An Apologetical Narration Or a just and necessary VINDICATION OF CLEMENT WRITER AGAINST A Four-fold Charge laid on him BY RICHARD BAXTER And published by him in Print Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this To visit the Fatherless and Widows in their Afflictions and to keep himself unspotted from the World Jam. 1. 27. In vain do they worship me teaching for Doctrines the commandments of men Mat. 15. 9. Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdome prepared for you FOR I was an hungry and ye gave me Meat I was thirsty and ye gave me Drink I was a Stranger and ye took me in Naked and ye clothed me c. Mat. 25. 34 35 36. Woe be to you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites for ye shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men for ye neither go in your selves neither suffer ye them that are entring to go in Mat. 23 13 14. The Second Edition with an Appendix by the same Author LONDON Printed for Daniel White and are to be sold at his Shop at the seven Stars on the North-side of St. Pauls To the Reader READER I Have here set before thee the whole business between Mr. Baxter and my self intreating thee to bear with such faults as happily thou mayst apprehend either in me or the Book and the rather let me move thee hereunto First Because I may requite thee with the like kindness when ever thou shalt be provoked in like manner to make thy Defence being openly set upon by such a potent Assailant as now I have been Secondly because it is more then probable that thou and I as well as all other men may be mistaken in apprehending of Errors when indeed and in truth the Error may be and many times is meerly in our own apprehension being much vitiated by Custom and Education Wherefore I advise thee once and again seriously and impartially to consider the whole matter over and over and then also not hastily to enter into the seat of Judgment because things of such high deep and weighty concernment need always due and exact weighing and that with sutable Balances wherein humane learning must neither have the pre-eminence nor bear any sway at all And especially in thy judging be very sollicitous and exceeding careful so to doe it as neither to wrong the Truth nor thy own conscience For if thou doest I assure thee whosoever thou art all the Honour and Advantage Profit and Preferment which thou shalt either retain or get thereby will proveâ—tly unreparable damage at last Pray with me therefore that the eyes of our understandings may be opened and anointed with Eye-salve that we may clearly see perfectly apprehend and certainly judge between both Persons and things that differ And in the mean time to exercise mutual Charity and forbearance one towards another at least until our Ignorances be much less and our Authority much more to judge one another in these matters Worcester this 25. of March 1658. Farewel Reader I am against my will provoked by Richard Baxter to make here my just Defence against some charge laid upon me by the name of Clem. Writer in a Pamphlet of his INTITULED A second Sheet for the Ministry wherein though he something mistakes my name yet I suppose I am the Person he ayms at THe first Charge is in p. 6. thus That Clem. Writer told him That no man is bound to believe that Christ did rise again or the rest of Christianity that seeth not Miracles himself to prove it Answ 1. I deny these words in manner form and sence to be ever spoken by me And 2. If any such words or of like import were spoken by me it was to this effect and meaning namely That no unconverted or unbelieving man is bound by God upon pain of damnation to believe and obey the Gospel without Divine evidence to attest unto him the truth thereof whereon undoubtedly to ground that his faith c. This long hath been yet is and must be my judgement until I am otherwise informed and I conceive there are sufficient grounds both from Scripture and Reason to confirm me therein But I leave it to Gods will not determining what Divine evidence he please to use for that purpose whether Signs Wonders diversities of Tongues Miracles casting out of Devils curing of the Lame healing of the Sick raising of the Dead for I finde that by these and other the like demonstrations of the powerful works and gifts of the Spirit he usually confirmed the Word every-where preach'd by his true Ministers for the conversion of men to the Faith of the Gospel insomuch as by the meer shadow of Peter and by the very handkerchiefs of Paul were special Miracles and many Cures wrought as may be seen in Mark 16. 20. Heb. 2. 4. Act. 2. Act. 5. 14 15 16. Act. 8. 6 7. 1 Cor 2. 4. Compared with Act. 19. 11 12 18 19 20. and many other places And as for Tongues these were for a sign not for them that believe but for them that believe not 1 Cor. 14. 22. And we likewise finde that the end of Christs sending of these powerful gifts of the Spirit to abide with his true Ministry and Church for ever Joh. 14. 16. was chiefly to convince the unbelieving world Joh. 16. 8. Thereby not onely to afford them successively in all Ages an infallible ground of Faith but also to bring them under guilt of much sin if they obeyed not the Gospel which otherwise would have been no sin at all in them Joh. 15. 24. And hence it was that the Apostles themselves were commanded to stay until they were endued with power from on high to enable them to do those mighty Works for the attestation of the truth of their Mission and Message for the conversion of men to the Faith of the Gospel Luk. 24. 