Worship God according as we Preached And therefore they said that He to wit God had wholly neglected the Salvation of all their Predecessors in permitting that these Miserable Souls should altogether be destitute to their utter Ruin of the Knowledge of Saving Truth This most odious Thought did much draw them back from the Worship of the True God but by the help of God this Error and Scruple was taken from them For we first did demonstrate unto them that the Divine Law was the Oldest of all yea before any Law was made by the Ancients Taught by Nature not to Kill c. The Japans knew by the Teaching of Nature that it was unlawful to Kill Steal Forswear and other things contained in the Ten Divine Laws as was evident in that when any of them Committed these Crimes they were tormented by the Pricks of their Consciences That hence Reason it self doth teach to flee the Evil and follow the Good and therefore was Implanted in the minds of all Men by Nature So that all have the Knowledge of the Divine Law from Nature and of God the Author of Nature before Discipline be added Of which were it doubted Trial might be made in some body altogether Void of Discipline who has been Educated in some Mountain or Wilderness without any Knowledge of the Laws of his Country For if such an one thus altogether Ignorant and Unacquainted with Humane Discipline were asked Whether to Kill a Man to Steal and these other things which the Law of God forbids were Sinful or not Or if it were not right to forbear these things Truly I say such an one utterly Ignorant of Humane Discipline would so answer that it would easily appear that he were not Void of the Law of God From whence then shall we judge he has drawn his Notion unless from God himself the Author of Nature If then this be manifest in Barbarous Men how much more in Men Civiliz'd and well-Educated Which being so it necessarily follows that the Divine Law was Implanted in Man's Heart before all Laws made by Man This Reason was so manifest to them that they were fully satisfied and so being delivered from these Snares did easily subject themselves to the sweet Yoak of Christ. Thus far Xaverius Thus it may seem that to satisfy these Japonians that their Fore-fathers were not all necessarily Damned and to shew that the Vniversal Love of God reached unto them to put them in a Capacity of Salvation This Cunning Jesuite could not find another way than by Asserting this Principle Albeit it be no ways Congruous to the Doctrine of the Church of Rome For these Antient Japonians could not be esteemed Members of the Church of Rome and as not being such according to the Romish Principle who say There is no Salvation without the Church that is without the Church of Rome must needs have been Damned II. That by vertue of that Light Men may be Converted and become Members of the Church without which is no Salvation Secondly That Notion and Definition of a Church which naturally arises from this Principle and is accordingly believed by the Assertors of it doth also both very well Agree to and Establish this Doctrine of Vniversal Love For by vertue of this Seed and Light Extended by Christ unto the Hearts of all it being supposed That Men may thereby be truly Converted and consequentially Vnited to Christ it naturally follows That such may become Members of the Church Else none of Old but the Families of the Patriarchs and of the Jews could have been judged to be Saved nor yet any during all the Time of the Apostacy Which as it is false in it self will be hardly affirmed by any And therefore since such might be Saved they must be esteemed Members of the Church without which in this large Sense there can be no Salvation as including the whole Body of Christ Of which Body who are not are certainly Excluded And therefore it is that the Church Catholick or Vniversal is not so confined to any Sect Form or External Profession as that those that are not Initiated in those Forms are Excluded absolutely from being Members of the Church unless it be upon Refusal or Resistance of the Will of God really manifest to them as drawing them to the Practice of particular Things For it hath pleased God at several Times to Require several things both of particular Churches and Persons which he has not of others As to the Jewish Converts To Abstain from things Strangled and Blood and to the Churches of the Gentiles Not to Circumcise which was permitted to the Christian Jews for a Time And from particular Persons many particular things have been Required Which albeit they were not general Obligations upon all Christians yet in so far as Manifested to and Required of them were sufficiently Obligatory And their Disobedience to them should have been in them a Breach of their General Obligation of Obedience which we owe to God in all things He Requires and consequently pernicious however others to whom they have never been Revealed nor Required might have been Saved without them III. That God by his Spirit Reveals