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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30895	An apology for the true Christian divinity, as the same is held forth, and preached by the people, called, in scorn, Quakers being a full explanation and vindication of their principles and doctrines, by many arguments, deduced from Scripture and right reason, and the testimony of famous authors, both ancient and modern, with a full answer to the strongest objections usually made against them, presented to the King / written and published in Latine, for the information of strangers, by Robert Barclay ; and now put into our own language, for the benefit of his country-men.; Theologiae verè Christianae apologia. English	Barclay, Robert, 1648-1690.	1678 (1678)	Wing B721; ESTC R1740	415,337	436

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

Saints and the Blood of Christ which cleanseth from all sin is possessed must be Sufficient But such is the LIGHT 1 Joh. 1.7 Therefore c. Moreover That which we are commanded to believe in that we may become the Children of the Light must be a Supernatural Sufficient and Saving Principle But we are commanded to believe in this Light Therefore c. The Proposition cannot be denyed The Assumption is Christ's own words John 12.36 While ye have Light believe in the Light that ye may be the Children of the Light To this they object that by Light here is understood Christ's outward Person in whom he would have them believe That they ought to have believed in Christ that is that he was the MESSIAH that was to come is not denyed but how they evince that Christ intended that here I see not nay the place it self shews the contrary by those words While ye have Light and by the verse going before Walk while ye have the Light least Darkness come upon you Which words import that when that Light in which they were to believe was removed then they should lose the capacity or season of believing Now this could not be understood of Christ's Person the Jews might have believed in him and many did savingly believe in him as all Christians do at this day when the Person to wit his bodily presence or outward man is far removed from them So that this Light in which they were commanded to believe must be that inward Spiritual Light that shines in their Hearts for a season even during the day of Man's Visitation which while it continueth to call invite and exhort Men are said to have it and may believe in it but when refuse to believe in it and reject it then it ceaseth to be light to shew them the way but leaves the sense of their unfaithfulness as a sting in their Conscience which is a terror and darkness unto them and upon them in which they cannot know where to go neither work any waies profitably in order to their Salvation and therefore to such rebellious ones the day of the Lord is said to be darkness and not light Amos 5.18 From whence it appears that tho many receive not the Light as the darkness comprehends it not nevertheless this Saving Light shines in all that it may save them Concerning which also Cyrillus Alexandrinus saith well and defends our Principle With great diligence and watchfulness saith he doth the Apostle John endeavour to anticipate and prevent the vain thoughts of men for there is here a wonderful method of sublime things and overturning of Objections he hath just now called the Son the true Light by whom he affirmed that every man coming into the world was inlightned yea that he was in the World and the world was made by him One may then object if the Word of God be the Light and if this Light inlighten the hearts of men and suggest unto men piety and the understanding of things if he was alwayes in the world and was the Creator or Builder of the world why was he so long unknown unto the world It seems rather to follow because he was unknown to the world therefore the world was not inlightened by him nor he totally Light Let any should so object he divinely infers and the world knew him not Let not the world saith he accuse the Word of God and his Eternal Light but it s own weakness For the Son inlightens but the creature rejects the Grace that 's given unto it and abuseth the sharpness of understanding granted it by which it might have naturally known God and as a prodigal hath turned its sight to the Creatures neglected to go forward and through lazyness and negligence buried the illumination and despised this Grace Which that the disciple of Paul might not do he was commanded to watch therefore it is to be imputed to their wickedness who are illuminated and not unto the Light for as albeit the sun riseth upon all yet he that is blind receiveth no benefit thereby none thence can justly accuse the brightness of the Sun but will ascribe the cause of not seeing to the blindness So I judg it is only to be understood of the Only Begotten Son of God for he is the true Light and sendeth forth his brightness upon all but the God of this world as Paul saith hath blinded the minds of those that believe not 2 Cor. 4.4 That the Light of the Gospel shine not unto them We say then that darkness is come upon men not because they are altogether deprived of Light for Nature retaineth still the strength of understanding divinely given it but because man is dull'd by an evil habit and become worse and hath made the measure of Grace in some respect to languish When therefore the like befals to man the Psalmist justly Prays crying Open mine Eyes that I may behold