49. Act. 1. 4 8. And it 's likewise worthy our Observation That neither the twelve nor yet the seventy were sent out at first until they had power given them over Devils and diseases c. whereby to enable them by Divine Evidence to attest the truth of that their Mission although they were then sent but to preach in the Land of Judea only Mat. 10. 5 6. Luk. 10. 1. c. And these being persons meerly of the same Language Kindred and Country might therefore have challenged to have been credited by the Jews upon their own bare testimony only without producing any Divine Evidence at all if any had been so to be credited Yet neither were they nor ought they nor Christ himself to be so credited in these matters as is most evident Joh. 10. 37. Joh. 5. 31 34 36. compared with Joh. 15. 24. And since that none of these were nor ought to be so credited how then dare any mortal man or men of what degree order sort or company soever now upon the face of the Earth assume or challenge to themselves any such Authority or Divine
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
we shall then be necessitated to despise the other party and by consequence to despise Christ and God himself but God puts no people upon any such necessities and therefore also the Ministers of the reformed Churches are not the true Ministers of Christ Whence will as a necessary consequence follow That all the Arguments which are or can be brought by R. B. to prove them such are fallacious and deceitful and all the Scriptures brought by him to ground and make good the said Arguments are perverted and abused because no good or sound Argument nor any Scripture in its true and genuine sence can be brought or produced to prove a lye and falshood as this is And if they who said they were Jews when they were not blasphemed Rev. 2. 9. What do they less who say They are the Ambassadors and Ministers of Jesus Christ when they are not Now if any skilful in humane Arts will please to put these Grounds and Reasons into Syllogistical Forms he may but I must let him know That this is not desired by the forementioned plain man for we may gather his Opinion of humane Learning and of the Art of Logick by his words uttered at Nice who had therefore rather with a plain and sincere minde with Faith and good works trust to such plain and downright Grounds and Reasons of his own then to any Artificial Logical or Fallacious Arguments brought now into the Churches by humane Learning whereby such a cunning Sophister as R. B. is able to make plain men such as he was believe The Crow is white the Swan black and the Moon to be made of green Cheese A POST-SCRIPT READER THe supposed ground of this Charge if he had any at all from my mouth was from a small Conference he had with me some five years since after which about three years since he sent me a Book of his Infidelity desiring me impartially to read it over which when I did I found therein very many things unsound at least to my apprehension some few whereof I noted in the Margent with my Pen with some hints of my exceptions thereunto which Book when I had thus gone through I returned unto him again with an Epistle in a blank Page thereof The Copy of which here followeth To Mr. RICHARD BAXTER At KIDDERMINSTER This deliver SIR I Have read over this your elaborate Piece most Learnedly and Zealously compiled wherein are many observable Things some excellent Good and some liable to Exception being asserted with much more Confidence then Proof at least as I conceive I have noted some few Places bear with the Rudeness and Imperfections thereof being sudden Conceptions hastily exprest not in the least intending it for your scanning but marking them meerly for my own further Consideration upon a Re-view But in my second Thuoghts considering your Ingenuity and Worth in divers respects to exceed the ordinary Pitch of Men of your Function I altered my Intention and resolved to subject the same notwithstanding all its Defects to your View well knowing that you by your far greater Abilities can easily descant what further and more exactly to that or the like effect might be urged by an abler Pen which I wish you would please impartially and without offence to consider as I have done your Book sent me I hope in much Candor and Love for which being much obliged I kindly thank you Farewel Decem. 1. 1655. Clement Writer The Reasons of my thus returning the book were chiefly these First I saw the contents thereof were such as made me something suspect that it was sent me as an Assault to provoke me to some open Contest with him which I desired to prevent as being not onely indisposed thereunto but also utterly unable to incounter with such an Assailant though it were to defend Truth against him Secondly considering if I should have made no return nor given him any account at all of my reading it he might have imagined that Truth had been on his side and have ascribed the modesty of my silence to the prevalency of that which he mis-calls Truth Wherefore to prevent both these I sent him in this loving and private manner my notes for him to consider of taking him then to be both honest and ingenious but I am not the first that hath been mistaken in that kind and therefore thought that by my communicating to him my apprehensions in this Friendly and private manner I should have had the like Love and Friendship returned me or at least never any way to have been quarrelled with