Luke 1.6 that they were perfect But under the Gospel besides that of the Rom. above mentioned see what the Apostle saith of many Saints in general Eph. 2.4 5 6. But God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he hath loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickned us together with Christ by Grace ye are saved And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus c. I judg while they were sitting in these heavenly places they could not be daily sinning in Thought Word and Deed neither were all their works which they did there as filthy rags or as a menstruous Garment See what is further said to the Hebrews 12.22 23. Spirits of just men made perfect And to conclude let that of the Revelation 14. 1 2 3 4 5. be considered Where though their being found without fault be spoken in the present time yet is it not without respect to their innocency while upon earth and their being redeemed from among men and no guile found in their mouth is expresly mentioned in the time past But I shall proceed now in the third place to answer the objections which indeed are the arguments of our opposers § IX I shall begin with their chief and great argument which is the words of the Apostle Obj. 1. Joh. 1.8 If we say that we have no sin we decieve our selves and the Truth is not in us This they think invincible Answ. But is it not strange to see men so blinded with partiality How many Scriptures tenfold more plain do they reject and yet stick so tenaciously to this that can receive so many answers As first If we say we have no sin c. will not import the Apostle himself to be included Sometimes the Scripture useth this manner of expression when the person speaking cannot be included which manner of speech the Grammarians call Metaschematismos Thus Ja. 3.9 10. speaking of the Tongue saith therewith bless we God and therewith curse we men adding these things ought not so to be who from this will conclude that the Apostle was one of those cursers But secondly this objection hitteth not the matter he saith not we sin daily in Thought Word and Deed far less that the very good works which God works in us by his Spirit are sin yea the next verse clearly shews that upon confession and repentance we are not only forgiven but also cleansed He is faithful to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness Here is both a forgiveness and removing of the guilt and a cleansing or removing of the filth for to make forgiveness and cleansing to belong both to the removing of the guilt as there is no reason for it from the text so it were a most violent forcing of the words and would imply a needless tautology The Apostle having shewn how that not the guilt only but even the filth also of sin is removed subsumes his words in the time past in the 10 verse If we say we have not sinned we make him a liar Thirdly as Augustine well observed in his exposition upon the Epistle to the Galatians It is one thing not to sin another thing not to have sin The Apostles words are not If we say we sin not o◠commit not sin daily but if we say we have no sin And betwixt these two there is a manifest difference for in respect all have sinned as we freely acknowledg all may be said in a sense to have sin Again sin may be taken for the seed of sin which may be in those that are redeemed from actual sinning but as to the temptations and provocations proceeding from it being resisted by the servants of God and not yielded to they are the Devils sin that tempteth not the man's that is preserved Fourthly this being considered as also how positive and how plain once again the same Apostle is in the very same Epistle as in divers places above cited is it equal or rational to strain this one place presently after so qualified and subsumed in the times past to contradict not only other positive expressions of his but the whole tendency of his Epistle and of the rest of the holy commands and precepts of the Scripture Secondly Their second Objection is from two places of Scripture much of one signification The one is 1 Kings 8.46 Obj. For there is no man that sinneth not The other is Eccles. 7.20 for there is not a just man upon earth that doth good and sinneth not I answer first These affirm nothing of a daily and continual sinning Answ. so as never to be redeemed from it but only that all have sinned or that there is none that doth not sin though not always so as never to cease to sin and in this lies the question Yea in that place of the Kings he speaks within two verses of the returning of such with all their Souls and Hearts which implies a possibility of leaving off sin Secondly there is a respect to be had to the seasons and dispensations for if it should be granted that in Solomon's time there was none that sinned not it will not follow that there are none such now or that it is a thing is not now attainable by the Grace of God under the Gospel for a non esse ad non posse non valet sequela And lastly this whole objection hangs upon a false interpretation for the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be read in the potential mood Thus There is no man who may not sin as well as in the Indicative so both the old Latin Junius and Tremellius and Vatablus have it and the same word is so used Psal. 119.11 I have hid thy Word in my Heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say that I may not sin against thee in the potential mood and not in the indicative as it is in the English which being more answerable to the universal scope of the Scriptures the testimony of the Truth and the sense almost of all Interpreters doubtless ought to be so understood and the other interpretation rejected as spurious Thirdly they object some expressions of the Apostle Paul Obj. Rom. 7.19 for the good that I would I do not but the evil which I would not that I do And ver 24. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death I answer This place infers nothing unless it were apparent that the Apostle here were speaking of his own condition Answ. and not rather in the person of others or what he himself had sometimes born which is frequent in Scripture as in the case of cursing in James before mentioned But there is nothing in the text that doth clearly signify the Apostle to be speaking of himself or of a condition he was then under or was always to be under yea on the contrary in the former Chapter as afore is
other are still moved either to preach pray and praise and so in this our Meetings cannot be but like the Meetings of the primitive Churches recorded in Scripture since our adversaries confess that they did preach and pray by the Spirit And then what absurdity is it to suppose that at sometimes the Spirit did not move them to these outward acts and that then they were silent since we may well conclude they did not speak until they were moved and so no doubt had sometimes silence Acts 2.1 Before the Spirit came upon them it is said They were all with one accord in one place and then it is said the Spirit suddenly came upon them but no mention is made of any one speaking at that time and I would willingly know what absurdity our adversaries can infer should we conclude they were a while silent But if it be urged that a whole silent meeting cannot be found in Scripture I answer supposing such a thing were not recorded it will not therefore follow that it is not lawful Answ. seeing it naturally followeth from other Scripture precepts as we have proved this doth for seeing the Scripture commands to meet together and when met the Scripture prohibits prayers or preachings but as the Spirit moveth thereunto if People met together and the Spirit move not to such acts it will necessarily follow that they must be silent But further there might have been many such things among the Saints of old though not recorded in Scripture and yet we have enough in Scripture signifying that such things were For Job sate silent seven daies with his Friends together here was a long silent meeting See also Ezra c. 9.4 and Ezekiel c. 1.14 20.1 Thus having shewn the excellency of this Worship proving it from Scripture and Reason and answered the objections which are commonly made against it which though it may suffice to the explanation and probation of our Proposition yet I shall add something more particularly of Preaching Praying and Singing and so proceed to the following Proposition § XVIII Preaching as it 's used both among Papists and Protestants is for one man to take some place or verse of Scripture and thereon speak for an hour or two what he hath studied and premiditated in his Closet and gathered together from his own inventions or from the writings and observations of others and then having got it by heart as a school boy doth his lesson he brings it forth and repeats it before the people and how much the fertiler and stronger a man's invention is and the more industrious and laborous he is in collecting such observations and can utter them with the excellency of speech and humane eloquence so much the more is he accounted an able and excellent preacher To this we oppose that when the Saints are met together and every one gathered to the Gift and Grace of God in themselves he that ministreth being acted thereunto by the arising of the Grace in himself ought to speak forth what the Spirit of God furnisheth him with not minding the eloquence and wisdom of words but the demonstration of the Spirit and of Power and that either in the interpreting some part of Scripture in case the Spirit which is the good Remembrancer lead him so to do or otherwise words of exhortation advice reproof and instruction or the sense of some spiritual experiences all which will still be agreeable to the Scripture though perhaps not relative to nor founded upon any particular chapter or verse as a text Now let us examine and consider which of these two sorts of preaching be most agreeable to the Precepts and Practice of Christ and his Apostles and the Primitive Church recorded in Scripture For First as to their Preaching upon a text if it were not meerly customary or premeditated but done by the immediate motion of the Spirit we should not blame it but to do it as they do there is neither precept nor practice that ever I could observe in the New Testament as a part of the instituted Worship thereof But they alledge that Christ took the Book of Isaiah and read out of it and spake therefrom and that Peter Preached from a sentence of the Prophet Joel I answer That Christ and Peter did it not but as immediately acted and moved thereunto by the Spirit of God and that without premeditation which I suppose our Adversaries will not deny in which case we willingly approve of it but what is this to their customary conned way without either waiting for or expecting the movings or leadings of the Spirit Moreover that neither Christ nor Peter did it as a setled custom or form to be constantly practised by all the Ministers of the Church appears in that most of all the Sermons recorded by Christ and his Apostles in Scripture were without this as appears from Christ's Sermon upon the Mount Matth. 5.1 c. Mark 4.1 c. and Paul's Preaching to the Athenians and to the Jews c. As then it appears that this method of Preaching is not grounded upon any Scripture precept so the nature of it is contrary to the preaching of Christ under the New Covenant as exprest and recommended in Scripture for Christ in sending forth his Disciples expresly mentioneth that they are not to speak of or from themselves or to sore cast before hand but that which the Spirit in the same hour shall teach them as is particularly mentioned in the three Evangelists Matth. 10.20 Mark 13.11 Luke 12.12 Now if Christ gave this order to his Disciples before he departed from them as that which they were to practice during his abode outwardly with them much more were they to do it after his departure since then they were more especially to receive the Spirit to lead them in all things and to bring all things to their remembrance John 14.26 And if they were to do so when they appeared before the Magistrates and Princes of the Earth much more in the Worship of God when they stand specially before him seeing as is above shewn his Worship is to be performed in Spirit and therefore after their receiving of the Holy Ghost it is said Acts 2.4 they spake as the Spirit gave them utterance not what they had studied and gathered from Books in their Closets in a premeditated way Franciscus Lambertus before cited speaketh well and sheweth their Hypocrisie Tract 5. of Prophecy chap. 3. saying Where are they now that glory in their Inventions who say A brave Invention a brave invention This they call invention which themselves have made up but what have the Faithful to do with such kind of Inventions It is not figments nor yet Inventions that we will have but things that are solid invincible eternal and heavenly not which men have invented but which God hath revealed for if we believe the Scripture our invention profiteth nothing but to provoke God to our ruin And afterwards Beware saith he that
own Eternal Word and Power so no Creature has access again unto him but in and by the Son according to his own express words No man knoweth the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal him Matth. 11.27 Luk. 10.22 And again he himself saith I am the Way the Truth and the Life no man cometh unto the Father but by me Joh. 14.6 Hence he is fitly called the Mediator betwixt God and Man For having been with God from all Eternity being himself God and also in time partaking of the nature of man through him is the goodness and love of God conveighed to mankind and by him again man receiveth and partaketh of these mercies Hence is easily deduced the probation of this first Assertion thus If no man know the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal him then there is no knowledge of the Father but by the Son But no man knoweth the Father but the Son Therefore there is no knowledge of the Father but by the Son The first part of the antecedent are the plain words of Scripture The consequence thereof is undeniable except one would say that he hath the knowledge of the Father while yet he knows him not which were an absurd repugnance Again If the Son be the Way the Truth and the Life and that no man cometh unto the Father but by him then there is no knowledg of the Father but by the Son But the first is true Therefore the last The antecedent are the very Scripture words The consequence is very evident For how can any know a thing who useth not the way without which it is not knowable But it is already proved that there is no other way but by the Son so that who so uses not that way cannot know him neither come unto him § VI. Having then laid down this first Principle I come to the second viz. That there is no Knowledg of the Son but by the Spirit or that the Revelation of the Son of God is by the Spirit Where it is to be noted that I alwayes speak of the saving certain and necessary Knowledge of God which that it cannot be acquired otherwayes than by the Spirit doth also appear from many clear Scriptures For Jesus Christ in and by whom the Father is revealed doth also reveal himself to his Disciples and Friends in and by his Spirit as his manifestation was sometimes outwards when he testified and witnessed for the Truth in this World and approved himself faithful throughout So being now withdrawn as to the outward man he doth teach and instruct mankind inwardly by his own Spirit he standeth at the door and knocketh and who so heareth his Voice and openeth he comes in to such Rev. 3.20 Of this Revelation of Christ in him Paul speaketh Gal. 1.6 in which he placeth the excellency of his Ministry and the certainty of his Calling And the Promise of Christ to his Disciples Lo I am with you to the end of the World confirmeth this same thing for this is an inward Presence and Spiritual as all acknowledg But what relates hereto will again occur I shall deduce the proof of this Proposition from two manifest places of Scripture The first is 1 Cor. 2.11 12. What man knoweth the things of a man save the Spirit of a man which is in him Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God Now we have received not the Spirit of the World but the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things which are freely given us of God The Apostle in the verses before speaking of the