the wonderful things of thy Law For the Law was given that this Light might be kindled in us the blearedness of the eyes of our minds being wiped away and the blindness being removed which detain'd us in our former ignorance By these words then the world is accused as ungrateful and unsensible not knowing its Author nor bringing forth the good fruit of the illumination that it may now seem to be said truly of all which was of old said by the Prophet of the Jews I expected that it should have brought forth grapes but it brought forth wild grapes For the good fruit of the illumination was the knowledg of the Only Begotten as a cluster hanging from a fruitful branch c. From which it appears Cyrillus believed that a saving illumination was given unto all For as to what he speaks of Nature he understands it not of the common nature of man by it self but of that nature which hath the strength of understanding Divinely given it for he understands this Universal Illumination to be of the same kind with that Grace of which Paul makes mention to Timothy saying Neglect not the Grace that is in thee Now it is not to be believed that Cyrillus was so ignorant as to judg that Grace to have been some natural gift § XXII That this Saving Light and Seed or a measure of it is given to all Christ telleth expresly in the Parable of the Sower Matth. 13. from v. 18. Mark 4. and Luke 8.11 he saith that this seed sown in those several sorts of grounds is the Word of the Kingdom which the Apostle calls the Word of Faith Rom. 10.8 Ja. 1.21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the implanted ingrafted Word which is able to save the Soul the words themselves declare that it is that which is Saving in the nature of it for in the good ground it fructified abundantly Let us then observe that this Seed of the Kingdom this Saving Supernatural and Sufficient Word was really sown in the stony thorny ground and by the way-side where

of the glorious Dispensation of the Gospel of Christ appear all at once the work of the first Witnesses being more to restifie against and discover the abuses of the Apostasie than to establish the Truth in purity He that comes to build a new City must first remove the old Rubbish before he can see to lay a new Foundation and he that comes to a House greatly polluted and full of Dirt will first sweep away and remove the Filth before he put up his own good and new Furniture The dawning of the day dispells the Darkness and makes us see the things that are most conspicuous but the distinct discovering and discerning of things o as to make a certain and perfect observation is reserved for the arising of the Sun and its shining in full brightness And we can from a certain Experience boldly affirm that the not waiting for this but building among yea and with the old popish rubbish and setting up before a full purgation hath been to most Protestants the foundation of many a mistake and an occasion of unspeakable hurt Therefore the Lord God who as he seeth meet doth communicate and make known to man the more full evident and perfect knowledg of his everlasting Truth hath been pleased to reserve the more full discovery of this glorious and Evangelical Dispensation to this our Age albeit divers testimonies have thereunto been born by some noted men in several Ages as shall hereafter appear and for the greater augmentation of the Glory of his Grace that no man might have whereof to boast hath raised up a few despicable and illiterate men and for the most part Mechanicks to be the Dispensators of it by which Gospel all the scruples doubts hesitations and objections above mentioned are easily and evidently answered and the justice as well as mercy of God according to their Divine and Heavenly Harmony are exhibited established and confirmed according to which certain Light and Gospel as the knowledge thereof hath been manifested to us by the Revelation of Jesus Christ in us fortified by our own sensible experience and sealed by the testimony of the Spirit in our Hearts we can confidently affirm and clearly evince according to the testimony of the Holy Scriptures the following points § XI First That God who out of his infinite love sent his Son the Lord Jesus Christ into the World who tasted Death for every man hath given to every man whether Jew or Gentile Turk or Scythian Indian or Barbarian of whatsoever Nation Countrey or Place a certain day or time of visitation during which day or time it is possible for them to be saved and to partake of the Fruit of Christs Death Secondly That for this end God hath communicated and given unto every man a measure of the Light of his own Son a measure of Grace or a measure of the Spirit which the Scripture expresses by several names as sometimes of the Seed of the Kingdom Mat. 13.18.19 The Light that makes all things manifest Eph. 5.13 The Word of God Rom. 10.18 or Manifestation of the Spirit given to profite withal 1 Cor. 12.7 a Talent Mat. 25.15 a little Leaven The Gospel preached in every Creature Col. 1.23 Thirdly That God in and by this Light and Seed invites calls exhorts and strives with every man in order to save them which as it is received and not resisted works the Salvation of all even of those who are ignorant of the Death and Sufferings of Christ and of Adam's Fall both by bringing them to a sense of their own misery and to be sharers in the Sufferings of Christ inwardly and by making them partakers of his Resurrection in becoming Holy Pure and