throughout for the Apostle in that Chapter treating of the diversity of Gifts and Members of the Body sheweth how by the working of the same Spirit in different manifestations or measures in the several Members of the whole Body is edified saying v. 13. That we are all baptized by the One Spirit into one Body and then v. 28. he numbers out the several dispensations thereof which by God are set in the Church through the various working of his Spirit for the edification of the whole Then if there be no true member of the body which is not thus baptized by this Spirit neither any thing that worketh to the edifying of it but according to a measure of Grace received from the Spirit surely without Grace none ought to be admitted to work or labour in the body because their labour and work without this Grace and Spirit would not be ineffectual § XVI Thirdly that this Grace and Gift is a necessary qualification to a Minister is clear from that of the Apostle Peter 1 Peter 4.10 11. As every man hath received the Gift even so minister the same one to another as good Stewards of the manifold Grace of God If any man speak let him speak as the Oracles of God if any man minister let him do it as of the ability which God giveth that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever Amen From which it appears That these that minister must minister according to the Gift and Grace received but they that have not such a Gift cannot minister according thereunto Secondly As good Stewards of the manifold Grace of God But how can a man be a good Steward of that which he hath not Can ungodly men that are not gracious themselves be good Stewards of the manifold Grace of God and therefore in the following Verses he makes an exclusive limitation of such as are not thus furnished saying If any man speak let him speak as the Oracles of God and if any man minister let him do it as of the ability that God giveth which is as much as if he had said They that cannot thus speak and thus minister ought not to do it For this If denotes a necessary condition Now what this ability is is manifest by the former words to wit the Gift received and the Grace whereof they are Stewards as by the immediate context and dependency of the words doth appear neither can it be understood of a meer natural ability because man in this condition is said not to know the things of God and so he cannot minister them to others And the following words shew this also in that he immediately subjoyneth That God in all things may be glorified but surely God is not glorified but greatly dishonoured when natural men from their meer natural ability meddle in Spiritual things which they neither know nor understand Fourthly that Grace is a most necessary qualification for a Minister appears by these qualifications which the Apostle expressly requires 1 Tim. 3.2 Tit. 1. c. where he saith A Bishop must be blameless vigilant sober of good behaviour apt to teach patient a lover of good men just holy temperate as the Steward of God holding fast the faithful Word as he hath been taught Upon the other hand He must neither be given to Wine nor a Striker nor covetous nor proud nor self-willed nor soon angry Now I ask If it be not impossible that a man can have all these above-named Vertues and be free of all these Evils without the Grace of God if then these Vertues for the producing of which in a man Grace is absolutely necessary be necessary to make a true Minister of the Church of Christ according to the Apostles judgment surely Grace must be necessary also Concerning this thing a learned man and well skilled in Antiquity about the time of the Reformation writeth thus Whatsoever is done in the Church either for Ornament or Edification of Religion whether in chusing Magistrates or instituting Ministers of the Church except it be done by the ministry of Gods Spirit which is as it were the Soul of the Church it is vain and wicked For whoever hath not been called by the Spirit of God to the great office of God and dignity of Apostleship as Aaron was and hath not entred in by the door which is Christ but hath otherways risen in the Church by the window by the favours of men c. truly such a one is not the Vicar of Christ and the Apostles but a thief and a Robber and the Vicar of Judas Iscariot and Simon the Samaritan Hence it was so strictly appointed concerning the election of Prelates which holy Dionisius calls Sacrament of Nomination that the Bishops and Apostles who should oversee the Service of the Church should be men of most intire manners and life powerful in sound Doctrine to give a reason for all things So also another about the same time writeth thus Therefore it can never be that by the Tongues or Learning any can give a sound judgment concerning the Holy Scriptures and the Truth of God Lastly saith he the Sheep of Christ seeketh nothing but the Voice of Christ which he knoweth by the Holy Spirit wherewith he is filled he regards not learning Tongues or any outward thing so as therefore to believe this or that to be the voice of Christ his true Shepherd he knoweth that there is need of no other thing but the testimony of the Spirit of God § XVII Against this absolute necessity of grace they object That if all Ministers had the saving Grace of God Obj. then all ministers should be saved seeing none can fall away from or lose Saving Grace But this Objection is built upon a false Hypothesis Answ. purely denyed by us and we have in the former Proposition concerning Perseverance already refuted it Obj. Secondly it may be objected to us That since we affirm that every Man hath a measure of true and Saving Grace there needs no singular qualifications neither to a Christian nor Minister for seeing every man hath this Grace then no man needs forbear to be a Minister for want of Grace Answ. I answer We have above shewn that there is necessary to the making a Minister a special and particular call from the Spirit of God which is something besides the universal dispensation of Grace to all according to that of the Apostle No man taketh this honour unto himself but he that is called of God as was Aaron Moreover we understand by Grace as a qualification to a Minister not the meer measure of Light as it is given to reprove and call him to righteousness but we understand Grace as it hath converted the Soul and operateth powerfully in it as hereafter concerning the work of Ministers will further appear So we understand not men simply as having Grace in them as a Seed which we indeed affirm
would affirm it never attainable then should there never be a place known by the Saints in this world wherein they might be free of doubting and despair Which as it is most absurd in it self so it is contrary to the manifest experience of thousands Thirdly God hath given to many of his Saints and children and is ready to give unto all a full and certain assurance that they are his and that no power shall be able to pluck them out of hand But this assurance would be no assurance if those who are so assured were not established and confirmed beyond all doubt and hesitation If so then surely there is no possibility for such to miss of that which God hath assured them of And that there is such assurance attainable in this life the Scripture abundantly declareth both in general and as to particular persons As first Rev. 3. v. 12. him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God and he shall go no more out c. which containeth a general promise unto all Hence the Apostle speaks of some that are sealed 2 Cor. 1.22 Who hath also sealed us and given the earnest of his Spirit in our hearts Wherefore the Spirit so sealing is called the earnest or pledge of our inheritance Eph. 1.13 In whom ye were sealed by the holy Spirit of Promise And therefore the Apostle Paul not only in that of the Romans above nored declareth himself to have attained that condition but 2 Tim. 4.7 he affirmeth in these words I have fought a good fight c. which also many good men have and do witness And therefore as there can be nothing more manifest than that which the manifest experience of this time sheweth and therein is found agreeable to the experience of former times so we see there have been both of old and of late that have turned the Grace of God into wantonness that have faln from their faith and integrity thence we may safely conclude such a falling away possible We also see that some of old and of late have attained a certain assurance sometime before they departed that they should inherit eternal life and have accordingly dyed in that good hope Of and concerning whom the Spirit of God testified That they are saved Wherefore we also see that such a state is attainable in this life from which there is not a falling away For seeing the Spirit of God did so testifie it was not possible that they should perish concerning whom he who cannot lye thus bare witness The Tenth Proposition Concerning the Ministry As by this Light or Gift of God all true knowledge in things Spiritual is received and revealed so by the same as it is manifested and received in the heart by the strength and power thereof every true Minister of the Gospel is ordained prepared and supplyed in the work of the Ministry and by the leading moving and drawing hereof ought every Evangelist and Christian Pastor to be led and ordered in his labour and work of the Gospel both as to the place where as to the persons to whom and as to the time wherein he is to minister Moreover who have this authority may and ought to preach the Gospel though without hamane Commission or Literature as on the other hand who want the Authority of this Divine Gift however learned or authorized by the Commission of Men and Churches are to be esteemed but as deceivers and not true Ministers of the Gospel Also who have received this holy and unspotted Gift as they have freely received it so are they freely to give it without hire or bargaining far less to use it as a Trade to get Money by yet if God hath called any one from their Employments or Trades by which they acquire their Lively-hood it may be lawful for such according to the liberty which they feel given them in the Lord to receive such temporals to wit what may be needful for them for meat and clothing as are given them freely and cordially by those to whom they have communicated Spirituals § I. HItherto I have treated of those things which relate to the Christian Faith and Christians as they stand each in his private and particular condition and how and what way every man may be a Christian indeed and so abide Now I come in order to speak of those things that relate to Christians as they are stated in a joynt fellowship and Communion and come under a visible and outward society which society is called the Church of God and in Scripture compared to a body and therefore named the Body of Christ. As then in the natural body there be divers members all concurring to the common end of preserving and confirming the whole body so in this Spiritual and mystical Body there are also divers according to the different measures of Grace and of the Spirit diversly administred unto each member and from this diversity ariseth that distinction of persons in the visible Society of Christians as of Apostles Pastors Evangelists Ministers c. That which in this Proposition is proposed is What makes or constitutes any a Minister of the Church what his qualifications ought to be and how he ought to behave himself But because it may seem somewhat preposterous to speak of the distinct Offices of the Church until something be said concerning the Church in general though nothing positively be said of it in the Proposition yet as here implied I shall briefly premise something thereof and then proceed to the particular members of it § II. It is not in the least my design to meddle with those tedious and many controversies wherewith the Papists and Protestants do tear one another concerning this thing but only according to the Truth manifested to me and revealed in me by the testimony of the Spirit according to that proportion of wisdom given me briefly to hold forth as a necessary introduction both to this matter of the Ministry and of Worship which followeth those things which I together with my Brethren do believe concerning the Church The Church then according to the grammatical signification of the word as it is used in the Holy Scripture signifies an assembly or gathering of many into one place for the Substantive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I call out of and originally from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I call and indeed as this is the grammatical sense of the word so also it is the real and proper signification of the thing the Church being no other thing but the society gathering or company of such as God hath called out of the World and worldly Spirit to walk in his LIGHT and LIFE The Church then so designed is to be considered as it comprehends all that are thus called and gathered truly by God both such as are yet in this inferiour World and such as having already laid down the earthy Tabernacle are passed into their
would then follow that all those that have this baptism are saved by it Now this consequence would be false if it were understood of Water-baptism because many by the confession of all are baptized with water that are not saved but this consequence holds most true if it be understood as we do of the Baptism of the Spirit since none can have this answer of a good Conscience and abiding in it not be saved by it Fifthly that the One Baptism of Christ is not a washing with Water as it hath been proved by the definition of the One Baptism so it is also manifest from the necessary fruits and effects of it which are three-times particularly expressed by the Apostle Paul as first Rom. 6.3 4. where he saith that so many of them as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his Death buried with him by Baptism into death that they should walk in newness of Life Secondly to the Gal. 3.27 he saith positively For as many of you as have been baptized unto Christ have put on Christ. And thirdly to the Col. 2.12 he saith that they were Buried with him in Baptism and risen with him through the Faith of the operation of God It is to be observed here that the Apostle speaks generally without any exclusive term but comprehensive of all he saith not some of you that were baptzed into Christ have put on Christ but as many of you which is as much as if he had said every one of you that hath been Baptized into Christ hath put on Christ. Whereby it is evident that this is not meant of Water-Baptism but of the Baptism of the Spirit because else it would follow that whosoever had been Baptized with Water baptism had put on Christ and were risen with him which all acknowledg to be most absurd Now supposing all the visible members of the Churches of Rome Galatia and Coloss had been outwardly Baptized with Water I do not say they were but our Adversaries will not only readily grant it but also contend for it suppose I say the case so they will not say they had all put on Christ since divers expressions in these Epistles to them shew the contrary so that the Apostle cannot mean Baptism with Water and yet he meaneth the Baptism of Christ i. e. of the Spirit cannot be denyed or that the Baptism wherewith thes were Baptized of whom the Apostle here testifies that they had put on Christ was the One Baptism I think none will call in question Now admit as our Adversaries contend that many in these Churches who had been Baptized with Water had not put on Christ it will follow that notwithstanding that Water-baptism they were not Baptized into Christ or with the Baptism of Christ seeing as many of them as were Baptized into Christ had put on Christ e. From all which I thus argue Arg. 1. If the Baptism with Water were the one Baptism i. e. the Baptism of Christ as many as were Baptized with Water would have put on Christ. But the last is false Therefore also the first And again Arg. 2. Since as many as are baptized into Christ i. e. with the one baptism which is the baptism of Christ have put on Christ then Water-baptism is not the one baptism viz. the baptism of Christ. But the first is true Therefore also the last § V. Thirdly since John's Baptism was a Figure and seeing the Figure gives way to the Substance albeit the thing figured remain to wit the one baptism of Christ yet the other ceaseth which was the baptism of John That John's baptism was a figure of Christ's baptism I judg will not readily be denyed but in case it should it can easily be proved from the nature of it John's baptism was a being baptized with Water but Christ's is a baptizing with the Spirit Therefore John's baptism must have been a figure of Christ's But further that Water-baptism was John's baptism will not be denyed that Water-baptism is not Christ's baptism is already proved From which doth arise the confirmation of our Proposition thus There is no baptism to continue now but the one baptism of Christ Arg. Therefore Water-baptism is not to continue now because it is not the baptism of Christ. That John's baptism is ceased many of out Adversaries confess but if any should alledg it otherwise it may be easily proved by the express words of John not only as being insinuated there where he contra-distinguisheth his baptism from that of Christ but particularly where he saith John 3.30 he Christ must increase but I John must decrease From whence it clearly follows that the encreasing or taking place of Christ's Baptism is the decreasing or abolishing of John's Baptism so that if Water baptism was a particular part of John's Ministry and is no part of Christ's baptism as we have already proved it will necessarily follow that it is not to continue Secondly Arg. If Water-baptism had been to continue a perpetual ordinance of Christ in his Church he would either have practised it himself or commanded his Apostles so to do But that he practised it not the Scripture plainly affirms John 4.2 And that he commanded his Disciples to baptize with water I could never yet read As for what is alleged that Matth. 28.19 c. where he bids them baptize is to be understood of water baptism that is but to beg the question and the grounds for that shall be hereafter examined Therefore to baptize with Water is no perpetual ordinance of Christ to his Church This hath had the more weight with me because I find not any standing ordinance or appoyntment of Christ necessary to Christians for which we have not either Christ's own practice or command as to obey all the Commandments which comprehend both our duty towards God and man c. and where the Gospel requires more than the Law which is abundantly signified in the 5. and 6. Chapters of Matthew and elsewhere Besides as to the duties of Worship he exhorts us to meet promising his presence commands to Pray Preach Watch c. and gives precepts concerning some temporary things as the washing of one anothers Feet the breaking of Bread hereafter to be discussed only for this one thing of baptizing with Water though so earnestly contended for we find not any precept of Christ. § VI. But to make Water-baptism a necessary institution of the Christian Religion which is pure and Spiritual and not carnal and and ceremonial is to derogate from the New Covenant Dispensation and set up the legal Rites and Ceremonies of which this of Baptism or washing with Water was one as appears from Heb. 9.10 where the Apostle speaking thereof saith that it stood only in Meats and Drinks and divers Baptisms and carnal Ordinances imposed until the time of Reformation If then the time of Reformation or the Dispensation of the Gospel which puts an end to the Shaddows be come then such Baptisms and
for this vain Opinion they had of their knowledg hindered them from the true knowledg and the mean people who were not so much preoccupyed with former principles nor conceited of their own knowledg did easily believe Wherefore the Pharisees upbraid them saying Have any of the Rulers or Pharisees believed in him But this people which know not the Law are accursed This is also abundantly proved by the experience of all such as being secretly touched with the call of God's Grace unto them do apply themselves unto false Teachers where the remedy proves worse than the disease because instead of knowing God or the things relating to their Salvation aright they drink in wrong Opinions of him from which it 's harder to be dis-intangled than while the Soul remains a blank or tabala rasa For they that conceit themselves wise are worse to deal with then they that are sensible of their ignorance Nor hath it been less the device of the Devil the great Enemy of Mankind to perswade Men into wrong notions of God than to keep them altogether from acknowledging him the latter taking with few because odious but the other having been the constant ruin of the World for there hath scarce been a Nation found but hath had some notions or other of Religion so that not from their denying any Deity but from their mistakes and misapprehensions of it hath proceeded all the Idolatry and superstition of the world yea hence even Atheism it self hath proceeded for these many and various opinions of God and Religion being so much mixed with the guessings and uncertain judgments of men have begotten in many the opinion that there is no God at all This and much more that might be said may shew how dangerous it is to miss in the first step All that come not in by the door are accounted as Thieves and Robbers Again how needful and desireable that knowledge is which brings Life Eternal Epictetus sheweth saying excellently well cap. 38. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Know that the main foundation of piety is this to have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 right opinions and apprehensions of God This therefore I judged necessary as a first Principle in the first place to affirm and I suppose will not need much further explanation nor defence as being generally acknowledged by all and in these things that are without controversie I love to be brief as that which will easily commend it self to every Man's reason and Conscience and therefore I shall proceed to the next Proposition which tho it be nothing less certain yet by the malice of Satan and ignorance of many comes far more under debate The Second Proposition Of Immediate Revelation Seeing no man knoweth the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son revealeth him Matt. 11.27 And seeing the revelation of the Son is in and by the Spirit therefore the Testimony of the Spirit is that alone by which the true knowledge of God hath been is and can be only revealed who as by the moving of his own Spirit he disposed the chaos of this World into that wonderful order wherein it was in the beginning and created man a living Soul to rule and govern it so by the revelation of the same Spirit he hath manifested himself all along unto the sons of Men both Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles which revelations of God by the Spirit whether by outward voices and appearances dreams or inward objective manifestations in the heart were of old the former object of their faith and remain yet so to be since the object of the Saints faith is the same in all ages tho held forth under divers administrations Moreover these divine inward revelations which we make absolutely necessary for the building up of true faith neither do nor can ever contradict the outward testimony of the Scriptures or right and sound Reason yet from hence it will not follow that the Divine revelations are to be subjected to the Test either of the outward testimony of the Scriptures or of the natural reason of Man as to a more noble and certain rule and touchstone for this Divine revelation and inward illumination is that which is evident and clear of it self forcing by its own evidence and clearness the well disposed understanding to assent irresistibly moving the same thereunto even as the common principles of natural truths do move and incline the mind to a natural assent As that the whole is greater than its part That two contradictorys can neither be both true nor both false § I. IT is very probable that many carnal and natural Christians will oppose this Proposition who being wholly unacquainted with the movings and actings of God's Spirit upon their hearts judge the same nothing necessary and some are apt to flout at it as ridiculous Yea to that highth are the generality of all Christians apostatized and degenerated that tho there be not any thing more plainly asserted more seriously recommended nor more certainly artested to in all the writings of the Holy Scriptures yet nothing is less minded and more rejected by all sorts of Christians than Immediate and Divine Revelation in so much that once to lay claim to it is matter of reproach Whereas of old none were ever judged Christians but such as had the Spirit of Christ Rom. 8.9 But now many do boldly call themselves Christians who make no difficulty of confessing they are without it and laugh at such as say they have it Of old they were accounted the Sons of God who were led by the Spirit of God ibid. verse 14. But now many averr themselves Sons of God who know nothing of this leader and he that affirms himself so led is by the pretended Orthodox of this Age presently proclaimed a Heretick the reason hereof is very manifest viz because many in these dayes under the name of Christians do experimentally find that they are not acted nor led by Gods Spirit yea many great Doctors Divines Teachers and Bishops of Christianity commonly so called have wholly shut their ears from hearing and their eyes from seeing this inward Guide and so are become strangers unto it whence they are by their own experience brought to this strait either to confess that they are as yet ignorant of God and have only the shadow of knowledg and not the true knowledg of him or that this knowledg is acquired without immediate revelation For the better understanding then of this proposition we do distinguish betwixt the certain knowledg of God and the uncertain betwixt the spiritual knowledg and the literal the saving heart-knowledg and soaring airy head-knowledg The last we confess may be divers obtained but the first by no other way then the inward immediate manifestation and revelation of Gods Spirit shining in and upon the heart inlightning and opening the understanding § II. Having then proposed to my self in these propositions to affirm those things which relate to the true and effectual knowledg which brings
own Eternal Word and Power so no Creature has access again unto him but in and by the Son according to his own express words No man knoweth the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal him Matth. 11.27 Luk. 10.22 And again he himself saith I am the Way the Truth and the Life no man cometh unto the Father but by me Joh. 14.6 Hence he is fitly called the Mediator betwixt God and Man For having been with God from all Eternity being himself God and also in time partaking of the nature of man through him is the goodness and love of God conveighed to mankind and by him again man receiveth and partaketh of these mercies Hence is easily deduced the probation of this first Assertion thus If no man know the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal him then there is no knowledge of the Father but by the Son But no man knoweth the Father but the Son Therefore there is no knowledge of the Father but by the Son The first part of the antecedent are the plain words of Scripture The consequence thereof is undeniable except one would say that he hath the knowledge of the Father while yet he knows him not which were an absurd repugnance Again If the Son be the Way the Truth and the Life and that no man cometh unto the Father but by him then there is no knowledg of the Father but by the Son But the first is true Therefore the last The antecedent are the very Scripture words The consequence is very evident For how can any know a thing who useth not the way without which it is not knowable But it is already proved that there is no other way but by the Son so that who so uses not that way cannot know him neither come unto him § VI. Having then laid down this first Principle I come to the second viz. That there is no Knowledg of the Son but by the Spirit or that the Revelation of the Son of God is by the Spirit Where it is to be noted that I alwayes speak of the saving certain and necessary Knowledge of God which that it cannot be acquired otherwayes than by the Spirit doth also appear from many clear Scriptures For Jesus Christ in and by whom the Father is revealed doth also reveal himself to his Disciples and Friends in and by his Spirit as his manifestation was sometimes outwards when he testified and witnessed for the Truth in this World and approved himself faithful throughout So being now withdrawn as to the outward man he doth teach and instruct mankind inwardly by his own Spirit he standeth at the door and knocketh and who so heareth his Voice and openeth he comes in to such Rev. 3.20 Of this Revelation of Christ in him Paul speaketh Gal. 1.6 in which he placeth the excellency of his Ministry and the certainty of his Calling And the Promise of Christ to his Disciples Lo I am with you to the end of the World confirmeth this same thing for this is an inward Presence and Spiritual as all acknowledg But what relates hereto will again occur I shall deduce the proof of this Proposition from two manifest places of Scripture The first is 1 Cor. 2.11 12. What man knoweth the things of a man save the Spirit of a man which is in him Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God Now we have received not the Spirit of the World but the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things which are freely given us of God The Apostle in the verses before speaking of the wonderful things which are prepared for the Saints after he hath declared that the natural man cannot reach them adds that they are revealed by the Spirit of God ver 9 10. giving this reason for the Spirit searcheth all things even the deep things of God And then he bringeth in the comparison in the verses above mentioned very apt and answerable to our purpose and Doctrine that as the things of a man are only known by the Spirit of man so the things of God are only known by the Spirit of God that is that as nothing below the Spirit of man as the Spirit of Brutes or any other Creatures can properly reach unto nor comprehend the things of a man as being of a more noble and higher Nature so neither can the Spirit of man or the natural man as the Apostle in the 14 verse subsumes receive nor discern the things of God or the things that are Spiritual as being also of a higher Nature which the Apostle himself gives for the reason saying neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned So that the Apostles words being reduced to an argument do very well prove the matter under debate thus If that which appertaineth properly to man cannot be discerned by any lower or baser Principle than the Spirit of man then cannot these things that properly relate unto God and Christ be known or discerned by any lower or baser thing than the Spirit of God and Christ. But the First is true Therefore also the Second The whole strength of the argument is contained in the Apostles words before mentioned which therefore being granted I shall proceed to deduce a second argument thus That which is Spiritual can only be known and discerned by the Spirit of God But the Revelation of Jesus Christ and the true and saving knowledg of him is Spiritual Therefore the Revelation of Jesus Christ and the true and saving knowledge of him can only be known and discerned by the Spirit of God The other Scripture is also a saying of the same Apostle 1 Cor. 12.3 No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost The Scripture which is full of Truth and answereth full well to the inlightned understanding of the Spiritual and real Christian may perhaps prove very strange to the carnal and pretended follower of Christ by whom perhaps it hath not been so diligently remarked Here the Apostle doth so much require the Holy Spirit in the things that relate to a Christian that he positively averrs we cannot so much as affirm Jesus to be the Lord without it which insinuates no less than that the Spiritual Truths of the Gospel are as lyes in the Mouths of carnal and unspiritual men for though in themselves they be true yet are they not true as to them because not known nor uttered forth in and by that Principle and Spirit that ought to direct the mind and actuat it in such things they are no better than the counterfeit representations of things in a comedy neither can it be more truly and properly called a real and true knowledg of God and Christ than the actings of Alexander the great and Julius Caesar c. if now transacted upon a Stage might be called truly and really their doings or the persons representing them might be said truly