wonderful things which are prepared for the Saints after he hath declared that the natural man cannot reach them adds that they are revealed by the Spirit of God ver 9 10. giving this reason for the Spirit searcheth all things even the deep things of God And then he bringeth in the comparison in the verses above mentioned very apt and answerable to our purpose and Doctrine that as the things of a man are only known by the Spirit of man so the things of God are only known by the Spirit of God that is that as nothing below the Spirit of man as the Spirit of Brutes or any other Creatures can properly reach unto nor comprehend the things of a man as being of a more noble and higher Nature so neither can the Spirit of man or the natural man as the Apostle in the 14 verse subsumes receive nor discern the things of God or the things that are Spiritual as being also of a higher Nature which the Apostle himself gives for the reason saying neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned So that the Apostles words being reduced to an argument do very well prove the matter under debate thus If that which appertaineth properly to man cannot be discerned by any lower or baser Principle than the Spirit of man then cannot these things that properly relate unto God and Christ be known or discerned by any lower or baser thing than the Spirit of God and Christ. But the First is true Therefore also the Second The whole strength of the argument is contained in the Apostles words before mentioned which therefore being granted I shall proceed to deduce a second argument thus That which is Spiritual can only be known and discerned by the Spirit of God But the Revelation of Jesus Christ and the true and saving knowledg of him is Spiritual Therefore the Revelation of Jesus Christ and the true and saving knowledge of him can only be known and discerned by the Spirit of God The other Scripture is also a saying of the same Apostle 1 Cor. 12.3 No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost The Scripture which is full of Truth and answereth full well to the inlightned understanding of the Spiritual and real Christian may perhaps prove very strange to the carnal and pretended follower of Christ by whom perhaps it hath not been so diligently remarked Here the Apostle doth so much require the Holy Spirit in the things that relate to a Christian that he positively averrs we cannot so much as affirm Jesus to be the Lord without it which insinuates no less than that the Spiritual Truths of the Gospel are as lyes in the Mouths of carnal and unspiritual men for though in themselves they be true yet are they not true as to them because not known nor uttered forth in and by that Principle and Spirit that ought to direct the mind and actuat it in such things they are no better than the counterfeit representations of things in a comedy neither can it be more truly and properly called a real and true knowledg of God and Christ than the actings of Alexander the great and Julius Caesar c. if now transacted upon a Stage might be called truly and really their doings or the persons representing them might be said truly
granted that place the Scriptures themselves give it I do freely concede to the Scripture the second place even whatsoever they say of themselves Which the Apostle Paul chiefly mentions in two places Rom. 15.4 Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope 2 Tim. 3.15 16 17. The Holy Scriptures are able to make wise unto Salvation through Faith which is in Christ Jesus All Scripture given by inspiration from God is profitable for correction for instruction in righteousness that the Man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto every good work For tho God do principally and chiefly lead us by his Spirit yet he sometimes conveys his comfort and consolation to us through his Children whom he raises up and inspires to speak or write a word in season whereby the Saints are made instruments in the hand of the Lord to strengthen and encourage one another which do also tend to perfect and make them wise unto Salvation and such as are led by the Spirit cannot neglect but do natural love and are wonderfully cherished by that which proceedeth from the same Spirit in another because such mutual emanations of the heavenly Life tend to quicken the mind when at any time it is overtaken with heaviness Peter himself declares this to have been the end of his writing 2 Pet. 1.12 13. Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you alwaies in remembrance of those things tho ye know them and be established in the present Truth Yea I think it meet as long as I am in this Tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance God is Teacher of his People himself and there is nothing more express than that such as are under the New Covenant they need no man to teach them yet it was a fruit of Christ's Ascension to send Teachers and Pastors for perfecting of the Saints So that the same work is ascribed to the Scriptures as to Teachers the one to make the man of God perfect the other for the perfection of the Saints As then Teachers are not to go before the teaching of God himself under the New Covenant but to follow after it neither are they to rob us of that great priviledg which Christ hath purchased unto us by his Blood so neither is the Scripture to go before the teaching of the Spirit or to rob us of it Secondly God hath seen meet that herein we should as in a looking glass see the conditions and experiences of the Saints of old that finding our experience answer to theirs we might thereby be the more confirmed and comforted and our hope strengthened of obtaining the same end that observing the Providences attending them seeing the snares they were liable to and beholding their deliverances we may thereby be made wise unto Salvation and seasonably reproved and instructed in righteousness This is the great work of the Scriptures and their service to us that we may witness them fulfilled in us and so discern the stamp of God's Spirit and ways upon them by the inward acquaintance we have with the same Spirit and work in our hearts The prophecys of the Scripture are also very comfortable and profitable unto us as the same Spirit inlightens us to observe them fulfilled and to be fulfilled For in all this it is to be observed that it is only the Spiritual Man that can make a right use of them they are able to make the man of God perfect so it is not the natural Man and whatsoever was written aforetime was written for our comfort our that are the believers our that are the Saints concerning such the Apostle speaks for as for the other the Apostle Peter plainly declares that the unstable and unlearned wrest them to their own destruction these were they that were unlearned in the Divine and heavenly learning of the Spirit not in humane and School Literature of which we may safely presume that Peter himself being a Fisher-man had no great skill for it may with great probability yea certainly be affirmed that he had no knowledg of Aristotles Logick which both Papists and Protestants now degenerating from the simplicity of Truth make hand-maid of Divinity as they call it and a necessary introduction to their carnal natural and humane Ministry By the infinite obscure labours of which kind of men mixing in their heathenish stuff the Scripture is rendred at this day of so little service to the simple People whereof if Jerom complained in his time now twelve hundred years ago Hieron Ep. 134. ad Cypr. tom 3. saying It is wont to befall the most part of learned Men that it is harder to understand their expositions than the things which they go about to expound what may We say then considering those great heaps of commentarys since in ages yet far more corrupted § VI. In this respect above mentioned then we have shown what service and use the Holy Scriptures as managed in and by the Spirit are of to the Church of God wherefore we do account them a secondary rule Moreover because they are commonly acknowledged by all to have been written by the dictates of the Holy Spirit and that the errors which may be supposed by the injury of times to have slipt in are not such but that there is a sufficient clear Testimony left to all the essentials of the Christian faith we do look upon them as the only fit outward judg of Controversies among Christians and that whatsoever doctrine is contrary unto their Testimony may therefore justly be rejected as false And for our parts we are very willing that all our Doctrines and Practices be tryed by them which we never refused nor ever shall in all controversies with our adversaries as the Judg and Test. We shall also be very willing to admit it as a positive certain Maxim That whatsoever any do pretending to the Spirit which is contrary to the Scriptures be accounted and reckoned a delusion of the Devil For as we never lay claim to the Spirit 's leadings that we may cover our selves in any thing that is evil so we know that as every evil contradicts the Scriptures so it doth also the Spirit in the first place from which the Scriptures came and whose motions can never contradict one another though they may appear sometimes to be contradictory to the blind Eye of natural Man as Paul and James seem to contradict one another Thus far we have shown both what we believe and what we believe not concerning the Holy Scriptures hoping we have given them their due place But since they that will needs have them to be the only certain and principal Rule want not some shew of arguments even from the Scripture it self though it no where call it self so by which they labour to prove their Doctrin I shall briefly lay them down by way of Objections and answer them before I make an end of this
matter § VII Their first Objection is usually drawn from Isaiah 8.20 To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this Word it is because there is no Light in them Now this Law Testimony and Word they plead to be the Scriptures To which I answer that That is to beg the thing in question and remains yet unproved Nor do I know for what reason we may not safely affirm this Law and Word to be inward But suppose it was outward it proves not the case at all for them neither makes it against us for it may be confessed without any prejudice to our cause that the outward Law was more particularly to the Jews a Rule and more principally than to us seeing their Law was outward and literal but ours under the New Covenant as hath been already said is expresly affirmed to be inward and Spiritual So that this Scripture is so far from making against us that it makes for us for if the Jews were directed to try all things by their Law which was without them written in tables of stone then if we will have this advice of the Prophet to reach us we must make it hold parallel to that dispensation of the Gospel which we are under So that we are to try all things in the first place by that Word of Faith which is preached unto us which the Apostle saith is in the heart and by that Law which God hath given us which the Apostle saith also expresly is written and placed in the mind Lastly If we look to this place according to the Greek interpretation of the Septuagint our adversaries shall have nothing from thence to carp yea it will favour as much for there it is said that the Law is given us for a help which very well agrees with what is above asserted Their second objection is from Joh. 5.39 Search the Scriptures c. Here say they we are commanded by Christ himself to search the Scriptures I answer First That the Scriptures ought to be searched we do not at all deny but are very willing to be tryed by them as hath been above declared But the question is Whether they be the only and principal Rule which this is so far from proving that it proveth the contrary for Christ checks them here for too high an esteem of the Scriptures and neglecting of him that was to be preferr'd before them and to whom they bore witness as the following words declare For in them ye think ye have eternal life and they are they which testify of me and ye will not come unto me that ye may have life This shewes that while they thought they had eternal life in the Scriptures they neglected to come unto Christ to have Life of which the Scriptures bore witness This answers well to our purpose since our adversaries now do also exalt the Scriptures and think to have life in them which is no more than to look upon them as the only principal rule and way to Life and yet refuse to come unto the Spirit of which they testifie even the inward Spiritual Law which could give them Life So that the cause of this Peoples ignorance and unbelief was not their want of respect to the Scriptures which though they knew and had a high esteem of yet Christ testifies in the former verses that they had neither seen the Eather nor heard his voice at any time neither had his word abiding in them which had they then had then they had believed in the Son Moreover that place may be taken in the Indicative mood Ye search the Scriptures which interpretation the Greek word will bear and so Pasor translateth it which by the reproof following seemeth also to be the more genuine interpretation as Cyrillus long ago hath observed § VIII Their third objection is from these words Acts 17.11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica in that they received the Word with all readiness of mind and searched the Scriptures daily whether those things were so Here say they the Beroeans are commended for searching the Scriptures and making them the Rule I answer That the Scriptures either are the principal or only Rule will not at all from this follow neither will their searching the Scriptures or being commended for it infer any such thing for we recommended and approve the use of them in that respect as much as any yet will it not follow that we affirm them to be the principal and only Rule Secondly It is to be observed that these were the Jews of Beroea to whom these Scriptures which were the Law and the Prophets were more particularly a Rule and the thing under examination was whether the Birth Life Works and sufferings of Christ did answer to the Prophecies that went before of him so that it was most proper for them being Jews to examine the Apostles Doctrine by the Scriptures seeing he pleaded it to be a fulfilling of them It is said nevertheless in the first place that they received the Word with chearfulness and in the second place they searched the Scriptures not that they searched the Scriptures and then received the Word for then could not they have prevailed to convert them had they not first minded the Word abiding in them which opened their understandings no more than the Scribes and Pharisees who as in the former objection we observed searched the Scriptures and exalted them and yet remained in their unbelief because they had not the Word abiding in them But lastly If this commendation of the Jewish Beroeans might infer that the Scriptures were the only and prsncipal Rule to try the Apostles Doctrine by what should have become of the Gentiles How should they ever have come to received the Faith of Christ who neither knew the Scriptures nor believed them We see in the end of the same Chapter how the Apostle preaching to the Athenians took another method and directed them to somewhat of God within themselves that they might feel after him He did not first go about to Prosolite them to the Jewish Religion and to the belief of the Law and the Prophets and from thence to prove the coming of Christ. Nay he took a nearer way Now certainly the principal and only Rule is not different one to the Jews and another to the Gentiles but is vniversal reaching both though secondary and subordinate Rules and means may be various and diversly suted according as the people they are used to are stated and circumstantiated Even so we see that the Apostle to the Athenians used a Testimony of one of their own Poets which he judged would have credit with them and no doubt such Testimonys whose Authors they esteemed had more weight with them than all the sayings of Moses and the Prophets whom they neither knew nor would have cared for Now because the Apostle used the Testimony of a Poet to the Athenians will it therefore follow he made that the Principal or
