the natural man from a meer conviction of his understanding doth in the forwardness of his own will and by his own natural strength without the influence and leading of God's Spirit go about either in his understanding to imagine conceive or think of the things of God or actually to perform them by preaching or praying The first is a missing both in matter and form The second is a retaining of the form without the Life and Substance of Christianity because Christian Religion consisteth not in a meer belief of true Doctrins or a meer performance of Acts good in themselves or else the bare letter of the Scripture though spoken by a Drunkard or a Devil might be said to be Spirit and Life which I judg none will be so absurd as to affirm and also it would follow that where the form of godliness is there the power is also which is contrary to the express words of the Apostle For the form of godliness cannot be said to be where either the notions and opinions believed are erroneous and ungodly or the acts performed evil and wicked for then it would be the form of ungodliness and not of godliness But of this further hereafter when we shall speak particularly of preaching and praying Now though this last be not so bad as the former yet it hath made way for it for men having first departed from the Life and Substance of true Religion and Worship to wit from the inward Power and Vertue of the Spirit so as therein to act and thereby to have all their actions enlivened have only retained the form and shew to wit the true words and appearance and so acting in their own natural and unrenewed wills in this form the form could not but quickly decay and be vitiated for the working and active spirit of man could not contain it self within the simplicity and plainness of Truth but giving way to his own numerous inventions and imaginations began to vary in the form and adapt it to his own inventions until by degrees the form of godliness for the most part came to be lost as well as the power For this kind of Idolatry whereby man loveth idolizeth and huggeth his own conceptions inventions and product of his own brain is so incident unto him and seated in his faln nature that so long as his natural Spirit is the first author and actor of him and is that by which he only is guided and moved in his worship towards God so as not first to wait for another Guide to direct him he can never perform the pure Spiritual Worship nor bring forth any thing but the Fruit of the first faln natural and corrupt root Wherefore the time appointed of God being come wherein by Jesus Christ he hath been pleased to restore the true Spiritual Worship and the outward form of Worship which was appointed by God to the Jews and whereof the manner and time of its performance was particularly determined by God himself being come to an end we find that Jesus Christ the Author of the Christian Religion prescribes no set form of Worship to his Children under the more pure administration of the New Covenant save that he only tells them that the Worship now to be performed is Spiritual and in the Spirit and it 's especially to be observed that in the whole New Testament there is no order nor command given in this thing but to follow the Revelation of the Spirit save only that general of meeting together a thing dearly owned and diligently practised by us as shall hereafter more appear True it is mention is made of the duties of Praying Preaching and Singing but what order or method should be kept in so doing or that presently they should be set about so soon as the Saints are gathered there is not one word to be found yea these duties as shall afterwards be made appear are always annexed to the assistance leadings and motions of God's Spirit Since then man in his natural state is thus excluded from acting or moving in things Spiritual how or what way shall he exercise this first and previous duty of waiting upon God but by silence and by bringing that natural part to silence Which is no otherwaies but by abstaining from his own Thoughts and Imaginations and from all the self-workings and motions of his own mind as well in things materially good as evil that he being silent God may speak in him and the Good Seed may arise This though hard to the natural man is so answerable to Reason and even natural experience in other things that it cannot be denyed He that cometh to learn of a master if he expect to hear his master and be instructed by him must not continually be speaking of the matter to be taught and never be quiet otherwise how shall his master have time to instruct him yea though the schollar were never so earnest to learn the science yet would the master have reason to reprove him as untoward and indocile if he would always be meddling of himself and still speaking and not wait in silence patiently to hear his master instructing and teaching him who ought not to open a mouth until by his master he were commanded and allowed so to do So also if one were about to attend a great Prince he would be thought an impertinent and imprudent servant who while he ought patiently and readily to wait that he might answer the King