can perish Heb. 3.14 8. And as concerning the diversity of the Dispensations of the divine Grace given unto Men in the several Ages and Places of the world according to the several States and Capacities of Men in the World the Scriptures testimony is very plain and clear which declareth both of the manifold Grace and manifold Wisdom of God 1 Pet. 4.10 Ephes 3. And Ephes 1.10 Paul mentioneth the Dispensation of the fulness of time as being the greatest wiâ—h respect to the fore-going Dispensations before that fulness of time came and they may be distinguished as Paul doth distinguish them very plainly into three to wit Diversity of Operations but one God and Diversity of Administrations but one Lord and Diversity of Gifts but one Spirit 1 Cor. 12.4 5 6. The operations belonging to the Law as inwardly dispensed the Administrations to the Prophets and to Christ's coming in the Flesh and to the Apostles their Preaching both before and after Christ was crucified and rose again and afterwards the Gifts to the holy Spirit as they were the effect and fruit of the Apostles Preaching and the end of it And according to the Scripture the first is that divine Dispensation proper to Men as Children in the Knowledge of God and in Virtue the second to that which is proper to Men as in Youth or middle Age the third as proper to Men of full or ripe Age. And each of these Dispensations may be said to have their proper and peculiar inward Baptism or spiritual Washing the first being the Baptism of the Father the second being the Baptism both of the Father and of the Son the third being the Baptism of the Father the Son and the holy Ghost which Christ commanded his Disciples to administer after he rose from the dead and gave the holy Ghost Matth. 28.19 which is not to be so understood as if the three to wit the Father the Son and the holy Ghost did not work together in all these three Dispensations for certainly they did but because in the first Dispensation God only was known as Creator and Father of all mankind in the second both the Father and the Son were known and in the third the Father the Son and the holy Ghost are known and the Mystery of the three and of the more abundant divine Grace that accompanieth this Knowledge largely opened and revealed And though I say the first belonged to the Law as inwardly dispensed yet that very Dispensation of the Law was not meerly Legal but had Grace and Mercy mixed with it For no Dispensation without the Grace and Mercy of God could have been in any respect serviceable unto Men therefore the Law both as outwardly and inwardly administred had always some measure of divine Grace mixed with it and therefore in the second Commandment the substance of all the Ten Commandments being commonly acknowledged to have been delivered by God himself to the Gentiles who had not the written Law God did reveal himself to be a gracious and merciful God visiting the Iniquities of the Fathers upon the Children unto the third and fourth Generation but shewing Mercy to Thousands of them that love him and keep his Commandments And as I have already proved from the express Testimony of the holy Scripture by the Obedience of one to wit the Lord Jesus who dyed for all the free Gift and Grace of God is come upon all unto Justification of Life Rom. 5.18 And Christ himself is the Mystery hid in the Gentiles being that Word of Faith which Moses preached in the Jews and Paul in the Romans Chap. 10. 9. And since it is so that Christ is really that Light that doth lighten the Gentiles and is Light in them who have not heard him outwardly preached unto them it is no less than real Blasphemy though pardonable upon Repentance to say as the Presbyterian and Independent Teachers of both Old and New-England have said in their Confession of Faith That the Light in men which they call the Light of Nature that doth so far manifest the Goodness Wisdom and Power of God as to leave men inexcusable yet is not sufficient to give that Knowledge of God which is necessary unto Salvation as they expresly affirm cap. 1. sect 1. And cap. 10. sect 4. they say expresly Men not professing the Christian Religion to wit the Faith of Christ's Death and Resurrection cannot be saved be they never so diligent to frame their Lives according to the Light that is in them Which here again they call the Light of Nature And as for the expression the Light of Nature it may be safely enough owned in a true Scripture sense though not in the sense of them who do so call it For as Christ is called the Light of men in Scripture John 1.4 In him was Life and the Life was the Light of men so he may be very well called the Light of Nature to wit lightning the dark Nature of man and not only so but quickning and sanctifying Nature in all men who joyn thereunto and the Word of God in the Heart James calleth it Ton Emphuton Logon the innate Word i. e. put into the Nature of men which is able to save their Souls But the Presbyterian and Independent Teachers of Old and New-England by the Light of Nature mean only that it is some natural Faculty of man's Soul as to say his natural Understanding or his natural Mind Conscience And according to them there is no other Light or Principle of Knowledge or Virtue in man generally and universally nay not in any who profess not the Christian Religion though ever so diligent to frame their Lives according to the Light that is in them as they expresly affirm and yet in manifest Contradiction to their own Doctrin they have confessed That Persons elected are saved by Christ and regenerated through the Spirit who are uncapable of being outwardly called by the Word cap. 10. sect 3. 10. But that Light that is in men generally within their day of visitation is not any natural Faculty of man's Soul as to say his natural Understanding or Conscience is manifest 1 st because they do confess that Man by his fall is become dead in Sin and wholly defiled in all the Faculties and Parts of Soul and Body and indeed so he is and his Understanding is so darkned naturally that he is called Darkness and therefore he hath not any Light that is left in him as some call it the Reliques of Light left in him since the Fall for if he did fall wholly then no Light was left in him nor Virtue nor Goodness as they confess cap. 9. sect 3. that Man is altogether averse from good 2 dly they confess That all Sin is a Transgression of the righteous Law of God cap. 6. sect 6. And therefore the Gentiles who have not the Law outwardly delivered unto them seeing they are Sinners do transgress against the righteous Law of God now where