only rule to try his Doctrine by So neither will it follow that though he made use of the Scriptures to the Jews as being a principle already believed by them to try his Doctrine that from thence the Scriptures may be accounted the principal or only rule § IX The last and which at first view seems to be the greatest objection is this Obj. If the Scripture be not the adequate principal and only Rule then it would follow that the Scripture is not compleat nor the Canon filled that if men be now immediately led and ruled by the Spirit they may add new Scriptures of equal authority with the old whereas every one that adds it cursed yea what assurance have we but at this rate every one may bring in a new Gospel according to his fancy The dangerous consequences insinuated in this objection were fully answered in the latter part of the last Proposition in what was said a little before offering freely to disclaim all pretended Revelations contrary to the Scriptures But if it be urged that it is enough to deny these consequences Obj. if they naturally follow from your Doctrine of immediate Revelation and denying the Scripture to be the only rule I answer We have proved both these Doctrines to be true and necessary according to the Scriptures themselves and therefore to fasten evil consequences upon them which we make appear do not follow is not to accuse us but Christ and his Apostles who preached them But Secondly we have shut the door upon all such Doctrine in this very position affirming that the Scriptures give a full and ample Testimony to all the principal Doctrines of the Christian Faith For we do firmly believe that there is no other Gospel or Doctrine to be preached but that which was delivered by the Apostles and do freely subscribe to that saying Let him that preacheth any other Gospel than that which hath been already preached by the Apostles and according to the Scriptures be accursed So we distinguish betwixt a revelation of a new Gospel and new doctrines and a new Revelation of the good old Gospel and Doctrines the last we plead for but the first we utterly deny For we firmly believe that no other foundation can any man lay than that which is laid already But that this revelation is necessary we have already proved and this distinction doth sufficiently guard us against the hazard insinuated in the objection As to the Scriptures being a filled Canon I see no necessity of believing it And if these men that believe the Scripture to be the only Rule will be consistent to their own Doctrine they must needs be of my judgment Seeing it is simply impossible to prove the Canon by the Scriptures For it cannot be found in any book of the Scripture that these Books and just these and no other are Canonical as all are forced to acknowledg how can they then evite this argument That which cannot be proved by Scripture is no necessary article of Faith But the Canon of the Scripture to wit that there are so many Books precisely neither more or less cannot be proved by Scripture Therefore it is no necessary article of Faith If they should alledg Obj. that the admitting of any other books to be now written by the same Spirit might infer the admission of new doctrines I deny that consequence for the Principal of fundamental Doctrines of the Christian Religion are contained in the tenth part of the Scripture but it will not follow thence that the rest are impertinent or useless If it should please God to bring to us any of these Books which by the injury of time are lost which are mentioned in the Scripture as The Prophecy of Enoch the Book of Nathan c. or the third epistle of Paul to the Corinthians I see no reason why we might not receive them and place them with the rest That which displeaseth me is that men should first affirm that the Scripture is the only and principal rule and yet make a great article of Faith of that which the Scripture can give us no light in As for instance how shall a Protestant prove by Scripture to such as deny the Epistle of James to be authentick that it ought to be received First if he should say because it contradicts not the rest besides that there is no mention made of it in any of the rest perhaps these men think it doth contradict Paul in relation to Faith and Works But if that should be granted it would as well follow that every Writer that contradicts not the Scripture should be put into the Canon And by this means these men fall into a greater absurdity than they fix upon us for thus they would equal every one the writings of their own Sect with the Scriptures for I suppose they judg their own confession of Faith doth not contradict the Scriptures Will it therefore follow that it should be bound up with the Bible And yet it seems impossible according to their Principles to bring any better argument to prove the Epistle of James to be authentick There is then this unavoidable necessity to say We know it by the same Spirit from which it was written or otherwise to step back to Rome and say we know by Tradition that the Church hath declared it to be Canonical and the Church is infallible let them find amidst if they can so that out of this objection we shall draw an unanswerable Argument ad hominem to our purpose That which cannot assure me concerning an article of Faith necessary to be believed is not the primary adequate only rule of Faith But the Scripture cannot thus assure me Therefore c. I prove the assumption thus That which cannot assure me concerning the canon of the Scripture to wit that such Books are only to be admitted and the Apochrypha to be excluded cannot assure me of this Therefore c. And lastly As to these words Rev. 22.18 that if any man shall add unto these things Obj. God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this Book I desire they will shew me how it relates to anything else than to that particular Prophecy It saith not now the Canon of the Scripture is filled up no man is to write more from that Spirit Yea do not all confess that there have been Prophecies and true Prophets since The Papists deny it not And do not the Protestants affirm that John Hus prophecied of the Reformation was he therefore cursed or did he therein evil I could give many other examples confessed by themselves but moreover the same was in effect commanded long before Prov. 30.6 Add thou not unto his words lest he reprove thee and thou be found a Lyar. Yet how many books of the Prophets were written after and the same was said by Moses Deut. 4.2 Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you neither shall ye diminish ought from it So that
another argument from these words of the Apostle 1 Cor. 2. where he so positively excludes the Natural man from an understanding in the things of God but because I have spoken of that Scripture in the beginning of the Second Proposition I will here avoid to repeat what is there mentioned referring thereunto Yet because the Socinians and others who exalt the Light of the Natural man or a natural Light in man do object against this Scripture I shall remove it ere I make an end Obj. They say The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ought to be translated animal and not natural else say they it would have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from which they seek to infer that it is only the animal Man and not the rational that is excluded here from the discerning the things of God Which shift without disputing the word is easily refuted neither is it any wife consistent with the scope of the place for Frist The animal life is no other than that which Man hath common with other living Creatures for as he is a meer Man he differs no otherwise from Beasts than by the rational Property Now the Apostle deduceth his argument in the foregoing Verses from this simile that as the things of a Man cannot be known but by the Spirit of a Man so the things of God no Man knoweth but by the Spirit of God But I hope these Men will confess unto me that the things of a Man are not known by the animal Spirit only i. e. by that which he hath common with the Beasts but by the rational So that it must be the rational that is here understood Again the subsumption shews clearly that the Apostle had no such intent as these Mens gloss would make him to have viz. So the things of God knoweth no Man but the Spirit of God according to their Judgment he should have said the things of God knoweth no Man by his animal Spirit but by his rational Spirit for to say the Spirit of God here spoken of is no other than the rational Spirit of Man would border upon Blasphemy since they are so often contra-distinguished Again going on he saith not that they are rationally but spiritually discerned Secondly The Apostle throughout this Chapter shews how the wisdom of Man is unfit to Judg the things of God and ignorant of them Now ask these Men whether a Man be called a wise Man from his animal Property or from his rational If from his rational then it is not only the animal but even the rational as he is yet in the natural State which the Apostle excludes here and whom he contradistinguisheth from the Spiritual v. 15. But the Spiritual man judgeth all things this cannot be said of any Man meerly because rational or as he is a Man seeing the Men of greatest reason if we may so esteem Men whom the Scripture calls wise as were the Greeks of Old not only may be but often are Enemies to the Kingdom of God while both the preaching of Christ is said to be foolishness with the wise Men of this World and the wisdom of this World is said to be foolishness with God Now whether it be any ways propable that either these wise Men that are said to account the Gospel foolishness are only so called with respect to their animal Property and not their rational or that that wisdom that is foolishness with God is not meant of the rational but only the animal property any rational Man laying aside interests may easily Judg. § IV. I come now to the other part to wit that this evil and corrupt seed is not imputed to Infants until they actually joyn with it For this there is a reason given in the end of the Proposition it self drawn from Eph. 2. for these are by nature Children of Wrath who walk according to the prince of the power of the Air the Spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience Here the Apostle gives their evil walking and not any thing that is not reduced to act as a reason of their being Children of wrath and this is sutable to the whole strain of the Gospel where no man is ever threatned or judged for what iniquity he hath not actually wrought Such indeed as continue in iniquity and so do Homologat the sins of their Fathers God will visit the iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children Is it not strange then that men should entertain an opinion so absurd in it self and so cruel and contrary to the nature as well of God's mercy as justice concerning the which the Scripture is altogether silent But it is manifest that Man hath invented this opinion out of self-love and from that bitter Root from which all errors springs for the most of Protestants that hold this having as they fancy the absolute decree of Elections to secure them and their Children so as they cannot miss of Salvation they make no great difficulty to send all others both Old and Young to hell For whereas self-love which always is apt to believe that which it desires possesseth them with a hope that their part is secure they are not solicitous how they leave their Neighbours which are the far greater part of Mankind in these inextricable difficultys The Papists again use this Opinion as an art to augment the esteem of their Church and reverence of its Sacraments seeing they pretend it is washed away by Baptism only in this they appear to be a little more Merciful in that they send not these unbaptized infant to Hell but to a certain Limbus concerning which the Scriptures are as silent as of the other This then is not only not authorised in the Scriptures but contrary to the express tenor of it The Apostle saith plainly Rom. 4.15 Where no Law is there is no transgression And again 5.13 But sin is not imputed where there is no Law Than which Testimonies there is nothing more positive since to infants there is no Law seeing as such they are utterly uncapable of it the Law cannot reach but such as have in some measure less or more the exercise of their understanding which infants have not So that from thence I thus agree Sin is imputed to none where there is no Law But to infants there is no Law Therefore sin is not imputed to them The Proposition is the Apostle's own Words the Assumption is thus proved Those who are under a physical impossibility of either hearing knowing or understanding any Law where the impossibility is not brought upon them by any act of their own but is according to the very order of nature appointed by God to such there is no Law But infants are under this physical impossibility Therefore c. Secondly What can be more positive than that of Ezek. 18.20 The Soul that sinneth it shall die the Son shall not bear the Fathers Iniquity For the Prophet here first sheweth what is the cause of mans Eternal Death which he
And seeing he is both a most Righteous and Merciful God it cannot at all stand neither with his justice nor mercy to bid such men repent or believe to whom it is impossible § VII Moreover if we regard the Testimony of the Scripture in this matter where there is not one Scripture which I know of that affirmeth Christ not to dye for all there are divers that positively and expresly assert he did as 1 Tim. 2.1 3 4 6. I exhort therefore that first of all Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men c. for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledg of the Truth who gave himself a ransome for all to be testified in due time Except we will have the Apostle here to assert quite another thing then he intended there can be nothing more plain to confirm what we have asserted And this Scripture doth well answer to that manner of arguing which we have hitherto used For first the Apostle here recommends them to pray for all men And to obviate such an objection as if they had said with our Adversaries Christ prayed not for the World neither willeth he us to pray for all because he willeth not that all should be saved but hath ordained many to be damned that he might shew forth his Justice in them He obviates I say such an Objection telling them that it is good and acceptable in the sight of God who will have all men to be saved I desire to know what can be more expresly affirmed or can any two Propositions be stated in terms more contradictory than these two God willeth not some to be saved and God willeth all men to be saved or God will have no man Perish If we believe the last as the Apostle hath affirmed the first must be destroyed seeing of contradictory Propositions the one being placed the other is destroyed Whence to conclude he gives us a reason of his willingness that all men should be saved in these words who gave himself a ransom for all as if he would have said since Christ died for all since he gave himself a ransom for all therefore he will have all men to be saved This Christ himself gives as the reason of God's love to the World in these words John 3.16 God so loved the World that he gave his Only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life Compared with 1 John 4.9 This whosoever is an indefinit term from which no man is excluded From all which then I thus argue Arg. For whomsoever it is Lawful to pray to them Salvation is possible But it 's lawful to pray for every individual man in the whole World Thereforc Salvation is possible unto them I prove the major proposition thus No man is bound to pray for that which is impossible to be attained But every man is bound and commanded to pray for all men Therefore it is not impossible to be obtained I prove also this Proposition further thus No man is bound to pray but in Faith But he that prayeth for that which he judges simply impossible to be obtained cannot pray in Faith Therefore c. Again That which God willeth is not impossible But God willeth all men to be saved Therefore it is not impossible And Lastly These for whom our Saviour gave himself a ransom to such Salvation is possible But our Saviour gave himself a ransom for all Therefore Salvation is possible unto them § VIII This is very positively affirmed Heb. 2.9 in these words But we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the