to offer him up not doubting but God was able to raise him from the dead of whom it is said that in Isaac shall thy Seed be called And last of all In that he rested in the Promise that his Seed should possess the Land wherein himself was but a Pilgrim and which to them was not to be fulfilled while divers Ages after The object of Abrahams Faith in all this was no other but inward and immediate Revelation or God signifying his will unto him inwardly and immediately by his Spirit But because in this part of the Proposition we made also mention of external Voices Appearances and Dreams in the alternative I think also fit to speak hereof what in that respect may be objected to wit Obj. That those who found their Faith now upon immediate and objective Revelation ought to have also outward Voices or Visions Dreams or appearances for it It is not denyed but God made use of the Ministry of Angels who in the appearance of men spake outwardly to the Saints of old and that he did also reveal some things to them in Dreams and Visions none of which we will affirm to be ceased so as to limit the power and liberty of God in manifesting himself towards his Children But while we are considering the object of Faith we must not stick to that which is but circumstantially and accidently so but to that which is universally and substantially so Next again we must distinguish betwixt that which in it self is subject to doubt and delusion and therefore is received for and because of another and that which is not subject to any doubt but is received simply for and because of it self as being prima veritas the very first and original Truth Let us then consider how or how far these outward voices appearances and dreams were the object of the Saints faith was it because they were simply voices appearances or dreams nay certainly we know and they were not ignorant that the Devil can form a sound of words and convey it to the outward ear That he can easily deceive the outward senses by making things to appear that are not Yea do we not see by daily experience that the Juglers and Mountebancks can do as much as all that by their Legerdemain God forbid then that the Saints faith should be founded upon so fallacious a foundation as man's outward and fallible senses What made them then give credit to these visions eertainly nothing else but the secret testimony of Gods Spirit in their hearts assuring them that the voices dreams and Visions were of and from God Abraham believed the Angels but who told him that these men were Angels we must not think his faith then was built upon his outward senses but proceeded from the secret perswasion of Gods Spirit in his heart This then must needs be acknowledged to be originally and principally the object of the Saints faith without which there is no true and certain faith and by which many times faith is begotten and strenthenged without any of these outward or visible helps As we may observe in many passages of the Holy Scripture where it is only mentioned and God said c. And the word of the Lord came unto such and such saying c. But if any one should pertinaciously affirm that this did import an outward audible voice to the carnal ear I would gladly know what other argument such a one could bring for this his affirmation saving his own simple conjecture It is said indeed the Spirit witnesseth with our Spirit but not to our outward ears Rom. 8.16 and seeing the Spirit of God is within us and not without us it speaks to our Spiritual and not to our bodyly ear Therefore I see no reason where it 's so often said in Scripture the Spirit said moved hindered called such or such a one to do or forbear such or such a thing that any have to conclude that this was not an inward voice to the ear of the Soul rather than an outward voice to the bodyly ear If any be otherwise minded let them if they can produce their arguments and we may further consider of them From all then which is above declared I shall deduce an argument to conclude the probation of this assertion thus That which any one firmly believes as the ground and foundation of his hope in God and life Eternal is the formal object of his faith But the inward and immediate revelation of God's Spirit speaking in and unto the Saints was by them believed as the ground and foundation of their hope in God and life eternal Therefore these inward and immediate revelations were the formal object of their faith § IX That which now cometh under debate is what we have asserted in the last place to wit That the same continueth to be the object of the Saints faith unto this day Many will agree to what we said before who differ from us herein There is nevertheless a very firm argument confirming the truth of this assertion included in the Proposition it self to wit That the object of the Saints faith is the same in all ages though held forth under divers administrations Which I shall reduce to an argument and prove thus First Where the Faith is one the object of the Faith is one But the Faith is one Therefore c. That the Faith is one is the express words of the Apostle Eph. 4.5 who placeth the one Faith with the one God importing no less than that to affirm two faiths is as absurd as to affirm two Gods Moreover if the Faith of the Ancients were one and the same with ours i. e. agreeing in substance therewith and receiving the same definition it had been impertinent for the Apostle Heb. 11. to have illustrated the definition of our faith by the examples of that of the Ancients or to go about to move us by the example of Abraham if Abraham's faith were different in nature from ours Nor doth hence any difference arise because they believe in Christ with respect to his appearace outwardly as future and we as already appeared For nor did they then so believe in him to come as not to feel him present with them and witness him near seeing the Apostle saith they all drank of that spiritual Rock which followed them which Rock was Christ Nor do we so believe concerning his appearance past as not also to feel and know him present with us and to feed upon him except Christ saith the Apostle be in you ye are reprobates so that both our faith is one terminating in one and the same thing And as to the other part or consequence of the antecedent to wit that the object is one where the faith is one the Apostle also proveth it in the forecited Chapter where he makes all the Worthys of old examples to us Now wherein are they imitable but because they believed in God and what was the object of their Faith
Apostle reckoneth no man a Christian. If any man saith he have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his These words immediately follow those above-mentioned out of the Epistle to the Romans but ye are not in the Flesh if so be the Spirit of God dwell in you The context of which sheweth that the Apostle reckoneth it the main token of a Christian both positively and negatively For in the former verses he sheweth how the carnal mind is enmity against God and that such as are in the Flesh cannot please him Where subsuming he adds concerning the Romans that they are not in the Flesh if the Spirit of God dwell in them What is this but to affirm that they in whom the Spirit dwells are no longer in the Flesh nor of those who please not God but are become Christians indeed Again In the next verse he concludes negatively that if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his that is he is no Christian. He then that acknowledges himself ignorant and a stranger to the inward in being of the Spirit of Christ in his Heart doth thereby acknowledge himself to be yet in the carnal mind which is enmity to God to be yet in the Flesh where God cannot be pleased and in short whatever he may otherwayes know or believe of Christ or however much skilled or acquainted with the Letter of the Holy Scripture not yet to be notwithstanding all that attained to the least desire of a Christian yea not once to have embraced the Christian Religion For take but away the Spirit and Christianity remains no more Christianity than the dead Carcass of a Man when the Soul and Spirit is departed remains a man which the living can no more abide but to bury out of their sight as a noisome and useless thing however acceptable it hath been when actuated and moved by the Soul Lastly Whatsoever is Excellent whatsoever is Noble whatsoever is Worthy whatsoever is Desireable in the Christian Faith is ascribed to this Spirit without which it could no more subsist than the outward World without the Sun Hereunto have all true Christians in all Ages attributed their Strength and Life It is by this Spirit that they avouch themselves to have been converted to God to have been redeemed from the World to have been strengthened in their Weakness comforted in their Afflictions confirmed in their Temptations imboldened in their Suffering and triumphed in the midst of all their Persecutions Yea The Writings of all true Christians are full of the great and notable things which they all affirm themselves to have done by the Power and Vertue and Efficacy of the Spirit of God working in them It is the Spirit that quickeneth Joh. 6.63 It was the Spirit that gave them utterance Act. c. 2.4 It was the Spirit by which Stephen spake That the Jews were not able to resist Acts 6.10 It is such as walk after the Spirit that receive no condemnation Rom. 8.1 It is the Law of the Spirit that makes free ver 2. It is by the Spirit of God dwelling in us that we are redeemed from the Flesh and from the carnal mind v. 9. It is the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us that quickneth our mortal Bodies v. 11. It is through this Spirit that the deeds of the Body are mortified and Life obtained ver 13. It is by this Spirit that we are adopted and cry ABBA Father v. 15. It is this Spirit that beareth witness with our Spirit that we are the Children of God v. 16. It is this Spirit that helpeth our infirmities and maketh intercession for us with grâ—anings which cannot be uttered 26. It is by this Spirit that the glorious things which God hath laid up for us which neither outward Ear hath heard nor outward Eye hath seen nor the Heart of Man conceived by all his Reasonings are revealed unto us 1 Cor. 2.9 10. It is by this Spirit that both Wisdom and Knowledg and Faith and Miracles and Tongues and Prophesies are obtained 1 Cor. 12.8 9 10. It is by this Spirit that we are all baptized into one Body v. 13. In short what things relating to the Salvation of the Soul and to the Life of a Christian is rightly performed or effectually obtained without it And what shall I more say For the time would fail me to tell of all those things which the Holy Men of Old have declared and the Saints of this day do witness themselves to enjoy by the vertue and power of this Spiritual dwelling in them Truely my Paper could not contain those many Testimonies whereby this Truth is confirmed wherefore besides what is above mentioned out of the Fathers whom all pretend to reverence and these of Luther and Melancthon I shall deduce yet one observable Testimony out of Calvin because not a few of the followers of his Doctrine do refuse and deride and that as it is to be feared because of their own Non-experience thereof this way of the Spirit 's in-dwelling as uncertain and dangerous that so if neither the Testimony of the Scripture nor the sayings of others nor right reason can move them they may at least be reproved by the words of their own Master who saith in the third book of his Institutions cap. 2. on this wise But they alledg it is a bold presumption for any one to pretend to an undoubted knowledg of God's will which saith he I should grant unto them if we should ascribe so much to our selves as to subject the incomprehensible counsel of God to the rashness of our understandings But while we simply say with Paul that we have received not the Spirit of this World but the Spirit which is of God by whose teaching we know those things that are given us of God What can they prate against it without reproaching the Spirit of God For if it be a horrible Sacriledg to accuse any Revelation coming from him either of a lye of uncertainty or ambiguity in asserting its certainty wherein we do offend But they cry out that it is not without great temerity that we dare so boast of the Spirit of Christ. Who would believe that the sottishness of these men were so great who would be esteemed the masters of the world that they should so fail in the first Principles of Religion Verily I could not believe it if their own writings did not testify so much Paul accounts those the Sons of God who are acted by the Spirit of God but these will have the Children of God acted by their own Spirits without the Spirit of God He will have us call God Father the Spirit dictating that term unto us which only can witness to our Spirits that we are the Sons of God These tho they cease not to call upon God do nevertheless demit the Spirit by whose guiding he is rightly to be called upon He denies them to be the Sons of God or the Servants of Christ who are
not led by his Spirit but these feign a Christianity that needs not the Spirit of Christ. He makes no hope of the blessed Resurrection unless we feel the Spirit residing in us but these feign a hope without any such a feeling But perhaps they will answer that they deny not but that it is necessary to have it only of modesty and humility we ought to deny and not acknowledg it What means he then when he commands the Corinthians to try themselves if they be in the Faith to examine themselves whether they have Christ whom whosoever acknowledges not dwelling in him is a reprobate By the Spirit which he hath given us saith John we know that he abideth in us And what do we then else but call in question Christ his promise while we would be esteemed the Servants of God without his Spirit which he declared he would pour out upon all his Seeing these things are the first grounds of Piety it is miserable blindness to accuse Christians of Pride because they dare glory of the presence of the Spirit without which glorying Christianity it self could not be But by their example they declare how truly Christ spake saying that his Spirit was unknown to the world and that those only acknowledg it with whom it remains Thus far Calvin If therefore it be so why should any be so foolish as to deny or so unwise as not to seek after this Spirit which Christ hath promised shall dwell in his Children They then that do suppose the in-dwelling and leading of his Spirit to be ceased must also suppose Christianity to be ceased which cannot subsist without it Thirdly What the work of this Spirit is is partly before shown which Christ compriseth in two or three things He will guide you into all Truth he will teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance Since Christ hath provided for us so good an instructor what need we then lean so much to those traditions and commandments of Men wherewith so many Christians have Burthened themselves What need we set up our own Carnal and corrupt reason for a guide to us in matters Spiritual as some will needs do May it not be complained of all such as the Lord did of old concerning Israel by the Prophets Jer. 2.13 For my People have commited two Evils they have forsaken me the Fountain of Living waters and hewed them out Cisterns broken Cisterns that hold no water Have not many forsaken do not many deride and reject this inward and Immediate Guide this Spirit that leads into all Truth and cast up to themselves other ways broken waves indeed which have not all this while brought them out of the flesh nor out of the world nor from under the dominion of their own lusts and sinful affections whereby truth which is only rightly learned by this Spirit is so much a stranger in the Earth From all them that have been mentioned concerning this promise and these words of Christ it will follow that Christians are always to be led inwardly and immediately by the Spirit of God dwelling in them and that the same is a standing and perpetual Ordinance as well to the Church in general in all ages as to every individual member in particular as appears from this argument The promise of Christ to his Children are Yea and Amen and cannot fail but must of necessity be fulfilled But Christ hath promised that the Comforter the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Truth shall abide with his Children for ever shall dwell with them shall be in them shall lead them into all Truth shall teach them all things shall bring all things to their remembrance Therefore c. Again No man is redeemed from the carnal mind which is at enmity with God which is not subject to the Law of God neither can be No man is yet in the Spirit but in the flesh and cannot please God except he in whom the Spirit of God dwells But every true Christian is in measure redeemed from the carnal mind is gathered out of the Enmity and can be subject to the Law of God is out of the flesh and in the Spirit the Spirit of God dwelling in him Therefore every true Christian hath the Spirit of God dwelling in him Again Whosoever hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his that is no Child no Friend no Disciple of Christ. But every true Christian is a Child a Friend a Disciple of Christ. Therefore every true Christian hath the Spirit of Christ. Moreover Whosoever is the Temple of the Holy Ghost in him the Spirit of God dwelleth and abideth But every true Christian is the Temple of the Holy Ghost Therefore in every true Christian the Spirit of God dwelleth and abideth But to conclude He in whom the Spirit of God dwelleth it is not in him a lazy dumb useless thing but it moveth actuateth governeth instructeth and teacheth him all things whatsoever is needfull for him to know yea bringeth all things to his remembrance But the Spirit of God dwelleth in every true Christian Therefore it leadeth instructeth and teacheth every true Christian whatsoever is needful for him to know § XI But there are some that will confess that the Spirit doth now lead and influence the Saints but that he doth it only Subjectively or in ablind manner by inlighting their understandings to understand and believe the Truth delivered in the Scriptures But not at all by presenting these Truths to the mind by way of object and this they call medium incognitum assentiendi as that of whose working a man is not sensible This opinion tho somewhat more tolerable than the former is nevertheless not altogether according to Truth neither doth it reach the fulness of it 1. Because there be many Truths which as they are applicable to particulars and individuals and most needful to be known by them are no wise to be found in the Scripture as in the following Proposition shall be shown Besides the arguments already deduced do prove that the Spirit doth not only subjectively help us to discern Truths elsewhere delivered but also objectively present those Truths to our minds For that which teacheth me all things and is given me for that end without doubt presents those things to my mind which it teacheth me It is not said it shall teach you how to understand those things that are written but it shall teach you all things Again that which brings all things to my remembrance must needs present them by way of object else it were improper to say it brought them to my remembrance but onely that it helpeth to remember the objects brought from elsewhere My second argument shall be drawn from the Nature of the New Covenant by which and those that follow I shall prove that we are led by the Spirit both immediately and objectively the nature of the New Covenant is expressed in divers places and First Isa. 59.21 As for me this is my
it are answered § XIII The most usual is that these Revelations are uncertain But this bespeaketh much ignorance in the opposers for we distinguish betwixt the thesis and the hypothesis that is betwixt the proposition and supposition For it is one thing to affirm that the true and undoubted Revelation of God's Spirit is certain and infallible and another thing to affirm that this or that particular person or people is led infallibly by this Revelation in what they speak or write because they affirm themselves to be so led by the inward and immediate Revelation of the Spirit The first is only by us asserted the latter may be called in question The question is not who are or are not so led but whether all ought not or may not be so led Seeing then we have already proved that Christ hath promised his Spirit to lead his Children and that every one of them both ought and may be led by it If any depart from this certain Guide in deeds and yet in words pretend to be led by it into things that are not good it will not from thence follow that the true guidance of the Spirit is uncertain or ought not to be followed no more than it will follow that the Sun sheweth not light because a blind man or one who wilfully shuts his Eyes falls into a ditch at Noon day for want of Light or that no words are spoken because a deaf man hears them not or that a Garden full of fragrant Flowers has no sweet smell because he that has lost his smelling doth not savour it the fault then is in the Organ and not in the Object All these mistakes therefore are to be ascribed to the weakness or wickedness of men and not to that Holy Spirit Such as bend themselves most against this certain and infallible Testimony of the Spirit use commonly to alledge the example of the old Gnosticks and the late monstruous and mischievous actings of the Anabaptists of Munster all which toucheth us nothing at all neither weakens a whit our most true Doctrine Wherefore as a most sure Bullwark against such kind of assaults was subjoyned that other part of our Proposition thus Moreover these Divine and inward Revelations which we establish as absolutely necessary for the founding of the true Faith as they do not so neither can they at any time contradict the Scriptures Testimony or found Reason Besides the intrinsick and undoubted Truth of this assertion we can boldly affirm it from our certain and blessed Experience For this Spirit never deceived us never acted nor moved us to any thing that was amiss but is clear and manifest in its Revelations which are evidently discerned of us as we wait in that pure and undefiled Light of God that proper and fit Organ in which they are received Therefore if any reason after this manner That because some wicked ungodly devilish men have committed wicked actions and have yet more wickedly asserted that they were led into these things by the Spirit of God Therefore no man ought to lean to the Spirit of God or seek to be led by it I utterly deny the consequence of this Proposition which were it to be received as true then would all faith in God and hope of Salvation become uncertain and the Christian Religion be turned into meer Scepticism For after the same manner I might reason thus Because Eve was deceived by the lying of the Serpent Therefore she ought not to have trusted to the promise of God Because the old World was deluded by evil Spirits Therefore ought neither Noah nor Abraham nor Moses to have trusted the Spirit of the Lord. Because a lying Spirit spake through the four hundred Prophets that perswaded Achab to go up and fight at Ramoth Gilead Therefore the Testimony of the true Spirit of Micajah was uncertain and dangerous to be followed Because there were seducing Spirits crept into the Church of old Therefore it was not good or uncertain to follow the Anointing which taught all things and is Truth and no Lye Who dare say that this is a necessary consequence Moreover not only the Faith of the Saints and Church of God of old is hereby rendered uncertain but also the Faith of all sorts of Christians now is liable to the like hazard even of those who seek a foundation for their Faith elsewhere than from the Spirit For I shall prove by an inevitable argument ab incommodo i. e. from the inconveniency of it that if the Spirit be not to be followed upon that account and that men may not depend upon it as their Guide because some while pretending thereunto commit great evils that then nor Tradition nor the Scriptures nor Reason which the Papists Protestants and Socinians do respectively make the rule of their Faith are any whit more certain The Romanists reckon it an error to celebrate Easter any other ways than that Church doth This can only be decided by Tradition And yet the Greek Church which equally layeth claim to Tradition with her self doth it otherwise Yea so little effectual is Tradition to decide the case that Polycarpus the Disciple of John and Anicetus the Bishop of Rome who immediately succeeded them according to whose example both sides concluded the question ought to be decided could not agree Here of necessity one behoved to err and that following Tradition Would the Papists now judg we dealt fairly by them if we should thence aver that Tradition is not to be regarded Besides in a matter of far greater importance the same difficulty will occur to wit in the Primacy of the Bishop of Rome for many do affirm and that by Tradition that in the First Six Hundred Years the Roman Prelates never assumed the Title of Vniversal Shepherd nor were acknowledged as such And as that which altogether overturneth this presidency there are that alledg and that from Tradition also that Peter never saw Rome and that therefore the Bishop of Rome cannot be his Successor Would ye Romanists think this sound reasoning to say as ye do Many have been deceived and erred grievously in trusting to Tradition Therefore we ought to reject all Traditions yea even those by which we affirm the contrary and as we think prove the Truth Lastly in the Council of Florence the chief Doctors of the Romish and Greek Churches did debate whole Sessions long concerning the Interpretation of one Sentence of the Council of Ephesus and of Epiphanius and Basilius neither could they ever agree about it Secondly as to the Scripture the same difficulty occurreth the Lutherans affirm they believe Consubstantiation by the Scripture which they Calvinists deny as that which they say according to the same Scripture is a gross error The Calvinists again affirm absolute reprobation which the Arminians deny affirming the contrary wherein both affirm themselves to be ruled by the Scripture and Reason in the matter should I argue thus then to the Calvinists Here the
deceit or equivocation the most excellent Writings in the World to which not only no other Writings are to be preferr'd but even in divers respects not comparable thereunto For as we freely acknowledg that their Authority doth not depend upon the approbation or Canons of any Church or Assembly so neither can we subject them to the faln corrupt and defiled reason of man and therein as we do freely agree with the Protestants against the error of the Romanists so on the other hand we cannot go the length of such Protestants as make their Authority to depend upon any vertue or power that is in the Writings themselves but we desire to ascribe all to that Spirit from which they proceeded We confess indeed there wants not a Majestie in the Stile a coherence in the parts a good scope in the whole but seeing these things are not discerned by the Natural but only by the Spiritual man it is the Spirit of God that must give us that belief of the Scriptures which may satisfie our Consciences Therefore the chiefest among Protestants both in their particular Writings and publick Confessions are forced to acknowledg this Hence Calvin though he saith he is able to prove that if there be a God in Heaven these writings have proceeded from him yet he concludes another knowledg to be necessary Insti lib. 1. cap. 7. Sect. 4. But if saith he we respect the Consciences that they be not daily molested with doubts and they stick not at every Scruple it is requisite that this perswasion which we speak of be taken higher than humane Reason Judgment or conjectures to wit from the secret Testimony of the Holy Spirit And again To those that ask that we prove unto them by Reason that Moses and the Prophets were Inspired of God to speak I answer that the Testimony of the Holy Spirit is more excellent than all reason And again let this remain a firm Truth that he only whom the Holy Ghost hath perswaded can repose himself on the Scripture with a true certainty And lastly this then is a judgment which cannot be begotten but by a Heavenly Revelation c. The same is also affirmed in the first publick Confession of the French Churches published in the Year 1559. Art 4. We know these books to be Canonick and the most certain Rule of our Faith not so much by the common accord and consent of the Church as by the Testimony and inward perswasion of the Holy Spirit Thus also in the 5 Article of the Confession of faith of the Churches of Holland confirmed by the Synod of Dort We receive these books only for holy and canonick not so much because the Church receives and approves them as because the Spirit of God renders witness in our hearts that they are of God And lastly The Divines so called at Westminster who began to be afraid of and guard against the Testimony of the Spirit because they perceived a dispensation beyond that which they were under beginning to dawn and to eclipse them yet could they not get by this tho they have laid it down neither so clearly distinctly nor honestly as they that went before It is in these words chap. 1. sect 5. Nevertheless our full perswasion and assurance of the infallible Truth thereof is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit bearing witness by and with the Word in our heart By all which it appeareth how necessary it is to seek the certainty of the Scriptures from the Spirit and no where else The infinit janglings and endless contests of those that seek their authority elsewhere do witness to the Truth hereof For the Antients themselves even of the first Centuries were not as one among themselves concerning them while some of them rejected Books which we approve and others of them approved those which some of us reject It is not unknown to such as are in the least acquainted with Antiquity what great contests are concerning the second Epistle of Peter that of James the second and third of John and the Revelations which many even very Antient deny to have been written by the beloved Disciple and Brother of James but by another of that name What should then become of Christians if they had not received that Spirit and those Spiritual senses by which they know how to discern the true from the false It 's the priviledg of Christ's Sheep indeed that they hear his voice and refuse that of a stranger which priviledg being taken away we are left a prey to all manner of wolves § II. Tho then we do acknowledg the Scriptures to be a very heavenly and Divine writing the use of them to be a very comfortable and necessary to the Church of Christ and that we also admire and give praise to the Lord for his wonderful Providence in preserving these writings so pure and uncorrupted as we have them through so long a night of Apostasy to be a testimony of his Truth against the wickedness and abominations even of these whom he made instrumental in preserving them so that they have kept them to be a witness against themselves yet we may not call them the principal fountain of all Truth and knowledg nor yet the first adequate rule of Faith and manners because the principal fountain of Truth must be the Truth it self i. e. that whose certainty and authority depends not upon another When we doubt of the streams of any river or flood we recur to the fountain it self and having found it there we sist we can go no further because there it springs out of the bowels of the Earth which are inscrutable Even so the writing and sayings of all men we must bring to the Word of God I mean the Eternal Word and if they agree hereunto we stand there for this Word always proceedeth and doth eternally proceed from God in and by which the unsearchable wisdom of God and unsearchable counsel and will conceived in the heart of God is revealed unto us that then the Scripture is not the principal ground of faith and knowledg as it appears by what is above spoken so it is provided in the latter part of the Proposition which being reduced to an argument runs thus That the certainty and authority whereof depends upon another and which is received as Truth because of its proceeding from another is not to he accounted the principal ground and origin of all Truth and knowledg But the Scriptures authority and certainty depends upon the Spirit by which they were dictated and the reason why they were received as Truth is because they proceeded from the Spirit Therefore they are not the principal ground of Truth To confirm this argument I added the School Maxim Propter quod unumquodque est tales illud ipsum est magis tale Which Maxim tho I confess it doth not hold universally in all things yet in this it both doth and will very well hold as by applying it as we have