the ordinary way of Generation and that the menstruous Humour was held in Scripture to be such a filthy and unclean thing which is called The Fountain of her Blood Levit. 20.18 hath the same signification also the Circumcision of Children on the eighth day And it s said in Job 25.4 How can Man be justified with God or how can he be clean that is born of a Woman To wit in the ordinary way of Generation And here the natural state of Man is declared before his spiritual Regeneration in Christ Jesus And though that was said by Bildad one of Job's Friends yet it is confirmed by Job himself Chap. 14.4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean not one But this Seed or Principle of Sin and Corruption is not charged or imputed unto Men until they joyn and consent unto it and actually obey it as is clear from Rom. 5.13 For until the Law Sin was in the World but Sin is not imputed when there is no Law Now when is it that there is no Law but in the time of Infancy wherein Children are not capable of any Law or of doing Good or Evil any more than when in the Womb For until Children begin to have the use and exercise of their reasonable understanding so as to know the Right hand from the Left according to Jonah 4.11 they cannot be understood to be under the Law But to say that any Infants are eternally damned for that first Sin and without any actual Sin or Transgression of theirs committed in their own Body is expresly contrary to Scripture that saith The Soul that sinneth shall die and every one shall receive according to the Deeds done in the Body good or evil and he that soweth to the Flesh shall reap Corruption as he that soweth to the Spirit shall reap Incorruption and Life eternal And therefore none shall finally perish or be lost for that first Sin according to Scripture but for their actual Disobedience here in this World and their final Unbelief and Impenitency For as concerning the Judgment and Punishment of the first Sin it was immediately inflicted after the Fall to wit the Death of all in Adam But Christ the second Adam by his death for all that died in Adam doth give unto all his free Gift that cometh upon all unto Justification of Life and thus the Plaister is as broad as the Sore and the Medicine as universal as the Disease and it is not simply the Sin or Disease but the refusing and rejecting the Medicine and Physician that is the cause of any Mans final destruction And how or in what manner Adam's Children and Posterity were concerned in that first Sin whether only by Imputation as some say or by real Participation as others say the Wise in heart may easily judge Let it suffice at present to say that Adam's Children being his Branches and he their Root they do really partake with him both in the defilement and also in the promised Seed in order to their Restoration for when God said to Adam In the Day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die his Children and Posterity were included So when God said I will put enmity between thee to wit the Serpent and the Woman and between thy Seed and her Seed it shall bruise thy Head and thou shalt bruise his Heel Their Children and Posterity are equally included for Adam after his Fall being restored and made an holy Root as is generally acknowledged as Paul declareth If the Root be Holy so are the Branches and if the first Fruit be holy the Lump is also holy And as God promised unto Noah and to his Sons Gen. 9.8 And behold I establish my Covenant with you and with your Seed after you His Branches are holy with him to wit not actually but by having a Seed or Principle of Holiness put in them derived from Christ the second Adam who is that promised Seed whereby they are made capable of becoming Holy by improving the same and this is that federal Holyness which all the Children of Adam and Noah have that is all mankind which is more encreased or diminished but not totally abolished in any as the immediate Parents are found more or less actually holy for the more that any sin that noble Seed and Principle of Holiness both in them and in their Children is the more clouded and vailed every Sin that a Man committeth until it be purged and done away being a vail over that noble Seed And God renewed the promise to Abraham to make him the Father of all Nations and Families of the Earth and that in him they all should be blessed and in his Seed not that this should be fulfilled by his being their Father according to the Flesh or in the way of carnal Generation but through Christ who is the Seed of Abraham by whom the Blessing and Grace of God was to come upon all Rom. 4.16 17. and in this respect Abraham is called the Father of us all as it is written I have made thee a Father of many Nations before him whom he believed God quickening the Dead and calling the things which were not as though they were to wit the Dead in Adam are all in due time quickned by Christ the promised Seed of Abraham that they may all become the Children of Abraham through Faith in Christ Jesus for by virtue of Christ's Death and the Promise made to Adam Noah and Abraham these three general Fathers all Adam's Posterity are holy in a Scripture sense not actually but in capacity to become actually Holy through the holy Seed given unto them and put into them as they come to close and joyn with it in true Faith and Obedience And this doth well answer to Peter's Vision whereby all manner of four footed Beasts of the Earth and wild Beasts and creeping things and Fowls of the Air which God had cleansed all Nations of Adam are understood Acts 10.12 13 14 15. CHAP. VI. More particularly and largely concerning the way of Restoration by Jesus Christ his dying for all and giving unto all sufficiency of Grace and means of Salvation whereby they may be saved ACcording to the Testimony of the holy Scriptures Jesus Christ is the Saviour of all Men but especially of them that believe 1 Tim. 4.10 and he is called the Saviour of the World John 4.42 and the Saviour of the Body Ephes 5.23 and that he hath dyed for all Men is the express Testimony of the holy Scriptures in divers places 2 Cor. 5.14 15. For the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one dyed for all then were all dead and that he dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them 1 Tim. 2.4 5 6. God will have all Men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the Truth for there is one God and one Mediator between God and Men the Man
just Man and perfect in his Generation and Noah walked with God Another place they cite Rom. 3.9 Answ This place is as impertinently alledged as the former for it is plain that Paul there describeth the condition of Men both Jews and Gentiles as they are generally under the Law and before they have Faith in Christ as is clear from Verse 19. Now we know that what things soever the Law saith it saith to them who are under the Law But no where can it be found in Scripture that there are none of these who are under Grace that are righteous Men and made free from Sin but the contrary is manifest which expresly testifieth of many righteous and perfect Men in their Generation both before and after Christ came in the Flesh who pleased God and were Men of good Hearts and good Lives and especially Enoch is recorded to have walked with God by Faith of whom nothing blame worthy is mentioned in any one particular And Christ speaking of good men saith A good Tree cannot bring forth evil Fruit and a good Man out of the good Treasure of his Heart bringeth forth good things But to apply these words Rom. 3.9 and the following words to the Saints generally as these Faith publishers do sutes more with Ranters than sober Christians see and well consider the words from Verse 10. to Verse 19. There is none Righteous no not one there is none that understandeth there