light yet he is not to be called or accounted as low as some of his workings are But we honor adore and magnifie him as God Christ and the Spirit above his gifts who worketh but such common works though we put them not into his own place nor lift up that natural or common light into the room of a Savior 3. He that witnesseth not Christ and the light of the Spirit of which witnessing he boasteth above the natural light which is given to every man and above the common light though supernatural which is given to some men doth not witness Christ and the light of the Spirit home and close according to the Scriptures Christ as Christ the Lords anointed anointed above his fellows is above all his gifts which he bestoweth on men not onely as he is God viz. natural and common gifts but as he is Christ viz. peculiar and saving gifts And the light of the Spirit is either that which he is essentially with the Father and Son which is above all created and conferred light as high as God is above the creature or that which he gives now the light which the Spirit giveth he giveth in a common or in a saving way There are but natural and common instincts and lightnings of the Spirit and there are special peculiar and sanctifying The God-head and person of the Spirit is more above all these his gifts then the heavens are above the earth This is to witness Christ and the Spirit according to the Scriptures What light R. F. hath about the Spirit the Reader may discern by what past before in the seventh Section But to make good my Charge at the entrance of this I noted from G. Fox that speaking of every mans light he tells all that would know the way This is the true teacher and the Light within is life the Light in Scripture is death Contrary as I said to Ephes 5. 8. Jer. 10. 14. c. For 1. Grant there is some truth in every mans light or as Vniversâ—l light teacheth not the way of salvation Rom. 1. 8. it could not be imprisoned yet it is not the teacher of saving truths That which is but every mans light teacheth the true way to life by a mans own works but it teacheth nothing of the way truth and life that is of Jesus Christ dying for sinners The Ephesians and all the Gentiles were left in the dark for all that natural teaching and the Jews and every man left in a brutish case notwithstanding their natural wisdom I say brutish with that Scripture in Jeremy because the brute beasts are not more below the natural reason of man then the natural minde and reason of every man is below the light of the new creature 2. Grant again as I did in my former piece that the light of the Scripture-law and bare Commandment is death sentencing the transgressors of it to death yet there is another kinde of light mentioned revealed promised and shining forth in the Scripture called the light of the glorious Gospel and Salvation-light which if it be always death to G. F. or R. F. it is because they are among them that perish All that R. F. in defence of George Fox returns me is Where thou art offended at him for saying the Light of Christ is life it is but to manifest thy envy against the truth and thy contradictions to the Scriptures for the Scripture saith Christ is the light John 1. 9. And he is the life John 14. And such as follow him the true light are led out of darkness error and deceit into the light of life John 8. 12. Rep. 1. I was offended at G. F. and am now at R. F. for defending the offence which is this That the light within every man is said to be life in opposition to the light in the Scriptures which he calls death whereas there is no light to bring men to life and glory but it is taught in the Scriptures 2. The light given to all men John 1. 4 and 9. as I said above is indeed the present life of rational creatures and among men but what is that to the life of communion with God in grace and glory 3. The light of life or Salvation by Christ a Mediator to lead such as by grace follow him out of darkness is not known by the remnants of the old creation-light much less can that old creation-light lead into the redeeminglight of life although men follow it never so close and hard at the heels 4. To equal every mans light as if it were for kinde the same with the choicest light of the Saints is to contradict the Scriptures 1. This do all of the Sect. And 2. this doth R. F. 1. The mouth of them all may be heard speak in one Pamphlet * To all that would know the way to the kingdom Printed Anno 1655. pag. 17. to this purpose They will not endure the distinction of Natural and Spiritual and Special Produce one Scripture say they that speaks of a Natural light I can give them two or three if it may do them any good Rom. 1. 21. When they knew God Rom. 2. 14 15. They do by nature the things contained in the law c. Which shew the effect of the law Written in their hearts Jude verse 10. What they know naturally Here is the natural light given to every man more or less this is the light in every mans conscience which is but Natural though they will not have it so called but we will call a Spade a Spade and no more It shall not be set off for Free Grace and the Saints Teacher and sufficient to lead to salvation c. Yet to this effect will they instruct the people * Pag 8. as above To you that tempt God and say Lord give us a sight of our sins you need not tempt God to give you a sight of your sins for ye know enough c. Praying to have more light then what every man hath with them is tempting of God and other light then that it seems they know none or why must men stand still there and seek no further 2. R. F. in another Pamphlet * Light risen out of darkness pag. 19. hath this passage And here you lie ye proud Priests that say the Apostle did not say to every man Col. 1. 27. That Christ or the Light was in them for ver 28. it 's added Whom we preach warning Col 1. 27 28. vindicated every man and teaching every man Here he would level the light of the Saints with every mans light and with Christs person also Whereas 1. When the Apostle saith He warneth every man he doth not speak of every man that cometh into the world for never did every man live in one Age nor did Paul meet with half the men of the world in that Age. 2. The phrase every man in that place must be interpreted by the 26
as to the guilt curse and damnation which he bare in his own body on the Tree Yea and such as are in him are at present redeemed out of sin as to the dominion and reign of it but we are not therefore justified and when sin shall wholly be rooted out of us that shall not be our justification at Gods tribunal because we are perfectly holy but because Christ died for us to justifie us by his blood Let him that throws off Christs imputed righteousness go shift for his justification where he can get it He is a foolish bewitched Galatian and Christ shall profit him nothing For bring in any one act of ours though wrought by the Spirit whether of mortification self-denyal love or faith as an act to be an ingredient to the essence of our justification and it is as bad as to be circumcised and as destructive to the souls peace and safety as to be a debtor to keep the whole Law Section 26. I Had noted what I found in J. Nayler That no imperfect thing can be reconciled to God is plain Scripture plainly contradicting Rom. 5. 10. If he meaneth by no imperfect thing no man that is not perfectly sanctified But R. F. makes out the sense thus * Page 14. No sin can be reconciled to God nor any such imperfect thing Rep. 1. If this were the onely sense why was it not spoken at first for we know by the Spirit in the Scriptures Our persons are perfectly reconciled before our natures are perfectly sanctified that it was Gods design to reconcile sinners onely to himself persons as I hinted before in my book imperfect enough and to abolish sin in guilt and power as first and in the presence at the last and we can prove it by clearer Scriptures then R. F. produceth which is onely Rev. 21. 27. that sin and God cannot be reconciled and as Psalm 5. 4. Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness neither shall evil dwell with thee Hab. 1. 13. Thou art of purer eyes then to behold evil and canst not look on iniquity But 2. The scope of J. Nayler * Answ to perfect Phar. page 9. was to prove that we are not justified by a righteousness without us but by what is perfectly wrought within us and therefore I mistook him not in my former piece when I subjoyned Their meaning is till sin be wholly abolished in its residence out of the heart and all imperfections in sanctification be done away there is no reconciliation of our persons with God or to him whatever be R. F. * Page 14. his flourish And as for our meaning thou speaks of thou art without our minde and so knowest not our meaning by thy imagining therein thou shewest a spirit of error It sufficeth that by Scripture-truth wherein the Spirit of truth reigneth I can detect this for an error viz. Christs work in us is that which justifies our persons before God and what if his work for us be joyned with his work in us if they mean no more then what is inherent righteousness wrought by Christs strength in himself and in us together so F. Howgill must be construed if he quadrates with his other passages in the Book when he saith * The inheritance of Jacob. pag. 29 Christ fulfilled the Law and he fulfils it in them who know him and his work and herein man comes to be justified in Gods sight by Christ who works all our works in us and for us Christs obedience and ours his work for us and his work in us put together for our justification is Babylonish mixture but this I can maintain as a clear and pure truth viz. That it is not the work of Christ in us which justifieth and reconcileth our persons but his sole working for us by his own personal obedience and satisfaction to justice The plain Scripture is this Heb. 10. 14. Christ by one offering hath perfected for ever them that are Heb. 10. 14. cleared sanctified It is not said in any Scripture that Christ hath first perfectly sanctified any persons and then reconciled them unto God but the sense of that as of other Scriptures is that Christ by one offering of himself hath perfected their justification and reconciliation whom he doth also sanctifie in the truth of it at what instant he applyeth their perfect justification And the plain truth according to Scripture is this That no person is reconciled to God How the sinner and yet none but the perfect person is reconciled to God who hath not a perfect Mediator of his reconciliation and who is not accepted as perfectly righteous in the righteousness of Christ his surety and so t is true none but the perfect person is reconciled to God but how not by his qualifications at first an enemy and always carrying about with him while here some wisdom of the flesh which is emnity against God but as he had on Christs Cross his person represented in Christ his head and his sins not imputed upon the account of Christs righteousness made or reckoned to be his 2 Cor. 5. 19. 21. To clear this a little further we must distinguish between the reconciling of our individual persons and the reconciling of our individual natures dispositions or qualities and acts both are a fruit of Christs satisfactory obedience and sufferings and they cannot as J. N. * Love to the lost pag. 50. acknowledgeth this truth though not truely be divided in the possession But personal reconcilement is done at once by imputation of the perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus nature-reconcilement admits of degrees according to the measure of the Spirit of sanctification As for J. Nayler and R. F. and such as imagine that while sinful imperfections remain in the Saints they in their persons are not cannot be perfectly reconciled to God then not themselves nor any that adhere to their doctrine are or can be reconciled to God in person as not in judgement and affection while they harbor such fleshly and legal conceits of a poor sinners justification and reconciliation and they shall see if by this they get no eye-salve Oh that it might not be too late how till they be better bottom'd with contradictions of Scripture they contradict and come short of true salvation-light right and possession For I judge it 's absolutely necessary to salvation rightly to discern the way of a mans justification before God and reconciliation to him which discerning I perceive not in these mens writings although sometime in discourse with some of this Sect I have had their confession of the truth yet their bad principles make them fly off again as it fares with many a natural ignorant countreyman I wish there be not more then a few such in Cities and populous places who have a notion of the Gospel-truth but practically and experimentally cannot for their hearts but stick in themselves and think a Bird in the hand is
the institution end and use during our corporal eating and drinking of them at that Supper of the Lord. The word which I used in the Concrete Spiritual he turns to the Abstract Spirit and thus clamors me * Therefore it is thy reason is so weak that saith The bread which you break although it be bread in the nature and substance yet it is Spirit in the institution c. What blasphemy is this to say that the Spirit is in the bread which is natural in the substance Here is a Papistical trick indeed Oh horrible delusion Rep. 1. I brought not 1 Cor. 10. 16. or any reason from thence to prove the bread to be material and outward though I could as above I have from the 11. Chap. but to shew it was not carnal in R. F. his sense set in opposition to the spiritual institution end and use For that which is appointed by Christ to be used for signification and assurance of many a souls interest in and communion of his natural body and blood broken and shed upon the Cross that is not meer carnal bread and drink But the bread and wine is after Christs institution to be so used as Paul admonisheth the Corinthians and not to be abused and profaned i. e. used in a common maner as if it were but ordinary bread and wine and had no special signification and end stampt upon it That natural body and blood of Christ which we remember in the Supper as broken and shed at his Passion was and is a true natural body then on earth now in heaven and yet it was and is spiritual food his flesh meat indeed his blood drink indeed there is no sweeter no better there 's none to that So the bread and wine is truly bread materially wine and yet withal in the Lords Supper it is Christs body and it is his blood How significatively a spiritual memorial of Christs death and a pledge of what Christ is to us that believe in him dying for us 2. This man R. F. coyneth phrases and then fathers them upon me The Spirit in the institution and the Spirit is in the bread and would make the world believe he were as ignorant of Popery as of true Protestant Doctrine The Doctrine I held forth according to Scripture was and is in professed opposition to all Papisticall tricks and devices touching the Lords Supper I said the bread as the wine was so and is so in its nature and substance but spiritual in the institution end and use And I adde neither Christs Institution nor the Ministers Blessing doth transubstantiate them or turn them into the natural body and blood of Christ as the Papists imagine after their consecration They do not say that I know the Spirit is in the bread nor did I ever so express my self in preaching at Edinburgh or elsewhere and what I wrote there * page 20. is to be seen and read of all men yet more then this of confused stuff would R. F. in his return to the Agreement of 42. Ministers * Contradiction of the Quakers so called p. 16. make the world believe he can produce under my hand and the hands of other Preachers in that City Had his mistake * See page 18. with the marginal not been onely in a letter of my name to put e for a it were a very venial offence but to refer as he doth to my whole name except that letter is a most impudent forgery But to return to the Pontificians this they hold Popish Transubstantiation a blinde dotage The body of Christ is corporally under the shew of bread and the blood of Christ is substantially under the colour of wine as if the accidents or qualities of roundness redness or whiteness could be without the subject and substance of those creatures and as if Christs natural body and blood for substance could be there and neither be seen felt nor tasted and as if Christ had laid down the qualities of a true natural body and were in moe places then one at once with many such blinde dotages this is to make a very carnal Supper of it indeed Hence it is that they maintaining in words onely and with fire and faggot not by any Scripture rightly understood nor sound Argument from thence the real corporal carnal presence of Christ we protest against them as Antichristian And so must we enter a protestation against R. F. and men of his way to be yet more mysteriously Babylonish For the grosser Papists speak broadly and make a nullity of the Lords Supper by their feigned Transubstantiation and carnal-corporal presence but these speak subtilly and nullifie it by transforming of the Institution and spreading the Lords Table with another cloth as it were and as will more appear anon while we hold up the Ordinance according to Gospel-primitive simplicity and do maintain upon sufficient Scripture-grounds both the outward and inward matter and form of the Lords Supper with the spiritualness of the Institution and the truly-spiritual presence of Christ with his own ordained signs who in relation to them and to his own promise and his peoples faith is there as at Baptism Matth. 