above intimated will appear The same argument will hold as to the other branch of the position That it is not the primary adequade rule of faith and manners thus That which is not the rule of my faith in believing the Scriptures themselves is not the primary adequate rule of faith and manners But the Scripture is not nor can it be the rule of that faith by which I believe them c. Therefore c. But as to this part we shall produce divers arguments hereafter as to what is affirmed That the Spirit and not the Scriptures is the rule it is largely handled in the former proposition the sum whereof I shall subsume in one argument thus If by the Spirit we can only come to the true knowledge of God If by the Spirit we be to be led into all truth and so be taught of all things Then the Spirit and not the Scriptures is the foundation and ground of all Truth and knowledg and the primary rule of faith and manners But the first is true Therefore also the last Next the very nature of the Gospel it self declareth that the Scriptures cannot be the only and chief rule of Christians else there should be no difference betwixt the Law and the Gospel As from the nature of the New Covenant by divers Scriptures described in the former Proposition is proved But besides those which are before mentioned herein doth the Law and the Gospel differ in that the Law being outwardly written brings under condemnation but hath not life in it to save whereas the Gospel as it declares and makes manifest the evil so it being an inward powerful thing also gives power to obey and deliver from the evil Hence it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is glad tidings the Law or Letter which is without us kills but the Gospel which is the inward Spiritual Law gives life for it consists not so much in words as in vertue Wherefore such as comes to know it and be acquainted with it come to feel greater power over their iniquities than all outward Laws or Rules can give them Hence the Apostle concludes Rom. 6.14 Sin shall not have dominion over you For ye are not under the Law but under Grace This Grace then that is inward and not an outward Law is to be the Rule of Christians hereunto the Apostle commends the Elders of the Church saying Acts 20.32 And now Brethren I commend you to God and to the Word of his Grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all those that are sanctified He doth not commend them here to outward laws or writings but to the Word of Grace which is inward even the Spiritual Law which makes free as he elsewhere affirms Rom. 8.2 The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death This Spiritual Law is that which the Apostle declares he preached and directed people unto which was not outward as Rom. 10.8 is manifest where distinguishing it from the Law he saith The Word is nigh thee in thy heart and in thy mouth and this is the Word of Faith which we preach From what is above said I argue thus The principal Rule of Christians under the Gospel is not an outward letter nor law outwardly written and delivered but an inward Spiritual Law ingraven in the heart the Law of the Spirit of Life the Word that is nigh in the heart and in the mouth But the letter of the Scripture is outward of it self a dead things a meer declaration of good things but not the things themselves Therefore it is not nor can be the chief or principle rule of Christians § III. Thirdly That which is given to Christians for a Rule and Guide must needs be so full as it may clearly and distinctly guide and order them in all things and occurences that may fall out But in that there are many hundred of things with a regard to their circumstances particular Christians may be concerned in for which there can be no particular Rule had in the Scriptures Therefore the Scriptures cannot be a Rule to them I shall give an instance in two or three particulars for to prove this Proposition It is not to be doubted but some men are particularly called to some particular Services there being not found in which though the act be no general positive duty yet in so far as it may be required of them is a great sin to omit for as much God is zealous of his Glory and every act of Disobedience to his will manifested is enough not only to hinder one greatly from that Comfort and inward Grace which otherwise they might have but also bringeth Condemnation As for instance Some are called to the Ministry of the Word Paul saith there was a necessity upon him to preach the Gospel wo unto me if I preach not If it be necessary that there be now Ministers of the Church as well as then then there is the same necessity upon some more than upon others to occupy this place which necessity as it may be incumbent upon particular persons the Scripture neither doth nor can declare If it be said that the qualifications of a Minister are found in the Scripture and by applying these qualifications to my self I may know whether I be fit for such a place or no. I answer The qualifications of a Bishop or Minister as they are mentioned both in the Epistle to Tim. and Tit. are such as may be found in a private Christian yea which ought in some measure to be in every true Christian so that that giveth a man no certainty every pacity to an office giveth me not a sufficient call to it Next again By what Rule shall I judg if I be so qualified how do I know that I am sober meek holy harmless Is not the Testimony of the Spirit in my Conscience that which must assure me hereof And suppose that I was quallified and called yet what Scripture Rule shall inform me whether it be my duty to preach in this or that place in France or England Holland or Germany whether I shall take up my Time in Confirming the Faithful reclaiming Hereticks or Converting Infidels as also in Writing Epistles to this or that Church The general Rules of the Scripture viz. to be diligent in my duty to do all to the Glory of God and for the good of his Church can give me no light in this thing Seeing two different things may both have a respect to that way yet may I commit a great error and offence in doing the one when I am called to the other If Paul when his Face was turned by the Lord toward Jerusalem had gone back to Achaia or Macedonia he might have supposed he could have done God more acceptable service in Preaching and Confirming the Churches than in being shut up in Prison in Judea but would God have been pleased
of the glorious Dispensation of the Gospel of Christ appear all at once the work of the first Witnesses being more to restifie against and discover the abuses of the Apostasie than to establish the Truth in purity He that comes to build a new City must first remove the old Rubbish before he can see to lay a new Foundation and he that comes to a House greatly polluted and full of Dirt will first sweep away and remove the Filth before he put up his own good and new Furniture The dawning of the day dispells the Darkness and makes us see the things that are most conspicuous but the distinct discovering and discerning of things o as to make a certain and perfect observation is reserved for the arising of the Sun and its shining in full brightness And we can from a certain Experience boldly affirm that the not waiting for this but building among yea and with the old popish rubbish and setting up before a full purgation hath been to most Protestants the foundation of many a mistake and an occasion of unspeakable hurt Therefore the Lord God who as he seeth meet doth communicate and make known to man the more full evident and perfect knowledg of his everlasting Truth hath been pleased to reserve the more full discovery of this glorious and Evangelical Dispensation to this our Age albeit divers testimonies have thereunto been born by some noted men in several Ages as shall hereafter appear and for the greater augmentation of the Glory of his Grace that no man might have whereof to boast hath raised up a few despicable and illiterate men and for the most part Mechanicks to be the Dispensators of it by which Gospel all the scruples doubts hesitations and objections above mentioned are easily and evidently answered and the justice as well as mercy of God according to their Divine and Heavenly Harmony are exhibited established and confirmed according to which certain Light and Gospel as the knowledge thereof hath been manifested to us by the Revelation of Jesus Christ in us fortified by our own sensible experience and sealed by the testimony of the Spirit in our Hearts we can confidently affirm and clearly evince according to the testimony of the Holy Scriptures the following points § XI First That God who out of his infinite love sent his Son the Lord Jesus Christ into the World who tasted Death for every man hath given to every man whether Jew or Gentile Turk or Scythian Indian or Barbarian of whatsoever Nation Countrey or Place a certain day or time of visitation during which day or time it is possible for them to be saved and to partake of the Fruit of Christs Death Secondly That for this end God hath communicated and given unto every man a measure of the Light of his own Son a measure of Grace or a measure of the Spirit which the Scripture expresses by several names as sometimes of the Seed of the Kingdom Mat. 13.18.19 The Light that makes all things manifest Eph. 5.13 The Word of God Rom. 10.18 or Manifestation of the Spirit given to profite withal 1 Cor. 12.7 a Talent Mat. 25.15 a little Leaven The Gospel preached in every Creature Col. 1.23 Thirdly That God in and by this Light and Seed invites calls exhorts and strives with every man in order to save them which as it is received and not resisted works the Salvation of all even of those who are ignorant of the Death and Sufferings of Christ and of Adam's Fall both by bringing them to a sense of their own misery and to be sharers in the Sufferings of Christ inwardly and by making them partakers of his Resurrection in becoming Holy Pure and Righteous and recovered of their sins by which also are saved they that have the knowledg of Christ outwardly in that it opens their understanding rightly to use and apply the things delivered in the Scriptures and to receive the saving use of them But that this may be resisted and rejected in both in which then God is said to be resisted and pressed down and Christ to be again crucified and put to open shame in and among men and to to those as thus resist and refuse him he becomes their condemnation First then according to this Doctrine the Mercy of God is excellently well exhibited in that none are necessarily shut out from Salvation and his Justice is demonstrated in that he condemns none but such to whom he really made offer of Salvation affording them the means sufficient thereunto Secondly This Doctrin if well weighed will be found to be the Foundation of Christianity Salvation and Assurance Thirdly It agrees and answers with the whole tenor of the Gospel Promises and Threats and with the Nature of the Ministry of Christ according to which the Gospel Salvation Repentance is commanded to be preached to every Creature without respect of Nations Kindreds Families or Tongues Fourthly It magnifies and commends the merits and death of Christ in that it not only accounts them sufficient to save all but declares them to be brought so nigh unto all as thereby to be put into the nearest capacity of Salvation Fifthly It exalts above all the Grace of God to which it attributeth all good even the least and smallest actions that are so ascribing thereunto not only the first beginnings and motions of good but also the whole conversion and salvation of the Soul Sixthly It contradicts overturns and enervates the false Doctrine of the Pelagians Semi-Pelagians Socinians and others who exalt the Light of Nature the liberty of mans will in that it wholly excludes the natural man from having any place or portion in his own Salvation by any acting moving or working of his own until he be first quickned raised up and acted by God's Spirit Seventhly As it makes the whole Salvation of Man solely and alone to depend upon God so it makes his condemnation wholly and in every respect to be himself in that he refused and resisted somewhat that from God wrestled and strove in his heart and forces him to acknowledg God's just Judgment in rejecting him and forsaking of him Eighthly It takes away all ground of Despair in that it gives every one ground of hope and certain assurance that they may be saved neither doth feed any in security in that none are certain how soon their day may expire and therefore it is a constant incitement and provocation and lively incouragement to every man to forsake evil and close with that which is good Ninthly It wonderfully commends as well the certainty of the Christian Religion among Infidels as it manifests its own verity to all in that it s confirmed and established by the experiences of all men seeing there was never yet a man found in any place of the Earth however barbarous and wild but hath acknowledged that at some time or other less or more he hath found somewhat in his heart reproving him for some things evil which he hath
done threatning a certain horror if he continued in them as also promising and communicating a certain peace and sweetness as he hath given way to it and not resisted it Tenthly It wonderfully sheweth the excellent Wisdom of God by which he hath made the means of Salvation so universal and comprehensive that it is not needful to recur to those miraculous and strange ways seeing according to this most true Doctrine the Gospel reacheth all of whatsoever condition age or nation Eleventhly It is really and effectively though not in so many words yet by deeds established and confirmed by all the Preachers Promulgators and Doctors of the Christian Religion that ever were or now are even by those that otherways in their judgment oppose this Doctrine in that they all wherever they have been or are or whatsoever people place or Country they come to do preach to the people and to every individual among them that they may be saved intreating and desiring them to believe in Christ who hath died for them so that what they deny in the general they acknowledg of every particular there being no man to whom they do not preach in order to Salvation telling him Jesus Christ calls and wills him to believe and be Saved and that if he refuse he shall therfore be condemned and that his condemnation is of himself such is the Evidence and Virtue of Truth that it constrains its Adversaries even against their wills to plead for it Lastly According to this Doctrine the former argument used by the Armenians and evited by the Calvinists concerning every mans being bound to believe that Christ died for him is by altering the assumption rendred invincible thus That which every man is bound to believe is true But every man is bound to believe that God is merciful unto him Therefore c. This assumption no man can deny seeing his mercys are said to be over all his works And herein the Scripture every way declares the mercy of God to be in that he invites and calls Sinners to Repenance and hath opened a way of Salvation for them so that though those men be not bound to believe the History of Christ's Death and Passion who never came to know of it yet they are bound to believe that God will be merciful to them if they follow his ways and that he is merciful unto them in that he reproves them for evil and incourages them to good Neither ought any man to believe that God is unmerciful to him or that he hath from the beginning ordained him to come into the World that he might be left to his own evil inclinations and so do wickedly as a means appointed by God to bring him to eternal Damnation which were it true as our Adversaries affirm it to be of many thousands I see no reason why a man might not believe for certainly a man may believe the Truth As it manifestly appears from the thing itself that these good and excellent consequences follow from the belief of this Doctrine so from the probation of them it will yet more evidently appear To which before I come it is requisite to speak somewhat concerning the state of the controversie which will bring great Light to the matter For from the not right understanding of a matter under debate sometimes both arguments on the one hand and objections on the other are brought which do no way hit the case and hereby also our sense and judgment therein will be more fully understood and opened § XII First then by this day and time of Visitation which we say God gives unto all during which they may be saved we do not understand the whole time of every mans Life though to some it may be extended even to the very Hour of Death as we see in the example of the Thief converted upon the Cross but such a season at lest as sufficiently exonereth God of every mans condemnation which to some may be sooner and to others latter according as the Lord in his Wisdom sees meet So that many men may out-live this day after which there may be no possibility of Salvation to them and God justly suffers them to be hardened as a just punishment of their unbelief and even raises them up as Instruments of Wrath and makes them a Scourge one against another Whence to men in this condition may be fitly applied those Scriptures which are abused to prove that God incites men necessarily to sin this is notably express'd by the Apostle Rom. 1. from ver 17. to the end but especially ver 28. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledg God gave them up to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient That many may out live this day of Gods gracious visitation unto them is shewn by the Example of Esau Heb. 12.16.17 who sold his Birth right so he had it once and was capable to have kept it but afterwards when he would have inherited the Blessing he was rejected This appears also by Christs weeping over Jerusalem Luke 19.42 saying If thou hadst known in this thy day the things that belong unto thy peace but now they are hid from thine Eyes Which plainly imports a time when they might have known them which now was removed from them though they were yet alive but of this more shall be said hereafter § XIII Secondly By this Seed Grace and Word of God and Light wherewith we say every man is enlightened and hath a measure of it which strives with them in order to save them and which may by the stubbornness and wickedness of mans will be quenched bruised wounded pressed down slain and crucified We understand not the proper Essence and Nature of God precisely taken which is not devisible into parts and measures as being a most pure simple Being void of all composition or division and therefore can neither be resisted hurt wounded crucified or slain by all the efforts and strength of men But we understand a Spiritual Heavenly and invisible Principle in which God as Father Son and Spirit dwells a measure of which Divine and Glorious Life is in all men as a Seed which of its own nature draws invites and inclines to God and this we call Vehiculum Dei or the Spiritual Body of Christ the Flesh and Blood of Christ which came down from Heaven of which all the Saints do feed and are thereby nourished unto Eternal Life And as every unrighteous Action is witnessed against and reproved by this Light and Seed so by such actions it is hurt wounded and slain and resiles or flees from them even as the Flesh of Men flees from that which is of a contrary nature to it Now because it is never separated from God nor Christ but where ever it is God and Christ are as wrapped up therein Therefore and in that respect as it is resisted God is said to be resisted and where it is born down God is said
many more such expressions that might be gathered out of their writings shew they were not without a sense of this loss Also they had a knowledg and discovery of Jesus Christ inwardly as a remedy in them to deliver them from that evil seed and the evil inclinations of their own hearts though not under that particular denomination Some called him a Holy Spirit as Seneca Epist. 41. who said There is a Holy Spirit in us that treateth us as we treat him Cicero calleth an inuate Light in his Book de Rublica cited by Lactantius 6. Instit. where he calls this Right Reason given unto all constant and eternal calling unto duty by commanding and deterring from deceit by forbidding Adding that it cannot be abrogated neither can any be free'd from it neither by Senat nor People that it is one Eternal and the same alwayes to all Nations so that there is not one at Rome and another at Athens who so obey it not must flee from himself and in this is greatly tormented although he should escape all other punishment Plotinus also calls him Light saying that as the Sun cannot be known but by its own Light so God cannot be known but with his own Light and as the Eye cannot see the Sun but by receiving its Image so Man cannot know God but by receiving his Image and that it behoved Man to come to purity of Heart before he could know God calling him also Wisdom a name frequently given him in Scripture See Prov. 1.20 to the end and Prov. 8 9.34 Where Wisdom is said to cry intreat and invite all to come unto her and learn of her And what is this Wisdom but Christ Hence such as came among the Heathen to forsake Evil and cleave to Righteousness were called Philosophers that is lovers of Wisdom They knew this Wisdom was nigh unto them and that the best knowledg of God and Divine Mysteries was by the Inspiration of the Wisdom of God Phocylides affirmed that the Word of the Wisdom of God was best His words in the Greek are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And much more of this kind might be instanced by which it appears they knew Christ and by his working in them were brought from unrighteousness to righteousness and to love that Power by which they felt themselves redeemed so that as saith the Apostle they shew the work of the Law written in their Hearts and did the things contained in the Law and therefore as all doers of the Law are were no doubt justified and saved thus by the Power of Christ in them And as this was the Judgment of the Apostle so was it of the primitive Christians Hence Justyn Martyr stuck not to call Socrates a Christian saying that all such as lived according to the Divine Word in them which was in all men were Christians such as Socrates and Heraclitus and others among the Greeks c. That such as live with the Word are Christians without fear or anxiety Clemens Alexandrinus saith Apol. 2. Strom. lib. 1. That this Wisdom or Philosophy was necessary to the Gentiles and was their School-master to lead them unto Christ by which of old the Greeks were justified Nor do I think saith Augustin in his Book of the City of God lib. 18. cap. 47 that the Jews dare affirm that none belonged unto God but the Israelites Upon which place Lodovicus Vives saith that thus the Gentiles not having a Law were a Law unto themselves and the Light of so living in the Gift of God and proceeds from the Son of whom it is written that he inlighteneth every man that cometh into the World Augustin also testifies in his Confessions lib. 7. cap. 9. That he had read in the writings of the Platonists though not in the very same words yet that which by many and multiplied reasons did perswade that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God this was in the beginning with God by which all things were made and without which nothing was made that was made In him was Life and the Life was the Light of Men and the Light shined in the Darkness and the Darkness did not comprehend it And albeit the Soul gives testimony concerning the Light yet it is not the Light but the Word of God for GOD is the true LIGHT which inlighteneth every man that cometh into the World and so repeats to the 14 verse of the 1 chapter of John adding these things have I there read Yea there is a Book translated out of the Arabick which gives an account of one Hai Ebn Yokdan who without converse of man living in an Island alone attained to such a profound knowledg of God as to have immediate converse with him and to affirm that the best and most certain knowledg of God is not that which is attained by premisses premised and conclusions deduced but that which is enjoyed by conjunction of the mind of man with the Supream Intellect after the mind is purified from its corruptions and is separated from all bodily Images and is gathered into a profound stilness § XXVIII Seeing then it is by this inward Gift Grace and Light that both these that have the Gospel preached unto them come to have Jesus brought forth in them and to have the saving and sanctified use of all outward helps and advantages and also by this same Light that all may come to be saved and that God calls invites and strives with all in a day and saveth many to whom he hath not seen meet to conveigh this outward knowledg therefore we having the experience of the inward and powerful work of this Light in our Hearts even Jesus revealed in us cannot cease to proclaim the day of the Lord that it is arisen in it crying out the woman of Samaria Come and see One that hath told me all that ever I have done Is not this the Christ That others may come and feel the same in themselves and may know that that little small thing that reproves them in their Hearts however they have despised it and neglected it is nothing less than the Gospel preached in them Christ the Wisdom and Power of God being in and by that Seed seeking to save their Souls Of this Light therefore Austin speaks in his Confessions lib. 11. cap. 9. In this beginning O God! thou madest the Heaven and the Earth in thy Word in thy Son in thy Vertue in thy Wisdom wonderfully saying and wonderfully doing who shall comprehend it who shall declare it What is that which skineth in unto me and smites my Heart without hurt at which I both tremble and am inflamed I tremble in so far as I am unlike unto it and I am inflamed in so far as I am like unto it It is Wisdom which shineth in unto me and dispelleth my cloud which had again cover'd me after I was departed from that Darkness and rampier of my punishments And again he saith lib. 10. cap. 27. It is