about our different perswasions otherwise then by some friendly and private conference about the same which I expected and desired But I heard nothing from him at all about my Notes nor ought else until about August 1657. He being then in Worcester sent to speak with me I readily went my selfe alone thinking then he intended some such Conference but I was much deceived therein for coming to the House where he was he sent for me up to him in a Chamber whereinto I had no sooner entred but in came one slinking after me in a Ministers habit and without speaking any word sate him down at a distance from us in the same Room which observing I resolved in my self to be very reserved whatsoever his business was with me The Scoene being thus set in a stern authoritative manner he began to question me about a small Treatise then lately come forth intituled Fides Divina wherein as it seems some few of his Doctrines are touch'd demanding of me who was the Author of that Book I told him If I knew I would not tell him without the Authors leave seeing the Author himself had conceal'd it He then told me That he knew that I was the Author because it concurred with my Animadversions or Notes which formerly I had sent him To which I answered If he knew the Author before why did he but then ask to know who it was Telling him withal that he might be much mistaken in his Conclusion from such a Ground because there were very Many in England of the same Judgement with my Notes and far abler then my self to compile such a Book After which he would have had me declare my Faith and he would declare his and then see how far we agreed and in that we differ'd he would reason or Dispute it with me but this I declined telling him That I was no meet Match for him so great a Scholar unless I had some as great as himself to unty his fallacies wherewith hee might else soon entangle me Yet then the better to allure me to speak out fully according to the monstrous shape and ugly look of his aims He said to me What dare you not declare your Faith You need not fear any thing now in this time of Liberty But this Bait neither would be swallowed by me for I then ask'd him If it would be his wisdome without all fear upon such terms to
That is no member of his Body or true Church A. For this Body of Christ is capable onely of profitable Members by having some manifest gift of the Spirit to profit the Body withal for the manifestation of the Spirit for that purpose was given to every Member of that Body 1 Cor. 12. 7. c. Whence will follow No manifestation by some gift of the Spirit no Spirit of Christ and no Spirit of Christ no Member of Christs Body Page 87. B. The Spirit by extraordinary works formerly and by holy actuating the Church to the end is Christs great witness to the world N. Christs great witness to the world by his Spirit is by outward works not by inward workings in the hearts of his Saints A. For how can any unbeliever be convinced and brought to the Faith by the secret workings in another mans heart or spirit without some powerful manifestation thereof outwardly Page 96. B. All this you know is Scripture N. Although all this is Scripture yet little of all this is of Scripture and that which is is little to the purpose to prove that which is endeavoured by the Author Page 98. B. For the same spirit will not say and unsay N. How ill will this prove the generality of preaching now to be of the Spirit since the same is so full of Contradictions Page 99. B. The spirit of Illumination is the same and given onely by Scripture and for any spirit that shall contradict Scripture it can never be holy nor true nor faithful as contradicting Truth N. VVhen various and contradictious Expositions are made of Scripture how may we certainly know which is for and which is against the Truth and when or by whom were Miracles ever wrought to confirm Scripture or Doctrines taught now by our Ministers or whether all Scriptures Ministers and Doctrines now extant be or have been so confirmed since all do or may challenge it the one as well as the other Page 105. B. There is the Spirit of God within that doth second these Doctrines and take the received Species of them and impress them upon the Soul and doth this effectually and potently according to the mighty unresistible power of the Agent N. How then is unbelief any sin deserving damnation or belief any vertue if it be wrought by an inward unresistible power Page 106. B. You see the truth of Christian Religion by the Spirit of holiness besides that of Miracles formerly All Sects and sorts of Christians pretend to have this Spirit of holiness and may challenge the former Miracles to give evidence for the one as well as the other The Second PART Page 32. B. And to make the giving of the Holy Ghost to be that seal which should credit this report with their hearers N. VVhere is this seal to credit your Doctrine and Ministry if you had it it were more to purpose then a thousand such Books as this Page 34. B. No man can know that the Magna Charta the Petition of Right or any other Statute of this Land are indeed Genuine and Authentick N. Nor is any man bound upon Pain of Damnation so to know or believe it as he is the Gospel that hears it declared and attested by Signs and Gifts of the Holy Ghost wherefor the Comparison is frivolous Page 34. B. The most unlearned man is so far bound to believe the Statute of Felony to be authentick and in Force that he shall be justly hanged if he break it