28. 19 20. Lo I am with you c. by his Spirit to quicken confirm and seal up our communion with himself as crucified for us Hence The benefit of the Lords Supper it is that the Churches of Christ and every true believer active in his faith have found it and do still experience it to be a faith-strengthning conscience-refreshing soul-comforting love-increasing sin-mortifying salvation-assuring Ordinance although they have not always a like sense of his presence But to cast off this Ordinance and call it a carnal invention as R. F. hath done for want of expected assurance at the participation of it is a rash fruit of unbelief and proud impatience and to call us Deceivers * Page 20. for keeping to the Institution which remaineth firm in it self while it proves ineffectual to many an unworthy communicant is to hide himself in his self-deceivings Finally to cry out Oh horrible delusion is to cast a mist before others eyes that they may not see where the jugling and the jugler lie close together For what saith he further The Kingdom of God consists not in meat and drink but in righteousness peace and joy in the holy Ghost and in that Kingdom wheat-bread and red wine is not the souls food but the precious blood of Christ Rep. 1. Where the Apostle speaks of the choice things wherein the Kingdom of God consists viz. righteousness c. Rom. 14. 17. he is not treating of bread and wine at Rom 14. 17. vindicated the Lords Table but of meats and drinks which Jews and Gentiles made a difference about ver 2. One believeth he may eat all things another that is weak eateth herbs He was the stronger Christian who found his liberty to eat of all things i. e. all creatures appointed for
reason light and understanding though lighted up as a candle within me by Christ the true God working with the Father in all acts of Creation and Providence hitherto is truly called as it is natural light and seeing every man John 5. 17. hath some of it the most of whom have no saving light it is truly called as it is common and universal light Will R. F. allow Ed. Burroughs to call some light natural and not me so to phrase it or will he allow J. Nayler to distinguish between common light and saving and may not I and others with me have the same liberty First let Ed. Burroughs be heard * Warning to under barrow pag. 37. I write not as from man whose light Section 20 is onely natural and carnal and doth onely make manifest carnal transgressions c. And again By the natural light through the earthly law is no natural man able to judge of that which is spoken or declared from that which is eternal And again I deny to have this cause put into the judgement of carnal Lawyers who judge by the natural light c. Let us hear J. Nayler speak his minde * Discovery of the man of sin pag. 29. In your reply meaning the Ministers at Newcastle you deceitfully put in that word saving light which is not spoken by me for though Christ be the light of the world that enlightens all yet none are saved by him but who believe c. There is a light then which is in natural men unbelievers and all the Heathen which is but natural and a light which is not saving and therefore but common by their own confession what unreasonableness is it in them to except against the term of distinction what contradiction to their own reason 2. The preeminence of Scripture-light is this that it is our standing rule for faith and maners so are not immediate Revelations or Teachings of which see 1. Part Sect. 1. Here is the Letter or Scripture-fulness that I assert There is sufficient light in it to guide men to salvation seeing it is the Spirits light and given by the Spirit for a rule yea the Spirit gives out himself thereby for our clear understanding and satisfaction in the things of God insomuch as that very witness which a believer hath in himself the Scripture bears testimony of The Spirit tells us in the Scripture what he worketh in our hearts and he stamps upon our hearts what he had before caused to be stampt into Scripture or upon the Bible R. F. objecteth Thou wouldst have the Spirit to be bought and sold if it were in the Letter Rep. How the Spirit is in the Letter that is in the Scripture I have opened in its due place 2. Part Sect. 8. but that it followeth it may therefore be bought and sold is a weak and poor exception R. F. his minde goes along with his Pamphlet and his spirit is in his book yet it is not his person but the ink and paper that is bought and sold so the ink and paper of the Scriptures as other creatures of God are bought and sold not so the Spirit though he be more in them then R. F. is in his book for this poor man cannot change my minde nor many thousands more if they read his Pamphlet with me into his erroneous judgement when as the Spirit in the Scripture changeth my minde and all that are made to own the light and authority of it into the same truth that is there delivered Again he taunteth Thou wouldst have a Letter-Savior if the Letter could give the Spirit and eternal life Rep. 1. I never said the Letter could or did give the Spirit but the Spirit is given by it or as I even now exprest it the Spirit gives out himself by it and he gives out Christ or the knowledge of Christ and eternal life by it also who shall hinder him if he will begin and further our salvation by it 2. It is R. F. his disdainful expression not mine a Letter-Savior Christ a Savior according to Scripture but this I say from the Lord He that slights the Savior which the Scripture witnesseth and maketh known is not like to finde any Spirit-Savior of him or a Savior in vigor life and Spirit to his soul and if he be not such a Savior he is not at all a Savior to him Did ever any of the Apostles or such as had indeed immediate teachings from the Spirit vilifie and reproach Christ or the Scripture with such inkhorn terms Yet again With a Letter-fulness thou wouldst have no witness of God without the Letter Rep. 1. That follows not for his providential works are witnesses of him Acts 14. 17. to the very Heathens and much more to Christians But 2. He shall be no Christian to me or in my account who brings any testimony as from God without the Scriptureattestation But saith R. F. If the Scripture be lost the fulness and the witness would be lost and his people be without supply and strength according to thy account Rep. 1. Should they be lost that one way whereby God gives out his fulness and by which he witnesseth and worketh for his peoples supply and strength would be lost yet God loseth none of his fulness in himself and Christ hath other witnesses of him John 5. His Father his Works John Baptist But 2. Seeing there are Scriptures as they cannot be broken John 10. 35. they cannot be lost God hath and will ever preserve them for his peoples supply and strength 3. What vain jangling is here from R. F. his pen tending to no edification at all of the Reader but to the alienation of peoples mindes from the Scriptures and from those that teach according to them to seduce and draw poor souls after their pretended immediate teachings while yet they will be quoting of Scripture as if it were written and pen'd to destroy it self For thus R. F. gathers up the Rere of his forces * Page 28. He to wit Christ is before all things and by him all things consist and he is the Head of the body the Chruch who is the beginning and first-born from the dead that in all things he might have the preeminence for in him the fulness dwells Rep. 1. Are not these words written by the Spirits secretary Col. 1. 17 18 19. And is not R. F. beholden to the Scripture for that literal knowledge 2. If ever he feels the power of these as other Scriptures The Scripture magnifies Christ above it self God will teach him to honor the Scripture so much the more as it magnifies Christ above it self and to speak more wisely of it then to conclude as he doth In him the fulness dwells then not in the Letter yet the Letter declares of it Rep. 1. If the Letter declares of Christs fulness then we shall need to know no more of Christ then what for substance is in the Scripture there
is seen and known to be one that hates it and why 1. He bears record of himself against Christ and his Apostles Let that be found in any passage of his former or present piece and R. F. shall be no false Apostle J. S. will hide his head in a hole or openly recant the folly and wickedness 2. He calls the true light saith R. F. the Light of nature and the common Light of reason Where 's the proof of this allegation J. S. doth peremptorily deny that he ever so exprest himself since he had the Light of reason in him The true Light as 't is printed both in R. F. his Book * Page 2. and in the Bible John 1. 9. with a great L and there spoken of is Christ J. S. never called Christ the Light of nature or the common Light of reason or reason as Page 34. R. F. clamoreth and clattereth Haply he may say again and again That Christ as the very God and the true Light giveth the Light of nature to all men and common light of reason more or less to every man for he is able to distinguish betwixt the Donor and his Gift betwixt the un-created Light-living God and created Light-given before the fall to Adam or given back since the fall to him and his posterity If R. F. or any man will confound Christ-giving or enlightning with the Light-given or lighted up as a Candle in every man he may as well confound God and the Creature and make them as some blasphemously imagine to be one and the same Essence Therefore as in this so in all other instances Fourthly J. S. is confident after R. F. his impudence in his Preface and Proceedings he shall neither be found Lyar nor false Accuser but as he is sure that Saint Pauls Anathema was out long since Gal. 1. 8 9. and is still in force against those that preach another Gospel-way of Justification as do these Quaking-Papists or Popish-Quakers so the Anathema Maran-atha that R. F. denounceth imperatively and imperiously Let him be an Anathema Maranatha against J. S. shall be as the curse causless that shall not come but that God will do him more good as already he hath done something for him by Shimei's railing Tyrants Sectaries Seducers and Hereticks as Luther said do nothing else but drive us unto the Bible to make us read more diligently therein and with more fervency to sharpen our Prayers and I may adde by their buffetings to be more taken off from self-estimation and to be viler in our own eyes then we can be in the eyes of our Adversaries who know not our hearts THE Reviler rebuked PART 1. 1. Head of Scripture-contradiction Touching the Scriptures themselves Section 1. THe holy Scriptures by one thunder-stricken in spirit and blasted in profession with the Quakers Books and company in Scotland were denied to my face to be the word of Truth which I noted as the first and great Contradiction R. Farnworth in answer returns me thus much of truth in form of words That the Scriptures are words that proceeded from the Spirit of Truth we do not deny but own and so they are the words of truth Plainly he doth not say they are the words of truth nor plainly joyn Scripture the word of truth to all issue with him that denied them to be the word of truth but if they be own'd for words of truth as proceeding from the Spirit of truth then for the advantage of Truth I argue 1. They are the word of God and so should be owned by them Surely the Spirit of truth is the Spirit of God proceeding from the Father and the Son and these three John 15. 26. being one their word is one That which is the word of the Spirit of truth is the word of the Father of truth and of the Son of truth The Scripture by R. F. his confession is the word of the Spirit of truth therefore he must grant it to be the word of the Father and of the Son of truth and consequently the word of the true God 2. If they be words of truth as proceeding from the Spirit of truth then they are the Rule Standard and Touchstone of truth the true Spirit being known by his words and directing us to know his minde by his words what we should believe as truth and practise as truth or according to it but we shall anon hear R. F. denying the Scriptures to be the rule of a Christian as of other men that are unchristian 3. If they be the words of the Spirit of truth then they are so to all men or but to some men 1. If so to all men that have the Scriptures by them then why doth not R. F. challenge him that denied them to be so to unbelievers as I noted in my Book Why doth he challenge me for falshood with a therefore too * Page 2. therefore thy saying is false What saying of mine is false and wherefore I truly related what I had from him I mentioned above in discourse once and again That the Scriptures were not the word of truth And doth it follow because R. F. acknowledgeth them to be the words of truth that therefore I heard not the contradiction or mis-related what was spoken 2. If they be the words of truth but to some men not at all to wicked men and unbelievers no not condemningly as were his expressions then it seems the unbelief and wickedness of men doth make the Faith or Truth of God of none effect but S. Paul Rom. 3. 3. is of another minde Rom 3. 3. cleared yea the Spirit there by the Interrogation first and second What if some did not believe shall their unbelief make the faith of God of none effect forcibly denieth the frustration or making void of Gods word of truth by the Jews former or following continued unbelief God hath laid his faith and truth to pawn as it were in the holy Scriptures and as he is a God of truth his word is a word of truth taking hold of men by the threatning as Zech. 1. 6. who misbelieve or reject the promise And Is he the God of the Jews onely and not also of the Gentiles to justifie and condemn all that are believing or unbelieving according to the Scriptures Such therefore who will say No more is the truth of God or word of God to me then what I believe were they never so dear friends must be as roundly taken up and faithfully rebuked as sometimes Luther took up a man of no mean account Bullenger you erre you know neither your self nor what you hold According to your falsities if the Word findes not the Spirit but an ungodly Person then it is not Gods word whereby you define and hold the word not according to God who speaketh it but according as people do entertain and receive it Whereas as he again a true Christian must hold for certain and must say That word
