is in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14.17 that he may preserve his own Earthly kingdom which consists in meer beastly affections and a brutish ignorance what he can to keep from men the knowledge of their most excellent Prerogative thereby to make them sit still contented and without sense of their base despondency in the shadow of that death all men dye of with Adam from the very first moment of their life until the time of their regeneration O that Christians were but left to their reason and Scripture in matters of Religion for who is he though never so careless of his future and eternal happiness that would not be glad and strive with all his power and might to obtain the gift of that which shews and teacheth all things if he knew he might have it But woe be to you Doctors who notwithstanding your fair pretence to the contrary pag. 11. do your endeavour to keep by imposing upon them your Doctrines and Traditions from men the key of knowledge Deut. 27.18 and would scarce have allowed them any such distinction were not the existence of Gods Spirit in the Church so plainly taught in Scripture that you dare not deny it But yet a little while and you will not stick to say that both your ordinary and extraordinary Spirits are wholly ceased if the two witnesses of God viz. the Holy Ghost that testifieth of him John 15.26 5 32. and the cloud of witnesses both recorded in Scriptures and not recorded to wit those that have been and are still since the same were written having already prophesied out near their time of 1260 years hidden under their sackcloth do not prevent you quickly by standing upon their feet and killing the beast that hath so long made War against them killed and overcome them that the kingdoms of this world may at last become the Lords Rev 11.15 Obad. 21. Pray had not the Jewish Church such Spirit as you say pag. 7. is continued to Christians viz. sufficiently helpful to them suitable to their necessities and to what God required of them in order to be partakers of his blessings and did they not understand as much of their Religion and of the Messiah as you of yours and of him that is witness the place above cited out of Hales viz. that otherwise than out of the Apostles books the Spirit speaks not to you as much as was related out of the Law and of the ancient Prophets Books to them and so what doth the Spirit you pretend to amount to what greater priviledge have Christians than they by it what signifies Christ's coming and their being anointed thereby for his Kings and Priests dignities granted but to few men in the Jewish Church what signifies the promise which God made that all Nations should be blessed by the said coming of the Messiah and in short what signifies the Prophecy in your Text In the last days I will pour my Spirit on all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophecy viz. by it Act. 2.17 18. Now were the Apostles days more the last days than ours and were only they and their children meant here by all flesh or else are as many meant according to St. Peter v. 39. as the Lord shall ever call unto the end of the World And to see which of Peter or your Church is in the right that is which explication his or yours is Orthodox will you be pleased my Lords to be tryed here by your Peers for you will grant I hope that the Bishops of Antioch Jerusalem c. were as good men as you are and that we may as well say my Lord Paul my Lord Peter my Lord St. John and St. James Bishop Archbishop Primate Patriarch and Cardinal and Pope except you grudge them the same honour the Papists allow them who say Peter was one and chief amongst them as say my Lord of London Henry the Right Reverend Father in God to no man and to allow of their sentence out of Scripture Law as well as Peter himself and other Apostles did Act. 15.19 15 22 28. Hoping which I say first that St. John by applying the promises of Christ concerning the Holy Ghost teaching all things c. John 14.26 16 13. to all those he wrote to all Christians generally 1 John 2.20 27. shews that they do not belong to the Apostles only as Hales and you out of him pag. 10. lin 20. seem to take it for granted but to all them that believe in Christ who should as he saith John 7.39 receive the holy Spirit after Christ was glorified which should make the knowledge of all things to rise and spring like wells of living waters flowing out of their belly from their heart within themselves And it is most evident that these Promises of Christ were meant to all his disciples that is all that learn of him since he did speak to them all as appears by John 15.8 and by his new commandment given them at the same time ch 13.34 15.12 which no Christian will deny but that it doth belong to all the disciples of Christ and not to some few of them and since Christ himself declares Mark 13 3 37. that what he spake to Peter and James and John