by some citations out of them hereafter to be mentioned will appear though this Doctrine hath not since the Apostacy so far as ever I could observe been so distinctly and evidently held forth according to the Scriptures Testimony as it hath pleased God to reveal it and preach it forth in this day by the witnesses of his Truth whom he hath raised to that end Which Doctrine though it be briefly held forth and comprehended in the Thesis it self yet I shall a little more fully explain the state of the Controversie as it stands betwixt us and those that now oppose us § III. First then as by the explanation of the former Thesis appears we renounce all natural power and ability in our selves in order to bring us out of our lost and faln condition and first Nature and confess that of our selves we are able to do nothing that is good so neither can we procure remission of sins or justification by any act of our own so as to merit it or draw it as a debt from God due unto us but we acknowledg all to be of and from his Love which is the original and fundamental cause of our acceptance Secondly God manifested this love towards us in the sending of his Beloved Son the Lord Jesus Christ into the world who gave himself for us an Offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour and having made peace through the blood of his Cross that he might reconcile us unto himself and by the Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot unto God and suffered for our sins the Just for the unjust that he might bring us unto God Thirdly then forasmuch as all men who have come to man's estate the Man Jesus only excepted have sinned therefore all have need of this Saviour to remove the Wrath of God from them due to their offences in this respect he is truly said to have born the Iniquities of us all in his Body on the Tree and therefore is the Only Mediator having qualified the Wrath of God towards us so that our former sins stand not in our way being by vertue of his most satisfactory Sacrifice removed and pardoned Neither do we think that remission of sins is to be expected sought or obtained any other way or by any works or Sacrifice whatsomever though as has been said formerly they may come to partake of this remission that are ignorant of the History So then Christ by his death and sufferings hath reconciled us to God even while we are Enemies that is he offers reconciliation unto us we are put into a capacity of being reconciled God is willing to forgive us our iniquities and to accept us as is well expressed by the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.19 God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them and hath put in us the Word of Reconciliation And therefore the Apostle in the next verses treats them in Christs stead to be reconciled to God intimating that the Wrath of God being removed by the obedience of Christ Jesus he is willing to be reconciled unto them and ready to remit the sins that are past if they repent We consider then our Redemption in a two fold respect or state both which in their own Nature are perfect though in their application to us the one is not nor cannot be without respect to the other The first is the Redemption performed and accomplished by Christ for us in his Crucified Body without us The other is the Redemption wrought by Christ in us which no less properly is called and accounted a Redemption than the former The first then is that whereby man as he stands in the fall is put into a capacity of Salvation and hath conveighed unto him a measure of that Power Vertue Spirit Life and Grace that was in Christ Jesus which as the free Gift of God is able to counter-ballance overcome and root out the Evil Seed wherewith we are naturally as in the fall leavened The second is that whereby we witness and know this pure and perfect Redemption in our selves purifying cleansing and redeeming us from the power of Corruption and bringing us into unity Favour and Friendship with God By the first of these two we that are lost in Adam plunged in the bitter and corrupt Seed unable of our selves to do any good thing but naturally joyned and united to evil forward and propense to all iniquity servants and slaves to the Power and Spirit of Darkness are notwithstanding all this so far reconciled to God by the death of his Son while Enemies that we are put into a capacity of Salvation having the glad tidings of the Gospel of peace offered unto us and God is reconciled unto us in Christ calls and invites us to himself in which respect we understand these Scriptures He stew the enmity in himself He loved us first seeing us in our blood he said unto us live he who did not sin his own self bare our sins in his own Body on the Tree and he died for our sins the just for the unjust By the second we witness this capacity brought into act whereby receiving and not resisting the purchase of his death to wit the Light Spirit and Grace of Christ revealed to us we witness and possess a real true and inward Redemption from the power and prevalency of sin and so come to be truly and really redeemed justified and made righteous and to a sensible union and friendship with God Thus he died for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and thus we know him and the Power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his Sufferings being made conformable to us This last follows the first in order and is a consequence of it proceeding from it as an effect from its cause So as none could have enjoyed the last without the first had been such being the will of God so also can none now partake of the first but as he witnesseth the last Wherefore as to us they are both causes of our Justification The first the procuring efficient the other the formal cause Fourthly we understand not by this Justification by Christ barely the good works even as wrought by the Spirit of Christ for they as Protestants truly affirm are rather an effect of Justification than the cause of it But we understand the formation of Christ in us Christ born and brought forth in us from which good works as naturally proceed as Fruit from a Fruitful Tree It is this inward Birth in us bringing forth Righteousness and Holyness in us that doth Justâ—fie us which having removed and done away the contrary Nature and Spirit that did bear rule and bring condemnation now is in dominion over all in our hearts Those then that come to know Christ thus formed in them do enjoy him wholly and undivided who is The LORD our RIGHTEOVSNESS Jer. 23.6 This is to be cloathed with Christ and to have put
is ascribed and imputed to Believers for Righteousness the merit of his Blood and the Holy Ghost given unto us by Vertue of his merits are equally included And so it shall be confessed that Christ is our Righteousness as well from his Merit Satisfaction and Remission of sins obtained by him as from the gifts of the Spirit of Righteousness And if we do this we shall consider whole Christ proposed to us for our Salvation and not any single part of him The same man pag. 169. In our Justification then Christ is considered who breaths and lives in us to wit by his Spirit put on by us concerning which putting on the Apostle saith Ye have put on Christ. And again pag. 171. We endeavour to treat in Justification not of part of Christ but him wholly in so far as he is our Righteousness every way And a little after as then blessed Paul in our Justification when he saith whom he Justified them he Glorified comprehends all things which pertains to our being reconciled to God the Father and our renewing which fits us for attaining unto glory such as Faith Righteousness Christ and the Gift of Righteousness exhibited by him whereby we are regenerated to the fulfilling of the Justification which the Law requires so we also will have all things comprehended in this cause which are contained in the recovery of Righteousness and Innocency And pag. 181. The form saith he of our Justification is the Divine Righteousness it self by which we are formed just and good This is Jesus Christ who is esteem'd our Righteousness partly from the forgiveness of sins and partly from the renewing and the restoring of that integrity which was lost by the fault of the first Adam so that his New and Heavenly Adam being put on by us of which the Apostle saith Ye have put on Christ ye have put him on I say as the form so the Righteousness Wisdom and Life of God So also affirmeth Claudius Alberius Inuncanus see his Orat. Apodeict Lausaniae excus 1587. orat 2. pag. 86 87. Zuinglius also in his Epistle to the Princes of Germany as cited by Himelius c. 7. p. 60. saith That the Sanctification of the Spirit is true Justification which alone suffices to Justifie Essius upon 1 Cor. 6.11 saith Lest Christian Righteousness should be thought to consist in the washing alone that is in the remission of sins he addeth the other degree or part but ye are sanctified that is ye have attain'd to purity so that ye are now truly Holy before God Lastly expressing the sum of the benefit received in one word which includes both the parts But ye are Justified the Apostle adds in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ that is by his merits and in the Spirit of our God that is the Holy Spirit proceeding from God and communicated to us by Christ. And lastly Richard Baxter a Famous English Preacher who yet liveth in his Book called Aphorisms of Justification pag. 80. saith that some ignorant wretches gnash their Teeths at this Doctrine as if it were flat Popery not understanding the Nature of the Righteousness of the New Covenant which is all out of Christ in our selves though wrought by the Power of the Spirit of Christ in us § IX The third thing proposed to be considered is concerning good Works their necessity to Justification I suppose there is enough said before to clear us from any imputation of being Popish in this matter But if it be queried Whether we have not said or will not affirm that a man is justified by Works Quest. I answer I hope none need neither ought to take offence if in this matter we use the plain Language of the Holy Scripture Answ. which saith expresly in answer hereunto Jam. 2.24 Ye see then how that by works a man is Justified and not by Faith only I shall not offer to prove the Truth of this saying since what is said in this Chapter by the Apostle is sufficient to convince any man that will read and believe it I shall only from this derive this one argument If no man can be Justified without Faith and no Faith be living nor yet available to Justification without works then works are necessary to Justification But the First is true Therefore also the Last For this Truth is so apparent and evident in the Scriptures that for the proof of it we might transcribe most of the precepts of the Gospel I shall instance a few which of themselves do so clearly assert the thing in question that they need no commentary nor further demonstration And then I shall answer the objections made against this which indeed are the arguments used for the contrary opinion Heb. 12.14 Without Holyness no man shall see God Matth. 7.21 Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven Joh. 13.7 If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them 1 Cor. 7.19 Circumcision is nothing and Vncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the Commandments of God Rev. 22.14 Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have right to the Tree of Life and through the Gates may enter into the City and many more that might be instanced from all which I thus argue If those only can enter into the Kingdom that do the will of the Father If those be accounted only the wise builders and happy Arg. that do the sayings of Christ if no observation avail but only the keeping of the Commandments and if they be blessed that do the Commandments and thereby have right to the Tree of Life and entrance through the gate into the City then works are absolutely necessary to Salvation and Justification But the First is true And therefore also the Last The consequence of the antecedent is so clear and evident that I think no man of sound reason will call for a proof of it Obj. § X. But they object that works are not necessary to Justification First because of that saying of Christ Luk. 17.10 When ye shall have done all these things that are commanded you say We are unprofitable Servants c. Answ. Answer as to God we are indeed unprofitable for he needeth nothing neither can we add any thing unto him but as to our selves we are not unprofitable else it might be said that it is not profitable for a man to keep God's Commandments which is most absurd and would contradict Christ's Doctrine throughout Doth not Christ Matth. 5. through all those beatitudes pronounce men blessed for their Purity for their Meekness for their Peaceableness c. And is it not then that for which Christ pronounceth men blessed profitable unto them Moreover Matth. 25.21 23. doth not Christ pronounce the men good and faithful Servants that improved their Talents Was not their doing of that then profitable unto them and verse 30. It is said of him
that hid his Talent and did not improve it Cast ye the unprofitable Servant into utter darkness If then their not improving of the Talent made the man unprofitable and he was therefore cast into utter darkness it will follow by the Rule of Contraries so far at least that the improving made the other profitable seeing if our Adversaries will allow us to believe Christ's Words this is made a reason and so at left a cause instrumental of their acceptance Well done good and faithful Servant thou hast been faithful over a few things I will make thee ruler over many things enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Obj. Secondly they object those sayings of the Apostle where he excludes the deeds of the Law from Justification as first Rom. 3.20 because by the deeds of the Law there shall be no flesh justified in his sight And ver 28. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by Faith without the deeds of the Law Answ. Answ. We have shewn already what place we give to works even to the best of works in justification and how we ascribe its immediate and formal cause to the worker brought forth in us but not to the works But in answer to this objection I say there is a great difference betwixt the works of the Law and those of Grace or of the Gospel The first are excluded the second not but are necessary The first are those which are performed in man's own will and by his strength in a conformity to the outward Law and Letter and therefore are men's own imperfect works or works of the Law which makes nothing perfect And to this belong all the Ceremonies Purifications Washings and Traditions of the Jews The second are the works of the Spirit of Grace wrought in the Heart wrought in conformity to the Inward and Spiritual Law which works are not wrought in man's will nor by his power and ability but in and by the Power and Spirit of Christ in us and therefore are pure and perfect in their kind as shall hereafter be proved and may be called Christ's works for that he is the immediate author and worker of them Such works we affirm absolutely necessary to justification so that a man cannot be justified without them and all faith without them is dead and useless as the Apostle James saith Now that such a distinction is to be admitted and that the works excluded by the Apostle in the matter of Justification are of the first kind will appear if we consider the occasion of the Apostle mentioning this as well here as throughout in his Epistle to the Galatians where he speaks of this matter and to this purpose at large which was this That whereas many of the Gentiles that were not of the Race nor Seed of Abraham as concerning the Flesh were come to be converted to the Christian Faith and believe in him some of those that were of the Jewish Proselites thought to subject the faithful and believing Gentiles to the legal Ceremonies and Observations as necessary to their Justification This gave the Apostle Paul occasion at length in his Epistle to the Romans Galatians and elsewhere to shew the use and tendency of the Law and of its works and to contradistinguish them from the Faith of Christ and Righteousness thereof shewing how the former was ceased and become ineffectual the other remaining and yet necessary And that the works excluded by the Apostle are of this kind of works of the Law appears by the whole strain of his Epistle to the Galatians chap. 1 2 3 and 4. for after in the 4 chapter he upbraideth them for their returning unto the observation of daies and times and that in the beginning of the 5 chapter he sheweth them their folly and the evil consequence of adhering to the Ceremonies of Circumcision then he adds v. 6. For in Christ Jesus neither Circumcision nor Vncircumcision availeth but Faith which worketh by love and thus he concludes again chap. 6. v. 15. For in Christ Jesus neither Circumcision availeth nor Vncircumcision but a new Creature From which places appeareth that distinction of works aforementioned whereof the one is excluded the other necessary to Justification For the Apostle sheweth here that Circumcision which word is often used to comprehend the whole Ceremonies and legal Performances of the Jews is not necessary nor doth avail Here are then the works which are excluded by which no man is justified but Faith which worketh by love but the new Creature this is that which availeth which is absolutely necessary for Faith that worketh by love cannot be without works for as is said in the same 5 chapter v. 22. Love is a work of the Spirit Also the New Creature if it avail and be necessary cannot be without works seeing it is natural for it to bring forth works of Righteousness Again that the Apostle no waies intends to exclude such good works appears in that in the same Epistle he exhorts the Galatians to them and holds forth the usefulness and necessity of them and that very plainly c. 6. v. 7 8 9. Be not deceived saith he God is not mocked for what soever man soweth that shall he also reap for he that soweth to the Flesh shall of the Flesh reap Corruption but he that soweth in the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap Life everlasting And let us not be weary of well doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not Doth it not hereby appear how necessary the Apostle would have the Galatians know that he esteemed good works to be to wit not the outward testimony and tradition of the Law but the fruits of the Spirit mentioned a little before by which Spirit he would have them to be led and walk in those good works As also how much he ascribed to these good works by which he affirms Life Everlasting is reaped Now that cannot be useless to man's Justification which capaciates him to reap so rich a harvest But lastly for a full answer to this objection and for the establishing of this Doctrin of good works I shall instance another saying of the same Apostle Paul which our adversaries also in the blindness of their minds make use of against us to wit Tit. 3.5 Not by works of Righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost It is generally granted by all that saved is here all one as if it had been said justified Now there are two kinds of works here mentioned one by which we are not saved that is not justified and another by which we are saved or justified The first the works of Righteousness which we have wrought that is which we in our first faln nature by our own strength have wrought our own legal performances and therefore may truly and properly be called ours whatever specious appearances they may seem to have And that it must needs
and ought so to be understood doth appear from the other part By the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost seeing Regeneration is a work comprehensive of many good works even of all those which are called the Fruits of the Spirit Now in case it should be objected that these may also be called ours because wrought in us and also by us many times as instruments I answer It is far otherwise than the former for in the first we are yet alive in our own natural state unrenewed working of our selves seeking to save our selves by imitating and endeavouring a conformity to the outward Letter of the Law and so wrestling and striving in the carnal mind that is enmity to God and in the cursed will not yet subdued But in this second we are Crucified with Christ we are become dead with him have partaken of the Fellowship of his sufferings are made conformable to his death and our first man our old man with all his deeds as well the openly wicked as the seeming righteous our legal endeavours and foolish wrestlings are all buried and nailed to the Cross of Christ and so it is no more we but Christ alive in us the Worker in us So that though it be we in a sense yet it is according to that of the Apostle to the same Gal. c. 2. v. 20. I am Crucified yet nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me not I but the Grace of Christ in me These works are especially to be ascribed to the Spirit of Christ and the Grace of God in us as being immediately thereby acted and led in them and enabled to perform them And this manner of speech is not strained but familiar to the Apostles as appears Gal. 2.8 For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the Apostleship of the Circumcision the same was mighty in me c. Phil. 2.13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do c. So that it appears by this place that since the washing of Regeneration is necessary to Justification and that Regeneration comprehends works works are necessary and that these works of the Law that are excluded are different from these that are necessary and admitted § XI Thirdly they object that no works yea not the works of Christ in us can have place in Justification Obj. because nothing that is impure can be useful in it and all the works wrought in us are impure For this they alledg that saying of the Prophet Isaiah c. 64. v. 6. All our Righteousness are as filthy rags adding this reason that seeing we are impure so must our works be which though good in themselves yet as performed by us they receive a tincture of impurity even as a clean water passing through an unclean pipe is defiled That no impure works are useful to Justification is confessed Answ. but that all the works wrought in the Saints are such is denyed And for answer to this the former distinction will serve We confess that the first sort of works above mentioned are impure but not the Second because the first are wrought in the unrenewed state but not the other And as for that of Isaiah it must relate to the first kind for though he saith all our Righteousness are as filthy rags yet that will not comprehend the Righteousness of Christ in us but only that which we work of and by our selves For should we so conclude then it would follow that we should throw away all Holyness and Righteousness since that which is filthy rags and as a menstruous Garment ought to be thrown away yea it would follow that all the Fruits of the Spirit mentioned Gal. 4. were as filthy rags whereas on the contrary some of the works of the Saints are said to have a sweet savour in the nostrils of the Lord are said to be an Ornament of great price in the sight of God are said to prevail with him and to be acceptable to him which filthy rags and a menstruous garment cannot be Yea many Famous Protestants have acknowledged that this place is not therefore so to be understood Calvin upon this place saith That it is used to be cited by some that they may prove there is so little merit in our works that they are before God filthy and defiled but this seems to me to be different from the Prophets mind saith he seeing he speaks not here of all mankind Musculus upon this place saith that it was usual for this People to presume much of their legal Righteousness as if thereby they were made clean nevertheless they had no more cleanness than the unclean Garment of a man Others expone this place concerning all the Righteousness of our Flesh that opinion indeed is true Yet I think that the Prophet did rather accommodate these sayings to the impurity of that People in legal terms The Author commonly supposed Bertius speaking concerning the true sense of the 7 Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans hath a digression touching this of Isaiah saying This place is commonly corrupted by a pernicious wresting for it is still alledged as if the meaning thereof inferred the most excellent works of the best Christians c. James Coret a French Minister in the Church of Basil in his Apology concerning Justification against Alescales saith Nevertheless according to the counsel of certain good men I must admonish the Reader that it never come into our minds to abuse that saying of Isa. 64.6 against good works in which it is said that all our Righteousness are as filthy rags as if we would have that which is good in our good works and proceedeth from the Holy Spirit to be esteemed as a filthy and unclean thing § XII As to the other part that seeing the best of men are still impure and imperfect therefore their works must be so It is to beg the question and depends upon a Proposition denyed and which is to be discussed at further length in the next Proposition But tho we should suppose a man not throughly perfect in all respects yet will not that hinder but good and perfect works in their kind may be brought forth in them by the Spirit of Christ neither doth the Example of Water going through an unclean Pipe hit the matter because though Water may be capable to be tinctured with uncleanness yet the Spirit of God cannot whom we assert to be the immediate Author of those works that avail in Justification and therefore Jesus Christ his works in his Children are pure and perfect and he worketh in and through that pure thing of his own forming and creating in them Moreover if this did hold according to our Adversaries Supposition that no man ever was or can be perfect it would follow that the very Miracles and works of the Apostles which Christ wrought in them and they wrought in and by the Power Spirit and Grace of Christ were also impure and imperfect
heavenly Mansions which together do make up the one Catholick Church concerning which there is so much controversie out of which Church we freely acknowledge there can be no Salvation because under this Church and its denomination are comprehended all and as many of whatsoever Nation Kindred Tongue or People they be though outwardly strangers and remote from those who profess Christ and Christianity in words and have the benefit of the Scriptures as become obedient to the holy Light and Testimony of God in their hearts so as to become sanctified by it and cleansed from the evils of their wayes For this is the Universal or Catholick Spirit by which many are called from all the four corners of the earth and shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob. By this the secret Life and Vertue of Jesus is conveyed into many that are afar off even as by the blood that runs into the Veins and Arteries of the Natural Body the Life is conveyed from the Head and Heart unto the extremest parts There may be members therefore of this Catholick Church both among Heathens Turks Jews and all the several sorts of Christians Men and Women of integrity and simplicity of Heart who though blinded in something in their understanding and perhaps burthened with the Superstitions and formality of the several Sects in which they are ingrossed yet being upright in their Hearts before the Lord chiefly aiming and labouring to be delivered from iniquity and loving to follow righteousness are by the secret touches of this Holy Light in their Souls inlivened and quickened thereby secretly united to God and there through become true members of this Catholick Church Now the Church in this respect hath been in being in all generations for God never wanted some such witnesses for him though many times slighted and not much observed by this World And therefore this Church though still in being hath been oftentimes as it were Invisible in that it hath not come under the observation of the men of this World being as saith the Scripture Jer. 3.14 One of a City and two of a Family And yet though the Church thus considered may be as it were hid from wicked men as not then gathered into a visible fellowship yea and not observed even by some that are members of it yet may there notwithstanding many belong to it as when Elias complained he was left alone 1 Kings 19.18 God answered unto him I have reserved to my self seven thousand men who have not bowed their knees to the Image of Baal whence the Apostle argues Rom. 11. the being of a remnant in his day § III. Secondly the Church is to be considered as it signifies a certain number of persons gathered by Gods Spirit and by the testimony of some of his servants raised up for that end unto the belief of the true Principles and Doctrines of the Christian Faith who through their hearts being united by the same love and their understanding informed in the same Truths gather meet and assemble together to wait upon God to worship him and to bear a joynt testimony for the Truth against Error suffering for the same and so becoming through this fellowship as one family and houshold in certain respects do each of them watch over teach instruct and care for one another according to their several measures and attainments Such were the Churches of the Primitive time gathered by the Apostles whereof we have divers mentioned in the Holy Scriptures And as to the visibility of the Church in this respect there hath been a great interruption since the Apostles days by reason of the apostasie as shall hereafter appear § IV. To be a member then of the Catholick Church there is need of the inward calling of God by his Light in their Heart and a being leavened into the nature and Spirit of it so as to forsake unrighteousness and be turned to righteousness and in the inwardness of the mind to be cut out of the wild-Olive-tree of our own first faln nature and ingrafted into Christ by his Word and Spirit in the heart And this may be done in those who are strangers to the History God not having pleased to make them partakers thereof as in the V. and VI. Propositions hath already been proved To be a member of a particular Church of Christ as this inward work is indispensibly necessary so is also the outward profession of and belief in Jesus Christ and those holy Truths delivered by his Spirit in the Scriptures seeing the testimony of the Spirit recorded in the Scriptures doth answer the testimony of the same Spirit in the heart even as face answereth face in a glass Hence it follows that the inward work of Holiness and forsaking iniquity is necessary in every respect to the being a member in the Church of Christ and that the outward profession is necessary to be a member of a particular gathered Church but not to the being a member of the Catholick Church yet it is absolutely necessary where God affords the opportunity of knowing it the outward testimony is to be believed where it is presented and revealed the summ whereof hath upon other occasions been already proved § V. But contrary hereunto the Devil that worketh and hath wrought in the mystery of iniquity hath taught his followers to affirm That no man however holy is a member of the Church of Christ without the outward profession and that he be initiated thereunto by some outward Ceremonies And again That men who have this outward Profession though inwardly unholy may be members of the true Church of Christ yea and ought to be so esteemed This is plainly to put Light for Darkness and Darkness for Light as if God had a greater regard to words than actions and were more pleased with vain professions than with real holiness But these things I have sufficiently refuted heretofore Only from hence let it be observed that upon this false and rotten foundation Antichrist hath builded his Babylonish Structure and the anti-Christian Church in the apostasie hath hereby reared her self up to that heighth and grandeur she hath attained so as to exalt herself above all that is called God and sit in the Temple of God as God For the particular Churches of Christ gathered in the Apostles dayes soon after beginning to decay as to the inward Life came to be over-grown with several Errors and the hearts of the professors of Christianity to be leavened with the old Spirit and conversation of the World Yet it pleased God for some Centuries to preserve that life in many whom he emboldened with zeal to stand and suffer for his Name through the ten Persecutions But these being over the meekness gentleness love long-suffering goodness and temperance of Christianity came to be lost For after that the Princes of the earth came to take upon them that Profession and that it ceased to be a reproach to be a Christian but rather became a means to