Righteous and recovered of their sins by which also are saved they that have the knowledg of Christ outwardly in that it opens their understanding rightly to use and apply the things delivered in the Scriptures and to receive the saving use of them But that this may be resisted and rejected in both in which then God is said to be resisted and pressed down and Christ to be again crucified and put to open shame in and among men and to to those as thus resist and refuse him he becomes their condemnation First then according to this Doctrine the Mercy of God is excellently well exhibited in that none are necessarily shut out from Salvation and his Justice is demonstrated in that he condemns none but such to whom he really made offer of Salvation affording them the means sufficient thereunto Secondly This Doctrin if well weighed will be found to be the Foundation of Christianity Salvation and Assurance Thirdly It agrees and answers with the whole tenor of the Gospel Promises and Threats and with the Nature of the Ministry of Christ according to which the Gospel Salvation Repentance is commanded to be preached to every Creature without respect of Nations Kindreds Families or Tongues Fourthly It magnifies and commends the merits and death of Christ in that it not only accounts them sufficient to save all but declares them to be brought so nigh unto all as thereby to be put into the nearest capacity of Salvation Fifthly It exalts above all the Grace of God to which it attributeth all good even the least and smallest actions that are so ascribing thereunto not only the first beginnings and motions of good but also the whole conversion and salvation of the Soul Sixthly It contradicts overturns and enervates the false Doctrine of the Pelagians Semi-Pelagians Socinians and others who exalt the Light of Nature the liberty of mans will in that it wholly excludes the natural man from having any place or portion in his own Salvation by any acting moving or working of his own until he be first quickned raised up and acted by God's Spirit Seventhly As it makes the whole Salvation of Man solely and alone to depend upon God so it makes his condemnation wholly and in every respect to be himself in that he refused and resisted somewhat that from God wrestled and strove in his heart and forces him to acknowledg God's just Judgment in rejecting him and forsaking of him Eighthly It takes away all ground of Despair in that it gives every one ground of hope and certain assurance that they may be saved neither doth feed any in security in that none are certain how soon their day may expire and therefore it is a constant incitement and provocation and lively incouragement to every man to forsake evil and close with that which is good Ninthly It wonderfully commends as well the certainty of the Christian Religion among Infidels as it manifests its own verity to all in that it s confirmed and established by the experiences of all men seeing there was never yet a man found in any place of the Earth however barbarous and wild but hath acknowledged that at some time or other less or more he hath found somewhat in his heart reproving him for some things evil which he hath

him on whom God therefore truly accounteth Righteous and Just. This is so far from being the Doctrine of Papists that as the generality of them do not understand it so the learned among them oppose it and dispute against it and particularly Bellarmin Thus then as I may say the formal cause of Justification is not the works to speak properly they being but an effect of it but this inward Birth this Jesus brought forth in the heart who is the Well-beloved whom the Father cannot but accept and all those who thus are sprinkled with the Blood of Jesus and washed with it By this also comes that communication of the goods of Christ unto us by which we come to be made partakers of the Divine Nature as saith Peter ep 2. c. 1. v. 4. are made one with him as the Branches with the Vine and have a title and right to what he hath done and suffered for us So that his Obedience becomes ours his Righteousness ours his Death and Sufferings ours And by this nearness we come to have a sense of his Sufferings and to suffer with his Seed that yet lies pressed and crucified in the hearts of the ungodly and so travel with it and for its Redemption and for the repentance of those Souls that in it are crucifying as yet the Lord of Glory Even as the Apostle Paul who by his sufferings is said to fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ for his Body which is the Church Though this be a Mystery sealed up from all the wise men that are yet ignorant of this Seed in themselves and oppose it nevertheless some Protestants speak of this Justification by Christ inwardly put-on as shall hereafter be recited in its place Lastly though we place remission of sins in the Righteousness and Obedience of Christ performed by him in the flesh as to what pertains to the remote procuring cause and that we hold our selves formally justified by Christ Jesus formed and brought forth in us yet can we not as some Protestants have unwarily done exclude works from Justification for though properly we be not justified for them yet are we justified in them and they are necessary even as causa sine qua non i. e. the cause without which none are Justified For the denying of this as it 's contrary to the Scriptures Testimony so it hath brought a great scandal to the Protestant Religion opened the mouths of