of this first Chapter of John The lighting of every man is with the candle-light of natural understanding to impower them to behold that which may be known of God in and by the creation where the invisible things of his eternal power and Godhead are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made And every man hath this common benefit from Christ as he is the Creator of their souls and doth with a reprieve of their souls out of hell give them back this priviledge of humane Reason as they are his creatures But do they even every man thus endued with a light of reasonable creatures as such hereby understand Christs Godhead or that he is God Ver. 10. It followeth as a new Argument in the former part of it He was in the world according to his Divine essence general presence and providential power governing and sustaining all things by the word of his power Heb. 1. 3. and therefore is God But the latter part of the Verse with 11 12. gives answer to the question even now mentioned The whole world which Christ made and was in before his Incarnation as now he is to rule and preserve consists of Jews and Gentiles The Gentiles most commonly in Scripture are called the world and the Jews Gods people Christ then being in the world the world i. e. the Gentiles knew him not But Ver. 11. He came i. e. by Types Figures Sacrifices Prophets Scriptures unto his own the Jews of his own nation and account is given of them two ways some disowned him were strangers to him and his own the generality of the Jewish nation in all Ages before he came in the flesh as since received him not for God or as the Son of God Thus far the world before Christ will be convinced another day of their ignorance oscitancy and neglect of Christs God-head much more the Jews not understanding nor owning him to be their Creator who gave them their natural being life and light and most of all they who have had the Gospel and yet deny him to be God But Ver. 12. as many of the Jews first and that before his coming in the flesh as well as since as received him or believed on his Name i. e. his Person Worth and Dignity as the natural Son of God equal with God and the very God to them he gave power right priviledge and dignity to become the adopted sons of God A question yet might be put How came some to know receive believe on Christ and become the sons of God others not when every man had a light ver 9. The answer is both general and special ver 13. Generally take it thus Who were born they were born believers and they were born the children of God as well as adopted to be so but how In special the answer is 1. Negatively and that three ways 1. Not of blood they became not believers and the sons of God by the first birth which is of the blood and seed of earthly parents no though the blood parentage and descent be never so noble and royal 2. Nor of the will of the flesh that is Their new second birth is not an extract or product of corrupted nature the will of the flesh is rebellion and the wisdom of the flesh enmity against God and grace 3. Nor of the will of man i. e. Not of the power of that natural faculty the Will nor of mans choice or direction who should believe and be Gods children who not and therefore not from that free arbitrament and umpirage of mans Reason and Will together nor from the light which every man hath which is a low common benefit to this and is no drop of this immortal seed 2. Affirmatively But of God his own will power and good pleasure All this time the Evangelist having proved Christs Deity against Ebion Cerinthus and their followers who denied it then proceeds he Ver. 14. to assert and prove his Humanity and yet hath one passage more of his Deity in the same Verse And the word saith John was made flesh He that was God in the second person assumed the truth and substance of the humane nature into the Unity of his person and dwelt among us in that tabernacle of his flesh and we who received of his fulness and grace for grace ver 16. beheld through the lanthorn as it were of his Humanity his glory the glory as of the onely begotten of the Father the glory of the fulness of the God-head dwelling in him bodily as Col. 2. 9. i. e. really personally and to visible manifestation This is a light indeed which the disciples had that leads to the Father the light of Christ as Mediator which now he speaks of For Christ as Mediator is a Mediator in both Natures and though he that is Mediator giveth the light that every man hath yet he neither gives that which every man hath as Mediator nor is the light which every man hath light about his Mediation R. F. would have it so and so would others but their Wills as their Judgements are as over-thwarting to the the will of God and judgement of the Scriptures as R. F. is in his Exposition of other Scriptures with John 1. 