not themselves therewith to sit downe and rest here as did the Apostles For the present I shall leave it to them to examine whether they fight not against Gods Councels and determinations and let them be careful how they grope for a heaven on earth left they misse it where it is even above all Principalities and powers in Christ his presence where there is fulnesse of joy and pleasures for evermore Quere 6. Seeing you say the Scriptures is the ground of faith and that they who can read the Scriptures have power to beleeve as you did the last first day then I say can any beleeve who have not read or heard the Scriptures if yea then is not their faith without ground by your opinion or is there more grounds of faith then one or is the Scriptures Christ An Answer to the Sixth Query Most impudent and no lesse disconsolate and thrice wretched man whether it be properly the fruits of thy spirit to speak truth or a lye seems unto me a matter neither doubtful nor disputable but apparent for the first are as rare to be read in thy writings as to see a blazing star in the Firmament for ought I can conjecture I had almost said as to see a Phoenix in England which was never known but in Arabia for what you relate that I said the Scripture is the ground of faith is as notorious a lye as to affirme James Naylor to be no lyar and both as incomparable untruths as to say light is darkness or darknesse light yet I say the Scritures read and preached is a meanes to work faith for faith is by hearing and who is Paul or who is Apollo but Ministers by whom ye beleeve And since your brains are tosticated with invention and fomenting of heresie which breatheth forth nothing but lyes and falshoods and hath raised this forgery among the rest that I said he that could read had power to beleeve wert thou not led by the Father of falshood to heap up shame unto thy self though thou intendest it for others thou mayest remember I asserted that no man by any native light inherent in him had power to beleeve except he had an augmentation thereof and therefore finding the foundation of thy Quere but thy own invented lyes I shall returne it back unto thee to whom of right it belongs being forgeries of thine own head and no expressions of mine I send thee back thine own and if you please you may send it unto the Devil the father of lyes whose it was at first I deale plainly as you desired me Quere 7. Seeing you affirme that none can be Ministers of Christ but who are called of man and are learned men whether was the Apostle Paul a true Minister who saith he was neither of man nor by man and what he preached was not after man Nor was it but by revelation Gal. 1. 2 11 12. Or was Peter John and the rest true Ministers who were unlearned and ignorant men Acts 4. 13. And what lets that God may not chuse such now An Answer to the Seventh Quere If ever Satan had the penning of a paper stuffed up with untruths or Beelzebub the portraying of his unexpressible hypocrisie to the prospect of humane eyes with the pen of his falshoods then certainly he or his Agents are the Inditors of this your packet of lyes and particularly this Query which deserveth rather censure then answer or at the least to be turned back without either yet since you endeavour to render me odious in the eyes of your Proselytes I shall answer according to truth and returne thee thy lyes according as thou sentest them to me and yet be so far from revenging thy injurious slinders that I shall passe them by with an honourable scorne And whereas you say that I affirm that none can be the Ministers of Christ but such as are called of men is a branch of thy old root a most impudent lye for that were all one in effect to assert all that are called of men are the Ministers of Christ and none else and this were by consequence to affirm James Naylor that grand Fomenter of Heresie to be a true teacher of Divinity because unto me he appeares as called of man or of himselfe and so by man or else goeth not being sent and runs when the Lord bids him not goe for called of Christ he cannot be because he opposeth his commands and belyes his Institutions in general and he that preacheth downe Christ in any thing so much preacheth up Antichrist and therefore is his servant whom he obeyes and it is want of learning among the vaine praters of your Society that errours so much predominates as to exuperate in them who being ignorant of the truth speak evill of the things they doe not understand and for Paul he was a true Minister and one who was faithful in the distribution of that Gospel whereof he was made a Minister not of man nor by man but of Jesus Christ as a wise Master builder who did not erre though you may suppose he did when he transmitted of his Authority to Titus to ordaine Elders iâ— every City of Crete and for which end he was left there and directed Timothy whom to make