the Benefit of these Means they think needful but even all such among themselves enjoying these Means in whom appear not according to their Notion of it True and Convincing Tokens of Conversion And as this Doctrine naturally leads from any thing like Vniversal Love so as I observed before it so leaveneth and defileth with an Vnlovely Humour such as strictly and precisely hold it that for most part they are observed to be Men of peevish and persecuting Spirits For these two Principles to wit That of there being no Salvation without the Church among Papists as precisely understanding it of the Church of Rome and this of Absolute Reprobation among Protestants The Root of that Bloody and Antichristian Principle of Persecution are the very Root and Spring from whence flows that Bloody and Antichristian Tenet of Persecution for the Case of Conscience and therefore both it and they are directly Contrary and diametrically Opposite to the true Catholick Christian Love of God SECT V. Some Principles of Christianity proposed as they are held by a great Body of People and whole gathered Churches in Britain and Ireland which do very well agree with True Universal Love SUch as most commonly Complain for the Want of Vniversal Love do Alledg this Defect to proceed from the Nature of a Sect unto which they think this Want of Charity so peculiar that from thence they Conclude that it is Impossible either for any Sect Vniversally to have this Vniversal Love or for any Member of a Sect so long as he stands to his Principles or is strictly bound up and tied to a Sect to have this Vniversal Love And indeed this in a great Measure is too True if the Nature of a Sect be rightly understood and therefore to avoid Mistakes it will be fit to Inquire somewhat in this Matter A Sect is commonly and universally taken in the worst Part and always so understood where it is mentioned in the Scripture as being either really understood of such as are Justly so termed Act. 5.17 ch 5.5 ch 26.5 or Reproachfully cast upon such as ought not to have been so denominated Act. 24.5 ch 28.22 For a Sect is a Company of People following the Opinions and Inventions of a particular Man or Men A Sect justly so called to which they adhere more and for which they are more Zealous than for the Simple Plain and Necessary Doctrine of Christ. But such as are not a Sect nor of a Sect are those The Followers of Christ are of no Sect. That follow the Faith and Doctrines of Christ and receive and believe the same as purely Preached and held forth by him unto them and not as by the Recommendation of Man as Clouded and Incumbred with their Interpretations and Additions and so are meer Christians and yet true and faithful Ones too yea the most True and Faithful Now which of the several Sorts of Christians are to be accounted Sects and which not is a great Question and would take a larger Discourse than is proper to be inserted in this Place truly to Inquire into it And therefore it shall suffice me at this Time to have Asserted this in General which I judge will be generally accorded to by All and leave the Application to each understanding Reader For the Clearing which there may several weighty Observations fall in hereafter Societies contradicting Vniversal Love are truly termed Sects Probably this will be almost granted by All and I am sure may be truly Affirmed That Whatsoever People hold forth and preach Doctrines which in the Nature of them Contradict and are inconsistent with true Universal Love such may truly be termed a Sect Which may be easily applied to those heretofore-mentioned And so Consequently Whoever hold forth Principles and Doctrines consistent and agreeable thereunto are and may truly be esteemed meer Christians and no Sect. Next the Nature of a People's Society and the Causes drawing them together with the Method of their being gathered does much contribute to Evidence whether they are to be Esteemed a Sect or not First 1. Mark of a Sect. whose Fellowship stands meerly in Judgment and in that which reacheth the Vnderstanding and so are joined together in and for one Opinion are only to be esteemed a Sect however true their Notions may be supposed to be For the true Principles and Doctrines of Christ albeit they do truly reach the Vnderstanding True Principles are of an Operative Nature to Conversion the false not so and require its Assent yet they are of an Operative Nature However they may be held by one or two Members of the Church without working upon their Hearts yet cannot be held nor never was by any Entire Society without purifying their Souls and reaching to and working upon their Hearts to a True and Real Conversion I mean upon the greatest and most considerable part but False Doctrines may be firmly believed by a whole Society without having any Operation For the Gathering of the Apostles and Primitive Christians was an Vniting of Hearts and not of Heads only Those Three thousand Converts were pricked in their Hearts and not in their Heads only Yea where there may be a Dissent in some things in point of Judgment if there be this Vnity of Heart through the prevailing of the same Life of Righteousness yet the true Fellowship is not broken