9. touching the Light in every man as will further appear in the following Section Section 9. I Charged them here with magnifying the Light within them and which every man hath which is no more then the light of natural Conscience or that which some men have under the Gospel but a common enlightning above the light of Scripture and equal with the choicest light for kinde that Christ or his Spirit gives unto the Saints R. F. * Pag. 8. shifts it off with telling us That they do magnifie the Lord as Mary did Luke 1. whereas the blessed Virgin magnified the Lord and rejoyced in him for peculiar favor to her self and for special mercy to his chosen Israel all along her Song Again he throws dirt in my face Thou also contradicts thy self and lies against Christ the true Light calling him natural and common and lies of such as witness Christ and the Light of his Spirit and according to the declaration of the Scriptures Rep 1. As to any self-contradiction of mine he discovers none nor will it be found by any sober and judicious Reader and of things that are not and that do not appear there is the same reason and bottom 2. As for my lye against Christ the true light calling him natural and common I am confident every faithful unprejudiced person will turn it over to R. F. and lay it at his door For I onely called the light which every man hath natural and the light which some men have under the Gospel but common I called not Christ the true light so For although Christ as God gives natural light to all and common enlightning to some men of which Heb. 6. 4. some men have it who never had special sanctified
and moderation as it ought to be that will mortifie a lust but onely give a check of restraint Bodily exercise of fasting profiteth little that way Acting of faith upon Christs death every day will do much as well out of meals as at them yea he that doth not remember Christ at his plowing and sowing when he lieth down when he riseth up goeth out or cometh in or at other times as at break-fast dinner or supper will go near to forget him then But that we may never forget him and his death and his power and love to take away our sin he hath left us his solemn sacred Supper as an instituted means of a Remembrance of him to be used as oft as with conveniency we can meet at his Table Let not J. Nayler or any man upbraid us with eating and drinking in a Self-solemnity once a moneth or three times a year The superstitious observation of times by man set up is laid down I think by all the Godly in the three Nations as to that business None have impositions upon them for once a moneth Were hearts and purses large enough in all the Churches they might meet every first day of the week our Christian Sabbath-day a day that the Lord hath made for solemn conventions and exultations Psal 118. 24 at the Lords Table Let him look to the idols in his own heart and beware of imposing upon others his New-model or putting off his Gibeonitish old clouted shooes and mouldy bread I mean his pieces of old Familism For what shall we make of that passage * Love to the Lost pag 45. It must needs be so viz. to spend upon their lusts with such as do not discern his body in their eatings who is the Body of all creatures but a chip of the old block H. N. the old father of the pretended Family of Love his Doctrine to incorporate Gods Essence into the creatures and the creatures into his For said he In the beginning one God and one man had in all one order being and nature And God was all that the man was and the man was all that God was Accordingly saith J. N. He is the Body of all creatures and filleth all things in heaven and in earth but by them that are in the lust Christ is not discerned present who is the fulness and vertue of every creature Here is it may be an Ubiquitarian mystery Christs glorified Body deified and to be discerned every where in every creature But will the lost soul be carried away with this winde of doctrine so diverse and estranging from and contrary to the blessed Apostles intention 1 Cor. 11. 29. where by not 1 Cor. 11. 29. vindâ—cated cleared discerning the Lords Body he holdeth forth their sin who confound their own meals with the Lords Supper whereas 't is the duty of all the Churches and every Communicant to distinguish both notionally and practically between that Bread and Wine instituted and set apart for special sacred spiritual use and common ordinary food used for civil repast and corporal nourishment The Bread at the Lords Table is to be discerned as a pledge sign and memorial of the Lord Christ his natural body once broken and crucified The Wine is to be discerned as the sign pledge and memorial of his natural blood shed in the garden and upon the cross And the relation which Christ hath unto his appointed signs together with mystical union and special spiritual presence promised and given to the true partaker of the signs is to be discerned also all which James Nayler is ignorant of or wilfully shuts his eyes with his fellow-creature R. F. who threw off the ordinance because he wanted the assurance that he expected But how to reconcile these two mens writings about the Lords Supper I was at a loss while the one saith Wheat bread and red wine is not souls food as before and the other dictateth The Lords Supper was to be at all seasons when they eat and drank one would have the Supper to be altogether within the other would have it to be at all times when men eat with moderation and without excess it is well if they understand themselves until I compared their other words viz. of R. F. The Lord is come in to sup with me with James Naylers God's Son the fulness and virtue of every creature which all know who come to his Supper where the Father and the Son are come in and sup with the creature And hereby as by other of their expressions it appeareth they do both of them cast off the external visible ordinance of the use of particular bread and wine at some times for the ends appointed and resolve it into an imaginary transformed communion of God in and with every creature which so it speaks like H. N. the old branded Familist they care not how unlike the Holy Scripture they write as one said long since of his first followers Section 40. THat they may with the fairer shew make void the Lords institution at his Table they have devised false Interpretations of that place in 1 Cor. 11. 