is none that seeketh after God they are gone out of the way they are together become unprofitable there is none that dâ—th good no not one Their Throat is an open Sepulchre with their Tongues they have used Deceit the poyson of Asps is under their Lips whose Mouth is full of Cursing and Bitterness their Feet are swift to shed Blood Destruction and Misery are in their ways and the way of Peace they have not known there is no Fear of God before their Eyes O ye Presbyterian and Independent Teachers of New-England and Old How are ye not ashamed to apply these words to all God's true Saints Yea to the best that ever lived in the best state and to bring them as a proof against the possibility of the Saints perfection in this Life For if these Words do hold forth the best condition of the Saints that ever they were in upon Earth ye may as well say all Men yea the worst of Men are Saints or the Saints are the worst of Men and there is no difference of Men at all but all are equally wicked equally ungodly unholy unrighteous which is indeed the plain and express Language of Ranters Libertines Atheists some of whom to the wounding and loathing of my Soul I have heard so affirm But we cannot grant unto you that any of God's Saints are in that state and condition described by Paul in that place Rom. 3. from verse 9. to verse 19 and 20. which Words he citeth out of some of the Psalms of David describing the state of Men as they are in the fallen state and before the new Birth and spiritual Regeneration in Christ But thus to confound these so differing states is to confound Heaven and Earth yea rather Heaven and Hell and to soppose a concord betwixt Light and Darkness God and Belial Christ and Antichrist But let it be known unto you we can allow none of God's true Saints to be such as are there described by Paul Rom. 3. from verse 9. to 19. But it doth too much sute and quadrate with many of your supposed New-England Saints who have most bitterly and falsly accused God's Servants called in scorn Quakers and most cruelly whipped imprisoned and robed many of them and hanged some of them It may be well enough said of them indeed Their Throat is an open Sepulchre with their Tongues they have used Deceit the poyson of Asps is under their Lips whose Mouth is full of Cursing and Bitterness their Feet are swift to shed Blood destruction and misery are in their ways c. Take this home to you and blame not me for the Application seeing ye make it your selves and judge it to be your own condition 5. And that the said Doctrin viz. The best of the Saints by the greatest Grace of God given in this Life cannot perfectly keep the Commandments of God but doth daily break them in Thought Word and Deed and cannot be free from Sin for term of Life but must sin so long as they live and are only set free from sinning after Death as they expresly word it in answer to Quest 89. larger Catechism is not only warranted by any place of Scripture but is most expresly contrary to Scripture in many places and is quite opposite to the very Nature of the New Covenant and Gospel Dispensation and highly injurious to the Lord Jesus Christ tending to make void and of none effect the very end of his coming and to frustrate his exceeding rich Grace and also it is most wofully injurious to Mens Souls not only discouraging Men to press after Perfection in Holiness and Freedom from Sin but tending to encourage them in sloath and neglect to live and die in their Sins and yet for all this be Saints and immediately go to Heaven although they both live and die in their Sins And first That the said Doctrin is expresly contrary to Scripture see Rom. 6.18 Being then made free from Sin ye became the Servants of Righteousness And Chap. 8.2 3 4 5. and Verse 9. and Chap. 6.6 7 8. John 8.32 33 34 35 36. Ephes 4.13 Coloss 1.28 Heb. 7.19 Next God did promise in the New Covenant That he would pour clean Water upon his People and they should be clean from all their Filthiness Ezek. 36.25 c. and he would write his Law in their Hearts Jer. 31.33 and put his Spirit in their inward parts and give them a Heart of Flesh and a new Heart and a new Spirit and put his Fear in their Hearts that they shall not depart from him And surely all this doth plainly hold forth a freedom from a total sinning and that daily in Thought Word and Deed. Thirdly The very end of Christ's coming was to save his People from their Sins and not in their Sins to put an end to Sin and to finish Transgression and bring in everlasting Righteousness Dan. 9.24 and to do or effect that which the Law could not do viz. to destroy Sin and him who hath the power of Death to wit the Devil that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8.4 And the Lord said unto Paul 2 Cor. 12.9 My Grace is sufficient for thee But if it cannot preserve any Soul one day or hour or moment from sinning actually in Thought Word and Deed it cannot be understood to be sufficient and Paul said Where Sin did abound Grace hath much more abounded and he was able through Christ that strengthened him to do
all things And Christ said his Yoke was easie and his Burden was light And John said His Commandments are not grievous But according to these Faith-publishers Christ's Yoke is so heavy that none can bear it for what is it to bear his Yoke but to keep his Commandments And if they cannot be fulfilled by Men and yet many Thousands cast into Hell-Fire for not fulfilling them they are very grievous which God forbid we should think And to say that God requireth perfect Obedience from any part of Mankind and yet giveth them no Ability to perform it and punish them with Hell-Fire for not doing that which is utterly and absolutely impossible for them do doth wofully reflect upon the Justice of God and rendereth him not only severe and hard but most Cruel and Tyrannical worse than Pharoah to the poor Israelites who required of them the tale of Brick but gave them no Straw and yet punished them for not performing their Task And lastly It is wofully injurious to Men to discourage them to press after Perfection or a perfect freedom from Sin to tell them They cannot attain to it while they live As if a Physician should tell his Patient For all the Physick I give thee thou must still remain diseased and never be healed till Death heal thee Or as if one should say to a Traveller that is going to such a City Thou shalt never reach to it whilst thou livest in this World Would not this greatly discourage them And also it doth greatly encourage People to live in sloath and neglect to tell them That though they live and die in their Sins they shall be saved if they have at any time once in all their Life believed in Christ Jesus that Faith will save them though they live and die in their Sins But we find that Christ fore-warned People That if they died in their Sins they should not come whither he did go John 8.21 And it was a fearful threatning that God denounced against that People Isa 22.14 Surely this Iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die saith the Lord God of Hosts But this false Doctrin of your Teachers telleth you It is no matter though ye die in your Sins yet ye shall immediately after Death go into