when he speaks and have his Eye upon him to observe the least motions and inclinations of his will and to do accordingly would be still deafening him with discourse though it were in praises of him and running to and fro without any particular and immediate order to do things that perhaps might be good in themselves or might have been commanded at other times to others Would the Kings of the Earth accept of such servants or service Since then we are commanded to wait upon God diligently and in so doing it is promised that our strength shall be renewed this waiting cannot be performed but by silence or cessation of the natural part on our side since God manifests himself not to the outward man or senses so much as to the inward to wit to the Soul and Spirit if the Soul be still thinking and working in her own will and busily exercised in her own imaginations though the matters as in themselves may be good concerning God yet thereby she incapacitates her self from discerning the still and small voyce of the Spirit and so hurts her self greatly in that she neglects her chief business of waiting upon the Lord nothing less than if I should busie my self crying out and speaking of a business while in the mean time I neglect to hear one who is quietly whispering into my ear and informing me in these things which are most needful for me to hear and know concerning that business And since it is the chief work of a Christian to know the
natural will in its own proper motions crucified that God may both move in the act and in the will the Lord chiefly regards this profound Subjection and Self-denial For some men please themselves as much and gratifie their own sinful wills and humors in high and curious speculations of Religion affecting a name and reputation that way or because those things by Custom or otherways are become pleasant and habitual to them though not a whit more regenerated or inwardly Sanctified in their Spirits as others gratifie their Lusts in actions of Sensuality and therefore both are alike hurtful to men and sinful in the sight of God it being nothing but the meer fruit and effect of man's natural and unrenewed will and spirit Yea should one as many no doubt do from a sense of sin and fear of punishment seek to terrifie themselves from sin by multiplying Thoughts of Death Hell and Judgment and by presenting to their Imaginations the Happyness and Joys of Heaven and also by multiplying Prayer and other Religious Performances as these things could never deliver him from one Iniquity without the secret and inward Power of God's Spirit and Grace so would they signifie no more than the Fig-leaves wherewith Adam thought to cover his nakedness and seeing it is only the product of man's own natural will proceeding from a self-love and seeking to save himself and not arising purely from that Divine Seed of Righteousness which is given of God to all for Grace and Salvation it is rejected of God and no ways acceptable unto him since the natural man as natural while he stands in that state is with all his arts parts and actings reprobated by him This great duty then of waiting upon God must needs be exercised in man's denying self both inwardly and outwardly in a still and meer dependence upon God in abstracting from all the Workings Imaginations and Speculations of his own mind that being emptyed as it were of himself and so throughly crucified to the natural products thereof he may be fit to receive the Lord who will have no Co-partner nor Co-rival of his Glory and Power And man being thus stated the little Seed of Righteousness which God hath planted in his Soul and Christ hath purchased for him even the measure of Grace and Life which is burthened and crucified by man's natural Thoughts and Imaginations receives a place to arise and becometh a holy Birth and geniture in man and is that Divine Air in and by which man's Soul and Spirit comes to be leavened And by waiting therein he comes to be accepted in the sight of God to stand in his presence hear his voyce and observe the motions of his Holy Spirit And so man's place is to wait in this and as hereby there are any objects presented to his mind concerning God or things relating to Religion his Soul may be exercised in them without hurt and to the great profit both of himself and others because those things have their rise not from his own will but from God's Spirit And therefore as in the arisings and movings of this his mind is still to be exercised in thinking and meditating so also in the more obvious acts of Preaching and Praying And so it may hence appear we are not against Meditation as some have sought falsly to infer from our Doctrine but we are against the Thoughts and Imaginations of the natural man in his own will from which all Errors and Heresies concerning the Christian Religion in the whole World have proceeded But if it please God at any time when one or more are waiting upon him not to present such objects as gives them occasion to exercise their minds in Thoughts and Imaginations but purely to keep them in this Holy dependence and as they persist therein to cause his secret refreshment and the pure