N. But no man can justly be hanged for not believing it onely nor can any man be justly blamed for not believing you more then another contradicting you Page 36. B. Miracles if common would lose their Convincing Force and be as none N. Miracles though common in the first Age lost not their Convincing Force Then Miracles though common in after Ages may not lose their Convincing Force But the first is true Besides in page 242 of the Third Part of this Book you tell us That it 's certain from current History and Church-Records that the Gift of casting out of Devils and making them confess themselves mastered by Christ did remain in the Church for long time after the Apostles even for three of four hundred yeers at least Page 45. B. God doth still effectually convince millions of men of the certainty of Christian Religion and that without renewed Miracles N. All several sorts of Christians have this Conviction respectively yet condemn one another for Hereticks Page 50. B. It was the Office of the Apostles and the Duty of all other that saw Christ's Miracles to bear witness of them N. It was the Office and Duty of such to stay until they were indued with power to do the like Miracles See Luk. 24. 49. Act. 1. 4 5 8. before their witness was to be received Page 50. B. Those that saw not those Miracles were bound to believe their witness N. Prove this if you can Page 55. B. Lillies Grammar may be mis-Printed or the Writings of Cicero Virgil or Ovid which were written before the Gospel and yet we are past all doubt that their Writings are not forged N. That which God bindes men to believe upon Pain of Damnation comes with more certainty then these or any other Writings or Words either especially they coming to them in an unknown Tongue A. As the Scriptures did from the Pen-men thereof unto nineteen parts of twenty men in the world Page 55. B. Must you not believe him that tells you the Truth and proves it to be so N. If one by his Scholarship proves it true and another in like manner prove it false which of the two is a man bound to believe or must he believe both Page 56 B. Object Christ saith If I had not done the works which no man else could do ye had no sin Answ But doth not say If ye had not seen them ye had no sin N. This Text is cited falsely and deceitfully for it affirmeth in effect that which is denied in the Answer A. For you wilfully have omited among them and that they did both see and hate both Christ and the Father which being cited and duly considered will quite overthrow that Doctrine which you seek here to up-hold by omiting it which is neither fair nor honest Page 58. B. All Historians are fallible and liable to Error N. How then can it be any sufficient ground of true and saving Faith A. Or how then can any History or words from men fallible and liable to Error without infallible Evidence be any sufficient Ground for Divine Faith since you tell us elsewhere That Divine Faith hath ever a Divine Testimony but no Testimony that is fallible and liable to Error can possibly be a Divine Testimony Page 59. B. Such are the Scriptures and it was necessary that the Language should be suited to the matter so to the capacity of the generality of the Readers N. How is this true when it is Barbarism to the generality
Christ evince to the world the truth of his Doctrine we shall find it was by this of Miracles and undoubtedly Christ knew the best Argument to prove the divine Authority of his Doctrine And that which was the best then is the best still See Saints Rest page 236. A. Yea and do not all the Ministers of the Gospel as they call themselves I may say of all the various Gospels now on foot in the world contest against one another onely by words and Sophisms c. without using any of the fore-mentioned weapons used by Christ as well and as much as any of the learned Philosophers and Artificial men here specified by you Page 247. B. Christ obtained victory over Satan and his best armed Souldiers both Jews Idolaters Conjurers Sorcerers Hereticks with their Witchcrafts and jugling Delusions the great learned Philosophers of all Sects with Orators and Poets and the rest of their learned men N. Are not all these sorts of Enemies to the Truth yet remaining A. Yea and hath not Christendom since given entertainment even to such as are the most notorious Deluders of them all and admitted them into highest place Rule and Authority in the Church witness our Author who informs us That the Supremest Officers even Popes themselves have been Hereticks Whoremongers Sodomites Symonists Murtherers See the lives of Silvester 2. Alexander 3 and 6. John 11 22 and 23. Gregory 7. Vrban 7. and abundance more John 13. was proved in Council to have ravished Maids and VVives at the Apostolick doors murthered many drunk to the Devil asked help at Dice of Jupiter and Venus c. in his second sheet page 13. And can it be imagined but that such heads had suitable bodies and members If any Reformation since be urged Answer not in Rome nor in the Reformed Protestant Churches witness Mr Whites Centuries being all Protestant Ministers and that of the reformed Churches and witness yet their continual supplying their Churches with teaching Ministers generally out of their Magazine of Artists and Sophisters even to this day Yea and doth not our Author being one of the most eminent Ministers of one of the most eminent reformed Churches so highly magnifie and advance humane Learning that he accounts it a gift of the Spirit delivered