the Assembly of Divines at VVestminster in their Confession of Faith cap. 1. sect 1. Prov. 22.19 20 21. Isa 8.9 10. which places if they prove now that all new Revelation is ceased they do as much prove that it ceased in the days of Christ and the Apostles yea in the days of the Prophets that did succed them Is it not admirable blindness that these men did not see how impertinent these Citations are And as for all the places of the new Testament cited by them as Luke 3.4 Rom. 15.4 Mat. 4.4 7 10. 2 Tim. 3.15 Heb. 1.1 2. 2 Pet. 1.19 they do no more prove what these intend than the former for by their own confession divine Revelation and Inspiration continued after all these places of Scripture were writ for divers intire Books of Scripture were writ after them here alledged And if they say that all new Revelation did cease as soon as all these Books of Scripture were in being then they must also affirm that all new Revelation did cease to divers of the Apostles long before they deceased because divers of them and particularly John survived after he wrote his Book of the Revelation 2. It is most readily granted that God in his infinite Wisdom and Goodness was pleased that there should be Oracles and Testimonies of his Truth and Gospel committed to writing according to which the Doctrins and Words of Men however so holy that should come in after ages should be tryed and examined for the Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets but this doth not prove in any wise all ceasing of Prophecy or Divine Revelation or Inspiration by the same Spirit The Apostles Doctrin and Preaching was tried by the Noble Bereans whether it was according to the Scriptures of the old Testament but it doth not therefore follow that the Apostle Paul did not preach by divine Revelation and Inspiration And both Christ and the Apostles proved their Doctrin generally out of the Scriptures of the Prophets but that doth not argue that they did not Preach by new divine Revelation 3. But for the further clearing of the matter we are to distinguish betwixt new Revelation of new Doctrin and new Revelation of ancient Doctrin The Apostles had a new Revelation yet not of any new Doctrin but the very same that Christ and the Prophets preached before them and all agreed in the same Doctrin for Substance and yet had their own peculiar Visions and Revelations which were new to them to wit new though not in kind or specie yet in particular or individual unto them And so it is as to us we plead not for any new Revelation of any new Doctrin Faith or Gospel differing from what Christ and the Prophets and Apostles have taught before us and is largely and fully declared in the holy Scriptures but for a new Revelation of the same Doctrin Faith and Gospel which was revealed unto them For as the Faith of the Prophets and Apostles is not enough to us but we must also have the like precious Faith with them 1 John 1.2 and we must see with our spiritual Eyes and hear with our spiritual Ears and handle with our spiritual handling the Word of Life as they did so it must be newly revealed to us and in us 4. And if all new divine Revelation and Inspiration be ceased then all spiritual seeing and hearing is ceased and neither God nor Christ is or hath been heard or seen spiritually as the Saints did see and hear formerly nay not in the least degree and all inward spiritual Sensation and feeling is gone and all use or exercise of spiritual Series which is sad tidings to poor Souls But if any grant that there is any true and real spiritual hearing seeing tasting and other spiritual Sensations of God and divine things they must also grant true divine Revalation the same in kind and nature with what the Saints had of old for what is the proper object of the inward hearing and seeing and tasting and feeling Is it not God and Christ As David invited others saying O taste and see that God is good And as the Spouse said in the Song I sate down under his Shadow with great delight and his Fruit was sweet unto my taste his Left-hand is under my Head and his Right hand doth embrace me he hath brought me to his banqueting House c. and again The King hath brought me into his Wine-Cellar And can these sweet and heavenly Experiences be witnessed without divine Revelation or Inspiration And whereas some say It is Revelation by the Word and Spirit going along together but not by the Spirit alone without the Word I Answer granting it to be so in a true sense for the Prophets and Apostles had both the Word and the Spirit going along together in their divine Revelations according to Isa 50.21 and that did not hinder them to be real and proper in their kind But that God hath limited and confined himself so as never to give any inward enjoynment of himself to the Souls of his dear Children by any inward sense sight or hearing but what is conveyed unto them always by means of Scripture words is a most extravagant presumption to affirm without all Scripture proof for besides that the Soul may hear God speaking other words to it inwardly than express Scripture words though not contrary or disagreeing it oft falls out that the inward and spiritual seeing tasting and feeling may be enjoyed and witnessed without all words composed of Letters or Syllables even in a deep inward stillness and quietness according to these words Be still and know that I am God And as the outward seeing tasting smelling and feeling may be used without the present use of the outward hearing so may the inward and spiritual seeing tasting smelling and feeling be used at times and seasons without the inward and spiritual hearing of any Words formally composed of Letters and Syllables or Scripture words or so much as inwardly thought or conceived which Men of spiritual Experience who have their spiritual Senses cannot but readily grant We find by common experience that Words fall short to give us a sufficient and satisfactory knowledge of outward and natural things and therefore we desire rather to see taste and handle them than to hear the best or most true report of them We love rather to see a pleasant Country than to hear of it only and every good Child loveth to see his Parents rather than to hear a report or talk of them so every loving Wife loveth rather to see her Husband and hear himself and be imbraced by him than to hear others tell of him And the loving Subject is more glad to see his Prince or King of whom he hath received so many Favours and to hear himself than to hear others tell of him and thus it is with every Soul that truly loveth God they much rather desire to hear himself and see him than
as the ordinary and common allowance and priviledge of all God's Saints and People and not only to Saints but to Men and Women in order to their becoming Saints they need God and Christ inwardly to speak unto them for it is the inward Voice and Speaking of Christ that quickneth the dead Souls of Men according to the words of Christ The Dead shall hear the Voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live John 5.25 CHAP. III. Of the Supream Judge and Rule of Controversies of Religion IT hath been already acknowledged in the first Chapter that the holy Scriptures are a sufficient outward Rule and Standard whereby to try all Doctrins of Men however so holy or wise they may be or however much indued with the holy Spirit because the Spirit of the Prophets is subject to the Prophets and as the holy Spirit of Truth is one so the words of it do all agree in all the true Prophets Apostles Evangelists Pastors and Teachers and as is already said the Noble Bereans were commended in Scripture for searching the Scriptures to see and examin whether the Apostles Doctrin was according to the Doctrin of the ancient Prophets that wrote the Old Testament and until the Apostles Doctrin was generally received they did appeal to the Scriptures of the Old Testament for a proof of their Doctrin although that was not their only proof for they had a greater proof than that outward was even the inward Witnéss and Testimony of the holy Ghost that made both them and their Doctrin manifest in the Hearts and Consciences of their Hearers whose Hearts God was pleased to open 2. And therefore in respect of any outward Rule and Standard the Scripture is sufficient and to be preferred in all respects to any other latter Writings or Testimonies or Records whatsoever first because writ from a greater measure and depth of divine Wisdom for though the Spirit be one yet it hath diversity of Gifts and Operations and Administrations and all Men divinely inspired had not the same clearness of divine Knowledge Numb 12.6 7 8. Moses exceeded the Prophets generally David and Solomon exceeded many of them and Isaiah and Jeremiah exceeded others of them and among the Prophets some were as Fathers some as Sons hence we read in Scripture that God is the Father of Lights and of these Lights as to us some are higher and some lower which some mystick Writers both among Jews and Christians have taken notice of out of the Scripture it self hence they say Moses drank at the Fountain Samuel David Solomon and some others drank at the Streams and others of an inferior degree at the Pond or Cistern And they further say Moses had his Revelations from Binah Abraham from Gedulah a step lower Isaac from Geburah yet lower Jacob from Tipheret yet lower but partaking of both signified by his dwelling in Tents betwixt the Tents of Abraham and Isaac David sometimes from Tipheret and sometimes from Nezah and Hod hence we read some of the Inscriptions of his Psalms to Nezah and sometimes from Mulcuth and they say that the ordinary Prophets had their Revelations from these two divine Measures Nezah and Hod called Exod. 38.8 The Looking-Glasses of the Lords Hosts that Assemble at the door of the Tabernacle see the Heb. text But Moses had liberty to go into the heavenly Tabernacle it self and so had some others And that God did make himself more known to Moses than to Abraham Isaac and Jacob is clear from these words of his to Moses at the Bush I appeared to Abraham Isaac and Jacob by the Name of God Almighty but by my Name Jehovah was I not known to them Exod. 6.3 And concerning this distinction of divine Gifts and Illuminations Paul declareth saying To one is given the Word of Wisdom to another the Word of Knowledge to another Faith all by the same Spirit Hence we read in the Proverbs Wisdom Understandang and Knowledge distinguished Wisdom buildeth the House Vnderstanding establisheth it and Knowledge filleth the Chambers with all precious and pleasant Riches Prov. 24.3 4. Therefore Wisdom is a degree above Understanding and Understanding a degree above Knowledge all which divine Measures are set in order as the parts of a Tree with Root Branches and Tops or as the Members of a Mans Body by way of Allegory and Analogy Cochmah Binah and Daath belonging to the Head Gedulah Geburah to the right and left Hand and Arm Tipheret to the Body Nesah Hod and Jesod to the Thighs and Legs c. and Mulcuth lowest of all all which make up by way only of allegory and analogy the Parts and Members of the Son of Man or heavenly Adam as both Ezekiel and John saw him upon his Throne The English Names of these Hebrew words all which are found in Scripture in their true order are these following Cochmah i e. Wisdom Binah i. e. Understanding or Prudence Daath i. e. Knowledge see 1 Chron. 29.11 Gedulah i. e. Magnificence Geburah i. e. Power Tipheret i. e. Beauty Nesah and Hod i. e. Victory and Glory Jesod i. e. Foundation and Mulcuth i. e. the Kingdom And secondly and most especially we give the Preheminence to the Scriptures beyond all latter Writers because we are well assured that the Scriptures throughout are pure without all mixture of Error or Mistake and this is generally granted by all Christians that the Scriptures are really so being duly and rightly translated but we are not assured that any mans or mens Writings since are altogether pure and free of all mixture of Error and human Weakness until they be duly examined and found to agree to the holy Scriptures and to the inward testimony of the holy Spirit for altho' whatever the Spirit of God inwardly revealeth is infallible and pure from all mixture of Error and whatever any man saith or writeth as he hath receiv'd it from that his Testimony is pure and without mixture yet we are not assured that any man or men are in that state of Perfection that they may not by human frality in some measure or way more or less decline or depart from the pure and infallible Teachings of the Spirit of God for as it is possible they may purely and chastely keep unto them so for want of due watchfulness and holy care they may more or less depart from them and so there may be a mixture of Truth and Error both in their Understandings and Words and therefore they are not to be taken on trust but both their Doctrin in all things is to be tryed by the Scripture and their Spirit by the Spirit of Truth as every one is able according to what he hath received All which doth not hinder but that the Spirit of God in our day both teacheth and leadeth infallibly although the Disciples and professed Followers of it at times by weakness may be liable to mistakes 3. And as concerning that phrase or expression that some use That
