publickly opposeth for he hath so closely pursued it and so neerly approached it that he cannot but see some glimpses of its glory For why else would he or needed he to have so perverted Joh. 15. 24. as he hath often done to obscure its lustre to prevent its shining forth to the view of all men and that so purposely and â—â—advisedly if the truth opposed by him had not glanced its light fully and directly into his face and he cannot but know how unsafe and dangerous it is in any man to persist in opposing a truth after it is once discerned by him Fourthly The Gospel which St. Paul preached was the same which Christ preached but the Gospel preach'd by this Author is not the same which Christ preached because the Doctrine of the Gospel which Christ preached would be proved and upheld by Joh. 15. 24. being truly and in its genuine sence cited but the Doctrine of the Gospel preach'd by this Author would be disproved and overthrown by its being truly and in its genuine sence cited for why else would he or needed he so much and so often as he in his writings hath done to have perverted it to a contrary sence or to any other then its true and genuine sence to prove his Doctrine He being no Baby not to know what he did nor why he did it when he did it Whence will necessarily result these conclusions First That the Gospel preached by this Author not being the same which Christ and St. Paul preach'd must be some other and being any other cannot be the true nor he any true Minister of the Gospel Secondly That none can be blest by beleeving or obeying the Gospel which he preacheth because St. Paul positively asserts Gal. 1. 8. Though we or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel unto you then that which we have preached unto you let him be accursed This he duplicates in the next verse thus As we said â—efore so say I again If any man preach any other Gospel unto you then that ye have heard let him be accursed And who now can secure this our Author from the reach of these Comminations or reasonably imagine how any man can be blest in beleeving or obeying that Gospel for the preaching whereof the preacher is accursed Thirdly That this Authors Sermons and Books are liable to the same destiny unto which he himself hath doomed almost all other mens In his Saints Rest Part 1. pag. 132. where he makes these pathetical demands viz. How many Sermons zealously preached How many Books studiously compiled will then to wit in the world come by the Authors be all disclaimed These interrogations implying negations are as if he should have said That the Sermons and Books which will in the world to come be disclaimed by the Authors are so many as they can hardly be numbred And why may we not put into this numerous company the Sermons and Books also of the rest of the Presbyterians of whom one both learned and Mr. John Goodwin in his fresh discovery of the high Presbyterian Spirit pag. 38 56. judicious thus writes viz. That day after day they preach broad-faced contradictions and make the Scripture to say and unsay which being interpreted is to make them say just nothing Nor are many of their writings any whit more excusable upon the same account And that he had thorowly tryed many of their Doctrines and tenents and found them lyars yea and had opportunity to stigmatize them for such publickly and alarm the world concerning the hatefulness and danger of them Wherefore I could wish that our Author in his future undertakings would please to look round about him and to grasp and duly weigh the whole matter of which he intends to treat and to lay aside whatsoever he findes vain or sinewless and no more to obtrude upon the world such empty humane traditions for necessary Divine Doctrines as he hath done and that with such unwarrantable and groundless confidence as thereby he hath given many great advantages more then I finde hath been yet taken against him by any Alas poor mortals silly wretches dust and ashes meer baggs of warm dung as we are can we command back the Sun when it is set or instead thereof place in the Firmament some equivalent light to prevent the darkness which necessarily will follow its setting No more can we though furnished with all the acquired Arts of humane learning our natures are capable of call back the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ when it is withdrawn by God as now apparently it is the times and seasons for these things being solely in his own power and dispose For doth not the Scripture plainly fore-tel of these times of general Apostasie was not the woman Rev. 12. expounded by the learned to typifie the true Church to be driven into the wilderness from the converse and sight of men to be fed there by God and therefore not by Popedoms Bishopticks Masterships of Colledges or Hospitals Parsonages Tythes Augmentation or any other forced maintenance from men And was not her Man-child the Masculine Divine and powerful gifts he firâ—tborn fruits of the Spirit to be taken up unto God and to his throne from whom and whence they were at first received by Christ and given unto men Eph. 4. 8 11. compared with Act. 2. 33. and are not these in more abundance to be powred out on the sons of men Before the great and terrible day of the Lord Joel 2. Act. 2. compared with Esa 44. 3. even when he shall send his Angel to preach and make known his everlasting Gospel unto them that dwell upon the earth Rev. 14. 6. and when he shall call his ancient people the Jews until which time this Babylonish darkness which hath overspread the world is like to continue even that darkness which the Prophet tells us shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people or Gentiles until they shall come and partake of the Jews light when the Lord shall arise to them and his glory be seen upon them Isa 60. 1 2 3. And therefore the duty most incumbent upon us now in these Aporetick times is not to hate persecute judge or condemn one another in matters of Religion but to joyn in prayer for and with the Jewes That God would be merciful unto them and bless them and cause his face to shine upon them that his way may be known upon the earth and his saving health among all Nations then shall the earth yeeld her increase and God even their own God shall bless them God shall bless them and all the ends of the earth shall fear him Psal 67. For then many people shall goe and say Come let us goe up unto the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us his ways and we will walk in his paths for out of Zion shall goe forth the Law and the word of the Lord from