his Will Immediately in the hearts of all true Christians Thirdly As the Asserting of Principles which commend the Love of God and shew the Great Extent of it to Mankind do most agree with Vniversal Love so this People in another Chief Principle of theirs do greatly shew it For as by the Preaching of this Vniversal Principle of the Light they shew the Extension of God's Love to all so by Preaching that God both doth and is willing to Reveal his Will Immediately by his own Spirit in the Hearts of all those that Receive his Light that so they may be guided acted and led thereby and know the Mind of God thus Inwardly Immediately in themselves they hold forth the Intension of God's Love to all those that follow and obey him so that they neither bind up this being led by the Spirit of God only to themselves nor stint it to singular and Extraordinary Occasions but hold it forth as a Common and Vniversal Priviledge to all true Christians and Members of the Church Now this Doctrine greatly Commends the Love of God and Establisheth the Principle of Vniversal Love in that it shews how Vniversally God hath offered this Blessed Priviledge to all in that He hath given his Light unto all upon the receiving of which this Immediate Guidance of the Spirit followeth as a necessary Concomitant For such as deny this Immediate Revelation of God's Will by his Spirit in the Hearts of his Children to be a Common and Vniversal Priviledge to all true Christians and Members of the Church must needs suppose the Knowledge of his Will Necessary for them to be Communicated to them by some other External Means as by outward Writings and Precepts insomuch that all such as are robbed of this Benefit are necessarily Excluded from
needful for the good Ordering and Disposing all things in their proper Place and for preserving and keeping all things in their right Station did in the Dispensation and Communication of his holy Spirit Minister unto every Member a Measure of the same Spirit yet divers according to Operation for the Edification of the Body some Apostles some Teachers some Pastors some Elders there are Old Men there are Young Men there are Babes For all are not Apostles neither are all Elders neither are all Babes yet are all Members And as such all have a Sense and Feeling of the Life of the Body which from the Head flows unto all the Body as the Ointment of Aaron 's Beard unto the Skirts of his Garment and every Member has its place and Station in the Body so long as it keeps in the Life of the Body and all have need one of another yet is no Member to assume another Place in the Body than God has given it nor yet to grudg or repine its Fellow-member's Place but to be content with its own For the Vncomely Parts are no less needful than the Comely and the less-Honourable than the more-Honourable which the Apostle Paul holds forth in 1 Cor. 12. from Verse 13 to 30. Now the Ground of all Schisms Divisions or Rents in the Body is The Ground of Rents and Divisions when-as any Member assumes another Place than is allotted it or being gone from the Life and Vnity of the Body and loosing the Sense of it le ts in the Murmurer the Eye that watches for Evil and not in holy Care over its Fellow-members And then instead of coming down to Judgment in it self will stand up and judge its Fellow-members yea the whole Body or those whom God has set in a more Honourable and Eminent Place in the Body than it self Such suffer not the Word of Exhortation and term the Reproofs of Instruction which is the Way of Life Imposition and Oppression and are not aware how far they are in the things they Condemn others for while they spare not to reprove and revile all their Fellow-members Yet if they be but admonished themselves they cry out as if their Great Charter of Gospel-Liberty were broken Now though such and the Spirit by which they are acted The Subtilty of that Spirit be sufficiently seen and felt by Thousands whose Hearts God has so established as they are out of Danger of being intangled in that Snare and who have Power and Strength in themselves to judge that Spirit even in its most subtil Appearances yet there are who cannot so well withstand the Subtilty and seeming Sincerity some such pretend to though in measure they have a sight of them and others that cannot so rightly distinguish betwixt the Precious and the Vile and some there are that through Weakness and want of true Discerning may be deceived and the Simplicity in them betrayed for a season as it is written With Fair Speeches and Smooth Words they deceive the Hearts of the Simple Therefore having according to my measure received an Opening in my Understanding as to these things from the Light of the Lord and having been for some time under the weighty sense of them I find at this instant a Freedom to commit them to Writing for the more Universal Benefit and Edification of the Church of CHRIST Now The Heads treated of viz. for the more plain and clear opening and understanding