preferment men became such by birth and education and not by conversion and renovation of Spirit then there was none so vile none so wicked none so profane who became not a member of the Church And the Teachers and Pastors thereof becoming the Companions of Princes and so being enriched by their benevolence and getting vast treasures and Estates became puffed up and as it were drunken with the vain pomp and glory of this World and so marshalled themselves in manifold orders and degrees not without innumerable contests and alterations who should have the Precedency So the vertue life substance and kernel of the Christian Religion came to be lost and nothing remained but a shaddow and image which dead image or carcass of Christianity to make it take the better with the superstitious multitude of Heathens that became engrossed in it not by any inward conversion of their hearts or by becoming less wicked or superstitious but by a little change in the object of their superstition not having the inward ornament and life of the Spirit became decked with many outward and visible orders and beautified with the gold silver precious stones and the other splendid ornaments of this perishing world so that this was no more to be accounted the Christian Religion and Christian Church notwithstanding the outward profession than the dead body of man is to be accounted a living man which however cunningly embalmed and adorned with ever so much gold or silver or most precious stones or sweet ointments is but a dead body still without sense life or motion For that Apostat Church of Rome has introduced no less ceremonies and superstitions into the Christian profession than was either among Jews or Heathens and that there is and hath been as much yea and more pride covetousness unclean lust luxury fornication profanity and atheism among her teachers and chief Bishops as ever was among any sort of people none need doubt that have read their own authors to wit Platina and others Now though Protestants have reformed from her in some of the most gross points and absurd doctrines relating to the Church and Ministery yet which is to be regretted they have but lopt the branches but retain and plead earnestly for the same root from which these abuses have sprung so that even among them though all that mass of superstition ceremonies and orders be not again established yet the same pride covetousness and sensuality is found to have overspread and leavened their Churches and Ministery and the life power and vertue of true religion is lost among them and the very same death barrenness dryness and emptyness is found in their ministery so that in effect they differ from Papists but in form and some ceremonies being with them apostatized from the life and power the true primitive Church and her Pastors were in so that of both it may be said truly without breach of charity that having only a form of godliness and many of them not so much as that they are deniers of yea enemies to the power of it And this proceeds not simply from their not walking answerable to their own principles and so degenerating that way which also is true but which is worse their setting down to themselves and adhering to certain principles which naturally as a cursed fruit bring forth these bitter fruits these therefore shall afterwards be examined and refuted as the contrary positions of truth in the Proposition are explained and proved For as to the nature and constitution of a Church abstract from their disputes concerning its constant visibility infallibility and the primacy of the Church of Rome the Protestants as in practice so in principles differ not from Papists for they ingross within the compass of their Church whole Nations making their infants members of it by sprinkling a little water upon them so that there is none so wicked or profane who is not a fellow-member no evidence of holiness being required to constitute a member of the Church and look through the Protestant Nations and there shall no difference appear in the lives of the generality of the one more than of the other but he who ruleth in the children of disobedience reigning in both so that the reformation through this defect is but in holding some less gross errors in the notion but not in having the heart reformed and renewed in which mainly the life of Christianity consisteth § VI. But the Popish errors concerning the ministry which they have retained are most of all to be regretted by which chiefly the life and power of Christianity is barred out among them and they kept in death barrenness and dryness there being nothing more hurtful than an error in this respect for where a false and corrupt ministry entreth all other manner of evils follows upon it according to that Scripture adage like people like priest For by their influence instead of ministring life and righteousness they minister death and iniquity The whole back-slidings of the Jewish congregations of old is hereto ascribed The leaders of my people have caused them to err The whole writings of the Prophets are full of such complaints and for this cause under the New Testament we are so often warned and guarded to beware of false Prophets and false Teachers c. What may be thought then where all as to this is out of order where both the foundation call qualifications maintenance and whole discipline is different from and opposite to the ministry of the primitive Church yea and necessarily tends to the shutting out a Spiritual ministry and the in-bringing and establishing a carnal This shall appear by parts § VII That then which comes first to be questioned in this matter is concerning the Call of a Minister to wit what maketh or how cometh a man to be a Minister Quest. Pastor or Teacher in the Church of Christ. We answer by the inward power and vertue of the Spirit of God For as saith our proposition Answ. having received the true knowledg of things Spiritual by the Spirit of God without which they cannot be known and being by the same in measure purified and sanctified he comes thereby to be called and moved to minister to others being able to speak from a living experience of what he himself is a witness and therefore knowing the terror of the Lord he is fit to perswade men c. 2 Cor. 5.11 and his words and ministery proceeding from the inward power and vertue reaches to the heart of his hearers and makes them approve of him and be subject unto him Our adversaries are forced to confess that this were indeed desirable and best but this they will not have to be absolutely necessary I shall first prove the necessity of it and then shew how much they err in that which they make more necessary than this Divine and Heavenly call First That which is necessary to make a man a Christian Arg. so as without it he cannot
be truly one must be much more necessary to make a man a Minister of Christianity seeing the one is a degree above the other and has it included in it nothing less than he that supposeth a master supposeth him first to have attained the knowledg and capacity of a Scholar They that are not Christians cannot be Teachers or Ministers among Christians But this inward call power and vertue of the Spirit of God is necessary to make a man a Christian as we have abundantly proved before in the second proposition according to these Scriptures He that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his As many as are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God Therefore this call moving and drawing of the Spirit must be much more necessary to make a minister Secondly all ministers of the New Testament ought to be ministers of the Spirit and not of the letter according to that 2 Cor. 3.6 and as the old Latine hath it not by the letter but by the Spirit But how can a man be a minister of the Spirit who is not inwardly called by it and who looks not upon the operation and testimony of the Spirit as essential to his call As he could not be a minister of the letter who had thence no ground for his call yea that were altogether a stranger to and unacquainted with it so neither can he be a minister of the Spirit who is a stranger to it and unacquainted with the motions thereof and knows it not to draw act and move him and go before him in the work of the Ministery I would willingly know how those that take upon them to be ministers as they suppose of the Gospel meerly from an outward vocation without so much as being any ways sensible of the work of the Spirit or any inward call therefrom can either satisfie themselves or others that they are Ministers of the Spirit or wherein they differ from the ministers of the Letter For Thirdly if this inward call or testimony of the Spirit were not essential and necessary to a minister then the ministery of the New Testament should not only be no ways preferable to but in divers respects far worse than that of the Law for under the Law there was certain tribe allotted for the ministery and of that tribe certain families set apart for the priesthood and other offices by the immediate command of God to Moses so that the people needed not be in any doubt who should be Priests and Ministers of the holy things yea and besides this God called forth by the immediate testimony of his Spirit several at divers times to teach instruct and reprove his people as Samuel Nathan Elias Elisa Jeremiah Amos and many more of the Prophets But now under the New Covenant where the ministry ought to be more spiritual the way more certain and the access more easie unto the Lord our adversaries by denying the necessity of this inward and Spiritual vocation make it quite otherways for there being now no certain family or tribe to which the ministry is limited we are left in uncertainty to chuse and have pastors at a venture without all certain assent of the will of God having neither an outward rule nor certainty in this affair to walk by for that the Scripture cannot give any certain rule in this matter hath in the third Proposition concerning it been already shewn Fourthly Christ proclaims them all Thieves and Robbers that enter not by him the door into the Sheep-fold but climb up some other way whom the Sheep ought not to hear but such as come in without the Call movings and leadings of the Spirit of Christ wherewith he leads his Children into all truth come in certainly not by Christ who is the Door but some other way and therefore are not true Shepherds Obj. § VIII To all this they object the succession of the Church alledging that since Christ gave a call to his Apostles and Disciples they have conveyed that call to their Successors having power to ordain Pastors and Teachers by which power the authority of ordaining and making Ministers and Pastors is successively conveyed to us so that such who are ordained and called by the Pastors of the Church are therefore true and lawful Ministers and others who are not so called are to be accounted but intruders Hereunto also some Protestants add a necessity though they make it not as a thing essential that besides this calling of the Church every one being called ought to have the inward call of the Spirit inclining him so chosen to his work but this they say is subjective and not objective of which before Answ. As to what is subjoined of the inward call of the Spirit in that they make it not essential to a true call but a supererogation as it were it sheweth how little they set by it since those they admit to the ministery are not so much as questioned in their trials whether they have this or not Yet in that it hath been often mentioned especially by the Primitive Protestants in their treatises of this subject it sheweth how much they were secretly convinced in their minds that this inward call of the Spirit was most excellent and preferable to any other and therefore in the most noble and heroick acts of the reformation they laid claim unto it so that many of the primitive Protestants did not scruple both to despise and disown this outward call when urged by the Papists against them But now Protestants having gone from the testimony of the Spirit plead for the same succession and being pressed by those whom God now raiseth up by his Spirit to reform these many abuses that are among them with the example of their Forefathers practice against Rome they are not at all asham'd utterly to deny that their fathers were call'd to their work by the inward and immediate vocation of the Spirit cloathing themselves with that call which they say their Forefathers had as Pastors of the Roman Church For thus not to go further affirmeth Nicolaus Arnoldus in a pamphlet written against the same Propositions called a Theologick Exercitation sect 40. averring that they pretended not to an immediate act of the Holy Spirit but reformed by the vertue of the ordinary vocation which they had in the Church as it then was to wit that of Rome c. § IX Many absurdities do Protestants fall into by deriving their ministry thus through the Church of Rome As first they must acknowledg her to be a true Church of Christ though only erroneous in some things which contradicts their fore-fathers so frequently and yet truly calling her Anti-Christ Secondly they must needs acknowledge that the Priests and Bishops of the Romish Church are true Ministers and Pastors of the Church of Christ as to the essential part else they could not have been fit subjects for that power and authority to have resided in neither
spue her out of his mouth Now suppose the Church of Laodicea had continued in that luke-warmness and had come under that condemnation and iudgment though she had retained the name and form of a Church and had had her Pastors and Ministers as no doubt she had at that time yet surely she had been no true Church of Christ nor had the authority of her Pastors and Teachers been to be regarded because of any outward succession though perhaps some of them had it immediately from the Apostles From all which I infer That since the authority of the Christian Church and her Pastors is always united and never separated from the inward power vertue and righteous life of Christianity where this ceaseth that ceaseth also But our adversaries acknowledge That many if not most of those by and through whom they derive this authority were altogether destitute of this life and vertue of Christianity Therefore they could neither receive have nor transmit any Christian authority Obj. But if it be objected That though the generality of the Bishops and Priests of the Church of Rome during the apostasie were such wicked men yet Protestants affirm and thou thy self seemest to acknowledge that there were some good men among them whom the Lord regarded and who were true members of the Catholick Church of Christ might not they then have transmitted this authority Answ. I answer This saith nothing in respect Protestants do not at all lay claim to their Ministry as transmitted to them by a direct line of such good men which they can never shew nor yet pretend to but generally place this succession as inherent in the whole Pastors of the Apostate Church neither do they plead their call to be good and valid because they can derive it through a line of good men separate and observable distinguishable from the rest of the Bishops and Clergy of the Romish Church but they derive it as an Authority residing in the whole for they think it heresie to judge that the quality or condition of the Administrator any ways invalidates or prejudiceth his work This vain then and pretended Succession not only militates against and fights with the very manifest purpose and intent of Christ in the gathering and calling of his Church but makes him so to speak more blind and less prudent than natural men are in conveying and establishing their outward Inheritances for where an Estate is entailed to a certain Name and Family when that Family weareth out and there is no lawful Successor found of it that can make a just title appear as being really of blood and affinity to the Family it is not lawful for any one of another race or blood because he assumes the name or arms of that Family to possess the estate and claim the superiorities and priviledges of the family but by the law of Nations the inheritance devolves into the Prince as being ultimus haeres and so he giveth it again immediately to whom he seeth meet and makes them bear the name and arms of the family who then are entitled to the priviledges and revenues thereof So in like manner the true name and title of a Christian by which he hath right to the heavenly inheritance and is a member of Jesus Christ is inward Righteousness and Holiness and the mind redeemed from the vanities lusts and iniquities of this world And a gathering or company made up of such members makes a Church where this is lost the title is lost and so the true Seed to which the promise is and to which the inheritance is due becomes extinguished in them and they become dead as to it and so it retires and devolves it self again into Christ who is the righteous heir of Life and he gives the title and true right again immediately to whom it pleaseth him even to as many as being turned to his Pure Light in their Consciences come again to walk in his righteous and innocent life and so become true members of his body which is the Church So the authority power and heirship is not annexed to persons as they bear the bare names or retain a form holding the meer shell or shadow of Christianity But the promise is to Christ and to the Seed in whom the authority is inherent and in as many as are one with him and united unto him by purity and holiness and by the inward renovation and regeneration of their minds Moreover this pretended succession is contrary to Scripture definitions and nature of the Church of Christ and of the true members For first The Church is the house of God the pillar and ground of Truth 1 Tim. 3.15 But according to this Doctrine the house of God is a polluted nest of all sort of wickedness and abominations made up of the most ugly defiled and perverse stones that are in the earth where the devil rules in all manner of unrighteousness For so our adversaries confess and History informs the Church of Rome to have been as some of their Historians acknowledge and if that be truly the house of God what may we call the house of Satan or may we call it therefore the house of God notwithstanding all this impiety because they had a bare form and that vitiated many ways also and because they pretended to the name of Christianity though they were anti-christian devilish and atheistical in their whole practice and spirit and also in many of their principles Would not this infer yet a greater absurdity as if they had been something to be accounted of because of their hypocrisie and deceit and false pretences Whereas the Scripture looks upon that as an aggravation of guilt and calls it Blasphemy Rev. 2.9 Of two wicked men he is most to be abhorred who covereth his wickedness with a vain pretence of God and righteousness even so these abominable beasts and fearful monsters who look upon themselves to be Bishops in the apostate Church were never a whit the better that they falsly pretended to be the Successors of the Holy Apostles unless to lie be commendable and that hypocrisie be the way to Heaven Yea were not this to fall into that evil condemned among the Jews Jer. 7.4 Trust ye not in lying words saying The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are these throughly amend your ways c. as if such outward names and things were the thing the Lord regarded and not inward holiness or can that then be the pillar and ground of Truth which is the very sink and pit of wickedness from which so much error superstition idolatry and all abomination springs Can there be any thing more contrary both to Scripture and Reason Secondly The Church is defined to be the Kingdom of the dear Son of God into which the Saints are translated being delivered from the power of darkness It is called the Body of Christ which from him by joynts and bands having nourishment ministred and knit
singularly by his Spirit who from the testimony of the Scriptures perceiving the errors into which such as bear the name of Christians are faln may instruct and teach them and then become authorized by the people's joyning with and accepting of their ministry only Most of them also will affirm that the Spirit herein is subjective and not objective But they say that where a Church is reformed Obj. such as they pretend the Ptotestants Churches are there an ordinary orderly call is necessary and that of the Spirit as extraordinary is not to be sought after alledging that res aliter se habet in ecclesia constituenda quam in ecclesia constituta that is there is a difference in the constituting of a Church and after it is constitute I answer this objection as to us saith nothing seeing we accuse Answ. and are ready from the Scriptures to prove the Protestants guilty of gross errors and needing reformation as well as they did and do the Papists and therefore we may justly lay claim if we would to the same extraordinary call having the same reason for it and as good evidence to prove ours as they had for theirs As for that Maxime viz. that the case is different in a constituting Church and a Church constituted I do not deny it and therefore there may be a greater measure of power required to the one than to the other and God in his Wisdom distributes the same as he seeth meet but that the same immediate assistance of the Spirit is not necessary for ministers in a gathered Church as well as in gathering one I see no solid reason alledged for it For sure Christs promise was to be with his children to the end of the world and they need him no less to preserve and guide his Church and Children than to gather and beget them Nature taught the Gentiles this Maxime Non minor est virtus quam quaerere parta tueri Englished thus For to defend what you attain Requires no less strength than to gain For it is by this inward and immediate operation of the Spirit which Christ hath promised to lead his Children with into all Truth and to teach them all things that Christians are to be led in all steps as well last as first which relates to Gods Glory and their own Salvation as we have heretofore sufficiently proved and therefore need not now repeat it And truly this device of Satan whereby he has got people to put the immediate guidings and leadings of Gods Spirit as an extraordinary thing a far off which their Fore-fathers had but which they now are neither to wait for nor expect is a great cause of the growing Apostacy upon the many gathered Churches and is one great reason why a dry dead barren lifeless spiritless ministry which leavens the people into the same death doth so much abound and is so much overspreading even the Protestant nations that their preachings and worships as well as whole conversation is not to be discerned from Popish by any fresh living zeal or lively Power of the Spirit accompanying it but meerly by the difference of some notions and opinions Obj. § XII Some unwise and unwary Protestants do sometimes object to us that if we have such an immediate call as we lay claim to we ought to confirm it by miracles Answ. But this being an objection once and again objected to the primitive Protestants by the Papists we need but short return the answer to it that they did to the Papists to wit that we need not miracles because we preach no new Gospel but that which is already confirmed by all the miracles of Christ and his Apostles and that we offer nothing but that which we are ready and able to confirm by the testimony of the Scriptures which both already acknowledge to be true And that John the Baptist and divers of the Prophets did none that we hear of and yet were both immediately and extraordinarily sent This is the common Protestant answer therefore may suffice in this place though if need were I could say more to this purpose but that I study brevity § XIII There is also another sort of Protestants to wit the English Independents who differing from the Calvinistical Presbyterians and denying the necessity of this succession or the authority of any National Church take another way affirming that such as have the benefit of the Scriptures any company of people agreeing in the principles of Truth as they find them there declared may constitute among themselves a Church without the authority of any other and may choose to themselves a Pastor who by the Church thus constitute and consenting is authorized requiring only the assistance and concurrence of the Pastors of the neighbouring Churches if any be not so much as absolutely necessary to authorize as decent for orders sake Also they go so far as to affirm that in a Church so constitute any gifted Brother as they call them if he find himself qualified thereto may instruct exhort and preach in the Church though as not having the Pastoral office he cannot administer that they call their Sacraments To this I answer that this was a good step out of the Babylonish darkness and no doubt did proceed from a real discovery of the Truth and from the sense of a great abuse of the promiscuous National gatherings Also this preaching of the Gifted Brethren as they called them did proceed at first from certain lively touches and movings of the Spirit of God upon many But alas because they went not forward that is much decayed among them and the motions of Gods Spirit begin to be denyed and rejected among them now as much as by others But as to their pretended Call from the Scripture I answer The Scripture gives a meer declaration of true things but no call to particular persons so that though I believe the things there written to be true and deny the errors which I find there testified against yet as to these things which may be my particular duty I am still to seek and therefore I can never be resolved in the Scripture whether I such a one by name ought to be a Minister And for the resolving this doubt I must needs recur to the inward and immediate testimony of the Spirit as in the Proposition concerning the Scriptures more at large is shewn § XIV From all this then we do firmly conclude that not only in a general apostasie it is needful men be extraordinarily called and raised up by the Spirit of God but that even when several assemblies or Churches are gathered by the Power of God not only into the belief of the Principles of Truth so as to deny Errors and Heresies but also into the Life Spirit and Power of Christianity so as to be the Body and House of Christ indeed and a fit Spouse for him that he who gathers them doth also for the preserving them in a lively fresh and powerful condition
raise up and move among them by the inward immediate operation of his own Spirit Ministers and Teachers to instruct and teach and watch over them who being thus called are manifest in the hearts of their Brethren and their call is thus verified in them who by the feeling of that life and power that passeth through them being inwardly builded up by them dayly in the most holy Faith become the Seals of their Apostleship and this is answerable to another saying of the same Apostle Paul 2 Cor. 13.3 Since ye seek a proof of Christs speaking in me which to you-wards is not weak but is mighty in you So this is that which gives a true substantial Call and title to a Minister whereby he is a real successor of the vertue life and power that was in the Apostles and not of the bare name and to such Ministers we think the outward Ceremony of Ordination or laying on of Hands not necessary neither can we see the use of it seeing our adversaries who use it acknowledge that the vertue and power of communicating the Holy Ghost by it is ceased among them And is it not then foolish and ridiculous for them by an apish imitation to keep up the shadow where the substance is wanting And may not they by the same rule where they see blind and lame men in imitation of Christ and his Apostles bid them see and walk yea is it not in them a mocking of God and men to put on their hands and bid men receive the Holy Ghost while they believe the thing impossible and confess that that Ceremony hath no real effect Having thus far spoken of the Call I shall proceed next to treat of the qualifications and work of a true Minister § XV. As I have placed the true call of a Minister in the motion of this Holy Spirit so is the power Life and vertue thereof and the pure Grace of God that comes therefrom the chief and most necessary qualification without which he can no ways perform his duty neither acceptably to God nor beneficially to men Our adversaries in this case affirm that three things go to the making up of a Minister viz. 1. Natural parts that he be not a fool 2. Acquired Parts that he be learned in the Languages in Philosophy and School-Divinity 3. The Grace of God The two first they reckon necessary to the being of a Minister so as a man cannot be one without them The third they say goeth to the well-being of one but not to the being so that a man may truly be a lawful Minister without it and ought to be heard and received as such But we supposing a natural capacity that one be not an idiot judge the grace of God indispensably necessary to the very being of a Minister as that without which any can neither be a true nor lawful nor good Minister As for letter-learning we judge it not so much necessary to the well-being of one though accidentally sometimes in certain respects it may concur but more frequently it is hurtful than helpful as appeared in the example of Taulerus who being a learned man and who could make an eloquent preaching needed nevertheless to be instructed in the way of the Lord by a poor Laick I shall first speak of the necessity of Grace and then proceed to say something of that Literature which they judge so needful First then as we said in the Call so may we much more here If the Grace of God be a necessary qualification to make one a true Christian it must be a qualification much more necessary to constitute a true Minister of Christianity That Grace is necessary to make up a true Christian I think will not be questioned since it is by Grace we are saved Eph. 2.8 it is the Grace of God that teacheth us to deny ungodliness and the lusts of this world and to live godlily and righteously Tit. 2.11 yea Christ saith expresly That without him we can do nothing Joh. 15.5 and the way whereby Christ helpeth assisteth and worketh with us is by his Grace Hence saith to Paul My Grace is sufficient for thee A Christian without Grace is indeed no Christian but an hypocrite and a false pretender Then I say If Grace be necessary to a private Christian far more to a teacher among Christians who must be as a Father and Instructor of others seeing this dignity is bestowed upon such as have attained a greater measure than their Brethren Even Nature it self may teach us that there is more required in a Teacher than in those that are taught and that the Master must be above and before the Scholar in that Art or Science which he teacheth others Since then Christianity cannot be truly enjoyed neither any man denominated a Christian without the true Grace of God therefore neither can any man be a true nor lawful teacher of Christianity without it Secondly No man can be a Minister of the Church of Christ Arg. which is his Body unless he be a member of the Body and receive of the vertue and life of the Head But he that hath not true Grace can neither be a member of the Body neither receive of that life and nourishment which comes from the Head Therefore far less can he be a Minister to edifie the Body That he cannot be a Minister who is not a Member is evident because who is not a member is shut out and cut off and hath no place in the Body whereas the Ministers are counted among the most eminent Members of the Body But no man can be a member unless he receive of the vertue life and nourishment of the Head For the members that receive not this life and nourishment decay and wither and then are cut off And that every true member doth thus receive nourishment and life from the Head the Apostle expresly affirmeth Eph. 4.16 From whom the whole body being fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplyeth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part makes increase of the body unto the edifying of it self in love Now this that thus is communicated and which thus uniteth the whole is no other than the Grace of God and therefore the Apostle in the same chapter ver 7. But unto every one of us is given Grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ and v. 11. he sheweth how that by this Grace and Gift both Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers are given for the work of the Ministry and edifying of the Body of Christ. And certainly then no man destitute of Grace is fit for this work seeing that all that Christ gives are so qualified and these that are not so qualified are not given nor sent of Christ are not to be heard nor received nor acknowledged as Ministers of the Gospel because his sheep neither ought nor will hear the voice of a stranger This is also clear from 1 Cor. 12.