26. one of which 2 Cor. 11. 26. vandicated I discovered in this Section to which R. F. answereth nothing although I had it out of one of his Pamphlets viz. of shewing the Lords death till he came to his disciples after his resurrection which to mention onely carrieth confutation in the forehead J. Nayler notwithstanding its grosness favors this sense and addes another First he gratifies R. F. in his sense by reading or writing it in the Praeter tense * Love to the lost page 43. They were to do it in remembrance of him shewing his death till he came Now Pauls words are plainly respecting the time to come till he come i. e. till the very instant hour of his coming for the * Adverb of time notes duration having 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 another Adverb and Particle added to it which imply a drawing out of the time that should the Lord stay never so long ere he comes the Supper is to be continued till that coming of his which I hinted in the former Section was his coming the second time as it is called Heb. 9. 18. in that humane nature which at his first coming he assumed into the unity of his person The word for he come used by Paul is the same and in the same subjunctive Mood as in Luke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 9. 26. when he shall come in his own glory and in his Fathers c. so it might be read in Paul as our Latine * Beza Translation hath it usquequo venerit and Tremelius out of the Syriack usque ad adventum ejus even till his very appearance in the clouds For that meaning must stand whatsoever J. Nayler * Love to the Lost pag. 46. secondly addes to the former Fiction viz. That Christ charging his disciples to wait for his coming at
stick to Christ who are in him and suck vertue from him they sin not yet at that time when they abide in Christ sin dwelleth in them not in the old regency and power but as a troublesom in-mate which they would gladly be quite rid of from the first moment of conversion if the Lord so pleased but it is there and remaineth for their exercise till the combat of flesh and spirit be at an end viz. at the end of our days Section 34. THe Reader may observe that R. F. answereth nothing to this Section wherein having shewed how they cry out against all that teach Sin is not perfectly mortified in this life to be upholders of the Devils kingdom I asked Were Paul John and the Apostles upholders of the Devils kingdom And doth the Scripture uphold the Devils kingdom when it positively asserteth there is sin in every good man while he is doing good according to that Eccles 7. 20. Eccles 7. 20. There is not a just man upon earth that doth good and sinneth not A Scripture that stands as an impregnable for t un-assaulted by the enemy and impossible ever to be taken or battered down although this generation of Perfectists rank and file the same with them spoken of Prov. 30. 12. should night and day lay siege to it and shoot all their Granado's against it The new gloss * Lip of truth opened p. 18. of Tho. Lawson is but a flash of gun-powder without bullet it will not batter 'T is true saith he there is not a just man upon earth c. for all that dwell on earth worship the beast Rev. 13. 8. but John saw 144000. redeemed from the earth whereas the material earth is understood by Solomon the mystical earth is meant by John set in opposition to the mystical heaven or the true Church ver 6. men redeemed from earthly ways of worship perfectly justified before God sincere in their sanctification and reformation and growing up indeed unto perfect holiness in Gods fear yet not one of them except in Gods account without their inherent failings adherent blemishes and conflicts from their in-dwelling concupiscence or unregenerate part 9. Head of Contradiction to Scripture Concerning Christian Warfare Section 35. HAving noted their denial of Saints to be always in the Warfare R. F. * page 18. returns me his justification of this Doctrine If they do they deny not the Scripture but agree with it How makes he it out Why Such as have overcome are more then conquerors Rep. This is a truth in some sense but proves not that Saints in this life not out of their warfare Saints are past the warfare Every Christian is an overcomer as well as a warrior but how when and in what measure 1. In Christ his Head and Captain he hath overcome 1 Cor. 15. 57. 2. When shall he have a perfect conquest over inherent corruption when the warfare is at an end when is that when his wayfare is at an end not before 3. In what measure is it wrought here In some more in some less as to the conquest of Sanctification of which is the Question in none absolutely and totally A victory the Saint may have to day in some particular combate a foil to morrow Shameful foils some of these men have had who have thought themselves at an end of their warfare if half that which is reported be true That of Atkinson at Norwich was true enough one who cryed up Perfection as loud as his fellows but became as unstable as water and was easily captivated to the act of Fornication I list not to rake in such kennels but I abhor boasting before the final victory That practice which violateth the seventh Commandment is as far from perfection as that Doctrine which contradicteth the seventh Chapter to the Rom. 23. R. F. tells me Thou brings that of Paul in the warfare but thou brings not his after experience where he says The law of the spirit of life in Christ hath made me free Rom. 8. Rep. I flatly deny that Pauls experience Rom. 8. 