Angels for the suffering of Death crowned with Glory and Honour that he by the Grace of God might taste Death for every man He that will but open his eyes may see this Truth here asserted if he tasted Death for every man than certainly there is no man for whom he did not tast death then there is no man who may be made a sharer of the benifit of it for he came not to condemn the World but that the World through him might be saved John 3.17 He came not to judg the World but to save the World John 12.47 Whereas according to the Doctrine of our Adversaries he behoved to come to condemn the World and judg it and not that it might be saved by him or to save it for if he never came to bring Salvation to a greater part of mankind but that his coming though it could never do them good yet shall augment their condemnation from thence it necessarily follows that he came not of intention to save but to judg and condemn the greater part of the World contrary to his own express Testimony and as the Apostle Paul in the words above cited doth assert affirmatively that God willeth the Salvation of all so doth the Apostle Peter assert negatively that he willeth not the perishing of any 2 Pet. 3.9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness but is long suffering to us-ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance And this is Correspondent to that of the Prophet Ezekiel 33.11 As I live saith the Lord I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live If it be safe to believe God and trust in him we must not think that he intends to cheat us by all these expressions through his Servants but that he was in good earnest and that this will and desire of his hath not taken effect the blame is on our parts as shall be after spoken of which could not be if so be we never were in any capacity of Salvation or that Christ had never died for us but left us under an impossibility of Salvation what means all those earnest invitations all those serious expostulations all those regreting contemplations wherewith the Holy Scriptures are full as Why will ye dye O House of Israel Why will ye not come unto me that ye might have Life I have waited to be gracious unto you I have sought to gather you I have knocked at the door of your Hearts Is not your destructions of your selves I have called all the day long If men who are so invited be under no capacity of being saved if Salvation be impossible unto them shall we suppose God in this to be no other but like the Author of a Romance or the Master of a Comedy who amuses and raises the various Affections and Passions of his Spectators by divers and strange Accidents sometimes leading them into Hope and sometimes into Despair all those actions in effect being but a pure Illusion while he hath appointed what the conclusion of all shall be Thirdly this Doctrine is abundantly confirmed by that of the Apostle 1 John 2.1 2. And if any man sin we
have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous And he is the Propitiation for our Sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole World The way which our Adversaries take to evite this Testimony is most foolish and ridiculous The World here say they is the World of Believers For this Commentary we have nothing but their own assertion and so while it manifestly destroys the Text may be justly rejected For first let them shew me if they can in all the Scripture where the whole world is taken for Believers only I shall shew them where it is many times taken for the quite contrary as the world knows me not the world receives me not I am not of this world Besides all these Scriptures Psal. 17.14 Isa. 13.11 Matth. 18.1 John 7.7 8.26.12.19.14.17.15.18 19.17.14.18.20 1 Cor. 1.21.2 12.6.2 Gal. 6.14 Jam. 1.27 2 Pet. 2.20 1 Joh. 2.15.3.1 and 4.4 5. and many more Secondly the Apostle in this very place contradistinguisheth the World from the Saints thus And not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world What means the Apostle by ours here Is not that the sins of Believers Was not he one of those Believers And was not this an universal Epistle written to all the Saints that then were So that according to these mens comment there should be a very unnecessary and foolish redundancy in the Apostles words as if he had said he is a Propitiation not only for the sins of all Believers but for the sins of all Believers Is not this to make the Apostles words void of good sense Let them shew us where ever there is such a manner of speaking in all the Scripture where any of the Pen-men first name the Believers in concreto with themselves and then contradistinguish them from some other whole world of Believers That whole World if it be of Believers must not be the world we live in But we need no better interpreter for the Apostle than himself who uses the very same expression and phrase in the same Epistle c. 5.19 saying We know that we are of God and the whole world lieth in wickedness there cannot be found in all the Scripture two places which run more parallel seeing in both the same Apostle in the same Epistle to the same persons contradistinguisheth himself and the Saints to whom he writes from the whole world which according to these mens commentary ought to be understood of Believers as if John had said We know particular Believers are of God but the whole World of Believers lieth in wickedness What absurd wresting of Scripture were this And yet it may be as well pleaded for as the other for they differ not at all seeing then that the Apostle John tells us plainly that Christ not only died for him and for the Saints and Members of the Church of God to whom he wrote but for the whole world Let us then hold it for a certain and undoubted Truth notwithstanding the cavils of such as oppose This might also be proved from many more Scripture testimonies if it were at this season needful All the Fathers so called and Doctors of the Church for the first four centuries preached this Doctrin according to which they boldly held forth the Gospel of Christ and efficacy of Death inviting and intreating the Heathens to come and be partakers of the benefits of it shewing them how there was a door open for them all to be saved through Jesus Christ not telling them that God had predestinated any of them to Damnation or had made Salvation impossible to them by with-holding Power and Grace necessary to believe from them But of many of their sayings which might be alledged I shall only instance a few Austin on the 95 Psalm saith The Blood of Christ is of no less value than the whole World Prosper ad Gall. c. 9. The redeemer of the World gave his blood for the World and the World would not be redeemed because the darkness did not receive the Light He that saith the Saviour was not crucified for the redemption of the whole World looks not to the vertue of the Sacrament but to the part of Infidels since the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ is the price of the whole World from which redemption they are strangers who either delighting in their captivity would not be redeemed or after they were redeemed returned to the same servitude The same Prosper in his answer to Vencentius's first objection Seeing therefore because of one common nature and cause in Truth undertaken by our Lord all are rightly said to be redeemed and nevertheless all are not brought out of Captivity the property of Redemption without doubt belongeth to those from whom the Prince of this World is shut out and now are not vessels of the devil but Members of Christ whose Death was so bestowed upon mankind that it belonged to the Redemption of such who are not to be regenerated But so that which was done by the Example of one for all might by a singular mystery be celebrated in every one For the Cup of Immortality which is made up of our Infirmity and the Divine Power hath indeed that in it which may profit all but if it be not drunk it doth not heal The Author de vocat Gentium lib. 11. cap. 6. There is no cause to doubt but that our Lord Jesus Christ died for Sinners and wicked Men and if there can be any found who may be said not to be of this number Christ hath not died for all he made himself a Redeemer for the whole World Chrysistom on the 1. chap. of John If he inlightens every man coming into the World how comes it that so many men remain without Light For all do not so much as acknowledg Christ how then doth he inlighten every Man he illuminates indeed so far as in him is but if any of their own accord closing the eyes of their mind will not direct their eyes unto the beams of this Light the cause that they remain in darkness is not from the nature of the Light but through their own malignity who willingly have rendred themselves unworthy of so great a gift But why be lieved they not Because they would not Christ did his part The Arelatensian Synod held about the year 490 Pronounced him accursed who should say that Christ hath not dyed for all or that he would not have all men to be saved Ambr. on Psal. 118. Serm. 8. The mystical Sun of Righteousness is arisen to all he came to all he suffered for all and rose again for all And therefore he suffered that he might take away the Sin of the World But if any one believed not in Christ he bros himself of this general Benefit even as if one by closing the Windows should hold out the Sun-beams the Sun is not therefore not arisen to all because such a one hath so robbed himself of its heat But the
is ever taken away here And how injurious are they to the Efficacy and Power of Christ's appearance Came not Christ to gather a People out of sin into Righteousness out from the Kingdom of Satan into the Kingdom of the Dear Son of God And are not they that are thus gathered by him his Servants his Children his Brethren his Friends Who as he was so are they to be in this World Holy Pure and Vndefiled And doth not Christ still watch over them stand by them pray for them preserve them by his Power and Spirit walk in them and dwell among them even as the Devil on the other hand doth among the reprobate ones How comes it then that the Servants of Christ are less his Servants than the Devils are his or is Christ unwilling to have his Servants throughly pure which were gross Blasphemy to assert contrary to many Scriptures Or is he not able by his Power to preserve and enable his Children to serve him which were no less Blasphemous to affirm of him concerning whom the Scriptures declare that he has overcome Sin Death Hell and the Grave and triumphed over them openly and that all power in Heaven and Earth is given to him But certainly if the Saints sin daily in Thought Word and Deed as these men assert they serve the Devil daily and are subject to his Power and so he prevails more than Christ doth and holds the Servants of Christ in bondage whether Christ will or not But how greatly then doth it contradict the end of Christs coming as it is expressed by the Apostle Eph. 5.25 26 27. Even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for it That he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of Water by the Word That he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish Now if Christ hath really thus answered the thing he came for then the members of this Church are not always sinning in Thought Word and Deed. Or there is no difference betwixt being sanctified and unsanctified clean and unclean holy and unholy being daily blemished with sin and being without blemish § VI. Fourthly this Doctrine renders the work of the ministry the preaching of the Word the Writing of the Scripture and the Prayers of the Holy men altogether useless and ineffectual As to the first Eph. 4.11 Pastors and Teachers are said to be given for the perfection of the Saints c. till we all come in the unity of the Faith and of the Knowledg of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto a measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. Now if there be a necessity of sinning daily and in all things then there can be no perfection For such as do so cannot be esteemed perfect And if for effectuating this perfection in the Saints the ministry be appointed and disposed of God do not such as deny the possibility hereof render the ministry useless and of no profit seeing there can be no other true use assigned but to lead People out of sin into Righteousness If so be these ministers assure us that we need never expect to be delivered from it do not they render their own work needless what needs preaching against sin for the reproving of which all preaching is if it can never be forsaken Our Adversaries are exalters of the Scriptures in words much crying up their usefulness and perfection Now the Apostle tells us 2 Tim. 3.17 that the Scriptures are for making the man of God perfect And if this be denyed to be attainable in this Life then the Scriptures are of no profit for in the other life we shall not have use for them It renders the Prayers of the Saints altogether useless seeing themselves do confess they ought to pray daily that God would deliver them from evil and free them from sin by the help of his Spirit and Grace while in this world But though we might suppose this absurdity to follow that their Prayers are without Faith yet were not that so much if it did not infer the like upon the Holy Apostles who prayed earnestly for this end and therefore no doubt believed it attainable Col. 4.12 labouring fervently for you in Prayers that ye may stand perfect c. 1 Thes. 3.13 5.23 c. § VII But Fifthly this Doctrine is contrary to common reason and sense For the two opposite Principles whereof the one rules in the Children of Darkness the other in the Children of Light are Sin and Righteousness And as they are respectively leavened and acted by them so they are accounted either as Reprobated or Justified seeing it is abomination in the sight of God either to Justifie the Wicked or Condemn the Just. Now to say that men cannot be so leavened with the one as to be delivered from the other is in plain words to affirm that Sin and Righteousness are consistent and that a man may be truly termed Righteous though he be daily sinning in every thing he doth And then what difference betwixt good and evil Is not this to fall into that great abomination of puting Light for Darkness and calling good evil and evil good since they say the very best actions of God's Children are defiled and polluted and that those that sin daily in Thought Word and Deed are good men and woman the Saints and Holy Servants of the Holy Pure God Can there be any thing more repugnant than this to common reason Since the subject is still denominated from that accident that doth most influence it as a Wall is called white when there is much whiteness and Black when there is much blackness and such like But when there is more Unrighteousness in a man than Righteousness that man ought rather to be denominated Unrighteous than Righteous Then surely if every man sin daily in Thought Word and Deed and that in his sins there is no Righteousness at all and that all his Righteous actions are polluted and mixed with sin then there is in every man more Unrighteousness than Righteousness and so no man ought to be called righteous no man can be said to be sanctified or washed Where are then the Children of God where are the purified ones where are they who were sometimes unholy but now holy that sometimes were darkness but now are Light in the Lord There can none such be found then at this rate except that unrighteousness be esteemed so And is not this to fall into that abomination above mentioned of justifying the ungodly This certainly lands in that horrid Blasphemy of the Ranters that affirm there is no difference betwixt good and evil and that all is one in the sight of God I could shew many more gross absurdities evil consequences and manifest contradictions plied in this sinful Doctrine but this may suffice at present by which also in a good measure the probation of the