and Andrew was spoken unto all the Servants of the Son of man v. 34. and all them that are to watch And we find accordingly that not only some few great Believers in some Churches but that all the Believers and the whole Christian Churches received the Holy Ghost And first to begin at the visible descent thereof and with the first Christian Church The Apostles were no more than twelve in number and yet hundred and twenty disciples received the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost Act. 1.14 15. for as in the 14 th verse they were all with one accord and ch 2.4 all the very same disciples were fill'd with the Holy Ghost Besides v. 14 15. Peter with the eleven standing up lift up his voice and said these are not drunken meaning some others besides the eleven that standing and saying the same with him could not say these of themselves to wit as many as some had said were full of new wine v. 13. that is as many as they heard speak with new Languages which were not the twelve only as appears by ch 10.46 19.6 Again ch 2.38 repent saith he to the whole multitude of Jews that were come together to see them v. 6. and you shall receive also the gift of the â—oly Ghost out of which three thousand souls were baptized v. 41. with Spirit according to his promise as appears from that they did continue with one accord and gladness and singleness of heart v. 46. in the fellowship of the Apostles themselves v. 42. which fellowship they could not have but by the unity of the same Spirit with them 1 Cor. 6.16 17. â—phes 4.3 4. 1 John 1.6 7. Again repent ye saith he Act. 3.19 to another Assembly whereof see
in this is the discerning and trying of the Spirits which being a faculty that St. John takes for granted all those he writ his first general Epistle to that is all true Believers have already or may have chap. 4.1 and they being made by Christ Priests c. Revel 1.6 5.10 may pretend to the Priests right to discern and to pronounce what is clean and what unclean Levit. 13.17 23. I hope by the mercy of God it belongs to me And therefore I hope that if after having tryed and found that some men have not in them the Spirit of Christ and shewed sufficient reasons and very good grounds for it I pronounce them to be none of the Ministers of God I shall not go for a Reviler of such And truly I have tryed and found that not only some few men among Christians have not the Spirit of Christ but that so many are the false seducing Spirits gone abroad into the World 1 John 4.1 to deny that Christ cometh to men whilst yet in the flesh which Spirits are not of God v. 3. and to speak as St. Paul saith 1 Tim. 4.2 their lies in Hypocrisie that the true Doctrine of Christ and the two Witnesses that do testifie of him seem like to be overcome Revel 11.7 nay to be killed by them nothing but their carcasses the dead letter of Scripture and a dead ineffectual notion of the Holy Ghost seeming now left unburied lying in the Streets of the Spiritual Sodom that is the present Christian Churches v. 8. For what else is allowed them and dispenced among their Members by their own Prophets for instance by the Author of a late Sermon preached at the Visitation of the Bishop of London and by all them that approve hold and teach the same Doctrine who are come to that height of insolence in denying the power and existence of God's Spirit in his Church in changing the truth of God concerning it into lies holding in unrighteousness that which may be known of it Rom. 1.18 19 25. that I think it high time for them who make mention of the Lord not to keep silence Isa 62.6 but with the Rod of their mouth to smite all these Seducers by whom offences do come that the simple may beware and learn to come without them to the knowledge of the truth Prov. 19.25 For my part I declare that reading the said Sermon my Spirit was so stirred up Acts 17.16 that having like Flihu Job 32.11 given ear to their reasons whilst they searched out what to say and waited a good while for an answer to them from some wiser than my self I could hold no longer and seeing none appeared to convince them of falshood I thought it my duty to do it my self lest they should think that they are the people v. 13. 