all have in a measure but we understand men that are gracious leavened by it into the nature thereof so as thereby to bring forth these good Fruits of a blameless conversation and of justice holiness patience and temperance which the Apostle requires as necessary in a true Christian Bishop and Minister Thirdly they object the example of the false Prophets of the Pharisees and of Judas But first as to the false Prophets there can nothing be more foolish and ridiculous as if because there were false Prophets truely false without the Grace of God therefore Grace is not necessary to a true Christian Minister Indeed if they had proven that true Prophets wanted this Grace they had said something But what have false Prophets common with true Ministers but that they pretend falsely that which they have not And because false Prophets want true Grace will it therefore follow that true Prophets ought not to have it or need it not yea doth it not much rather follow that they ought to have it that they may be true and not false The example of the Pharisees and Priests under the Law will not answer to the Gospel times because God set apart a particular Tribe for that Service and particular Families to whom it belonged by a lineal Succession and also their service and work was not purely Spiritual but only the performance of some outward and carnal observations and ceremonies which were but a shadow of the Substance that was to come and therefore their work made not the comers thereunto perfect as pertaining to the Conscience seeing they were appointed only according to the Law of a carnal commandment and not according to the power of an endless life Notwithstanding as in the figure they behoved to be without blemish as to their outward man and in the performance of their work they behoved to be washed and purified from their outward pollutions so now under the Gospel times the Ministers in the anti-type must be inwardly without blemish in their Souls and spirits being as the Apostle requires blameless and in their work and service must be pure and undefiled from their inward pollutions and so clean and holy that they may offer up Spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 2.5 As to Judas the season of his ministry was not wholly Evangelical as being before the work was finished and while Christ himself and his Disciples were yet subject to the Jewish Observances and Constitutions and therefore his Commission as well as that which the rest received with him at that time was only to the House of Israel Matth. 10.5 6. which made that by vertue of that Commission the rest of the Apostles were not impowered to go forth and preach after the Resurrection until they had waited at Jerusalem for the pouring forth of the Spirit So that it appears Judas's ministry was more Legal than Evangelical Secondly Judas's Case as all will acknowledge was singular and extraordinary he being immediately called by Christ himself and accordingly furnished and impowered by him to preach and do miracles which immediate Commission our Adversaries do not so much as pretend to and so fall short of Judas who trusted in Christs Words and therefore went forth and preached without Gold or Silver or Scrip for his Journey giving freely as he had freely received which our Adversaries will not do as hereafter shall be observed Also that Judas at that time had not the least measure of Gods Grace I have not as yet heard proved But is it not sad that even Protestants should lay aside the eleven good and faithful Apostles and all the rest of the holy Disciples and Ministers of Christ and betake them to that one of whom it was testified that he was a devil for a pattern and example to their Ministry Alas it is to be regretted that too many of them resemble this pattern over much Obj. Another Objection is usually made against the necessity of Grace that in case it were necessary then such as wanted it could not truly administer the Sacraments and consequently the people would be left in doubts and infinite scruples as not knowing certainly whether they had truly received them because not knowing infallibly whether the administrators were truly gracious men But this objection hitteth not us at all because the nature of that Spiritual and Christian Worship Answ. which we according to the truth plead for is such as is not necessarily attended with these carnal and outward institutions from the administring of which the objection ariseth and so hath not any such absurdity following upon it as will afterwards more clearly appear § XVIII Though then we make not humane Learning necessary yet we are far from excluding true learning to wit that learning which proceedeth from the inward teachings and instructions of the Spirit whereby the Soul learneth the secret wayes of the Lord becomes acquainted with many inward travels and exercises of the mind and learneth by a living experience how to overcome evil and the temptations of it by following the Lord and walking in his Light and waiting dayly for wisdom and knowledge immediately from the revelation thereof and so layeth up these heavenly and Divine Lessons in the good treasure of the heart as honest Mary did the sayings which she heard and things which she observed and also out of this Treasure of the Soul as the good Scribe brings forth things new and old according as the same Spirit moves and gives a true liberty and as need is for the Lords glory whose the Soul is and for whom and with an eye to whose glory she which is the Temple of God learneth to do all things This is that good learning which we think necessary to a true Minister by and through which learning a man can well instruct teach and admonish in due season and testifie for God from a certain experience as David did Solomon and the holy Prophets of old and the blessed Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ Who testified of what they had seen heard felt and handled of the Word of Life 1 Joh. 1.1 ministring the Gift according as they had received the same as good Stewards of the manifold Grace of God and preached not the uncertain rumors of others by hear-say which they had gathered meerly in the comprehension while they were strangers to the thing in their own experience in themselves as to teach people how to believe while themselves were unbelieving or how to overcome sin while themselves are slaves to it as all ungracious men are or to believe and hope for an eternal reward which themselves have not as yet arrived at c· § XIX But let us examine this Literature which they make so necessary to the being of a Minister as in the first place the knowledge of the Tongues at least of the Latine Greek and Hebrew The reason for this is that they may read the Scriptures which is their only
up a shadow and form of these orders and so make several ranks and degrees to establish a carnal Ministry of mens making without the Life Power and Spirit of Christ this is that work of Anti-christ and Mystery of Iniquity that hath got up in the dark night of Apostasie but in a true Church of Christ gathered together by God not only unto the belief of the principles of Truth but also into the Power Life and Spirit of Christ the Spirit of God is the Orderer Ruler and Governour as in each particular so in the general and when they assemble together to wait upon God and worship and adore him then such as the Spirit sets apart to the Ministry by its Divine Power and Influence opening their Mouths and giving them to exhort reprove and instruct with Vertue and Power these are thus of God ordained and admitted into the Ministry and their brethren cannot but hear them receive them and also honour them for their works sake and so this is not monopolized to a certain kind of men as the Clergy who are to that purpose educated and brought up as other carnal Artists and the rest to be despised as Laicks but it is left to the free Gift of God to chuse any whom he seeth meet thereunto whether rich or poor servant or master young or old yea male or female And such as have this call verifie the Gospel by preaching not in Speech only but also in Power and the Holy Ghost and in much fulness 1 Thes. 1.5 and cannot but be received and heard by the Sheep of Christ. § XXV But if it be objected here Obj. that I seem hereby to make no distinction at all betwixt Ministers and others which is contrary to the Apostle saying 1 Cor. 12.29 Are all Apostles Are all Prophets Are all Teachers c. From thence they insinuate that I also contradict his comparison in that chapter of the Church of Christ with a humane body as where he saith verse 17. If the whole body were an Eye where were the hearing If the whole were hearing where were the smelling c. Also the Apostle not only thus distinguisheth the Ministers of the Church in general from the rest of the Members but also from themselves as naming them distinctly and separately Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers c. As to the last part of this objection to which I shall first answer Answ. it is apparent that this diversity of Names is not for to distinguish separate Offices but to denote the different and various Operations of the Spirit a manner of Speech frequent with the Apostle Paul wherein he sometimes expatiates to the Illustrating of the Glory and Praise of God's Grace as in particular Rom. 12.6 Having then Gifts differing according to the Grace that is given us whether Prophecy let us Prophecy according to the proportion of Faith Or Ministry let us wait on our Ministring or he that Teacheth on Teaching or he that Exhorteth on Exhortation Now none will say from all this that these are distinct Offices or do not or may not co-incide in one person as may all these other things mentioned by him in the subsequent verses viz. Of Loving being kindly affectioned Fervency of Spirit Hospitality Diligence Blessing Rejoycing c. Which yet he numbers forth as different gifts of the Spirit And according to this objection might be placed as distinct and separate Offices which were most absurd Secondly in these very places mentioned it is clear that it is no real distinction of separate Offices because all acknowledg that Pastors and Teachers which the Apostle there no less separateth and distinguisheth than Pastors and Prophets or Apostles are one and the same and co-incide in the same Office and Person and therefore so may be said of the rest For Prophecy as it signifieth the foretelling of things to come is indeed a distinct Gift but no distinct Office and therefore our Adversaries do not place it among their several orders neither will they deny but that both may be and have been given of God to some that not only have been Pastors and Teachers and that there it hath co incided in one Person with these other Offices but also to some of the Laicks and so it hath been found according to their own concession without the limits of their Clergy Prophecy in the other sense to wit as it signifieth a speaking from the Spirit of Truth is not only peculiar to Pastors and Teachers who ought so to Prophecy but even a common priviledg to the Saints for though to Instruct Teach and Exhort be proper to such as are more particularly called to the work of the Ministry yet it is not so proper to them as not to be when the Saints are met together as any of them are moved by the Spirit common to others For some acts belong to all in such a relation but not only to those within that relation competunt omni sed non Soli thus to see and hear are proper acts of a man seeing it may be properly predicated of him that he heareth and seeth yet are they common to other Creatures also So to Prophecy in this sense is indeed proper to Ministers and Teachers yet not so but that it is common and lawful to other Saints when moved thereunto though it be not proper to them by way of relation because notwithstanding that motion they are not particularly called to the work of the Ministry as appears by 1 Cor. 14. where the Apostle at large declaring the order and ordinary method of the Church saith ver 30 31. But if any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by let the first hold his peace For ye may all Prophecy one by one that all may learn and all be comforted Which sheweth that none is here excluded But yet that there is a subordination according to the various measures of the Gift received the next verse sheweth And the Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets For God is not the Author of confusion but of peace Now that Prophecying in this sense may be common to all Saints appears by the 39 verse of the same Chapter where speaking to all in general he saith Therefore Brethren covet to Prophecy and verse 1. he exhorts them saying Covet Spiritual Gifts but the rather that ye may Prophecy Secondly as to Evangelists the same may be said for whoever preacheth the Gospel is really an Evangelist and so consequently every true Minister of the Gospel is one else what proper office can they assign to it unless they should be so foolish as to affirm that none were Evangelists but Matthew Mark Luke and John who wrote the Account of Christ's Life and Sufferings And then it were neither a particular office seeing John and Matthew were Apostles Mark and Luke Pastors and Teachers so that there they co-incided in one and indeed it is absurd to think that upon that particular account the
Apostle used the word Evangelist Calvin acknowledgeth that such as preach the Gospel in purity after some time of Apostacy may be truly called Evangelists and therefore saith that there were Apostles in his time and hence the Protestants at their first coming forth termed themselves Evangeleci or Evangeliks Lastly an Apostle if we look to the Etymology of the word signifies one that is sent and in respect every true Minister is sent of God in so far he is an Apostle though these Twelve because of their being specially sent of Christ were therefore called Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or per eminentiam i. e. by way of excellency And yet there was no limitation to such a number as some foolishly imagine it appears because after that number was filled up the Apostle Paul was afterwards so called therefore we judg that these are no distinct separate Offices but only Names used upon occasions to express the more eminent arising and shining forth of God's Grace as if any Minister of Christ should now Prosolyte or turn a whole Nation to the Christian Faith though he had no distinct Office yet I doubt not but both Papists and Protestants would judg it tolerable to call such an one an Apostle or an Evangelist For some of the Jesuits call of their Sect Apostles of India and of Japon upon this alledged account And Calvin testifies that there were Apostles and Evangelists in his time upon the account of the Reformation upon which account we have known John Knox often called the Apostle of Scotland so that we conclude that Ministers Pastors or Teachers doth comprehend all and that the Office is but one and therefore in that respect we judg there ought to be no precedency among them to prove which I shall not insist seeing it is shewn largely and treated of by such as have denyed the Diocesian Episcopacy as they call it § XXVI As to the first part of the objection viz. that I seem to make no distinction betwixt the Minister and People I answer If it be understood of a liberty to Speak or Prophecy by the Spirit I say all may do that when moved thereunto as above is shewn but we do believe and affirm that some are more particularly called to the work of the Ministry and therefore are fitted of the Lord for that purpose whose work is more constantly and particularly to instruct exhort admonish oversee and watch over their Brethren and that as there is something more incumbent upon them in that respect than upon every common Believer so also as in that relation there is due to them from the Flock such obedience and subjection as is mentioned in these Testimonys of the Scripture Heb. 13.17 1 Thess. 5.12 13. 1 Tim. 5.17 1 Pet. 5.5 Also besides these who are thus particularly called to the Ministry and constant labour in the Word and Doctrine there are also the Elders who though they be not moved to a frequent Testimony by way of Declaration in Words yet as such as are grown up in the experience of the blessed work of Truth in their Hearts watch over and privately admonish the Young care for the Widows the Poor and Fatherless and care and look that nothing be wanting but that Peace Love Unity Concord and Soundness be preserved in the Church of Christ and this answers to the Deacons mentioned Acts 6. That which we oppose is the distinction of Laity and Clergy which in the Scripture is not to be found whereby none are admitted unto the work of the Ministry but such as are educated at Schools on purpose and instructed in Logick and Philosophy c. And so are at their Apprenticeship to learn the Art and Trade of Preaching even as a man learns any other Art whereby all other honest mechanick men who have not got this Heathenish Art are excluded from having this priviledg and so he that is a Schollar thus bred up must not have any honest trade whereby to get him a Lively-hood if he once intend for the Ministry but he must see to get him a place and then he hath his set hire for a Lively-hood to him he must also be distinguished from the rest by the Colour of his Cloaths for he must only wear Black and must be a Master of Arts but more of this hereafter § XXVII As this manner of separating men for the Ministry is nothing like the Church in the Apostles days so great Evils have and do follow upon it for first Parents seeing both the Honour and Profit that attends the Clergy do allot their Children sometimes from their Infancy to it and so breed them up on purpose and others come to age upon the same account betake them to the same Trade and having these natural and acquired parts that are judged the necessary qualifications of a Minister are thereby admitted and so are bred up in Idleness and Pleasure thinking it a disgrace for them to work with their hands only if they study a little out of their Books to make a discourse once or twice in a Week during the running of an Hour-glass Whereas the Gift Grace and Spirit of God to call gift and qualifie for the Ministry is neglected and overlooked And many Covetous Corrupt Earthly Carnal men having a meer shew and form but strangers to and utterly ignorant of the inward work of Grace upon their hearts are brought in and intrude themselves and so through them Death Barrenness and Darkness and by consequence Superstition Error and Idolatry hath entred and leavened the Church and they that will narrowly observe shall find that it was thus the Apostacy came to take place of the Truth of which I could give many examples which for brevities sake I omit For so the Office Reverence and respect due to it was annexed to the meer name so that when once a man was ordained a Bishop or a Priest he was heard and believed though he had nothing of the Spirit Power and Life that the true Apostles and Ministers were in that in a short time the succession came to be of the Name and Title and the Office was thereto annexed and not of the Nature Vertue and Life Which in effect made them to cease to be the Ministry and Ministers of Christ but only a shadow and vain image of it which also decaying was in some ages so metamorphosed that not only the substance was lost but the very form wholly vitiated alterated and marred that it may be far better said of the pretended Christian Church as was disputed of Theseus's Boat which by the piecing of many new pieces of Timber was wholly altered whether indeed it were the same or another But in case that the first had been of Oak and the last pieces put in but of rotten Fir and that also the form had been so far changed as to be nothing like the first I think it would have suffered no dispute but might have easily been concluded to be quite
become a Proverb that the KIRK is always GREEDY Whereby the Gift and Grace of God being neglected they have for for the most part no other motive or rule in applying themselves to one Church more than another but the greater Benefice For tho they hypocritically pretend at their accepting of and entring unto their Church that they have nothing before them but the Glory of God and the Salvation of Souls yet if a richer Benefice offer it self they presently find it more for God's Glory to remove from the first and go thither And thus they make no difficulty often to change while notwithstanding they accuse us that we allow Ministers to go from place to place and not to be tied to one place but we allow this not for the gaining of money but as moved of God for if a Minister be called to Minister in a particular place he ought not to leave it except God call him from it and then he ought to obey for we make the will of God inwardly revealed and not the love of money and more gain the ground of removing Secondly From this abuse hath proceeded that Luxury and Idleness that most of the Clergy live in even among Protestants as well as Papists to the great scandal of Christianity For not having lawful Trades to work with their hands and being so superfluously and sumptuosly provided for they live in Idleness and Luxury and there doth more Pride Vanity and Worldly Glory appear in their Wives and Children than in most others which is open and evident to all Thirdly They become hereby so glewed to the love of money that there is none like them in malice rage and cruelty if they deny their hire they rage like drunken men fret fume and as it were go mad A man may sooner satisfie the severest Creditor than them the general voice of the poor doth confirm this for indeed they are far more exact in taking up the Tithes of Sheep Geese Swine and Eggs c. and look more narrowly to it than to the members of the Flock they will not miss the least mite and the poorest Widow cannot escape their avaritious hands twenty Lyes they will hear unreproved and as many Oaths a man may swear in their hearing without offending them and greater evils than all this they can overlook But if thou owest them ought and refuse to pay it then nothing but war will they thunder against thee and they will stigmatize thee with the horrible Title of Sacriledg and send thee to Hell without mercy as if thou hadst committed the sin against the Holy Ghost Of all People we can best bear witness to this for God having shewn us this corrupt and Anti-Christian Ministry and called us out from it and gathered us unto his own Power and Life to be a separate People so that we dare not joyn with nor hear these Anti-Christian hirelings neither yet put into their mouths or feed them O! what malice envy and fury hath this raised in their Hearts against us that tho we get none of their wares neither will buy them as knowing them to be nought yet will they force us to give them money and because we cannot for conscience sake do it our sufferings have upon that account been unutterable Yea to give account of their cruelty and several sorts of inhumanity used against us would make no small History These avaritious Hirelings have come to that degree of malice and rage that several poor labouring men have been carried hundreds of miles from their own dwellings and shut up in prison some two some three yea some seven years together for the value of one pound sterling and less I know my self a poor Widow that for the tithes of her Geese which amounted not to five shillings was about four years kept in prison thirty miles from her house Yea they by violence for this cause have plundred of mens goods the hundred fold and prejudiced much more yea hundreds have hereby spilt their innocent blood by dying in the filthy noisom holes and prisons and some of the Priests have been so inraged that Goods thus ravished could not satisfie them but they must also satisfie their fury by beating knocking and wounding with their hands innocent men and women for refusing for Conscience sake to put into their mouths The only way then soundly to reform and remove all these abuses and take away the ground and occasion of them is to take away all stinted and forced maintainance and stipend and seeing those things were anciently given by the people that they return again into the publick treasure and thereby the people may be greatly benefited by them for that they may supply for these publick taxations and impositions that are put upon them and may ease themselves of them And whoever call or appoint teachers to themselves let them accordingly entertain them And for such as are called and moved to the Ministry by the Spirit of God those that receive them and taste of the good of their Ministry will no doubt provide things needful for them and there will be no need of a Law to force a hire for them for he that sends them will take care for them and they also having food and raiment will therewith be content § XXXIII The sum then of what is said Is that The Ministry that we have pleaded for and which also the Lord hath raised up among us is in all its parts like the true Ministry of the Apostles and primitive Church Whereas the Ministry our adversaries seek to uphold and plead for as it doth in all its parts differ from them so on the other hand it is very like the false Prophets and Teachers testified against and condemned in the Scripture as may be thus briefly illustrated 1. The Mintstry and Minister we plead for are such as are immediately called and sent forth by Christ and his Spirit unto the work of the Ministry so were the holy Apostles and Prophets as appears by these places Matth. 10. verse 1.5 Eph. 4.11 Heb. 5.4 1. But the Ministry and Ministers our opposers plead for are such as have no immediate call from Christ to whom the leading and motion of the Spirit is not reckoned necessary but who are called sent forth and ordained by wicked and ungodly men such were of old the false Prophets and Teachers as appears by these places Jer. 14.14 15. item chap. 23.21 and 27.15 2. The Ministers we plead for are such as are acted and led by God's Spirit and by the power and operation of his Grace in their hearts are in some measure converted and regenerate and so are good holy and gracious men such were the Holy Prophets and Apostles as appears from 1 Tim. 3.2 3 4 5 6. Tit. 1.7 8 9. 2. But the Ministers our adversaries plead for are such to whom the Grace of God is no needful qualification and so may be true Ministers according to them though they be ungodly