2. was Rom. 8. 2. vindicated an after-experience to what he speaks of himself and regenerate persons Chap. 7. 14. to the end as his and their present state which was no other then what he was in Chap. 8. and so to the end of the Epistle For Chap. 8. and ver 2. is brought in as a consolation under the combate The words are these to the full For the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of sin and death What is that Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus but the power and authority of spiritual endless life in him and particularly that habitual frame of holiness in Christs humane nature which from birth and conception he had and which being made meritorious by his Divine person in which the humanity subsisteth is imputed to Paul and every true Believer by reason of which imputation he is made free from the law of sin and death What is that Law of sin The condemning power of sin yet inherent and permanent As if Paul should have said If sin that wars and fights in me hath no power to condemn me then there is no condemnation to me the sentence that is cut off and where no sentence passeth there is no execution according to Law But sin hath no Law no power to condemn me for the Law of grace and holiness in Christs own flesh condemned sin there kept off filth from him and condemned all my guilt charged upon him so as sin is put out of office and cannot so much as serve a Writ of condemnation upon me nor can sin have a commanding power over me while it dwelleth in me seeing the Spirit which dwelleth in Christ brings life and power from him to quicken holiness and kill sin in me and that grace which reigneth in Christ reigneth in me while sin is rebelling And concerning the Law of death the sting of death which is sin being taken away by removal of guilt bodily death can do me no hurt sin may kill and pull down this earthly tabernacle it shall never slay my soul I am already free from the sentence of the second death it shall never have power over me though my present as by-past sin deserves it yet Christ hath freed me from it Thus Paul speaks his own and the Saints victories with their combates at one and the same time while they are warring they are Rom. 8. 37. cleared conquering and have more then earthly conquerors ever attained to How is that for R. F. cannot conceive there can be any warfare continued where there is more then a conquest already gotten To clear this let us take all the Apostles words before us ver 37. in all these things we are more then conquerors through him that loved us He doth not say after all these things but in them during the warfare we have the
elsewhere to take hire for preaching another thing to preach for hire By the Scripture that Question also * page 22. Qu. 4. may be judged proud and malitious as of the Devil What rule have you in Scripture to take a Text c. If R. F. justifies this as 't is likely he will we must bid him go and learn and what that meaneth Luke 4. 17. our humble Saviour took up the Bible and pitcht upon a Text let us learn at last of him to be lowly in heart Matth. 11. 29. If it be said it followeth in the Question and to speak from it what you have studied with your Vses Points Tryals Motives and Applications We must send them again to 2 Tim. 3 16 17. The Scripture is given so to be improved whether men will hear or forbear Let R. F. consider if the scope of that * Qu. 24. Question Whether that Light which comes from Christ be natural yea or nay be not to make all Light-given alike for kinde as appeareth by Quere 29. Whether the Light of the world or of every man be not a saving Light in the least measure yea or nay and how can that be said to be natural These Questions come from the Devils envy against the Saints peculiar light who see all things after another maner then natural men can do The Gentiles did things by nature or power of natural conscience and the light of it which yet they perisht in their light and their works were neither of them saving Rom. 2. 12 and 14. This light of nature comes from Christ as God not as Mediator he that is the true Light enlightneth every man but not with saving Light I must send back R. F. to Sect. 10. and the superadded Conclusions in the end thereof If any man be ignorant let him be ignorant 1 Cor. 14. 38. But yet if we examine those Questions * Qu. 44 and 45. Where had you this Doctrine to tell people they could never be wholly cleansed or be set free from sin so long as they are upon the earth And whether this be not in opposition to the Doctrine of Christ who saith Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect What shall we finde here but ignorance and confusion for want of will or skill to distinguish between Justification and Sanctification which according to the Scripture I have desired R. F. and others to perpend and weigh in Sect. 23. And I must send all Novices still to that Scripture Eccles 7. 20. There is not a just man upon earth that doth good and sinneth not which hath no opposition to the Doctrine of Christ Mat. 5. 