having a peculiar intrinsick aptitude and fitness beyond all the Graces of the Spirit for applying him to the soul 5. Must not all serious Religion begin first at this great Truth of an imputed Righteousness since no access can be to perform new Obedience till we have got once from under the curse of the Law and be found that in another which we are not in our selves It is a blessed and inseparable tye by which these are conjoined in the Scripture which none may essay to divide but upon that dreadful penalty of being shut out of all possible right or claim thereto that Christ is made over to be both our Righteousness and Sanctificacation yet so as the alone weight of our peace and acceptation with God must still lye on what Jesus Christ hath done for and not what he hath wrought in us but as it is an assured evidence of the former our Faith being thus made discernable and justified by works O what can thus influence so strange an opposition to the Doctrine of Grace as is this day in the World and to that unexpressibly sweet and excellent Truth of the Righteousness of the Gospel the clear breaking up of which Light in these last times hath been as life from the dead to the Church after a long and dark night of Antichristianism had gone before to obscure it It is clear the Holy Ghost hath indissolubly conjoyned our being justified by faith and having peace with God through Jesus Christ Rom. 5. 1. And in this I can attest such as ever knew the sensible intimation of pardon and what it is to have a spirit broken and wounded under the sense of sin put under the hand of the great physician and a solid cure thereunto if this ever came in another way than by some clear warming discovery and sensible application of the Righteousness of Christ and that the alone sure and effectual way to heal is by appplying his blood and laying that blessed propitiatory sacrifice as a salve thereto But oh what another thing is the power and efficacy of the Truth on the soul than can be expressed in some scholastick notions about it such as brings a demonstration of its certainty to those who know it indeed that all the disputers of the World could never answer yea I must say if a possibility could be for such a choice as to carry Heaven by works of our own I should think it a sad evidence of those whose heart did not warrant them to witness that no choice could be to them here but to this alone blessed way of being saved by the Righteousness of Jesus Christ doth their soul cleave and 't is that which gives a more indearing sight of Heaven in holding the same only of him who hath purchased it for them and them for it by his own blood which shall thus draw forth and intend their love to the highest pitch for all eternity Pos 5. It is one of their known Tenets that none should move in the commanded â—â—â—ties of a Christian but by some inward call and motion on their spirit and that we ought to forbear where this is wanting but it is sure herein we are taught from the Scripture 1. To have the command as the rule and object of our Faith and not any spiritual disposition nor is there a restriction thus shewed to the Church when it so expresly injoyns pray without ceasing 1 Thes 5. 17. Trust in him at all times c. Psal 62. 8. nor gives it any Latitude to sift our obedience upon the want of actual influence 2. It is clear moral Commands are perpetually obliging though the breathings of God and his immediate assistance be not in our power But the wind bloweth where it lists John 3. 8. And though it 's ever true that it is in vain for one to rise early or essay any work without God Psal 127. 1. Yet this argument should then conclude for the Husbandmans restraining his plowing and sowing in the season thereof until he be sure of the Lords joyning his influences with the same since it 's as impossible to sow without the common influence of God who is the first Cause as it is to pray in Faith without the special breathings of the Spirit 3. It is not such Doctrine can darken the undoubted experience of all the Saints whilst nothing is more known to them than this what singular advantage they have found in essaying duty under the greatest indisposition and deadness and how oft ere they were aware their spirits with a blessed surprisal even to astonishment have been revived and inlarged 4. What assurance can men have the next hour or to morrow more than in the present time of the Spirits moving on their souls or that they shall be thus at a farther advantage by waiting the call of the Word for duty until they have some inward call and motion thereto Pos 6. Though these men pretend to own Teachers of their own wav and mould such as they say are commanded by the eternal Spirit to that work yet do they expresly deny a fixed ministry in the Church with a mediate call thereto or any Scripture-institution thereof But I confess it needs be no wonder that such whose great intent is to destroy the City have the first and sorest thrust at the Watch-men and that in so strange a manner their rage and passion should burst out against the faithful Ministers of Jesus Christ whom by all possible means they seek to withstand in their work since the more enforcing convictions there are of the Authority of God and his Power with them the more does their pain and torment turn them inraged though in this they are such a sight and should be to us as calls for some sad and compassionate resentment when there seems no access to convince those who do but express the greatest cruelty against themselves in making them the But of their wrath and revilings who before the Lord dare say they have no other revenge but how to pluck such out of the fire and if possible reclaim their soul from perishing But who is that Party here against whom they thus quarrel sure it is not the Ministry so much as the Scriptures of Truth in which it's express warrant is too clear and there 's no possible access to debate 1. That such a marvelous erection of the Church as a politick body is undeniably there shewed with its peculiar offices and service and a fixed Ministry thereto 2. That this Ministry given by Jesus Christ is a perpetual standing ordinance in his house to the end of the world Matt. 28. 20. Ephes 4. 11 12. 3. That it lyeth not common but hath a peculiar guard and hedg set about the same For no man taketh this honour to himself but be that is called thereto as Aâ—ron Heb. 5. 4. And what this calling was is told us in the first verse that he was taken from among men and ordained for
