off from amidst his people I but mark the reason and ground because he hath despised the word of Jehovah and hath broken his Commandement Here note that God concludes his word and his Commandements to be one and the same thing and concludes That soul shall be utterly cut off his iniquity shall be upon him Exo. 9.20 that is it shall never be forgiven him except God in mercy grant repentance the truth is you are worse than the Heathen for they beleeved the word spoken unto them by Moses to be the word of Jehovah He that feared the word of Iehovah Exo. 2.23 among the Servants of Pharaoh made his Servants and his Cattel flee into the Houses Likewise he conveyed his minde by his word to the minde of the Israelites for to them he spake all these words saying I am Iehovah thy Elohims Deut 4.2 which have brought thee out of the Land of Egypt out of the house of bondage thou shalt have no other Elohims before me Moreover he saith Ye shall not adde unto the word which I command you neither shall ye diminish ought from it Here take notice of this That this Scripture God ownes to be his word therefore admits of no addition or diminution then it is certain it is the spirit of the Devil in you I do not say doth adde or diminish but that which is much worse for you endevour utterly to dissolve the Scriptures Again The Apostle Peter affirms two conclusions of the old Testament First That the then written Scripture in his dayes namely the old Testament was to the Churches of Christ a more sure word of Prophecie than that excellent speech that came from Heaven to Jesus Christ upon the Mount because that was a private and peculiar respect to him alone He renders this reason why Knowing this first saith he that no Prophecie of Scripture is of any private interpretation as all your quaking Doctrines are being bottomed upon your light within which neither you nor any man else knowes what it is Secondly 2 Pet. 1.17 18 19 20. Your Doctrines are of a private interpretation because they are not owned by the publick Oracles of Gods word neither do you own them to be his word The Apostles second conclusion to the Churches as to the old Testament is you do well that ye take heed as to a light that shineth in a dark place until the day-dawn and the day-Starre arise in your hearts and in the 21. Verse he renders a reason thereof for saith he the Prophecie came not in old time by the will of man as your quaking Doctrines do but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost Now the reason why the shining of the old Testament was in a dark place is because it was under types and shadows and Prophecies as to them that had not beleeved the Gospel though then unveiled and by the dawning of the day and the day-starre arising in their hearts is meant the preaching of the Gospel without that veile so beleeving in Christ more clearly manifested to their mindes by his spirit that was the day-starre which was to arise in their hearts Again Our Lord Jesus Christ himself proves the Scriptures to be the word of God Mark 7.8 13. when he had charged them that they had laid aside the Commandements of God as do you more directly then ever they did then in the 13. Verse he affirms that Commandement written in the Scriptures to be the word of God Likewise he affirms the Gospel preached to be the word of God Luk. 8.11 for saith he expounding the parable the Seed is the word of God and it appeares also to be the word of God preached Vers 18. saying Take heed how you hear And from this ground I told you that a wiser man than you did affirm the Scriptures to be the word of God that is the Lord Jesus Christ Likewise he saith unto them Joh. 10.34 35. It is written in your Law I said ye are Gods if ye call them Gods to whom the word of God came and the Scripture cannot be dissolved Here our Lord also affirms the word of God to be the Scripture And in John 17.8 Our Lord to his Father concerning his Apostles saith I have given them thy words which thou gavest me and they have received them and have known surely that I came out from thee and they have beleeved that thou diddest send me Observe here that Gods word which the Father gave to Christ Christ to his Apostles and they beleeving those words preached them to the World the substance whereof is in their Gospels and Epistles and the Scriptures is unto us these words of God and the ground of our Faith But you endevour to dissolve this ground and to lay a foundation of your own making a thing that you call a light within and tell us that that is Gods word and that there is none other but that and you call this thing the everlasting word of God and your Christ and your spiritual King Jesus and this lye is the ground of your Faith But our Lord Jesus Christ in the houre of his Temptation kept his minde close to the word of God in the Scriptures that were written by Moses to repel the Tempter and his temptations saying to the Devil It is written that man shall not live by bread alone but by every word of God that is his minde shall live by beleeving the Scriptures as his body does by bread as in Vers 8. Deur 6.16 Chap. 10. Get thee behinde me Satan for it is written thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve and this word was then written And here our Lord applies those Scriptures to the Devils that were spoken to the Israelites they being his Creatures as well as man Thus the word of God in the Scriptures was the ground of Christs Faith and so are to all that are his that is that are truly godly therefore because you deny the Scriptures to be Gods word and also the sacred Trinity consequently you deny God himself for it is proved that Jehovah is in the Elohims and the Elohims in Jehovah wherefore I told you because you deny principles you ought to be served as they serve such in the Schools that is they kick them out and so ought you to be kicked out of the School of Christ and the company of all Gods people yet nevertheless I did then grant that the Scriptures as a humane expression as printed in Inck and paper was not the word of God for that may be burnt in the fire as the King did the Roll yet that which was express'd to the King in that Roll Jer. 26.29 30. was the word of God and God made it good upon him and so he will make good his word upon you and your Companions though you endevour to dissolve that word as did that King that all men