Heaven if ye have once believed And the Scripture saith Where the Tree falleth there it shall be whether towards the South or towards the North Eccles 11.3 But according to this evil and corrupt Doctrin though the Tree falleth North it shall lie South It is a fearful thing to teach or believe such Doctrin in a matter of so great moment so to smooth and daub with untempered Morter and to flatter People to tell them They not only may but must live and die in their Sins and yet immediately after Death they shall go into Heaven if once they have believed their Faith secureth them though they sin daily in Thought Word and Deed and break all God's holy Commandments every day and that there be no Health nor Soundness in them And indeed it is the great love that People have to Sin and Iniquity that maketh them plead so earnestly for it for if they were weary of Sin and did hate it as a most cruel Tyrant they would be glad to hear of a possibility of deliverance from Sin here in this World And they that plead so much for Sin to live and die in it they plead for the Devil's Kingdom and are his Servants and Ministers in that respect and not the Servants and Ministers of Christ 6. But to clear the Doctrin of Perfection as it is believed and preached by the People called Quakers take these following considerations 1st It is not an absolute Perfection that we plead for as attainable in this Life as many of you have falsly accused us and particularly Nath. Morton in his New-England Memorial pag. 157. as in many other things he doth most falsly charge that People in his said Book for we say That the highest degree of Perfection attainable in this Life ought not to be sit down and rested in by any but there ought to be a continual progress by the best in Holiness and in conformity to the Image of the Son of God until the very last moment of their Life for Christ himself who was free from all sin yet was perfected further as he was Man and did grow both in Grace and Stature and Adam in the innocent state was still to have increased in Virtue and Goodness and then he would not have fallen as he did 2 dly This perfection or freedom from Sin and Possibility by the Grace of God to keep his Commandments we do not say it is attained by every one at their first Conversion or entrance into the true Faith but on the contrary we say many true Believers and who have a true measure of sincerity towards God are yet short of that state of a sinless Perfection and that it is not attained but by great diligence and wrestling against sin through the ability of the Grace of God and much watching and praying and using all the means appointed of God both inwardly and outwardly to attain to that blessed Conquest and Victory over sin 3 dly The most perfect in this Life have need to watch and pray that they enter not into Temptation for as Adam in Innocency and in the Garden did sin and by his sin lost his Innocency so may Men that are inwardly come to this state if they be not duly watchful sin against the Lord therefore it is not the impossibility of sinning in all respects that we plead for but the possibility of not sinning and that by the Grace of God and not otherwise Altho' some may arrive to that state in Holiness in conformity to the second Adam that they neither sin nor can sin in that sense as the Scripture doth intend it 1 John 3.19 which doth at least hold forth that such who are attained to this noble degree of Holiness they cannot commit any gross sin although in some things not for want of love but not having a full and perfect Knowledge in all things they may a little fall short as a most loving Child not perfectly understanding the Fathers mind in all things may do a thing amiss and yet without breach of true Love to his Father and therefore his Father doth not charge it upon him as a crime and the like example may be of a most loving Wife to her Husband who retaineth her chaste and perfect Love to her Husband and yet may do some things not according to his mind for as the Scripture saith Love is the fulfilling of the Law and he that faileth not in his Love and transgresseth not against the Law of Love though in some case he may fall short in understanding God doth not impute it to be a crime unto him 4 thly It is not temptations or motions unto sin that may arise either from the Devil or
how in Gospel days the true Believers of Jacob and Esau should become one Body of a Gospel-Church and in this Body they of Esau should be as Hands but the Voice is Jacob's that is the Word of God in the preaching of the Gospel should be sounded out of Jacob's Line to wit from the Prophets and Apostles who were of Jacob. And there is no ground from Scripture that Esau as to his Person was not saved yea Luther and Moller and Oecolampadius all famous Protestants in their day judge rather that he was saved and the whole passage of Jacob and Esau beside that it hath its historical fulfilling is a Figure of two inward Seeds and Births none of which are reprobated but the other preferred But if some alledge Heb. 12.17 to prove that absolutely Esau was rejected and did perish because it s said He found no place of Repentance though he sought it carefully with Tears I answer that doth not prove his final rejection but only that he could not be heard to have that first Blessing recalled which was already given to Jacob. 6. Where now shall these Men find any place in Scripture to prove that there are any reprobate Infants Or that any Infants dying in Infancy go to Hell and perish eternally only for Adam's Sin although that Sin was forgiven to Adam and Thousands more equally guilty by their own confession If they shall alledge as some do that place in 1 Cor. 7.14 For the unbelieving Husband is sanctified by the Wife viz. that believeth and the unbelieving Wife is sanctified by the Husband else were your Children unclean but now are they holy Yet this cannot prove their Intention for they dare not confidently say that all Infants of believing Parents are elected otherwise they must say that Esau was elected both whose Parents were Bellevers Although some in Church-Covenant have gloried that none of their Children while Infants were Reprobates because they were in covenant and yet at that same time pleading that Esau was a Reprobate in his Mother's Belly forgetting that both Esau's Parents were more holy than they And if any further urge If there be no reprobate Infants that then all Infants are sanctified and holy both the Children of unbelieving Parents as well as of Believers I answer it doth not follow by any necessary consequence although to admit of that Consequence is much more tollerable than to say that any Infants perish eternally only for Adam's Sin And as for the general state of Infants and how they are particularly disposed of immediately after Death who die in Infancy seemeth a great depth and is a great mystery and is best known unto the Lord For it is generally granted that God hath his way to reach to Infants and deal with them both in the Womb and upon the Mothers Breasts and therefore let us leave secret things unto God until he reveal them and be satisfied with what he hath revealed Now this is plainly revealed