men in things pertaining to God 4. Not only is this Ministry and it 's perpetual use held forth but we see also a mediate call thereunto by the Church 2 Tim. 2. 2. The things thou hast heard of me before many witnesses the same commit thou to faithful men who may be able to teach others Where not only the calling Authority and Power is express but a necessary cognition by the Church of the fitness and qualification of those who should be set a-part to that work 5. I must here add since there is no possible access to deny that convincing seal which in all ages Christ hath put to this Ministry that they so much revile I may say without giving a lye to the Holy Ghost In these marvelous effects it hath had on the World to save them who believe which a Divine immediate power accompanying the same could only effectuate and how by the simplicity of the Gospel and foolishness of Preaching have the moist savage and rude been tamed the Conscience of the most daring and stubborn Enemies of the Truth forced to tremble under the conviction of an Authority more than humane join'd with it yea which none can debate by this way was the Pagan-World turned Christian Pos 7. It is known at what rate they disown and revile those great Scripture-Ordinances of Baptism the Lords Supper the Observation of the Sabbath and reading or hearing of the Word preached as being carnal and Commands of the Letter In which I confess the Devil knows his game and could have taught no more effectual way to gain Proselites than by such a mould of Religion suited and pleasing to the flesh but they must not think it strange 1. That their Bible is no guide to us I mean the Light within so much cried up as a sufficient Rule and when the Holy Ghost prefers the Scripture as more sure even to an immediate voice from Heaven That the Christian Church gives it a preference to any voice that can speak within the Soul 2. I am sure it cannot be known why Christians should part with those Ordinances injoyned by the express Authority of the great Law-giver upon such unquestionably moral and perpetual grounds and not part with the whole Scripture of God also 3. Why do they not also lay aside those ancient Ordinances of eating and drinking as carnal I am far from intending a jest here upon so serious a subject but does the enforcing necessity to keep up their natural Life let them know the perpetual use of the same as a duty and is there not a sure ground to know that none can be a Christian in earnest without an indispensible necessity of those blessed Ordinances of the Gospel for their spiritual life to keep close by the foot-steps of the Flock and to feed among the shepherds Tents by reading and hearing of the Word a spiritual observance of the Sabbath and that great sealing Ordinance of the Lords Supper Nor know we another way of getting beyond those Ordinances but one of two a being safe landed through grace in Heaven even there where no Temple is or a judicial arrest from the Lord of Induration which may be truly said to be an entring into the very Suburbs of Hell even in this life Pos 8. Such is the Doctrine of this Party as expresly owns a perfection in this life to be attained in which if they intend only a perfection in kind which is indispensably necessary to the lowest size of a Christian or a being perfectly justified and compleat in Christ we believe the same also but since they have no reserved sense here nor hide their intent and meaning that a perfect freedom from sin is in this life to be attained I must then ask 1. To which of all the Saints in the Scripture will they turn Who knew ever such a thing sure not to Moses unto whom the glorious God spake face to face not to that beloved Disciple who leaned on Christs bosom not to him who was caught up into the third Heaven whose sore wrestlings and groans under a body of Death are to this day on publick Record in the Church 2. Did the Church know any such thing in Isaiah's time But we are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousness is as filthy rags Isa 64. 6. or in those pure Primitive times of the Christian-Church if we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and make God a liar 1 Joh. 1. 8. 3. Why are such observable failings recorded in Scripture of those to whom the Holy Ghost did bear that witness that they were perfect in their generation such as Noab and Job Is it not to shew what perfection that is which the greatest of the Saints can attain here 4. Nothing is more clear from the known experience of the Saints than this that the greatest Hights in Christianity have still kept them most low under the humbling sense of a Body of Death and that contrariety between the flesh and the spirit which doth never cease until Death once decide that strife but were any such thing attainable here I am sure none more visibly contradict its Truth than this Party and are at a greater disadvantage to pretend thereto except wrath passion reviling of others in the most reproachable scurrilous terms that can be exprest be some part of tht perfection they mean Pos 9. It is their professed Doctrine that the soul is a part of the essence of God without beginning and infinite A strange Position that the Heathens whose sole guide was the Light of Nature in their search of the souls Original could have no confidence to own though these things we know to be undeniably clear 1. That the soul of Man is one of the rarest pieces of the Creation of God 2. That in its frame it is a simple immaterial and active substance which is not compounded of Principles and therefore can be resolved into none 3. That the soul hath no cause of Corruption from any opposition of contraries as the body hath through the prevalence of heat or cold but to assert its being infinite and without beginning is a blasphemy almost beyond President even among those whom the Devil hath most visibly acted forth against the Truth since 1. This is the incommunicable propriety of the glorious God alone from whom and for whom are all things 2. This does deny the Creation of Man of whom the soul is the noblest part for to be created and infinite imply the greatest contradiction and are terms incompatible 3. Thus a part of the essence of God should go to Hell and the souls of the damned there must have the same Prerogative with the great former of all things to have had a duration without beginning I confess this Principle as most of their Doctrine is such as might make them Quakers in earnest and cause their Conscience to tremble with horror and amazement if upon any serious reflection they could see