by Christ himself to the Church and therein to continue as before is noted out of his book of Infidelity part 1. page 38 Nor is any of all this more then what we finde foretold vizt That Antichrist should sit in the Temple of God and be there worshipped as God I shall not say that humane Learning is a special Limb of that Beast but I will say that Antichrist shall never attain to that his Advancement but by the special assistance and means of humane Learning nor shall I say that this worshipping of humane Learning as a Gift of the Spirit is a part of the fulfilling of that Prediction but this I must and dare say That the Scripture informs us How that the Apostle Paul by the spirit of Prophesie declared to the Church That after his departure grievous Wolves should enter in among them not sparing the Flock and that of their own selves should men arise speaking perverse things drawing Disciples after them and that in the latter times there should be a departing from the Faith and a giving heed to seducing spirits and Doctrines of Devils speaking lies in hypocrisie having their Consciences seared with a hot Iron And that Christians should turn away their Ears from the Truth and having itching Ears should be turned unto Fables and should heap to themselves Teachers for the purpose Act. 30. 29 30. 1 Tim. 4. 1 2. 2 Tim. 4. 3 4. which also is confirm'd by Peter telling Christians that there should be false Teachers among them who should bring in damnable Heresies denying the Lord that bought them 2 Pet. 2. 1. Now tell me is not here work cut out sufficiently meet for the most notorious exquisite of this learned artificial Rabble aforementioned yea even for the very worst of them as Witches Sorcerers and Conjurers c. for who 's more meet to teach Doctrines of Devils damnable Heresies c. then Such unless it be the Devil himself The Fourth PART Page 40. B. His teaching is joyntly by his Word Ministers and Spirit N. VVhere or who are they Page 40. B. Mat. 28. 19 20 21. where he bids them first disciple the Nations which contains the convincing of them of age of the Fundamentals and procuring their consent and then baptize them that they may be solemnly engag'd N. That is whom they convincingly did disciple those onely they ought to baptize A good and honest confession for the Anabaptists Page 40. B. Now there are two gross Errors which Professors do oft run into to their perdition the one is when they do not first lay the Fundamentals as Certainties but hold them loosly N. Can any make Fundamentals of Uncertainties Page 41. B. If they read the Scriptures c. and when they are at a loss they do not go to their Teachers N. How ill is it that the Bible had not been kept in an unknown Tongue and not made so common Page 42. B But they go as confident censurers and as Boys that will go to School to dispute with their Master N. And who many times are these Masters even very Boys coming from the University Page 42. B. They receive not the truth in the love of it that they may be saved God oft gives them up to believe a Lye and reject that truth which would have saved them if they had received it N. This is only of such as reject such a Ministry which is absent from among us Page 45. B. I have shewed you already how fully he hath sealed his Testament N. At his last Supper he said This is the blood of the New Testament which was before any of that which we call the new Testament was written Page 46. B. If it had no divine attestation or evidence that it is of God then you might reject it without sin or danger N. Here it 's confest whatsoever Doctrine is brought by any for divine without divine attestation may be rejected without sin Pa. 56. B. But when God hath put his seal to it and proved it to be his own if after this you will be questioning it c. N. This need better proof if the Scripture be here meant A. Or your or any other mans Doctrine drawn from Scripture Page 46. B. Think not the proved sealed Word of God is ever the more to be suspected because the matter in it doth seem strange and unlikely to your reason N. No rational man is guilty of this by his so thinking A. But he must upon some sufficient ground know it to be the sealed and proved word of God else he cannot in reason but doubt it to be such About the middle of his Preface B. The Holy Ghost by special inspiration was the
author of these Scriptures and by extraordinary endowments was the Author of those Miracles which were wrought for its Confirmation N. When or by whom was this done or any Miracles wrought for the Scriptures confirmation A. The Scripture reports the Miracles can the Miracles reported by Scripture confirm that report The Scripture rather confirms the Miracles it reports if any confirmation at all be between these two I shall here for a Conclusion onely note one passage more of his and that is in his Saints Rest part 4. page 149. being as followeth God doth not regenerate thy soul that it may be able to know him and not know him or that it may be able to believe and yet not believe c. By which is implyed That none but regenerate persons are able to believe and that regeneration is wrought onely by God Whence I may quere of him 1. How then comes unbelief to be any sin in the Unregenerate 2. Or is it a sin in the Regenerate onely and if so then regenerate Persons onely must be damned for not believing it being inconsistent with the Goodness Mercy and Justice of God especially by his Gospel of Grace to require impossibilities of men and that upon pain of Damnation FINIS An EPISTLE to Mr. BAXTER Collected for the most part out of his Prologue to Mr. KENDAL Sir BE pleased to minde what Solomon adviseth Not to strive with a man without cause if he hath done thee no harm Prov. 3. 