incomes of his Holy Life to flow in upon them then they have good reason to be content because by this as we know by good and blessed experience the Soul is more strengthened renewed and confirmed in the Love of God and armed against the power of sin than any way else this being a fore-tast of that real and sensible enjoyment of God which the Saints in Heaven daily possess which God frequently affords to his Children here for their comfort and encouragement especially when they are assembled together to wait upon him § XI For there are two contrary Powers or Spirits to wit the Power and Spirit of this World in which the Prince of Darkness bears rule and over as many as are acted by it and work from it and the Power or Spirit of God in which God worketh and beareth rule and over as many as act in and from it So whatever be the things that a man thinketh of or acteth in however Spiritual or Religious as to the Notion or form of them so long as he acteth and moveth in the natural and corrupt Spirit and Will and not from in and by the Power of God he sinneth in all and is not accepted of God For hence both the ploughing and praying of the Wicked is sin as also whatever a man acts in and from the Spirit and Power of God having his understanding and will influenced and moved by it whether it be Actions Religious Civil or even Natural he is accepted in so doing in the sight of God and is blessed in them From what is said it doth appear how frivolous and impertinent their objection is that say they wait upon God in praying and preaching since waiting doth of it self imply a passive dependence rather than an acting and since it is and shall yet be more shewn that Preaching and Praying without the Spirit is an offending of God not a waiting upon him and that Praying and Preaching by the Spirit presupposes necessarily a silent waiting for to feel the motions and influence of the Spirit to lead thereunto And lastly that in several of these places where praying is commanded as Matth. 26.41 Mark 13.33 Luke 21.36 1 Pet. 4.7 watching is specially prefixed as a previous preparation thereunto So that we do well and certainly conclude that since waiting and watching is so particularly commanded and recommended and this cannot be truly performed but in this inward silence of the mind from men's own Thoughts and Imaginations this silence is and must necessarily be a special and principal part of God's Worship § XII But Secondly The excellency of this silent waiting upon God doth appear in that it is impossible for the Enemy viz. the Devil to counterfeit it so as for any Soul to be deceived or deluded by him in the exercise thereof Now in all other matters he may mix himself in with the natural mind of man and so by transforming himself he may deceive the Soul by busying it about things perhaps innocent in themselves while yet he keeps them from beholding the Pure Light of Christ and so from knowing distinctly his duty and doing of it For
of the glorious Dispensation of the Gospel of Christ appear all at once the work of the first Witnesses being more to restifie against and discover the abuses of the Apostasie than to establish the Truth in purity He that comes to build a new City must first remove the old Rubbish before he can see to lay a new Foundation and he that comes to a House greatly polluted and full of Dirt will first sweep away and remove the Filth before he put up his own good and new Furniture The dawning of the day dispells the Darkness and makes us see the things that are most conspicuous but the distinct discovering and discerning of things o as to make a certain and perfect observation is reserved for the arising of the Sun and its shining in full brightness And we can from a certain Experience boldly affirm that the not waiting for this but building among yea and with the old popish rubbish and setting up before a full purgation hath been to most Protestants the foundation of many a mistake and an occasion of unspeakable hurt Therefore the Lord God who as he seeth meet doth communicate and make known to man the more full evident and perfect knowledg of his everlasting Truth hath been pleased to reserve the more full discovery of this glorious and Evangelical Dispensation to this our Age albeit divers testimonies have thereunto been born by some noted men in several Ages as shall hereafter appear and for the greater augmentation of the Glory of his Grace that no man might have whereof to boast hath raised up a few despicable and illiterate men and for the most part Mechanicks to be the Dispensators of it by which Gospel all the scruples doubts hesitations and objections above mentioned are easily and evidently answered and the justice as well as mercy of God according to their Divine and Heavenly Harmony are exhibited established and confirmed according to which certain Light and Gospel as the knowledge thereof hath been manifested to us by the Revelation of Jesus Christ in us fortified by our own sensible experience and sealed by the testimony of the Spirit in our Hearts we can confidently affirm and clearly evince according to the testimony of the Holy Scriptures the