Papists and made many too secure while they have believed to be Justified without good works Moreover though it be not so safe to say they are meritorious yet seeing they are rewarded many of those called the Fathers have not spared to use the word merit which some of us have perhaps also done in a qualified sense but no ways to inferr the Popish abuses above mentioned And lastly if we had that notion of good works which most Protestants have we could freely agree to make them not only not necessary but reject them as hurtful viz. that the best works even of the Saints are defiled and polluted For though we judg so of the best works performed by man endeavouring a conformity to the outward Law by his own strength and in his own will yet we believe that such works as naturally proceed from this Spiritual Birth and formation of Christ in us are pure and Holy even as the Root from which they come and therefore God accepts them Justifies us in them and rewards us for them of his own Free Grace The state of the controversie being thus stated these following Positions do hence from arise in the next place to be proved § IV. First that the obedience sufferings and death of Christ is that by which the Soul obtains remission of sins and is the procuring cause of that Grace by whose inward workings Christ comes to be formed inwardly and the Soul to be made conformable unto him and so just and justified And that therefore in respect of this capacity and offer of Grace God is said to be reconciled not as if he were actually reconciled or did actually justifie or account any just so long as they remain in their sins really impure and unjust Secondly that it is by this inward Birth of Christ in man that man is made just and therefore so accounted by God wherefore to be plain we are thereby and not till that be brought forth in us formally if we must use that word justified in the sight of God because Justification is both more properly and frequently in Scripture taken in its proper signification for making one just and not reputing one meerly such and is all one with Sanctification Thirdly that since good works as naturally follow from this birth as heat from fire therefore are they of absolute necessity to Justification as causa sine qua non i. e. though not as the cause for which yet as that in which we are and without which we cannot be Justified And though they be not meritorious and draw no debt upon God yet he cannot but accept and reward them for it is contrary to his Nature to deny his own Since they may be perfect in their kind as proceeding from a Pure Holy Birth and Root Wherefore their judgment is false and against the Truth that say that the holyest works of the Saints are defiled and sinful in the sight of God For these good works are not the works of the Law excluded by the Apostle from Justification § V. As to the first I prove it from Rom. 3.25 Whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood to declare his Righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God Here the Apostle holds forth the extent and efficacy of Christs death shewing that thereby and by Faith therein remission of sins that are past is obtained as being that wherein the forbearance of God is exercised towards mankind So that though men for the sins they daily commit deserve Eternal Death and that the Wrath of God should lay hold upon them yet by virtue of that most satisfactory Sacrifice of Christ Jesus the Grace and Seed of God moves in love towards them during the day of their visitation yet not so as not to strike against the evil for that must be burned up and destroyed but to redeem man out of the evil Secondly if God were perfectly reconciled with men and did esteem them just while they are actually unjust and do continue in their sins Then should God have no Controversie with them How comes he then so often to complain to expostulate so much throughout the whole Scripture with such as our Adversaries confess to be Justified telling them that their sins separate betwixt him and them Isa. 59.2 For where there is a perfect and full reconciliation there there is no separation Yea from this Doctrine it necessarily follows either that such for whom Christ died and whom he hath

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

would affirm it never attainable then should there never be a place known by the Saints in this world wherein they might be free of doubting and despair Which as it is most absurd in it self so it is contrary to the manifest experience of thousands Thirdly God hath given to many of his Saints and children and is ready to give unto all a full and certain assurance that they are his and that no power shall be able to pluck them out of hand But this assurance would be no assurance if those who are so assured were not established and confirmed beyond all doubt and hesitation If so then surely there is no possibility for such to miss of that which God hath assured them of And that there is such assurance attainable in this life the Scripture abundantly declareth both in general and as to particular persons As first Rev. 3. v. 12. him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God and he shall go no more out c. which containeth a general promise unto all Hence the Apostle speaks of some that are sealed 2 Cor. 1.22 Who hath also sealed us and given the earnest of his Spirit in our hearts Wherefore the Spirit so sealing is called the earnest or pledge of our inheritance Eph. 1.13 