48. where the Lord as all along the Chapter Mat. 5 48. vindicated urgeth sincerity and integrity of obedience upon his Disciples in opposition to the Pharisees counterfeit and partial expositions of the ten Commandments with further growth and endeavour after more conformity to their heavenly pattern still keeping perfection in all degrees as the white in their eye unto which the Lord will bring his children at their dissolution and time of their souls immediate entrance into heaven and not before as hath been demonstrated in Sect. 29. As to that Question * Qu 48. What is your own righteousness and what is the righteousness of Christ and how do you distinguish betwixt the one and the other He that did propound it tells us at the foot of Page 25. It was not as if he knew them not even all that he enquired of but for the satisfaction of the simple and for the clearing of the truth and manifesting our deceit to the world But that which is a thorough good Question indeed not coming from Satan and a corrupt heart must arise from a sound and good principle and be propounded to as good an end Now this Quere 1. proceeds not from a good principle because their judgements are vitiated and in their Doctrine they confound as do the Papists our inherent righteousness-sanctifying with Christs righteousness which justifieth Christs righteousness which justifieth a believing sinner is not the essential righteousness of his God-head but that obedience of his Active and Passive which in the humane nature that he assumed and united to his divine person he wrought out in the room and stead of others and which he presenting to Gods Justice as a price and ransom for them God accepteth and reckoneth to every one that believeth for his perfect Justification That righteousness which is in Scripture called our own as inherent in us is either what is done by the power of natural conscience without the written word or what is done according to the bare letter of the written command or from a common gift of the Spirit or in a Gospel-way from a living principle of grace habits and acts of holiness by the holy Spirit and faith given stirred up actuated and improved this also with all the former is a righteousness of ours that men would establish in the room of Christs imputed righteousness for their justification But though it be wrought by the strength of Christ in us and be found in us that are sanctified yet as to justification of his person Paul would not be found in it for a world but saith he Phil. 3. 8 9. I do count all things but loss even what he had done and suffered since conversion and what he was now a doing and dung that I may win Christ and be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law or done in my person from the best principles in obedience to the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith this is every true Believers vote and resolution If R. F. be otherwise minded and belong to God God shall reveal even this unto him 2. The above mentioned Quere by the bare propounding doth not attain the ends pretended our answer may satisfie some simple ones some wise not all This Quere and other of the like stamp doth but obscure the truth and help to stagger and seduce Gods servants as for our deceit in this great business of a sinners justification if J. Parnell should arise from the dead or R. F. should tell us he hath been in the third Heaven nor one nor other shall be able to manifest that which is not To conclude whence came that * Quer. 3â— question quarrelling more with God then with us How doth it stand with the impartial God to give to one man a measure of grace and not to another and yet require obedience from all If R. F. thinketh there is ground for such a Question he must be sent to Rom. 9. 18. 20. for his Answer God hath mercy on whom he will have mercy c. and O man who art thou that replyest against God 21. Head of their Scripture-contradiction Concerning civil Honor. Section 49. THeir discourse papers and practise is notorious enough in opposition
God hath never blest it nor promised to bless it nor ordained it for that end 4. If they intend it onely of the Saints light or the Spirits light which R. F. in his Epistle saith is perfect in its least measure still that is onely to be understood as I said in my other piece in respect of its truth and sincerity and that hath life and power in it already and doth not lead into it as R. F. speaks but in respect of a further degree of the same kinde for although the good use of natural light doth not lead into Spiritual light and life yet the good use of the least true spark of Spiritual saving light in Christ the Mediator hath a promise of further increase of light of the same Spiritual nature There follows another passage in R. F. which I would scan a little They that love and obey the least degree of light are in unity the highest and lowest in their measures and degrees Rep. 1. If this be meant of them that have the lowest degree Creation-light and Redemption-light mâ—st not be confounded of Creation-light and of such as have the highest degree of Redemption-light it confounds the natural and Spiritual man together the sinner or graceless and the gracious Saint yea the meanest man as a man with the most glorious Saint in heaven as a Saint but how erroneous is this notion What unity are they in that is a saving unity some of whom have not the Spirit Jude v. 19. others have some have union with Christ a Redeeming Sanctifying Head others not Doth R. F. think that such as obey the lowest degree of light manifested in the Creature are in unity with the Saints that comprehend something of the height and breadth length and depth of the love of God and Christ which passeth knowledge or that men using their Talent of Nature well could they do it shall meet the Saints in heaven who are enabled to use their Talent of Grace in a saving maner far be any of his or my Readers Section 16 17. from such Popish Jesuitical conceptions 2. If he meaneth onely that the Saints of lower or higher forms and degrees of Redemption-light and grace are in unity this is granted in some respect viz. of perfect Justification sincere Sanctification and what one-ness the Apostle speaks of Ephes 4. 