following points § XI First That God who out of his infinite love sent his Son the Lord Jesus Christ into the World who tasted Death for every man hath given to every man whether Jew or Gentile Turk or Scythian Indian or Barbarian of whatsoever Nation Countrey or Place a certain day or time of visitation during which day or time it is possible for them to be saved and to partake of the Fruit of Christs Death Secondly That for this end God hath communicated and given unto every man a measure of the Light of his own Son a measure of Grace or a measure of the Spirit which the Scripture expresses by several names as sometimes of the Seed of the Kingdom Mat. 13.18.19 The Light that makes all things manifest Eph. 5.13 The Word of God Rom. 10.18 or Manifestation of the Spirit given to profite withal 1 Cor. 12.7 a Talent Mat. 25.15 a little Leaven The Gospel preached in every Creature Col. 1.23 Thirdly That God in and by this Light and Seed invites calls exhorts and strives with every man in order to save them which as it is received and not resisted works the Salvation of all even of those who are ignorant of the Death and Sufferings of Christ and of Adam's Fall both by bringing them to a sense of their own misery and to be sharers in the Sufferings of Christ inwardly and by making them partakers of his Resurrection in becoming Holy Pure and Righteous and recovered of their sins by which also are saved they that have the knowledg of Christ outwardly in that it opens their understanding rightly to use and apply the things delivered in the Scriptures and to receive the saving use of them But that this may be resisted and rejected in both in which then God is said to be resisted and pressed down and Christ to be again crucified and put to open shame in and among men and to to those as thus resist and refuse him he becomes their condemnation First then according to this Doctrine the Mercy of God is excellently well exhibited in that none are necessarily shut out from Salvation and his Justice is demonstrated in that he condemns none but such to whom he really made offer of Salvation affording them the means sufficient thereunto Secondly This Doctrin if well weighed will be found to be the Foundation of Christianity Salvation and Assurance Thirdly It agrees and answers with the whole tenor of the Gospel Promises and Threats and with the Nature of the Ministry of Christ according to which the Gospel Salvation Repentance is commanded to be preached to every Creature without respect of Nations Kindreds Families or Tongues Fourthly It magnifies and commends the merits and death of Christ in that it not only accounts them sufficient to save all but declares them to be brought so nigh unto all as thereby to be put into the nearest capacity of Salvation Fifthly It exalts above all the Grace of God to which it attributeth all good even the least and smallest actions that are so ascribing thereunto not only the first beginnings and motions of good but also the whole conversion and salvation of the Soul Sixthly It contradicts overturns and enervates the false Doctrine of the Pelagians Semi-Pelagians Socinians and others who exalt the Light of Nature the liberty of mans will in that it wholly excludes the natural man from having any place or portion in his own Salvation by any acting moving or working of his own until he be first quickned raised up and acted by God's Spirit Seventhly As it makes the whole Salvation of Man solely and alone to depend upon God so it makes his condemnation wholly and in every respect to be himself in that he refused and resisted somewhat that from God wrestled and strove in his heart and forces him to acknowledg God's just Judgment in rejecting him and forsaking of him Eighthly It takes away all ground of Despair in that it gives every one ground of hope and certain assurance that they may be saved neither doth feed any in security in that none are certain how soon their day may expire and therefore it is a constant incitement and provocation and lively incouragement to every man to forsake evil and close with that which is good Ninthly It wonderfully commends as well the certainty of the Christian Religion among Infidels as it manifests its own verity to all in that it s confirmed and established by the experiences of all men seeing there was never yet a man found in any place of the Earth however barbarous and wild but hath acknowledged that at some time or other less or more he hath found somewhat in his heart reproving him for some things evil which he hath