12.2 and lest error should triumph over Christian light and truth Though indeed as a Novice I might have been afraid to proffer my opinion v. 6. against so many grave learned and Right Reverend Fathers in God so called had I not as well as Elihu v. 9. after having thought like him that Days should speak and the old standing Professors should teach wisdom v. 7. found that the famous Doctors are not always the wisest and that these Aged Fathers are not they that understand the Art of discerning best For note It was but a little that I had passed from the Watchmen of the City saith the Soul in the Canticle 3.4 but I found my wishes That is so soon as we pass from the Watchmen or leave them and not whilst we spend the time in consulting and seeking to learn of them as v. 3. our Soul comes to attain to that which it longs after it s own summum bonum the knowledge of God and Christ John 17.3 for it is the gift of God the Watchmen cannot give it since they seldom enter in themselves and keep from others the key of truth and knowledge Luk. 11.52 But on the contrary that they may as St. Paul saith Gal. 4.17 though they exclude others be by them affected cryed up followed after endeavour as for instance this Preacher to suppress it Whence they that relie on them that seek for truth at their mouth that dig for it in their works Nemo dat quod non habet find nothing but vain knowledge and that their bellies are fed as Job saith with the East wind But besides having also found out like Elihu v. 8. that there is a Spirit in man and that the inspiration of the Almighty is that which gives him understanding without respect to his Age or to his Humane Learning and believing that the mouth and wisdom promised Luk. 21.15 Mat. 10.20 which all the Adversaries are not able to resist is given in time of need why should I be afraid to give my testimony and to stand against them all for the truth of the Gospel Therefore though I am neither a Prophet nor Prophet's Son Amos 7.14 not so much as a Graduate in the Schools and High places of your Watchmen and Prophets but a poor obscure Tradesman who am not so much as known among any Christian Sects and am tyed and supported to none and by none of them though briars and thorns be with me and I dwell among Scorpions Ezek. 2.6 yet worthy Master Vicar I am so far from being dismay'd at your and your Bishop's supercilious looks that I will make bold here with the help of God's Spirit not only to answer you in very different terms from those who seeking for praise and applause from other men endeavour to please all men and take care to displease none but to try both your Spirit and of your Lords Spiritual who by their approbation of your Doctrine of Spirits give me cause enough to think that they are of the same mind and to judge and to pronounce call it never so much pragmatical censuring reviling of dignities and rebelling against them that the reason and the cause why you discourse so strangely concerning the Spirit of God is because you are very great strangers to it and meer natural men still who being not able therefore to discern the things of God 1 Cor. 2.14 are much less able to teach others what belongs to them Let your reason be never so well improved at your Seminaries of Learning and be you never so much guided by the clue of it they are your words pag. 15. yet except you be born again of the Holy Ghost you are without God's Kingdom John 3.5 Rom. 14.17 and therefore the mysteries thereof are nothing to you but meer Aenigma's Mark 4.11 and you can be nothing but blind leaders of the blind people that hear you There is a Spirit in man And without being Quaker Enthusiast or Fanatick and suppose I were one must men reject truth because they or the Quakers teach it I say that God's Spirit which inspires man with all knowledge and understanding is given to all Christians 1 Cor.
for they pretend all to see John 9.41 to know and understand best Christ and the oracles of God Rom. 3.2 we are the strictest Sect of Christians say most of them we are wise and the Law of the Lord is with us Jer. 8.8 we are of Christ Mat. 24.5 and lo he is amongst us Mark 13.21 and thou wast altogether would they say to Christ himself Luk. 10.16 if he came to preach over again the same things he did and to make them sensible of their neglect of the same and practices against it born in sins or ignorant for that phrase imports so much and dost thou think to teach us John 9.34 who are our selves the best Doctors of his purest Church we know too well the meaning of Scripture to believe thee and we may chuse to credit even an Angel of God if he came down from Heaven to confirm what thou teachest These are doctrines of Devils and it is very probable saith the Reverend Vicar pag. 11. lin 12. that some worse Sect than that of the Quakers if a worse can come in their room will ere long what if this were a Caiaphas prophecy John 11.51 be at the doors and disturb the minds of credulous people Therefore is that party I speak this for instance which calleth another whose doctrine may for all that be far better than its own the worse Sect of all Christians like to believe by its means and to receive from it even the plain truth it self without they see some Miracles and the same power of Faith as the foresaid instruments to wit the Apostles had whilst like the proud Pharisees they thank God that their doctrine and their way is not like this Luk. 18.11 No sure but rather to be like the self-conceited Jews Rom. 11.7 11. made more blind than the Gentiles and per consequent the conversion of all such