knowing the Spirit nor power of God declared in the Scriptures Rep. 1. Wherein have I erred who never exprest my self so dubiously as thus the Spirit proceedeth from the Letter but thus The Spirit is given by it The Scripture is but instrumental to the Spirit yet so instrumental he makes it as whatsoever R. F. thinketh of me I know and remember that my first awakening of conscience was by the Spirit and from the power of God upon my spirit as I was reading that Scripture Heb. 10. 26. For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth c. The Spirit which gave this Scripture gave forth his convictions by it to my heart What if I say his Terrors as by that in Isa 5. 18. at the ministers reading of the Text and preaching upon it will R. F. or any other say why then dost thou not own our Trembling and Quaking I shall reply to R. F. why doth he reject all my Epistle to the Readers in my former piece where I gave some characters of true Trembling and to all others with him I subjoyn such is the power of the Spirit in and by the Scripture True Trembling is at the truth and power in Scripture and leads thereunto that there is a wide difference between the trembling from a supposed Revelation that is not by nor according to the Scripture but leads men both from it and from the due honor to be given to it and the trembling which ariseth from the Scripture-revelation and from the Spirit speaking in that which is read and heard out of it The former I judge to be theirs who pretend to the Spirit without and beside the Scripture the latter I own and all that the Lord hath wrought upon by the word will own it with me The account which that famous Francis Junius gives of the Spirits working by the Letter of Scripture is upon record * Vita Francisci Junii After he had drunk in that which stirred up in him the seeds of Atheism and had vented something that way before his father and had profited nothing by Sermons to this present time he takes up the new Testament laid before him by his father and reads the former part of the first chapter of John In the beginning was the Word c. Ita commoveor legens c. as it first came to his hand and view Whereby saith he I was so stirred that suddenly I perceived the divinity of Horrebat corpus stupebat animus c. the Argument and the majesty and authority of the style very far excelling all the floods of humane eloquence my body trembled my minde was astonished and I was so affected all that day that I knew not where and what I was And from that time forward he gave himself to the study of the Scriptures and read other books but coldly and carelesly in comparison Here was the mighty operation of the Spirit accompanying the Letter here was a right Scripture efficacy from the Spirits application of it to the conscience As God declares his Spirit and power or speaks of them in the Scriptures so he declares or exerts and puts forth his Spirit and power by them and that upon their hearts who do not believe In this first Section of my book I had noted another of their Contradictions viz. of James Naylers * A few words of J. Nayler pag. 10. 11. thus now more fully Thou callest the Scriptures a standing Rule but it is not so to you who cannot believe that ever it shall be fulfilled in you as it was given out by the holy Ghost Contrary I said so Luke 16. 26. They have Moses and the Prophets for a standing Rule let them hear them and ver 31. If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead Here the Scriptures are asserted to be a more standing rule then visions and revelations R. F. * Pag. 3. 4. calls the simple-hearted to judge of my deceitful perverting of this Scripture for my own ends from it raising a false doctrine Rep. Let simple and wise also examine the proofs and reasons of this charge and of his denial of the Scriptures The Scripture a standing Rule 1. To be a standing rule at all or to any 2. To be a more standing rule c. The shew of reason he gives for the first I shall faithfully and for conviction if the Lord please of this Gain-sayer uncase and discover the weakness and nakedness thereof 1. The verse saith not so Rep. The 29 verse meaneth Luke 16. 29. cleared and vindicated and intendeth no less Scripture-sense is Scripture as our Lord teacheth us to reason from John 7. 38. He that believeth on me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water The Scripture no where had said so in so many express letters syllables and words but it saith it in the scope and sense and it speaks as much as amounts thereunto So doth this place for the Scriptures being a standing rule there is the sense of what I spake They have Moses and the Prophets for what for a cypher No but for a rule Let them hear them for what if not to testifie unto them as was desired ver 28. that they might repent as was expected ver 30. if one came from the dead Hence I reason They that constantly testifie in their writings from God how unbelievers should escape hell torments they are in their writings a standing rule to them that do not believe as to all other But Moses and the Prophets do constantly testifie in their writings from God how unbelievers should escape hell torments Therefore Moses and the Prophets in their writings are a standing rule to them that do not believe And therefore again R. F. his charging of me in the presence of God to be a liur of the Scriptures will by the Lord one day be made to fall upon his own pate or conscience notwithstanding his second reason thus If Moses and the Prophets had been left to all and for ever for a standing rule then Christ and the Apostles might not have been after Moses and the Prophets for following examples or rules Rep. It followeth not for Christ and the Apostles brought no new rule for the substance but onely cleared and enlarged it in what was Moral and Evangelical so that R. F. is beside the cushion when he addeth And therein thou bringest the old Covenant to contradict the new What he meaneth by the old Covenant I know not very well or what by the new The old Covenant in Scripture phrase and meaning What the old Covenant what the new was but the old administration the new Covenant the new copy of the same Will and Testament Heb. 8. 13. the same for substance before as now Moses wrote of Christ John 5. 46. The Prophets from Samuel and
those that follow after as many as have spoken have likewise foretold of these days the days of the New Testament and the things of Christ Acts 3. 24. As God spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets which have been since the world began Luke 1. 70. There is no contradiction between the Old Testament and the New in the sense I have given therefore none in my collection from Luke 16. That Christ asserts the Scriptures to be a standing rule 3. Reason It crosseth many Scriptures as Ephes 5. 1. Rom. 8. 14. 2 Cor. 3. 17. Rep. Not one of these nor any other for the Scripture cannot doth not contradict it self how ever it seems so to them that understand them not and have not will or skill to clear the harmony The first Scripture alledged Ephes 5. 1. requires that Ephes 5. 1. opened Christians be followers of God as dear children Dear children of God will minde their Fathers will in Moses and the Prophets and if we be followers of God we must follow him in his whole written word as it is plain in the Old or as it is explained and cleared in the Books of the New Testament The second Scripture Rom. 8. 14. hath nothing against Rom 8. 14. vindicated The Spirit leads by his Letter the Scripture rule however R. F. improveth it to his purpose thus They that follow him in the Gospel are led by his Spirit and that is not the Letter for although the Letter is not the Spirit yet the Letter is the Spirits Letter and they that follow God in the Gospel do and dare not upon the hazard of disobedience to their Father but follow him in the Spirits written Gospel seeing the Spirits inward leading and guidance is to the same obedience which the Scripture leads unto The Spirit leads by and to the Scripture never from it as the Spirit in Seducers doth The third Scripture 2 Cor. 3. 17. God is that Spirit 2 Cor. 3. 17. vindicated what then Then the Spirits Letter is Gods Letter I can conclude Or thus The written word of the Spirit is the very written word of God and again God that gave the Letter gives the Spirit with it and by it with it even to those that yet are unbelieving and are ever resisting the Spirit speaking in it and from it Nehem. 9. 20. Acts 7. 51. By it to those whom he effectually preventeth and calleth home to himself or buildeth up Acts 8. 35. Acts 10. 34. with 44. But R. F. his drift in quoting the words above to make people believe that because God or the Lord is that Spirit as saith that Scripture therefore that and all the rest of the Scripture is not a standing rule which follows as much as if it should be said God is the Lord therefore the creature is not his creature I shall for his learning and better improvement of that Text turn the edge of his allegation against himself If that Scripture saith The Lord is that Spirit then that Scripture is the rule for me and him also to believe the Lord is that Spirit and if that Scripture be not fallen out of its authority it is a standing rule for us so to believe but that Scripture says as much and R. F. runs to the authority of it as yet in force therefore that Scripture is a standing rule for the faith of that truth and consequently other Scriptures are the rule for other truths and all Scripture for all truth what we are to believe and what to practise A fourth Argument seems to be drawn from current experience But we follow God who are guided by the Spirit and that is our guide and rule to wit the Spirit of truth Rep. 1. Whose experience is this whom means he by we If onely himself and his companions who deny the Scriptures to be a rule then I deny they are guided by the Spirit of God who breathing forth the Scriptures and guiding men to write them guides men to read hear believe and obey them as their rule If by we he means all sober Saints and godly conscientious Readers not so in his opinion but really so and if he meaneth by the Spirit the Spirit of God then I appeal to all such and all the Saints who love the truth in sincerity whether they have the Spirit for their guide without or not rather with and by the Scriptures The Spirit indeed is promised to be the Saints guide John 16. 13. but it is neither there said although John 16. 13. vindicated R. F. affirms it That Christ appointed him to be the rule nor is he properly the rule but the giver of the rule and the guide unto and by the rule The schoolmaster which sets the copy is not the copy but he guides the hand of the scholar to write after the copy in like maner the Spirit of God appoints the Scripture to be written for a rule and guides the Saints to believe and live according to it Yet would R. F. have the force of a fifth Reason lie in these words Since he promised it as if the Scripture was not a rule since the Spirit was promised as well as before Surely if it was a rule before it is still the same rule as it is the same Scripture And the promise of the Spirit in a larger measure doth not in the least hinder the Scripture from being a rule but the larger measures of the Spirit help towards the understanding of that rule for a clearer and more Gospel-like administration and application 6. Reason If thou wouldst have the Letter to be the rule and Moses and the Prophets onely then thou wouldst not have Christ and the Apostles to be followed according to 1 Cor. 11. 1. Rep. 1. I used not the word onely although the Books of Moses and the Prophets when Christ referred to them Luke 16. were the onely Scriptures extant and a sufficient rule for the present 2. When Christ by his Spirit in the Apostles enlarged the Scriptures he altered not the rule for the substance of it Moses and Christ the Prophets and Apostles are so to be followed that he who leaves the one will forsake the other and he that loves the one will cleave to the other Had ye believed Moses saith Christ ye would have believed me for he wrote of me but if ye believe not his writings how shall ye believe my words John 5. 46 47. And such is the harmony of the Apostles with Moses and the Prophets that the one preached and consequently wrote no other things then what the other did say should come that Christ should suffer c. Acts 26. 22 23. What if the new Testament was written after the Old the matter contained in both is of the same concernment to believers as unbelievers What if Paul gives that godly exhortation Be ye 1 Cor. 11. 1. vindicated followers of me even as I am of Christ is Christ divided Is not Christ
the children of Israel verse 22. Moses therefore wrote this song the same day and taught it them When Jeremy could not go into the house of the Lord he sends Baruch his Scribe to read what was written from his mouth even the words of the Lord in the ears of the people c. Jer. 36. 4 6. * See also Jeremiah 28. 1. Paul had his Tertius to write the Epistle to the Romans cap. 16. 22. and he ordereth the Epistle to the Colossians to be read amongst them and that they cause it to be read also in the Church of the Laodiceans Col. 4. 16. and read it was as the word of the Lord unto them yea God hath so honored his written Bible that he hath ordered as well the Copies as the Autographum or the Pen-mans own hand-writing to be his Scripture also Those Proverbs of Solomon which the men of Hezekiah copied out Prov. 25. 1. are as authentique as any of the rest so was the Copy which the King wrote out according to Gods command Deut. 17. 18. 2. Printing was a rare Invention and the gift of God Printing invented betwixt the 1440 1450 year of our Lord. See Mr. Fox vol. 1. p. 927. above two hundred years ago The benefit is sufficiently noted by Mr. Fox Hereby Tongues are known Knowledge groweth Judgement increaseth Books are dispersed the Scripture is seen the Doctors be read Stories are opened Times compared Truth discerned Falshood detected and with the finger pointed And by the printing of the Bible the doctrine of the Gospel hath sounded The benefit of Printing and of printed Bibles to all nations and that with great expedition So many Printing-presses of the Bible so many Clock-houses against the high Towers of Antichrist none but Papists have envied Gods people and Christs Preachers a Printed Bible Who were they that obstructed what they could the printing of it in English in King Henry the 8. days but the Popish Prelates and their creatures The Popish Vicar of Croyden Caiaphas-like prophesied Either we must root out Printing or Printing will root out us Every good Christian have been glad of a piece of a Printed Bible when it came first out in our Mother-language 3. The later this Mercy hath been vouchsafed to have Printed Bibles the greater Gods favor to his people and the greater their Ingratitude who slight the Mercy the greater their pride who would rather have their own Scriblings in print then the Scriptures of God who prefix to their writings as these Quakers so called in many of their Pamphlets This is the word of the Lord but are against such a Title to a Printed Bible or such a Preface before a Sermon from a Bible-Text as this Hear the word of the Lord. 4. If the printed Bible be according to the Original Copy or a true Extract or faithful Translation of Scripture it is as warrantable to preach out of it as out of a written one for Printing is one kinde of writing what is first written by a pen is after written by a stamp The Press is but an handmaid to Orthography or right-writing and a Midwife to help forth the conceptions of the Minde formed at first by the pen. But saith R. F. * Page 6. if Printing had not been invented what would you hâ—ve preached by that knows not the word of Life which was before Writing or Printing was Rep. 1. The written Copies were before those printed and by the former onely Gods servants preached till the latter came forth and according to those Copies and Volumes of Gods book would I have preached 2. Those Copies would have taught me as now they do that which R. F. hath not learnt by the printed although he might learn it namely to distinguish between the Essential word of Life Christ the Son of God and the The word of God essential scriptural Scriptural word 3. As the Essential word was before the Scriptural so he was before Visions and Revelations were given to men yea before there was a holy man to receive them or a world for holy men or others to inhabit Lastly As no true prophet or preacher ever rejected a written or a printed Bible truely so and so called no more hath he denied it the Title of the word of the Lord. Never did the Lord send such an ignorant prophet like J. P. at Coggeshall to turn to the nineteenth chapter of the Revelation and tell the people because ver 13. Christs name is called The word of God therefore the Bible and Scriptures he pluckt out of his pocket and held in his hand was not the word of God But though false prophets pervert the Printed Bible and use that Sword of God to cut its own throat Gods faithful Messengers and Interpreters know how to handle it dexterously and faithfully What is the chaff to the wheat saith the Lord Jer. 23. 