Worship God according as we Preached And therefore they said that He to wit God had wholly neglected the Salvation of all their Predecessors in permitting that these Miserable Souls should altogether be destitute to their utter Ruin of the Knowledge of Saving Truth This most odious Thought did much draw them back from the Worship of the True God but by the help of God this Error and Scruple was taken from them For we first did demonstrate unto them that the Divine Law was the Oldest of all yea before any Law was made by the Ancients Taught by Nature not to Kill c. The Japans knew by the Teaching of Nature that it was unlawful to Kill Steal Forswear and other things contained in the Ten Divine Laws as was evident in that when any of them Committed these Crimes they were tormented by the Pricks of their Consciences That hence Reason it self doth teach to flee the Evil and follow the Good and therefore was Implanted in the minds of all Men by Nature So that all have the Knowledge of the Divine Law from Nature and of God the Author of Nature before Discipline be added Of which were it doubted Trial might be made in some body altogether Void of Discipline who has been Educated in some Mountain or Wilderness without any Knowledge of the Laws of his Country For if such an one thus altogether Ignorant and Unacquainted with Humane Discipline were asked Whether to Kill a Man to Steal and these other things which the Law of God forbids were Sinful or not Or if it were not right to forbear these things Truly I say such an one utterly Ignorant of Humane Discipline would so answer that it would easily appear that he were not Void of the Law of God From whence then shall we judge he has drawn his Notion unless from God himself the Author of Nature If then this be manifest in Barbarous Men how much more in Men Civiliz'd and well-Educated Which being so it necessarily follows that the Divine Law was Implanted in Man's Heart before all Laws made by Man This Reason was so manifest to them that they were fully satisfied and so being delivered from these Snares did easily subject themselves to the sweet Yoak of Christ. Thus far Xaverius Thus it may seem that to satisfy these Japonians that their Fore-fathers were not all necessarily Damned and to shew that the Vniversal Love of God reached unto them to put them in a Capacity of Salvation This Cunning Jesuite could not find another way than by Asserting this Principle Albeit it be no ways Congruous to the Doctrine of the Church of Rome For these Antient Japonians could not be esteemed Members of the Church of Rome and as not being such according to the Romish Principle who say There is no Salvation without the Church that is without the Church of Rome must needs have been Damned II. That by vertue of that Light Men may be Converted and become Members of the Church without which is no Salvation Secondly That Notion and Definition of a Church which naturally arises from this Principle and is accordingly believed by the Assertors of it doth also both very well Agree to and Establish this Doctrine of Vniversal Love For by vertue of this Seed and Light Extended by Christ unto the Hearts of all it being supposed That Men may thereby be truly Converted and consequentially Vnited to Christ it naturally follows That such may become Members of the Church Else none of Old but the Families of the Patriarchs and of the Jews could have been judged to be Saved nor yet any during all the Time of the Apostacy Which as it is false in it self will be hardly affirmed by any And therefore since such might be Saved they must be esteemed Members of the Church without which in this large Sense there can be no Salvation as including the whole Body of Christ Of which Body who are not are certainly Excluded And therefore it is that the Church Catholick or Vniversal is not so confined to any Sect Form or External Profession as that those that are not Initiated in those Forms are Excluded absolutely from being Members of the Church unless it be upon Refusal or Resistance of the Will of God really manifest to them as drawing them to the Practice of particular Things For it hath pleased God at several Times to Require several things both of particular Churches and Persons which he has not of others As to the Jewish Converts To Abstain from things Strangled and Blood and to the Churches of the Gentiles Not to Circumcise which was permitted to the Christian Jews for a Time And from particular Persons many particular things have been Required Which albeit they were not general Obligations upon all Christians yet in so far as Manifested to and Required of them were sufficiently Obligatory And their Disobedience to them should have been in them a Breach of their General Obligation of Obedience which we owe to God in all things He Requires and consequently pernicious however others to whom they have never been Revealed nor Required might have been Saved without them III. That God by his Spirit Reveals his Will Immediately in the hearts of all true Christians Thirdly As the Asserting of Principles which commend the Love of God and shew the Great Extent of it to Mankind do most agree with Vniversal Love so this People in another Chief Principle of theirs do greatly shew it For as by the Preaching of this Vniversal Principle of the Light they shew the Extension of God's Love to all so by Preaching that God both doth and is willing to Reveal his Will Immediately by his own Spirit in the Hearts of all those that Receive his Light that so they may be guided acted and led thereby and know the Mind of God thus Inwardly Immediately in themselves they hold forth the Intension of God's Love to all those that follow and obey him so that they neither bind up this being led by the Spirit of God only to themselves nor stint it to singular and Extraordinary Occasions but hold it forth as a Common and Vniversal Priviledge to all true Christians and Members of the Church Now this Doctrine greatly Commends the Love of God and Establisheth the Principle of Vniversal Love in that it shews how Vniversally God hath offered this Blessed Priviledge to all in that He hath given his Light unto all upon the receiving of which this Immediate Guidance of the Spirit followeth as a necessary Concomitant For such as deny this Immediate Revelation of God's Will by his Spirit in the Hearts of his Children to be a Common and Vniversal Priviledge to all true Christians and Members of the Church must needs suppose the Knowledge of his Will Necessary for them to be Communicated to them by some other External Means as by outward Writings and Precepts insomuch that all such as are robbed of this Benefit are necessarily Excluded from