other are still moved either to preach pray and praise and so in this our Meetings cannot be but like the Meetings of the primitive Churches recorded in Scripture since our adversaries confess that they did preach and pray by the Spirit And then what absurdity is it to suppose that at sometimes the Spirit did not move them to these outward acts and that then they were silent since we may well conclude they did not speak until they were moved and so no doubt had sometimes silence Acts 2.1 Before the Spirit came upon them it is said They were all with one accord in one place and then it is said the Spirit suddenly came upon them but no mention is made of any one speaking at that time and I would willingly know what absurdity our adversaries can infer should we conclude they were a while silent But if it be urged that a whole silent meeting cannot be found in Scripture I answer supposing such a thing were not recorded it will not therefore follow that it is not lawful Answ. seeing it naturally followeth from other Scripture precepts as we have proved this doth for seeing the Scripture commands to meet together and when met the Scripture prohibits prayers or preachings but as the Spirit moveth thereunto if People met together and the Spirit move not to such acts it will necessarily follow that they must be silent But further there might have been many such things among the Saints of old though not recorded in Scripture and yet we have enough in Scripture signifying that such things were For Job sate silent seven daies with his Friends together here was a long silent meeting See also Ezra c. 9.4 and Ezekiel c. 1.14 20.1 Thus having shewn the excellency of this Worship proving it from Scripture and Reason and answered the objections which are commonly made against it which though it may suffice to the explanation and probation of our Proposition yet I shall add something more particularly of Preaching Praying and Singing and so proceed to the following Proposition § XVIII Preaching as it 's used both among Papists and Protestants is for one man to take some place or verse of Scripture and thereon speak for an hour or two what he hath studied and premiditated in his Closet and gathered together from his own inventions or from the writings and observations of others and then having got it by heart as a school boy doth his lesson he brings it forth and repeats it before the people and how much the fertiler and stronger a man's invention is and the more industrious and laborous he is in collecting such observations and can utter them with the excellency of speech and humane eloquence so much the more is he accounted an able and excellent preacher To this we oppose that when the Saints are met together and every one gathered to the Gift and Grace of God in themselves he that ministreth being acted thereunto by the arising of the Grace in himself ought to speak forth what the Spirit of God furnisheth him with not minding the eloquence and wisdom of words but the demonstration of the Spirit and of Power and that either in the interpreting some part of Scripture in case the Spirit which is the good Remembrancer lead him so to do or otherwise words of exhortation advice reproof and instruction or the sense of some spiritual experiences all which will still be agreeable to the Scripture though perhaps not relative to nor founded upon any particular chapter or verse as a text Now let us examine and consider which of these two sorts of preaching be most agreeable to the Precepts and Practice of Christ and his Apostles and the Primitive Church recorded in Scripture For First as to their Preaching upon a text if it were not meerly customary or premeditated but done by the immediate motion of the Spirit we should not blame it but to do it as they do there is neither precept nor practice that ever I could observe in the New Testament as a part of the instituted Worship thereof But they alledge that Christ took the Book of Isaiah and read out of it and spake therefrom and that Peter Preached from a sentence of the Prophet Joel I answer That Christ and Peter did it not but as immediately acted and moved thereunto by the Spirit of God and that without premeditation which I suppose our Adversaries will not deny in which case we willingly approve of it but what is this to their customary conned way without either waiting for or expecting the movings or leadings of the Spirit Moreover that neither Christ nor Peter did it as a setled custom or form to be constantly practised by all the Ministers of the Church appears in that most of all the Sermons recorded by Christ and his Apostles in Scripture were without this as appears from Christ's Sermon upon the Mount Matth. 5.1 c. Mark 4.1 c. and Paul's Preaching to the Athenians and to the Jews c. As then it appears that this method of Preaching is not grounded upon any Scripture precept so the nature of it is contrary to the preaching of Christ under the New Covenant as exprest and recommended in Scripture for Christ in sending forth his Disciples expresly mentioneth that they are not to speak of or from themselves or to sore cast before hand but that which the Spirit in the same hour shall teach them as is particularly mentioned in the three Evangelists Matth. 