28. What are mans words our own or other mens words to the Lords What is a false Interpretation or Application of Scripture to the true Section 3. IN answer to the third Section R. F. owneth John Lawsons words which I had noted viz. Wâ— have nothing to try men by but the Letter the Bible or written word which is natural and carnal with his own words Your Tryer is a Chapter or Verse of the Scriptures declaration and now upbraideth us for having no better way to try mens Doctrine and Spirits by then the Letter Rep. By the Letter or writing of the Spirit of God which The Scriptures the tryer of Doctrine is the Law and the Testimony we do know what is the Doctrine of the Spirit The Spirit gives his sense and minde by letters and words of Scripture all along take one place with another And when men speak according to that word of Scripture Law and Testimony Isaiah 8. 20. which cannot Isaiah 8. 20â— cleared be but when they take the word in and with its true sense then they bring not mans Doctrine but Gods but if they speak not according to that word it is not because there is not light sufficient in the Scripture-word but because there is no light in them that handle it and speak of it their hearts are dark their judgements blinde and ignorant and they bring not the Spirits Doctrine but their own As for instance R. F. if you will believe him without tryal saith for himself and his fellows We speak according to it viz. the Law and the Testimony and therefore there is light in us But fearing he should not be believed upon his own testimony he brings a verse of Scripture for it 2 Cor. 2 Cor. 4. 6 vindicated 4. 6. where 1. He allows that in himself which he condemns in us viz. to make a Chapter or Verse of the Scripture the tryer 2. He sets that Scripture in opposition to Isaiah 8. 20. and while he pretendeth to speak according to Law and Testimony he perverts the testimony given by
the Old and New Testament-Scripture thence to suck and draw for their refreshment preservation and consolation But such cursed step-dames have we now sprung up who would wean every new-born babe from any further tastes of Scripture-milk it must be no ground of their acting then no means of their growth no food to them at all nay it shall be no seed instrumentally to beget them as not milk to nourish them 3. They that deny the Scriptures to be in any good sense the ground of the Saints acting in effect deny them to be Gods Scriptures and Christs Scriptures for either the Authority of God and Christ is stampt upon them or not if it be then by their Authority may and ought the Saints to act if it be not then are they but humane and not the Scriptures of God and Christ But let us examine what R. F. saith for himself * 2 pag. of his Epist and 7. p. of his book and men of his judgement The Lord God and his Spirit is the ground of the Saints acting as it was formerly Isa 48. 16 17. For the Lord God and his Spirit hath sent me And the Lord Isaiah 48. 16 17. cleared vindicated teacheth his that he so sends to profit Rep. 1. So reads he or writes I must not say wresteth lest I retort but the words are directed to the people or Church and truly thus read which teacheth thee to profit The prophets had more extraordinary impulses of the Spirit then the Saints in ordinary for their actings 2. One way whereby God then taught and now teacheth his people to profit was by reducing them to the written Rule ver 18. O that thou hadst hearkned to my Commandments which they had in writings from God before the Lord God and the Spirit sent Isaiah to them Christ who came with the Spirit as he received it not by measure came with the Scriptures taught the people and his disciples how to profit by them Luke 4. 18. Matth. 5. Luke 24. 27. and as the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal which Scripture 1 Cor. 12. 7. R. F. alledgeth in 1 Cor 12. 7. vindicated part so is all the Scripture given by inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in righteousness 2 Tim. 3. 16. neither is there any manifestation of the Spirit in any Teacher if he doth not manifest his doctrine from or according to the Scripture when required so to do It is not to be believed that God ever gave his Spirit to such a Teacher who doth manifestly or covertly under pretence of the Spirit flie from the light of Scripture The Spirit of God never taught any The property of the Scriptures to speak dishonorably or diminishingly of his written word but to give unto the Scriptures what is its due viz. That they are Gods holy Scriptures Rom. 1. 2. able to make a childe wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus 2 Tim. 3. 15. and given ver 17. That the man of God the Prophet Apostle Evangelist Pastor or Teacher and others by their ministery may be perfect throughly furnished unto every good work and unto the Spirit what is his due The prerogative of the Spirit prerogative to work by the Scripture when and upon whom he pleaseth to their saving profit But haply I might have spared this pains in reference to R. F. though others have need of it because in his Epistle he hath this passage The Scriptures in the Letter onely are not the true ground of the believers faith as they in Scotland affirm for he seems to be a little yielding that they are the ground of the Saints acting though not onely if in any good sense he will grant them to be the ground of the believers faith he must in that The ground of the Believers faith is the ground of the Saints acting sense yield them to be the ground of the Saints acting for the Saint and the Believer is all one and all acts of holiness in general as of any particular grace spring from the same root that the acts of faith do and are built upon the same ground-work that is laid by God for the edification of faith and its actings Onely I must advertise him and others that I know none in Scotland that so affirm or express themselves as he speaks They may say and say truly that the Letter i. e. the Scriptures which never were without their true sense nor without the Spirit breathing in them though it be not manifested to every one that reads them nor a like manifestation given at all times to all the Saints are the onely visible and legible Rule of faith and Judge of Controversies as all sound Protestants have hitherto maintained this truth against the Papists And they that are of a sound minde in this British Isle as in all Europe and the world have from Gods Authority stampt upon the Scriptures asserted them to be a true Ground of the Believers faith which R. F. weakly denies * Epist because Christ is the true Ground of faith whereas the affirmative is hereby the more strongly proved For the true adaequate or proportionable Object of faith is the true Ground of faith but Christ speaking in the Scriptures is the true adaequate Object of faith therefore Christ in the Scriptures is the true Ground of faith And thus again If Christ be the true Ground of faith then the Scriptures of Christ which are his written truth are a true Ground of faith as if the man be honest I may build upon his word so if Christ be true and Truth itself his word is true and the truth as his Fathers word is John 17. 17. when written down for a more certain ground as to us and our actings then if but spoken in the air or to the ear Let R. F. therefore or all that have a minde to be sound in the faith if he hath none hear the Scripture speaking for it self and hear Christ together for himself and his Scripture Prov. 22. 19 20 21. That thy trust Prov. 22. 19 20 21. opened and urged may be in the Lord I have made known to thee this day even to thee Here is a ground of faith laid by the Lord himself What is it his making known of what Have not I written to thee excellent things in counsels and knowledge Here is excellent matter made known as a ground of trusting in the Lord and here is the maner of revelation by writing Have not I written wherefore That I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth Behold the maner of making known a ground also of certainty of knowledge and consequently of faith for a mans self and it followeth that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee Lo here is the ground of our Embassie and Message for others
night where our hearts are most obscure and in some places as the light at noon-day they shine with their Light upon every mans conscience that reads them Every Book and Chapter is a lightsom Book and Chapter were not our eyes more then purblinde Every Verse is a little vessel of light yea how great and how much light in some one line or a few letters as in John 10. 30. I and my Father are one And in that Rom. 5. 6. When we were yet without strength Christ died c. Doth it exalt Christ to call him our Rule and then deny it to the Scripture The Scripture exalts him higher and calls him Christ ruleth by the Scripture our Rule-giver or Law-giver which comes all to one And it exalts it self or is exalted by Christ to be Canonical or our Canon and Rule Gal. 6. 17. As many as walk according Gal. 6. 17. opened to this rule in the whole Epistle and in the Verse before If any say the Apostle speaks of the new creature as our Rule I conceive they are mistaken For 1. The new creature is too narrow for a Rule nor of authority enough to be a Rule it is but imperfect here as to degrees of renewed qualities and one Christian hath more another less none are gradually perfect 2. The new creature is subordinate and subject to Rule the old man is not nor cannot be subject if the new be not nothing in a Christian is regulated and then he will not be found a Christian If the new creature be subject it is to Christ the King and his Laws If it be regulated it is by a declared Rule which is the written Word Rom. 7. 25. I saith Paul at that time a new creature do serve the law of God as that Rule he speaks of to the Galatians and who so walks according to it peace shall be upon him Is Christ Christ guideth and teacheth by the Scripture our Guide he guides us by the Scripture without and by the Spirit of and in the Scriptures and within our hearts Is Christ our Teacher and doth he teach all without book Christ had never such disciples since the Scriptures were his Book which is profitable for Doctrine or Teaching 2 Tim. 3. 16. Christ himself taught out of them and by them and so doth he still continue to train up the Scholars of his Christ accuseth and judgeth by the Scripture highest form Doth not the Scriptures accuse and judge also under Christ and for Christ John 5. 45. Ye have one that accuseth you even Moses John 12. 48. The word that I have spoken the same shall judge him at the last day because spoken from the Father and according to his commandment in the Scripture To return to R. F. again and at last to close up this Section I leave this with him and others Christs Scripture is of the same authority with Christs Sermons Christs Sermons shall judge men at the last day Therefore Christs Scripture shall have the same authority of judging It is one of the Books that shall be opened Rev. 20. 12. with the books of mens consciences Revel 20. 12. and of Gods omnisciency and Decrees and all the dead shall be judged out of those things which were written in the books And they that now are unwilling to be judged by the Scripture shall at the last day be judged by it whether they will or no. 2. Head of Scripture-contradiction Concerning the Trinity Section 7. I Had discovered their contradictious language that There is no Scripture for the Trinity when the Scripture is plain before them 1 John 5. 7. There are three 1 Iohn 5. 7. vindicated that bear witness in heaven the Father the Word and the holy Spirit and these three are one Here is a Trinity I said or a Three-ness in one Essence and One-ness of Essence in a Three-ness of Subsistence R. F. * Page 7 8. challengeth me for perverting the Scripture saying here is Trinity when it expresseth no such word in that nor any other Scripture as Trinity But the Reader will easily perceive how he perverts my writing and fights against this Text and five more which I referred to for I said not here is Trinity or the word Trinity but here is a Trinity asserted He grants the Father Son and Spirit are one and then beating about the bush from John 14. 20. which mentions but two of the three he denies it to speak of distinct persons three Rep. What if John 14. 20. speak not of three 1 Joh. 5. 7. expresly saith there are three c. But R. F. falls point-blank in opposition to the third in order of the three and addeth The holy Ghost is no person My work therefore here is first to clear out from this place in Johns Epistle and the five other that I onely hinted at that there are three distinct persons in the God-head Secondly that the holy Ghost is and how he is one of the three I cannot open any of the six Texts which I quoted but the latter will be proved by the former onely in clearing the latter by it self R. F. his Heresie and Blasphemy will be yet more evident and notorius To the first then I argue thus in the general If the Scripture speaks of three the Father Son and Spirit that are one and yet three then they are as distinctly three in their Persons as they are undividedly one in their Essence But the Scripture speaks of these three that are one and There is a Trinity or three persons in one Godhead proved from and by the Scriptures yet three Therefore they are as distinctly three in their persons as they are undividedly one in their Essence The consequence of the proposition is thus proved When the Scripture speaks of these three either it is to be understood of three distinct ways of Being or of three distinct Beings But it cannot be understood of three distinct Beings for the Lord our God is One I am or Being of himself Therefore it is to be understood of three distinct maners or ways of Being each of which maners of Being is no other but that which the Scripture expresseth by the word Hypostasis or Person when it sometime speaks of one of the three sometime of another The Assumption is clear from the Scriptures that either expresly say there are three and these are one or reckon up three neither more nor fewer coequal and of the same dignity as co-essential and of the same Deity More particularly 1. Let that 1 John 5. 7. be viewed and weighed let 1 John 5. 7. opened not men shut their eyes against the light of it and think lightly of its Testimony where Unity in Trinity and Trinity in Unity is set forth by words equivalent and of as great force as if the very terms of Unity and Trinity were put down The equivalent words are there are three and these three are one