understood of true and saving Grace but let him Inform according to Scripture How any Man can come to tast of the Heavenly Gift and of the Powers of the Life to come and be made partaker of the Holy Ghost without true and saving Grace For what he adds to this being built upon the Supposition of Election I refer it to what is abovesaid upon this Subject He Concludes Vossius's Testimony to be false in saying That this was the Common Opinion of the Ancients But if so little Credit be to be given him he did not well that made so much use of him to prove what was Pelagius's Doctrine as he has done throughout this Treatise For John Owen's Citations I have neither Accommodation nor Time at present to Examine them it is enough to me that this is Contrary to Scripture though all these he mentions had said so To prove That Men may have a good Conscience and yet want true Faith he bringeth Paul's Words Acts 23. v. 1. where speaking of himself while a Pharisee he saith He lived in all good Conscience before God c. but that will not meet this Case Those 1 Tim. 1.19 who are said to Make shipwrack of a good Conscience are such who believed the true Doctrine of Faith in Christ A Man may live in good Conscience to other Principles while Ignorant of the true Faith in Christ. as himself before acknowledgeth Now albeit a Man may be said to live in good Conscience to other Principles while Ignorant of this yet he should prove How a Man can be said to have a good Conscience with respect to the true Faith of Christ held by him and yet without saving or true Grace With Railing he tells me pag. 358. N. 18. that Phil. 1.6 and 1 Pet. 1.5 speak of God's beginning and perfecting the Condition And what then yet God doth not this against our Wills it is with a respect to our performing the Conditions on our part which yet we cannot do without him Then he goes about to prove That Paul could not fall in answer to my saying from 1 Cor. 9.27 That Paul supposeth a possibility that he might become a Reprobate But if the Reader Consider how I bring that in my Apology he will find he had no reason for this Cavil for I alledged it only to Reprove those that are too too secure shewing where Sin was there was always a Ground of Jealousy Since the Apostle did reckon it needful to keep under his Body to subdue Sin that he might not become a Reprobate Which since the Apostle did but upon this Supposition if he did not keep under his Body suppose possible others had no Reason to presume SECT XI Wherein his Sixteenth Chapter Of the Church his Seventeenth Of the Ministerial Call his Eighteen Nineteen and Twenty First Of their Qualifications Office and Maintenance and his Twentieth Of Womens Preaching is considered ¶ 1. HIs Chapter of the Church is soon dispatched for it contains scarce any thing but Perversions and Railing For after he has given a large Citation out of their Confession of Faith and then added some Enlargements of his own and some little nibbling Cavils to what I say of No Salvation being without the Church pag 361. he goes on with his old reiterated Calumny That I suppose Men may be made Members of the Catholick Church by the Light of Nature which is utterly false And upon this false Supposition is built his N. 5. pag. 362. as also what he saith pag. 364. But N. 4. he screws this to a greater Pitch of Falshood affirming J. B.'s gross Calumny That our Faith and Principles are only taught by the Light of Nature That what I say of a Particular Church gathered together in the Faith of the true Principles and Doctrines of Christ by the Spirit of God and Testimony of some of his Ministers is that these are Persons only taught by the Light of Nature and by such Ministers as preach nothing of the Gospel Against a Man thus desperately resolved and determined to Lie and Calumniate there can be no Guard bu sure all sober Readers will abhor such Dealing What I speak of a Church in this Respect is only of such as have the Advantage of the outward Knowledge of Christ as my Words afterwards shew where I say Such were the Churches gathered by the Apostles of which the Scripture makes mention And therefore what he Objects That cannot be done by Pagans is wholly Impertinent and doth but verify the grosness of his Calumny which he endeavours to inculcate as a Truth to his Reader pag. 363. as if what I say further of the things requisite to be a Member of this Particular Church were a third Sort and not a more particular Description of the former Which the Reader may easily observe by looking to the Place to be a meer Fetch of his to afford himself some matter of Cavil Which imagining he has got he fills up the Paragraph with gross Lies and Railing saying That the Quakers believe not the Holy Truths set down in the Scriptures because they oppose and contradict them J. B.'s further Lies against us of the Scriptures of Christ and our Faith That they believe not