whom I take to be far from converted Christians is a more difficult work and so needs the same if not a greater Spirit and strength than that which the Gentiles wanted in the Apostles Greater abomination of the desolation cannot be found in the Church than when being made altogether desolate that is brought to the most opposite state to that which constitutes a Christian Church it yet abominably calls it self and will be counted the true Church of Christ But I hear some again of that blessed crew doubtless whom no reason without sence can convince and satisfie saying though we grant all this yet the Apostles wrought Miracles spoke new Languages and Prophecied therefore though you cannot do it your self yet if their Spirit is not ceased and seeing these signs wait upon the gift of it to some of the believers shew us who doth now any of those signs or hath done them within the twelve last Ages and up comes Master Vicar with a scrap of his Learning Dic quibus in terris eris mihi magnus Apollo Opera jam sanctus tam grandia spiritus edat as Miracles and Prophecy the great attestation of any truth whatsoever pag. 3. and per consequent of the truth of the Spirit of the Apostles being continued ever since 1200 years to God's Church For we daily experience that none of the pretenders to their Spirit do the same And we may assert saith he pag. 6. that they ceased soon after the said fourth Century notwithstanding the boasts of the Church of Rome who indeed instead of confirming men in the Christian Religion by their pretended Miracles do if men be considerate rather expose it to their scorn and censure so ridiculous are the stories they tell and upon such slight and pitiful ground do they pretend their Miracles are wrought And here I must confess that the Vicar and his crew have catcht the Bear by the tail for so notwithstanding the boasts of another Church and of what one whom he will call as well as the Quakers one of the worst of Christians can say and shew against him he may still as boldly assert that they are ceased and find pretences enough to defend his assertion But though what he saith of the Miracles of the Roman Church is too true of most of them yet have there been all that time no Believers among them and have none of the signs mentioned Mark 16.17 waited upon some of them this is a bold assertion and a very hard thing for Master Vicar to prove chiefly if we consider that Christ by foretelling us that some false Prophets should rise and shew great signs and wonders Mark 13.13 grants that seeing even those whose coming is after the working of Satan saith Paul have power to work Miracles some of the true Believers living among the Papists have done since that Prophesie some of those many Miracles which are related of them and may now if it were so and though the Vicar could prove that they never did any do some wonders it being prophesied of time to come without any restriction to the sour first Ages Mark 13.13 and of what should come to pass after the Gospel had been published in all Countries v. 10. then in respect to all men v. 37. and per consequent to all times till the Worlds end And if not only those false Prophets who work their wonders by the help of the Devil but the Nigromancer also who acts by the strength alone of humane nature can effect wonderful things as by retiring but for one moment within himself and setting very strongly his will upon a thing though at a great distance from him introduce and bring to pass his desire upon it or at least stamp upon it such mark or impression as the longing Mother doth upon the fruit in her womb as appears plain by Balaam cursing or bewitching by Enchantments whom he would Numb 22.6 24.1 except God by a special providence prevented him Josh 24.10 Numb 23.23 why should the same power be denied to faithful men though they live among the Turks or are reputed Papists especially being more Masters of their own Passions than such natural men as a Nigromancer is and their minds more abstracted from all lower things because their conversation is in the heaven above But to do all parties right it must needs be confessed that some of the Romish Saints as Bruno Lopez and such have by their fruits or their works as by denying themselves and dying to all the World and to all the comfort they did enjoy of this life to follow ever after their Saviour under the cross wandring in desarts mountains and dens Heb. 11.38 without taking thought how they should subsist and live shewed us that they did truly and really believe in Christ and so we have no reason to think but that he met them Isa 64.5 Act. 10.35 made them know of his doctrine John 7.17 and granted that some wonders were according to his promise Mark 16.17 wrought by their hands Act. 5.12 This and let Master Vicar think what he will otherwise though I have not seen
