did see me when I was without form for in thy book were all things written which in continuance were fashioned when there was none of them before Joh. 21.27 Peter said unto him Lord thou knowest all things and Jesus said when thou wast young thou girdedst thy self and walkedst wither thou pleasedst but when thou shalt be old another shall girde thee and lead thee whither thou wouldst not and this he spake signifying by what death he should glorifie God Psal 147. Great is our Lord his wisdom is infinite Isa 40.28 there is no searching of his understanding Acts. 2.3 The determined counsel and fore knowledge of God 1 Pet. 1.2 Elect according to the fore knowledge of God the Father Psal 94.9 10 11. He that planted the ear shall not he hear and the eye shall he not see he that teacheth men knowledge shall not he know the Lord knoweth the thoughts of a man Jer. 17.9 10. The heart is deceitful and wicked above all things who can know it I the Lord search the heart and try the reins Eph. 1. He hath chosen us in him ere the foundationn of the world that we should be holy that in the dispensation of the fulness of time he might gather together in one all things according to his purpose who ruleth all things after the counsel of his own will 2. Tim. 2.19 The foundation of God stands sure having this seal the Lord knows who are his James 1.17 With God is no variableness or shaddow of change Prov 19.21 Many devices are in mans heart but the Lords counsel shall stand CHAP. III. QVest Whereas we read in Gen. 3. the curse denounced by God upon our Parents first sin to be sorrow in conception a curse on the ground and mans labour in this life is that the full extent of the curse or in the question of Gods enemies did not their sin bring on them and us the guilt of hel-f re deface the Image of God in us darken our understandings enslave our wills deprive us of power to do good and cause mortality did it or did it not what saith the Scriptures Answ Gen. 2.17 in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dying dye Rom. 5.12 By one man sin entred into the world and death by sin and so death went over all men vers 14. but death raigned from Adam to Moses Verse 15. Through the offence of one many be dead 16. The fault came of one man to condemnation 17. By the offence of one death raigned 18. By the offence of one the fault came on all men to condemnation 21. Sin raigned unto death Gal. 3.10 Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the Law to do them Rom. 3.9 We have proved both Jews and Gentiles to be all under sin vers 12. They are altogether become unprofitable there is none that doth good no not one Iohn 8.34 Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin Rom. 6.17.20 Servants to sin Rom. 7.14 Sold under sin 15. What I would that I do not but what I hate that I do 18. In me that is in my flesh there dwelleth no good thing 19. For the good that I would I do not but the evil which I would not that I do 23. But I see another Law in my members bringing me into captivity of the Law of sin which is in my members 24. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death 2 Pet. 2.19 While they promise liberty themselves are the servants of corruption for of whom a man is overcome of the same is he brought in bondage Eph. 2.1 Dead in trespasses and sins Iohn 8.41 You do the deeds of your Father ye are of your Father the Devil and his deeds will ye do James 1.14 Every man is tempted of his own lust and enticed Rom. 8.7 They that are in the flesh cannot please God Gal. 3.22 The Scripture hath concluded all under sin unless ye be born from above you cannot enter into the kingdom of God Titus 3.5 He saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the holy Ghost Psal 54.5 Behold I was born in iniquity and in sin hath my mother conceived me Gen. 6.5 The Lord faw all that all the imaginations of mans heart are evil continually Quest What saith the Scripture concerning the understanding 1 Cor. 2.4 For the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned Eph. 4.17 18. This I say therefore and testifie in the Lord that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind having their understanding darkned being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindnesss of their hearts Rom. 8 5 They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh 7. The carnal mind is enmity with God Luke 24.45 Then opened he their understandings that they might understand the Scripture Isaiah 44.18 They have not known nor understood God hath shut their eyes that they cannot see and their hearts that they cannot understand 19. None considereth in his heart neither is there knowledge nor understanding 10. A seduced heart hath deceived him Quest What of the Will Answ Phil. 2.18 It s said God worketh in us to will and to do Rom. 7.23 But I see another Law in my members bringing me into captivity into the Law of sin Rom. 6.20 Being servants to sin we are free from Righteousness Rom. 8.7 8. The carnal mind is enmity with God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God Eph. 4.19 Have given themselves over to lasciviousness CHAP. IV. QVest Whereas we find in the Catechism of Gods enemies and ours an endeavour to prove Christ the Lord by way of distinction from the one God as he blasphemes to that end several Scriptures quoted and many Questions stated as that Jesus is the Lord born of his Mother Mary that he dyed to be Lord over quick and dead that God raised him up from the dead that he was approved of God by miracles which God did by him that the Son can do nothing of himself but what he seeth the Father do that he abode in his Fathers house because he abode in his Fathers commandments that he is the Son of God that the Father is greater then he that he shall deliver up his kingdom to his father that at the same time Thomas cals him and the Scriptures call him God himself and the Scripture confess him to have a god by these doth that wretched Creature prove what he intends to wit that the Lord Jesus Christ is so our Lord as not our God very God with the Father or doth he prove that which we shall never deny him the humanity of our