in nor make Profâ—ssion of Jesus Christ Revealed in the New Testament because they oppose him and all his Institutions That Faith according to them is not wrought by the Spirit of God but that Nature can sweetly and naturally Incline yea Compel thereunto All which are Gross Calumnies And then he concludeth saying And thus we have Run round and are again where we began which is very true for he began with Calumnies and having run round the same way his Work Resolves in them Pag. 364. He affirmeth Men may be Members of the visible Church and consequently ought to be reputed such who are ungodly and without holiness and offereth to make it good if I will form a Dispute upon it but I leave him as to this to Dispute with his Learned Dr. Owen whose Works he has Applauded in this Treatise and whom his Postscript-Brother R. M. has in his Preface to this J. B.'s Book highly Commended as a Gracious Man As for his Silly Argument that from the Apostle's saying Act. 2.39 The Promise is unto you and to your Children and 1 Cor. 7.14 it follows Men become Members of the Church by Birth I leave him to debate it with his great Author Thomas Hicks who will tell him if he be Consonant to his own Principles it is a Babylonish Invention But J. B. hath here unawares Contradicted himself for if these Scriptures prove Men become Members of the Church by Birth then the Sprinkling them with Water sometime after they are born or their Baby-Baptism J. B. shuts out their Baby-Baptism from making them Church-Members is not necessary to make them Members of the Church and they are to be accounted such without it He saith I am mistaken when I say
Antichrist built his Structure upon this foundation to wit That Men without Holiness may be Members of the true Church because he applyeth all the Priviledges of the Invisible Church unto his Visible Synagogue of Satan whereas this sheweth that I am not Mistaken but that my Affirmation is true for if he to wit Antichrist did believe Holiness to be necessary to make a Member of the true Church he could not apply the Priviledges of the Invisible Church unto his Visible Members most of which he well knows as often times himself are not only void of but Enemies to Holiness It is false That I agree with him in his not distinguishing betwixt the Visible and Invisible Church and yet much more in un-Churching all who are not of his Combination In which albeit J. B. most Impudently insinuates I approach to him yet himself cannot but know it to be a most manifest Falshood since I suppose some of all Sects of Christians may be Members of the Catholick Church and he knows and has observed here how Contrary the Pope is to this Doctrine At last he concludes this Chapter with a fit of Railing of which the last words must not pass without observation J. B. condemns a Morality which himself hath confessed to be Just Holy and Good to wit That instead of true Holiness I press upon them a Natural Dead and anti-Evangelical Morality Now this Morality as pressed by me he himself confessed before to be such as the Law of Nature taught albeit in Truth I pressed none but what is through the Light of Christ or Grace of God that is by Christ which he acknowledged did lead Men not to Murder not to Steal not to commit Adultery which he confessed also was Just Holy and Good And so it seems according to him that which is Holy Just and Good not to Murder not to Steal not to Commit Adultery is no part of true Holiness yea is Anti-Evangelick and contrary to the Gospel Now if I would insist after his Method having much more Reason than he I might at large shew what a Pagan-Gospel to purpose his must be that is contrary to Honesty Chastity and Innocency albeit I deny not but the true Gospel teacheth more than the height of meer Morality ¶ 2. He beginneth his 17 th Chapter Entituled Of a Ministerial Call after the Repetition of some part of my 10 th Thesis with his old reiterated Calumny and false Supposition That I affirm Men to be called and qualified to the Ministry by the Light of Nature and to this purpose to help him to fill up the Paper he insisteth p. 369 370 371. Which being false all that is built upon it falls to the Ground In this Chapter also he is very liberal of his Railing Take one Instance pag. 372. where he saith That the Quakers are Pagan-Preachers who know not the Gospel but are sworn Enemies to it and plain Subverters of it and all the Ordinances thereof And pag. 378. he saith They are a Company of the most desperate Antichristian Opposers of Christ and all his Appointments that ever the Sun shined on More of this kind may be seen pag. 374 375 and 376. Pag. 366. N. 3. He saith When I speak of a True Call to the Ministry I must suppose Ten things which he after ennumerateth and albeit I judge not my self obliged to follow him in such Excursions yet for the Reader 's satisfaction let it be observed That I deny not but what I speak here is with a relation to a visible Church which is his first Supposition Secondly That I acknowledge that in it there must be a standing Ministry which is necessary Properties of a True Call and this is his second and third That I acknowledge this to be an Institution of Jesus Christ which is his fourth That None ought to take this upon him without being lawfully called thereunto which is his fifth That also None may take upon them that work but such as are Called to the Ministry so as to exercise it constantly as exercised by Ministers yet a Man may when particularly called by the Spirit thereunto do that which is the Work of a Minister which his doing pro hic nunc maketh him not