Rev. 2.2 Thou hast tryed them which say they are Apostles and are not and hast found them Liars Rev. 3.9 Behold I will make them of the Synagogue of Satan which say they are Jews and are not but do lie behold I will make them to come and worship before thy feet and to know that I have loved thee Rev. 18.4 5 6. And I heard another Voice from Heaven saying Come out of her my People that ye be not Partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her Plagues for her sins have reached unto Heaven and God hath remembred her Iniquities Reward her even as she rewarded you and double unto her double according to her Works in the Cup which she hath filled fill to her double THE Presbyterian and Independent VISIBLE CHURCHES IN New-England And else-where Brought to the Test and examined according to the Doctrin of the holy Scriptures in their Doctrin Ministry Worship Constitution Government Sacraments and Sabbath Day More particulary directed to those in New-England and more generally to those in Old-England Scotland Ireland c. WITH A Call and Warning from the Lord to the People of Boston and New-England to Repent c. And two Letters to the Preachers in Boston and an Answer to the gross Abuses Lies and Slanders of Increase Mather and Nath. Morton c. By GEORGE KEITH LONDON Printed for Thomas Northcott in George-Yard in Lombard-street 1691. A Friendly EPISTLE To these PEOPLE called Presbyterians and Independents FRIENDS IN true Love and good Will I have writ the following Treatise unto you hoping it may find entertainment with some among you to give it the Reading and seriously to consider what you read and my earnest Exhortation and Advice is unto you that in all your reading whether in this or any other Book ye turn your minds to that Light of Christ within you wherewith he hath enlightned you and all Men as the holy Scriptures declare and that ye may believe in Christ the Light and Life in you who is the Wisdom and Power of God and who was in all the holy Prophets and Apostles and whose Spirit that was in them that gave forth the holy Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament and the same Spirit only doth and only can give to all Readers of the holy Scripture a true and right understanding of them and of all other Books that treat of Doctrins and Matters of Religion whether they have proceeded from a measure of the same holy Spirit And if ye believe in Christ the Light the Life the Wisdom and Power of God in you and joyn your Minds to his inward divine Illumination He will anoynt the Eyes of your Understanding with his Spiritual Eye-Salve and then your Eyes shall be opened to see and understand what ye read and through your faith in him he will also open and circumcise your inward Ears and cause you still more and more to be acquainted with his living Voice and Words in you all which are Spirit and Life and this will give you a spiritual savour and taste whereby ye shall be able to try and judge of things that differ whether Men or Books whether Spirits or Doctrins what are of God and what are not of him for although the Scriptures are the best outward Test or Touchstone or Rule whereby to try all Doctrins of Men or Books yet it is the holy Spirit of Christ and his Light inwardly shining and enlightning the dark Hearts and Vnderstandings of Men that gives them ability rightly to understand the Scriptures otherwise the Scriptures are as a sealed Book both to the learned and unlearned For though the Jews had the Scriptures of the Old Testament which prophecied of Christ and of the Time and Manner of his Coming and how he was to suffer Death for the sins of Men and to rise again and ascend into Glory yet none of them had that Understanding but such only as were turned to his divine Illumination in their Hearts and were acquainted with his holy Spirit Light and Life in them And the like grave and wholsom advice I recommend unto you which a certain Ancient Christian gave unto Justin Martyr before his Conversion to the Christian Faith to wit That he should diligently read and search the holy Scriptures which should give him more Content than all Heathen Authors but withal that he should mind the Gate the LIGHT by which only he could enter into the true Understanding and Knowledge of them The which Passage the said Justin relateth in his Works and John Fox hath it also in his Martyrology taken out of him And though in this Treatise I have affirmed and sufficiently demonstrated that your Visible Churches are no true Churches of Christ yet I do not say nor conclude that none of you belong to Christs true Church in any true regard But on the contrary I have that true Charity Faith and Hope concerning a Remnant among you who have in the least measure true Hungerings and Thirstings after Righteousness and a great inward longing and panting of Heart and Soul after the Lord Jesus Christ to know him and enjoy him more nearly than by all hear-say or report of him and whose Souls are sick of Love for him and feel your need and want of him as the sick that need the Physician that ye do indeed even all such of you belong to Christ and are the real Members of his Body which is his Church for where any living Desire is after Christ and where any true sense or feeling of the want and great need of him is raised in any Soul there is somewhat of the Life of Christ in that Soul and there is Christ himself present who hath begot it and that Soul is in some Measure a living Member of Christ and to such it will be glad Tidings to hear that Christ is so near unto it as really to be within it even really and livingly present and where the least true measure of Sincerity Tenderness Meekness Gentleness Humility Uprightness of Heart and Soul hath place in any there is Christ present in that Soul who hath already begun his good Work in the same and the beginning of his Work is to quicken and make alive the Soul unto him And every Soul that is thus quickned and made alive unto him as it doth hold fast this Beginning and doth continue still hungering and thirsting after Him to know and enjoy and receive of his Fulness more plentifully doth really belong to him and is in a state of Salvation e'en so far and as it here abideth it is impossible that it can perish But yet tho such belong to Christ and to his Church it doth not follow that the visible Church which they are outwardly and by some outward Form or Practice joyned unto is the true Church of Christ for they themselves distinguish of the Church Visible and Invisible and do affirm That Hypocrites are Members of their Visible Church
exceed the Scholar for if Divine Inward Revelation and Inspiration together with other spiritual Gifts are the common priviledg of all true Christians in some degree more or less according to their several growth and capacity much more are they to be found in the true Ministers of Christ who are both to feed the Babes with Milk and the strong Men with Meat and to be Rom. 2.19 20. the guide of the Blind a Light of them which are in Darkness and Instructors of the Foolish and Teachers of Babes and also who can speak Wisdom among them that are perfect according to which Christ said to his Apostles Ye are the Light of the World and the Salt of the Earth 3. But more particularly it is apparent from the Scripture that there is a peculiar Ministerial Gift or Gifts that God giveth to all his true Ministers to fit or qualifie them for that great Work whereby to make them able Ministers of the New-Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit the which Gifts are the Purchase of Christ and the Fruits and Effects of his Death Resurrection and Ascension as is clear from Ephes 4.8 11 12. When he ascended on high he led Captivity captive and gave Gifts unto men and he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists Pastors and Teachers Where altho' it may be granted that some of these are extraordinary as namely Apostles and some ordinary yet all are given to the Church by Christ as the Fruit and Effect of his Purchase and that therefore all ordinary Ministers who are indeed true Ministers of Christ are indued with some measure of Spiritual Gifts in more or less according to the good pleasure of God And as concerning the spiritual peculiar gifts of the holy Spirit besides these that were common to all such as Faith Love Hope Knowledge Meekness Temperance Patience Brotherly-kindness Charity the Scripture doth expresly mention them in divers places 1 Cor. 12.8 To one is given by the Spirit the Word i. e. Speech or utterance of Wisdom to another the VVord of Knowledg that is some degree inferior to another Faith that is some peculiar degree of Faith for some peculiar Service besides the Faith common to all Believers and all these are ordinary and have still remained in the true Church but together with these in the Apostles days there were extraordinary Gifts which God may give or with-hold as he pleaseth as not being essential to a true Minister of Christ such were Gifts of Miracles Gifts of Healing Gifts of Tongues and the like And as concerning Prophecying it was either extraordinary or ordinary extraordinary was a fore-telling of particular things to come as was that of Agabus his fore-telling that Paul should be bound at Jerusalem ordinary was the ordinary and usual manner of Preaching by the Inspiration and motion of the holy Ghost in Doctrin Exhortation Correction c. Moreover concerning this diversity of spiritual Gifts Paul saith Rom. 12.6 Having then Gifts differing according to the Grace that is given to us whether Prophecy let us prophecy according to the proportion of Faith or Ministry let us wait on our Ministry or he that teacheth on teaching or he that exhorteth on exhortation And likewise Peter concerning these spiritual Gifts saith 1 Pet. 4.10 11. As every Man hath received the Gift even so minister the same one to another as good Stewards of the manifold Grace of God If any Man speak let him speak as the Oracles of God If any Man minister let him do it as of the Ability or vertue which God giveth that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ And as touching spiritual Gifts that were not common to all Christians but peculiar to some Paul exhorted the believing Corinthians saying 1 Cor. 14.1 Desire spiritual Gifts but rather that ye may prophecy And he declareth what that prophecying was vers 3. He that prophesieth speaketh unto Men to Edification and Exhortation and Comfort And vers 5. Greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with Tongues except he interpret that the Church may receive edifying And concerning the great power and virtue of Prophecying he said further vers 24 25. If all Prophesie and there come in one that believeth not or unlearned he is convinced of all he is judged of all And thus are the secrets of his Heart made manifest and so falling upon the Person to wit that did Prophesie for so the Words may be better translated he will worship God and report that God is in you of a truth 4. Now in the true Church and among the true Believers there was a spiritual discerning or judgment that they had whereby they did know who had these spiritual Gifts and who had them not who spoke and preached by the Spirit and who did pray and sing by the Spirit and who did not and who not only had the Words but the Power and who had only the Words and had not the Power and these were false Apostles and false Teachers and Hypocrites that had good Words which they did take or receive from other Men but had not that good Power and Spirit that was in the true Ministers of Christ and because they had not that good Power their Ministry and Words were dead dry and barren and such the Scripture compareth to Clouds without Rain and Wells or Cisterns without Water and of such Paul said he would know not the Speech of them which are puffed up but the Power 1 Cor. 4.19 The which spiritual discerning or judgment as it was in some measure given in common to all true Believers as the sense of Taste is given in common to Beasts Mankind whereby to relish things sweet or bitter and Meats and Drinks that have the true Nourishing Virtue in them so it was given in some greater measure to some than to others according to their growth experience and exercise or use of their spiritual senses even as both among Men and Beasts some do far excell others in the sagacity of the Taste of outward things and so in the Smell of things as Flowers Spices c. and according to this spiritual discerning and judgment Paul said to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 14 29. c. Let the Prophets speak two or three and let the other judge If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by let the first hold his peace for ye may all prophecy one by one that all may learn and all may be comforted and the Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets For God is not the Author of Confusion but of Peace as in all the Churches of the Saints So we see here was good Order where in one Meeting two or three might speak one after another or more if they had any motion of the Spirit so to do and in that case the first speaker was to give place to him But nothing of this is to be found among these Churches who deny