Rebecca had conceived as God had promised the children strugling together in her wombe thereupon she said If it it be so Why am I thus wherefore she went to enquire of Jehovah whereupon concerning Esau and Jacob God declares his purpose That he considered those two children in her wombe not as two persons individually but as two roots universally in National respects For saith God unto Rebecca Two Nations are in thy wombe and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels and the one people shall be stronger than the other people the elder shall serve the younger Now the ground why God elected one Nation in the younger childe Jacob and rejected the other in the loyns of the elder childe Esau was to figure that the children of the flesh as such should not be counted as children unto God but the children of the Promise as leading to faith in Christ and born again not of the will of the Flesh but of the Spirit shall be counted the Children of God as faithful Abraham A second ground why God elected that Nation in Jacob's loyns was to be his onely visible Church in all the world to uphold his Name till Shilo came in the flesh namely Christ A third ground why God did so at that time was this Because when he declared this purpose to Rebecca his name in Christ to destroy the works of the Devil Gen. 11.8 10.32 12.1 2 3 4. Josh 24.2 23.15 Ezek. 16.3 4 5 6. was as it were extinguished out of the world And the ground why it was so extinct was this For at that time all Nations and all the Families of the Earth were Apostates from the said posture by which they might receive eternal life I say all Families except one and that was the family of Sem and that also began to Apostate to Idols as appears in Terah Abraham's Father therefore God commanded him to depart from his Fathers house and then promised him having no childe this Nation to issue from his loyns and Isaac's and Jacob's and all comprehended in these words So shall thy Seed be Again God did not onely then at that time elect the Jews unborn to be the visible Church of Christ but also at the same time predestinated the Gentiles into the same posture Gal. 3.8 by which also they might receive eternal life by promise to Abraham whence saith the Apostle And what that postture is is at larg declared in my second Treatise The Scriptures foreseeing that God would justifie the Heathen through faith preached the Gospel before unto Abraham saying In thee shall all Nations of the Earth be blessed So that the scope and drift of all these Texts is so far from maintaining the aforesaid Elections that it is against them all for the Text onely speaks of a National not a Personal Election and of a National Rejection not a Personal A second Text which is supposed to speak for Personal Elections as a ground of the Saints perseverance are these words As many as were ordained to eternal life beleeved But as before so now to find the true meaning of this Text Acts. 13.98 is to keep close to that which it aims at Vers 42. The Apostle having preached Christ to the Jews in their Synagogue thereupon some Gentiles then present besought the Apostles that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath whereupon the next Sabbath day Vers 44. came almost the whole City together to hear the word of God And then some of the said Elect of God namely the Jews seeing the multitude they were filled with envy and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul contradicting and Blaspheming Vers 45. whereupon the Apostle spake to the blaspheming Jews and said It was necessary that the Word of God should first have been spoken to you but seeing you put it away from you and judge your selves unworthy of eternal life that is of that posture wherein you might have received eternal life Lo we turn to the Gentiles Vers 47. For so hath the Lord commanded us saying I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles that thou shouldest be for salvation to the ends of the Earth Vers 48. When the Gentiles heard this that is those words of the prophecie concerning themselves to be admitted into the posture by which they might receive eternal life then they were glad and glorified the Word of the Lord that is in beleef of the said prophecie for they had been 1800 yeers excluded from the said posture because the Oracles of God were before confined only unto the Nation of the Jews not at all to come amongst the Gentiles until Christ came yet did not all that multitude beleeve for some were in the case of final Impenitency through their precedent obstinacy as also were some of the Jews and therefore God denied them the spirit of faith to beleeve vers 41. Behold ye despisers and wonder and perish for I work a work in your dayes a work which you shal in no wise beleeve though a man declare it unto you Therefore Vers 51. the Apostles shooke off the dust of their feet to witnesse against those unbeleeving Jews that were his visible members and so his sheep but being denied the gift of faith therefore not his sheep John 10.26 John 10. 