a Minister properly and this is his sixth That neither the Work nor Office is common to all the Members so that they may not do it simply as Members which is his seventh and eighth That a Call differeth from Gifts and Qualifications which is his ninth And lastly That there are some Rules in the Scripture if he understand general Rules as I suppose he doth which distinguish a true Call from a false which is his Tenth Supposition Now wherein I here disagree from other Quakers or my self as he insinuateth he may be pleased next time to inform I might pass what he saith in the next Paragraph J. B. his divers sorts of Calls recited pag. 368. concerning the several sorts of Calls to the Ministry as containing no Answer to me were it not to shew that he there but begs the question and contradicts himself 1. He begs the question while he supposes that the Approbation and Concurrence of Men in a Call hinders the Call from being Immediate and that there is no Immediate Call now which he all affirms without Proof 2. Of Mediate Calls he saith some are Rare and Singular when a Church is erecting and other Ordinary according to the Rules set down in the Word So it seems the Rare and Singular Call which is usually ascribed to that of the first Reformers was not according to the Rules prescribed in the Word But if such Rules be set down by what Authority without the Word can he affirm they may be despensed with if he Contradict not his own Principles 3. He saith There must be an Inward Call which is the signification of God's mind of his Calling and Appointing him to the Ministry This is good and it is false that he saith pag. 372. That this will not satisfie us Yet he cannot stand to this but contradicts it pag. 372. speaking of my words thus What meaneth he by this must be called by the Spirit Is this an Inward Inspiration or Enthusiasm saying to the Man he must go Preach We reject all such Fancies c. But is not an Inward Call signifying God's mind to a Man The True and Inward Call of his Calling him to the Ministry an Inward Inspiration telling him he must go Preach Or can an Inward Call be without an Inward Inspiration The Reader may judge of these Inconsistencies As to his question pag. 369. Whether to be instructed by the Inward Vertue and Power of God in the Heart be so necessary to a Minister that he cannot be without it I say it is and the Reader may observe how he is pinched while himself is loth to say otherwise pag. 370. yet at last he saith He dare not say it referring to his Learned Mr.
Durham as he calls him and giving the Example of Judas J B.'s Gospel-Ministers Call and Qualification may agree to the Devil himself whom yet they will not turn away from of which hereafter However we see according to him That not only one who wanteth Holiness but even a Devil may and ought to be esteemed heard and obeyed as a Minister of Christ and that all they judge needful in the Call and Qualification of a Gospel-Minister may agree to the Devil himself nor can they be sure but their Ministers may be all Devils for ought they know It is false that he addeth in this page 370. That I agree with Socinians and Arminians in affirming That whoever understands the Truth of the Gospel and are able to instruct others may and have Right to Teach This I no-where affirmed and do wholly deny whatever Knowledge or Ability a Man have to Instruct by reason of his Gifts either natural or acquired that he ought to take upon him to Teach without being particularly Called thereunto and therefore the Scriptures he brings against such as say so are not to the purpose against me To my first Argument he confesseth That it proveth the necessity I speak of to make a Man a real upright and sincere Minister before God but that any that are not real and upright are to be esteemed Ministers at all or heard as such I deny and remains for him to prove Why are we so often forbidden to hear false Teachers And that this is not only with respect to Teaching false Doctrine the Apostle shews 2 Tim. 3. v. 5. where he exhorts to Turn away from such as have the form of Godliness only which cannot consist with false Doctrine To my Second Argument mentioned pag. 372 he Confesseth what he saith further in that Paragraph is above answered To my Argument shewing That if the Inward Testimony of the Spirit be not thought needful the Gospel-Ministry should be postponed to the Legal he most ridiculously answers Then the Jews needed to doubt of the Priests and Levites whereas my Argument was If they were certain and we should be uncertain it would make the Evangelical worse than the Legal and therefore to this he returneth nothing further but Railing Pag. 373. n. 10. he asketh How I will prove That all such as want the Call of the Spirit come not in by the door but are Thieves and Robbers affirming Here a Man may come in the Way appointed by Christ though they want this whereas before pag. 369. and in the end of this page he affirms the Necessity of an Inward Call saying They must have an Inward Call I run not out as he alledgeth upon a Mistake in saying The Succession of the Church is objected against this Doctrine albeit J. B. and his We may not do so since I write to others than he will perhaps include in his We. He bestoweth his n. 12. pag. 374. in Railing and referring to what is formerly said by him pag. 375. n. 13. To my Answer to that Objection That who pretend to an Immediate Call should prove it by Miracles shewing It was the same Objected by Papists against the Primitive Protestants he in a frothy manner desires me to take it thus and it will be too hot