THE ETERNAL GOSPEL Once more Testified unto and Vindicated Against the Ignorance or Malice of the Bishops and Teachers of the now Church of England This Book proving against their Doctrine That the Holy Ghost is not ceased but is still given to all the Faithful and to some in the same measure as the Apostles and Disciples of Christ had it Also at the occasion of a late Sermon preached at the Visitation of the Bishop of London by the Vicar of West-ham that Miracles and other gifts and works of the Holy Ghost are not ceased in the Church and that the School-Learning helps no man to understand Scripture and the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven nor the knowledge of Nature where by the way the true cause of the so much perplexed and famous Phoenomenon taken for a Weather-glass is by Experiments cleared and demonstrated against the Hypothesis of the New Virtuosi John 5.44 12.43 Luk. 7.35 How can they believe who seek for the honour of one another and love the praise of men more than that which comes from God But wisdom is justified or known of all her Children LONDON Printed for Allen Banks and are to be sold by most Booksellers in London 1681. HAving received this Book from the Author in order to its Printing I do hereby appoint Allen Banks to print the same Witness my Hand HENRY SCARLOT TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS JAMES Duke of YORK Patroni valeant Ecquis proteggere Verum Luci aut optatae fautor adesse potest Qui Lux qui Verum est qui Verum in saecula servat I liber ille tuus nempe Patronus erit THis is not therefore Great Sir to beg your Patronage for this Book nor for my self but rather to direct you to the Light of salvation Luk. 1.17 and to make it shine to you 2 Cor. 4.4 lest you lose here your Earthly and after your Heavenly Kingdom for lack of knowledge Hos 4.6 for though I seem angry with some men for Religion I am so far from hating a man for his Religion that I look upon him as he whom the Son of man came to save Mat. 18.11 a fit object of my love and charity and as a wounded man who needs me that am neither Priest Minister nor Levite for his Friend Luk. 10.30 37. and Physician Mat. 9.12 And therefore I am so much farther from being concern'd against Your Highness for yours with the Epidemical distemper though it wants not a President in Scripture 2 Kings 3.13 14. that Your Highness is one of the powers of this Land whom I am bound to honour and that for the Oath of God Rom. 13.1 2. Eccl. 8.2 and that looking upon you not only as a wounded but as such wounded man who though fallen unhappily into the hands of those Thieves John 10.1 20.21 22. that are stripping Your Highness both of the Triple Earthly Crown you might else enjoy one day and of your chiefest Kingly Heavenly Prerogative the Holy Unction whereby Christ makes all those Kings indeed Prov. 16.32 25.28 that do obey his commands Rev. 1.6 Exod. 19.5 6. may not only recover but be a great instrument to promote Gods Spiritual Kingdom and therefore as such Dan. 12.3 deserve one the first Thrones and Crowns among the twelve Tribes of Israel in Heaven Luk. 13.30 7.43 47. I tender your safety more than that of any man wishing with all my heart that like the Samaritan I might pour Oyl and Wine into your Highness's wounds set you on my Beast bring you to an Inn your Throne and thence to an everlasting Kingdom where may your Highness reign for evermore Amen But how can I do this except you own and believe that you are wounded and sick and how can you believe it except you come to know it and how shall you come to know except one doth shew it you and except you attend to the things that shall be shewed Act. 16.14 Rom. 10.14 15 17. If you will be pleased therefore to peruse this Book it shews you and you may easily gather from it that all men generally Christians as well as Gentiles are by birth bruised and sick Gen. 3.15 Rom. 3.23 1. Cor. 11.7 that the way to recover from the said sickness and bruise and to become whole again as to the Kingdom of God which is in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14.17 being by the said new birth of the Holy Ghost who is then renewed within them Tit. 3.5 all men must to be saved be thus regenerated and receive the Holy Ghost therefore as well and as much as the Primitive Christians and that the said renewing or new birth of the Spirit being a reformation to the same Image of God Adam was created to which doth consist in knowledge Coloss 3.10 as well as in righteousness Ephes 4.24 the Spirit of the Father that doth create us anew to his Image and likeness teaching all things John 14.26 16.13 1 John 2.20 27. 