heavenly Mansions which together do make up the one Catholick Church concerning which there is so much controversie out of which Church we freely acknowledge there can be no Salvation because under this Church and its denomination are comprehended all and as many of whatsoever Nation Kindred Tongue or People they be though outwardly strangers and remote from those who profess Christ and Christianity in words and have the benefit of the Scriptures as become obedient to the holy Light and Testimony of God in their hearts so as to become sanctified by it and cleansed from the evils of their wayes For this is the Universal or Catholick Spirit by which many are called from all the four corners of the earth and shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob. By this the secret Life and Vertue of Jesus is conveyed into many that are afar off even as by the blood that runs into the Veins and Arteries of the Natural Body the Life is conveyed from the Head and Heart unto the extremest parts There may be members therefore of this Catholick Church both among Heathens Turks Jews and all the several sorts of Christians Men and Women of integrity and simplicity of Heart who though blinded in something in their understanding and perhaps burthened with the Superstitions and formality of the several Sects in which they are ingrossed yet being upright in their Hearts before the Lord chiefly aiming and labouring to be delivered from iniquity and loving to follow righteousness are by the secret touches of this Holy Light in their Souls inlivened and quickened thereby secretly united to God and there through become true members of this Catholick Church Now the Church in this respect hath been in being in all generations for God never wanted some such witnesses for him though many times slighted and not much observed by this World And therefore this Church though still in being hath been oftentimes as it were Invisible in that it hath not come under the observation of the men of this World being as saith the Scripture Jer. 3.14 One of a City and two of a Family And yet though the Church thus considered may be as it were hid from wicked men as not then gathered into a visible fellowship yea and not observed even by some that are members of it yet may there notwithstanding many belong to it as when Elias complained he was left alone 1 Kings 19.18 God answered unto him I have reserved to my self seven thousand men who have not bowed their knees to the Image of Baal whence the Apostle argues Rom. 11. the being of a remnant in his day § III. Secondly the Church is to be considered as it signifies a certain number of persons gathered by Gods Spirit and by the testimony of some of his servants raised up for that end unto the belief of the true Principles and Doctrines of the Christian Faith who through their hearts being united by the same love and their understanding informed in the same Truths gather meet and assemble together to wait upon God to worship him and to bear a joynt testimony for the Truth against Error suffering for the same and so becoming through this fellowship as one family and houshold in certain respects do each of them watch over teach instruct and care for one another according to their several measures and attainments Such were the Churches of the Primitive time gathered by the Apostles whereof we have divers mentioned in the Holy Scriptures And as to the visibility of the Church in this respect there hath been a great interruption since the Apostles days by reason of the apostasie as shall hereafter appear § IV. To be a member then of the Catholick Church there is need of the inward calling of God by his Light in their Heart and a being leavened into the nature and Spirit of it so as to forsake unrighteousness and be turned to righteousness and in the inwardness of the mind to be cut out of the wild-Olive-tree of our own first faln nature and ingrafted into Christ by his Word and Spirit in the heart And this may be done in those who are strangers to the History God not having pleased to make them partakers thereof as in the V. and VI. Propositions hath already been proved To be a member of a particular Church of Christ as this inward work is indispensibly necessary so is also the outward profession of and belief in Jesus Christ and those holy Truths delivered by his Spirit in the Scriptures seeing the testimony of the Spirit recorded in the Scriptures doth answer the testimony of the same Spirit in the heart even as face answereth face in a glass Hence it follows that the inward work of Holiness and forsaking iniquity is necessary in every respect to the being a member in the Church of Christ and that the outward profession is necessary to be a member of a particular gathered Church but not to the being a member of the Catholick Church yet it is absolutely necessary where God affords the opportunity of knowing it the outward testimony is to be believed where it is presented and revealed the summ whereof hath upon other occasions been already proved § V. But contrary hereunto the Devil that worketh and hath wrought in the mystery of iniquity hath taught his followers to affirm That no man however holy is a member of the Church of Christ without the outward profession and that he be initiated thereunto by some outward Ceremonies And again That men who have this outward Profession though inwardly unholy may be members of the true Church of Christ yea and ought to be so esteemed This is plainly to put Light for Darkness and Darkness for Light as if God had a greater regard to words than actions and were more pleased with vain professions than with real holiness But these things I have sufficiently refuted heretofore Only from hence let it be observed that upon this false and rotten foundation Antichrist hath builded his Babylonish Structure and the anti-Christian Church in the apostasie hath hereby reared her self up to that heighth and grandeur she hath attained so as to exalt herself above all that is called God and sit in the Temple of God as God For the particular Churches of Christ gathered in the Apostles dayes soon after beginning to decay as to the inward Life came to be over-grown with several Errors and the hearts of the professors of Christianity to be leavened with the old Spirit and conversation of the World Yet it pleased God for some Centuries to preserve that life in many whom he emboldened with zeal to stand and suffer for his Name through the ten Persecutions But these being over the meekness gentleness love long-suffering goodness and temperance of Christianity came to be lost For after that the Princes of the earth came to take upon them that Profession and that it ceased to be a reproach to be a Christian but rather became a means to
singularly by his Spirit who from the testimony of the Scriptures perceiving the errors into which such as bear the name of Christians are faln may instruct and teach them and then become authorized by the people's joyning with and accepting of their ministry only Most of them also will affirm that the Spirit herein is subjective and not objective But they say that where a Church is reformed Obj. such as they pretend the Ptotestants Churches are there an ordinary orderly call is necessary and that of the Spirit as extraordinary is not to be sought after alledging that res aliter se habet in ecclesia constituenda quam in ecclesia constituta that is there is a difference in the constituting of a Church and after it is constitute I answer this objection as to us saith nothing seeing we accuse Answ. and are ready from the Scriptures to prove the Protestants guilty of gross errors and needing reformation as well as they did and do the Papists and therefore we may justly lay claim if we would to the same extraordinary call having the same reason for it and as good evidence to prove ours as they had for theirs As for that Maxime viz. that the case is different in a constituting Church and a Church constituted I do not deny it and therefore there may be a greater measure of power required to the one than to the other and God in his Wisdom distributes the same as he seeth meet but that the same immediate assistance of the Spirit is not necessary for ministers in a gathered Church as well as in gathering one I see no solid reason alledged for it For sure Christs promise was to be with his children to the end of the world and they need him no less to preserve and guide his Church and Children than to gather and beget them Nature taught the Gentiles this Maxime Non minor est virtus quam quaerere parta tueri Englished thus For to defend what you attain Requires no less strength than to gain For it is by this inward and immediate operation of the Spirit which Christ hath promised to lead his Children with into all Truth and to teach them all things that Christians are to be led in all steps as well last as first which relates to Gods Glory and their own Salvation as we have heretofore sufficiently proved and therefore need not now repeat it And truly this device of Satan whereby he has got people to put the immediate guidings and leadings of Gods Spirit as an extraordinary thing a far off which their Fore-fathers had but which they now are neither to wait for nor expect is a great cause of the growing Apostacy upon the many gathered Churches and is one great reason why a dry dead barren lifeless spiritless ministry which leavens the people into the same death doth so much abound and is so much overspreading even the Protestant nations that their preachings and worships as well as whole conversation is not to be discerned from Popish by any fresh living zeal or lively Power of the Spirit accompanying it but meerly by the difference of some notions and opinions Obj. § XII Some unwise and unwary Protestants do sometimes object to us that if we have such an immediate call as we lay claim to we ought to confirm it by miracles Answ. But this being an objection once and again objected to the primitive Protestants by the Papists we need but short return the answer to it that they did to the Papists to wit that we need not miracles because we preach no new Gospel but that which is already confirmed by all the miracles of Christ and his Apostles and that we offer nothing but that which we are ready and able to confirm by the testimony of the Scriptures which both already acknowledge to be true And that John the Baptist and divers of the Prophets did none that we hear of and yet were both immediately and extraordinarily sent This is the common Protestant answer therefore may suffice in this place though if need were I could say more to this purpose but that I study brevity § XIII There is also another sort of Protestants to wit the English Independents who differing from the Calvinistical Presbyterians and denying the necessity of this succession or the authority of any National Church take another way affirming that such as have the benefit of the Scriptures any company of people agreeing in the principles of Truth as they find them there declared may constitute among themselves a Church without the authority of any other and may choose to themselves a Pastor who by the Church thus constitute and consenting is authorized requiring only the assistance and concurrence of the Pastors of the neighbouring Churches if any be not so much as absolutely necessary to authorize as decent for orders sake Also they go so far as to affirm that in a Church so constitute any gifted Brother as they call them if he find himself qualified thereto may instruct exhort and preach in the Church though as not having the Pastoral office he cannot administer that they call their Sacraments To this I answer that this was a good step out of the Babylonish darkness and no doubt did proceed from a real discovery of the Truth and from the sense of a great abuse of the promiscuous National gatherings Also this preaching of the Gifted Brethren as they called them did proceed at first from certain lively touches and movings of the Spirit of God upon many But alas because they went not forward that is much decayed among them and the motions of Gods Spirit begin to be denyed and rejected among them now as much as by others But as to their pretended Call from the Scripture I answer The Scripture gives a meer declaration of true things but no call to particular persons so that though I believe the things there written to be true and deny the errors which I find there testified against yet as to these things which may be my particular duty I am still to seek and therefore I can never be resolved in the Scripture whether I such a one by name ought to be a Minister And for the resolving this doubt I must needs recur to the inward and immediate testimony of the Spirit as in the Proposition concerning the Scriptures more at large is shewn § XIV From all this then we do firmly conclude that not only in a general apostasie it is needful men be extraordinarily called and raised up by the Spirit of God but that even when several assemblies or Churches are gathered by the Power of God not only into the belief of the Principles of Truth so as to deny Errors and Heresies but also into the Life Spirit and Power of Christianity so as to be the Body and House of Christ indeed and a fit Spouse for him that he who gathers them doth also for the preserving them in a lively fresh and powerful condition
men without that art and rules or sophistical learning deduce a certain conclusion out of true Propositions which scarce any man of Reason wants we deny not the use of it and I have sometimes used it in this Treatise which also may serve without that Dialectical art As for the other part of Philosophy which is called Moral or Ethicks it is not so necessary to Christians who have the rules of the Holy Seriptures and the Gift of the Holy Spirit by which they can be much better instructed The Physical and Metaphysical part may be reduced to the arts of Medicine and the Mathematicks which have nothing to do with the essence of a Christian Minister And therefore the Apostle Paul who well understood what was good for Christian Ministers and what hurtful thus exhorted the Colossians Col. 2.8 Beware lest any man spoil you through Philosophy and vain deceit And to his beloved Disciple Timothy he writes also thus 1 Tim. 6.20 O Timothy keep that which is committed to thy trust avoiding profane and vain babblings and oppositions of science falsly so called § XXI The third and main part of their literature is School Divinity a monster made up betwixt some Scriptural notions of Truth and the Heathenish terms and maximes being as it were the Heathenish Philosophy Christianized or rather the literal external knowledge of Christ Heathenized it is man in his first faln natural state with his devilish wisdom pleasing himself with some notions of Truth and adorning them with his own serpentine and worldly wisdom because he thinks the simplicity of the Truth too low and mean a thing for him and so despiseth that simplicity wheresoever it is found that he may set up and exalt himself puffed up with this his monstrous birth it is the devil darkening obscuring and veiling the knowledge of God with his sensual and carnal wisdom that so he may the more securely deceive the hearts of the simple and make the Truth as it is in it self despicable and hard to be known and understood by multiplying a thousand hard and needless questions and endless contentions and debates all which whoso perfectly knoweth he is not a whit less the servant of sin than he was but ten times more in that he is exalted and proud of iniquity and so much the further from receiving understanding or learning the Truth as it is in its own naked simplicity because he is full learned rich and wise in his own conceit and so those that are most skilled in it wear out their day and spend their precious time about the infinite and innumerable questions they have feigned and invented concerning it A certain learned man called it a two-fold discipline as of the race of the centaurs partly proceeding from Divine sayings partly from Philosophical reasons A thousand of their questions they confess themselves to be no ways necessary to Salvation and yet many more of them they could never agree upon but are and still will be in endless janglings about them The Volumes that have been written about it a man in his whole age though he lived very old could scarce read and when he has read them all he has but wrought himself a great deal more vexation and trouble of Spirit than he had before These certainly are the words multiplied without knowledge by which counsel hath been darkened Job c. 38. v. 2. They make the Scripture the text of all this Mass and it 's concerning the sense of it that their voluminous debates arise But a man of a good upright