for my Fingers That they J. B. pleads for Miracles c. to evidence a Call who had Immediate Calls from God were able to give evidence of the same by Miracles or some other evident Testimony of the Spirit which to contradict had been Iniquity and utterly Vnreasonable I grant the whole and therefore desire him to shew me and prove it What way the first Reformers did thus evidence their Call which is not done by those called Quakers But his Probation must be somewhat solider than the Railing with which he filleth up the rest of this Paragraph Pag. 376. n. 14. as it should be marked he argueth against my saying That such as receive and believe the Call of true Ministers verify it and become the Signs of their Apostleship 2 Cor. 13.3 albeit this was the very Answer given by Beza to Claudius Espenseus at the Conference of Poissy by Papists against Protestants and let him urge this if he can any way against us which may not be as well urged by Protestants against Papists and if he cannot he doth but work for his great Father the Pope to whom to their great Shame the Protestant Clergy begin to Recur to Justify their Calling Having ended this Paragraph with Railing he begins the next with a silly groundless Perversion and Inference The Inward Life is their true Call and Title viz. That because I say that this to wit the Inward Life and Vertue which is in true Ministers is that which giveth to the Minister the true and substantial Call and Title it follows That the Extraordinary Call was no true and substantial Title As if any Extraordinary Call wanted this Life and Vertue and that albeit it prove an Evidence to such as receive them yet some may have it who are Rejected of Rebellious Men. To prove the necessity of Laying on of Hands he asketh Why then were Hands laid upon Paul and Barnabas Act. 13.3 citing other places Answ. Because there was then a Spiritual Vertue Communicated by that Action which they ascribe not to theirs yea the places cited by him prove it as Mark 16.18 Luk. 13.13 where the Laying on of hands is said to Cure the Sick I said not The Apostles and their laying on of Hands do differ from J. B.'s c. that the laying-on of hands always was the giving of the Holy Ghost it is enough if it was a Communicating of some spiritual Vertue which by their own Confession theirs is not Af◠he has ended this Paragraph with Railing he ends this Chapter with observing the Infallibility pleaded for in Ministers by some Quakers but if he judgeth them to Err in this he should have applied himself to them answering the Arguments by which they vindicate what they say in that matter ¶ 3. I come now to his Eighteenth Chapter of Ministerial Qualifications Where after he has begun and repeated some Words of mine The Grace of God doth Qualify the Minister or Preacher he will have the Grace of God to respect not the esse or being but bene esse or well-being of a Minister albeit elswhere he would be mincing this and eating it up yet it appears to be his Belief To prove which he asketh pag. 380. What I think of Balaam who is called a Prophet not a false Prophet But he hath not proved That no more is Required in a Gospel-Minister than in a Prophet meerly to fore-tell things to come God's speaking to him urgeth nothing For God spake also to Cain as himself confesseth Chap. 3. yet it will not follow that Cain had all the Qualifications requisite to a Gospel-Minister To my answer of Judas that they had not proved he wanted Grace when
to the Grace given 300. the confining of the Gifts and Graces of God to certain External Forms and Ceremonies is directly opposite to Vniversal Love 703. by the Gift of God all things are possible 398. Gilpin John his Story answered 74. God How he hath always manifested himself 269 unless he speak within the Preacher makes a rustling to no purpose 271 272. None can know him aright unless he receive it of the Holy Ghost 270 271 272. God is to be sought within 272. he is known by Sensation and not by meer Speculation and Syllogistick Demonstrations 271. he is the Fountain Root and Beginning of all good Works and he hath made all things by his Eternal Word 274. God speaking is the Object of Faith 278. among all he hath his own Chosen ones 270. he delights not in the Death of the Wicked see Redemption he hath manifested his Love in sending his Son 367 368 see Justification he rewards the good Works of his Children 386. whether it be possible to keep his Commandments 388. he is the Lord and the only Judge of the Conscience 515 517 he will have a free Exercise 522. his Forbearance and Long-suffering 343 344 223 217. When God hardens 344. what Man does act without his Power is not accepted 453. by Manifestation he cometh forth into the Creatures and yet is still in himself 580. whom to know is Eternal Life 115. God's Voice is known by a Spiritual and Supernatural Sense 898 God is Light 65 115 161. There is in all Men a Supernatural Idea of God as of a most perfect being 900. his Glory and Beauty makes all the Glory of this World as Dross and Dung 902. his Condescension to the Weak 35. of all things Sin is most contrary to his Nature 320. whose Riches and Bounty lead Men to Repentance 791. who speaks inwardly to the Mind of Man 896. Godliness from a tender Age the Happiness of few and why 677. Good that which is good for one to do may be sinful to another 300. the Good in all ought to be Commended 682 and the Evil not to be encouraged 683. Gospel see Redemption the Truths of it are as Lies in the Mouths of Profane and Carnal Men 276 284 285. the Nature of it is explained 285 286. It is distinguished from the