Bishops who himselfe had received the gift of Prophesie by the laying on of the hands of the Presbyter And that Pauls doctrine was not after man but by Revelation of Jesus Christ proves thee a lyar and a seducer too that saith It is the words of men and therefore not Jesus And Peter and John were true Ministers of Christ and though that the high Priests and Rulers perceived them to be unlearned and ignorant men yet this is most sure that they spake with all manner of tongues none excepted and if this be ignorance void of learning I speak of humane learning I would gladly be informed what learning is and for Divinity if they were unlearned and ignorant woe unto them who build on their writings and ignorant indeed was Paul who saith The Scriptures are able to make a man wise unto salvation but this I am bold to say that if they were ignorant I would we were all so and such fooles as by our foolishnesse we might become exceeding wise and thereby obtain eternal Redemption and there is nothing lets but that God may doe what he will for he cannot be limited with whom all things are possible and therefore nothing impossible but yet this I dare boldly assert that God never did nor never will use any extraordinary meanes to destroy the ordinary standing meanes at you endeavour to doe neither did he or ever will send any though he may permit them to preach up Antichrists doctrine of Heresie as doe you neither did ever any except false Prophets come to claime credit unto the words that he spoke unto the best of my knowledge but he was to give proof of it either by the mighty operations of
why not the Word of God also and what differerence between the oracles and the word and wherein consistent and what those principles of the doctrine of Christ be whether the same with those of the wherein different and wherein congruant and what the growing up unto perfection is and when the end and whether in this life or in another Q. 12. What is the Kingdom of God that our Saviour speaks of Luke 11. 21 and what that Kingdom Mat. 11. how did it suffer violence by whom and after what manner Q. 13. What is that Election what that Ordination what that Adoption and what that drawing so oftentimes spoken of in Scripture and who they be that are capable of it here and after what manner administred and make out your judgement herein by plaint Scripture Q. 14. And since I have proved Scriptures may be expounded why not a verse or a chapter or more or less and since it ought to be divided can there be any division without parts if so prove it if not why may it not be distinguished under the names of Doctrines Reasons Uses and the like as well as to goe without name or doe you resist it because the Scriptures allowes it Q. 15. And since you seem to exhort that none ought to begin or conclude their speech in Preaching till the spirit move them thereunto by irresistable motions did ever the gift of the Spirit exclude prudent reasons so much as to set mens tongues so on going as that they had no power to stop them and is not your tongue oyled with a spirit of confused delusion Q. 16. Whether it extend not unto or come within the limits of the blasphemy against the holy Ghost to cry down that which he hath set up and to belch forth lyes slanders heresies false doctrines and perhaps blasphemy and yet to lay all on this spirit or what is that sinne which is unpardonable Q. 17. Are not the Ministers you now cry down the same that Rome would destroy and with you say they are false Teachers and no true Ministry and were not the holy Martyrs as Theodorus and Ignatius c. and in Q. Mâ—ries dayes Graâ—mer Latimer Hooper Ridley Farrar Bradford Philpot Saunders Glover Taylor and many others of the same profession or wherein did they differ or were they false Ministers and so died as evil doers and were they not called Masters took tithes and preached upon Texts and in Pulpits and doe not you justifie their murders in condemning their cause and so joyn with their persecuters and condemn those afresh and is not the spirit in you a truth-opposing and Rome-upholding one Q. 18. Is Baptism and the Supper Sacraments yea or no or whether there can be any Sacrament without some outward signe or whether a Sacrament is consistent in words or an Element or of the one or of the other or of both or of neither and how there can be any Sacrament without an Element speak plainly to the purpose Q. 19. And since you say I am damned where is that pious charity spoken of by Paul 1 Cor. 13. or is it to be owned by and practised of a Christian yea or not if yea after what sort and in what measure and why do not you use it if no when was it made void and whether it be the spirit of Christ or of something that cals it selfe Christ that saith Judge not lest ye are judged or of Satan which seeketh to drive men into desparation without cause as thou art damned