of Truth but the Spirit of Truth they have not and who have it not cannot minister it And therefore Paul imputeth all the good Fruit and Success of his Ministry not to himself but to the Grace of God that was with him and in him 1 Cor. 15.10 How then can a graceless Man have any fruit or success in his Ministry seeing all fruit and success belongeth not to the Man however so well furnished with natural or acquired parts but to the Grace of God It is Grace Grace that maketh a Man's Preaching effectual to the Hearers and that Grace is in the Minister and worketh both in him and with him in the Hearts of the Hearers where God is pleased to concur and give the blessing and increase and thus the Grace of God is like a good Seed and Plant that not only bringeth forth Fruit in that little spot of Earth where it was first planted but spreadeth abroad and filleth many other parts and places with it and hath new Roots and Seeds continually encreasing and multiplying 7. And as concerning the Call to the Ministry It is worthy of great observation how they are pinched and narrowed to give any colourable account of their Call who deny all inward and immediate calling to the Ministry and especially such of them who say The Church of Rome is no true Church but a Harlot and the Pope is Antichrist as the Westminster Cenfession of Faith doth expresly call him cap. 25. sect 6. and yet the Presbyterian Ministers generally derive their Call from him and I have heard divers of them expresly affirm it being questioned about their Call whether immediate or mediate they have answered mediate from the Apostles and then being urged to shew the Line of Succession through which that mediate Call is conveyed unto them they have plainly said The Popes of Rome as one lately a Preacher in New-England said before some Hundreds of People That their Call to Preach was by the Popes of Rome and so according to their own Doctrin by Antichrist Surely these men do not believe that Christ is in them either to call or furnish them in their Ministry who must go so far as Rome to bring it and from him too whom they call Antichrist But they think Rome and the Pope however much distant from them is much nearer than Christ and Heaven from whom the true Ministers have their Call 8. And as all true Preaching ought to be by the Inspiration and moving of the Spirit of God so all true Praying and Singing both in private and in publick for still that is it which the Scripture enjoyneth Ephes 6.18 to Pray always with the Spirit or in the Spirit and no man can say that Jesus is the Lord either in Preaching or Praying but by the holy Ghost And I charge them to produce one Instance where Praying without the Spirit is commanded any where in Scripture or was ever practised by any of the Saints without the Inspiration of the Spirit Do they not grant that all the Prayers recorded in Scripture did proceed from divine Inspiration and Revelation And if their Prayers do not they are quite of a Bastard kind for the true Worshippers Worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth and the Father seeketh such to Worship him and none else And whereas some say Then men who neglect Prayer are excusable because they have not the Spirit to move them to Prayer I answer Not they are not in the least excusable for as he that oweth a sum of Mony to his Prince though he hath not wherewith to pay his Debt is still Debtor and yet must not pay with false Coyn but true so he who hath not the Spirit 's assistance and help to Pray is still obliged to Pray but not without the Spirit and that he hath not the Spirit 's help at all seasonable and requisite times for Prayer it is his own default who hath resisted the Spirit and provoked him to with-draw his necessary assistance from him for the Spirit of the Lord is ready to give his seasonable help to all men to help them both in Prayer and Thanksgiving and all other commanded Duties and Performances And as for Singing on a Book and with artificial Musick and notes or tones it is no part of Gospel-worship being no where either commanded or practised in the New-Testament And it is strange that these men should be against Praying on a Book and yet Sing on a Book for if the one be not Spiritual the other is not 9. There are others such as these called Independents and Baptists who deny all immediate Call to the Ministry and yet betake themselves to as poor and shiftless evasion about their Call as the former They say They have the Call of the Church But still the question is Whence had the Church her Power either immediately or mediately And then the former difficulty returneth for they cannot say their Church hath been visible from the Apostles days and besides the Church is posterior to the Ministry for by true Preachers and Ministers people come to be converted and so to be made fit Members of a Church and therefore the Ministers by whom their Church was first raised or gathered cannot have their Call from the same for that were to put the Effect before the Cause or to say the Church called the Ministers and the Ministers called the Church is to run into a Circle as to say the Egg bringeth forth the Hen and the Hen bringeth for the Egg to wit first of all which is impossible 10. And as concerning true Gospel-Maintenance to the Ministry any Maintenance that may be necessary to any that are poor and have not of their own according to the Scripture it ought to be free and voluntary without force of human Law and compulsion for the Scripture saith He that Preacheth the Gospel should Live by the Gospel It doth not say by human Laws and straining of mens Goods and Cattle as the Preachers both of Old and New-England have done and they ought to relie upon the gracious Care and Providence of God that never suffered his Ministers to want for when Christ sent forth his Disciples without Bag or Scrip at their return they said they wanted nothing Secondly there should be no bargaining in the case betwixt the Minister and the People for that is altogether mercenary and proveth them to be Hirelings and the Servants of Men who have so hired them Thirdly they should receive only to supply their present Necessities and labour with their Hands as honest Paul did that he might make the Gospel of Christ without charge who would not abuse his Power in the Gospel 1 Cor. 9.18 and 2 Cor. 11.9 I was chargeable to no Man And 1 Thes 2.9 Because we would not be chargeable and 2 Thes 3.8 For why may not Ministers when they do not Preach or otherwise labour in the ministerial Work work with their Hands to supply their Necessities to
will have none of the Graces of Christ without himself and if the Graces did come unto him without Christ he would send them away the Gate or way they came And as for the other Scriptures they cite they prove indeed that the Lord Jesus Christ is but one and there is none else nor is any man or men or Angels equal to him which we most cordially believe but they say not in the least nor by any just consequence can it be gathered that the Saints do not partake substantially of God And to shew the great inequality betwixt Christ and the Saints not only in the measure and degree but in the manner or kind of partaking of the holy Spirit which is one Substance with God Christ the Son hath God and the holy Spirit without any middle or mediator betwâ—â—t the Father and him but the Saints only have and enjoy the Father and the holy Spirit through Christ the Mediator and together with him and in him And this I hope will satisfie all sober and impartial Men to clear the Doctrin of the Quakers that it is according to Scripture 4. Next as concerning the Decrees of God these Faith-publishers say That God hath unchangeably ordained whatsoever comes to pass yet so as neither is God the Author of Sin nor is Violence offered to the will of the Creatures Whereby it plainly appeareth they hold that God hath ordained and decreed all manner of Sins and Blasphemies Adulteries Thefts Robberies Homicides Regicides c. which is abominable and blasphemous Doctrin with a witness They need not blame the Ranters seeing they are so fully one with them in Doctrin for that is one of the worst Doctrins that the Ranters have That God doth all and hath unchangeably ordained and decreed all things both good and bad for certainly whatever God hath ordained and decreed to come to pass he is the doer of it for he executeth that is bringeth to pass all his own Decrees as they confess in their large Catechism Ans to Quest 14. and that they say yet so as God is not the Author of Sin they say it indeed and so many of the worst sort of Ranters but how they clear their Doctrin of so unavoidable consequence they have not told the World nor ever can they sufficiently clear it And for the Scriptures they bring as especially Ephes 1.11 That God worketh all things after the counsel of his own Will here is nothing mentioned of the sins of Men and Devils It is plain both from Reason and Scripture that by all things must needs be understood all his own Works and not the Sins of Men and Devils which he is not the Author of as when we say every wise Man doth all things by Wisdom and wise Counsel none is so foolish as to put this gloss upon it that he doth all foolish things It is an approved Maxim and Rule Verba sunt intelligenda secundum subjectam materiam i. e. Words are to be understood according to the subject matter It is worthily granted and acknowledged that God worketh all good things all Virtue and Goodness is of him all good Thoughts Words and Works c. But all Sin is of the Devil and evil Men as John said Whosoever committeth Sin is of the Devil and the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eye and the Pride of Life is all of the Devil and not of the Father And as Christ said The Devil when he speaketh a Lye he speaketh of his own It is also granted that when any commit Sin the power whereby they act is of God but when they Sin they abuse that Power and also whatever Sin cometh to pass is not without God's permission and that is not a bare permission but a most holy and wise ordering and bounding of it to his own Glory And as to Acts 2.23 a main place that Ranters and Presbyterian and Independent Teachers abuse and wrest as they do other Scriptures to their own Destruction if they repent not it giveth them no strength at all For it saith Him to wit Christ being delivered by the determinate Counsel and Fore-knowledg of God ye have taken c. So we see that he was delivered or exposed unto them by the determinate Counsel of God but that they did kill him by the determinate Counsel of God the Scripture saith not For to deliver is one thing and to slay is another Our worthy Friends that were put to Death at Boston in New-England they delivered up their Lives freely into the Hands of these Murtherers and so did many of the Martyrs not accepting deliverance and yet they did not kill themselves as these bloody Persecutors use to alledge And that it s said God hardneth whom he will His hardning is not the making their Hearts hard with infusing any evil Spirit into them but that he justly with-draws his good Spirit from them for great Sins formerly committed and so leaveth them to harden their own Hearts As it is said That Pharoah hardned his Heart And thus do many sober and judicious Protestants understand the Words 5. Again as concerning Election and Reprobation first as to the Election and Predestination of the Saints unto eternal Glory and Happiness whatever the Scripture saith of it or of any other Doctrin we do readily believe and acknowledge it as That God hath chosen the Saints in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the World that they should be holy and unblamable before him in Love Ephes 1.4 and Rom. 8.29 For whom he did fore-know he also did predestinate to be conform to the Image of his Son c. and whom he did predestinate them he called and whom he called them he justified And what Christ said to the Disciples Ye have not chosen me but I have chosen you and appointed you to bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain Joh. 15.16 and 1 John 4.10 Herein is Love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the Propitiation for our sins and vers 19. We love him because he first loved us A most sweet and comfortable Testimony as all the other But we no where find in all the Scripture that God hath Reprobated any part of Mankind before the foundation of the World nor is it said that Men hate God because he first hated them and because God hated them he made them on purpose to damn or destroy them and decreed and ordained them to sin that he might take occasion thereby to damn them No such thing at all is found in the holy Scriptures nor can be gathered from them by any just consequence for although it be allowed that Gods purpose and holy Will concerning them that finally perish is from before the foundation of the World for there is no new Will or Purpose in God the Thoughts and Counsels of his heart being from everlasting as himself is yet that Will of God regardeth and considereth them that