and declared in the Scriptures that the Condemnation is not simply that Adam sinned or his Posterity in and with him but that Light is come into the World and Men love Darkness more than Light And as by the offence of one to wit the first Adam Judgment is come upon all to Condemnation even so by the Righteousness on one to wit Christ the second Adam the free Gift is come upon all to Justification of Life And tho' Men generally are by Nature Children of Wrath if it should be granted or allowed that by Nature signifieth their natural condition as they are born into the World yet by the great Mercy Grace and favour of God they all have an opportunity or possibility to be converted and become the Children of God And what that Holiness or Cleanness is that the Children of one or both the believing Parents have is a great Mystery I am sure to many who have that Scripture place oft in their Mouths and greatly glory in it that they are in Church-Covenant and therefore they are holy and their Children also some call it federal or Covenant Holiness but what is it they know not whether it be any real thing or principle of Holiness lodged or placed in their Children more than in the Children of others that are not in their Church-Covenant they dare not affirm for many yea very many Children of professed Christians of all sorts when they grow up to Youth are as unholy and sometimes worse as the Children of Unbelievers But that Children generally either of Believers or Unbelievers are actually sanctified from the Womb or in the Womb cannot be proved from Scripture or any Observation that we can make It is recorded as a rare and great thing that John the Baptist was sanctified from the Mother's Womb and the like of Jeremiah and so perhaps may be gathered of Moses or some others but these rare and singular Examples rather prove that Children are not in general actually and de facto holy from the Womb and therefore that Holiness of Children mentioned 1 Cor. 7. must only signifie some more near capacity in them than in others to become actually holy in time to come and that not of all Children after the Flesh but the Children of Promise as Paul distinguisheth these two sorts of Children of the same Parents Rom. 9.8 But who are the Children of the Flesh and who are the Children of the Promise Tho' it be well known unto God from the beginning yet commonly it is not known unto Men until they discover themselves by their Works and Fruits 7. As concerning the general state of Mankind by means of Adams fall what the Scripture saith of it is readily believed and granted and it is safest in all things to keep to Scripture words especially in all cases and matters that are in Controversie For the Scripture is a rich Treasury or Store-house sufficient to afford us Words whereby to express our Faith in all matters of Christian Doctrin and it is not safe to leave the Scripture-words and go to words of Mans wisdom and thereby to declare our Faith of Christian Doctrin Now the Scripture saith That in Adam all die 1 Cor. 15.22 and Rom. 5.12 That by one Man Sin entred into the World and death by Sin and so death passed upon all Men for that all have sinned And that Christ hath died for all Men proveth that all Men were dead as Paul argueth the case And David though he was the Son of a good Father yet bewailed the state wherein he was conceived and born Psal 51.5 Behold I was shapen in Iniquity and in Sin did my Mother conceive me And that under Moses Law an Offering was to be offered up for the Mother and the Child Levit. 12.4 5 6. when it was Born and that the Mother should be unclean so many days after the Birth of the Child doth certainly signifie a Seed or Principle of Sin and Corruption to be conveyed from the Parents to the Children in
Scripture would not have said Work out your Salvation with Fear and Trembling And if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the Deeds of the Body ye shall live And therefore when Paul doth so earnestly plead that men are not justified by the Works of the Law it is evident he doth only exclude these legal Performances and Observations that the Jews rested in who had not Faith in Christ And that no Works however so good or holy being performed by men ought to be rested in as a Foundation or ground of Justification for that were to exclude Christ and make his Death of no effect And again when James doth plead so earnestly that men are justified by Works and not by Faith only giving an instance in Abraham and Rahab he only placeth Faith and Works together viz. such Works as accompany true Faith and work together with it as necessary Instruments and Conditions whereby to obtain Justification but not to be the Foundation thereof 8. And whereas Paul generally so much useth that manner of Speech of Justification by Faith it is manifest that by Faith he doth not mean only that single Virtue called Faith but as by way of Synecdoche the most eminent or noted part is put for the whole as when in Scripture as well as in common Speech the Head of a man is put for the whole man Ezek. 33.4 Ezek. 17.9 Even so by Faith the Apostle in these places doth mean the whole complex or systeme or intire Body of the Evangelical Virtues and Graces whereof Faith is as it were the Head and is first in order of Nature at least in respect of the other and sometimes also by Faith he understandeth the whole Evangelical Dispensation and Doctrin as especially in that noted place Gal. 3.23 But before FAITH came we were kept under the Law c. And verse 5. But after that FAITH is come c. Where certainly Paul doth not mean only that single Virtue called Faith but the whole Evangelical Dispensation with all the spiritual Gifts and Graces of it And again Gal. 3.2 Received ye the Spirit by the Works of the Law or by the hearing of Faith which hath the same signification And thus in common Speech among Christians and Christian Writers the Christian Faith doth signifie the whole Christian Religion and Obedience and so Unbelief in Scripture is put for all other Sin that Men generally are under before they believe as Rom. 11.32 9. True Faith in Christ Jesus on whom alone the Soul resteth as on the true Foundation for Justification and all other divine and spiritual gifts blessings is not only a believing in him as he is the Word which was in the beginning with God and is God by whom all things were made and which was in all the Prophets and faithful and holy Men in all Ages but as the same Word did take Flesh and was God manifest in the Flesh justified in the Spirit c. 1 Tim. 3.16 which Paul called The great Mystery of Godlinss to wit Christ crucified and risen again made of a Woman made under the Law the Son of God that did come in the likeness of sinful Flesh made like unto us in all things Sin excepted who being in the form of God and thought it no Robbery to be equal with God humbled himself and took upon him the form of a Servant and was found in the true Form and Nature of a Man the Seed of Abraham and David conceived by the holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary at Bethlem in the Land of Judah And thus the true Faith doth not divide Christ but receiveth him and joyneth the Soul