when and at what time were you made privy unto Gods determinate will to know that I am damned or to his secrets that I believe not or sauours not this of a diabolical censorious envious spirit in you and how comes it to passe that I must believe James Naylor and then be faithful and though I believe in Christ yet be faithlesse is there more objects of faith then one in unity and what be the degrees and what the effects what the grounds of a saving and sanctifying faith and how known Q. 20. Whether the power that worketh in you and in the rest of your quaking Fraternity be divine or diabolical if divine prove it by Scripture or may we not know the Tree Antichrist by its fruits heresies in you if diabolical then cease like Simon Magus to seem to be some great one to draw disciples after you and resist this spirit in your self better repent then perish Q. 21. Whether it be by the spirit of Satan or the power of God say you that worketh by charms whereby some of your Proselytes have been possessed with devils as Gilpin Mary White and others and whether Peter or Simon Magus be the Apostle of Christ or whether it be the work of the spirit of God to inspire with the holy Ghost or with Satan and hereby let us know whether you be Saints or sorcerers make it out upon a Gospel account Q. 22. And since you so much rail against superiority dignities when as the very Angels in heaven bring no railing accusations againgâ— them and wherefore did our Saviour speak against being called Masters and upon what occasion and why may not Ministers be called Masters as well as Rulers and what is the difference between a Master and a Ruler and is the title of Ministers of Christ the Stewards of the Mysteries of God Embassadors of Reconciliation Bishops Overseers inferiour to the word Master did Paul transgresse or was he no Minister because he called himselfe a wise Master-builder or did the holy Ghost erre when he called teachers Masters of Assemblies or did the spirit erre when it commends Sarah for calling Abraham Lord or Paul who called Festus most noble Festus and Agrippa O King Agrippa did not Paul and Silas own the title Sirs from the Gaoler or doe you not stumble at a straw and run over a mountain and see a mote in anothers eye but not a beam in yours Q. 23. Did not your spirit speak in Corah Dathan Abiram and their adherents and did not they raile against their Ministers 〈◊〉 take too much upon you and say not you the same in effect and said not they all the Congregation is holy and so themselves in their own eyes and you say you are pure said not they The Lord is among us and so say you The Lord Christ is within us and is not the same spirit in you that was in Diotrephes who rejected the Epistles of the Apostles And did ever any more presumptuously boast of and yet act more contrary unto the Spirit of God or did ever any generation shew such audacious arrogant impudence in opposing the Doctrine for which Martyrs holy men of God have spent their blood for the testimony thereof and yet take unto themselves the justice of their cause for a defence of their basenesse and is not this spiritual presumption if not abomination Q. 24. Is a lye the fruit of an
and therefore was justified in that his actions were counted to him for righteousness so that his righteousness was of faith not of works for then would it have been an action of the body when faith is an act of the soule by which he and every beleever is and shall be saved and by faith was he satisfied so as to be accepted and that faith which then was sufficient is the same still even unto the end for he that beleeves shall be saved And by grace are we saved through faith and that not of our selves observe that it is the gift of God And the difference is not of the matter whereof it was and is wrought but in the means and manner at which you are offended in that because he then wrought himselfe immediately he doth not the same now but by his Ambassadors beseeching us to be reconciled unto him But if this be not a limiting of God what is then for shame cease to professe thy selfe the servant of God when thou seekest to pervert his will for that cannot be the spirit of God in thee which so fighteth against it in the Primitive Saints Query 11. Can any preach Christ who have not Christ in them and where he is is he not sole teacher what to preach and pray and how and when and to whom and is he to be limited by any external thing or to any external thing or is any ordinance to be practised but what he in spirit leads the creature to An Answer to the Eleventh Query It is possible that there may now be as in the Primitive times there were them which may preach Christ and yet not have Christ within them for far be it from me to deny or to imagine otherwise but that Judas the Tray tor preached Christ as well as any other of the Apostles and Paul testifieth as much