shall finally perish not simply as men nor yet simply as sinners either for Adam's sin or other sins that they have formerly committed before that great sin of final Vnbelief and Impenitency but it doth regard and consider them as having a day of Visitation and a Call to Repent and a tender of Grace Love and Mercy from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and as having resisted and rejected the same and hardning their hearts against it and that finally until the Day of their Visitation be over whereby they declare themselves unworthy of eternal Life and that they are none of Christ's Sheep but Goats to be put at the left Hand and if any say If these Men were not Elected before the Foundation of the World it will follow that they were Reprobated before it I answer it doth not follow for Elected and Reprobated are not contradictory terms being both positive and Election signifieth a Preference of some before others but that doth not argue a total Reprobation of others when God did elect some But at the End of the World and in the Conclusion it is granted that all who are not elected are but Reprobates to wit when all God's elect Seed every where are gathered out selected and separated from others as so many Grains of pure Gold from all the Dross Tin and Lead that they have been mingled with for a time here in this World that then nothing will remain but that which is Reprobate and which the Scripture calleth reprobate Silver the pure being wholly separated and selected from the impure the Gold and Silver from the Dross the Wheat from the Tares the Sheep from the Goats and the good Fish from the bad and the Children of the Kingdom from the Children of the wicked One he who hath Ears to hear let him hear and the wise in heart let them understand for unto them it is given but unto others as Christ said in Parables that seeing they may not see and hearing that they may not hear nor understand And also it is readily granted that there is a special and peculiar and singularly gracious Care and Providence of God towards all that shall be saved from the beginning of the world to the end and the number of them is most infallibly known unto God and every one of that number shall certainly be saved and none of them shall finally perish but in the proper season and time shall be graciously visited called converted justified sanctified and last of all glorified and this without any Violence done to their rational Faculties or Free-will for God doth well know how to gain and prevail upon the Understanding and Will and Inclinations of his People by such gentle and yet prevalent and overcoming Perswasions and Allurements and Motions of his holy Spirit of Grace of Light and Life as shall infallibly gather them unto himself And it is also granted that as God hath provided that Grace whereby some shall certainly be saved so by the same all are put under a capacity or possibility of Salvation And therefore that any are not saved in this World is not because of any want or defect in the sufficiency or efficacy in the Grace in its own Nature but because of them whom God in his infinite Justice and Counsel permits finally to resist it even as in the Parable of the Sower the Seed was one and the same in all the four Grounds but the Grounds differed one from another and that one Ground was good was of God but that others were bad was of themselves and the word Election doth properly enough signifie selection seperating and setting a part or refining as when Gold or Silver is separated in the Furnace from the Dross And this separation hath had its various degrees and progress from first to last as when Gold or Silver is purified or purged in the sire seven times and then in the seventh time it hath no mixture but is all pure or as when Liquor is poured from Vessel to Vessel several times or as Wheat is winnowed again and again until all the Chaff be separated And in this sense we find the word Election used in Scripture divers times Isa 14.1 For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob and will yet chuse Israel And Isa 49.7 And he shall chuse thee And Zach. 1.17 And the Lord shall yet comfort Zion and shall yet chuse Jerusalem And Zach. 2.12 He shall chuse Jerusalem again And Isa 48.10 I have chosen thee in the Furnace of Affliction And in this sense of the Word as it signifieth a selecting or separating the pure from the impure Election doth go before Reprobation and is not Co-evous with it But whether that Election in Christ before the Foundation of the world doth in some sort signifie a selection or setting apart in Christ the Head who was before the Foundation of the world and is said to be the Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World as some mystick Writers affirm it is not my present business to determine neither is it necessary at this present occasion 6. But the place of Scripture which they mainly abuse and wrest to prove this reprobate Doctrin of theirs of an absolute Reprobation of the greatest part of mankind even before they are born and that not only Babes and Sucklings on the Mothers Breasts but in the Womb are absolute Reprobates and cast-aways and that some yea many Infants die in a state of Reprobation and perish eternally only for Adams sin imputed unto them as they say without any knowledge or eonsent of theirs and corrupt Nature derived into them and that all such Reprobates never had or ever shall have any opportunity of saving Grace whereby it was possible to them at any time to be saved The place of Scripture I say they mainly abuse and wrest to favour this evil and pernicious Doctrin is that in Rom. 9.11 12 13. But for the opening and vindicating of this place of Scripture let it be considered that here is only a preference mentioned of Jacob before Esau how that the Elder shall serve the Younger but this saith nothing of Esau his being absolutely reprobated The great design of the Apostle Paul being to shew that God had chosen the Line of Jacob before the Line of Esau and given unto that Line and Posterity of Jacob a Preference and Dignity over the Line and Posterity of Esau and that the reason of this Preference was not any Works that they had done but for some other cause hid in the secret counsel of God and this Preference did appear first in chusing the Line and Posterity of Jacob to be his Church in that peculiar Dispensation of the Mosaical Law and giving them many Prophets and other excellent Men to be raised up among them and honouring them with many great and signal Appearances Signs and Wonders whereas the Posterity of Esau was not so highly favoured and yet they had a divine Dispensation among
the ordinary way of Generation and that the menstruous Humour was held in Scripture to be such a filthy and unclean thing which is called The Fountain of her Blood Levit. 20.18 hath the same signification also the Circumcision of Children on the eighth day And it s said in Job 25.4 How can Man be justified with God or how can he be clean that is born of a Woman To wit in the ordinary way of Generation And here the natural state of Man is declared before his spiritual Regeneration in Christ Jesus And though that was said by Bildad one of Job's Friends yet it is confirmed by Job himself Chap. 14.4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean not one But this Seed or Principle of Sin and Corruption is not charged or imputed unto Men until they joyn and consent unto it and actually obey it as is clear from Rom. 5.13 For until the Law Sin was in the World but Sin is not imputed when there is no Law Now when is it that there is no Law but in the time of Infancy wherein Children are not capable of any Law or of doing Good or Evil any more than when in the Womb For until Children begin to have the use and exercise of their reasonable understanding so as to know the Right hand from the Left according to Jonah 4.11 they cannot be understood to be under the Law But to say that any Infants are eternally damned for that first Sin and without any actual Sin or Transgression of theirs committed in their own Body is expresly contrary to Scripture that saith The Soul that sinneth shall die and every one shall receive according to the Deeds done in the Body good or evil and he that soweth to the Flesh shall reap Corruption as he that soweth to the Spirit shall reap Incorruption and Life eternal And therefore none shall finally perish or be lost for that first Sin according to Scripture but for their actual Disobedience here in this World and their final Unbelief and Impenitency For as concerning the Judgment and Punishment of the first Sin it was immediately inflicted after the Fall to wit the Death of all in Adam But Christ the second Adam by his death for all that died in Adam doth give unto all his free Gift that cometh upon all unto Justification of Life and thus the Plaister is as broad as the Sore and the Medicine as universal as the Disease and it is not simply the Sin or Disease but the refusing and rejecting the Medicine and Physician that is the cause of any Mans final destruction And how or in what manner Adam's Children and Posterity were concerned in that first Sin whether only by Imputation as some say or by real Participation as others say the Wise in heart may easily judge Let it suffice at present to say that Adam's Children being his Branches and he their Root they do really partake with him both in the defilement and also in the promised Seed in order to their Restoration for when God said to Adam In the Day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die his Children and Posterity were included So when God said I will put enmity between thee to wit the Serpent and the Woman and between thy Seed and her Seed it shall bruise thy Head and thou shalt bruise his Heel Their Children and Posterity are equally included for Adam after his Fall being restored and made an holy Root as is generally acknowledged as Paul declareth If the Root be Holy so are the Branches and if the first Fruit be holy the Lump is also holy And as God promised unto Noah and to his Sons Gen. 9.8 And behold I establish my Covenant with you and with your Seed after you His Branches are holy with him to wit not actually but by having a Seed or Principle of Holiness put in them derived from Christ the second Adam who is that promised Seed whereby they are made capable of becoming Holy by improving the same and this is that federal Holyness which all the Children of Adam and Noah have that is all mankind which is more encreased or diminished but not totally abolished in any as the immediate Parents are found more or less actually holy for the more that any sin that noble Seed and Principle of Holiness both in them and in their Children is the more clouded and vailed every Sin that a Man committeth until it be purged and done away being a vail over that noble Seed And God renewed the promise to Abraham to make him the Father of all Nations and Families of the Earth and that in him they all should be blessed and in his Seed not that this should be fulfilled by his being their Father according to the Flesh or in the way of carnal Generation but through Christ who is the Seed of Abraham by whom the Blessing and Grace of God was to come upon all Rom. 4.16 17. and in this respect Abraham is called the Father of us all as it is written I have made thee a Father of many Nations before him whom he believed God quickening the Dead and calling the things which were not as though they were to wit the Dead in Adam are all in due time quickned by Christ the promised Seed of Abraham that they may all become the Children of Abraham through Faith in Christ Jesus for by virtue of Christ's Death and the Promise made to Adam Noah and Abraham these three general Fathers all Adam's Posterity are holy in a Scripture sense not actually but in capacity to become actually Holy through the holy Seed given unto them and put into them as they come to close and joyn with it in true Faith and Obedience And this doth well answer to Peter's Vision whereby all manner of four footed Beasts of the Earth and wild Beasts and creeping things and Fowls of the Air which God had cleansed all Nations of Adam are understood Acts 10.12 13 14 15. CHAP. VI. More particularly and largely concerning the way of Restoration by Jesus Christ his dying for all and giving unto all sufficiency of Grace and means of Salvation whereby they may be saved ACcording to the Testimony of the holy Scriptures Jesus Christ is the Saviour of all Men but especially of them that believe 1 Tim. 4.10 and he is called the Saviour of the World John 4.42 and the Saviour of the Body Ephes 5.23 and that he hath dyed for all Men is the express Testimony of the holy Scriptures in divers places 2 Cor. 5.14 15. For the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one dyed for all then were all dead and that he dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them 1 Tim. 2.4 5 6. God will have all Men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the Truth for there is one God and one Mediator between God and Men the Man
among the Jews of a two fold sort of Proselites one of the Covenant that received Circumcision and the Law another of the Gate that did not receive Circumcision yet this is but barely alledged without all proof But if he was a Proselite of the Gate it is certain at that time when the Angel was sent unto him he had no express Knowledge nor Faith of Christ crucified for that was the thing which Peter was sent to preach unto him by hearing of which he was to receive the holy Ghost and be saved for the Angel told him that Peter should speak Words to him by which he and all his House should be saved see Acts 11.14 Now altho' at that time when the Angel appeared unto him Cornelius had no Knowledge nor Faith of Christ crucified yet he was in a good estate and well were it for many called Christians that they were in as good estate as he then was in When the Angel appeared to him he told him that his Prayers and his Alms were come up for a memorial before God Acts 10.4 And it is said of him verse 2. He was a devout Man and one that feared God with all his House which gave much Alms to the People and prayed unto God alway And with respect to this Peter began his Preaching saying Acts 10.34 35. Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of Persons but in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh Righteousness is accepted of him Now who dare be so bold to say Cornelius at this time had no real and true beginning of Salvation or of saving Grace and Faith before Peter did preach Christ crucified raised again unto him For although Cornelius had not at that time Faith in Christ crucified yet he had without all question Faith in God and in the Word of God that was in his Heart and that Word was Christ in him though the Mystery of Christ was not fully revealed unto him at that time and in that state he was accepted of God yet not for his Works sake but for Christ And therefore Men may have a beginning of true Faith and of a true Work of Salvation begun in them when the Mystery of Christ crucified and raised again is not revealed unto them For that Mystery being so great as it is was not in that Day to wit before Christ came and suffered in the Flesh preached as one of the first and most necessary things to be first known and believed as without the Faith and Knowledge of which no Man could be in any degree blessed otherwise when Christ began to Preach he would have preached it as one of the first things and when he sent his Disciples to preach the Gospel before he suffered Death he would have given them an express Commission to preach it to all People how he was to be crucified and raised again the third day but the Mystery of it at that time they knew not and therefore could not preach it then Nor did he preach it himself when he began his Ministry nor for a considerable time afterwardâ— until the time drew near that he was to suffer In all that excellent Sermon of his on the Mount not one Title or Word doth he mention of his Death and Resurrection expresly but he taught the Law and the Prophets and expounded the Spirituality of the Law in its extent far beyond the reach and conception which the People had of it at that time and withal dropped some Evangelical Precepts unto them and taught them the right way of Prayers Fasting and Alms and pronounced them blessed that hungred and thirsted after Righteousness and were poor in Spirit that were Merciful that were Meek and Peace-makers and that mourned c. and suffered for Righteousness sake And therefore it may be very safely concluded that the express Knowledge and Faith of Christ crucified is not of absolute and indispensible necessity especially where it hath not been preached nor revealed unto the beginning of a Man's Salvation although it is really of absolute and indispensible necessity unto the finishing and perfecting of it because as hath been already said our inward renewing unto God when perfected in us is a renewing us perfectly and not in part only into the Image of God and a part of that perfect Image is the perfect Knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ whom to know is Life Eternal and that perfect Knowledge requireth men to know him as he came in the Flesh and died and rose again which is that great Mystery of Godliness as Paul called it 1 Tim. 3.16 But if these Men who own that said Confession of Faith enquire whether all these honest Gentiles that lived in the world or do now live in the world who have not had Christ crucified outwardly preached unto them but were diligent to frame their Lives according to the Light that was in them died in a state of Salvation I say yea they did and this I may the rather say according to their own Doctrin For what if they had not the perfect Knowledge and Faith of Christ crucified when they lived Yet they might have it at their Death to wit in the passing through the Valley of the shadow of Death according to Psal 23.4 Even when they are not able to demonstrate unto the Living what is then revealed unto them And as it is in Job 33.22 23 24. When a Mans Soul draweth near unto the Grave and his Life to the Destroyers there may be a Messenger with him an Interpreter one of a Thousand to show unto Man his Vprightness then he is gracious unto him and saith Deliver him from going down to the Pit I have found a Ransom or Attonement see the Hebr. or Margin of the English Bible Or if I should say they receive this perfect Knowledge of Christ after Death it is according to your Doctrin who say The Souls of the Righteous generally or universally after Death note after Death being then made perfect in Holiness are received into the highest Heavens c. These are the express Words of your Catechism cap. 32. sect 1. But when and how or at what precise time these honest Gentiles who used their greatest diligence to frame their Lives according to the Light that is in them and yet have not had the Death and Resurrection of Christ outwardly preached unto them when they then lived in the World is not my present business to determine It doth suffice that I have demonstrated from Scripture that Men have been in a state of Salvation and acceptance with God who have not had the mystery of Christ his Death and Resurrection made known unto them and surely these Men continuing faithful to what they had received when they died could not perish For it is impossible that any Man who hath the Work of Salvation really begun in him though but as a Child in Knowledge that holdeth fast the beginning of his Confidence firm unto the end
can perish Heb. 3.14 8. And as concerning the diversity of the Dispensations of the divine Grace given unto Men in the several Ages and Places of the world according to the several States and Capacities of Men in the World the Scriptures testimony is very plain and clear which declareth both of the manifold Grace and manifold Wisdom of God 1 Pet. 4.10 Ephes 3. And Ephes 1.10 Paul mentioneth the Dispensation of the fulness of time as being the greatest wiâ—h respect to the fore-going Dispensations before that fulness of time came and they may be distinguished as Paul doth distinguish them very plainly into three to wit Diversity of Operations but one God and Diversity of Administrations but one Lord and Diversity of Gifts but one Spirit 1 Cor. 12.4 5 6. The operations belonging to the Law as inwardly dispensed the Administrations to the Prophets and to Christ's coming in the Flesh and to the Apostles their Preaching both before and after Christ was crucified and rose again and afterwards the Gifts to the holy Spirit as they were the effect and fruit of the Apostles Preaching and the end of it And according to the Scripture the first is that divine Dispensation proper to Men as Children in the Knowledge of God and in Virtue the second to that which is proper to Men as in Youth or middle Age the third as proper to Men of full or ripe Age. And each of these Dispensations may be said to have their proper and peculiar inward Baptism or spiritual Washing the first being the Baptism of the Father the second being the Baptism both of the Father and of the Son the third being the Baptism of the Father the Son and the holy Ghost which Christ commanded his Disciples to administer after he rose from the dead and gave the holy Ghost Matth. 28.19 which is not to be so understood as if the three to wit the Father the Son and the holy Ghost did not work together in all these three Dispensations for certainly they did but because in the first Dispensation God only was known as Creator and Father of all mankind in the second both the Father and the Son were known and in the third the Father the Son and the holy Ghost are known and the Mystery of the three and of the more abundant divine Grace that accompanieth this Knowledge largely opened and revealed And though I say the first belonged to the Law as inwardly dispensed yet that very Dispensation of the Law was not meerly Legal but had Grace and Mercy mixed with it For no Dispensation without the Grace and Mercy of God could have been in any respect serviceable unto Men therefore the Law both as outwardly and inwardly administred had always some measure of divine Grace mixed with it and therefore in the second Commandment the substance of all the Ten Commandments being commonly acknowledged to have been delivered by God himself to the Gentiles who had not the written Law God did reveal himself to be a gracious and merciful God visiting the Iniquities of the Fathers upon the Children unto the third and fourth Generation but shewing Mercy to Thousands of them that love him and keep his Commandments And as I have already proved from the express Testimony of the holy Scripture by the Obedience of one to wit the Lord Jesus who dyed for all the free Gift and Grace of God is come upon all unto Justification of Life Rom. 5.18 And Christ himself is the Mystery hid in the Gentiles being that Word of Faith which Moses preached in the Jews and Paul in the Romans Chap. 10. 9. And since it is so that Christ is really that Light that doth lighten the Gentiles and is Light in them who have not heard him outwardly preached unto them it is no less than real Blasphemy though pardonable upon Repentance to say as the Presbyterian and Independent Teachers of both Old and New-England have said in their Confession of Faith That the Light in men which they call the Light of Nature that doth so far manifest the Goodness Wisdom and Power of God as to leave men inexcusable yet is not sufficient to give that Knowledge of God which is necessary unto Salvation as they expresly affirm cap. 1. sect 1. And cap. 10. sect 4. they say expresly Men not professing the Christian Religion to wit the Faith of Christ's Death and Resurrection cannot be saved be they never so diligent to frame their Lives according to the Light that is in them Which here again they call the Light of Nature And as for the expression the Light of Nature it may be safely enough owned in a true Scripture sense though not in the sense of them who do so call it For as Christ is called the Light of men in Scripture John 1.4 In him was Life and the Life was the Light of men so he may be very well called the Light of Nature to wit lightning the dark Nature of man and not only so but quickning and sanctifying Nature in all men who joyn thereunto and the Word of God in the Heart James calleth it Ton Emphuton Logon the innate Word i. e. put into the Nature of men which is able to save their Souls But the Presbyterian and Independent Teachers of Old and New-England by the Light of Nature mean only that it is some natural Faculty of man's Soul as to say his natural Understanding or his natural Mind Conscience And according to them there is no other Light or Principle of Knowledge or Virtue in man generally and universally nay not in any who profess not the Christian Religion though ever so diligent to frame their Lives according to the Light that is in them as they expresly affirm and yet in manifest Contradiction to their own Doctrin they have confessed That Persons elected are saved by Christ and regenerated through the Spirit who are uncapable of being outwardly called by the Word cap. 10. sect 3. 10. But that Light that is in men generally within their day of visitation is not any natural Faculty of man's Soul as to say his natural Understanding or Conscience is manifest 1 st because they do confess that Man by his fall is become dead in Sin and wholly defiled in all the Faculties and Parts of Soul and Body and indeed so he is and his Understanding is so darkned naturally that he is called Darkness and therefore he hath not any Light that is left in him as some call it the Reliques of Light left in him since the Fall for if he did fall wholly then no Light was left in him nor Virtue nor Goodness as they confess cap. 9. sect 3. that Man is altogether averse from good 2 dly they confess That all Sin is a Transgression of the righteous Law of God cap. 6. sect 6. And therefore the Gentiles who have not the Law outwardly delivered unto them seeing they are Sinners do transgress against the righteous Law of God now where
is this righteous Law but in their Hearts And this righteous Law cannot be any natural Faculty of fallen Man which they confess is wholly defiled and corrupted and unholy and unrighteous 3 dly they confess That it is sufficient to leave men unexcusable sect 1. cap. 1. And therefore it is also sufficient to make men excusable who are diligent to frame their Life according to it and to say the contrary is to contradict the very instinct of common Justice that God hath put into mens Hearts 4 thly the Scripture saith that some of the Gentiles their Thoughts did excuse them in well doing as it did accuse them in evil doing Rom. 2.15 5 thly The Apostle Paul doth plainly distinguish it from the Conscience Rom. 2.15 the true Translation being Their Conscience co-witnessing or bearing a joynt Witness with that righteous Law or Principle 6 thly He calleth it the Truth and that which may be known of God which God hath shewed unto them which gave them the Knowledge of God and shewed them the goodness of God that leadeth to Repentance and also gave them to know the Judgment of God and revealed the Wrath of God from Heaven against them And because that many of them who knew God did not glorifie him as God nor were thankful therefore God gave them over to a reprobate mind and therefore they were not Reprobates from the beginning far less from all Eternity as these men alledg And therefore any Light or Illumination that these Gentiles had in them or that any men have in them is a new Gift and Grace of God and gracious Visitation of God unto them as the Apostle calleth it Rom. 5.18 Moreover that God himself doth inwardly speak to men generally in their Hearts both in good men and bad and is their Teacher and doth warn them yea and fore-warn them of Evil and Wrath to come and doth reprove and convince them of Sin is the Testimony of the holy Scripture in many places see Psal 94.10 Psal 50.1 16 to 22. Amos 4.13 Micah 6.8 Prov. 8.1 2 3 4. Job 28.28 Chap. 24.13 and 21.14 And it is a place greatly worth noticing Luke 12.20 God said unto him Thou Fool this Night thy Soul shall be required of thee And where did God say thus to him but in his Heart And therefore it hath been the way of God and ever will be to speak to men in their Hearts to call them and warn and fore-warn them of evil and danger and to perswade and incline them to that which is good And they who deny this as they belye God and say It is not the Lord that speaketh and calleth to men in their Hearts so they do a great injury and wrong unto men who instead of turning them to God's Teachings in their Hearts turn them away from them and they do ill deserve so great Wages of the People so to turn away the Ears of the People from God's inward teachings in their Hearts and from the Word of his Grace which is able to save their Souls And to conclude although the dispensations of the divine Grace be various and may be variously distinguished into a more or less number yet God and Christ and the holy Spirit are one and the one Author of all these various Dispensations and who-ever is faithful unto God in any of them is accepted in Christ and for Christ's sake and not otherwise And though the last which is the pure and perfect Christian and Gospel Dispensation is far more excellent and far