of these things it is fit to sum up this Treatise in these following general Heads to be considered of First From whence the Ground and Cause of this Controversy is the Rise and Root of it Secondly Whether there be now any Order and Government in the Church of Christ Thirdly What is the Order and Government which we plead for in what Cases and how far it may extend in whom the Power decisive is and how it differeth and is wholly another than the Oppressing and Persecuting Principality of the Church of Rome and other Anti-christian Assemblies SECTION II. Concerning the Ground and Cause of this CONTROVERSIE WHenas the Lord God by his mighty Power began to visit the Nations with the Dawning of his Heavenly Day for thus I write unto those The first Dawning of the Heavenly Day of the Lord described that have received and believed the Truth and that he sent forth his Instruments whom he had fitted and prepared for his Work having fashioned them not according to the Wisdom and Will of Man but to his own heavenly Wisdom and Counsel they went forth and preached the Gospel in the Evidence and Demonstration of the Spirit not in the Enticing Words of Man's Wisdom but in Appearance as Fools and Mad And breaking forth to those that judged according to Man But their Words and Testimony pierced through into the Inner Man in the Heart and reached to that of God in the Conscience whereby as many as were simple-hearted and waited for the Redemption of their Souls received them as the Messengers of the Most High God and their Words were unto them not as the Words of Men but as the Words of God for in the receiving and embracing the Testimony of Truth through them they felt their Souls eased and the Acceptable Day began to dawn in and upon them Now what Evidence brought these Men to make their Testimony to be received did they Entice did they flatter did they daub up did they preach Liberty to the Flesh or Will of Man Nay verily they used no such Method their Words were as Thunder-Bolts knocking down all that stood in their Way and pouring down the Judgment of God upon the Head of the Transgressor every where Did they spare the Zealous Professor more than the open Profane Nay verily they condemned equally the Hypocrisy of the one as well as the Profanity of the other yet wanted they not Regard to the tender Seed and Plant of God in either Did they give way Did they yield to the Wisdom of Man To the Deceitfulness of the Serpent that would reason Truth for themselves saying I must stay until I be Convinced of this and that and the other thing I see not yet this to be wrong or the other thing to be my Duty How did they knock down this manner of Reasoning by the Spirit of God which wrought mightily in them shewing and holding forth that this is the Day of the Lord that is dawned that all are invited to come that none ought to tarry behind that that which so pleadeth is the same Spirit which of old time said in those that were invited I cannot come yet I must first marry a Wife I must go prove my Yoke of Oxen I must go visit my Possessions let me first bury my dead Father Did not the Lord through them testify and declare against these things and is there not a Cloud of Witnesses who felt the Enemy thus reasoning to keep us in the Forms Fellowships false Worships and
Those only can be esteemed Charitable in point of Doctrine and truly to Commend the Love of God whose Principle is of that Extent as naturally to take in within the compass of it both such as have not arrived to their Discoveries and who are also Different in Judgment from them and that without any extraordinary and miraculous Conveyance as being the Common Means and Order of Salvation appointed by God for all and truly reaching all Moreover in the second place far less canst thou pretend to have Charity for me that wilt rob me of my Life Goods or Liberty because I cannot jump with thee in my Judgment in Religious Matters To say Thou dost it for good and out of the Love thou bearest to my Soul Is an Argument too Ridiculous to be answered unless that the so doing did Infallibly produce always a Change in Judgment The very Contrary whereof Experience has abundantly shewn and to this day doth shew seeing such Severities do oftner Confirm men in their Principles than drive them from them And then by thy own Confession thou dost not only Destroy my Body but my Soul also and canst not avoid thinking upon thy own Principle but I must be Damned If I persist in my Judgment 2. Uncharitable Deportment To destroy Men for Conscience an Act of Malice Which for thee to be the very Immediate Occasion and Author of is certainly the greatest Act of Malice and Envy that can be imagined seeing thou dost what in thee lyeth through the heat of thy Zeal and Fury to cut me off from obtaining that place of Repentance which for ought thou knowest it might please God to afford me were not my days thus shortned by thee Magistrates putting to death Malefactors for their Crimes is no