heart may learn more in half an hour and be more certain of it by waiting upon God and his Spirit in the heart than by reading a thousand of their Volumes which by filling his head with many needless imaginations may well stagger his faith but never confirm it and indeed those that give themselves most to it are most capable to fall into error as appeareth by the example of Origen who by his learning was one of the first that falling into this way of interpreting the Scriptures wrote so many Volumes and in them so many errors as very much troubled the Church Also Arius led by this curiosity and humane scrutiny despising the simplicity of the Gospel fell into his error which was the cause of that horrible Heresie which so much troubled the Church methinks the simplicity plainness and brevity of the Scriptures themselves should be a sufficient reproof for such a science and the Apostles being honest plain illeterate men my be better understood by such kind of men now than with all that mass of scholastick stuff which neither Peter nor Paul nor John ever thought of § XXII But this invention of Satan wherewith he began the Apostasie hath been of dangerous consequence for thereby he at first spoiled the simplicity of Truth by keeping up the Heathenish learning which occasioned such uncertainty even among those called Fathers and such debate that there are few of them to be found who by reason of this mixture do not only frequently contradict one another but themselves also And therefore when the Apostasie grew greater he as it were buried the Truth with this vail of darkness wholly shuting out people from true knowledg and making the learned so accounted busie themselves with idle and needless questions while the weighty Truths of God were neglected and as it were went into desuetude Now though the grossest of these abuses be swept away by Protestants yet the evil root still remains and is nourished and upheld and upon the growing hand that this science is kept up and deemed necessary for a Minister for while the pure learning of the Spirit of Truth is despised and neglected and made ineffectual man 's faln earthly wisdom is upheld and so in that he labours and works with the Scriptures being out of the Life and Spirit those that wrote them were in by which they are rightly understood and made use of And so he that is to be a Minister must learn this art or trade of merchandizing with the Scriptures and be that which the Apostle would not be to wit a trader with them 2 Cor. 2.17 That he may acquire a trick from a verse of Scripture by adding his own barren notions and conceptions to it and his uncertain conjectures and what he hath stoln out of Books for which end he must have of necessity a good many by him and may each Sabbath day as they call it or oftner make a Discourse for an hour long and this is called the preaching of the word whereas the Gift Grace and Spirit of God to teach open and instruct and to preach a word in season is neglected and so man's arts and parts and knowledg and wisdom which is from below set up and established in the Temple of God yea and above the little Seed which in effect is Antichrist working in the Ministry and so the Devil may be as good and able a Minister as the
become a Proverb that the KIRK is always GREEDY Whereby the Gift and Grace of God being neglected they have for for the most part no other motive or rule in applying themselves to one Church more than another but the greater Benefice For tho they hypocritically pretend at their accepting of and entring unto their Church that they have nothing before them but the Glory of God and the Salvation of Souls yet if a richer Benefice offer it self they presently find it more for God's Glory to remove from the first and go thither And thus they make no difficulty often to change while notwithstanding they accuse us that we allow Ministers to go from place to place and not to be tied to one place but we allow this not for the gaining of money but as moved of God for if a Minister be called to Minister in a particular place he ought not to leave it except God call him from it and then he ought to obey for we make the will of God inwardly revealed and not the love of money and more gain the ground of removing Secondly From this abuse hath proceeded that Luxury and Idleness that most of the Clergy live in even among Protestants as well as Papists to the great scandal of Christianity For not having lawful Trades to work with their hands and being so superfluously and sumptuosly provided for they live in Idleness and Luxury and there doth more Pride Vanity and Worldly Glory appear in their Wives and Children than in most others which is open and evident to all Thirdly They become hereby so glewed to the love of money that there is none like them in malice rage and cruelty if they deny their hire they rage like drunken men fret fume and as it were go mad A man may sooner satisfie the severest Creditor than them the general voice of the poor doth confirm this for indeed they are far more exact in taking up the Tithes of Sheep Geese Swine and Eggs c. and look more narrowly to it than to the members of the Flock they will not miss the least mite and the poorest Widow cannot escape their avaritious hands twenty Lyes they will hear unreproved and as many Oaths a man may swear in their hearing without offending them and greater evils than all this they can overlook But if thou owest them ought and refuse to pay it then nothing but war will they thunder against thee and they will stigmatize thee with the horrible Title of Sacriledg and send thee to Hell without mercy as if thou hadst committed the sin against the Holy Ghost Of all People we can best bear witness to this for God having shewn us this corrupt and Anti-Christian Ministry and called us out from it and gathered us unto his own Power and Life to be a separate People so that we dare not joyn with nor hear these Anti-Christian hirelings neither yet put into their mouths or feed them O! what malice envy and fury hath this raised in their Hearts against us that tho we get none of their wares neither will buy them as knowing them to be nought yet will they force us to give them money and because we cannot for conscience sake do it our sufferings have upon that account been unutterable Yea to give account of their cruelty and several sorts of inhumanity used against us would make no small History These avaritious Hirelings have come to that degree of malice and rage that several poor labouring men have been carried hundreds of miles from their own dwellings and shut up in prison some two some three yea some seven years together for the value of one pound sterling and less I know my self a poor Widow that for the tithes of her Geese which amounted not to five shillings was about four years kept in prison thirty miles from her house Yea they by violence for this cause have plundred of mens goods the hundred fold and prejudiced much more yea hundreds have hereby spilt their innocent blood by dying in the filthy noisom holes and prisons and some of the Priests have been so inraged that Goods thus ravished could not satisfie them but they must also satisfie their fury by beating knocking and wounding with their hands innocent men and women for refusing for Conscience sake to put into their mouths The only way then soundly to reform and remove all these abuses and take away the ground and occasion of them is to take away all stinted and forced maintainance and stipend and seeing those things were anciently given by the people that they return again into the publick treasure and thereby the people may be greatly benefited by them for that they may supply for these publick taxations and impositions that are put upon them and may ease themselves of them And whoever call or appoint teachers to themselves let them accordingly entertain them And for such as are called and moved to the Ministry by the Spirit of God those that receive them and taste of the good of their Ministry will no doubt provide things needful for them and there will be no need of a Law to force a hire for them for he that sends them will take care for them and they also having food and raiment will therewith be content § XXXIII The sum then of what is said Is that The Ministry that we have pleaded for and which also the Lord hath raised up among us is in all its parts like the true Ministry of the Apostles and primitive Church Whereas the Ministry our adversaries seek to uphold and plead for as it doth in all its parts differ from them so on the other hand it is very like the false Prophets and Teachers testified against and condemned in the Scripture as may be thus briefly illustrated 1. The Mintstry and Minister we plead for are such as are immediately called and sent forth by Christ and his Spirit unto the work of the Ministry so were the holy Apostles and Prophets as appears by these places Matth. 10. verse 1.5 Eph. 4.11 Heb. 5.4 1. But the Ministry and Ministers our opposers plead for are such as have no immediate call from Christ to whom the leading and motion of the Spirit is not reckoned necessary but who are called sent forth and ordained by wicked and ungodly men such were of old the false Prophets and Teachers as appears by these places Jer. 14.14 15. item chap. 23.21 and 27.15 2. The Ministers we plead for are such as are acted and led by God's Spirit and by the power and operation of his Grace in their hearts are in some measure converted and regenerate and so are good holy and gracious men such were the Holy Prophets and Apostles as appears from 1 Tim. 3.2 3 4 5 6. Tit. 1.7 8 9. 2. But the Ministers our adversaries plead for are such to whom the Grace of God is no needful qualification and so may be true Ministers according to them though they be ungodly
suffering God by his Spirit both to prepare peoples hearts and also give the preacher what may be fit and seasonable for them But he hath hammered together in his closet according to his own will by his humane wisdom and illeterature and by stealing the words of Truth from the letter of the Scriptures and patching together other mens Writings and Observations so much as will hold him speaking an hour while the Glass runs and without waiting or feelling the inward influence of the Spirit of God he declaims that by hap-hazard whether it be fit or seasonable for the peoples condition or no and when he has ended his Sermon he saith his Prayer also in his own will and so there is an end of the business Which customary worship as it is no waies acceptable to God so how unfruitful it is and unprofitable to those that are found in it the present condition of the Nations doth sufficiently declare It appears then that we are not against set times for worship as Arnoldus against this Proposition Sect. 45. No less impertinently alledgeth offering needlesly to prove that which is not denyed only these times being appointed for outward conveniency we may not therefore think with the Papists that these daies are holy and lead people into a superstitious observation of them being perswaded that all daies are alike holy in the sight of God And albeit it be not my present purpose to make a long digression concerning the debates among Protestants concerning the first day of the week commonly called the Lords day yet for as much as it comes fitly in here I shall briefly signifie our sense thereof § IV. We not seeing any ground in Scripture for it cannot be so superstitious as to believe that either the Jewish Sabbath now continues or that the first day of the week is the anti-tipe thereof or the true Christian Sabbath which with Calvin we believe to have a more Spiritual sense and therefore we know no moral obligation by the fourth command or elsewhere to keep the first day of the week more as any other or any holiness inherent in it But first for as much as it is most necessary that there be some time set apart for the Saints to meet together to wait upon God And that secondly it is fit at some times they be freed from their other outward affairs And that thirdly Reason and Equity doth allow that Servants and Beasts have some time allowed them to be eased from their continual labour And that fourthly it appears that the Apostles and primitive Christians did use the first day of the week for these purposes We find our selves sufficiently moved for these to do so also without superstitiously straining the Scriptures for another reason which that it is not to be there found many Protestants yea Calvin himself upon the fourth command hath abundantly evinced And though we therefore meet and abstain from working upon this day yet doth not that hinder us from having meetings also for worship at other times § V. Thirdly though according to the knowledg of God revealed unto us by the Spirit through that more full dispensation of Light which we believe the Lord hath brought about in this day we judg it our duty to hold forth that Pure and Spiritual Worship which is acceptable to God and answerable to the testimony of Christ and his Apostles and likewise to testifie against and deny not only manifest Superstition and Idolatry but also all formal Will-worship which stands not in the power of God yet I say we do not deny the whole Worship of all those that have born the name of Christians even in the Apostacy as if God had never heard their prayers nor accepted any of them God forbid we should be so void of Charity The latter part of the Proposition sheweth the contrary and as we would not be so absurd on the one hand to conclude because of the errors and darkness that many were covered and surrounded with in Babylon that none of their prayers were heard or accepted of God so will we not be so unwary on the other as to conclude that because God heard and pitied them so we ought to continue in these errors and darkness and not come out of Babylon when it is by God discovered unto us The Popish Mass and Vespers I do believe to be as to the matter of them abominable Idolatry and Superstition and so also believe the Protestants yet will either I or they affirm that in the darkness of Popery no upright-hearted men tho zealous in these abominations have been heard of God or accepted of him Who can deny but that both Bernard and Bonaventur Thaulerus Thomas a Kempis and divers others have both known and tasted of the love of God and felt the Power and Vertue of God's Spirit working with them for their Salvation And yet ought we not to forsake and deny those Superstitions which they were found in the Calvinistical Presbyterians do much upbraid and I say not without reason the formality and deadness of the Episcopalian and Lutheran Liturgies and yet as they will not deny but there have been some good men among them so neither dare they refuse but that when that good step was brought in by them of turning the publick Prayers into the vulgar Tongues tho continued in a Liturgy it was acceptable to God and sometimes accompanied with his Power and Presence yet will not the Presbyterians have it from thence concluded that the Common Prayers should still continue so likewise tho we should confess that through the mercy and wonderful condescension of God there have been upright in heart both among Papists and Protestants yet can we not therefore approve of their way in the general or not go on to the upholding of that Spiritual Worship which the Lord is calling all to and so to the testifying against whatsoever stands in the way of it § VI. Fourthly to come then to the state of the Controversie as to the publick Worship we judg it the duty of all to be diligent in the assembling of themselves together and what we have been and are in this matter our enemies in Great Britain who have used all means to hinder our assembling together to Worship God may bear witness and when assembled the great work of one and all ought to be to wait upon God and returning out of their own thoughts and imaginations to feel the Lord's presence and know a gathering into his Name indeed where he is in the midst according to his promise And as every one is thus gathered and so met together inwardly in their Spirits as well as outwardly in their Persons there the secret Power and Vertue of Life is known to refresh the Soul and the pure motions and breathings of God's Spirit are felt to arise from which as words of Declaration Prayers or Praises arise the acceptable Worship is known which edifies the Church and is well-pleasing to God