unto the Church of Philippi that some there were that preached Christ out of envy to his cause Such I feare thou art and many more of thy society and some of strife and some of good will but yet still of them all thus testifieth Paul that whether in pretence or in truth Christ is preached I doe rejoyce yea and will therein rejoyce And the same Apostle though to another Church renders it a matter possible that whilest a Minister teaches to save others he may become a castaway himselfe when this is an assured certainty that where Christ hath begun a good work of faith in any he will perform also it and the rest of this your Query I suppose tends to that which you and more of your Apostatiz'd Brethren have asserted as that we ought to wait in silence till the Spirit move us and that whoso useth the Scriptures are robbers and stealers of others mens words This you once asserted to me and so consequently urging all to forsake reading teaching and praying or any such like exercises unlesse the Spirit by irresistable motions move us thereunto against which I utterly declare as have others done for this were first to bereave us of that glorious priviledge of communion with God he speaking unto us in his word we unto him in prayer Secondly to shut up the Kingdome of God in some sort from the sons of men in bereaving us of the meanes for discipline and observance is the security of an Army in war and what are glad tydings if they are not told Thirdly this is to presse us to the omission of duty which is questionlesse commission of offence And fourthly this leaves all open to the assaults of Satan we laying downe in our infirmities and not standing up against his invasions and temptations And lastly this giveth way to sluggishnesse of spirit and to an unwatchfulness in matters of salvation and endeavour to engage us to a confidence of beliefe in and to every thing that shall come in the name of Christ and so to receive Antichrist not leaving us the priviledge of the braines to try the words of an Apostle by the umpi of all controversies the sacred Scriptures which is absolutely opposite unto the truth and contrary yea far exorbitant from the known will and temporal expressive word of God for though he hath said The Spirit shall teach us all things yet hath it said againe Meditate on these things give thy selfe wholly to them Now wholly excludes all negligent intermission and the manner how is prescribed too for Study to shew thy selfe approved and stir up the gift in thee as fire which sometimes is covered with ashes and againe Be constant and instant in prayer and pray continually which includes all times and seasons wherefore we ought to put up our supplications at the throne of grace not onely when the spirit especially moveth us but when our occasions or necessities require and far be it from me to imagine that the Spirit of God moved the Apostles to preach when they did onely and at no other time and that they alwayes waited in silence till then for then it stirred up it selfe they stirred it not but rather hid their talents of grace in the earth and so were unprofitable if not unfaithful servants and since the holy Ghost advised and the the Apostles so practised as to meditate study and pray without ceasing it appeares plainly unto me that Christ neither limited or constrained them respectively in particular but onely notionally in general so to doe giving them repenitent hearts to sorrow for sinne and grace to beleeve and power thorow that grace to exercise faith in the performance of those duties and when they prayed Christ also prayed with them and as a faithful Mediatour making continual intercession at the throne of grace that the fruition of their prayers might be the accomplishment of their desires and far be it from me to imagine that Christ can be limited by any external thing though I suppose and really beleeve that it is possible for any man to limit himselfe and then much more for Christ who is God and therefore with him all things are possible and so may limit himselfe in any thing if he please Quere 12. What is the ground and rise of your knowledge whether it be received within man from God or without from the Letter And if without whether this be not the knowledge which all the vaine janglers comes out of and the generation of persecutors comes out of as the Jewes was in which professed the Letter and were strangers to the life of God And whether this generation of men and Professors in our Age do not begin to manifest the same as the persecuting Jewes did yea or nay An Answer to the Twefth Query My knowledge as was Pauls is neither perfectly the one nor the other and yet partly both for as the disciples of Ephesus were ignorant of Jesus though baptized unto John and had not so much as heard of that name or that there was a holy Ghost notwithstanding any inward light until they