find my observation to be true and certain that when men to express matters of religion wrest the words and phrases in Scripture contrary to the sense thereof as explained by the holy Ghost the Author of the whole Divine writ in other Scriptures they slyly under them couch false doctrines and obtrude them on us for without question the doctrines of the Scripture can be so aptly explained by no Spirit no Scripture being of private interpretation as by the spirit of the Scripture it self so that it s not always safe to stick to the Letter of every Scripture but onely as explained by other Scriptures nor is it alwayes unsafe to express matters of religion in words and phrases unfound in Scripture as to the Letter of them provided they be sufficiently warranted and allowed as to the sense of them This Liberty therefore has the Church unblameably taken to speak of the things God in the exact sense of Scripture in their own words And he that blasphemes any such sentence which in sense is the very language of Scripture though the very words are not found in Scripture blasphemes the Scripture its self and so doth he who not ignorantly but maliciously opposes the expressions of Gods being infinite and incomprehensible of his being a simple act subsisting in 3 persons a Divine Circumcession an eternal generation eternal procession incarnation hypostatical union communication of properties original sin Christs taking our nature upon him of Christ making satisfaction to God for our sins both past and present and to come of Christs fulfilling the Law for us being punished by God for us Christs merits or his meritorious obedience both active and passive of Christs purchasing the Kingdome of heaven for us of Christs enduring the wrath of God of Christs rising from the dead by his own power of apprehending and applying Christs righteousness to our selves by faith of Christs being our surety paying our debts of our sins imputed to Christ of his righteousness imputed to us of Christs dying to appease the wrath of God and reconcile him to us of infused grace of free grace of the world of the elect of Irresistible workings of the Spirit in bringing men to believe of carnal reason of spiritual desertion of spiritual incomes the out-goings of God of submitting to or taking up the ordinances c. some of which are in the same terms expressed in Scripture all of them so owned by the Scripture as that the things are expresly and fully contained in them which all men know that are any thing acquainted in that sacred book but for the terms the mother of God Transubstantiation Consubstantation and the ubiquity of Christs body we will add them to Biddles holy spirit of Christians and confess them neither to be owned by Scripture name nor thing Therefore excellent was Pauls advice to Timothy to hold fast the form of sound words which if we once let go we shall be in danger of corruption by new coined words of some and the new coined doctrines of others which is many mens sad case as woful experience teacheth us for wicked and ungodly men in succeeding ages from the Apostles have coined not onely words but doctrines to Hence it is that Arrius began wickedly to blaspheme oppose the Divinity of the second person who is coessential with the father for he is God blessed for ever Amen this opened a gap for other hereticks after him as at present Biddle like so many undershrubs taking life from the droppings of his heresie under pretence of returning to Truth to propagate that accursed heresie The like of others which though it could not vitiate the chastity and simplicity of our faith delivered in the Scriptures every point thereof yet remaining sound and entire yet did there or yet doth remain not any one point thereof uncontradicted and opposed And those heresies of whatsoever kind thus propagated from hand to hand are so far from being like Theseus his old ship new mended as that t was hard to say whither t was the old ship or new as that they are rather like the bird which was alterius ornata coloribus so that though they may perchance vary their words and new dress their arguments yet are they the same and but the same which were at first propounded by this or that Master Heretick and as often answered so that this Master-Builder himself does here Jurare in verba Magistri onely with this difference this o that Heretick at this or that time hath tacked this or that error to our Religion but this would subvert the whole Religion which Christ and his Apostles taught and put this body of heresie in the room thereof in this outstripping them that what they do scatteringly against this or that part of Religion he Rallies and applies to the ruin of Religion it self but thanks be to God through our Lord Iesus Christ who amidst the present Inundation of heresies hath preserved his written word intire for had men corrupted it they would have made it speak more favorably in behalf of their lyes and heresies then it doth wh ch word if we with prayer humility pry into resolving sincerely to imbrace the doctrine therein plainly delivered though all the world should set themselves against the Truth our minds being enlightned we shall easily discern it and be kept therein through the power of God unto salvation And thus much we shall see by experience that a weak instrument of none much less of no great abilities hath sufficiently detected his wicked errors in the Body of heresie by naturall and pertinent Questions and answers exactly transcribed out of the Word of God it having been already of much vantage to me and may I question not through the spirit be so to all whosoever shall search the Scripture alledged and make inquiry into the Oracles of God These Oracles which all men that have by the Spirit of Truth which can onely lead into all Truth studied the same be enamored with as breathing out the wisdom and Truth of God and as being the exactest rule of a holy life which the true Religion acknowledges the way unto happiness whose Divinity notwithstanding hath been is and will be Questioned by many to the worlds end who are unwilling to deny their wordly lusts and obey the pure and perfect precepts thereof which truly Biddle himself would not stick to do might it advantage him in his design against Truth as well as the Divinity of that Spirit which made them Divine But he judges it the most Politick way to stand on the foundation to batter down the house which is a stratagem so perfectly devillish as that in this life and in that to come t will without repentance make him equal to the Prince of evil Angels CHAP. I. QVest The Word of God is quick and powerful and more sharp then a two-edged sword but is to so of it self or with the spirits operation Asw 2 Cor. 3.6 Who