fulfilling of this is not to be until the personal and second comming of Christ the three precedent verses do shew And in Ps 67. 7. God shall bless us i. e. Jews and all the ends of the earth shall fear him consonant to this is Esa 2. 2 3. Zac. 8. 23. before cited Likewise Zac. 14. informs us of the coming of the day of the Lord ver 1. of Christ's personal coming ver 3 4. of his being King over all the earth in that day ver 9. of the subjection of all Nations to Christ and their worshipping of him being then King at Jerusalem ver 16 17. even as it was foretold by the Ange to Mary Luk. 1. 32 33. That he should be great and that the Lord God would give him the throne of his Father David and that he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever hereunto contribute Luk. 19. 11 13. and Luk. 21. 23 to 33. where when Christ had set forth his personal coming and his redeeming of the Jews out of captivity he then after all this tells them That when they see these things come to pass then they should know that the Kingdome of God will be nigh at hand Note but nigh then therefore not in being at his Ascention nor at any time since And as to his conjecture that the Christian Church in this world is the Kingdome of Christ and his only Kingdome upon earth as some imagine These conceipts are already answered and refuted in the 24 25 26 27 30 and 31. pages of the foregoing discourse And as to the phrases in Scripture which some stumble at such as these The Kingdome is neer you or in you this is to be rendred among you as the margent in King James his Bible shews and the taking the Kingdom from one people and giving it to another and the like These are to be understood of the Gospel of the Kingdom being a special means of obtaining the Kingdome and that to be neer them or preacht among them whereby they might come to inherit the Kingdome for the word Gospel or good news of the Kingdome cannot be the Kingdome it self and by the phrase of taking the Kingdom from any is only meant the taking from them the Gospel or means of their attaining the Kingdom which in effect is the taking the Kingdome it self from them It is evident therefore though Christ was a King at and ever since his Ascention yet his Kingdom is not yet nor will be until the sound of the Seventh Trumpet When the Kingdoms of this world will become the Kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ thenceforth for ever Rev. 11. 15. Then and not till then shall the Heathen and the uttermost parts of the earth be taken into his possession although his right thereunto and Lordship thereof was given him of the Father long before Psa 2. 8. The result of all which is this That as he was a King before his Kingdome was set up so might he be made Head and Saviour before his Body or Church was constituted and so may he remain whilst the Church is extinct driven or withdrawn from off the face of the earth as it must needs be when all that dwell upon the earth shall worship the Beast Rev. 13. 8. and when the way of God is not known upon earth Psal 67. 2. For although the relation between a natural head and its body be such as neither can subsist without the other yet it is not so between Christ and his Body the Church being spiritual as by and by I shall make appear And therefore to that part of the objection No body no head I shall here offer him this short Dilemma Christ being made Head of his Church at his Ascention either had a Christian Church then upon earth or he had none if none then was he a head without a body a husband without a wife and if he had one then there was one before that time for there were very many and as many baptized Disciples and beleevers before his death as there were at or after his Ascention until the powring down of the gifts of the Spirit and the conversion of three thousand mentioned in Act. 2. How else could he have been seen of more then five hundred Brethren at once and of many other of his Disciples with whom he conversed at least forty days after his Resurrection and before he Ascended 1 Cor. I would fain know of R. B. If he and his fellow-Members of his Catholick Church are any fitter or truer matter or in a better capacicy for Membership in Christs Body and Church now then these Apostles Disciples and Brethren were in before Christ Ascended these had true faith and baptism hath he and his fellow-members more or truer I think not but that it will be found upon due examination to come many degrees and in many respects short of the others How then can they be a true Church and the other none 15. 5 6 c. Act. 1. 3. And if any of these were a Christian Church before his death or before his ascension then there was a body and wife before he was made a head or husband Or else thus either these were a Christian Church before Christ ascended or they were not If he say they were then there was a body without a head if he say they were not then there was no Christian Church upon the earth for certain dayes after he Ascended and until the gift of the Holy Ghost were powred down upon the Disciples mentioned in Act. 2. And then for that distance of time between his Ascention and his powâ—ing down of these gifts there was a head but no body Let him now chuse which of these he please since either of them invalidates his objection And indeed the very truth is That these were nobody or Church of Christ until they had these gifts of the Spirit poured down upon them mentioned Act. 2. presently after which but not before they were denominated a Church being then formed into several Spiritual memberships for the several Offices and services of the whole body like as the several members of a Natural Body are serviceable to the body Now if these gifts of the Spirit formed Members and knit them together and also to their head from whom they received nourishment growth and increase of the whole body as is most evident they then neither were nor could be any body or Church of Christ until the powring down of the gifts of the spirit upon the Disciples at Pentecost ten dayes after Christs ascention when it is granted by the Objector he was invested into Headship and I suppose it must also be granted that this Head-ship was conferred upon him before that time even at his Resurrection for how else could he presently after and before his Ascention have told his Disciples That all power was given unto him both in Heaven and in Earth Mat. 28. 18. But all power had not