bodily as though it were some low and carnal dispensation to know Christ and him crucified but as he is within But it 's sure if any reality be in the Christian Faith and the whole mystery of Godliness no delusion the Christian Church will never debate 1. That it is the same Jesus who is preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the world that is received up into Glory 1. Tim. 3. 16. and the connexion there indissoluble nor can another true conception of him be possible than what the Scripture hath given 2. It is sure the literal sense of the Word is no new distinct sense from the spiritual though by a different Light and evidence understood and this great Truth That Jesus the Son of Mary is the Saviour of the World revealed within by the Spirit doth found no other objective Christ nor hath any different sense from what is objected to us in the Letter but is the very same though seen with another Light and irradiation thereof on the Soul 3. We know there was no dispensation nor Allegory meaned Acts 5. 30. The God of our Fathers hath raised up Jesus whom you hanged on a tree him hath God exalted to be a Prince and Saviour and that we must seek him else where than within even he whom the Heavens must contain till the time of the restitution of all things 4. We have sure warrant to say let him be accursed though an Angel from Heaven should come to give another account of Jesus Christ than what we have in the Scripture and that this is he 1. Who was the Faith of the ancient Church to whom all the types and shadows under the Law did so expresly relate concerning whom the Prophets did diligently enquire searching to what or what manner of time the Spirit in them did point concerning his being revealed to the World and the precise time set thereto 2. He who hath passed into the Heavens Jesus the Son of God and is still there the glorious Object of our Faith and Worship 3. He who surely was wounded for our transgressions and hruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was on him and by his stripes are we healed Isa 53. 5. O blessed and unexpressibly sweet Truth that we know to be no notion or allegory and that all these Sin-offerings and sacrifices under the Law pointing at this were not the true Victim offered to God but had a discernible respect to that one great propitiatory sacrifice now offered up for the Sins of the people 4. It was in truth and an undoubted reality that Thomas knew a Christ without when his Master gave him leave to put his hand in his side and when his Disciples beheld his Being taken up into Heaven whilst a cloud received him out of their sight even the same Jesus who shall in like manner come again at the last day We know there is an unexpressibly near and spiritual Union betwixt Christ and his People here which is undoubtedly sure and that as he is truly revealed within so he leaves a resemblance of himself on the soul such as neither the World nor the Powers of darkness can ever put a counterfeit in his room but such is this Union as his body here upon the earth doth still know her head to be in heaven at the right hand of God rejoycing in hope of that day when they shall be translated to that blessed place where he is to see and for ever wonder at that inconceiveable mystery of the glorious God-head dwelling bodily in the man Christ Pos 4. This also is a part of the known Doctrine of the Quakers That by no righteousness without us which Christ hath fulfilled in his person we are justified but by a righteousness wrought within and that there is no truth in Christs Satisfaction to justice for the sins of the Elect but in this they are not alone nor is it strange that in all times now under the new Testament men have been acted forth in a high degree of opposition to this head of the Imputed Righteousness of Christ even beyond other Scripture-truths and that so great an assault is made to poyson this Fountain when of such import to the Church as it may be called articulus stantis cadentis ecclesiae But I must say in this the Quakers seem to have taken the most effectual way and have the advantage of others who own the same Doctrine with them that they first essay to depress the credit and authority of the Scripture without which their Cause is lost since nothing possibly can be more express and clear than it is there 1. That our high Priest hath entred into the holy Places having obtained eternal Redemption for us Heb. 9. 12. and is that sacrifice which being offered without spot to God pacifies all whose blood alone could silence that cry that sin hath for vengeance having nailed that hand-writing of ordinances which was against us and contrary to us to his cross Col. 2. 14. and hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us Gal. 3. 13. 2. Is it possibly conceivable if our sin was imputed to Jesus Christ as the Surety and on him all our iniquities were laid but there must be an imputation of his Righteousness to us and if the Debtor be acquitted by the Cautioners payment and the fruit of Christ's Satisfaction at all redound to us that it must needs be by Imputation of the same Now it is clear thus the Scripture reasons yea I may say with such a plainness as it is strange men can be in the dark here without making it their choice He was made sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him 1 Cor. 5. 20 21. and having fulfilled all Righteousness and so fully satisfied the Law as Surety in our stead as a common person representing the whole elect Church Must it not undeniably acquit those at the hand of Justice and be accounted theirs who were then thus represented and judicially one with him 3. We know the Scriptures shew one great end of that blessed contrivance into which the Angels with wonder desire to look is not only to manifest grace but to declare the righteousness of God that he is just and the justifier of them that believe Rom. 3. 20. And no way could ever have been conceived like this to make these two shine forth together in one and the same work or how the Law and Justice could have had such satisfaction as by this blessed Surety who at once and to the full hath satisfied beyond all that the united Obedience of Angels and Men though extended and multiplied to Eternity could ever have done 4. Nor is it possible to suppose how works should be concauses with Faith in the Justification of a Sinner since this acts only instrumentally as the hand embracing that inestimable jewel of the Righteousness of Jesus Christ as