Example for them to kill good Men for matters of Conscience To alledge the Example of Putting to Death Murderers and other such Profligate Malefactors which is allowably done by the general Judgment of almost all Christians from thence urging That as this is not accounted a Breach of Christian Charity so neither the other will no way serve the purpose nor yet be a sufficient Cover for this kind of Vnchristian Cruelty because the Crimes for which these are thus punished are such as are not Justified as matters of Conscience or Conscientiously practised which are unanimously Condemned not only by the Consent of all Christians but of all Men as being Destructive to the very Nature of Man-kind and to all Humane Society And 't is Confessed even by all such Malefactors themselves I know not if one of a Hundred Thousand can be Excepted and the punishment of such is Justifiable as all generally acknowledge But to kill Sober Honest good Men meerly for their Conscience is quite Contrary to the Doctrine of Christ as has been elsewhere upon other Occasions largly demonstrated This being premised I shall briefly Apply the same to the several Sorts of Christians that thence may be observed whose Principles do most exactly agree with and lead to that Vniversal Love and Charity so much in words commended by all and for the want of which every sort take so much liberty to Judge and Condemn each other There are many other particulars by which the several Sects may be Tried in this respect but these Two forementioned being the principal I shall chiefly insist upon them in this present Application To begin then with the Papists there is nothing more commonly acknowledged and assented to among them The Papists Maxim Without the Church is no Salâ—ation than that Maxim Extra Ecclesiam nulla Salus without the Church there is no Salvation which Maxim in a sense I confess to be True as shall hereafter appear but according as it is understood among them it does utterly destroy this Vniversal Love and Charity For by this Church without which there is no Salvation they precisely understand the Church of Rome reckoning that whosoever are not of her Fellowship are not Saved And this must needs necessarily follow upon their Principles seeing they make the Ceremonial Imbodying in this Church so necessary to Salvation that they Exclude from it the very Children begotten and brought forth by their own Members Their Children not Excluded from their Rigour unless formally received by the Sprinkling or Baptism of Water And albeit they have a Certain place more tolerable than Hell for these Vnbaptized Infants yet hence is manifest how small their Charity is And how much it is Confined to their particular Ceremonies and Forms Since if they think Children born among them for want of this Circumstance are excluded from Heaven albeit never guilty of Actual Transgression they must needs judge that such as both want it and also are guilty of many Sins as they believe all Men are who are come to Age especially such as are not in the Church go without Remedy to Hell Secondly All Dissenters and Separatists from the Church Infidels Turks and Hereticks The Pope's Yearly Curse and Excommunication of all without them which in short are all that profess not Fellowship and Communion with the Church of Rome and own her not as their Mother are in a most solemn manner Yearly Excommunicated by the Pope And it were a most gross Inconsistency to suppose that such as are so Cursed and Excommunicated and given over to the Devil by the Father and Chief Bishop of the Church can in the Judgment of the Members be Saved especially while they think he is Approved of God and Led by an Infallible Spirit in his so Excommunicating them And lastly To suppose any such Vniversal Love or Charity as extending to Persons either without the Compass of their own Society The Foundation of the Romish Church the Superiority of Peter or Dissenting and Separating from them so as to reckon them in a capacity or possibility of Salvation were to destroy and overturn the very Basis and Foundation of the Roman Church which stands in acknowledging the Superiority and Precedency of Peter and his Successors and in believing that Infallibility is annexed thereunto Now such as are not of the Roman Society cannot do this and those that do not thus are such to whom the Church of Rome can have no Charity but must look upon them as without the Church and consequently as Uncapable of Salvation while there abiding Object If it be Objected that the Church of Rome professeth Charity to the Greek Armenian and Ethiopian Churches albeit vastly differing in many things from them Answ. I Answer that whatsoever Charity the Church of Rome either doth or ever hath professed to any of these shall be found to be always upon a supposed Acknowledgment made by them to the See of Rome The Church of Rome professing Charity to some as the Mother-Church and Apostolick Seat from thence seeking the Confirmation and Authority of their Patriarchs at least as the Romanists have sought to make the World believe how true is