1 Cor. 2.10 as well as he is the power of Christ Luk. 24.49 Act. 1.8 Gods arm revealed to us and the bloud of the Lamb whereby sin is overcome and righteousness fulfilled Rev. 12.11 is inconsistent therefore with a despondent relying on other men for what we are to know to believe and to practise and is not attained to by a change or conversion from Popery for instance to another Religion which knows Christ as much after the flesh 2 Cor. 5.16 worships the Father as little in spirit and truth John 4.24 aâ—â— grieves the Holy Spirit no less than the Popish Church and which under the pretence of Reforming makes a Schism which is a far greater sin than to bear with some few erroneous opinions but by a true conversion from sin to righteousness by knocking and by waiting at the posts of Wisdoms doors Prov. 8.34 Jam. 1.5 by perusing daily and keeping diligently the precepts of that wisdom contained in the Scriptures in vitam lucem assurgendo our selves For such conversion is to know me saith the Lord Jer. 22.16 9.3 and such knowledge of God is saith Christ John 17.3 life Eternal Verily such knowledge and not an implicite Faith is both Salvation it self and the cause of Temporal and Worldly felicity for when a man meditates daily in the Law of God and observeth to do according to all the words that are written therein he makes his way prosperous and successful in all things Josh 1.8 Deut. 28.1 to 14. and when his ways please the Lord even the worst Enemies he hath are at peace with him Prov. 16.7 But Sir as such knowledge is our summum bonum both in this and the next World so extremum malum est non recognoscere Deum in the said manner for though God for a great while winketh at this ignorance Act. 17.30 yet he will be known at last and felt specially of those that either forget to know or having the means offer'd to know him do neglect them see Judg. 2.10 11 14. And the Egyptians
grief and of despair which lies between her own natural state or principle and the new principle or state of Light and of Conversion much less to bring it over the same safe and entire because it must be willing and co-work to its own help but will do neither of them Mat. 23.37 and though I set my will as fully as it can be upon the thing purposed and lift up my mind as high as it can rise and extend and even beyond its source or mother Eternity and in fine stretch out my Soul to such incredible size as to be greater than all things within ubiquity yet because a Soul is not to be reduced by force and taken by a strong hand into the Kingdom of God or else the Almighty power and wisdom of God needed not to have dyed to reduce men under it and that is not the Kingdom of God where he reigns by force but where men yield obedience and subjection to his will out of love for his goodness and freely give him up all power honour and glory I cannot for all this transport prevail upon it but like the stronger man Luk. 11.22 I may thereby prevail over the strong armed man the Devil that keeps his house v. 21. and take from him his armour his fiery darts and having cast him out of his strong hold loose the Soul which he had bound before Mat. 18.18 and taken captive as St. Paul saith at his will 2 Tim. 2.26 and I canâ—â—â— pray to God to appease his fierce wrath by his great fountain of love Jesus his own heart and Light to cleave the Rocks and to shake the Earth as when Christ dyed and to shake Heaven also Heb. 12.26 Luk. 22.44 as it is certainly done in every conversion for the powers that are in Heaven must be shaken before the sign of the Son of man the bright morning Star 2 Pet. 1.19 Rev. 3.28 22.16 appears in the contrite Souls which are the clouds of Heaven Luk. 17.21 with his light and great glory Mat. 24.29 30. Mark 13.26 Luk. 21.26 27. and then to send down his Light of Life to convince the Soul and to give it strength to turn away from its vanity Act. 3.26 Now the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availetâ— much as saith James 5.16 the prayer of such Faith as this may convert a Soul v. 15. procure it some light and grace which when a man sees it come to pass he may boldly say thy sins are forgiven thee Whence by the way Conversion being so great a miracle and so much above the strength of humane capacity first how insignificant is all the humane Learning towards effecting of it what the Vicar mistaking Conviction for Conversion and confounding them saith both were done by humane Learning in the Areopagite for they were not only convinced as the Jews were by arguments and reasons Act. 18.28 but believed which implys conversion and the Vicar ascribes without distinction their belief to the humane Learning of Paul and the rest and secondly if some men convert still in our days as it is believed and confessed on all hands with what truth can the Vicar and his fellow Church-men say that all Miracles are ceased with none Faith the victory that overcometh the World 1 John 5.4 being still able to force God Luk. 18.4 Mark 11.12 to do all the things needful towards a man's conversion to make of a man a God Luk 6.40 John 17.21 Rev. 3.21 and to bring the Believers through all things imaginable but impossibilities Phil. 4.13 Mark 9.23 But what Faith that of your Church and of your Lords Spiritual who do Lord it over the heritage of the true and only Lord and Master contrary to his doctrine 1 Pet. 5.3 1 Cor. 8.6 Eph. 4.5 Mat. 20.27 28. 