surpassing either that among the Gentiles who had not the outward Law or that among the Jews and People of Israel who had the outward Law and the Prophets yet every one of them had their Glory in their day and that inward divine Dispensation that is now among the Gentiles who have not Christ as yet outwardly preached unto them hath its Glory and great Service and Blessing to them who are faithful to God in it and such who continue faithful therein to the end shall never perish and though it be not purely and throughly Christian and Evangelical but rather more Legal yet it is also partly Christian and Evangelical and the pure Gospel Dispensation is hid within it as a Wheel within a Wheel or as the most holy place was hid within the outer Court and there to wit in that first Dispensation Christ as it were lieth as in swadling Cloathes and though the Jews do not know him as he is there yet such as the Wise men from the East do both know and honour him as the King of the Jews yea as King and Lord both of Heaven and Earth who is in all and through all and over all blessed forever Amen CHAP. VII Concerning Justification and the Nature of true Faith whether Assurance is of the Nature of it 1. WHen the Scripture saith God justifieth the Vngodly Rom. 4.5 It is not to be understood that he doth justifie them in their Ungodliness but from it as the like manner of Speech is used Acts 13.39 And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses For seeing according to the Law of God He that justifieth the Wicked is an Abomination to the Lord Prov. 17.15 God himself can do no such thing as to justifie a wicked or ungodly man in his Ungodliness 2. As it is only the true believer who hath Faith in Christ Jesus whom God justifieth so it is only he who is truly sanctified and regenerated or born again of the Spirit of God whom God doth justifie who are called the Seed of Israel Isa 45.25 In the Lord shall all the Seed of Israel be justified and shall glory For as a Rich Man when he dyeth by his Will or Testament leaveth his Goods or Riches not to Strangers but to his own Kindred as his Brethern or Children and to his Wife so our Lord Jesus Christ hath left by his Will and Testament when he dyed his Spiritual Goods to wit Remission of Sin Justification Adoption and Eternal Life only to his true spiritual Kindred to wit his Brethren who are born from Above and spiritually related unto him who are the true Children of God by spiritual Regeneration and renewing of the holy Ghost and who are his true Church and Body and of his Flesh and Bones according to Ephes 5.30 3. And therefore not only Faith but true inward Sanctification and a thorow inward renewing into the Image of God and Conformity of the whole man unto the Image of the Son of God is a Condition and Qualification necessarily required in order unto mens being perfectly justified in the sight of God and as no man is justified but who is sanctified so no man is any more or further justified than he is sanctified 4. According unto which God doth justifie men not only by Faith in Christ but by a real inward Righteousness or Holiness which he doth beget in
them by his holy Spirit and not only Faith but Love Hope true Righteousness and Holiness Meekness Temperance and Humility and all other Evangelical Virtues and Fruits of the holy Spirit are the Instruments and Means whereby men obtain free Justification through Christ Jesus and whereby they are enabled and fitted or qualified to apply Christ Jesus and his Righteousness unto them so as to have the same imputed unto them and made theirs to wit Christ and all his spiritual Blessings Gifts and Benefits and his Death and Sufferings and Obedience with all the blessed Effects and Fruits of it For as a Line that is straight cannot be applyed unto another Line that is crooked but unto a Line that is straight so cannot the Lord Jesus Christ who is the Righteousness of God be applyed unto men for Justification unless these men be made righteous as he is in likeness or conformity unto him although not equal unto him And therefore John did seasonably give the warning and caution fore-seeing that many would claim to be righteous or justified when they were not really doers or workers of Righteousness 1 John 3.7 Little Children let no man deceive you he that doth Righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous And the same John said Rev. 22.14 Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have right to the Tree of Life c. Which is equivalent to their being justified seeing Justification doth include in its Nature a Right or Interest in Christ who is that Tree of Life 5. It is therefore a gross Error and a false and Antichristian Doctrin in these Faith-publishers at Westminster espoused by the Presbyterians and Independant Teachers in New-England That God doth justifie men not by infusing Righteousness into them but by pardoning their Sins and accepting them as righteous c. cap. 11. sect 1 2. And also that they say Faith receiving and resting on Christ and his Righteousness is the alone Instrument of Justification is another great Error For as Faith may well be compared to one Hand of the Soul whereby it receiveth and embraceth the Lord Jesus Christ so Love which is an inward Evangelical Grace and Virtue that is shed abroad or infused into the Soul by the holy Ghost may be compared to another Hand and Arm whereby it doth receive and embrace him And all the inward Evangelical divine Virtues and Graces that are wrought and begot in the Soul by the holy Spirit of Christ are so to speak as a whole intire Body consisting of many Members whereby the Soul doth embrace and cleave unto the Lord Jesus Christ and thus a perfect Union cometh to be witnessed betwixt the faithful Soul and the Lord Jesus Christ when it is joined unto him receiveth him and cleaveth unto him not by one single Grace or Virtue called Faith but by all other divine Graces and Virtues which make up a whole intire Body having many Members and Joynts whereby the Soul cleaveth to him as one streight Line is joyned to another or as one streight Body to another not in part only but in all parts And thus also doth the Lord Jesus Christ embrace the whole Soul in all its spiritual and divine Powers and Virtues that he hath freely conferred upon it And hence it is that true Believers are said to put on the Lord Jesus Christ as a man putteth on a Garment Now he that putteth on a compleat or intire Garment every part of his Body cleaveth to it even so the Soul that putteth on Christ cleaveth to him by all its spiritual Members which are the divine Evangelical Virtues wrought in it by the holy Spirit of Christ even as the Sins and evil Lusts are called the Members on Earth Col. 3.5 6. But though real inward Holiness and Righteousness as well as Faith be the Instruments whereby men are justified yet they are not the Foundation and Ground of Justification but the Lord Jesus Christ alone even Jesus of Nazareth who dyed for our Sins without the Gates of Jerusalem and rose again in his intire and perfect Obedience and Righteousness is the alone and only Foundation and ground of Justification on which the Souls of all the Faithful are to rest for Justification and Remission of all Sin and therefore no man is to rest or relie upon the best Works or Righteousness or Obedience that he doth or can do even when helped to perform the same by the help of the holy Spirit For this were to put good Works in the room of Christ which ought not to be for no Works of Righteousness or Holiness done by us even by the help of the holy Spirit is the Foundation of the Saints Faith or Justification but Christ alone and the free Love Mercy Grace and Favour of God the Father revealed in him and by him through the holy Spirit For seeing all men generally have sinned no mans best Obedience for Sin formerly committed can be a Ransom unto God but Christ alone is the Ransom even he who was Crucified and rose again 1 Pet. 3.18 The Just having suffered for the Vnjust that he might bring us unto God And as no man can redeem the Soul of his Brother so nor can he redeem his own Soul For the Redemption of the Soul is precious and ceaseth forever Psal 49.8 viz. to be the Work of man but it is only and alone the Work of him who is both God and Man according to verse 15. But God will redeem my Soul from the Power of the Grave for he shall receive me Selah See further these other Scriptures Ephes 1.7 Col. 1.14 Heb. 9.12 15. Gal. 3.13 1 Pet. 1.18 Rev. 5.9 Mat. 20.28 1 Tim. 2.6 Job 33.23 24. 7. And seeing Remission and Pardon of Sin for Christ's sake is a part or branch of Justification as these Faith-publishers do acknowledg and that repentance is of such necessity that none may expect pardon without it as they confess cap. 15. sect 3. Is it not very manifest by their own Confession though in plain contradiction to their own Doctrin that Repentance is a necessary Instrument and Condition whereby to obtain Justification And indeed the Scripture layeth equal weight upon Repentance and Conversion as it doth upon Faith in order to obtain Remission or Pardon of Sins Acts 3.19 Repent ye therefore and be converted that your Sins may be blotted out Acts 26.18 To turn them from Darkness unto Light and from the Power of Satan unto God that they may receive Forgiveness of Sins c. And when the Scripture saith Titus 3.5 Not by Works of Righteousness which we have done but according to his Mercy he saved us It is clear that Works before or without true Faith are understood and not the inward Work of Sanctification as is clear from the following Words by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the holy Ghost And if the real inward Work of Sanctification and Obedience had not been necessary to Salvation the
process of time so changed and renewed that they become good Ground and bring forth good Fruit to the end So the more stony and thorny that the Heart is the more labour is to be used to make it good which by the Grace of God may well be done Sixthly The Parable of the ten Virgins five whereof were foolish hath the same signification for these five foolish Virgins had some Oyl in their Lamps but not being wise to get enough they spent what they had and so their Lamps went out for though they had Oyl in their Lamps otherwise their Lamps could not have gone out yet they had not in their Vessels as the wise Virgins had and so when they were called at midnight to meet the Bride-groom they had no Oyl at all neither in their Lamps or Vessels see Mat. 25. from Verse 1. to 12. Seventhly It is expresly said Ezek. 18.24 and 26 27. When a righteous Man turneth away from his Righteousness and committeth Iniquity he shall die And again when the wicked Man turneth away from his Wickedness and doth that which is lawful and right he shall live And Eighthly The example of David is a most clear Instance who fell from his Integrity by these two great and capital Sins of Adultery and Murther and brought Death upon him and had not God renewed him again by Repentance and restored him he had dyed in his Sins and perished and this fall of his was total though not final because God restored him before he dyed But to say as these Faith-publishers say and affirm That no Men once sanctified in the least measure can fall totally from their Sanctification though committing Murder and Adultery as was the case of David see Cap. 17. Sect. 1. and Cap. 11.5 of their Confession nor from their Justification is not only a most false and pernicious Doctrin but a most wonderful piece of Confusion For if he that is both Murderer and Adulterer in the very act and remaining in that or these Sins without Repentance for some time are really Saints and justified then who may be said not to be Saints Or what difference is there betwixt the Saints and no Saints betwixt the godly and the wicked good men and evil men If a man that is both Murderer and Adulterer be a real Saint and a justified man then the worst of men may generally believe they are true and real Saints and ye cannot convince them of the contrary For by what means can they be convinced thereof Tell them of their Sins Lying Stealing Drunkenness Swearing Murther and Adultery none of all this according to this wicked Doctrin doth prove them to be no Saints or that they have not true Faith and therefore if they die in these gross Sins they must go to Heaven immediately because they shall die in Faith they shall die sanctified and justified men than which I know no greater Confusion and daubing with untempered Morter and sewing Pillows under Peoples Arm-holes like the false Teachers of Old and prophecying smooth things unto People in their Sins and flattering them yea imboldning and encouraging them to Sin And no doubt many are wofully imboldned and encouraged to run into Sin and excess of Sin by such poysonous Doctrin that these false Teachers feed them with that is like sweet Poyson that though it be sweet to the Flesh yet it kills the Soul Doth not the Scripture say The Soul that sinneth shall die and the Wages of Sin is death And as every Sin doth in some measure kill the Soul so great Sins such as Murder and Adultery than which we can hardly suppose any greater unless that unpardonable Sin of Blasphemy against the holy Ghost do wholly kill and destroy the Soul insomuch that if any such Soul ever be saved it must be by a new Creation and renewing and of this David was well sensible when after God was pleased spiritually to visit and awaken him again he prayed unto God saying Create in me a clean Heart O God and renew a right Spirit within me Psal 51.10 And thus according to these false Teachers there is no mortal Sin that any Soul once quickned in the least degree can commit and the same Sin that is mortal in the unbeliever is not mortal in him that once was a believer