unto him entirely to wit the whole and intire Christ both as he did come outwardly in the Flesh and as he did and doth inwardly come in the Spirit and as the said true Faith doth not divide him so nor doth it divide his Offices but taketh or receiveth him in all his Offices as King Priest and Prophet Shepherd Physician Husband c. And as he is called Jerm 23.6 The Lord our Righteousness in Scripture so as none can have him to be their Righteousness and Justification but who have him to be their Lord King and Ruler in them and their Sanctification Wisdom and Redemption And thus every truly believing Soul is as the true Mother of the Child who would not have the Child divided but she who was not the true Mother of the Child she would have the Child divided a true Figure of all false Christians who would have Christ divided and say They believe in Christ without them but do not believe and receive Christ within them as God the Father doth inwardly reveal him or as Ranters and other high Notionists who pretend to believe in Christ as he is the Word and Light in them but slight and blaspheme against Christ that was crucified without them Whereas the true Believer doth both believe in Christ and receive Christ as he came in the Flesh and was crucified for our Sins and rose and ascended into Heaven and is now in Heaven glorified in the intire and perfect Nature of man in Soul and Body appearing in the presence of God for us our Advocate with the Father and also doth believe in him and receive him spiritually to live and dwell in his Heart as he is the Lord that Spirit and the second Adam or heavenly Man the quickning Spirit who is the true spiritual Meat and Drink to every believing Soul even as Christ said I am the true Bread of Life he that eateth me shall live by me 10. And this true Faith in the least true measure of it as it is an act or exercise hath assurance in it of the Love and Mercy of God revealed in Christ Jesus and true infallible Assurance is of the very Nature and Being of true Faith as it is exercised on Christ its true and proper Object and Foundation and upon the Love and Mercy of God the Father revealed in Christ hence Paul said That his Gospel came unto these to whom he preached not in Speech only but in Power and in the holy Ghost and in much Assurance or as the Greek hath it much full Assurance 1 Thes 1.5 And he said further his Preaching was in the Demonstration of the Spirit and of Power 1 Cor. 2.4 5. That their Faith ought not to be in the Wisdom of Man but in the Power of God And this was sure footing and had assurance in it as the building on the sure Rock But they who deny all inward new Revelation of the Spirit it s no wonder they deny that Faith hath Assurance in the Being and Nature of it But without divine inward Revelation which begetteth Assurance there is no true Faith but only Opinion or Conjecture seeing there is no midst betwixt Assurance and Opinion or Conjecture and therefore these Faith-Publishers have denyed the true Faith of God's Elect when they say It may be without Assuranee and that
Works were finished from the Foundation of the World and therefore that seventh day doth signifie Christ Jesus the first and the last who is the alone true Rest and Sabbath of all the Faithful as he invited saying Mat. 11.28 Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you Rest And concerning this spiritual and divine Sabbath or Sabbatism it is said in Heb. 4.9 10. Therefore there doth remain a Rest unto the People of God for he that is entred into his Rest he also hath ceased from his own Works as God did from his let us labour therefore to enter into that Rest c. And Verse 3. We which have believed do enter into Rest By all which it doth plainly appear that the New-Testament understandeth the Christian Sabbath not of any outward Day but of Christ which the outward Sabbaths of the Jews did by way of Allegory signifie and hold forth And lastly as to Matth. 5.17 where Christ saith he came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it It is not to be understood that he came to keep up and perpetuate the Types and Figures of the Law but to put an end to them and in the room and place thereof to fulfil all the Righteousness Equity and Justice that they did signifie or hold forth which is as the Kernal Otherwise ye might argue as much for upholding the outward Circumcision as the outward Sabbath and that outward Sabbath was not the first day but the seventh day And whereas some plead that the 4th Commandment is altogether Moral as well as the other nine that were given forth immediately by the Mouth of the Lord unto the People and writ by his Finger on the Tables of Stone and therefore is perpetual and never to be abrogated If all this be granted it doth not prove that the first day of the Week is there commanded as these called Presbyterians and Independents would have it Nor can they who plead for the keeping of the seventh day of the Week for the Sabbath prove that the said fourth Commandment did enjoyn to the Jews the keeping of any outward or natural seventh day of the Week for their keeping the outward seventh day of the Week was enjoyned to them among the other Ceremonial Laws and Precepts as is clear from Exod. 16.23 and Chap. 31.13 14. where it is called a Sign to wit of that spiritual moral and perpetual Sabbath And therefore if it be granted that the fourth Commandment is altogether moral and perpetual it doth not follow that the seventh day therein mentioned is any outward day or that it enjoyneth any outward day for it can all be spiritually understood very well as the tenth Commandment Thou shalt not covet doth not enjoyn any outward thing but reacheth to the Heart and inward part only and is altogether Spiritual And as the last Commandment of the second Table is altogether spiritual so why may it not be said that the last Commandment of the first Table is altogether spiritual And even the mystick Writers among the Jews do acknowledge that not only the seventh day mentioned in the fourth Commandment but all the six days signifie spiritual Days and Mysteries as well as the seventh of which I shall not particularly enlarge at present A Call and Warning from the Lord to the People of Boston and New-England to Repent c. THE Burden of the Word of the Lord that came unto me on the twenty first day of the fourth Month 1688. in the Town of Boston in New-England to declare it unto Boston its Inhabitants and to the Inhabitants of New-England who have been or are concerned in opposing and hardning their Hearts against the inward appearance of God and of his Son Christ Jesus in the Hearts of his Servants and in the Living Testimonies they have born unto you to call you to believe in the Light of his Son Christ Jesus who hath enlightned you all and every one of you and to turn you from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan unto God Oh! Repent Repent for your great Sins and Transgressions of all sorts that ye have committed against the Lord and against his holy and divine Light and Gift in all your Hearts and especially Repent of your great Hypocrisie all Teachers and People of Boston and New-England every where who call your selves