30. and Not to go forth hastily to strive lest thou know not what to do in the end thereof when thy nâ—ighbouâ— hath put thee to shame Pr. 25. 8 It seemeth a stâ—ange thing to me that you could finde no Man among all your learned Opponents to contest withal but that you must make to your self an Adversary of one so unlearned as my self unless it be because you are likely with such a one to have the easiest conflict but then you should have remembred that the victory will be as small I pretend not to such a piercing Knowledge or Acquaintance with the invisible Regions of humane Arts and Sciences as infallibly to determine of what Province or Degree that Spirit in you was that raised this Contention or to know exactly the Name or Sir-name of that fury that animated these your practises or lines against me Have you already levelled all those high Mountains that lay in your way and fel'd to the ground all those Cedars with whom you formerly contended that you seek now to stock up all Shrubs likewise that bear not your Impress and Mark upon them Doubtless this proceeds rather from your Presumption and Pride then from any just Authority you have either from God or Man but seeing you are pleased to chuse me for your Adversary I must desire you to bear with me if I have spoken something less pleasingly and to use what patience you have yet left as knowing you have drawn this trouble upon your self by your causeless Provocations and Assaults made upon me which I hope will excuse me in the eyes of all impartial and ingenuous Men. I confess my self destitute of School-Learning and humane Arts and Sciences so much applauded in the world herein I freely give you the day to weare those Titles and Robes of Honour appurtenant thereunto contenting my self to have right to that far better Title of being an honest Man which in respect of your self you have much hazarded the loss of by your dis-ingenuous carriage towards me I contend not to have the Reputation of learning or being a rare and excellent Scholar but freely allow you the due praise thereof scarcely thinking it worthy my labour till I have higher thoughts of the Prize mens applause being but an airy nourishment meerly feeding vainglory in men empty of all true worth Onely I must crave this of the Reader that my confess'd weakness be no prejudice to the Truth here vindicated by me and that he will not judge of the cause by the person nor take the name or person nor yet the rarity of the thing for a fault which is the thing that the ancient Christians did much deprecate of the Pagans and therefore I hope every ingenuous and impartial man will grant it me in the present case And I must also desire that the want of Eloquence Rhetorick or smooth and pleasing Words may not be judged the want of truth Enim vero dissoluti est pectoris in rebus seriis quaerere voluptatem c. inquit Arnobius Li. 1 adv Gent. p. 49. viz. It is the condition of a dissolute heart to seek pleasures in serious matters and when thou hast to do with those that are ill at ease and sick to fill their ears with pleasing sounds and not apply medicine to their wounds I confess I deeply compassionate the generality of Professors to think how unpossible it is for them to discern the truth among the multitudes of smooth Words plausible Arguments fallacious School-distinctions and reasonings of the learned Contenders on each side usually they think each Mans Tale good till they hear the other and then they think it bad and at last when they see what fair glosses a learned Sophister can put upon the worst cause they are justly occasioned to believe or regard little or nothing they say The Reader that I expect should profit by this discourse must neither be the careless vulgar utterly unlearned nor any so learned as your self for the former are scarcely capable of it and the learned think themselves beyond it and will hardly learn any thing from any man that is less learned then themselves it is the middle sort and plain-hearted people who are sincere Lovers of truth whose instruction I intend who are neither quite above nor below information nor so ingaged to any party or Opinion but that their minds lye open to the evidence of Truth by what hand soever it be made known to them And although I come extreamly short of you in humane Arts and Philosophical Notions yet let not the Reader thence conclude That you are therefore right in your Divinity or more right then another man that comes short of you in humane Learning for if he doth let him be assured to be miserably deceived in the end And I could wish that you had so mean thoughts of your Philosophy and other your humane Arts as that you would not build your Divinity so much upon it as you do nor think much the better either of your Writings or your self for doubtless when the Canon of a Councel forbad the reading of Heathen or humane Authors this kind of Learning was not so highly valued as now it is which may likewise evidently appear by Socrates L. 1. C. 5. cited P. 33. of the foregoing Treatise Farewel C. W. Lond Aug. 10. 1658. An Appendix and Supplement to the foregoing Discourse by the same Author IF it were lawful further to dive into this mysterious fraud we should finde That the