as Murder Adultery yea Incest or worse is no mortal Sin in one and yet is a mortal Sin in the other Doth not this loose the reins to all sorts of Wickedness and make God a respecter of Persons and Faith a sort of Proof that though men once having Faith commit the worst sort of Sins as Murder Adultery Incest Rapine yet their Faith is a sort of proof unto them that none of these Sins doth or can kill them They are still Saints for all this and justified in the sight of God and if Saints then good enough to be your Church-Members yea Members of the Independent or Congregational Church Why what doth hinder but they are as real and lawful Members of the Church as any others And if Murderers and Adulterers while such are still Saints and qualified to be your Church-Members it is no wonder that your Church be large and have a great number of Members It is no great difficulty to be a Member of that Church when a Murderer an Adulterer can be a Member of it Is this your pretence to Reformation And why ye estimate your Church more holy than the Church of Rome But is not your Church and Doctrin in this respect much more unholy For the Church of Rome saith All gross or great Sins as Fornication Adultery Murder and the like are really mortal Sins in all that commit them without respect of Persons and whoever commit such Sins are fallen from their state in Grace And so saith the Scripture 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Be not deceived neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers c. shall inherit the Kingdom of God The which Kingdom of God is a state of Grace as well as of Glory And here we see the Apostle Paul maketh no distinction betwixt one that hath formerly believed and one that hath not believed but without distinction or respect of Persons he concludeth in general against them all that while such they cannot inherit the Kingdom of God But according to this Westminster and New-England Confession of Faith Fornicators and Murderers and Adulterers that have at any time once believed do still inherit the Kingdom of God to wit a state of Grace which is in a true sense the Kingdom of God and is frequently so called in Scripture And thus it doth most evidently appear that their Doctrin in this particular is Antichristian and contrary to the Doctrin of the holy Scriptures And to say that Murder or Adultery in him that hath once truly believed is not a mortal or killing Sin but is a mortal Sin in him that hath not believed is not only to make God a respecter of Persons in the worst sense
all things And Christ said his Yoke was easie and his Burden was light And John said His Commandments are not grievous But according to these Faith-publishers Christ's Yoke is so heavy that none can bear it for what is it to bear his Yoke but to keep his Commandments And if they cannot be fulfilled by Men and yet many Thousands cast into Hell-Fire for not fulfilling them they are very grievous which God forbid we should think And to say that God requireth perfect Obedience from any part of Mankind and yet giveth them no Ability to perform it and punish them with Hell-Fire for not doing that which is utterly and absolutely impossible for them do doth wofully reflect upon the Justice of God and rendereth him not only severe and hard but most Cruel and Tyrannical worse than Pharoah to the poor Israelites who required of them the tale of Brick but gave them no Straw and yet punished them for not performing their Task And lastly It is wofully injurious to Men to discourage them to press after Perfection or a perfect freedom from Sin to tell them They cannot attain to it while they live As if a Physician should tell his Patient For all the Physick I give thee thou must still remain diseased and never be healed till Death heal thee Or as if one should say to a Traveller that is going to such a City Thou shalt never reach to it whilst thou livest in this World Would not this greatly discourage them And also it doth greatly encourage People to live in sloath and neglect to tell them That though they live and die in their Sins they shall be saved if they have at any time once in all their Life believed in Christ Jesus that Faith will save them though they live and die in their Sins But we find that Christ fore-warned People That if they died in their Sins they should not come whither he did go John 8.21 And it was a fearful threatning that God denounced against that People Isa 22.14 Surely this Iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die saith the Lord God of Hosts But this false Doctrin of your Teachers telleth you It is no matter though ye die in your Sins yet ye shall immediately after Death go into Heaven if ye have once believed And the Scripture saith Where the Tree falleth there it shall be whether towards the South or towards the North Eccles 11.3 But according to this evil and corrupt Doctrin though the Tree falleth North it shall lie South It is a fearful thing to teach or believe such Doctrin in a matter of so great moment so to smooth and daub with untempered Morter and to flatter People to tell them They not only may but must live and die in their Sins and yet immediately after Death they shall go into Heaven if once they have believed their Faith secureth them though they sin daily in Thought Word and Deed and break all God's holy Commandments every day and that there be no Health nor Soundness in them And indeed it is the great love that People have to Sin and Iniquity that maketh them plead so earnestly for it for if they were weary of Sin and did hate it as a most cruel Tyrant they would be glad to hear of a possibility of deliverance from Sin here in this World And they that plead so much for Sin to live and die in it they plead for the Devil's Kingdom and are his Servants and Ministers in that respect and not the Servants and Ministers of Christ 6. But to clear the Doctrin of Perfection as it is believed and preached by the People called Quakers take these following considerations 1st It is not an absolute Perfection that we plead for as attainable in this Life as many of you have falsly accused us and particularly Nath. Morton in his New-England Memorial pag. 157. as in many other things he doth most falsly charge that People in his said Book for we say That the highest degree of Perfection attainable in this Life ought not to be sit down and rested in by any but there ought to be a continual progress by the best in Holiness and in conformity to the Image of the Son of God until the very last moment of their Life for Christ himself who was free from all sin yet was perfected further as he was Man and did grow both in Grace and Stature and Adam in the innocent state was still to have increased in Virtue and Goodness and then he would not have fallen as he did 2 dly This perfection or freedom from Sin and Possibility by the Grace of God to keep his Commandments we do not say it is attained by every one at their first Conversion or entrance into the true Faith but on the contrary we say many true Believers and who have a true measure of sincerity towards God are yet short of that state of a sinless Perfection and that it is not attained but by great diligence and wrestling against sin through the ability of the Grace of God and much watching and praying and using all the means appointed of God both inwardly and outwardly to attain to that blessed Conquest and Victory over sin 3 dly The most perfect in this Life have need to watch and pray that they enter not into Temptation for as Adam in Innocency and in the Garden did sin and by his sin lost his Innocency so may Men that are inwardly come to this state if they be not duly watchful sin against the Lord therefore it is not the impossibility of sinning in all respects that we plead for but the possibility of not sinning and that by the Grace of God and not otherwise Altho' some may arrive to that state in Holiness in conformity to the second Adam that they neither sin nor can sin in that sense as the Scripture doth intend it 1 John 3.19 which doth at least hold forth that such who are attained to this noble degree of Holiness they cannot commit any gross sin although in some things not for want of love but not having a full and perfect Knowledge in all things they may a little fall short as a most loving Child not perfectly understanding the Fathers mind in all things may do a thing amiss and yet without breach of true Love to his Father and therefore his Father doth not charge it upon him as a crime and the like example may be of a most loving Wife to her Husband who retaineth her chaste and perfect Love to her Husband and yet may do some things not according to his mind for as the Scripture saith Love is the fulfilling of the Law and he that faileth not in his Love and transgresseth not against the Law of Love though in some case he may fall short in understanding God doth not impute it to be a crime unto him 4 thly It is not temptations or motions unto sin that may arise either from the Devil or
Motion in my Heart and his living Word that was and is as a Sword and a Fire did lie upon me to clear my self among you And seeing your Churches are no true Churches of Christ as I have sufficiently demonstrated in this Treatise their peace is no true peace and therefore must and will be broken and the sooner it be broken the better it will prove to many poor Souls among you in order to their being gathered unto the Lord. And whereas ye say in your Letter If he would have a publick Audience let him Print Ye see how I have complyed with your Proposal yet not in your will but in the will of the Lord who hath laid it upon me and hath assisted me in this undertaking to write this Treatise and direct it more particularly unto you and more generally to all the Presbyterian and Independent Teachers and People both in New-England or elsewhere to whose Hands by divine Providence it shall come And I require this reasonable demand of you that seeing ye have said Let him Print that after it is come unto you ye would seriously read it and if it please God by it as an Instrument to convince you through his eternal Spirit give God the Glory and confess to the Truth But if otherwise that still ye think ye have Truth on your side then appear in Print openly to defend your Cause not with Railing and Lies but solid Arguments if ye can produce them And if in some places I seem to have appeared sharp unto you or your Brethren in this undertaking I would have you to consider that on a due examination my Arguments and Reasons are full as sharp as my Charges or Conclusions and sharp Premisses can well allow to have sharp Conclusions And what Sharpness or Tartness or seeming Severity I have used true love and compassion to Souls as well as zeal to God's Glory hath constrained it Sweet Potions of Physick are not always the most safe The true Prophets of God were generally led and moved of God to reprove sharply the false Prophets of Old And Christ and the Apostles and other true Teachers did sharply reprove false Teachers in that day and there is the same cause now and the same Spirit of Truth and true Zeal now that moveth in God's true Servants in measure in this day The precious Souls of many Thousands lie at stake and therefore there ought to be plain dealing and no daubing with untempered Morter or sowing Pillows under Arm-holes I know the wrath of Man doth not work the Righteousness of God and I have laboured to keep free from that human Passion and whether I have kept clear and free of it I can and do freely submit to the Judgment of the spiritual Man who hath a spiritual discerning and is able to judge but to the carnal Man's Judgment I have no reason to submit And as I freely submit my Spirit to be tryed so the Doctrin to him that is able and above all I appeal to the holy Scripture as the best outward Test and Touch-stone and to the inward opening of the holy Spirit in all that are sensible of it without which ye cannot but err not knowing the Scriptures nor the Power of God Ye decline my coming privately to your Houses citing for your Warrant John 2. verse 10. but I had no such design however ye miserably misapply that place of Scripture as ye are wont to do many more For ye take it for granted that I bring another Doctrin than the Doctrin of Christ and the Apostles which I altogether deny Secondly what John did write was to a private Woman and therefore doth not quadrate to you who reckon your selves publick Men and Rulers as well as Teachers and Pastors in the Church and I do not find any command or practice in all the Scripture for you to decline a fair Dispute with Men suppose Hereticks or false Teachers unless ye have first dealt with them in order to convince them And even ye ought not to reject an Heretick till after the first and second Admonition according to Scripture but ye never as yet gave me your first And he who is an Heretick is self condemned which I bless God I am not and ye pretend not to that spiritual discerning whereby ye can know me to be such It is not always one nor divers Errors or Mistakes in Judgment that maketh Men worthy of that odious Name of Heretick The Apostle John and all the other Apostles had the infallible Spirit of Truth and that gave them a discerning infallibly to judge both Doctrins and Spirits but this ye neither have nor lay claim to And yet we find that the Apostles did not shun to discourse and debate with Men of ill Principles as occasion and season required And Christ also did unweariedly reason with Opposers of all sorts Jews Pharisees Sadducees c. And Paul disputed daily in the School of Cyrannus with them that opposed and with Epicureans and Libertines and others at Athens and went into the Jews Synagogues and reasoned with them and did not excuse themselves with your silly Evasion that these Men were false Teachers and therefore ought not to be disputed with The Scripture commandeth that in Meekness we should instruct them that oppose themselves if God peradventure may give them Repentance And though this is not the work of all private Christians who have not a publick Gift of teaching and are not called to that Work yet this is no defence unto you who pretend to be publick Teachers And if it be so that false Teachers are on no account to be received into Houses ye little consider how this Weapon may ere long be turned against your selves For my hope is that in due time many People both in Boston and New-England shall have their Eyes opened by the Spirit of the Lord which ye blaspheme to see your sort to be these false Teachers who bring not the Doctrin of Christ and the Apostles and the Houses ye Preach in not being your Houses but the Houses of the People they shall not any more receive you into them and this warrantably enough according to your own words But seeing ye are so unwilling that any called a Quaker should come into your Houses why should ye receive their Goods To wit their Kettles Pewter Houshold-stuff Corn and Cattel as some yea many of your Brethren have done and used them as your own though unjustly taken away from the true Owners because they would not give you Maintenance A rare and unparalled practice no where to be traced in all the Scripture nay not by false Prophets and Teachers in like manner as ye have done And when our honest Friends have expostulated with you Why ye crave Wages of them who do not hear you ye have oft told them The Door is open and have invited them to come yea and some have been fined for not coming to your Houses some call Churches but