Which is granted but that proveth not that it is not therefore Vniversal Next he taketh notice of the Context where it is said It became him in bringing many Sons unto Glory c. and therefore these are the All for whom he died But this is strongly to affirm not to prove Albeit Christ brought many Sons unto Glory and called such Brethren it doth not follow he Tasted death only for such The Apostle sheweth us first the general Extent of Christ's Death in saying He tasted death for every Man and then sheweth us how it became Effectual to many And yet the Man is so confident albeit he has urged nothing but only affirmed that he adds If this Context do not sufficiently Confute this Conceit J. B. c. regard the Scriptures no farther than it favours their Opinion and Confutes their Adversaries we need Regard the Scriptures no more But here he has spoken-out the Truth as it is For this evidently shews that for all their pretence to Exalt the Scriptures yet they regard it no more than it favours their Opinion This is the Account for which they Regard the Scriptures if it favour their Opinion and Confute their Adversaries but if it do not They need no more regard it else surely he should have said If the Scriptures do not Confute that which he esteems an Error then he will not judge it so any more but regard the Scriptutes more than his own Judgment but on the contrary he is Resolved if the Scripture do not Confute what he thinks a Conceit that he need no more Regard them Likewise in the rest of this page he gives himself a notable stroke for to my saying That their Doctrine would infer that Christ came to Condemn the World contrary to his own words Joh. 3.17.12.47 he answereth That Prejudice has so blinded mine Eyes that I cannot see the Beam in mine Eye for in my opinion not one Man might have been saved because Christ only procured a meer possibility and no certainty for any one Man c. But as I have above observed I assert as my judgment the express Contrary that Christ has so died for some that they cannot miss of Salvation and this himself also noticeth afterwards p. 276. I would know then and let all honest Men judge if there be any spark of honesty left in him whether himself be not the Man whom prejudice has blinded Almost at the same rate p. 207. he asketh me if my Argument from 2. Pet. 3.9 the Lord is long-suffering to us-ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come unto Repentance do hold What will I do with those that out-live the day of their Visitation is the Lord willing to give them Repentance I answer No and yet no overturning of my Argument For in respect All had a Day of Visitation wherein they might have Repented God may be said to be Long-suffering and not to have been Willing any should have Perished c. But this cannot be said if none ever had such a Day or Season as they affirm He would Insinuate as if This made all to depend upon Free-Will but how frivolous this Calumny is will after appear And whereas both in this and the following page he Rants at an high rate as if I did fight against God's Omnipotency saying God will be God whether I will or not and that Christ must turn a Petioner and supplicate Lord Free-Will exclaiming O cursed Religion The Man doth but shew his Malitiousness and Weakness For if God's Omnipotency because he doth whatsoever he Will God's Omnipotency willeth not Wicked Actions be Urged to prove that Men cannot Resist his Will and that therefore whatsoever Men do even the wickedest Actions are willed by God then Violence is offered to the Will of the Creatures and the Liberty and Contingency of second Causes are necessarily taken away Which yet is expresly denied by the Westminster-Confession Chap. 3. Nor will all his Distinctions far less Affirmations solve this that Peter speaketh only of the Elect because he mentioneth them elsewhere unless he prove All here to be Restricted is but a begging of the Question ¶ 8. Pag. 210. n. 65. Testimonies of Antiquity slighted by J. B. as not being for his Turn He quarreleth my bringing some Testimonies of Antiquity Agreeing with what I say which he termeth a Fouling of Fingers with humane Writings saying Himself layeth not so much Weight upon the Authority of Men in this matter and yet afterwards he Cites some as making for his purpose He may know I as little build upon the Testimony of the Ancients as he can for the bottoming of Faith and yet to shew their Agreement with us and against them is a good Check to their shameless Objection of Novelty considering how the same is Objected to them as strongly and with no less Reason by their Mother the Church of Rome whom when pinched by us they begin to Run to for the Ground of their Church Ministry and Maintenance That ever I said The Quakers whom he terms to be of Yesterday have only found the Truth is false albeit I say they have a more Clear and Full