10.20 Mark 13.11 Luke 12.12 Now if Christ gave this order to his Disciples before he departed from them as that which they were to practice during his abode outwardly with them much more were they to do it after his departure since then they were more especially to receive the Spirit to lead them in all things and to bring all things to their remembrance John 14.26 And if they were to do so when they appeared before the Magistrates and Princes of the Earth much more in the Worship of God when they stand specially before him seeing as is above shewn his Worship is to be performed in Spirit and therefore after their receiving of the Holy Ghost it is said Acts 2.4 they spake as the Spirit gave them utterance not what they had studied and gathered from Books in their Closets in a premeditated way Franciscus Lambertus before cited speaketh well and sheweth their Hypocrisie Tract 5. of Prophecy chap. 3. saying Where are they now that glory in their Inventions who say A brave Invention a brave invention This they call invention which themselves have made up but what have the Faithful to do with such kind of Inventions It is not figments nor yet Inventions that we will have but things that are solid invincible eternal and heavenly not which men have invented but which God hath revealed for if we believe the Scripture our invention profiteth nothing but to provoke God to our ruin And afterwards Beware saith he that
the apostasie if we did not this way stand immoveable to the Truth revealed but should join with them both our testimony for God would be weakned and lost and it would be impossible steadily to propagate this worship in the world whose progress we dare neither retard nor hinder by any act of ours though therefore we shall lose not only worldly honour but even our lives And truly many Protestants through their unsteadiness in this thing for politick ends complying with the popish abominations have greatly scandalized their profession and hurt the reformation as appeared in the Example of the Elector of Saxony who in the Convention at Ausburg in the year 1530. being commanded by the Emperor Charles the Fifth to be present at the Mass that he might carry the Sword before him according to his place which when he justly scrupled to perform his Preachers taking more care for their Princes Honour than for his Conscience perswaded him that it was lawful to it against his Conscience which was both a very bad Example and great scandal to the Reformation and displeased many as the Author of the History of the Council of Trent in his first book well observes But now I hasten to the objection of our adversaries against this method of praying Obj. § XXV First They object that if such particular influences were needful to outward acts of worship then they should also be needful to inward acts as to wit desire and love God But this is absurd Therefore also that from whence it follows I answer that which was said in the state of the controversie cleareth this because as to those general duties Answ. there never wants an influence so long as the day of a man's visitation lasteth during which time God is alwaies near to him and wrestling with him by his Spirit to turn him to himself so that if he do but stand still and cease from his evil thoughts the Lord is near to help him c. But as to the outward acts of Prayer they need a more special motion and influence as hath been proved Secondly they object that it might be also alledged Obj. that men ought not to do moral duties as Children to honour their Parents men to do right to their neighbours except the Spirit moved them to it I answer there is a great difference betwixt these general duties betwixt man and man Answ. and the particular express acts of worship towards God the one is meerly Spiritual and commanded by God to be performed by his Spirit the other answer their end as to them whom they are immediatly directed to and concern though done from a meer natural principle of self-love even as beasts have natural affections one to another and therefore may be thus performed though I shall not deny but that they are not works accepted of God or beneficial to the Soul but as they are done in the fear of God and in blessing in which his Children do all things and therefore are accepted and blessed in whatsoever they do Thirdly they object Obj. that if a wicked man ought not to pray without a motion of the Spirit because his Prayer would be sinful neither ought he to plough by the same reason because the ploughing of the wicked as well as his praying is sin This objection is of the same nature with the former Answ. and therefore may be answered the same way seeing there is a great difference betwixt natural acts such as eating drinking sleeping and seeking for sustenance for the body which things Man hath common with Beasts and Spiritual acts And it doth not follow because man ought not to go about Spiritual acts without the Spirit that therefore he may not go about natural acts without it The analogy holds better thus and that for the proof of our affirmation that as man for the going about natural acts need his natural Spirit so to perform Spiritual acts he needs the Spirit of God That the natural acts of the wicked and unregenerate are sinful is not denied though not as in themselves but in so far as man in that state is in all things reprobated in the sight of God Fourthly they object that wicked men may according to this doctrin Obj. forbear to pray for years together alledging they want a motion to it Answ. I answer the false pretences of wicked men do nothing invalidate the truth of this doctrin for at that rate there