now by your words no Quaker because as ye suppose he bringeth not the true Doctrin is to be received into your Houses and if this be not a contradiction and a piece of Confusion like most of your work let the impartial judge And your citing places of Scripture so frequently contrary to the very intention and end of them as I have sufficiently proved in this Treatise I know not to what other thing I can better compare it than to Turkish Pirats at Sea who hang out an English Flag or Colours on purpose to deceive the unwary Mariners And as I look upon you the four Preachers at Boston above-named to be more particularly concerned in this Treatise so I do not except any others either in New-England or any where else who hold the same Principles with you but I do reckon them obliged either to confess to the Truth upon real conviction or if otherwise to produce their Reasons against that which we believe to be the Truth I remain your real Well-wisher and Friend The 21 st of the 7 th Month 1688. G. K. Postscript YE shall find the twelve particular Doctrins which I charged upon you and your Brethren to be false proved to be so in distinct Heads as followeth the first tenth eleventh and twelfth Articles in Cap. 1 2 3 4. of this Treatise The second and fourth Cap. 5. The third fifth and sixth Cap. 6. The seventh in Cap. 7. The eighth and ninth in Cap. 8. And the 9th Cap. treateth of your Visible Church and Church-Government and the 10th of your Sacraments and Sabbath-day There are many other things in your said Confession and Catechism contrary to the Truth and Doctrin of the holy Scriptures which I have passed by at present but these I have here examined and proved to be contrary to the holy Scriptures being the principal and some of them Fundamental I did find my mind most concerned in the which being overturned the other Errors that are built upon them shall fall with them A brief Answer to some gross Abuses Lies and Slanders published some Years ago by Increase Mather late Teacher of a Church at Boston in New-England in his Book called An Essay for the recording of Illustrious Providences c. and by Nath. Morton in his Book called New-England's Memorial THe said Increase Mather in the eleventh Chapter of his Book called An Essay c. relateth a long Story of three mad Quakers called Thomas Cases Crew one of them being a Man called Denham and two Women who went down to South-hold and they met with Samuel Banks of Fairfield the most blasphemous Villain as they call him that ever was known in these parts and some other Inhabitants of that Town on Long-Island where they fell a Dancing and Singing after their Diabolical manner and how at that time they proselyted one called Thomas Harris belonging to Boston to be of their way and how after some short time the said Harris was found dead by the Sea-side with three Holes like Stabs in his Throat and no Tongue in his Head And two other Stories he subjoyneth concerning these of the same Crew or Company called the Singing and Dancing Quakers the last hath in it a Relation how the said Jonathan Denham alias Singleterry and one Mary Rosse did many frentick and Diabolical Tricks and among others that he sacrificed a Dog at Plymouth-Colony in New-England And all these Stories he doth relate on purpose to abuse that honest and sober People called Quakers without making any distinction nor giving the least Information to the World how that the Body of People called Quakers do not in the least own these ungodly and wicked People mentioned by him called Thomas Cases Crew nor any others of that sort but have all along declared against them and shewed the greatest dislike and abhorrency of their Spirit and ways that is possible and all their mad and frentick Tricks and Freaks of Singing and Dancing or any others of all kinds And the People called Quakers have suffered more Abuses and Insolencies by that ungodly and wicked Crew of Thomas Case and others of that Spirit than any other People in these Countries whereof many sober People that do not profess themselves to be Quakers can bear Witness both in Long-Island and in Road-Island and also at Newer-sinks in East-Jersey how for many Years they have molested them frequently at their Meetings and more especially at our Friends general Meetings at Oyster-Bay and Rhoad-Island and divers other places And when the said Jonathan Denham and Mary Rosse were whipt by the order of the Magistrates of Plymouth there were some of the honest People called Quakers present who openly declared before the People That the Quakers did not at all own them to be of their Society and did declare their loathing and abhorrency of their Practices and that they could not own them to be sufferers for Christ's sake And though they assume to themselves the Name of Quakers and call themselves the new Quakers yet that will not follow that they are of the Society of that sober and honest People For it is not the Name or Profession that is the sign or mark of distinction owned by that People who own none to be of their Society or Fellowship unless they walk in the Truth as well as profess it and the Truth leads into all Sobriety and Gravity in all things but into none of these mad Gestures and ungodly Singings and Dancings under the pretence of Raptures of Heavenly Joy For although we own Singing with the holy Spirit and with understanding and discretion and giving Thanks unto God according to the Scriptures and the example of the Primitive Christians yet the Singing of such ungodly Persons we never did nor can own and we believe that Weeping and Howling and bitter Mourning is more proper for them And for Dancing it was never a thing owned by that People nor is at this day only Thomas Case and his Crew lately or of late Years have run into that and other mad Practices by Satan's Instigation nor does that Crew or Company of Thomas Case nor himself agree in professed Principles with the People called Quakers unless it be in some general things common to all sorts For they are plain Ranters and Libertines and upon due search and examination their chief Principle doth agree with the Presbyterian and Independent Confession of Faith rather than with the Quakers For these ranting Crew of Case's followers and himself do say That whatever they do they are constrained to do it and cannot do otherwise And is not this the same that your Confession of Faith saith That God hath fore-ordained infallibly and unchangably whatever cometh to pass without making any distinction And this Increase Mather hath exactly followed and imitated the practice and example of the ancient malicious and persecuting Heathens who when any unlucky thing happened to be said or done by any called Christians although they were no
we say they are not the only Rule nor being compared with the inward Rule of God's holy Spirit are they above it but inferior and under it and ought only to be used in Subordination to it And if the Scripture were the only Rule as our Adversaries say then all poor Heathens should have no Rule nor Law and consequently no Sin nor Judgment which is false And we deny not but the Scriptures are a means of our enlightning as God the Father of Lights is pleased to cause his Light to shine unto us in our Hearts in the serious and faithful hearing reading and meditating on the Scriptures c. but not otherwise even as the Air or Windows of a House are means of letting in the Sun 's light to us but if the Sun shine not neither the Air nor Window can give us light 2. That they denyed the Manhood of the Lord Jesus Christ and affirmed that as Man he is not in Heaven This is a notorious false Charge which they can never prove And in this Treatise in several places I have given a large Testimony to the Man Christ Jesus in Heaven and how he is the Object and Foundation of the Christians Faith as the Mystery of his coming in the Flesh Death and Sufferings c. is inwardly opened revealed and applyed by the holy Spirit in Men's Hearts 3. That they deny the Resurrection of the Dead This is also a most false charge which they can never prove But because we deny their Carnal Conceptions of the Resurrection and hold us to Scripture-words which is most safe therefore they have so belyed us And for the more satisfaction of the Reader I refer him to a little Book called The Principles of Truth published by some noted Men of the Quakers in which Book it is expresly affirmed That we to wit the Quakers believe that the same Body which is laid down shall be raised up at the Resurrection of the Dead as much as a natural Body can be the same with a spiritual Body on an earthly Body can be the same with a heavenly Body according to the Scriptures Testimony it is sown natural but raised spiritual and the Glory of the Heavenly is one and the Glory of the Earthly is another And this may satisfie any sober enquirer And Paul writing concerning the Resurrection of the Dead saith That is not first which is Spiritual but that which is Natural or Animal and afterwards that which is Spiritual 1 Cor. 15.46 and vers 49. As we have born the Image of the Earthly we shall also bear the Image of the Hevenly He that readeth let him understand 4. That an absolute Perfection in Holiness or Grace is attainable in this Life 5. That they placed their Justification upon their Patience and Sufferings for their Opinions and on their righteous Life both which are grosly false Charges and the contrary of which I have shewed in this Treatise at length in their proper places 6. They allowed not nor practised any civil Respect to Magistrates Parents c. This also is grosly false there are divers other ways sufficient whereby to shew both our Civil and Christian Respect to Magistrates and Parents c. without either doffing the Hat or cringing and that both in Words and Gestures There are only two other things which he chargeth that we grant to be true but deny them to be either damnable or corrupt Doctrin but affirm them to be truly Christian one is That all Men ought to attend to the Light within them to be the Rule of their Lives and Actions But if this be corrupt and damnable Doctrin he accuseth his own Brethren who in their Confession of Faith say That there are many Sins that Men commit against the Law or Light of Nature as they call it which are the more hainous And surely that is a Light within them and is e'en so far a Rule of Life containing as is commonly acknowledged the Substance of the ten Commandments see their answer to Quest 151. larger Catechism But we do not say That that general Illumination that is in all men many of whom have not the Scriptures is a Rule to oblige them to believe and receive these great Mysteries of Christianity declared in the Scriptures which they who have not the Scriptures have not revealed unto them The other is That we deny the use of Oaths But this is no corrupt but truly Christian Doctrin which saith Swear not at all Mat. 5.34 It is a marvelous thing that these Men have no other ways to oppugne the Quakers but by grose 〈…〉 Lies and false Calumnies and 〈◊〉 Abuses like unto the ways that ever the 〈◊〉 sort of the Adversaries of Truth have used against the true Witnesses of it It had been more Manly and seemingly Christian for Increase Mather and Nath. Morton or any others of their Sect or Society fairly to have stated the Quakers Principles and then to have gone and refuted them by the best or strongest Arguments they could find But this none of them have done nor did I ever see to this day any one Writer that did write against the Quakers that did fairly state their Principles but miserably belyed and abused them either by affirming things to be their Principles which were not or by so unfairly representing and wresting the Words of our honest Friends by their Addings and Diminishings that they could not at all acknowledge them as such All which is a manifest Evidence of the weakness badness of their Cause as well as of that evil Conscience that is in them when they use such unlawful ways and means to defend themselves or to oppugne others Read and well consider Ezekiel 9.3.4 1 Cor. 5.2