Discovery of it But one would think notwithstanding his pretending he lays little Weight upon the Authority of Antiquity in this matter that it is not so else why doth he so often in this matter Vpbraid us with the Heresy of Pelagius as Contradicting the Sense of the Ancient Church and their Doctors Who are those whose Testimony he calls the Authority of Men in this matter SECT VII Wherein his IX Chapter Of Universal Salvation Possible his X. Of Universal Grace and Light XI Of the Necessity of this Light to Salvation and his XII Of the Salvation of Heathens without hearing the Gospel are Considered ¶ 1. HE beginneth his 9th Chapter Of Vniversal Salvation Possible according to his Custom with Railing accusing me of Ignorance Folly Pride and Pedantry but he thinks it not worth his pains to spend words to discover it yet he gives a main Reason for all to wit I suppose our Opinions were never known in the World before we were raised up to declare them Which being a manifest Vntruth and never said by me the Reader may thence judge of the Grounds he has for this his Railing However he supposeth They are but Old Errors cloathed with New Notions and which himself has sufficiently enough Enervated in his former Chapter of Reprobation and Universal Redemption Which being the Basis of them is by him if he may be admitted Judge in his own Cause already overturned And then he thinks It was Impertinency to say That Quakers can by sensible Experience be Confirmed in their Doctrine and so brings to an end his first two Paragraphs J. B's Comment and false Insinution put upon our Doctrine of Grace and Salvation His next work is to play the Commentator and to tell his Reader my Meaning which to be sure is
through him is Communicated unto them they are prone and inclined unto Evil though Thousands of Thousands be ignorant of Adam's Fall neither ever knew of the Eating of the Forbidden Fruit so also many may come to feel the Influence of this Holy and Divine Seed and Light and be turned from evil to good by it though they knew nothing of Christ's Coming in the flesh through whose Obedience and Sufferings it is purchased unto them And as we Affirm it is absolutely needful The History is profitable with the Mystery that those do believe the History of Christ's outward Appearance whom it pleased God to bring to the Knowledge of it so we do freely Confess that even that outward Knowledge is very Comfortable to such as are subject to and led by the Inward Seed and Light For not only doth the sense of Christ's Love and Sufferings tend to humble them but they are thereby also strengthened in their Faith and incouraged to follow that Excellent Pattern which he hath left us Who suffered for us as saith the Apostle Peter 1 Pet. 2.21 Leaving us an Example that we should follow his steps And many times we are greatly Edified and Refreshed with the gracious Sayings which proceed out of his Mouth The History then is profitable and comfortable with the Mystery and never without it but the Mystery is and may be profitable without the explicite and outward Knowledge of the History Quest. 5 But Fifthly This brings us to another Question to wit Whether Christ be in all men or no Which sometimes hath been asked us and Arguments brought against it because indeed it is to be found in some of our Writings How Christ is in all men That Christ is in all men and we are often heard in our publick Meetings and Declarations to desire every man to come to know and be acquainted with Christ in them telling them that Christ is in them It is fit therefore for removing of all Mistakes to say something in this place concerning this matter We have said before how that a Divine Spiritual and Supernatural Light is in all men how that that Divine Supernatural Light or Seed is Vehiculum Dei how that God and Christ dwelleth in it and is never separated from it also how that as it is received and closed with in the heart Christ comes to be formed and brought forth but we are far from ever having said That Christ is thus formed in all men or in the Wicked For that is a great Attainment which the Apostle travelled that it might be brought forth in the Galatians Neither is Christ in all men by Way of Vnion or indeed to speak strictly by way of Inhabitation because this Inhabitation as it is generally taken imports Vnion or the Manner of Christ's being in the Saints As it is written I will dwell in them and walk in them 2 Cor. 6.16 But in regard Christ is in all men as in a Seed yea and that he never is nor can be separate from that Holy pure Seed and Light which is in all men therefore may it be said in a larger sense that he is In all even as we observed before The Scripture saith Amos 2.13 God is pressed down as a Cart under sheaves and Christ Crucified in the Vngodly though to speak properly and strictly neither can God be pressed down nor Christ as God be Crucified In this respect then as he is in the Seed which is in all men we have said Christ is in all