and 27 verses every such man as is a Saint in one place and another where he came not yet perfect except in Justification that he may be presented perfect in Christ Jesus in holiness 3. Christs person with and by his Spirit dwelleth in every Saint with a light that never was given to every man that cometh into the world nor ever will be given 4. Though Paul preached to the world unconverted as well as to the Saints yet it was to bring them who were of Gods election among the Saints that they might be partakers of that mysterious light which they knew nothing of before But R. F. thinks if the Scripture make mention of every man it must needs include every man that is was or will be in the world therefore he addeth in the above-mentioned Pamphlet The Apostle saith to the Romans That as well as to them God hath given to every man a measure of grace Rom. 12. 3. And none shall be condemned for that Rom. 12 3. vindicated which they know not but for that which they know and do not obey Whereas here 1. By every man is not meant every man that cometh into the world but that cometh into the Church or company of Saints or whether in or out of the Church yet maketh profession of Faith and hath received some supernatural gifts in measure 2. It is a measure of faith the Apostle speaketh of not a measure of grace Faith may be taken there for knowledge of Gospel-doctrine and gifts flowing from that knowledge which may be in men that are not truly sanctified or endued with saving grace 2 Thes 3. 2. All men have not 2 Thes 3. 2. opened faith not so much as knowledge of the Gospel-letter nor the general assent to Gospel-truth as very Gospel much less that justifying faith which onely the Elect have 3. Every man that cometh into the world hath not that which is termed and is but common though supernatural grace i. e. gifts freely given in common to Hypocrites and Formalists as to the Elect and effectually called of Jesus Christ 4. Every man that neither hath true saving grace nor ever lived in times and places when and where God hath given common supernatural endowments will have enough to condemn him for that which he had in Adams loins yet standing and particularly for that which he knew in him but lost yea put it away by his voluntary disobedience in whom all have sinned Rom. 5. 12. Besides for not obeying Rom. 5. 12. opened that which he knows of God of good and evil as natural conscience dictates for God Every man who hath but every mans light will at last be condemned Rom. 2. 12. For as many as have sinned without law i. e. without the written word shall also perish without law i. e. by the law witness and judgement of their own consciences which is that we call the Light of nature the Law of nature or natural Light by good warrant from Scripture and reason that things should be called as they are But to proceed Section 10. TO call the light within them and which every man hath the word of God as they frequently express their natural impressions To you all this is the word of the Lord while as they will not have the holy Scriptures so called This as I noted is still to hold up Contradiction as to the whole Scripture so to that particular place in Isaiah 8. 20. whence I inferred That Light without Scripture Isaiah 8. 20. further vindicated is no light This passage R. F. stumbleth at in his Epistle and saith It comes as the rest of my sayings from the deceitful Spirit that guides me Rep. What doth he less then fasten deceit upon the Spirit of God as far as he can the Spirit of truth who speaks in that as in all the Scripture and guided me to write as I did If they speak not according to this word saith the Spirit there speaking of the Law and the Testimony written in books and tables it is because there is no light in them How Light without Scripture is no Light What clearer and truer inference from the words of the Spirit by the Prophet could I raise then this viz. Light though said to be saving Light without Scripture i. e. besides or not according to Scripture is no Light Men may R. F. His reasons to the contrary in his Epistle dissolved call it light and light of life but the holy Ghost saith it is not so if it be not agreeable to Law and Testimony which is Scripture-light R. F. would fain disprove my inference thus 1. If light without Scripture be no light then I know not the light that was before the Scripture or Letter and so am ignorant of Christ the true light Rep. 1. It follows not for there was no light before the Scripture but what is now revealed in and by the Scripture 2. It is a learned ignorance to know no more in order to salvation then that which is in Scripture revealed The Lord give me and all his more of this learning 3. As the Spirit shews me by the Scripture that God did teach the knowledge of Christ to the Fathers before the Flood and after till Moses without a written Word so I know that all that light which the Patriarchs had concerning salvation and right worshipping of God through a Mediator was according to the Law and Testimony committed to writing in Moses time and since 2. R. F. objecteth By such a saying Light without Scripture c. I would not have God to be God and Christ to be Christ without the Letter of the Scripture Rep. 1. What an absurd that I say not malicious inconsequence is here 'T is as if one should have cavilled against Isaiah when he said To the Law and to the Testimony c. Why Isaiah if there be no light in them that bring not Scripture and that soundly interpreted according to the Spirits word thou wouldest not have God to be God nor Christ to be Christ without the Scripture The charge of R. F. is not against me but contradictious to that Prophet and to the Spirit For when God gives a written Law Doctrine or Rule and Touchstone to try even Prophets and Apostles Doctrine by he that shall speak things discrepant from this Canonical Word speaks as we say without book without ground or warrant without or besides and consequently against the Light of a Rule and against the Spirit that gave the Rule 2. God who was God from everlasting and much more before he appointed his minde to be delivered in writing Isaiah 8 20. farther cleared hath thus given out his minde in that written Text by Isa 8. 20. consult but the verse before When they shall say unto you seek unto them that have familiar spirits c. should not a people Gods people seek unto their God where should they seek him should they go to the
there is hyperbolical That seems simply and absolutely to be denyed which is to be understood but in part and comparatively in respect of the greater and more constant elaborate employment of preaching as is the Lords maner of speech Jer. 7. 22 23. But such as Paul Baptized as few as they were he did not Baptize short of besides or without a command And in short every one in his particular vocation the Apostle in his place the Pastor in his the Church in their relation the Husband in his place the wife in hers c. are to obey the commands given to those relations But Object 3 3. You go to duty as you call it by imitation from the Letter without Answ 1. Imitation properly respecteth examples and obedience precepts and it is but duty and obedience to hearken to Scripture-commands for imitation of holy and godly examples Jer. 6. 16. Philip. 3. 15 16 17. and chap. 4. 9. 2. While professors old and new decline the old and good paths let them beware of dangerous precipices of Apish Popish Monkish imitations and of un-warrantable pretences to the Prophets extraordinary Raptures and Postures such as those Isa 20. 2. Ezek. 4. 9 10. c. Object 4 4. You go to duty in your own wills and time your sacrifice is not accepted Answ 1. They that look rightly to a Scripture-command will eye the maner end and other circumstances and watch unto seasons of prayer reading hearing c. required in Gospel-times 2. Every duty or performance to which a Saint is duly tyed by a command respecting his relation and calling and consequently his person is accepted by God for the matter of it because he requireth it but his person is accepted as he is a Believer within the covenant of Grace and hath Christs righteousness reckoned to him for his justification and he is also accepted in the sincere Gospel performance of a duty not for the works sake but for Christs fake Object 5 5. You go without the moving of the Spirit in your own strength and you know not what a command from God in the Spirit is Answ This might be laid in a carnal mans dish and at an unbelievers door but being an objection against Saints to beat them off from performing duties by reason of a Scripture-command is as false as it is bold and daring For 1. Every true Saint hath the Spirit dwelling in him 2. There is no warrantable evidence that the motion is from Gods Spirit if it be not according to a Scripture command and if it be according to it it is as uncharitable as untrue to say the holy soul goes without the moving of the Spirit A command from God in the Spirit is no other What a command from God in the Spirit is for the matter of it then what already he hath commanded in the word of Scripture and that which he forms and stamps upon the fleshy tables of the heart by the Spirit of the living God so effectually that the mind understands it and the will obeyeth it in newness of spirit 3. The Spirit of God is free to move when he pleaseth in and upon the heart but the Saint is obliged to duty when through the flesh he is very dull and indisposed to it Matth. 26. 41. 4. He goes in his own strength to duty who follows Who act in their own strength the light of a natural conscience onely or undertakes it in the strength of his natural parts or moral abilities or common gifts of the Spirit but it is one of the greatest scandals which I have known cast upon the Scriptures and upon the Saints together to say they go in their own strength to duty who act by virtue of a Scripture-command for although Who in the strength of Christ they have not such movings and stirrings of the Spirit at one time as at another yet in sense of greatest deadness they act their faith for acceptation of their persons and believing the work is duty indeed trust not to the stock of grace within them but act faith again upon Christ for fresh influence and new supply in the present performance ordinance or exercise And another is like unto this that they know not what a command from God in the Spirit is when as Saints experience about a command 1 Past every Saint more or less hath had a twofold experience about the commandements of God and from him one in a legal way of ministration when the commandement comes as Paul speaketh of himself Rom. 7. ver 9. 10. that Rom. 7. 9. 10. opened is in the light of its spirituality striking at heart-corruptions which in their native rebellion rise up sin revived the more against the commandement and by the way it was the written-commandment as that opposed the Pharisaical pride of his heart and I died here is yet no Gospel mortification but legal consternation Paul is slain in his false perswasions and presumptuous hopes of getting life by his own blameless obedience to the Law Thus the Spirit of God sets home the law in its vigor of spirituality and rigor of exacting absolute freedom from the least swerving thought and takes off a soul from expecting life in his own righteousness or by the best frame of heart that he may reach unto and keeps him for longer or shorter time as he please under fears of the second death and of the first because of the second The other in a Gospel dispensation 2 Present is experience by the Saints when they are through Gospel-enlightning faith and renovation made to understand what the covenant of Grace is and what a Gospel-command The covenant of Grace calls for satisfaction at Christs hands and hath it The Gospel command from God in the Spirit is not some sudden impulse or rare impression upon the soul which few Saints meet with but it is every Scripture-precept which the Spirit of faith holiness and liberty works the heart to a sweet compliance withall according to the measures of grace received amidst the present and constant conflict with in-dwelling sin This was Pauls experience after conversion as he lays it forth Rom. 7. from ver 14. to the end and in the following Chapter The command wherewith he had no compliance before as to the spirituality of it now he consenteth to and delighteth in and complains against that contrary frame of corrupt nature which remained though it reigned not and rebelled in him but as sin served it self and its own ends grace and the new creature made him serviceable to the law of God the Scripture-command with which he and his new nature was reconciled and he that cannot finde something of this experience will not finde himself a Saint he that elasheth with Scripture-commands so far discovers himself to be unregenerate Let E. B. and R. F. a little more examine themselves by what spirit they are acted while they decline the Scripture-Gospel-Rule 5. Head of Scripture-contradiction
since their departure nor need I I have Paul and other Pen-man of the holy Ghost to assure me it was not before The word in the Text is Spirits not bodies nor souls continuing in the bodies of just men made perfect and that is enough to me 2. For conviction of gainsayers and confirmation of the weak I might call to minde the sayings of several Saints before Christs coming and since who have had no other faith nor perswasion but that while they were here sin remained with them and within them and till death parted their souls from their bodies Christ parted not sin perfectly from their souls What will R. F. say to that cloud of Witnesses Heb. 11. who while they lived lived by Faith and when they dyed ver 13 they dyed in Faith not onely in respect of a heavenly countrey but that what they felt not the moment before they should be in sensible possession of the moment of and the moment after dissolution Then as Samson slew more at his death then in his life so Christ would and did give them a perfect revenge upon their old enemy sin and all the roots and remnants of corruption What will R. F. say to old Saint Jacob who on his Saints experimentally imperfect death-bed makes this confession Gen. 49. 18. I have waited for thy salvation O Lord. Salvation as to perfect sanctification being yet to be finished at death And what to precious Saint David 2 Sam. 23. 5. who quieted his heart with this on his death-bed that God had made with him an everlasting Covenant c. although things were not perfect in his house nor heart for then he had been perfect I speak still of perfection in all degrees in the discharge of his relative family duties but that he was not And were any in the New Testament as perfect in sanctification before as at and after death doth Paul for himself and the Saints speak of any more then the first fruits of the Spirit Rom. 8. 23. doth he not make mention of his and their infirmities ver 26. which are not onely afflictions but sins if not Rom. 8. 