In whom ye were sealed by the holy Spirit of Promise And therefore the Apostle Paul not only in that of the Romans above nored declareth himself to have attained that condition but 2 Tim. 4.7 he affirmeth in these words I have fought a good fight c. which also many good men have and do witness And therefore as there can be nothing more manifest than that which the manifest experience of this time sheweth and therein is found agreeable to the experience of former times so we see there have been both of old and of late that have turned the Grace of God into wantonness that have faln from their faith and integrity thence we may safely conclude such a falling away possible We also see that some of old and of late have attained a certain assurance sometime before they departed that they should inherit eternal life and have accordingly dyed in that good hope Of and concerning whom the Spirit of God testified That they are saved Wherefore we also see that such a state is attainable in this life from which there is not a falling away For seeing the Spirit of God did so testifie it was not possible that they should perish concerning whom he who cannot lye thus bare witness The Tenth Proposition Concerning the Ministry As by this Light or Gift of God all true knowledge in things Spiritual is received and revealed so by the same as it is manifested and received in the heart by the strength and power thereof every true Minister of the Gospel is ordained prepared and supplyed in the work of the Ministry and by the leading moving and drawing hereof ought every Evangelist and Christian Pastor to be led and ordered in his labour and work of the Gospel both as to the place where as to the persons to whom and as to the time wherein he is to minister Moreover who have this authority may and ought to preach the Gospel though without hamane Commission or Literature as on the other hand who want the Authority of this Divine Gift however learned or authorized by the Commission of Men and Churches are to be esteemed but as deceivers and not true Ministers of the Gospel Also who have received this holy and unspotted Gift as they have freely received it so are they freely to give it without hire or bargaining far less to use it as a Trade to get Money by yet if God hath called any one from their Employments or Trades by which they acquire their Lively-hood it may be lawful for such according to the liberty which they feel given them in the Lord to receive such temporals to wit what may be needful for them for meat and clothing as are given them freely and cordially by those to whom they have communicated Spirituals § I. HItherto I have treated of those things which relate to the Christian Faith and Christians as they stand each in his private and particular condition and how and what way every man may be a Christian indeed and so abide Now I come in order to speak of those things that relate to Christians as they are stated in a joynt fellowship and Communion and come under a visible and outward society which society is called the Church of God and in Scripture compared to a body and therefore named the Body of Christ. As then in the natural body there be divers members all concurring to the common end of preserving and confirming the whole body so in this Spiritual and mystical Body there are also divers according to the different measures of Grace and of the Spirit diversly administred unto each member and from this diversity ariseth that distinction of persons in the visible Society of Christians as of Apostles Pastors Evangelists Ministers c. That which in this Proposition is proposed is What makes or constitutes any a Minister of the Church what his qualifications ought to be and how he ought to behave himself But because it may seem somewhat preposterous to speak of the distinct Offices of the Church until something be said concerning the Church in general though nothing positively be said of it in the Proposition yet as here implied I shall briefly premise something thereof and then proceed to the particular members of it § II. It is not in the least my design to meddle with those tedious and many controversies wherewith the Papists and Protestants do tear one another concerning this thing but only according to the Truth manifested to me and revealed in me by the testimony of the Spirit according to that proportion of wisdom given me briefly to hold forth as a necessary introduction both to this matter of the Ministry and of Worship which followeth those things which I together with my Brethren do believe concerning the Church The Church then according to the grammatical signification of the word as it is used in the Holy Scripture signifies an assembly or gathering of many into one place for the Substantive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I call out of and originally from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I call and indeed as this is the grammatical sense of the word so also it is the real and proper signification of the thing the Church being no other thing but the society gathering or company of such as God hath called out of the World and worldly Spirit to walk in his LIGHT and LIFE The Church then so designed is to be considered as it comprehends all that are thus called and gathered truly by God both such as are yet in this inferiour World and such as having already laid down the earthy Tabernacle are passed into their

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