4 5 6. But why then doth he and his sect separate from them that have higher or lower degrees of light and grace then themselves and how comes it they are so full of Saint and Self-contradictions 4. and 5. Heads of Self-contradiction Concerning Sin and Christ Section 16 17. THese two Sections R. F. waves altogether In the former I delivered out what I had from them in discourse in Scotland that sin is no visible enemy to a Saint or to themselves and yet they speak as if they had received higher degrees of light then ordinary Saints It seems it is to see sin in others not in themselves but they carry their light in a dark Lanthorn are in love with their own shadow and in friendship with their own lusts to whose eyes of understanding sin and the sin in the bosom is not the most visible adversary In the latter I gave forth what I had there also in discourse and in a Letter They hold Christ to be in all yet none to be in Christ but themselves Whereas in what way or respect God and Christ as God is in all all are in Christ as God that is In him we live move and have our being as men and creatures And were Christ in all as Mediator all were in Christ as members of such a Head Branches of such a Vine-stock and root of saving grace but He is neither in every man nor is every man in Him by such a way of union 6. Head of Self-contradictions Sect. 18 19. Concerning Justification Section 18. HEre I noted James Nayler in one place denying that his sins who is once covered are not daily to cover yet in another place affirming that what Christ did formerly upon the Cross he doth the same now If then he did cover them he doth now cover them daily R. F. * Page 27. answereth not to take off the Contradiction but onely thus He that hath his sins covered is blessed but thy meaning is denyed Rep. The maner and way of Christs covering of sin is denied if that my meaning which is not mine but the Lords be denied For to day Heb. 13. 8. holds forth a daily vertue Heb. 13. 8. cleared in all the present time of the new Testament of Christs Cross or his personal sufferings upon the Cross for covering as for crucifying of sin that is for pardoning as subduing it He doth perfectly justifie a believer at once but this he doth daily also by one continued act of imputation of Christs sufferings whence comes the non-imputation of a believers daily sins If this be denied then the way of Gods covering sin is denied to be by way of pardon and so David and Paul Psalm 32. 1. Rom. 4. 6 7. are denied and the blessedness which they pronounce to the pardoned person which is worse then for R. F. to deny himself or for J. Nayler to contradict himself as before and as followeth Section 19. THat which I noted in this Section in his other words is I own no other Christ but that which suffered at Jerusalem and by him I am saved from my sins yet what righteousness Christ hath performed without me was not my justification neither was I saved by it I inferred if then he was not justified and saved meritoriously he is not now nor ever will be saved efficaciously All that R. F. hath to offer is The righteousness of Christ is our righteousness who are saved from our sins by him and we witness him to be the alone Savior of all that obey him and perfectly able to save to the uttermost all those that come unto God by him Rep. 1. This salveth not the wound of J. Naylers self-contradiction 2. Let none be deceived with their expressions for when they say Christs righteousness is our righteousness they understand it of Christs righteousness wrought in them by his Spirit not wrought for them by his blood and obedience But I ask these men Was not Christ Jesus without them when he was obedient to death the death of the Cross at Jerusalem Was the righteousness he performed for himself or for others Did he not stand and suffer as a surety Is not the sureties payment reckoned to the debtor as sufficient What if Christ be so free and bountiful as he will not onely pay the debts of his Elect but stock them with inherent Grace it is not a farthing of the money that he putteth into their purse that justifies them their friend and surety had enough to do it without them Proud and self-deceiving are they who think a little within them is better then all that is
following the Light of Christ in the conscience To inform the ignorant we teach out of Scripture that the new-birth is not wrought by our following work but by Gods preventing Grace casting the promise into the heart and quickning that seed by the in-coming of the Spirit James 1. 18. with John 3. 5. Regeneration is not acquired by our acts but infused of God by his will and power John 1. 13. That Again c Ib. page 21. Shew if ever any natural man did get power over sin and abstain from things forbidden throughout the Scripture When before he had asked By what is the new-birth wrought if not by following c. If a natural man may get the new-birth by following the Light of Christ in his conscience then he may by such an act of obedience get some kinde of power over sin and far sooner abstain from many things forbidden then ever get the new-birth thereby There is a two-fold power over sin the one by the restraining power of God called Restraining Grace the other by the special influence of Christ and his Spirit uniting himself to the soul and taking up his habitation in a Believer as in his Temple The natural man hath the former more or less and yet remaineth a natural man and in his natural state because he wants the latter Was not Herod a natural man Mark 6. 