Law and is more excellent than it 386 287 298. see Covenant Law whether any ought to preach it in this or that Place is not found in Scripture 299 416 417. its Works are distinguished from the Works of the Law 382. how it is to be propagated and of its Propagation 517. The Worship of it is inward 484. it is an inward Power 349 350. Evil under the Gospel not to be resisted 665. its most excellent Dispensation is to be like Christ 664 The Gospel of Salvation is brought nigh unto all 125. which is the Power of God 126. a new Revelation of the good old Gospel and Doctrines 308. this Gospel is made a Mock and Illusion by the false Doctrine of Absolute Reprobation 319 321 322. is preached to every Creature 323. or in every Creature 799. which Gospel is hid in them that are lost 632. a twofold Dispensation of it 664. the preaching of it perverted by our Adversaries 782. the History of the Gospel is necessary 793. yet the Declaration is not the Power or Manifestation of God in Man 799. which Assertion is neither Heathenism nor Jesuttism c. ibid. and Salvation is not impossible without the hearing of the Gospel or outward preaching 805. Government see Church Magistrate Order and Government Asserted in the Church of Christ 193. being appointed by Christ himself and the form thereof 194. the Abuse makes not void the true use ibid. the end thereof 195. being practised by the Apostles and Primitive Christians ibid. 199. the Apostles Doctrine concerning it 196. dissenting Reasonings against it 197. It is no inconsistency or Contradiction to be a Follower of the Grace of God in ones self and to be a Follower of Men in whom the Spirit of God hath the Dominion ibid. in what Cases and how far this Government extends i as to Outwards and Temporals 206 211. ii in Matters Spiritual and purely Conscientious 212 224. It differs from the Oppressing and persecuting principality of the Church of Rome and other Antichristian Assemblies 230 235. Grace the Grace of God can be lost through Disobedience 398 c. Saving Grace see Redemption which is required in the calling and qualifying of a Minister see Minister in some it worketh in a special and prevalent manner that they necessarily obtain Salvation 340 341. Your Grace see Titles Grace is given in order to save 63 64. what it teaches 128. all have Grace sufficient for Salvation 341 578 699. if not resisted works Salvation 801. the Calvinists make Grace an Irresistible Power falsly 803 827 828 834. God's Grace and Love is Universal 164. its Work in the Heart 387 802. concerning falling from Grace 136 138 167. a graceless Man is rendered unfit to receive the new Wine of the Gospel in his unclean Vessel 656. Greeks the Wisdom of the Greeks appeared in their worldly Affairs 764. H. Hai Ebn Yokdan 365 Hands Laying on of Hands 417 511 660 833. Paul wrought with his Hands 652 435 Head Of uncovering the Head in Salutations 531 533 540 543 564 565 874. to put off the Hat one to another not commanded by Christ 3. is one of the Corrupt Customs of the World ibid. not warranted to Man by Scripture but to God 60. and Salutations commanded by Christ are owned by the Quakers 2 3. who don 't consist in taking off the Hat and bowing of the Body 874 see Honor Salutations Hearing Inward and outward Hearing distinguished 603 803 804. Faith comes not by outward Hearing 904 905. see Infants Heart the Heart is Deceitful and Wicked 30 312 314. Obdurateness and Hardness of Heart when begotten 789. Hardness of Heart and blindness justly reprovable and all the Enormities following thereupon 242. man cannot procure to himself tenderness of Heart in his own will 338 Heathens Albeit they were Ignorant of the History yet they were sensible of the Loss by the Fall 361. some Heathens would not Swear 555. Heathenish Ceremonies were brought into the Christian Religion 492. Heathen-Philosophers Divine Knowledge 361 362. they declared that Inward Concupiscence is sin 604. the Gospel held forth to them 327. and Christ was given as a Light to inlighten the Gentiles 358. Concerning the Heathens Book of Nature 630 631. Salvation is possible to them in the most barbarous places 700 803 804. they having a Day of Visitation through the Gospel 788. Those that deny the Inward Principle of Grace and Light given to all Men are forged to urge the same against an Heathen because he doth not acknowledge any Scripture or Tradition 700 701. See Gentiles Pagans Heathen-Persecution see Persecution Hebrew The various Lections of the Hebrew Character of the Bible 303. Henry
the Church of Christ is not to usurp Authority over their Fellow-Members 229. decisive Judgment explained 243. true and false Decision 244. unsettled Men Judging 683 684. Charitable and uncharitable Judgment 686. God the Judge of conscience 516 517. he that is Spiritual Judgeth all things 795 see Church Justification the Doctrine thereof is and hath been greatly vitiated among the Papists and wherein they place it 364 365 380 382 Luther and the Protestants with good Reason opposed this Doctrine though many of them ran soon into another Extream and wherein they place it and that they agree in one 366 387 370. it comes from the Love of God 367 379 380. to Justify signifies to to make really Just not to repute Just which many Protestants are also forced to acknowledge 370 371 374 377. The Revelation of Christ formed in the Heart is the formal Cause of Justification not Works to speak properly which are only an Effect and so also many Protestants have said 364 380. we are Justified in Works and how 364 370 371 380 387. this is so far from being Popish Doctrine that Bellarmine and others opposed it 365 369 385 386. We are Justified by Christ Jesus both as he appeared at Jerusalem and also as he was made manifest and revealed in us 19 20. Justification by the indwelling of Christ is denied by the Papists 78. Primitive Protestants Belief concerning Justification 79. concerning Faith and Justification 129 166. a twofold Justification 25. it is the making a Man just by an Inward Righteousness 77. 