23.8 No truly Master Vicar for a Believer is he that keeps the Precepts of Christ and shews his Faith by his Works like the Primitive Christians Act. 19.18 who confessing their errors and sins past did forsake them Mat. 3.6 Prov. 28.13 like Zacheus Luk. 19.8 and others who parted with what they did value above any thing Act. 2.45 19.19 before they believed Christ's doctrine which teacheth and that very peremptorily Mat. 24.35 that he who leaves not Houses and Lands for the Gospels sake Mark 10.29 that hates not Wife and Children and even his very life John 12.25 is not worthy of the name of a Christian believer Mat. 10.37 and which commands us to sell what we have to give the poor Luk. 12.33 to invite the poor and lame and blind to the feasts we make ch 14.33 to seek the kingdom of God and to take no thought for what we shall eat and drink and be cloathed with in time to come Mat. 6.33 31. These thoughts being not the thoughts of Christians who believe 1. That God knows that they need all these things and when they need them 2. That God having out of his nature which is to act and do always good for it is summum bonum bestowed already upon them life and body a far greater gift than food and raiment will without doubt because he never changeth supply out of the same goodness the rest of their wants and give them the lesser gift which he doth allow even to the Fowls and to the Grass creatures which are not so much worth his care as Believers 3. That all their taking thought and care can add nothing to their state and condition and cannot make so much as one of their hairs white or black 4. That God is now as able as ever he was to afford all things to them Heb. 11.6 and therefore relie on God for all their necessaries but being the thoughts of the Gentiles Mat. 6.32 and natural men who know not these things of God though they feel his great goodness Act. 17.27 Mat. 5.45 and therefore dare not relie upon him for any thing A Believer is he that understanding perfectly wherein lies his chiefest good or the most happy state of bliss he is capable of and being convinced that all these tribulations are the only way and means that can lead him into it Act. 14.22 is notwithstanding the same so transported and taken with the thoughts and hope of it that resolving upon them he takes up the cross of Christ 1 John 3.3 like a stout Champion and doth enter the Lists against them by parting with all he hath to buy this hidden treasure Mat. 13.44 and without so much as saluting his acquaintance Luk. 9 6-10.14 he runs blindfold Gal. 1.16 from his Wife Children Parents and himself by leaving as much as is possible his eyes and his hands that is denying the lusts which are incident to them behind him to sight and seek to get with less distraction Mat. 5.29 30. the said beloved treasure Prov. 2.4 Mat. 6.21 33. which he is in pursuit of and hath still before his eyes But to do as the Bishops who seek for praise and applause preach
man of a competent Estate which is observable 1. for his falling into Trances 2. for his great Faith whereby he overcame the Tempter and cast him out or at least far from himself when in the fiery tryal which goes usually before an unfeigned conversion he did as he never fails to do on such occasion assault him with all the might and the wiles he hath at hand to make the despairing Soul fall under his temptation 3. for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and strangeness of his disease and 4. for his cure and recovery without the help of all other means than of a strong Faith in Christ This same Briggs was a Lawyer of the Temple a godly man about 30 years of age and contemporary to Fox the Author of the English Martyrology His case and all that passed between the Tempter and him all the time of his Trances is in truth so remarkable that as it induced then many pious learned men both Physicians and Divines who resorted to his House all that while every day to hear the things which he spake to put it in writing so it induceth me to give it at large as they have left it to the publick that they may see in seeing and believe the extraordinary working of the Holy Ghost in good men to convert them as well now as heretofore and so referring my self for the particulars thereof to their Memorial that shall be God willing printed within a short time I will give over here the discourse of the power of Faith and of the faithful working Miracles to this day to follow the main design of this the demonstration of the Apostles Spirit continuing in Christ's Church as long as the World endures To which end the distinction of an extraordinary and ordinary Spirit set up by Master Vicar is to be considered of and we