Christians and have a Name to live but are dead who draw near unto God with your Mouths and honour him with your Lips but have removed your Hearts far away from him and who have the Name of Christ oft in your Mouths and think to cover you with his imputed Righteousness while ye are ignorant of his Life and holy Power Spirit and divine Nature in your Hearts and while ye are daily crucifying the Lord of Glory afresh and putting him to open shame and treading under Foot the Blood of the Covenant as the holy Scripture declareth concerning some that professed Christ Jesus in former Ages And this is the state of many of you yea of the generality of you both Teachers and People of Boston and New-England of all sorts a few Names excepted whom the Lord doth honour and they shall walk with him in White although ye have sought to dishonour them And this I have seen from the Lord in that pure Light of his that maketh all things manifest and before which all things are naked and bare which Light ye generally despise and reject and blaspheme calling it A meer natural Light and insufficient to lead unto God and the Children of it ye have hated reproached and mocked with cruel Mockings whereby ye have sufficiently declared your selves to be born after the Flesh and not after the Spirit Oh ye Blasphemers against God and his Temple which is his Light and them that dwell therein Repent repent of your Blasphemies and hard Speeches and hard Thoughts against Gods inward appearance by his holy Word Light and Spirit in all your Hearts And Repent of all your Pride Vanity Folly Excess in Meats Drinks and Apparel who though ye profess your selves to be more pure and more purely reformed than other Churches so called yet in the sight of God ye are nothing better but many of you worse and the Sin of Sodom which was Pride and Excess and fulness of Bread is the Sin of many of you especially of the richer sort Oh unthankful Nation Do ye thus requite the Lord who are Jesurun like that since ye waxed fat have kicked against the Lord and are gone from that Tenderness Sobriety and Simplicity that was among you and your Fathers sometime ago Oh! how quickly have ye degenerated and departed from the Lord of whom ye have made and still are making a great Profession The anger of the Lord is ready to break out against you yet more than formerly unless ye Repent And though his Hand hath been manifestly stretched out against you in manifest Judgments and especially in
Blastings and unfruitful Seasons and other Judgments and Plagues and Strokes upon you yet ye have not seen nor regarded it many of you yea most of you but ye are like unto them concerning whom the Prophet Isaiah testified saying Lord when thy Hand is lifted up they will not see but they shall see and be ashamed for their Envy at the People And this is the Word of the Lord unto you all Teachers and People of all sorts of Boston and New-England all such of you who are Unbelievers and have not Faith in the Light of God and Christ within you but place all your Confidence Faith and Reliance upon the imputed Righteousness of Christ without you and what he did and suffered for you unto Justification while in the mean time ye know not Christ within you and so are in the state of Reprobation or rejection as such and while ye there remain opposing Christ without to Christ within professing to own him without but denying him within and the Revelation of him within in mens Hearts and crucifying him by your daily great Sins and Iniquities of all sorts But is Christ divided Or can any have a right and sincere Faith in Christ as he came and suffered Death in the Flesh and rose again and ascended into Glory unless they believe in him and own and witness him revealed in them their King Priest and Prophet Lord Judge and Lawgiver their Head and Foundation laid in them Christ in them the hope of Glory And all who sincerely own him within them have the benefit and comfort of his Death and Sufferings and Righteousness that he accomplished without them when he came in the Flesh and none others and this is unto you all the Word of the Lord whether ye will hear or forbear And oh Repent Repent of all your Self-Righteousness and Self-willings and Self-runnings and actings of all sorts in that ye call your Duties and Performances wherein ye are daily exercising your selves without the Lord 's holy Spirit and Power and Life inwardly revealed to which ye are Strangers and many of you wilfully ignorant hating and refusing to be informed or instructed even many or most of you And all ye who have made light of the cruel Sufferings of the Lord's Servants called in derision Quakers and some of whom have been put to Death at Boston by a most unrighteous and inhuman Law wherein they who either made or executed the same have shewed themselves more inhuman cruel and barbarous than many or most of all sorts of mankind Oh! mourn before the Lord for this great Sin and for shedding the Blood of the Innoccent wherewith your Land is still defiled and the Iniquity of it is not yet done away nor shall nor indeed can but by deep Repentance Mourning and Contrition of Soul and Godly Sorrow and unfeigned Repentance and turning unto the Lord and let it not be an excuse unto you that many of you were not the actors in that great Sin but ye have not mourned for it before the Lord many yea most of you and therefore it lieth upon you and this is the Word of the Lord unto you G.K. A Copy of this was set up in the most publick place in the Town of Boston the 21 st of the 4 th Month 1688. Boston the 12th of the 5th Month 1688. To James Allen Joshua Moody Samuel Willard Cotten Mather Preachers in the Town of Boston in New-England Friends and Neighbours I being well assured both by the Spirit of God in my Heart and the Testimony of the holy Scriptures that the Doctrin ye preach to the People is false and pernicious to the Souls of People in many things do earnestly desire and entreat you and every one of you the Preachers in the Town of Boston to give me a fair and publick hearing or meeting with you either in one of your publick Meeting-Houses or in any other convenient place where all who are desirous to come may have liberty and let the time be as soon as may as either to day in the Afternoon or to morrow in the Fore-noon but rather than fail if ye will give me any assurance to have a meeting with you I will attend your leasure for two or three days to come providing once this day you send me your positive answer and if ye give me a meeting with you I profer in true love and good-will by the divine assistance to shew and inform you that ye teach and preach unto the People many false and unsound Principles contrary to the Doctrin of Christ sufficiently declared in the holy Scriptures your Doctrin being according to the Catechism and Confession of Faith of the Church of Boston and New-England which I have diligently examined and find it to be the same with that published by the assembly of Presbyterians and Independents at Westminster in Old England about forty Years ago excepting some few small things wherein some of you may differ in Church Government and Discipline and if ye cannot receive my Information I