811. the Doers of the Law Justified 806. Antinomians Imputative Justification refuted 812. J. B's gross Opinion of it 814. no Man is Justified before he be sanctified 816 The real Justification falleth under the inward sensation of the Soul 817. K. Keith G. K. vindicated from our Adversaries malitious Insinuations against him 621. Kingdom of God 459 511 517. Christ's Kingdom needs no outward protection 846. the Kingdom of God is within you 803. the Kingdom of God is in the Seed in the Hearts of all Men 354. Kirk the Greedy Kirk become a Proverb 437. Knowledge the Heighth of Man's Happiness is placed in the true Knowledge of God 467. Error in the Entrance of this Knowledge is dangerous 267 268. Superstition Idolatry and thence Atheism hath proceeded from the False and Feigned Opinions concerning God and the Knowledge of him 269. the uncertain Knowledge of God is divers ways attained but the True and Certain only by the inward and immediate Revelation of the Holy Spirit 269 271. it hath been brought out of use and by what Devices 272 273. there is no Knowledge of the Father but by the Son nor of the Son but by the Spirit 268 274 275. the Knowledge of Christ which is not by the Revelation of his Spirit in the Heart is no more the Knowledge of Christ than the pratling of a Parret which hath been taught a few Words may be said to be the Voice of a Man 276 277. The Objection that the Apostle prefers the Knowledge of Christ as outwardly Crucified to all other Knowledge answered 9. his Inward Knowledge preferred 67. the true and saving Knowledge of God 115 161. the Knowledge of the History saves none 355. many by the Light may be saved that have not the outward Knowledge of christ 356 of the true Ground of Knowledge 728 733. the Difference between Head-Knowledge and the partaking of the Divine Nature 763 764. Monopolizers of Knowledge 889. 428 see Clergy The Christian Religion consists not in the Historical Knowledge of Christ 895. see Indians c L. Labour they wanted nothing whom God sent they labour'd with their Hands 435. Laces and Ribbonds 873. Laicks 429 432 433. Laity 433 507. Lake of Bethesda 338 339. Lamb see Paschal Lamb. Language the plain Language used in the Scriptures 58. concerning our using Thee and Thou which is the Singular Number to one person 61. to use the Plural instead of the Singular Number to one Person is no Indifferent thing 3 4. see Number the Singular Number to one person used in the Latine 539. how the Word You came to be used to a single person ibid. the Word Thou a greater Honour to one than You 540. Scripture-Dialect the plain Language 541. Law the Law is distinguished from the Gospel 287 384. the Difference thereof 287 493. see Gospel under the Law the People were not in any Doubt who should be Priests and Ministers 408. see Minister of the Law Worship The Testimony Law and Word is inward in the Heart 15 71. the ending of the Law and beginning of the Gospel 187. wherein the Law and Gospel differ 298 393 484. the outward and inward Law 286. the Law of Christ more perfect than of Moses 558. the Divine Law was implanted in Man's Nature before all Laws made by Man 701. J. B's Proof for what is meant by Law and Testimony 756. his Asserting the Law of Nature against his former Reason 793. Law of Moses see Legal Rites Lawyers by Tricks and Intricacies foment Controversies 209 Laying on of Hands 511. see Hands Learned the Lord is angering the Wise and Learned 885 Learning what true Learning is 421 422. Humane Learning is not the Qualification of a Minister 140 305 703 730. see Literature Schools of Learning Leaven J. B's Objection against the Word Fermentum Leaven or Fermentation a Leavening answered 855. Legal Rites had a Command as well as John's Baptism 857. Leonisis a Sect they have a great Shew of Truth 532. in the Margent Letter The Letter killeth quickneth not 393. like Pharisees the outward Law so now Professors plead the Letter 15. How the Letter killeth 18 76. Levi a Figure of Christ 655 Leyden John of Leyden and Ignatius Loyola their Practices resembled by W. M. and his Brethren 58 Liars their Punishment 557 Libertines see Ranters Liberty the true Liberty in the Church 222. breach of Liberty begets Jars ibid. a false Liberty 224. a wrong Spirit of Liberty 246. what Liberty we claim in things Religious 516 520 524 Lies 276. lying Titles 535. Christians not to speak a Lie 875. J. B s refuge of Lies 877. Light The innate Light is explained by Cicero 361 362. Light of Nature the Errors of the Socinians and Pelagians who exalt this Light are rejected 310 311. Saving Light see Redemption is universal it is in all 330 331. It is a Spiritual and Heavenly Principle 333 334. it is a Substance not an Accident 334 335. it is Supernatural and sufficient 346 348. It is the Gospel preached in every Creature 349 350. It is the Word nigh in the Mouth and in the Heart 350 351. it is the Ingrafted Word able to save the Soul 353. Testimonies of Augustin and Buchanan concerning this Light 363. it is not any part of Nature or Reliques of the Light remaing in Adam after the fall 337. it is distinguished from the Conscience 337 338. It is not a common Gift as the Heat of the