are to understand that though the Apostles had the extraordinary Spirit he ascribes to them whereby they wrought Miracles yet it is properly such that is extraordinary in respect only of the Spirit of Lip-Christian-Bishops and natural men for the extraordinary circumstances it came and sate with on the Apostles doth not make it to be the more extraordinary neither did it presently though it introduced them into the kingdom of Light and opened unto them the principle and the center of all wisdom and knowledge whence the language of nature and the wonderful works of God were at the same time understood and seen of them shew and reveal unto them what they should believe and teach in any doubtful cases for the time they were to live but respective to that of true Christian believers it is but ordinary for saith Peter again Act. 15.9 the Lord put no difference between us and them meaning those he had said v. 7. believed but he that knoweth the hearts and therefore when men believe bears them witness of their faith by giving the Holy Ghost to them even as to us v. 7 8. Whence follows that since God bears witness to them that believe by giving the Holy Ghost to them even as he did to the greatest Apostles all the faithful are sealed as Paul saith 2 Cor. 1.22 Ephes 1.3 4.30 with the Spirit of promise when they believe and with an equal portion when they believe equally Thus whether Jews or Gentiles whether Apostles Teachers or any men provided they be believers indeed being all made to partake or drink of one and the same extraordinary Spirit 1 Cor. 12.13 which is further confirmed Act. 11.17 by Peter pleading that God gave the Gentiles the like gift as he had done unto him what he durst not have pleaded if there had been between the Apostles and the converted Gentiles Spirit such difference as the Bishops imagine for had there been any such difference in their Spirits they that contended with him as grudging and repining that the Gentiles should enjoy the same priviledge they did had given him some answer which we do not read they did and not glorified God for it as we read they did v. 18. But truly this distinction of an ordinary and extraordinary Spirit among believers being yet unknown with them they freely acquiesced and it being neither found nor grounded upon Scripture which on the contrary asserteth the unity and the identity of Spirit and speaks no where but of one and the same Spirit all the Church over we are rather to adhere like them to St. Peter's words denying this difference than to the newer doctrine of the Episcopal Church which to the withstanding of God Act. 11.17 stands stoutly for it And that you may the better judge and understand your selves whether the said difference ought to be admitted of it will not be amiss to consider the working of the Apostles Spirit and how much the Apostles themselves ascribed to it for most of the Lip-Christians attribute so much to it and have such strange conceits of it as for instance they who say that it is ceased that they are kept blind thereby from knowing when they see him and from perceiving when he doth manifest himself that it is he whom they see and his virtue which appears all which might be prevented and what we ought to think clearly seen and perceived if in reading we had ears to understand what is said of it in many places as for instance out of the 13. chapter of the Acts v. 52. it is plain and obvious that Paul as chief Apostle Gal. 2.7 8 9. and the disciples of Antioch were fill'd with the Holy Ghost and from the 15. chapter that upon some new-comers teaching against the doctrine which no doubt Paul had preached to them when they believed ch 13.39 and was still present with them to make it out as he did ch 15.2 yet they the said disciples notwithstanding their being filled with the Holy Ghost not only knew not themselves how to decide the question but refused to believe to Paul and to Barnabas a certain argument that they thought no better of them than of the said new-comers and that notwithstanding Paul's extraordinary gift they thought him not infallible and sent them to know the mind of the other Apostles that were at Jerusalem But what is more observable in an Article of so great a consequence as this was Gal. 5.2 Peter and the rest of the Apostles and the Elders when they came to hear of it were themselves at a great loss for they met all together to consider dispute of and resolve in this matter v. 6 7. and after much disputing pro con Peter stood up and giving a good reason against the thing in question which reason after that Paul and Barnabas had spoken being confirmed by James with some addition to it it pleased the Apostles and Elders with the whole Church who gave their assent to it and sent accordingly Letters by some other men besides Paul and Barnabas to the faithful of Antioch And saith James my sentence is v. 19. which sentence or