Prerogative over any other man or men whatsoever For as the Divine Evidences were formerly so are they yet for the very same ends and purposes still useful and necessary to accompany the Ministry and so will they alway accompany the true Ministry for the conversion of men to the Faith of the Gospel But for R. B. thus to extend my words besides or beyond my meaning or to confine them short thereof is not to be allowed by me nor can it reasonably be approved by any man for whereas my meaning is limited onely to the conversion of unbelievers he extends them to any whether converted or unconverted as if I had been so irrational as to say or think That no man after his Conversion to the Faith of the Gospel was bound to believe or practise any other or further Duty of Christianity without some new Miracle yea new Miracles done in his sight to prove it for so much in effect his Charge amounts unto And who would ever think R. B. to be so void of understanding or ingenuity rather as to lay such and so irrational an aspersion upon any man that never did or thought him harm Now let any man in love convince me of my Errour in this my Position and I shall take it kindly and be as ready to retract and tread it under foot as he would have me but of all men in the world R. B. is least able to do it or to accuse me for it having asserted as much or more himself for in his Saints Rest Part 2. pag. 201. of the sixth Edition he asserts That Divine Faith hath ever a Divine Testimony and in pag. 205. That we must know it to be a Divine Testimony before we can believe fide Divina by a Divine Faith and I hope by a Divine Faith he intends no other then a true and saving Faith which must necessarily have a divine and infallible ground to be built on seeing of other Faiths he plainly tells us in pag. 201. That to believe implicitely that the Testimony is Divine or the Scripture is the Word of God this is not to believe God but to resolve our Faith into some humane Testimony even to lay our Foundation upon the Sands where all will fall at the next Assault And in pag. 236. he expresseth himself thus viz. I demand with my self by what argument did Moses and Christ evince to the world the verity of their Doctrine and I finde it was chiefly by this of Miracles and surely Christ knew the best argument to prove the Divine Authority of his Doctrine and that which was the best then is the best still And in pag. 33. of his book of Infidelity part 1. he tells us That Tongues are not for them that believe but for them that believe not that is saith he to shew them the power of Christ and so convince them And in part 4. pag. 46. of the same Book he tells us If it had no divine attestation or evidence that it is of God then you might (a) And I hope no man is bound by God to believe that which he may without sin or danger reject reject it without sin or danger Now let any rational and impartial man judge if R. B. himself hath not asserted sufficient and more then enough to justifie my Position and all that which I hold in the point yea and that which is tantamount the same although in many places of his writings he contradicts it which is no rare thing to see in men of his undertakings though they both speak and write much less then he hath done And amongst the multitudes of his failings in that and the like kinde in his voluminous writings thou mayst finde him friendly remembred of some few in a small Treatise entituled Fides Divina which when thou hast read then tell me If a Bear may not be known by a small Member even by his foot alone And whereas R. B. at the end of that his Charge intayles this viz. Adding withall That indeed Antichrist may do Miracles What cause of exception can be taken at Answ this my so saying when the Scripture it self affirms That the second Beast which came up out of the earth who is an Antichrist at least wrought Miracles Rev. 13. 11 14. Rev. 19. 20. This R. B. in his Saints Rest pag. 206. flatly contradicts by telling us there That no created power can work a Miracle Let him be pleased hence to be asked these sober Questions 1. Do you indeed and in truth as you pretend believe the Scripture to be the VVord of God 2. And that it was confirmed by Miracles as you assert it to be about the midst of your Preface to your Book of Infidelity and in divers other places of the same Book 3. How then dare you so presumptuously put the lye upon God by your flat contradicting his Word as here you have done This Charge lies upon him unavoydably unless he can prove that Beast to be an uncreated power which he can never do But we may see here as in many other places how he plays Bo-peep with us in rendring such persons abominable who do not with all readiness and without any chewing swallow all that which he pleaseth out of his own fancy to say of the Scriptures indefinitely being the VVord of God and that they (b) Which indeed is the harder for any man to belive because that some stuck not to raze and blot out of them senâ—ences above 1200 years since as Socrates reports lib. 7. ca. 31. And what hath been the boldness of others in that or the like kinde to do to them before and since is not known nor can be imaginâ—d were confirmed by Miracles when indeed and in truth he believes neither the one nor the other himself for if he did how durst he be so bold as flatly to contradict them as here he hath done And upon my saying that Antichrist may do Miracles R. B. infers thus viz. So it seems for all the talk Miracles themselves would not serve if they saw them Answ By this your inference you imply as if the signes and Miracles wrought by God himself for the Confirmation of the Gospel were no way dscernable by men from such as were or may be wrought by the Devil and his Instruments Is not this a casting a high disparagement upon the wisdom power and justice of Almighty God in his requiring faith and obedience to the Gospel upon pain of Damnation and yet produce no other nor better evidence for the Confirmation of the truth thereof then Satan or his Ministers can do for the Confirmation of falshood Doth not this amount to high Blasphemy against God himself For did not the Signes and Miracles wrought by Moses in Egypt so far transcend all those that were or could be wrought by the Egyptian Sorcerers or by the Devil himself as they were apparently discernable by all that saw them from those wrought by the