now it is fit to speak of Praying concerning which the like controversie ariseth Our adversaries whose Religion is all for the most part outside and such whose acts are the meer product of man's natural will and abilities as they can preach so can they pray when they please and therefore have their set particular prayers I meddle not with the controversies among themselves concerning this some of them being for set prayers as a liturgy others for such as are ex tempore conceived it suffices me that all of them agree in this that the motions and influence of the Spirit of God are not necessary to be previous thereunto and therefore they have set times in their publick worship as before and after preaching and in their private devotion as morning and evening and before and after meat and other such occasions at which they precisely set about the performing of their prayers by speaking words to God whether they feel any motion or influence of the Spirit or not so that some of the chiefest have confessed that they have thus prayed without the motions or assistance of the Spirit acknowledging that they sinned in so doing yet they said they look upon it as their duty to do so though to pray without the Spirit be sin We freely confess that Prayer is both very profitable and a necessary duty commanded and fit to be practised frequently by all Christians but as we can do nothing without Christ so neither can we pray without the concurrence and assistance of his Spirit But that the state of the Controversie may be the better understood let it be considered First that Prayer is twofold inward and outward Inward Prayer is that secret turning of the mind towards God whereby being secretly touched and awakened by the Light of Christ in the Conscience and so bowed down under the sense of its iniquities unworthiness and misery it looks up to God and joining issue with the secret shinings of the Seed of God it breaths towards him and is constantly breathing forth some secret desires and aspirations towards him It is in this sense that we are so frequently in Scripture commanded to pray continually Luke 18.1 1 Thes. 5.17 Eph. 6.18 Luke 21.36 Which cannot be understood of outward Prayer because it were impossible that men should be alwaies upon their knees expressing words of prayer and this would hinder them from the exercise of those duties no less positively commanded Outward Prayer is when as the Spirit being thus in the exercise of inward retirement and feeling the breathing of the Spirit of God to arise powerfully in the Soul receives strength and liberty by a superadded motion and influence of the Spirit to bring forth either audable sighs groans or words and that either in publick assemblies or in private or at meat c. As then inward prayer is necessary at all times so so long as the day of every man's visitation lasteth he never wants some influence less or more for the practice of it Because he no sooner retires his mind and considers himself in God's presence but he finds himself in the practice of it The outward exercise of Prayer as needing a greater and superadded influence and motion of the Spirit as it cannot be continually practised so neither can it be so readily so as to be effectually performed until his mind be sometime acquainted with the inward therefore such as are dilligent and watchful in their minds and much retired in the exercise of this inward Prayer are more capable to be frequent in the use of the outward because that this Holy Influence doth more constantly attend them and they being better acquainted with and accustomed to the motions of God's Spirit can easily perceive and discern them and indeed as such who are most diligent have a near access to God and he taketh most delight to draw them by his Spirit to approach and call upon him So when many are gathered together in this watchful mind God doth frequently pour forth the Spirit of Prayer among them and stir them thereunto to the edifying and building up of one another in love But because this outward Prayer depends upon the inward as that which must follow it and cannot be acceptably performed but as attended with a superadded influence and motion of the Spirit therefore cannot we prefix set times to pray outwardly so as to lay a necessity to speak words at such and such times whether we feel this heavenly influence and assistance or no for that we judg were a tempting of God and a coming before him without due preparation We think it fit for us to present our selves before him by this inward retirement of the mind and so to proceed further as his Spirit shall help us and draw us thereunto and we find that the Lord accepts of this yea and seeth meet sometimes to exercise us in this silent place for the tryal of our patience without allowing us to speak further that he may teach us not to rely upon outward performances or satisfie our selves as too many do with the saying of our Prayers and that our dependence upon him may be the more firm and constant to wait for the holding out of his Scepter and for his allowance to draw near unto him and with greater freedom and enlargement of Spirit upon our hearts towards him yet nevertheless we do not deny but sometimes God upon particular occasions very suddenly yea upon the very first turning-in of the mind may give power and liberty to bring forth words or acts of outward Prayer so as the Soul can scarce discern any previous motion but the influence and bringing forth thereof may be as it were simul semel nevertheless that saying of Bernard is true that All Prayer is tepid which hath not an inspiration preveening it Though we affirm that none ought to go about Prayer without this motion yet we do not deny but such sin as neglect Prayer but their sin is in that they come not to that place where they may feel that that would lead them thereunto And therefore we question not but many through neglect of this inward watchfulness and retiredness of mind miss many precious opportunities to Pray and thereby are guilty in the sight of God yet would they sin if they should set about the act until they first felt the influence For as he grosly offends his Master that lyeth in his Bed and sleeps and neglects to do his Masters business yet if such a one should suddenly get up without puting on his Cloaths or taking along with him those necessary tools and instruments without which he could not possibly work should forwardly fall a doing to no purpose he would be so far thereby from repairing his former fault that he would justly incur a new censure and one that is careless and otherwaies busied may miss to hear one speaking unto him or even not hear the Bell of a Clock though striking hard
by him so may many through negligence miss to hear God often-times calling upon them and giving them access to pray unto him yet will not that allow them without this liberty in their own wills to fall to work And lastly though this be the only true and proper method of Prayer as that which is alone acceptable to God yet shall we not deny but he often-times answered the Prayers and concurred with the desires of some especially in times of darkness who have greatly erred herein so that some that have sit down in formal Prayers tho far wrong in the matter as well as manner without the assistance or influence of God's Spirit yet have found him to take occasion therethrough to break in upon their Souls and wonderfully tender and refresh them yet as in preaching and elsewhere hath afore been observed that will not prove any such practices or be a just let to hinder any from coming to practice that pure Spiritual and acceptable Prayer which God is again restoring and leading his people into out of all superstitious and meer empty formalities The state of the controversie and our sense thereof being thus clearly stated will both obviate many objections and make the answer to others more brief and easie I shall first prove this Spiritual Prayer by some short considerations from Scripture and then answer the Objections of our Opposers which will also serve to refute their method and manner thereof § XXII And first that there is a necessity of this inward retirement of the mind as previous to prayer that the Spirit may be felt to draw thereunto appears for that in most of those places where Prayer is commanded watching is prefixed thereunto as necessary to go before as Matth. 24.42 Mark 13.33.14.38 Luke 21.36 from which it is evident that this watching was to go before prayer Now to what end is this watching or what is it but a waiting to feel God's Spirit to draw unto prayer that so it may be done acceptably For since we are to pray alwaies in the Spirit and cannot pray of our selves without it acceptably this watching must be for this end recommended to us as preceeding prayer that we may watch and wait for the seasonable time to pray which is when the Spirit moves thereunto Secondly this necessity of the Spirit moving and concurrence appears abundantly from that of the Apostle Paul Rom. 8.26.27 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit because he maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God Which first holds forth the incapacity of men as of themselves to pray or call upon God in their own wills even such as have received the faith of Christ and are in measure sanctified by it as was the Church of Rome to whom the Apostle then wrote Secondly It holds forth that which can only help and assist men to pray to wit the Spirit as that without which they cannot do it acceptably to God nor beneficially to their own Souls Thirdly The manner and way of the Spirits intercession with sighs and groans which are unutterable And Fourthly That God receiveth graciously the prayers of such as are presented and offered unto himself by the Spirit knowing it to be according to his will Now it cannot be conceived but this order of prayer thus asserted by the Apostle is most consistent with those other testimonies of scripture commending and recommending to us the use of prayer From which I thus argue If man know not how to pray neither can do it without the help of the Spirit then it is to no purpose for him but altogether unprofitable to pray without it But the first is true Therefore also the last Thirdly This necessity of the Spirit to true Prayer appears from Eph. 6.18 and Jude 20. where the Apostle commands to pray alwaies in the Spirit and watching thereunto which is as much as if he had said that we were never to pray without the Spirit or watching thereunto And Jude sheweth us that such prayers as are in the Holy Ghost only tend to the building up of our selves in our most holy faith Fourthly The Apostle Paul saith expresly 1 Cor. 12.3 that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost If then Jesus cannot be thus rightly named but by the Holy Ghost far less can he be acceptably called upon Hence the same Apostle declares 1 Cor. 14.15 that he will pray with the Spirit c. A clear evidence that it was none of his method to pray without it But Fifthly all prayer without the spirit is abomination such as are the prayers of the wicked Prov. 28.9 and the confidence that the Saints have that God will hear them is if they ask any thing according to his will 1 Joh. 5.14 So if the prayer be not according to his will there is no ground of confidence that he will hear Now our adversaries will acknowledg that prayers without the spirit are not according to the will of God and therefore such as pray without it have no ground to expect an answer for indeed to bid a man pray without the spirit is all one as to bid one see without eyes work without hands or go without feet And to desire a man to fall to prayer ere the spirit in some measure less or more move him thereunto is to desire a man to see before he open his eyes or to walk before he rise up or to work with his hands before he move them § XXIII But lastly from this false opinion of praying without the Spirit and not judging it necessary to be waited for as that which may be felt to move us thereunto hath proceeded all the superstition and idolatry that is among those called Christians and those many abominations wherewith the Lord is provoked and his Spirit grieved so that many deceive themselves now as the Jews did of old thinking it sufficient if they pay their daily Sacrifices and offer their customary Oblations from thence thinking all is well and creating a false peace to themselves as the Whore in the Proverbs because they have offered up their Sacrifices of Morning and Evening Prayers And therefore it 's manifest that their constant use of things doth not a whit influence their lives and conversations but they remain for the most part as bad as ever yea it is frequent both among Papists and Protestants for them first to leap as it were out of their vain light and profane conversations at their set hours and seasons and fall to their customary devotion and then when it is scarce finished and the words to God scarce out the former profane talk comes after it so that the same wicked profane spirit of this world acts them in both
the apostasie if we did not this way stand immoveable to the Truth revealed but should join with them both our testimony for God would be weakned and lost and it would be impossible steadily to propagate this worship in the world whose progress we dare neither retard nor hinder by any act of ours though therefore we shall lose not only worldly honour but even our lives And truly many Protestants through their unsteadiness in this thing for politick ends complying with the popish abominations have greatly scandalized their profession and hurt the reformation as appeared in the Example of the Elector of Saxony who in the Convention at Ausburg in the year 1530. being commanded by the Emperor Charles the Fifth to be present at the Mass that he might carry the Sword before him according to his place which when he justly scrupled to perform his Preachers taking more care for their Princes Honour than for his Conscience perswaded him that it was lawful to it against his Conscience which was both a very bad Example and great scandal to the Reformation and displeased many as the Author of the History of the Council of Trent in his first book well observes But now I hasten to the objection of our adversaries against this method of praying Obj. § XXV First They object that if such particular influences were needful to outward acts of worship then they should also be needful to inward acts as to wit desire and love God But this is absurd Therefore also that from whence it follows I answer that which was said in the state of the controversie cleareth this because as to those general duties Answ. there never wants an influence so long as the day of a man's visitation lasteth during which time God is alwaies near to him and wrestling with him by his Spirit to turn him to himself so that if he do but stand still and cease from his evil thoughts the Lord is near to help him c. But as to the outward acts of Prayer they need a more special motion and influence as hath been proved Secondly they object that it might be also alledged Obj. that men ought not to do moral duties as Children to honour their Parents men to do right to their neighbours except the Spirit moved them to it I answer there is a great difference betwixt these general duties betwixt man and man Answ. and the particular express acts of worship towards God the one is meerly Spiritual and commanded by God to be performed by his Spirit the other answer their end as to them whom they are immediatly directed to and concern though done from a meer natural principle of self-love even as beasts have natural affections one to another and therefore may be thus performed though I shall not deny but that they are not works accepted of God or beneficial to the Soul but as they are done in the fear of God and in blessing in which his Children do all things and therefore are accepted and blessed in whatsoever they do Thirdly they object Obj. that if a wicked man ought not to pray without a motion of the Spirit because his Prayer would be sinful neither ought he to plough by the same reason because the ploughing of the wicked as well as his praying is sin This objection is of the same nature with the former Answ. and therefore may be answered the same way seeing there is a great difference betwixt natural acts such as eating drinking sleeping and seeking for sustenance for the body which things Man hath common with Beasts and Spiritual acts And it doth not follow because man ought not to go about Spiritual acts without the Spirit that therefore he may not go about natural acts without it The analogy holds better thus and that for the proof of our affirmation that as man for the going about natural acts need his natural Spirit so to perform Spiritual acts he needs the Spirit of God That the natural acts of the wicked and unregenerate are sinful is not denied though not as in themselves but in so far as man in that state is in all things reprobated in the sight of God Fourthly they object that wicked men may according to this doctrin Obj. forbear to pray for years together alledging they want a motion to it Answ. I answer the false pretences of wicked men do nothing invalidate the truth of this doctrin for at that rate there is no doctrin of Christ which men might not turn by That they ought not to pray without the Spirit is granted but then they ought to come to that place of watching where they may be capable to feel the Spirits motion They sin indeed in not praying but the cause of this sin is their not watching so their neglect proceeds not from this doctrin but from their disobedience to it seeing if they did pray without this it would be a double sin and no fulfilling of the command to pray nor yet would their Prayer without this Spirit be useful unto them and this our Adversaries are forced to acknowledg in another case for they say It is a duty incumbent on Christians to frequent the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper as they call it Yet they say No man ought to take it unworthily yea they plead that such as find themselves unprepared must abstain and therefore do usually excommunicate them from the Table Now though according to them it be necessary to partake of this Sacrament yet it is also necessary that those that do it do first examine themselves lest they eat and drink their own condemnation and though they reckon it sinful for them to forbear yet they account it more sinful for them to do it without this examination Fifthly they object Acts 8.22 where Peter commanded Simon Magus Obj. that wicked Sorcerer to pray from thence inferring that wicked men may and ought to pray Answ. I answer that in the citing of this place as I have often observed they omit the first and chiefest part of the verse which is thus Acts 8. verse 22. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee So here he bids him first repent now the least measure of true Repentance cannot be without somewhat of that inward retirement of the mind which we speak of and indeed where true repentance goeth first we do not doubt but the Spirit of God will be near to concur with and influence such to pray to and call upon God Obj. And Lastly they object that many Prayers begun without the Spirit have proved effectual and that the Prayers of wicked men have been heard and found acceptable as Achab's Answ. This objection was before solved for the acts of God's compassion and indulgence at sometimes and to some persons upon singular extraordinary occasions are not be a rule of our actions For if we should make that the measure of our obedience great inconveniencies
really did administer the baptism of water did in so doing not administer the Baptism of Christ so that if there be now but one Baptism as we have already proved we may safely conclude that it is that of the Spirit and not of water else it would follow that the One baptism which now continues were the baptism of water i. e. John's baptism and not the baptism of the Spirit i. e. Christs which were most obsurd If it be said further that though the Baptism of John before Christs was administred was different from it as being the figure only Obj. yet now that both it as the figure and that of the Spirit as the substance is necessary to make up the one baptism I answer this urgeth nothing unless it be granted also that both of them belong to the essence of Baptism Answ. so that Baptism is not to be accounted as truly administred where both are not which none of our adversaries will acknowledg but on the contrary account not only all those truly baptized with the Baptism of Christ who are baptized with water tho they be uncertain whether they be baptized with the Spirit or not but they even account such truly baptized with the baptism of Christ because sprinkled or baptized with water though it be manifest and most certain that they are not baptized with the Spirit as being enemies thereunto in their heart by wicked works So here by their own confession baptism with water is without the Spirit Wherefore we may far safer conclude that the baptism of the Spirit which is that of Christ is and may be without that of Water as appears in that Acts 11. where Peter testifies of these men that they were baptized with the Spirit though not then baptized with Water and indeed the controversie in this as in most other things stands beiwixt us and our opposers in that they not only often times prefer the form and shadow to the power and substance by denominating persons as inheritors and possessors of the thing from their having the form and shadow though really wanting the power and substance and not admitting those to be so denominated who have the power and substance if they want the form and shadow This appears evidently in that those truly baptized with the one baptism of Christ who are not baptized with the Spirit which in Scripture is particularly called the Baptism of Christ if they be only baptized with Water which themselves yet confess to be but the shaddow or figure And moreover in that they account not those who are surely baptized with the Baptism of the Spirit baptized neither will they have them so denominate unless they be also sprinkled with or dipped in Water But we on the contrary do alwaies prefer the power to the form the substance to the shaddow and where the Substance and Power is we doubt not to denominate the Person accordingly though the form be wanting and therefore we alwaies seek first and plead for the Substance and Power as knowing that to be indispensable necessary though the form sometimes may be dispensed with and the figure or tipe may cease when the Substance and Anti-tipe comes to be enjoyed as it doth in this case which shall hereafter be made appear § IV. Fourthly that the one Baptism of Christ is not a washing with Water appears from 1 Pet. 3.21 The like figure whereunto even Baptism doth also now save us not the putting away of the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good Conscience towards God by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. So plain a definition of Baptism is not in all the Bible and therefore seeing it is so plain it may well be preferred to all the coined definitions of the School-men The Apostle tells us first negatively what it is not viz. Not a putting away of the filth of the flesh then surely it is not a washing with Water since that is so Secondly he tells us affirmatively what it is viz. the answer of a good Conscience towards God by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ where affirmatively defines it to be the answer or confession as the Syriak version hath it of a good Conscience Now this answer cannot be but where the Spirit of God hath purified the Soul and the fire of his judgment hath burned up the unrighteous nature and those in whom this work is wrought may be truly said to be baptized with the baptism of Christ i. e. of the Spirit and of Fire Whatever way then we take this definition of the Apostle of Christ's baptism it confirmeth our sentence for if we take the first or negative part viz. that it is not a puting away of the filth of the Flesh then it will follow that water-baptism is not it because that is a puting away of the filth of the Flesh. If we take the second and affirmative definition to wit that it is the answer or confession of a good Conscience c. then Water-baptism is not it since as our Adversaries will not deny Water-baptism doth not alwaies imply it neither is it any necessary consequence thereof Moreover the Apostle in this place doth seem especially to guard against those that might esteem Water-baptism the true baptism of Christ because lest by the Comparison induced by him in the preceeding verse betwixt the Souls that were saved in Noah's Ark and us that are now saved by Baptism lest I say any should have thence hastily concluded that because the former were saved by water this place must needs be taken to speak of Water-baptism to prevent such a mistake he plainy affirms that it â—s not that but another thing He saith not that it is the Water or the putting away of the filth of the Flesh as accompanyed with the answer of a good Conscience whereof the one viz. the Water is the Sacramental Element administred by the Minister and the other the Grace or thing signified conferred by Christ but plainly that it is not the puting away c. than which there can be nothing more manifest to men unprejudicate and judicious Moreover Peter calls this here which saves the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Anti-type or the thing figured whereas it is usually translated as if the like figure did now save us thereby insinuating that as they were saved by water in the Ark so are we now by Water baptism But this interpretation crosseth his sense he presently after declaring the contrary as hath above been observed and likewise it would contradict the opinion of all out opposers For Protestants deny it to be absolutely necessary to Salvation And though Papists say none are saved without it yet in this they admit an exception as of Martyrs c. and they will not say that all that have it are saved by Water-baptism for seeing we are saved by this baptism as those that were in the Ark were saved by Water and that all those that were in the Ark were saved by water it