profer to debate these things fairly with you which I call false Doctrin and to vindicate our Principles who in scorn are called Quakers whom ye have falsly charged for which some of our worthy Friends have suffered death at Boston and let the Scriptures Testimony be the only external Rule Test and Touch-stone of our said debate And the particular things I charge on you as being false Doctrin and contrary to the Doctrin of the holy Scripture beside many others that I could mention are these following 1. That God hath committed his Counsel wholly to Writing even since the Apostles days the former ways of God's revealing his mind to his People being ceased 2. That God hath fore-ordained what-ever cometh to pass 3. That God hath not afforded or provided sufficiency of Grace and means of Salvation unto all mankind whereby they may be saved 4. That there are reprobate Infants that die in Infancy and perish eternally only for Adam 's Sin imputed unto them and derived into them 5. That the Light that is in every Man that convinceth them of their Sins and calleth them to leave and forsake them is only natural and no ways sufficient to enable any Man to do any work acceptable unto God 6. That Christ hath not dyed for all Men. 7. That Justification is only by Christ's Righteousness without us imputed unto us and received by Faith alone and not by any Righteousness of God or Christ infused into us or wrought in us 8. That beginnings of true Sanctification cannot be fallen from totally 9. That no Man in this Life by any Grace of God given him or to be given him can perfectly keep the Commandments of God but doth daily break them in Thought Word and Deed. 10. That no Man ever since the Apostles days are assisted by any infallible Spirit to Preach Pray or Write and that to speak and pray by the moving of the holy Ghost as the Prophets
we say they are not the only Rule nor being compared with the inward Rule of God's holy Spirit are they above it but inferior and under it and ought only to be used in Subordination to it And if the Scripture were the only Rule as our Adversaries say then all poor Heathens should have no Rule nor Law and consequently no Sin nor Judgment which is false And we deny not but the Scriptures are a means of our enlightning as God the Father of Lights is pleased to cause his Light to shine unto us in our Hearts in the serious and faithful hearing reading and meditating on the Scriptures c. but not otherwise even as the Air or Windows of a House are means of letting in the Sun 's light to us but if the Sun shine not neither the Air nor Window can give us light 2. That they denyed the Manhood of the Lord Jesus Christ and affirmed that as Man he is not in Heaven This is a notorious false Charge which they can never prove And in this Treatise in several places I have given a large Testimony to the Man Christ Jesus in Heaven and how he is the Object and Foundation of the Christians Faith as the Mystery of his coming in the Flesh Death and Sufferings c. is inwardly opened revealed and applyed by the holy Spirit in Men's Hearts 3. That they deny the Resurrection of the Dead This is also a most false charge which they can never prove But because we deny their Carnal Conceptions of the Resurrection and hold us to Scripture-words which is most safe therefore they have so belyed us And for the more satisfaction of the Reader I refer him to a little Book called The Principles of Truth published by some noted Men of the Quakers in which Book it is expresly affirmed That we to wit the Quakers believe that the same Body which is laid down shall be raised up at the Resurrection of the Dead as much as a natural Body can be the same with a spiritual Body on an earthly Body can be the same with a heavenly Body according to the Scriptures Testimony it is sown natural but raised spiritual and the Glory of the Heavenly is one and the Glory of the Earthly is another And this may satisfie any sober enquirer And Paul writing concerning the Resurrection of the Dead saith That is not first which is Spiritual but that which is Natural or Animal and afterwards that which is Spiritual 1 Cor. 15.46 and vers 49. As we have born the Image of the Earthly we shall also bear the Image of the Hevenly He that readeth let him understand 4. That an absolute Perfection in Holiness or Grace is attainable in this Life 5. That they placed their Justification upon their Patience and Sufferings for their Opinions and on their righteous Life both which are grosly false Charges and the contrary of which I have shewed in this Treatise at length in their proper places 6. They allowed not nor practised any civil Respect to Magistrates Parents c. This also is grosly false there are divers other ways sufficient whereby to shew both our Civil and Christian Respect to Magistrates and Parents c. without either doffing the Hat or cringing and that both in Words and Gestures There are only two other things which he chargeth that we grant to be true but deny them to be either damnable or corrupt Doctrin but affirm them to be truly Christian one is That all Men ought to attend to the Light within them to be the Rule of their Lives and Actions But if this be corrupt and damnable Doctrin he accuseth his own Brethren who in their Confession of Faith say That there are many Sins that Men commit against the Law or Light of Nature as they call it which are the more hainous And surely that is a Light within them and is e'en so far a Rule of Life containing as is commonly acknowledged the Substance of the ten Commandments see their answer to Quest 151. larger Catechism But we do not say That that general Illumination that is in all men many of whom have not the Scriptures is a Rule to oblige them to believe and receive these great Mysteries of Christianity declared in the Scriptures which they who have not the Scriptures have not revealed unto them The other is That we deny the use of Oaths But this is no corrupt but truly Christian Doctrin which saith Swear not at all Mat. 5.34 It is a marvelous thing that these Men have no other ways to oppugne the Quakers but by grose 〈…〉 Lies and false Calumnies and 〈◊〉 Abuses like unto the ways that ever the 〈◊〉 sort of the Adversaries of Truth have used against the true Witnesses of it It had been more Manly and seemingly Christian for Increase Mather and Nath. Morton or any others of their Sect or Society fairly to have stated the Quakers Principles and then to have gone and refuted them by the best or strongest Arguments they could find But this none of them have done nor did I ever see to this day any one Writer that did write against the Quakers that did fairly state their Principles but miserably belyed and abused them either by affirming things to be their Principles which were not or by so unfairly representing and wresting the Words of our honest Friends by their Addings and Diminishings that they could not at all acknowledge them as such All which is a manifest Evidence of the weakness badness of their Cause as well as of that evil Conscience that is in them when they use such unlawful ways and means to defend themselves or to oppugne others Read and well consider Ezekiel 9.3.4 1 Cor. 5.2