he into the holy place meaneth it that Christ was not a Priest c. as this lying wretch insinuates from this place that Christ offered not himself till he went into the holy place or rather means it that Christ by his offering himself and suffering upon the Cross then being a Priest went up to God rehearse some passages in this Chapter Answ Verse 12.13 14 15. But Christ being come an High-Priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect Tabernacle not made with hands neither by the blood of Goats and Calves but by his own blood entred he once into the holy place and obtained Redemption for us for if the blood of Bulls and Goats and the ashes of an Hiefer sprinkling them that are unclean sanctifieth as to the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ which through the eternal spirit offered up himself without spot unto God ver 24 25 26. for Christ is not entted into holy places that are made with hands which are similitudes of the true Sanctuary but is entred into the very heaven to appear now in the sight of God for us not that he should offer himself often as the High-Priest entred into the holy place every year with other blood for then must he have often suffered since the foundation of the world but now in the end of the world hath he appeared once to put away sins by the sacrifice of himself Quest shough indeed that oblation once offered for the sins of many which Christ offered up himself was the great act of his Priestly office yet was not Christ as Priest before his suffering or came he to his Priestly office by suffering That is to say did he first suffer and then was a Priest Is that meant in that place that he might be a merciful and faithful High-Priest Answ Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec so speaks the Psalmist before Christ Psal 110.4 Quest Seeing we have such an High-Priest let us come boldly unto the Throne of grace Heb. 4.14.16 is the proper use indeed we ought to make of the Priesthood of Christ but principally respecting his intercession what other Scripture therefore doth the Scripture direct us to to be made of his satisfaction Answ Luke 1.68 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel because he visited and Redeemed his people and hath raised up the horn of salvation unto us in the house of his Servant David ver 74 75. that we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies should serve him without fear all the dayes of our life in holiness and righteousness before him Luke 2.8 to the 14. Rom. 5.8 9 11. While we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us much more then being justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him and not only so but we rejoyce in God through our Lord Iesus Christ by whom we have received the atonement 1 Pet. 21.24 Christ suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps who his own self bare our sins in his body on the tree that we being delivered from sin should live in righteousness 2 Cor. 5,21 For he hath made him to be sin for us that we should be made the righteousness of God through him CHAP. XII QVest It s demanded whither it were the will and purpose of God that Christ should suffer the death of the Cross what say you in answer Answ We say answer and confess that he was delivered by the determinate councel and foreknowledge of God and that what was done was whatever Gods hand and councel derermined before to be done onely we would herewith take in that 9. to the Heb. 13. which saith expresly that Christ through the eternal spirit offered himself to God Quest Reconciliation being properly betwixt two persons at variance the Mediator of Reconciliation hath in both these respecting God and us made an atonement and reconciliation And because God was the party offended the Scripture therefore speaks that man was reconciled hence are we said to be reconciled to God God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself Christ suffered for sins that he might bring us to God But the adversary of all truth takes occasion hence to insinuate that God was not at ods with us and if so needed no satisfaction Therefore saith he Christ died not to reconcile God to us but us to God That so he may null that glorious work of Christs satisfaction To which in its proper place the Scriptures have already spoken yet that this false conclusion may fall do not the Scriptures say we lay under the displeasure of God which was done away by that work of his satisfaction Answ We were the Children of wrath as well as others Eph. 2.3 Christ hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law when he was made a Curse for us Gal. 2.13 Jesus which delivereth from the wrath to come 1 Thes 1.10 Rom. 5.9 Saved them from wrath to come through him Quest If we lay under the curse of the Law and were children of wrath and this curse and wrath are we by this Mediator redeemed from then indeed hath he reconciled God unto us by his satisfaction that glorious part of his Mediation but have you no Scripture that doth expresly hold out our reconciliation to God by the blood of Christ to be in order to our acceptance with God Answ Col. 1.19 20 21. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell and by him to reconcile all things to himself and to set at peace through the blood of his cross both the things in heaven and the things on earth and you which were in times past strangers and enemies because your mindes were set on evil works hath he now also reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to make you holy and unblameable and without fault in his sight Rom. 5.9.10 When we were enemies we were reconciled to God through his son and not only so but we all rejoyce in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now received the atonement Quest When the Scripture says Christ dyed for our sins our sins indeed procured his death Accidentally for we might have sinned and Christ not have dyed which is causa causata but whereto doth the Scripture assign the first principal and moving cause which is causa causans Answ John 3.16 Grd so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son Gal. 2.20 Who loved me and gave himself for me Rev. 1.5 Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood Quest Christ indeed learned obedience by the things he suffered left us an example brought us to God destroyed him that had the power of death sanctifie us with his own blood makes us live together with him not live to our selves which are glorious ends the Scripture tels us of the death of Christ but are these the only