26. Ye beleeve not because ye are not of my sheep as I said unto you So as the meaning of these words As many as were ordained to eternal life is no more but this That God predestinated or ordained by promise to Abraham that the Gentiles should be called into that posture by which they might receive eternal life From this ground it was that the Scriptures did foresee that God would justifie the Heathen through faith and upon this ground the Apostle doth apply to beleeving Gentiles That Gods calling of them is according to his purpose to be made like unto Christ and the first born among many Brethren Rom. 8.28 29 30. and to be justified and glorified was now fulfilled So that the scope of these Texts makes nothing for Personal Elections but sets forth the rejoycing of the Gentiles in the demonstration of Gods ordaining them to the said posture by promise to Abraham and conveyed to them under this prophecie CHAP. II. In which the 17 th Chapter of JOHN is opened THis Chapter is supposed to prove these Personal Elections as the ground of the Saints perseverance Some of the words are these which our Lord spake to his Father of himself Thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him c. These words naturally divide themselves into four branches First The power given him by his Father Secondly The extent of that power over all flesh Thirdly The End wherefore That he should give Eternal life Fourthly The Restraint or Bounds to which this Eternal life is limited Not to all
in mercy prevent it not Again I met with one of your elder Brethren in evil a Familist and he objected unto me against the Scriptures because to King Iames learned Broughton made it appear that many places in the Scripture were falsly translated not agreeable to the original Copy therefore the Scriptures to us was altogether uncertain thus he said although he did know that King by the godly learned mended those defects and caused the Bible to be new printed and it is judged to be the best Translation that is extant but his end in all this is the same as is yours to have us beleeve that that Light within to be the only true Scriptures which you call the tender part of man but he then further objected that the Scriptures are altogether uncertain to us for who knowes that original Copy that Broughton alleages were that of the Apostles for since their time they have past through many corrupt hands generation after generation I answer So did the old Testament in Moses dayes for many hundreds of years Generation after Generation past thorough corrupt hands for the Israelites themselves sometimes fell to Idolatry sometimes in their Captivity scattered among the Heathens yet the Apostles took it for granted the original Copies of Moses and the Prophets were so sound as to be a ground of truth to the Churches for to them he saith Whatsoever things were written before time were written for our learning Rom. 15.4 that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope And our Lord Jesus Christ he took it for granted also for he makes use of the Scriptures Luk. 4. that were written by Moses and so through patience and comfort of the Scriptures repelled the Tempter and his temptations If ye demand of me what I mean by the internal or intrinsical glory of Jehovah 198 I mean his unmeasurable Answ or infinite Essence or his essential glory in the internal relations of the Elohims Father Word and holy Ghost and these three are one saith St. John And to this internal essential glory no created nature can approach nor comprehend what it is therefore not the glorified humane body of the Lord Jesus Christ now glorified in Heaven although in personal Union with the second Elohim much lesse the glorified Saints And this essential glory in Jehovah is not more glorious in any place or thing in one than another but is as glorious in himself and to himself beyond all Worlds where no created things are If ye object That Heaven is his Throne and his highest glory wherein is the Lord Jesus Christ and glorified Saints and Angels Answ All this is true if it be rightly understood that all this is but his external glory resulting from his Creatures in relation to his final end for which he made all things in order to glorifie himself in the Vessels of honour or dishonour to eternity as at large is proved in my second Treatise but all this no way adds to his internal divine glory for infinite as such admits of no addition nor diminution therefore your dreames and your Brethren the Familists that the Essence of God is the tender part of man as say you the same light that is in God and his Essence as say they that all shall return into his Essence and no individuals to be damned or saved to eternity both these from hence appeares to be a most blasphemous whimsey And for conclusion take this observation that you Quakers and your elder Brethren in evil the Familists are not onely Atheists because your Tenents lead to beleeve there is no God for you deny Jehovah our Elohims to be one Jehovah but also do deny mans reasonable soul as animating his body since you fansie a thing in man which you call your God your Christ as before is proved wherefore from your Tenents one asked this Question If you inclose a living man in a Vessel that the Aire cannot enter and opening it finde him dead then tell me what you can see therein more than his dead Corps what then is the reasonable soul in man you so much talk of To this man I answer If the reasonable soul be there together with his Corps you cannot see it therefore you know not whether it be there or no for your eyes see not the Wind nor Aire nor the Angels good or bad nor God himself although he be so neer to us as is proved and the reason of all this is that your eye or the eye of any man else cannot see any thing but that which is of some Colour for Colours are the proper object of our sight therefore because the Wind the Aire mans Soul Angels good or bad and Gods Essence being all without colour your eye cannot discern them for they are invisible to it will you therefore conclude there is no Wind no Aire no reasonable Soul no Angels good or bad nor no God you may as well infer you have no Face for you never saw it but by a Glasse or some such help FINIS ERRATA PAg. 13. Line 24. read and p. 14. l. the last adde the word not p. 16. l. 29. for the word gift r. gilt p. 18. l. 15. adde the word for p. 30. l. 13. leave out the word as p. 56. l. 13. for left r. felt p. 46. l. 2. add the word man p. 103. l. 30. for complains r. explains p. 108. l. 2. for then r. they