26. opened to know what to pray for in every prayer as we ought be a sin but so many ignorances and defects in prayer and duty which ought not to be in us are sins There ought not to be any sinful infirmity in us yet there are and will be do we our best Let R. F. hear what our English Saints have acknowledged at the instant of death or immediately before I am drawing on a pace to my dissolution said M. Bolton famous for piety hold out faith and patience your work will quickly be at an end His work of holy faith and patience was not at an end before his end his death Our English precious Jewel who by his Popish adversaries confession in his life was an Angel though in his faith as they deemed an Heretique immediately before his death he brake forth into these words Christ is my righteousness Father let thy will be done thy will I say not mine which is imperfect and depraved Our dear Countreyman M. Deering hath this farewel Poor wretch and miserable man that I am the least of all Saints and the greatest of sinners c. And again If I were the most excellent of all creatures in the world if I were equal in righteousness to Abraham Isaac and Jacob yet had I reason to confess my self to be a sinner Holy M. Bradford How oft doth he subscribe in letters to his friends either an Hypocrite or a very painted Hypocrite or The sinful John Bradford for the same man or person as he writeth in one Letter which describes and compares the old man and the new man a little better then Ja. Nayler in his Love to the lost may be called always just always sinful Even men perfectly justified are not made perfectly holy according to his faith and experience which as to this case is the same in all Saints while living here and hereupon when he hourly lookt for the Porter to open to him the gates to enter into desired rest from the very molestations of indwelling sin and was every moment expecting the executioner to dispatch him in a letter to his dear Fathers Dr. Cranmer Dr. Ridley and Dr. Latimer he is bewailing his unthankfulness and hypocrisie clear he was and sure of justification and heaven yet sensible of the remnants of corruption As also M. Philpot who leaped for joy when his martyrdom was at hand yet cryed for mercy against his present unthankfulness and unworthiness And if we look abroad instances are pregnant and plentiful I shall mention onely two or three one in Germany Melanchthon who not onely complained that old Adam was too hard for yong Melanchthon but continued in a sense of his sinful corruptions to his dying day confessing himself at last to be a miserable sinner So did blessed Calvin in France as appears in his last Will and Testament I close up with that noble French man Philip de Morney Lord of Plessis though he died with full assurance of a house not made with hands c. yet he put up this request a little before his death Lord make me to know my sins to weep for them to detest them and to have them in execration These with thousands like them have so believed in life and spoken to this effect at death that when their bodies and souls were parted and at that instant they should be perfected in holiness they felt it not believed not it would be before that time R. F. * Page 16. hath another exception Heb. 12. 22 23. In the present tense they there spoke and not in the future Rep. He that knows any thing of Grammar may well question whether R. F. understands himself or what is the difference between the present tense and future in the present Tense they there spoke who spoke There is but one Paul or some other Pen-man that wrote the Epistle by the dictate of the Spirit and he speaks of believers already come to mount Zion c. and to the Spirits of just men made perfect before he wrote the Epistle The word for made perfect in the Greek * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a Participle of the Preter Tense or time past not of the present nor did I say it was of the future onely what was a Truth then is now a Truth that Saints living in their bodies in imperfection of holiness have relation to and communion as hath been shewed with Saints living out of their bodies i. e. the spirits of just men made perfect A third exception R. F. hath against the simile I used sin is as the wild fig-tree thou sayes rooted in the joynts of a stone wall and when the wall is taken down the stones cast asunder body and soul separated then is sin thou sayes pluckt up by the roots as the roots of the fig-tree not before
they preach that men should repent I ask how shall the ungodly sorrow after a godly maner If they lay the burden upon the ungodly onely and absolve the godly altogether they may by that way preach down all godly sorrow and startle the wicked with legal convictions and that which is remorse of conscience but no way help toward the pulling down the old man or building up the new in the true Believer 11. Head of their Scripture-contradiction Concerning the Word and means of Grace Section 37. I Had expresly cited C. Atkinsons words viz. I deny that God did ever or will ever reveal himself by any of those things thou callest the means of grace which were spoken of before in his book as reading hearing prayer c. contrary to 2 Tim. 3. 15. Rom. 10. 17. Luke 11. 13. c. R. F. in answer * Page 19. saith I would raise a slander c. as if they should deny the way and means that God useth to reveal himself to his people by How makes he it to appear why Christ is the light and the way to the Father and that they own and he reveals his secrets by his Spirit Rep. In all this confession here is no acknowledgement Christ and the Spirit give light and grace by outward means of reading hearing prayer c. That Christ is the light and light-giver hath never been denyed by me and that with his Spirit he is the author and worker of all grace who but graceless men will gain-say We do with the Scripture attribute higher things to God and Christ and the Spirit then to be the means of grace but R. F. will not ascribe so much to the Scriptures read heard sung prayed upon i. e. according to the rules and patterns of prayer there set down to be so much as outward means of grace we can have no such outward ingenuity from him But what saith he The Scriptures are not Christ nor the Spirit Rep. What if they be not they are Christs word and the word of the Spirit as hath been shewed and what the Scripture saith Christ saith and the holy Ghost also the same He therefore that rejects the Scripture and its several exercises from being the means of grace rejecteth Christ and his Spirit also But the Spirit he saith teacheth us how to pray and profit Gal. 4. 6. 1 Cor. 12. 7. c. and this doth not contradict the Scriptures Rep. No for the Spirit of grace and the outward means agree very well yet this is not a yielding them to be the means by which Christ and the Spirit revealeth their secrets and convey grace It is one thing for the Spirit to teach how to pray and read another thing for the Spirit to work by reading praying c we grant the former but he grants not the latter as he ought that I can finde Yes may some say what think you of that which followeth we know that faith is given by the ministery of Christ in the Spirit Rep. But speak plainly is it given by reading and hearing the Scriptures opened and preached as 2 Tim. 3. 15. Rom. 10. 17. hold it forth And we know that God giveth us his holy Spirit Rep. But doth he give it in a way of preaching and prayer as Act. 10. 44. and Luke 11. 13. bear testimony As soon as Paul is converted is he not at Prayer and had he not the fillings of the Spirit given him in that way as by Ananias putting his hands upon him Act. 9. 11. 17. And the wisdom saith R. F. which is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be entreated and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace James 3. 17 18. for which we praise God Rep. 1. But doth he give this wisdom by asking as saith James 1. 6. If any lack wisdom let him ask it of God is not prayer a means of wisdom 2. I wish we could finde the wisdom James describeth in R. F. As yet I discern not any seeds of it sown in his books one or other 3. Let him beware of taking Gods name in vain by praising him legibly in print for that which he hath not printed in his heart nor holdeth forth visibly in practise Why but he addeth we own reading hearing prayer and the teachings of God according to his promises Rep. I wish he doth well understand the promises of Means of grace have a promise of blessing annexed God Gods promises are made of a blessing upon such means as reading hearing and prayer as well as of gracious abilities to read hear and pray with Isaiah 55. 3. He that heareth and inclines his ear shall live 1 Tim. 4. 13. 16. If Timothy attend to reading meditation preaching to others watching himself In doing this he shall save himself and those that hear him To prayer is promised salvation Rom. 10. 13. Christs presence Matth. 18. 20. Returns and answers Matth. 7. 7. To preaching Christs presence assistance and blessing Matth. 28. 20. To the Saints conditions which C. Atkinson rejected with the ordinances all blessed success Rom. 8. 28. They shall look unto him and run to him and their faces shall not be ashamed Psal 34. 5. why so Ver 6. This poor man cryed and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles and therefore we may from others experiences together with our own have hope Rom 5. 4. And Hope in and by a promise an experimental promise and a promised experience maketh not ashamed If therefore R. F. doth own these means and the teachings of God according to Gods promises he must own them otherwise then C. Atkinson even as means by which God hath revealed himself and will communicate his grace and then I will not accuse him as I have not slandered C. A. when I speak the truth I harm them not The more nakedly their Errors are detected by the Truth the more good it may do them and I wish it with my heart 12. Head of Scripture-contradiction Concerning Baptism Section 38. THat they are against Infant-Baptism I had noted contrary to Acts 2. 38 39. where the command for application of Baptism reacheth as far as the Promise and as I hinted in my shorter piece the Promise extendeth it self to Children while Children they are part of the Saints of the Church at Corinth 1 Cor. 7. 14. if but one of the parents be a Believer and a Church-member R. F. is for the Negative in a transition from what was spoken of before But your brain-imaginations we deny and sprinkling Infants with water Rep. 1. If he puts this scandalous title of brain-imaginations upon the other means of Grace reading preaching hearing prayer experiences c. he doth but back his sellow Atkinson Suppose God should leave him as one of that name if it be not the same C. A. to Fornication were it not just for his casting reproach upon the ways of God 2.
agrees with the saying of Christ Matth. 6. 6. Matth 6. 6. vindicated when thou prayest enter into thy Closet c. as if the publique ordinance may not stand with the private for the most retired and secret duties are to fit and make ready for the publique onely 't is our Lords scope there to confine a private prayer to a private place as it is the Apostles order from the Lord 1 Cor. 14. 14 15 16. when 1 Cor. 14. 14 15 cleared vindicated we pray publiquely in Church-conventions all which have a publiqueness in them to pray so as others may be edified thereby who are Saints and those who occupy the room of the unlearned may testifie their consents by saying Amen which they could not do if either the person praying spoke onely to his own hearing or in the heart not with an audible voyce to others or when they heard him they could not understand him because he exprest himself in an unknown tongue All that I drive at with the Apostles and our Saviours scope is that every ordinance and outward part of worship be owned in its place and that this of publique prayer may not be disowned ere the more because of these mens crying up their praying by the Spirit in opposition to the Churches publique prayers which the Primitive Church at Jerusalem Act. 2. 42. attended and continued in and which the present Saints and Churches in these nations hold up according to president and precept R. F. in another Pamphlet of his * Truth cleared of Scandals pag. 2. saith they are led by the Spirit and he maketh intercession for them according to the minde and will of God But their practise shews they are not in this led by the Spirit when they cross the minde and will of God by refusing to joyn with the Saints in a publique prayer we acknowledge that no wicked mans prayer is accepted publiquely or privately made by him It is their duty to pray but not their priviledge who are destitute of the Spirit and out of Christ But to profess prayer from the second birth while yet they know not how to pray as they ought but as the Spirit maketh intercession with sighs and groans which are J. Parnells words * Shield of truth p. 14 15 is to contradict their doctrine of perfection And to give a dash at all our publique prayer as the long prayer of the Pharisees is to strike at the Spirit and contradict the Scripture allowance of the publiqueness and length of prayer upon occasion while we give no allowance to Pharisaical ends and pretences but can approve our persons and hearts to God in Jesus Christ our persons in Christs righteousness reckoned to us by faith our hearts so far as renewed by the grace and power of his in-dwelling Spirit James Nayler hath expressions one would think of this tendency that complies with our doctrine in his common place of Worship * Love to the Lost p. 8 9. wherein he instanceth in no part of worship but prayer he acknowledgeth as we teach The worship of the true and living God stands out of mans will and before any man can rightly worship God he must wait to know the Spirit But now let the lost soul beware of his counsel where should they wait you must saith he know the light and in it wait till therein you finde the Spirits leading acting and ordering This counsel if followed keeps men off from the positive parts of worship revealed in the Scripture The light that every man hath as he comes into the world which is the light they nourish up people in in opposition to Scripture-light makes known nothing of publique ministery Church officers therein of water-Baptism Lords Supper publique order of prayer c. nor of Christ mediator nor of the The Spirit of Prayer to be found in the publâ—que ministery Spirit of promise nor of one promise of grace or gracious acceptation in Christ Had not the lost soul better counsel while he was under publique ministery to attend there for the coming of the Spirit the Spirit of faith and prayer where God useth to give it Acts 10. 44. and promiseth to pour it out Prov. 1. 22 23. with 20. 21. verses How true is that which J. Nayler hath in the same place according to our Scripture-doctrine when a man hath been doing evil neglecting good and then he runs to act a worship to get peace the prayer becomes abomination for he that regards impurity the Lord will not hear his prayers nor accept his worships that 's Cains sacrifice and Esaus prayers but either must your worship be performed in one that never sinned or it cannot be accepted with the pure God Yet here is his mis-guidance of lost souls 1. That he would lead them off from joyning with him that makes long prayers such a one he seems to speak of who hides his wickedness with pretence of godliness but he makes no difference of any that serve Christ and his people publiquely in the nation as if they were all such to be separated from 2. He directs to the commands in Spirit in opposition to the Scripture-Letter for thus he delivers himself * Page 11. All the Saints have their commands in Spirit but yours is in the letter and so of another ministration for the literal ministration is done away in the spiritual As if the Spirit did not give out his commands by the written letter or the Scripture and his power also by the reading and hearing of it and by praying according to the rules and patterns of prayer therein contained But something O ye lost souls you will finde when the great Shepherd seeks up his lost ones and brings back that which is gone astray Ezek. 34. 16 ever and anon that alienated your hearts from the Scripture by the spirit of Contradiction that is in these mens Teachings and Writings 15. Head of their Scripture-contradiction Concerning Singing Section 42. I Gave account of their express words We are against all your Davids Praises and Prophecies in meeter contrary to Ephes 5. 19. Col. 3. 16. and other Scriptures R. F. * Page 21. makes me this return Singing of Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs we are not against but own but your Poetry we deny Rep. He might as well say your translation of them into English meeter we deny But if Psalms Hymns and spiritual Songs be owned they are either Davids and other of the Saints penning and the Spirits inditing in the Scripture or of their own composing if they own none but of their own composing they reject Davids and what was left for Psalms cannot be sung without meeter or due measures of speech our use in Scripture contradicting both it by that rejection and themselves also by owning Psalms Hymns and Songs and dis-owning meeter or Poetry for never was there Song Hymn or Psalm sung forth as it ought to be but it had