by him so may many through negligence miss to hear God often-times calling upon them and giving them access to pray unto him yet will not that allow them without this liberty in their own wills to fall to work And lastly though this be the only true and proper method of Prayer as that which is alone acceptable to God yet shall we not deny but he often-times answered the Prayers and concurred with the desires of some especially in times of darkness who have greatly erred herein so that some that have sit down in formal Prayers tho far wrong in the matter as well as manner without the assistance or influence of God's Spirit yet have found him to take occasion therethrough to break in upon their Souls and wonderfully tender and refresh them yet as in preaching and elsewhere hath afore been observed that will not prove any such practices or be a just let to hinder any from coming to practice that pure Spiritual and acceptable Prayer which God is again restoring and leading his people into out of all superstitious and meer empty formalities The state of the controversie and our sense thereof being thus clearly stated will both obviate many objections and make the answer to others more brief and easie I shall first prove this Spiritual Prayer by some short considerations from Scripture and then answer the Objections of our Opposers which will also serve to refute their method and manner thereof § XXII And first that there is a necessity of this inward retirement of the mind as previous to prayer that the Spirit may be felt to draw thereunto appears for that in most of those places where Prayer is commanded watching is prefixed thereunto as necessary to go before as Matth. 24.42 Mark 13.33.14.38 Luke 21.36 from which it is evident that this watching was to go before prayer Now to what end is this watching or what is it but a waiting to feel God's Spirit to draw unto prayer that so it may be done acceptably For since we are to pray alwaies in the Spirit and cannot pray of our selves without it acceptably this watching must be for this end recommended to us as preceeding prayer that we may watch and wait for the seasonable time to pray which is when the Spirit moves thereunto Secondly this necessity of the Spirit moving and concurrence appears abundantly from that of the Apostle Paul Rom. 8.26.27 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit because he maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God Which first holds forth the incapacity of men as of themselves to pray or call upon God in their own wills even such as have received the faith of Christ and are in measure sanctified by it as was the Church of Rome to whom the Apostle then wrote Secondly It holds forth that which can only help and assist men to pray to wit the Spirit as that without which they cannot do it acceptably to God nor beneficially to their own Souls Thirdly The manner and way of the Spirits intercession with sighs and groans which are unutterable And Fourthly That God receiveth graciously the prayers of such as are presented and offered unto himself by the Spirit knowing it to be according to his will Now it cannot be conceived but this order of prayer thus asserted by the Apostle is most consistent with those other testimonies of scripture commending and recommending to us the use of prayer From which I thus argue If man know not how to pray neither can do it without the help of the Spirit then it is to no purpose for him but altogether unprofitable to pray without it But the first is true Therefore also the last Thirdly This necessity of the Spirit to true Prayer appears from Eph. 6.18 and Jude 20. where the Apostle commands to pray alwaies in the Spirit and watching thereunto which is as much as if he had said that we were never to pray without the Spirit or watching thereunto And Jude sheweth us that such prayers as are in the Holy Ghost only tend to the building up of our selves in our most holy faith Fourthly The Apostle Paul saith expresly 1 Cor. 12.3 that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost If then Jesus cannot be thus rightly named but by the Holy Ghost far less can he be acceptably called upon Hence the same Apostle declares 1 Cor. 14.15 that he will pray with the Spirit c. A clear evidence that it was none of his method to pray without it But Fifthly all prayer without the spirit is abomination such as are the prayers of the wicked Prov. 28.9 and the confidence that the Saints have that God will hear them is if they ask any thing according to his will 1 Joh. 5.14 So if the prayer be not according to his will there is no ground of confidence that he will hear Now our adversaries will acknowledg that prayers without the spirit are not according to the will of God and therefore such as pray without it have no ground to expect an answer for indeed to bid a man pray without the spirit is all one as to bid one see without eyes work without hands or go without feet And to desire a man to fall to prayer ere the spirit in some measure less or more move him thereunto is to desire a man to see before he open his eyes or to walk before he rise up or to work with his hands before he move them § XXIII But lastly from this false opinion of praying without the Spirit and not judging it necessary to be waited for as that which may be felt to move us thereunto hath proceeded all the superstition and idolatry that is among those called Christians and those many abominations wherewith the Lord is provoked and his Spirit grieved so that many deceive themselves now as the Jews did of old thinking it sufficient if they pay their daily Sacrifices and offer their customary Oblations from thence thinking all is well and creating a false peace to themselves as the Whore in the Proverbs because they have offered up their Sacrifices of Morning and Evening Prayers And therefore it 's manifest that their constant use of things doth not a whit influence their lives and conversations but they remain for the most part as bad as ever yea it is frequent both among Papists and Protestants for them first to leap as it were out of their vain light and profane conversations at their set hours and seasons and fall to their customary devotion and then when it is scarce finished and the words to God scarce out the former profane talk comes after it so that the same wicked profane spirit of this world acts them in both
would then follow that all those that have this baptism are saved by it Now this consequence would be false if it were understood of Water-baptism because many by the confession of all are baptized with water that are not saved but this consequence holds most true if it be understood as we do of the Baptism of the Spirit since none can have this answer of a good Conscience and abiding in it not be saved by it Fifthly that the One Baptism of Christ is not a washing with Water as it hath been proved by the definition of the One Baptism so it is also manifest from the necessary fruits and effects of it which are three-times particularly expressed by the Apostle Paul as first Rom. 6.3 4. where he saith that so many of them as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his Death buried with him by Baptism into death that they should walk in newness of Life Secondly to the Gal. 3.27 he saith positively For as many of you as have been baptized unto Christ have put on Christ. And thirdly to the Col. 2.12 he saith that they were Buried with him in Baptism and risen with him through the Faith of the operation of God It is to be observed here that the Apostle speaks generally without any exclusive term but comprehensive of all he saith not some of you that were baptzed into Christ have put on Christ but as many of you which is as much as if he had said every one of you that hath been Baptized into Christ hath put on Christ. Whereby it is evident that this is not meant of Water-Baptism but of the Baptism of the Spirit because else it would follow that whosoever had been Baptized with Water baptism had put on Christ and were risen with him which all acknowledg to be most absurd Now supposing all the visible members of the Churches of Rome Galatia and Coloss had been outwardly Baptized with Water I do not say they were but our Adversaries will not only readily grant it but also contend for it suppose I say the case so they will not say they had all put on Christ since divers expressions in these Epistles to them shew the contrary so that the Apostle cannot mean Baptism with Water and yet he meaneth the Baptism of Christ i. e. of the Spirit cannot be denyed or that the Baptism wherewith thes were Baptized of whom the Apostle here testifies that they had put on Christ was the One Baptism I think none will call in question Now admit as our Adversaries contend that many in these Churches who had been Baptized with Water had not put on Christ it will follow that notwithstanding that Water-baptism they were not Baptized into Christ or with the Baptism of Christ seeing as many of them as were Baptized into Christ had put on Christ e. From all which I thus argue Arg. 1. If the Baptism with Water were the one Baptism i. e. the Baptism of Christ as many as were Baptized with Water would have put on Christ. But the last is false Therefore also the first And again Arg. 2. Since as many as are baptized into Christ i. e. with the one baptism which is the baptism of Christ have put on Christ then Water-baptism is not the one baptism viz. the baptism of Christ. But the first is true Therefore also the last § V. Thirdly since John's Baptism was a Figure and seeing the Figure gives way to the Substance albeit the thing figured remain to wit the one baptism of Christ yet the other ceaseth which was the baptism of John That John's baptism was a figure of Christ's baptism I judg will not readily be denyed but in case it should it can easily be proved from the nature of it John's baptism was a being baptized with Water but Christ's is a baptizing with the Spirit Therefore John's baptism must have been a figure of Christ's But further that Water-baptism was John's baptism will not be denyed that Water-baptism is not Christ's baptism is already proved From which doth arise the confirmation of our Proposition thus There is no baptism to continue now but the one baptism of Christ Arg. Therefore Water-baptism is not to continue now because it is not the baptism of Christ. That John's baptism is ceased many of out Adversaries confess but if any should alledg it otherwise it may be easily proved by the express words of John not only as being insinuated there where he contra-distinguisheth his baptism from that of Christ but particularly where he saith John 3.30 he Christ must increase but I John must decrease From whence it clearly follows that the encreasing or taking place of Christ's Baptism is the decreasing or abolishing of John's Baptism so that if Water baptism was a particular part of John's Ministry and is no part of Christ's baptism as we have already proved it will necessarily follow that it is not to continue Secondly Arg. If Water-baptism had been to continue a perpetual ordinance of Christ in his Church he would either have practised it himself or commanded his Apostles so to do But that he practised it not the Scripture plainly affirms John 4.2 And that he commanded his Disciples to baptize with water I could never yet read As for what is alleged that Matth. 28.19 c. where he bids them baptize is to be understood of water baptism that is but to beg the question and the grounds for that shall be hereafter examined Therefore to baptize with Water is no perpetual ordinance of Christ to his Church This hath had the more weight with me because I find not any standing ordinance or appoyntment of Christ necessary to Christians for which we have not either Christ's own practice or command as to obey all the Commandments which comprehend both our duty towards God and man c. and where the Gospel requires more than the Law which is abundantly signified in the 5. and 6. Chapters of Matthew and elsewhere Besides as to the duties of Worship he exhorts us to meet promising his presence commands to Pray Preach Watch c. and gives precepts concerning some temporary things as the washing of one anothers Feet the breaking of Bread hereafter to be discussed only for this one thing of baptizing with Water though so earnestly contended for we find not any precept of Christ. § VI. But to make Water-baptism a necessary institution of the Christian Religion which is pure and Spiritual and not carnal and and ceremonial is to derogate from the New Covenant Dispensation and set up the legal Rites and Ceremonies of which this of Baptism or washing with Water was one as appears from Heb. 9.10 where the Apostle speaking thereof saith that it stood only in Meats and Drinks and divers Baptisms and carnal Ordinances imposed until the time of Reformation If then the time of Reformation or the Dispensation of the Gospel which puts an end to the Shaddows be come then such Baptisms and
in Spirit as other things were of which we shall speak hereafter especially by the Apostle who became weak to the weak and all to all that he might save some Now those weak and carnal Corinthians might be permitted the use of this to shew forth or remember Christ's death till he come to arise in them for though such need those outward things to put them in mind of Christ's Death yet such as are dead with Christ and not only dead with Christ but buried and also arisen with him need not such signs to remember him and to such therefore the Apostle saith Col. 3.1 If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God but Bread and Wine are not these things that are above but are things of the Earth But that this whole matter was a meer act of indulgence and condescension of the Apostle Paul to the weak and carnal Corinthians appears yet more by the Syriak Copy which ver 17. in his entring upon this matter hath it thus In that concerning which I am about to command you or instruct you I commend you not because ye have not gone forward but are descended unto that which is less or of less consequence Clearly importing that the Apostle was grieved that such was their condition that he was forced to give them instructions concerning those outward things and doting upon which they shew they were not gone forward in the life of Christianity but rather sticking in beggerly Elements And therefore ver 20. the same version hath it thus when then ye meet together ye do not do it as it is just ye should do in the day of the Lord ye eat and drink Thereby shewing to them that to meet together to eat and drink outward bread and wine was not the labour and work of that day of the Lord but since our adversaries are so zealous for this ceremony because used by the Church of Corinth tho with how little ground is already shewn how come they to pass over far more positive commands of the Apostles as matters of moment As first Acts 15.26 where the Apostles peremptorily commands even the Gentiles as that which was the mind of the Holy Ghost to abstain from things strangled and from blood And Ja. 5.14 where it is expresly commanded that the sick be anointed with Oyl in the Name of the Lord. Obj. If they say these were only temporary things but not to continue Answ. What have they more to shew for this there being no express repeal of them If they say the repeal is implyed because the Apostle saith Obj. We ought not to be judged in meats and drinks I admit the answer Answ. but how can it be evited to militate the same way against the other practice Surely not at all nor can there be any thing urged for the one more than for the other but custom and tradition As for that of James they say there followed a Miracle upon it to wit the recovery of the Sick But this being ceased so should the ceremony Though this might many waies be answered to wit Answ. that Prayer then might as well be forborn to which also the saving of the Sick is there ascribed yet I shall accept of it because I judge indeed that Ceremony is ceased only methinks since our adversaries and that rightly think a ceremony ought to cease where the vertue fails they ought by the same rule to forbear the laying on of hands in imitation of the Apostles since the gift of the Holy Ghost doth not follow upon it § IX But since we find that several