Pelagians for saying that Infants dying unbaptized may be saved And the Manichees were condemned for denying that Grace is universally given by Baptism and Julian the Pelagian by Augustin for denying exorcism and insufflation in the use of Baptism all which things Protestants deny also So that Protestants do but foolishly to upbraid us as if we could not shew any among the Antients that denyed Water-baptism seeing they cannot shew any whom they acknowledg not to have been heretical in several things to have used it nor yet who using it did not use also the sign of the Cross and other things with it which they deny There were some nevertheless in the darkest times of Popery who testified against Water-baptism For one Alanus pag. 103 104 107. speaks of some in his time that were burnt for the denying of it for they said that Baptism had no efficacy either in Children or adult Persons and therefore men were not obliged to take Baptism Particularly Ten Canonicks so called were burnt for that crime by the order of King Robert of France And P. Pithaeus tells in his Fragments of the History of Guienne which is also confirmed by one Johannes Floracensis a Monk who was famous at that time in his Epistle to Oliva Abbot of the Ausonian Church I will saith he give you to understand concerning the Heresie that was in the City of Orleans on Childeâ—-mass-day foy it was true if ye have heard any thing that King Robert caused to be burnt alive nigh fourteen of that City of the chief of their Clergy and the more noble of their Laicks who were hateful to God and abominable to Heaven and Earth for they did stiffly deny the Grace of Holy Baptism and also the Consecration of our Lord's Body and Blood The time of this deed is noted in these words by Papir Masson in his Annals of France lib. 3. in Hugh and Robert actum Aureliae publice anno incarnationis Domini 1022 regni Roberti Regis 28. indictione 5. quando Stephanus haeresiarcha complices ejus damnati sunt exusti Aureliae Now for their calling them Hereticks and Maniches we have nothing but the testimony of their accusers which will no more invalidate their testimony for this Truth against the use of Water-baptism or give more ground to charge us as being one with Maniches than because some called by them Maniches do agree with Protestants in some things that therefore Protestants are Maniches or Hereticks which Protestants can no waies shun For the question is whether in what they did they walked according to the Truth testified of by the Spirit in the Holy Scripture so that the controversie is brought back again to the Scriptures according to which I suppose I have formerly discussed it As for the latter part of the Thesis denying the use of Infant Baptism it necessarily follows from what is above said for if Water-baptism be ceased then surely Baptizing of Infants is not warrantable But those that take upon them to oppose us in this matter will have more to do as to this latter part for after they have done what they can to prove Water-baptism it remains for them to prove that Infants ought to be baptized For he that proves Water-baptism ceased proves that Infant Baptism is vain But he that should prove that Water-baptism continues has not thence proved that Infant Baptism is necessary That needs something further and therefore it was a pitiful subterfuge of Nic. Arnoldus against this to say that the denying of Infant-baptism belonged to the gangrene of the Anabaptists without adding any further probation The Thirteenth Proposition Concerning the Communion or participation of the Body and Blood of Christ. The Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ is inward and Spiritual which is the participation of his Flesh and Blood by which the inward man is daily nourished in the hearts of those in whom Christ dwells of which things the breaking of Bread by Christ with his Disciples was a figure which they even used in the Church for a time who had received the Substance for the sake of the weak even as abstaining from things strangled and from Blood the washing of one anothers Feet and the anointing of the Sick with Oyl all which are commanded with no less authority and solemnity than the former yet seeing they are but the shaddows of better things they cease in such as have obtained the Substance § I. THe Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ is a mystery hid from all natural men in their first faln and degenerate state which they cannot understand reach to nor comprehend as they there abide neither as they there are can they be partakers of it nor yet are they able to discern the Lord's Body And forasmuch as the Christian World so called for the most part hath been still labouring working conceiving and imagining in their own natural and unrenewed understandings about the things of God and Religion therefore hath this mystery much been hid and sealed up from them while they have been contending quarrelling and fighting one with another about the meer shaddow outside and form but strangers to the Substance Life and Vertue § II. The Body then of Christ which believers partake of is Spiritual and not Carnal and his Blood which they drink of is pure and heavenly and not humane or elementary as Augustin also affirms of the Body of Christ which is eaten in his Tractat. Psal. 98. Except a man eat my Flesh he hath not in him Life Eternal and he saith the words which I spake unto you are Spirit and Life understand spiritually what I have spoken Ye shall not eat of this Body which ye see and drink this Blood which they shall spill that crucifie me I am the living Bread who have descended from Heaven he calls himself the Bread who descended from Heaven exhorting that we might believe in him c. If it be asked then what that Body what that Flesh and Blood is I answer it is that Heavenly Seed that Divine Spiritual Coelestial Substance Answ. of which we spake before in the fifth and sixth Propositions This is that vehiculum Dei or Spiritual Body of Christ whereby and wherethrough he communicateth Life to men and Salvation to as many as believe in him and receive him and whereby also man comes to have fellowship and communion with God This is proved from the 6 of John from verse 32 to the end where Christ speaks more at large of this matter than in any other place and indeed this Evangelist and beloved Disciple who lay in the bosom of our Lord gives us a more full account of the Spiritual sayings and Doctrine of Christ and it 's observable that though he speaks nothing of the ceremony used by Christ of breaking Bread with his Disciples neither in his Evangelical account of Christ's life and sufferings nor in his Epistles yet he is more large in this account of the
which God is the alone proper and infallible Judge who by his Power and Spirit can alone rectifie the mistakes of Conscience and therefore hath reserved to himself the power of punishing the errors thereof as he seeth meet Now for the Magistrate to assume this is to take upon him to meddle with things not within the compass of his jurisdiction for if this were within the compass of his jurisdiction he should be the proper judge in these things and also it were needful to him as an essential qualification of his being a Magistrate to be capable to Judge in them But that the Magistrate as a Magistrate is neither proper Judge in these cases not yet that the capacity so to be is requisite in him as a Magistrate our adversaries cannot deny or else they must say that all the Heathen Magistrates were either no lawful Magistrates as wanting something essential to Magistracy and this were contrary to the express Doctrin of the Apostles Rom. 13. or else which is more absurd that those Heathen Magistrates were proper Judges in matters of Conscience amongst Christians As for that evasion that the Magistrate ought to punish according to the Church censure and determination which is indeed no less than to make the Magistrate the Churches Hang-man we shall have occasion to speak of it hereafter But if the chief members of the Church though ordained to inform instruct and reprove are not to have dominion over the Faith nor Consciences of the Faithful as the Apostle expressly affirms 2 Cor. 1.24 then far less ought they to usurp this dominion or stir up the Magistrate to persecute and murther those who will not yield to them therein Secondly this pretended power of the Magistrate is both contrary unto and inconsistent with the nature of the Gospel which is a thing altogether extrinsic from the rule and government of political States as Christ expressly signified saying his Kingdom was not of this World and if the propagating of the Gospel had had any necessary relation thereunto then Christ had not said so but he abundantly hath shewn by his Example whom we are chiefly to imitate in matters of that nature that its by perswasion and the Power of God not by Whips Imprisonments Banishments and Murtherings that the Gospel is to be propagated and that those that are the propagators of it are often to suffer by the wicked but never to cause the wicked to suffer When he sends forth his Disciples he tells them he sends them forth as Lambs among Wolves to be willing to be devoured not to devour he tells them of their being whipped imprisoned and killed for their Conscience but never that they shall either whip imprison or kill and indeed if Christians must be as Lambs it is not the nature of Lambs to destroy or devour any It serves nothing to alledge that that in Christ and his Apostles times the Magistrates were Heathens and therefore Christ and his Apostles not being Magistrates nor yet any of the Believers could not exercise the power because it cannot be denied but Christ being the Son of God had a true right to all Kingdoms and was righteous Heir of the Earth Next as to his Power it cannot be denied but he could if he had seen meet have called for legions of Angels to defend him and have forced the Princes and Potentates of the Earth to be subject unto him Matth. 26.53 So that it was only because it was contrary to the nature of Christ's Gospel and Ministry to use any force or violence in the gathering of Souls to him This he abundantly expressed in his reproof to the Sons of Zebedee who would have been calling for Fire from Heaven to burn those that refused to receive Christ. It is not to be doubted but this was a great crime as now to be in an error concerning the Faith and Doctrin of Christ. That there was not Power wanting to have punished those refusers of Christ cannot be doubted for they that could do other Miracles might have done this also and moreover they wanted not the president of a holy man under the Law as did Elias yet we see what Christ saith to them Ye know not what Spirit ye are of Luke 9.55 for the Son of man is not come to destroy mens lives but to save them Here Christ shews that such kind of zeal was no waies approved of him and such as think to make way for Christ or his Gospel by this means do not understand what Spirit they are of But if it was not lawful to call for Fire from Heaven to destroy such as refused to receive Christ it is far less lawful to kindle Fire upon Earth to destroy those that believe in Christ because they will not believe nor can believe as the Magistrates do for Conscience sake and if it was not lawful for the Apostles who had so large a measure of the Spirit and were so little liable to mistake to force others to their judgment it can be far less lawful now for men that experience declareth and many of themselves confess are fallible and often mistaken to kill and destroy all such as cannot because otherwise perswaded in their minds judge and believe in matters of Conscience just as they do And if it was not according to the Wisdom of Christ who was and is King of Kings by outward force to constrain others to believe him or receive him as being a thing inconsistent with the nature of his Ministry and Spiritual Government do not they grossly offend him that will needs be wiser than he and think to force men against their perswasion to conform to their Doctrin and Worship The word of the Lord saith not by Power and by Might but by the Spirit of the Lord Zach. 4.6 But these say not by the Spirit of the Lord but by Might and Carnal Power The Apostle saith plainly we wrestle not with Flesh and Blood and the weapons of our warfar are not carnal but Spiritual but these men will needs wrestle with Flesh and Blood when they cannot prevail with the Spirit and the Understanding and not having Spiritual Weapons go about with Carnal Weapons to establish Christ's Kingdom which they can never do and therefore when the matter is well sifted it is found to be more out of love to self and from a principle of pride in man to have all others to bow to him than from the love of God Christ indeed takes another method for he saith he will make his People a willing People in the day of his power but these men labour against mens wills and Consciences not by Christ's power but by the outward Sword to make men the people of Christ which they can never do as shall hereafter be shewn But thirdly Christ fully and plainly declareth to us his sense in this matter in the parable of the Tares Matth. 13. of which we have himself the Interpreter ver 38 39
they say that we deny the resurrection of the body Because when we hear them talk foolishly of Heaven and Hell and the last Judgment we exhort them to come out of that hellish condition they are in and come down to the judgment of Christ in their own hearts and believe in the Light and follow it that so they may come to sit in the heavenly places that are in Christ Jesus hence they maliciously say that we deny any heaven or hell but that which is within us and that we deny any general Judgment which slanders the Lord knows are fouly cast upon us whom God hath raised for this end and gathered us that by us he might confound the wisdom of the wise and bring to nought the understanding of the prudent and might in and by his own Spirit and Power in a despised People that no flesh might glory in his presence pull down that dead dark corrupt image and meer shadow and shell of Christianity wherewith Antichrist hath deceived the Nations for which end he hath called us to be a first-fruits of those that serve him and worship him no more in the oldness of the letter but in the newness of the Spirit And though we be few in number in respect of others and weak as to outward strength which we also altogether reject and foolish if compared with the wise ones of this world yet as God hath prospered us notwithstanding much opposition so will he yet do that neither the art wisdom nor violence of men or devils shall be able to quench that little spark that hath appeared but it shall grow to the consuming of whatsoever shall stand up to oppose it The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it yea he that hath arisen in a small remnant shall arise and go on by the same Arm of Power in his Spiritual manifestation until he hath conquered all his enemies until all the Kingdoms of the Earth become the Kingdom of Christ Jesus Unto him that hath begun this work not among the rich or great ones but among the poor and small and hath revealed it not to the wise and learned but unto the poor unto babes and sucklings even to him the Only-Wise and Omnipotent GOD be honour glory thanksgiving and renown from henceforth and for ever Amen Halelu JAH A TABLE Of the Authors that are cited in this Book A ALanus 301 Amandus Polanus 157 Ambrosius Ansbertus 379 Ambrosius Mediolanensis 80 344 345 380 388 482 Amesius 157 333 Anselmus Bishop of Canterbury 379 Antiochus 379 Apollinarius 88 Athanasius 6 342 375 379 382 Augustinus Bakerus 256 257 Augustinus 5 26 49 58 95 126 127 147 170 173 301 303 379 382 Author de vocat Gentium 79 B Basil the Great 376 379 Beda 379 Bellarmin 135 342 Bernard 6 257 266 Bertius 156 Beza 70 145 338 Borhaeus 145 149 Buchanan 127 Bucerus 146 Bullinger 144 C Calvin 22 23 46 70 147 156 216 217 235 294 299 309 310 321 330 345 357 Carolostadius 344 Casaubonus 359 Cassiodorus 379 Castellio 345 Catechism of Westminster 160 Chamierus 145 Chemnitius 147 Christianus Druthmarus 379 Chromatius 379 382 Chrysostom 79 333 375 379 382 Cicero 125 Claudius Alberius Inuncanus 150 Clemens Alexandrinus 5 110 112 125 379 386. Conference of Oldenburgh El. D. 158 Confession of Ausburgh 158 176 Confession of the French Churches 40 Confession of Faith of the Churches of Holland 40 41 Confession of the Divines at Westminster 40 46 132 Council of Aszanfik 174 Council of Carthage 40 Council of Florence 30 Council of Laodicea 40 Council of Trent 66 157 345 Cyprian 345 370 382 Cyrillus Alexand. 6 102 106 107 379 382 D Dalleus 330 Diodorus Siculus 378 E Epictetus 3 Epiphanius 47 379 Erasmus 360 380 382 Essius 150 Eusebius 30 Eutyches 88 Euthymius 379 382 F Forbes 146 147 Franciscus Lambertus 203 262 Fredericus Sylvius 386 388 G Gelasius 174 Gentiletus 157 Gerardus Vossius 107 159 176 Godeau 360 Gregory the Great 6 Gregorius Nazianzenus 379 Gregorius Nyssenus 379 H Haymo 379 Hierom 6 47 51 173 344 358 376 379 382 Hilarius 343 344 379 Hildebrand 341 Himelius 150 History of the Council of Trent 345 History of the Reformation of France 356 Hosius 344 Hugo Grotius 375 379 I James Coret 156 James Howel 360 Johannes Damascenus 379 Johannes Ferus 382 Johannes Floracensis 301 John Hus 57 John Maresius 360 Isidorus Hispalensis 379 Isidorus Pelusiota 379 Justin Martyr 112 125 380 382 384 387 L Lactantius 125 Lucas Osiander 81 209 Ludovicus Vives 382 388 Luther 6 80 129 131 189 345 346 360 M Marcio 344 Martyr 70 Melancthon 6 145 176 Musculus 156 N Nicolaus Arnoldus of Franequer 189 204 205 221 233 234 292 302 O OEcumenius 379 Origen 7 210 379 382 387 Otho Brunsfeldius 379 P Papirius Masson 301 Paraeus 70 143 Paschasius Ratbertus 379 Paulus Riccius 298 317 Philo Judaeus 380 384 Pithaeus 301 Phocylides 125 Piscator 71 Platina 196 Plato 124 379 Plotinus 125 Polybius 374 Polycarpus 30 379 Prosper 79 80 Pythagoras 378 Q Quintilianus 124 379 Quintus Curtius 378 R Reinerius 351 Richard Baxter 150 157 S Seneca 125 Smith Doctor in Cambridge 7 Stobaeus 379 Sulpitius Severus 386 Synod Arelatensian 80 Synod of Dort 40 69 T Tertullian 5 345 379 382 383 385 386 Theophylactus 379 Thomas Aquinas 26 Thysius 144 V Victor Antiochenus 107 Vincentius Lyrinensis 386 W Waldenses 379 Wicklef 379 Z Zanchius 70 144 147 157 Zwinglius 66 70 150 Passages of Scripture occurring in this Book Genesis Chap. Vers. Pag. i 2 13 ii 17 59 iii 24 ib. iv 6 7 98  7 149 v 22 24 169 vi 3 98  5 59  9 169 Exodus xiii 8 9 312 xxiii 7 143 xxiv 6 99 Leviticus xvi 2 3 6 374 Numbers xi 25 26 14 xiv 18 99 Deuteronomy iv 2 57 vi 13 374 x 20 ib. xiii 5 9 336 xiv 23 374 I Samuel ii 30 357 x 12 240 I Kings viii 46 171 xix 18 182 I Chronicles xxix 11 356 Ezrah ix 4 260 Nehemiah ix 20 30 14 Esther iii 5 389 Job i 8 169 ii 13 260 viii 13 159 ix 20 143 xxiv 13 122 xxvii 5 143 xxviii 28 212 xxxii 21 22 358 389 xxxvii 22 356 xxxviii 2 210 Psalms xiv 3 60 xvii 14 78 xxi 5 356 xxv 3 243 xxvii 14 243 xxix 4 356 xxxvii 7 9 34 243 xliii 3 356 li 5 56  13 14 liii 2 60 liv 3 294 lxiii 1 356 370 lxxxiv 2 ib. lxxxvi 15 99 xcvi 6 356 cx 3 336  4 375 cxviii 22 116 cxix 11 171 cxxxix 7 14 Proverbs i 20 c. 125  24 25 26 101 175 vii 14 269 viii ◠34 125 xv 29 276 xvii 15 143 166 xviii 10 252 294 xx 22 243 xxi 4 249 xxvii 17 258 xxviii 9 269 xxx 6 57 Ecclesiastes i 3 294 Isaiah i 13 276  16 17 258 ii 4 383  10 356 iii  365 v 2 4 100  23 143
visitation in which it is possible for them to be saved 83 84 98 99 100 101 102. the testimony of Cyrill concerning this thing 102. it is explained what is understood and not understood by this day 86. to some it may be longer to others shorter 86. many may out-live this their day of Visitation after which there is no possibility of Salvation to them 86. some examples are alledged 87. the objections and those places of Scripture which others abuse to prove that God incites men necessarily to sin are easily solved if they be applyed to these men after the time of their visitation is past 87 97 98. there is given to every one a measure of the Light Seed Grace and Word of God whereby they can be saved 83 84 97 102 to 112. which is also confirmed by the Testimonies of Cyrill and others 106 107 108 110 111. what that Light is see Light many tho ignorant of the outward history yet have been sensible of the loss that came by Adam which is confirmed by the Testimonies of Plato and others 124 125. many have known Christ within as a remedy to redeem them tho not under that denomination witness Seneca Cicero and others 124 125. yet all are obliged to believe the outward history of Christ to whom God bringeth the knowledg of it 89. Reformation wherein it is not plac'd 188. Mechanick men have contributed much to it 218. what hath been pernicious to it 310. Relation see Quakers Religion the Christian Religion see Christianity how it is made odious to Jews Turks and Heathens 309. Remonstrants of Holland see Arminians Redemption they deny absolute Reprobation 30. how we differ from them 95. they exalt too much the natural power and free will of man and what they think of the Saving Light 114 115. their worship can easily be stopped 251. Reprobation see also Redemption what absolute Reprobation is is described 68 69. its doctrin is horrible impious and blasphemous 69 73 74. it is also so called by Lucas Osiander 81. 't is a new doctrine and Augustin laid the first foundation thereof which Dominicus Calvin and the Synod of Dort maintained 69 80 81. also Luther whom notwithstanding Lutherans afterwards deserted 80 81. it is injurious to God and makes him the author of sin proved by the sayings of Calvin Beza Zanchius Paraeus Martin Zwinglius and Piscator 70 71. it makes the Preaching of the Gospel a meer mock and illusion 71 it makes the coming of Christ and his propitiatory Sacrifice to have been a testimony of God's wrath 72 73. it is injurious to mankind and makes his condition worse than the condition of Devils Beasts Jews under Pharaoh and the same which the Poets applied to Tantalus 72 73. Revelation God alwaies manifested himself by the revelations of the Spirit 3 11 12 34. they are made several waies 3. they have been alwaies the formal object of Faith and so remain 3 13 to 24. and that not only subjectively but also objectively 23 24 25 26. they are simply necessary unto true Faith 3 28 36. they are not uncertain 27 28 29. yea it is horrible sacriledge to accuse them of uncertainty 22. the examples of the Anabaptists of Munster do not a whit weaken this doctrin 29 31 33 34 41. they can never contradict the holy Scripture nor sound Reason 3 34 50 51. they are evident and clear of themselves nor need they anothers Testimony 3 35 36. they are the only sure certain and unmoveable foundation of all Christian Faith 36 37. carnal Christians judge them nothing necessary yea they are hissed out by the most part of men 3. of old none were esteemed Christians save those that had the Spirit of Christ but now adaies he is termed an Heretick who affirms that he is led by it 3 4. the Testimonies of some concerning the necessity of these Revelations 5 6 7 21 22. by whose and what devices they have been brought out of use 83. Revenge see War 379 380. Rule of Faith and manners see Scripture Rustick the poor Rustick's answer given to the proud Prelat 195. he brought a Philosopher unto the Christian Faith 209. S Sabbath 234 235. Sacraments of their number nature c. how much contention there hath been and that the word Sacrament is not found in Scripture but borrowed from the Heathens 278 301. its definition will agree to many other things 279. whether they confer Grace 328 329. Salvation without the Church there is no Salvation 181. Samaria the woman of Samaria 313. Sanctification see Justification Saxony the Elector of Saxony of the scandal he gave to the Reformation by being present at the Mass 272. Sceptick 208 School without the School of Christ nothing is learned but meer talk and a shaddow of Knowledge 4 5 6. whether publick Schools be necessary 207. Scriptures of Truth whence they proceeded and what they contain 38. they are a declaration of the Fountain and not the Fountain it self 38. they are not to be esteemed the adequate primary rule of Faith and manners but a secondary and subordinate to the Spirit and why 38 to 57 199. their certainty is only known by the Spirit 38.39 143. they testifie that the Spirit is given to the Saints for a Guide 38 48 49 52 53 54 55. their authority depends not upon the Church or Council nor upon their intrinsick vertue but upon the Spirit nor is it subjected to the corrupt reason of men but to the Spirit 38 50. the testimonies of Calvin the French Churches the Synod of Dort and the Divines of Great Britain at Westminster concerning this thing 39 40. the contentions of those that seek the certainty of the Scriptures from something else than the Spirit 39 40. divers Opinions of the Fathers so called concerning some Books 39 40. concerning the taking away and the corruption of some places the Translation Transcription and various Lections of the Hebrew Character and of the Greek Books the Interpretation of the Septuagint concerning the Hebrew Books and of admitting or rejecting some Books 47 48 49. of the difficulty in their explanation 50 51. Augustin's judgment concerning the Authors of the Canonick Books and concerning the Transcription and Interpretation 49. the use of them is very profitable and comfortable 41 49. the unlearned and unstable abuse them 50. there is no necessity of believing the Scripture to be a filled up Canon 55. many Canonick Books through the injury of time lost 55. whether it can be proved by Scripture that any Book is Canonical 55 56. they were sometime as a Sealed Book 207. to understand them there is need of the help and revelation of the Holy Spirit 5 6 no man can make himself a Doctor of them but the Holy Spirit 6. Sest the Ignatian Sect loveth literature 207. they call those that are sent unto India Apostles 217. Seed of Righteousness 247. the seed of sin see sin Redemption Self-Denial 247. Semi-Pelagians their Axiom Facienâ—â— quod in