20. and so remained even while he heard John gladly and did many things Did not Paul while in his natural state following the light in his conscience abstain from things forbidden Phil. 3. 6. was he not touching the righteousness of the Law blameless Were not those Peter speaks of escaped from 2 Pet. 2. 18 20 the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of Christ yea clean or really escaped as by a common or inferior 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 work of the Spirit and yet were in their natural state first and last What wilful ignorance is in that Querie d Ishmael and his mother cast out p. 1◠Where is such a Scripture that the most eminent believer sins in any things This is subscribed by three or four of them as if they had never read or having read not regarded James 3. 2. or will not understand Rom. 7. 21. that not onely in all the good they do or would do evil by a tyrannizing law of the old man is present with them but in many things they all offend or sin And what affected blindness in that demand e The skirts of the whore discovered by Dennis Hollister page 19. Where doth the Scripture call it self the Word of God and to whom was it the Rule of Life Who please may read over the 119 Psalm once more and view the 40 page and then consult Gal. 6. 14. and view the explanation page 44. of this Reply and the Scriptures will stand right in his thoughts by Gods blessing and he be affected to them 7. Much of Mystical Babylon and Confusion is in their writings and ways They confound common and saving gifts we not onely distinguish them but divide them Common are in many persons where saving are not saving are in all the Saints but on some of the Saints many common gifts are not conferred They confound Justification and Sanctification We distinguish them but divide them not so but they are present to the same subject or person the believer although they are not the same Grace They confound the Price of our Redemption and the application of it by power We distinguish them and divide them not so but where one goes before the other follows after according to the riches of Gods grace and the unchangeableness of his Covenant in Christ There is enough in the fore-going Reply and in the third and fifth of these Animadversions for a plain demonstration hereof It may be hoped upon no weak grounds this Sect is acting one of the last parts upon the tottering Stage of the Romish Antichrist Never I conceive did any as these so masked and disguised servire scenae suit the present occasion and times for Romes advantage but it began and will end in their confusion 8. Their Doctrines and Practices end in Apostacy of the deepest stain and Blasphemy against Christ of the highest strain The experience of James Nayler and his Comrades give sad and dreadful proof hereof When the humane Nature of Christ is not adored for its self but as it subsists in the person of the onely begotten Son of God they give and take by their doctrine of God and Christ manifested in their individual flesh the same divine Honor which is peculiar to the person of Christ alone God blessed for ever 9. There needs no farther proof of their Scripture and Self-contradictions Their Blasphemies evidence the former and their Grandees giving one another the lye demonstrates the latter We had a notorious evidence hereof the last Summer at Witham in Essex After that a blustring fellow said to be one Hubberthorn had driven divers to quaking falling down and roaring out that the flesh might be cast forth by the Spirit as he said there followed him William Deusbery in his circuit and course and tells the poor people they were fools and beasts if they minded any such quaking postures and much more to that purpose And the Narrative of their Letters and Examinations thereupon at Bristol put forth by Mr. Farmer sets a broad seal to this as the former Animadversion 10. Their Sufferings in defence of corrupt and false doctrines are no part of the sufferings of Christ in his mystical body That their doctrines are false which they attempt and labor to defend hath sufficiently been evinced and cleared The other follows by undeniable consequence It is not the punishment but the Cause that makes the Martyr as he Martyrem facit Causa non supplicium Aug. said of old who was a famous Assertor of the Truth in his time The Philistines died by the fall of the house as well as Samson sed diver so fine ac fato but with a differing scope and that through a wise-ordering Providence They suffered for their Riot Idolatry Cruelty and Impenitency he died in Faith and with zealous calling upon the name of the Lord for a publique Revenge upon his and the Church its enemies Who sees not a vast difference between James Naylers Pillory and Mr. Burtons between the Imprisonment of many disturbing Quakers in our times and of the peaceable Confessors and Sufferers in Queen Maries days Who so blinde as they that will not see Lord open the eyes and hearts of deluded Quakers and Papists Being thy people quite out of the Babylonish wilderness Forgive them that know not what they do write they know not what suffer out of devout ignorant intentions which will not justifie their unwarrantable actions or passions FINIS THE TABLE A. Acting IN a mans own strength or Christs 110 Adam In innocency under a Covenant of works pag. 100 B.