men and have preached and directed all men to Christ in them who lies Crucified in them by their Sins and Iniquities Christ Crucified in man by Iniquities that they may look upon him whom they have pierced and Repent whereby he that now lies as it were slain and buried in them may come to be raised and have Dominion in their hearts over all And thus also the Apostle Paul preached to the Corinthians and Galatians 1 Cor. 2.2 Christ crucified in them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek hath it This Jesus Christ was that which the Apostle desired to know in them and make known unto them that they might come to be sensible how they had thus been Crucifying Christ that so they might Repent and be Saved And forasmuch as Christ is called that Light that inlightens every man The Light of the World Therefore the Light is taken for Christ who truly is the Fountain of all Light and hath his Habitation in it for ever Thus the Light of Christ is sometimes called Christ i. e. that in which Christ is and from which â—e is never Separated § XVI Sixthly It will manifestly appear by what is avove-said that we Vnderstand not this Divine Principle to be any part of Man's Nature nor yet to be any Relicks of any good which Adam lost by his Fall in that we make it a distinct separate thing from man's Soul and all the Faculties of it Yet such is the malice of our Adversaries that they cease not sometimes to Calumniate us as if we preached up a Natural Light or the Light of man's natural Conscience Next there are that lean to the Doctrine of Socinus and Pelagius who perswade themselves through mistake and out of no ill design to Injure us as if this which we preach up were some natural Power and Faculty of the Soul and that we only differ in the wording of it and not in the thing it self Whereas there can be no greater Difference than is betwixt us in this matter For we certainly know that this Light of which we speak is not only distinct The Faculties of Man's Reason but of a different Nature from the Soul of man and its Faculties Indeed that man as he is a rational Creature hath Reason as a Natural Faculty of his Soul by which he can discern things that are Rational we deny not for this is a Property Natural and Essential to him by which he can know and learn many Arts and Sciences beyond what any other Animal can do by the meer Animal Principle Neither do we deny but by this Rational Principle man may apprehend in his Brain and in the Notion a Knowledge of God and Spiritual things yet that not being the right Organ as in the second Proposition hath more at length been signified it cannot profit him towards Salvation but rather hindereth And indeed the great Cause of the Apostasy hath been that man hath sought to fathom the things of God in and by this natural and rational Principle and to build up a Religion in it Anti-Christ in the Temple of God neglecting and overlooking this Principle and Seed of God in the heart so that herein in the most universal and Catholick Sense hath Anti-Christ in every man set up himself and sitteth in the Temple of God as God and above every thing that is called God For men being the Temple of the Holy Ghost as saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 3.16 when the
without any real Proof For it is a Truth That no Scripture-Truth can be savingly believed but by the Illumination of the Spirit which is Objective In Paragraph 28. they think to evade G. K. his Argument That we have Inspiration because all Men have it that then Papists Mahumetans Pagans and Men bodily possessed have Inspiration which we do affirm viz. That these have it so far as to Convince them and is sufficient to be a Law of Condemnation and render them without Excuse for their Sin and this all Men have not only within their Day but after their Day of Visitation is expired But as to their imposed Glosses and Senses which they say their Divines have already vindicated on these Scriptures cited by G. K. for Vniversal Grace and Inspiration as they refer us to their Divines so we refer them to our Friends and our Books where their silly and weak Reasons are answered against this Gospel-Truth As for the Word EVERY we acknowledge it is not taken always Vniversally but seeing it is taken so most frequently it lieth on them to prove that it is otherwise taken in the Places cited Before we close the Answer to this Subsection Revelations self-evident we propose further unto the Reader these Two Considerations 1. That when we say Inward Divine Revelations in the Seed are self-evident we do not mean it always in respect of the Material Objects of things Revealed but in respect of the Formal Object or Revelation it self 2. Although we affirm That the Illumination and Influence of the Spirit in Men's Hearts is both Effective and Objective yet we do not affirm That they are two distinct Things but one and the same thing under different Respects so that we do not plead for another Influence than that