testimonies of Scripture do sufficiently shew that such external rites are no necessary part of the New Covenant dispensation therefore not needful now to continue however they were for a season practised of old I shall instance some few of them whereby from the nature of the thing as well as those testimonies it may appear that the ceremony of bread and wine is ceased as well as those other things confessed by our adversaries to be so The first is Rom. 14.17 For the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink but Righteousness and Peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Here the Apostle evidently shews that the Kingdom of God or Gospel of Christ stands not in meats and drinks and such like things but in righteousness as by the context doth appear where he is speaking of the guilt and hazard of judging one another about meats and drinks So then if the Kingdom of God stand not in them nor the Gospel nor work of Christ then the eating of outward bread and wine can be no necessary part of the Gospel worship nor any perpetual ordinance of it Another is yet more plain of the same Apostle Col. 2.16 the Apostle throughout this whole second chapter doth clearly plead for us and against the formality and superstition of our opposers for in the beginning he holds forth the great priviledges Christians have by Christ who are come indeed to the life of Christianity and therefore he desires them ver 6. as they have received Christ so to walk in him and to beware lest they be spoiled through Philosophy and vain deceit after the rudiments or elements of the world because that in Christ whom they have received is all fulness And that they are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands which he calls the circumcision of Christ and being buried with him by baptism are also arisen with him through the Faith of the operation of God Here also they did partake of the true baptism of Christ and being such as are arisen with him let us see whether he thinks it needful they should make use of such meat and drink as bread and wine to put them in remembrance of Christ's death or whether they ought to be judged that they did it not ver 16. Let no man therefore judg you in meat or drink Is not bread and wine meat and drink But why Which are a shadow of things to come but the body is of Christ. Then since our adversaries confess that their bread and wine is a sign or shadow therefore according to the Apostles Doctrine we ought not to be judged in the observation of it But is it not fit for those that are dead with Christ to be subject to such ordinances See what he saith ver 20. Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world why as though living in the world are ye subject to ordinances Touch not taste not handle not Which all are to perish with the using after the commandments and doctrines of men What can be more plain if this serve not to take away the absolute necessity of the use of bread and wine what can it serve to take away Sure I am the reason here given is applicable to them which all do perish with the using since bread and wine perisheth
and ought so to be understood doth appear from the other part By the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost seeing Regeneration is a work comprehensive of many good works even of all those which are called the Fruits of the Spirit Now in case it should be objected that these may also be called ours because wrought in us and also by us many times as instruments I answer It is far otherwise than the former for in the first we are yet alive in our own natural state unrenewed working of our selves seeking to save our selves by imitating and endeavouring a conformity to the outward Letter of the Law and so wrestling and striving in the carnal mind that is enmity to God and in the cursed will not yet subdued But in this second we are Crucified with Christ we are become dead with him have partaken of the Fellowship of his sufferings are made conformable to his death and our first man our old man with all his deeds as well the openly wicked as the seeming righteous our legal endeavours and foolish wrestlings are all buried and nailed to the Cross of Christ and so it is no more we but Christ alive in us the Worker in us So that though it be we in a sense yet it is according to that of the Apostle to the same Gal. c. 2. v. 20. I am Crucified yet nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me not I but the Grace of Christ in me These works are especially to be ascribed to the Spirit of Christ and the Grace of God in us as being immediately thereby acted and led in them and enabled to perform them And this manner of speech is not strained but familiar to the Apostles as appears Gal. 2.8 For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the Apostleship of the Circumcision the same was mighty in me c. Phil. 2.13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do c. So that it appears by this place that since the washing of Regeneration is necessary to Justification and that Regeneration comprehends works works are necessary and that these works of the Law that are excluded are different from these that are necessary and admitted § XI Thirdly they object that no works yea not the works of Christ in us can have place in Justification Obj. because nothing that is impure can be useful in it and all the works wrought in us are impure For this they alledg that saying of the Prophet Isaiah c. 64. v. 6. All our Righteousness are as filthy rags adding this reason that seeing we are impure so must our works be which though good in themselves yet as performed by us they receive a tincture of impurity even as a clean water passing through an unclean pipe is defiled That no impure works are useful to Justification is confessed Answ. but that all the works wrought in the Saints are such is denyed And for answer to this the former distinction will serve We confess that the first sort of works above mentioned are impure but not the Second because the first are wrought in the unrenewed state but not the other And as for that of Isaiah it must relate to the first kind for though he saith all our Righteousness are as filthy rags yet that will not comprehend the Righteousness of Christ in us but only that which we work of and by our selves For should we so conclude then it would follow that we should throw away all Holyness and Righteousness since that which is filthy rags and as a menstruous Garment ought to be thrown away yea it would follow that all the Fruits of the Spirit mentioned Gal. 4. were as filthy rags whereas on the contrary some of the works of the Saints are said to have a sweet savour in the nostrils of the Lord are said to be an Ornament of great price in the sight of God are said to prevail with him and to be acceptable to him which filthy rags and a menstruous garment cannot be Yea many Famous Protestants have acknowledged that this place is not therefore so to be understood Calvin upon this place saith That it is used to be cited by some that they may prove there is so little merit in our works that they are before God filthy and defiled but this seems to me to be different from the Prophets mind saith he seeing he speaks not here of all mankind Musculus upon this place saith that it was usual for this People to presume much of their legal Righteousness as if thereby they were made clean nevertheless they had no more cleanness than the unclean Garment of a man Others expone this place concerning all the Righteousness of our Flesh that opinion indeed is true Yet I think that the Prophet did rather accommodate these sayings to the impurity of that People in legal terms The Author commonly supposed Bertius speaking concerning the true sense of the 7 Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans hath a digression touching this of Isaiah saying This place is commonly corrupted by a pernicious wresting for it is still alledged as if the meaning thereof inferred the most excellent works of the best Christians c. James Coret a French Minister in the Church of Basil in his Apology concerning Justification against Alescales saith Nevertheless according to the counsel of certain good men I must admonish the Reader that it never come into our minds to abuse that saying of Isa. 64.6 against good works in which it is said that all our Righteousness are as filthy rags as if we would have that which is good in our good works and proceedeth from the Holy Spirit to be esteemed as a filthy and unclean thing § XII As to the other part that seeing the best of men are still impure and imperfect therefore their works must be so It is to beg the question and depends upon a Proposition denyed and which is to be discussed at further length in the next Proposition But tho we should suppose a man not throughly perfect in all respects yet will not that hinder but good and perfect works in their kind may be brought forth in them by the Spirit of Christ neither doth the Example of Water going through an unclean Pipe hit the matter because though Water may be capable to be tinctured with uncleanness yet the Spirit of God cannot whom we assert to be the immediate Author of those works that avail in Justification and therefore Jesus Christ his works in his Children are pure and perfect and he worketh in and through that pure thing of his own forming and creating in them Moreover if this did hold according to our Adversaries Supposition that no man ever was or can be perfect it would follow that the very Miracles and works of the Apostles which Christ wrought in them and they wrought in and by the Power Spirit and Grace of Christ were also impure and imperfect
such as their Converting of the Nations to the Christian Faith their gathering of the Churches their Writing of the Holy Scriptures yea and their Offering up and Sacrificing of their Lives for the Testimony of Jesus What may our Adversaries think of this Argument whereby it will follow that the Holy Scriptures whose perfection and excellency they seem so much to magnifie are proved to be impure and imperfect because they came through impure and imperfect Vessels It appears by the confessions of Protestants that the Fathers did frequently attribute unto works of this kind that Instrumental work which we have spoken of in Justification albeit some ignorant persons cry out it is Popery and also divers and that Famous Protestants do of themselves confess it Amandus Polanus in his Symphonia Catholica cap. 27. de remissione peccatorum pag. 651. places this These as the common opinion of Protestants most agreeable to the Doctrine of the Fathers We obtain the remission of sins by Repentance Confession Prayers and Tears proceeding from Faith but do not merit to speak properly and therefore we obtain remission of sins not by the merit of our Repentance and Prayers but by the mercy and goodness of God Innocentius Gentiletus a Lawyer of great same among Protestants in his examin of the Council of Trent pag. 66 67. of Justification having before spoken of Faith and Works adds these words But seeing the one cannot be without the other we call them both conjunctly instrumental causes Zanchius in his 5 book De Natura Dei saith We do not simply deny that good works are the cause of Salvation to wit the instrumental rather than the efficient cause which they call sine qua non And afterwards Good Works are the instrumental cause of the possession of Life Eternal for by these as by a means and a lawful way God leads unto the possession of Life Eternal G. Amesius saith that our obedience albeit it be not the principal and meritorius cause of Life Eternal is nevertheless a cause in some respect administring helping and advancing towards the possession of the life Also Richard Baxter in the book above cited pag. 155. saith that we are justified by works in the same kind of causality as by Faith to wit as being both causes sine qua non or conditions of the New Covenant on our part requisite to Justification And pag. 195. he saith It is needless to teach any Schollar who hath read the Writings of Papists how this Doctrine differs from them But lastly because it is fit here to say something of the merit and reward of works I shall add something in this place of our sense and belief concerning that matter we are far from thinking or believing that man merits any thing by his works from God all being of Free Grace and therefore do we and always have denyed that Popish notion of meritum excondigno nevertheless we cannot deny but that God out of his infinite goodness wherewith he hath loved mankind after he communicates to him his Holy Grace and Spirit doth according to his own will recompence and reward the good works of his Children and therefore this merit of congruity or reward in so far as the Scripture is plain and positive for it we may not deny neither wholly reject the word in so far as the Scripture makes use of it For the same Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies merit is also in those places where the Translators express it worth or worthy as Matth. 3.8 1 Thess. 2.12 2 Thess. 1.5 8. concerning which Richard Baxter saith in the above cited book pag. 8. But in a larger sense as promise is an Obligation and the thing promised is said to be debt so the performers of the conditions are called worthy and that which they perform Merit although properly all be of Grace and not of Debt Also those who are called the Fathers of the Church frequently used this word of merit whose sayings concerning this matter I think not needful to insert because it is not doubted but evident that many Protestants are not averse from this word in the sense that we use it The Apology for the Augustine Confession Art 20. hath these words We agree that works are truly meritorius not of remission of sins or Justification but they are meritorious of other rewards Corporal and Spiritual which are indeed as well in this Life as after this Life And further Seeing works are a certain fulfilling of the Law they are rightly said to be meritorious it is rightly said that a reward is due to them In the acts of the conference of Oldenburgh the Electoral Divines pag. 110 265. say In this sense our Churches also are not averse from the word merit used by the Fathers neither therefore do they defend the Popish Doctrine of merit G. Vossius in his Theological These concerning the merits of good works saith We have not adventured to condemn the word merit wholly as being that which both many of the Ancients use and also the reformed Churches have used in their confessions Now that God judgeth and accepteth men according to their works is beyond doubt to those that seriously will read and consider these Scriptures Matth. 17.26 Rom. 2.6 7 10. 2 Cor. 5.10 Ja. 1.25 Heb. 10.35 1 Pet. 1.17 Rev. 22.12 § XIII And to conclude this Theam let none be so bold as to mock God supposing themselves justified and accepted in the sight of God by vertue of Christ's Death and Sufferings while they remain unsanctified and unjustified in their own Hearts and polluted in their Sins lest their hope prove that of the Hypocrite which perisheth Neither let any foolishly imagine that they can by their own works or by the performance of any Ceremonies or Traditions or by the giving of Gold or Money or by afflicting their bodies in Will-worship and voluntary humility or foolishly striving to conform their way to the outward Letter of the Law flatter themselves that they merit before God or draw a debt upon him or that any man or men have Power to make such kind of things effectual to their Justification lest they be found foolish boasters and strangers to Christ and his Righteousness indeed But blessed for ever are they that having truly had a sense of their own unworthyness and sinfulness and having seen all their own endeavours and performances fruitless and vain and beheld their own emptyness and the vanity of their vain Hopes Faith and Confidence while they remained inwardly pricked pursued and condemned by God's Holy Witness in their Hearts and so having applyed themselves thereto and suffered his Grace to work in them are become changed and renewed in the Spirit of their minds past from death to Life and know Jesus arisen in them working both the will and the deed and so having put on the Lord Jesus Christ in effect are cloathed with him and partake of his Righteousness and Nature such