elsewhere to take hire for preaching another thing to preach for hire By the Scripture that Question also * page 22. Qu. 4. may be judged proud and malitious as of the Devil What rule have you in Scripture to take a Text c. If R. F. justifies this as 't is likely he will we must bid him go and learn and what that meaneth Luke 4. 17. our humble Saviour took up the Bible and pitcht upon a Text let us learn at last of him to be lowly in heart Matth. 11. 29. If it be said it followeth in the Question and to speak from it what you have studied with your Vses Points Tryals Motives and Applications We must send them again to 2 Tim. 3 16 17. The Scripture is given so to be improved whether men will hear or forbear Let R. F. consider if the scope of that * Qu. 24. Question Whether that Light which comes from Christ be natural yea or nay be not to make all Light-given alike for kinde as appeareth by Quere 29. Whether the Light of the world or of every man be not a saving Light in the least measure yea or nay and how can that be said to be natural These Questions come from the Devils envy against the Saints peculiar light who see all things after another maner then natural men can do The Gentiles did things by nature or power of natural conscience and the light of it which yet they perisht in their light and their works were neither of them saving Rom. 2. 12 and 14. This light of nature comes from Christ as God not as Mediator he that is the true Light enlightneth every man but not with saving Light I must send back R. F. to Sect. 10. and the superadded Conclusions in the end thereof If any man be ignorant let him be ignorant 1 Cor. 14. 38. But yet if we examine those Questions * Qu. 44 and 45. Where had you this Doctrine to tell people they could never be wholly cleansed or be set free from sin so long as they are upon the earth And whether this be not in opposition to the Doctrine of Christ who saith Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect What shall we finde here but ignorance and confusion for want of will or skill to distinguish between Justification and Sanctification which according to the Scripture I have desired R. F. and others to perpend and weigh in Sect. 23. And I must send all Novices still to that Scripture Eccles 7. 20. There is not a just man upon earth that doth good and sinneth not which hath no opposition to the Doctrine of Christ Mat. 5. 48. where the Lord as all along the Chapter Mat. 5 48. vindicated urgeth sincerity and integrity of obedience upon his Disciples in opposition to the Pharisees counterfeit and partial expositions of the ten Commandments with further growth and endeavour after more conformity to their heavenly pattern still keeping perfection in all degrees as the white in their eye unto which the Lord will bring his children at their dissolution and time of their souls immediate entrance into heaven and not before as hath been demonstrated in Sect. 29. As to that Question * Qu 48. What is your own righteousness and what is the righteousness of Christ and how do you distinguish betwixt the one and the other He that did propound it tells us at the foot of Page 25. It was not as if he knew them not even all that he enquired of but for the satisfaction of the simple and for the clearing of the truth and manifesting our deceit to the world But that which is a thorough good Question indeed not coming from Satan and a corrupt heart must arise from a sound and good principle and be propounded to as good an end Now this Quere 1. proceeds not from a good principle because their judgements are vitiated and in their Doctrine they confound as do the Papists our inherent righteousness-sanctifying with Christs righteousness which justifieth Christs righteousness which justifieth a believing sinner is not the essential righteousness of his God-head but that obedience of his Active and Passive which in the humane nature that he assumed and united to his divine person he wrought out in the room and stead of others and which he presenting to Gods Justice as a price and ransom for them God accepteth and reckoneth to every one that believeth for his perfect Justification That righteousness which is in Scripture called our own as inherent in us is either what is done by the power of natural conscience without the written word or what is done according to the bare letter of the written command or from a common gift of the Spirit or in a Gospel-way from a living principle of grace habits and acts of holiness by the holy Spirit and faith given stirred up actuated and improved this also with all the former is a righteousness of ours that men would establish in the room of Christs imputed righteousness for their justification But though it be wrought by the strength of Christ in us and be found in us that are sanctified yet as to justification of his person Paul would not be found in it for a world but saith he Phil. 3. 8 9. I do count all things but loss even what he had done and suffered since conversion and what he was now a doing and dung that I may win Christ and be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law or done in my person from the best principles in obedience to the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith this is every true Believers vote and resolution If R. F. be otherwise minded and belong to God God shall reveal even this unto him 2. The above mentioned Quere by the bare propounding doth not attain the ends pretended our answer may satisfie some simple ones some wise not all This Quere and other of the like stamp doth but obscure the truth and help to stagger and seduce Gods servants as for our deceit in this great business of a sinners justification if J. Parnell should arise from the dead or R. F. should tell us he hath been in the third Heaven nor one nor other shall be able to manifest that which is not To conclude whence came that * Quer. 3â— question quarrelling more with God then with us How doth it stand with the impartial God to give to one man a measure of grace and not to another and yet require obedience from all If R. F. thinketh there is ground for such a Question he must be sent to Rom. 9. 18. 20. for his Answer God hath mercy on whom he will have mercy c. and O man who art thou that replyest against God 21. Head of their Scripture-contradiction Concerning civil Honor. Section 49. THeir discourse papers and practise is notorious enough in opposition
brings all that is in the Letter to remembrance for to what end doth he bring it to remembrance not onely for explication of Scripture by Scripture but for consolation of our spirits by the good words of the Spirit of God When heaviness makes the heart to stoop a good word seasonably remembred as spoken makes it glad and he that slights the turning over of the sacred Pages of the Bible after he hath got his evidence within may be glad of crums one day after his high Feastings and well if seeking the Spirit where he lost him his comforts return at last upon him Many lose the Spirits comforts by slighting his Love-letters in the Scriptures where the Spirit is and whereby he giveth forth himself Such a passage I had in my former piece That the Spirit is in the Letter and given by it which R. F. hath excepted against once and again heretofore but now in its due place where it was spoken he lets it pass I promised in the first part of this Reply to clear it further for his conviction if it may be or for the Saints edification First The Spirit is in the Letter or the whole Scripture for so these men comprehensively use the term Letter How the Spirit is in the Scripture-Letter 1. As he owneth what he dictated to his Secretaries the Pen-men of Scripture He is in all their writings with the subscription of his own hand as it were they spake and wrote as they were moved and inspired by the Holy Ghost Rev. 1. 10. John is in the Spirit viz. he is rapt up by the Spirit and the Spirits impulse is more then ordinarily upon him when he is commanded to write and of all that John writeth the Spirit beareth Testimony that it is himself that speaks it Rev. 3. 22. He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches what wretched men are they who will not suffer the Spirit to be where he speaketh 2. If the Spirit was in the Pen-men he is more in the matter and contents of the Scripture penned down None will deny but he was in the Pen-men more then ordinarily when they wrote from his mouth or inspiration and therefore he is in what they wrote much more for the word written is of greater Authority and Spirit then the Writer or Secretary They were holy men of God who wrote but that which is written is the holy Truth of God They were imperfectly holy but Gods word as written from the Spirit is perfect in all degrees of holiness 3. The Spirit is where there is with perfect holiness perfect Truth and Majesty in the Matter and in the very Stile and where is sweet Harmony in all the parts put together In the Scripture-letter there is not one Iota or Tittle that shall fall to the ground to eclipse the Glory Truth and Majesty or spoil the Harmony of it Secondly the Spirit is given by it in this sense How given by it 1. As his minde is given out by it whether the words be proper or figurative the Spirit hath his proper intendment scope and sense in the whole Letter and in every part of what is written and as by his words he makes known his minde he is where his words are 2. As his work is given by it even what work he pleaseth See second part Section 10. of Conviction Instruction in Righteousness Consolation c. If the Scripture convinceth gainsayers and sinners evil livers if it instructeth the ignorant comforteth the feeble-minded it is as the Spirit gives out himself thereby He is there indeed as a free Agent ad placitum not tyed to work or manifest himself or put forth his power and grace but as the wind bloweth where it listeth so he worketh where when and upon whom he pleaseth 3. As the Promises of the Scripture are his Chariot to convey him whither he pleaseth to go into the hearts of the Elect that they may believe and after they have believed that they may be established Thus according to his promise he will fill a Believers sails of endeavor in reading meditating c. with gales of grace and advances towards glory To conclude that the Spirit is in the Letter and given by it daily experience doth demonstrate For such as forsake the Scriptures authority and own not the Spirits dwelling in the Letter as truly as in the heart they lose their faith of the Spirits presence with them in the reading and meditation of it and losing this faith they run to other Doctrines and Gospels The spirit of error is in all mens doctrines which have not the Spirit in them that breatheth in the Scriptures We may easily discern whether R. F. his spirit be not in his writings and whether much of the spirit of Error not conveyed and given out by his and other mens Pamphlets of the same stamp And shall the spirit of Satan the father of lyes be in Seducers books and not the Spirit of God and of the Father of truth be in and go along according to his free mercy with his own blessed Books of the Scripture Yes verily and James Naylers words import as much when he saith * Few words by J. N. p. 11. That the Spirit opens and brings all that is spoken in Scripture to remembrance which if R. F. denies he contradicts his fellow if he grants it a truth he must recant his frequent descants upon that which I asserted and judge himself as erring because he knew not the Scriptures and the Spirit and power of God dwelling in them and acting by them Section 9. WHat answereth R. F. to this Section where I evidenced another of their Self-contradictions concerning the Scripture which was this He that believeth is born of God without Scripture and yet Let all see if we do not set the Scripture in the heart of every one Why this is his answer * Page 25. 1. So saith the Scripture 1 John 5. And that the word of God is nigh in the heart is witnessed Rom. 10. 8. And he that believes and is born of God knows the seed of God within him 1 John 3. 9. Rep. Do any of these Scriptures bear witness against themselves or say That he that believeth is born of God without Scripture yet dare R. F. put it forth in the front of his answer So saith the Scripture The Scripture saith the full truth He that believeth is born of God but the Pamphlet I quoted * Answer to 7 Priests p. 13 said more then the Scripture that the believer was born of God without the Scripture and R. F. pretends to answer to what their Pamphlets hold forth but cannot in his answers salve his own nor his fellows contradictions Ans 2. He is not born of the Letter as thou wouldst have him yet he is begotten by the immortal word which endureth for ever which the Letter declares of and that doth not contradict
Concerning Conscience and Laws Section 32. HEre I noted what they determine There must be no Law concerning Religion and yet thus admonish Rulers See that your Laws be according to the Conscience of every man By this I said it seems there is no Religion in the Conscience or else why should there not be Laws concerning Religion according to Religion as well as according to the conscience At this R. F. opens his mouth gives liberty to his Pen as followeth * Page 30. Thou deceitful spirit how hast thou wrested the words set down about the Law of God which answers his Justice and the light in the conscience which answers the Law of God which is perfect according to that in the conscience And then he desires the wise-hearted may read the Book which I have wrested The glory of the Lord arising shaking terribly the earth c. and the simple-hearted may take notice of my deceits herein made manifest c. Rep. That the wise-hearted may not believe every thing as the simple-hearted will if not helped with true information First I shall clear my self of a deceitful spirit in this allegation as in all that past before Secondly I shall discover the deceit of R. F. his words and answer as 't is jumbled here together First that I wrested not their words deceitfully will appear if I give them forth as they are in that Pamphlet * The glory of the Lord c. p. 14. more fully Therefore be awarned how you make Laws for all must be cut down with the sword of the Lord which is contrary to that in the conscience And that no Law be laid upon Religion for the Law is for sinners and transgressors c. Now if no Law be laid upon Religion because the Law is for sinners c. then either sinners have no conscience at all and then they contradict themselves who speak of a conscience in every man and that Laws must be according to that in the conscience as it follows in that page or else sinners have no Religion i. e. of no kinde and nothing to binde them from within which if they say they contradict the light of every mans conscience and consequently their own which teacheth something of a God and of a Religion also that that God which they own is to be worshipped c. Let us hear them again with patience See that your Laws be according to that in every mans conscience for the light in every mans conscience is of God That that in every mans conscience may witness your Laws else that in every mans conscience will witness against your Laws not to be of God Rep. 1. It is a truth the light which is light indeed and not thought only to be light in every mans conscience is of God but you shall have many men tell you my light gives me to judge thus and I think thus when 't is not light but darkness for which end to avoid this deceit Christ gives the caution Luke 11. 35. Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee i. e. which thou thinkest is light be not darkness 2. Granting that every man hath some light in the conscience which is of God so far as Magistrates Laws are according to that light that light will accord with the Laws witness for them at one time or other But what if the Magistrates Law be above the light that every man hath as is the Law of true Religion Christian and saving Religion suppose every such man who hath but an inferior common light beneath and below the light of the Magistrates Law doth witness against it not to be of God is it not therefore of God because a blind erring conscience who cannot see above his candle-natural light doth so judge of it not to be of God is it I say therefore not of God or must the Magistrate repeal those laws which accord with Gods supernatural light given him because the natural man cannot reach the understanding of them Such laws indeed as have persecuted prisoned crucified them who have suffered for the testimony of a good conscience if Rulers repealed them not God hath hewed down in all ages because contrary to the Law of God and to that which was and is in a sanctified conscience but the conscience of every man is not a sanctified conscience and therefore it may sooner oppose what is good in the Magistrates Laws then the Magistrates good Laws shall oppose any thing good in the conscience And hereupon it follows that the Magistrate is not to level his Laws with every mans conscience and light but he is to provide and encourage able Teachers who may by Gods blessing on their labors be instrumental to elevate the mindes and consciences of people to the understanding of that which is supernatural in the Law of God and of man consonant to that of God But what say these men further * Glory of the Lord c. pag. 15. Because there have been persecuting Laws Therefore be awarned of making Laws and that you have no Law concerning Religion but let Religion defend it self for whatsoever is not of God will not stand but will wither away but see that your Law be according to that in the conscience and then it will be against strikers c. Rep. Here is that which is wreathed and cross-shakled no law must be concerning Religion yet all according to that in the conscience I ask these men again Is Religion within as well as without if they say without then why condemn they us who are for the outward part of worship instituted by God if they say within then where is it seated every where but in the conscience if it be seated in the conscience as in other faculties then the Laws cannot reach the conscience but they will reach Religion also And again if Religion be seated in the conscience why should not laws be concerning Religion and according thereunto as according to the conscience seeing the conscience bindeth us to the observation of Gods Law and if the Magistrates Law concerning Religion be according to Gods Law the Law of the Magistrate and the Law of the Conscience will agree very well together for he is not a terror to them that do well but to evill doers yet his Law is for the defence of them that do well as for the offence of them that do ill it is the evil doer onely that is afraid of a good a righteous and a religious Law Secondly for the discovery of R. F. his deceitful answer consisting of truth and error jumbled together The Law of God saith he answers his justice and the light in the conscience which answers the Law of God which is perfect according to that in the conscience Rep. Here are two truths The Law of God answers his Justice and the Law of God is perfect but here are two errors couched withal 1. As if the Law of God had no more
him also even of strong Paul and of weak Paul strong in the Lord weak yet in and of himself and willing to glory in this that he knew himself to be weak and nothing As he * M. Nicholas Price of Lyn-Regis that said when he had attained to no small measure of mortification in the eyes of others I thank God I know my self to be a sinner while these proud up-starts think many of them have reached to the highest pitch of Perfection 3. It is Pride that hath bred and doth feed and nourish their opinions and practises What makes them level Legal and Gospel-light but Pride The light which every man hath saith William Deusbery i Christ exalted page 26 is not common to man by nature it is the great gift of God the Grace that hath appeared c. The truth is Every mans light where the Gospel comes not is neither for degree nor kinde the same with Gospel-light it is but a shimmering of the Laws light a gift of God indeed but no such great Gift as the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ or as the doctrine of that Grace Every man writes E. B. k True faith of the Gospel of peace p. 18. hath that which is one in Vnion and like the Spirit of Christ even as good as the Spirit of Christ according to its measure A proud elevation of the fallen posterity of Adam either exalting the gifts of the Spirit as high as the person of the Spirit or levelling the high and peculiar Grace of the Spirit in true Saints with the low and common work in every man Weigh but what J. Nayler hath in his Answer to Math. Cuffin l Light of Christ and word of life page 19. and see if there be not wicked Pride God is at liberty to speak to his people by them viz. the Scriptures if he please and where they are given by inspiration he doth so And so he is at liberty to speak by any other created thing as to Balaam by his Ass As if God did not speak constantly by the Scriptures the voices of the Prophets * Acts 13. 27 and Apostles though his people are not always alike affected with and by them nor doth the Lord give the same impression from the same Text at one time as at another or as if all the Scripture at all times were not of divine Inspiration and as if he would have his disciples with himself ascribe no more authority to the Scriptures then to Balaams Ass 4. Unbelief begets and procreates all their Errors and their love of Error with their derisions of the Truth How come they to slight the Scriptures and the Ordinances of Christ They have lost that first faith or never 1 Tim. 5. had any concerning their Institution and Authority or the efficacy of the Spirit put forth by them Would they else judge it Blasphemy m To all that would know the way p. 4. for any to say the Letter or Scripture is the Word of God when as 't is that which the Spirit dictated and hath ever blessed and prospered to his own purposes Would they else scribble and quibble as they do n Ibid page 8. Thou that sayest thou had not come to repentance if thou had not known the Letter thou deniest Christ The Scripture is say they A Declaration of the Spirit but the Spirit is not in it A Declaration of Power but the Power is not in it And why is not the Spirit and Power in it this is nothing but the voice and spirit of unbelief which makes them so to judge How like a Pelagi-Arminian doth J. Nayler speak o Answer to Quakers Catechism p. 24. Who hath the Spirit hath an infallible guide in matter and maner if he keep to it And I know that so far as any are led by the Spirit it guides into all truth if it be not erred from Whence come these ifs but from unbelief What Luther said of his Popish Devotions is true here We always prayed in Colloq mens Popedom conditionaliter with condition uncertainly and at hap-hazard And upon such a hazard do these ifs run mens salvation beside the pride of such ifs determining all Grace the Spirits infallible guidance and what not upon the will of man and his improvements Whence is it that they speak with such disparagement of Christ dying at Jerusalem but from unbelief Had Ed. Burrough a Faith working by love when he sounded his Trumpet p A Trumpet of the Lord sounded out of Sion by E. B. page 17. and upbraided all that are called Presbyterians and Independents with their feeding upon the report of a thing done many hundred years ago They that believe not that word John 6. 53. will not tremble at it Did those called Presbyterians and Independents more heartily feed upon Christ who dyed and as he dyed above sixteen hundred years ago by faith every day and meet ofter at the Lords Table in faith and love they would be more strengthned in one against their common enemies 5. They do subtilly couch many Errors under specious words of Truth or terms that are ambiguous and of a doubtful sense q The inheritance of Jacob page 24. The Righteousness saith Francis Howgil whereby the Saints of old pleased God and was accepted was wrought in them the same that is now wrought in the Saints by Christ As if God were not pleased with them as clothed with the imputed righteousness of Christ or they would have that which is within the Saints to be that which is imputed to their pardon and acceptance whereas God is more pleased with that which Christ wrought for them then with what he worketh in them Yea that which Christ wrought in his own person and in that flesh which he assumed is that alone which the Father accepteth and imputeth to their Justification Not but he is pleased with his own work in us in a way of Sanctification and Service That seems very fair which Alexander Parker hath r Testimony of God p. 4. It is an inward work that every one must know and witness if ever they know true peace and rest But let all know that the work within is not the ground and purchase of their peace but the blood of Christ alone and his obedience although it is a witness and an evidence and yet every inward work is not an evidence or witness of peace with God but that alone which is the New-birth or true Sanctification and the parts of it flowing from and inseparably attending and accompanying the Believers union with the Lord Jesus Light saith Tho Lawson Å¿ Lip of truth c. page 45 and 47. is the same in him that hates it and in him that loves it And again Grace is the same in him that turns it into lasciviousness as in him that is taught by it The same seed as fell on the good ground fell on the high way
Baptism With water proved 176. 183 Of Infants vindicated 178 Sprinkling lawful 180 One Baptism consisting of two parts 178 182 Bible To be read and preached upon 20 See Scriptures C. Call To the Ministery how lawful 211 Inward to be tried by the outward fruits 214 The Churches call spiritual 215 Some may counterfeit an Immediate call 211 Some mediate calls good 213 214 Some bad ibid. Christ Exalted by the Scriptures and the Scriptures by Christ 43 44 Christ above his gifts 59 His Godhead asserted and cleared 54 How he leads out of the fall 86 How he was made sin or a sinner 132 As Mediator not in natural men 262 276 When and how in the soul 264 His condemning sin in the flesh beyond conscience-condemnation 266 A Savior according to Scripture 283 Commandment How the general includes particular persons 106 What is a command in the Spirit 109 Saints experiences about a command 110 What is a Gospel-command 111 Communion Of Saints on earth with Saints in heaven 146 Conviction By the Spirit beyond that of a natural conscience 266 Conscience If but natural and not renewed gives no saving testimony 269 Covenant Of works and of grace what 90 Of works in Adam 97 Differences of the Covenant of works and of grace 90 Covenant of grace one for the substance 91 Two for maner of administration 93 Old and new what 8 The reason of the change 94 E. Elders Their Ordination by man though not of man 207 F. Forms Of Religion 291 Of Speech 292 Fruits Of the Spirit 293 Of the flesh ibid. G. God How God is Light 68 His Essence not mixed with created Beings 236 Gospel Gospel-Light above natural reach 75 Grace Given by means 173 H. Hearing Of the word 173 Holy Ghost A person one of the Three in the Godhead See Spirit 49 c. 207 Honor Civil due to Superiors and to all men 231 ibid. Gestures of honor some bad and idolatrous 233 Some civil and but good maners ibid. The denial hereof what it argues 292 I. Imputation Gods imputation of righteousness his covering of our sin 130 A constant act of Gods free favor 131 The doctrine of it no pleading for sin 123 c. Justification The material cause not the new-birth 119 Not sanctification 132 Its difference from sanctification 126 God justifieth sinful persons believing 120 121 How justified by faith ibid. Defilements of sin remain in a pardoned soul 125 Peter in his falls not out of a state of justification 128 Perfect at first believing 135 L. Law How set up in stead of Gospel 12 Levitical Law way Typical Gospel 89 Law-Levitical no Covenant of works 95 Law-moral positions concerning it 97 How subservient to the Covenant of grace 98 How inservient to the Covenant of works ibid. Gods Law above the conscience 307 Letter What in a large or in a strict sense 4 5 The Spirits Letter is Gods written word 9 How denied 244 Light Of the Godhead in every man not redemption-light 52 Strange notions of the Light in every man 53 How light without Scripture is no light 64 The Light-giver not to be confounded with the light-given 59 84 Light in every man no Teacher of saving truths 60 Not Gospel-light 75 Not the light of Saints as such 61 261 Much less equal with Christs person 59 Not supernatural 61 Not above but beneath the Scripture-light 66 Not a part of the New-creature 77 Not the Corner-stone 80 Nor the first principle of Christian Religion 82 Leads not out of the fall 83 Obeyed gives no saving excuse or testimony in the conscience 269 Creature and Scripture-light compared 76 Not to be confounded 275 Mysterious absurdities 263 How the least degree of light is perfect 274 How counterfeit ibid. True conclusions about light 69 Lords Supper The visible outward part no carnal invention 185 Bread and wine the outward matter 186 The Institution spiritual 188 The benefit great 190 A strange trans-mutation by 192 James Nayler His reasons broken 193 Antidotes against the dissolution of the Lords Supper 200 M. Magistrates Their forbearance 308 Means of grace attended with a promise of blessing 174 N. Nakedness No Commission for going naked in these times 291 O. Oaths see Swearing Ordinances How owned or disowned 302 P. Perfection Of holiness but comparative 162 164 Not absolute in all degrees till death 143 144 How denied how not 141 158 161 This life a time onely of pressing after it 290 Person What it is 48 What a person in the Godhead is ibid. How distinguished 49 Prayer Publique not forbidden 201 Gods Spirit is there 204 Preaching By Doctrine Reason and Vse c. justified 72 293 How free and consistent with taking Wages 209 Printing When invented 21 The benefit of printed Bibles ibid. Promise Of grace and leading out of the fall none annexed to the good use of natural light 87 Yet the light of a promise helps to lead out of the fall 86 Prophets Some immediately inspired some mediately taught 217 They studied the Scriptures 218 Some distinguisht from men in office 217 Psalms Not sung without some kinde of meeter 205 Q. Quaking From visible manifestations of Gods majesty how and by whom imitable 287 See Trembling Questions Their fit place 223 Which are of the devil 224 R. Reconciliation Of the person perfect before the heart is perfectly sanctified and how 134 135 Regeneration By the Scripture-promise 132 257 Remorse What. 171 Repentance How decryed 171 Righteousness What our own 145 329 What the Quaking Papists mean by Christs righteousness 278 S. Sabbath A mercy as a duty 303 Saints Their light beneath Scripture-light for the degree 271 Their highest degree of light and grace not here attained 272 Experimentally imperfect 148 Scriptures The word of truth 1 To all 2 The word of God and truly so called 3 40 In what sence 25 The witness of God 4 The Letter of God and the Scripture of God all one Ib. A standing Rule 7 A more standing Rule then visions and revelations 13 15 37 38. Not mans word or other mens words 18 The Touch-stone of Doctrine 23 253 And Judge of controversies 258 Not carnal 24 The Spirits sword 26 Powerful 153 The ground of the Saints acting 26 31 And how 27 Interpretation by Scripture 37 A Voice a Light a Rule a Guide 43 44 Scripture-light above the light of nature 66 74 76 Its further preeminence 271 281 Scripture-light Salvation-light 73 Its fulness 284 It magnifies Christ above it self ibid A more excellent Teacher then the creatures 70 To be studied 218 220 Who deny them 244 Gods mouth is in the Letter 247 252 Sin Visible in and to the Saint 112 Groaned under all the life time by true Saints ibid in what respect 113 Sin and purity dwell in one soul not as one 118 Sin confessed is not pleaded for 125 It dwelleth and acteth in the Saints 138 It continueth in them they continue not in it 151 No heart perfectly pure form it 158 159 160