which in Words they seem to grant But we say it is a more Excellent Thing than they acknowledge it to be as being in it self perceptible and having a self-Evidence whereas they will have it only a Medium incognitum a thing altogether undiscernible and in-evident of it self so as to convince or satisfy the Understanding that it is of God And thus according to our Adversaries Sense and upon their Principle this Inward Illumination of the Spirit may be said to be Fallacious for want of Evidence seeing according to their own Argument That which hath not a sufficient Evidence is fallacious But whereas the Students in their Account grant in Words That the Soul hath Spiritual Sensations and that the Work of Grace may be felt This Confession destroyeth their whole Superstructure For if the Work of Grace can be felt or is perceptible then it is Objective for whatever is perceptible is objective And seeing they grant That the Soul hath Spiritual Sensations we ask them What are the Objects of the Sensations Are they only Words and Letters or Things such as God himself in his heavenly Refreshings Waterings and Bedewings If the first it is most unreasonable for it would make the Spiritual Senses to fall short of the Natural seeing the Natural Senses reach beyond Words to Natural Things themselves If the Second they must needs with us acknowledge inward objective Revelations for by them we understand no other thing but as God and the things of His Kingdom are felt in us by way of Object SECTION II. Where the Students Chief Argument against the Spirit 's being the Rule is proved to be one upon the Matter with that the Jesuit Dempster used against their Master J. M. and the same way answered and their Weak Endeavours to evite it Examined and Refuted THere hath enough been said heretofore to demonstrate the Fallacies in the Form of their Arguments in which also it resembled the Jesuits which to avoid Repetition we shall now omit Their Medium against us is That we cannot give an Evidence of our being led by the Spirit but that which may be as good an Evidence for Hereticks Hereticks Pretences to the Spirit For thus they word it in their Account alledging We wronged them in saying They used the Words which Hereticks may pretend to yet abstracting from this false Charge we shall take it as they now express it being indeed Equivalent To prove that it may be as good an Evidence for Hereticks they make J. L. argue thus Other Hereticks declare and say they have the Spirit of God teaching them as well as you Therefore if your saying you were so taught were a sufficient Evidence c. Then their declaring c. Now let the Reader judge whether this Argument amounts to any thing more then that That is not a sufficient Evidence to the Quakers which other Hereticks may pretend to Thus the Students dispute against the Quakers let us hear how the Jesuit disputes against J. M. their Master Pap. Lucifug pag. 3. after the Jesuit hath repeated his Argument he adds May it please the Answerer of this Syllogism to remember That the Ground or Principle which he shall produce to prove the Truth of his Religion must have this Property that it cannot serve nor be assumed to prove a false Religion as the Grounds and Principles that one produceth to prove that he is an Honest Man must have this Property that it cannot serve nor be assumed to prove a Knave to be an honest Man c. Let the judicious Reader consider whether there be any material difference betwixt these two Argumentations But to proceed and shew that their Arguments are no better than the Jesuits against their Master and our Answers no worse than their Master 's against the Jesuit we shall place them together J. M. Answereth the Jesuit thus pag. 5. of his Pap. Lucifugus The true Religion hath sufficient grounds in it self to manifest it self to be the true Religion if it meet with a well disposed Intellect For to use your own Similitude an honest Man may have ground enough to shew a distinction betwixt him and a Knave albeit a Fool cannot discern it so the true Religion may have ground enough to prove it self True which the false Religion hath not though an Infidel or Heretick whose foolish mind is darkned Rom. 1.21 cannot take it up Our Answer to the Students as themselves acknowledge it pag. 59. is J. M 's Answer to the Jesuit compared with ours That the Evidence of the Spirit cannot be assigned but to the well-disposed Vnderstanding this they call a pitiful Subterfuge alledging that then this Evidence can only be assigned to such as are of the Quaker's mind but not to others and that any Heretick in the World may deny Evidences upon the same account Now let the judicious Reader determine whether if this Answer be a pitiful Subterfuge the Students with the same Breath do not declare their Master 's to the Jesuit to be the same And when they write next let them shew the difference which they have not yet done In answer to this Retortion they alledge pag. 67. That R. B. said their