is no doctrin of Christ which men might not turn by That they ought not to pray without the Spirit is granted but then they ought to come to that place of watching where they may be capable to feel the Spirits motion They sin indeed in not praying but the cause of this sin is their not watching so their neglect proceeds not from this doctrin but from their disobedience to it seeing if they did pray without this it would be a double sin and no fulfilling of the command to pray nor yet would their Prayer without this Spirit be useful unto them and this our Adversaries are forced to acknowledg in another case for they say It is a duty incumbent on Christians to frequent the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper as they call it Yet they say No man ought to take it unworthily yea they plead that such as find themselves unprepared must abstain and therefore do usually excommunicate them from the Table Now though according to them it be necessary to partake of this Sacrament yet it is also necessary that those that do it do first examine themselves lest they eat and drink their own condemnation and though they reckon it sinful for them to forbear yet they account it more sinful for them to do it without this examination Fifthly they object Acts 8.22 where Peter commanded Simon Magus Obj. that wicked Sorcerer to pray from thence inferring that wicked men may and ought to pray Answ. I answer that in the citing of this place as I have often observed they omit the first and chiefest part of the verse which is thus Acts 8. verse 22. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee So here he bids him first repent now the least measure of true Repentance cannot be without somewhat of that inward retirement of the mind which we speak of and indeed where true repentance goeth first we do not doubt but the Spirit of God will be near to concur with and influence such to pray to and call upon God Obj. And Lastly they object that many Prayers begun without the Spirit have proved effectual and that the Prayers of wicked men have been heard and found acceptable as Achab's Answ. This objection was before solved for the acts of God's compassion and indulgence at sometimes and to some persons upon singular extraordinary occasions are not be a rule of our actions For if we should make that the measure of our obedience great inconveniencies
sees meet whether they be a prescribed Form as a Liturgy or Prayers conceived extemporally by the natural strength and faculty of the mind they are all but Superstitions Will-worship and abominable Idolatry in the sight of God which are to be denyed rejected and separated from in this day of his Spiritual arising however it might have pleased him who winked at the times of Ignorance with a respect to the simplicity and integrity of some and of his own innocent Seed which lay as it were buried in the hearts of Men under the mass of Superstition to blow upon the dead and dry bones and to raise some breathings and answer them and that until the day should more clearly dawn and break forth The Twelfth Proposition Concerning Baptism As there is one Lord and one Faith so there is one Baptism which is not the putting away the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good Conscience before God by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and this Baptisme is a Pure and Spiritual thing to wit the Baptism of the Spirit and fire by which we are buried with him that being washed and purged from our sins we may walk in newness of Life of which the Baptism of John was a figure which was commanded for a time and not to continue for ever as to the Baptism of Infants it is a meer humane Tradition for which neither Precept nor Practice is to be found in all the Scripture The Thirteenth Proposition Concerning the Communion or participation of the body and blood of Christ. The Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ is inward and Spiritual which is the participation of his flesh and blood by which the inward mâ—n is daily nourished in the hearts of those in whom Christ dwells of which things the breaking of bread by Christ with his Disciples was a figure which they even used in the Church for a time who had received the substance for the cause of the weak even as abstaining from things strangled and from blood the washing one anothers feet and the anointing of the sick with Oyl all which are commanded with no less authority and solemnity than the former yet seeing they are but the shaddows of better things they cease in such as have obtained the Substance The Fourteenth Proposition Concerning the Power of the Civil Magistrate in matter purely religious and pertaining to the Conscience Since God hath assumed to himself the power and Dominion of the Conscience who alone can rightly instruct and govern it therefore it is not lawful for any whatsoever by vertue of any Authority or Principality they bear in the Government of this World to force the Consciences of others and therefore all Killing Banishing Fining Imprisoning and other such things which men are afflicted with for the alone exercise of their Conscience or difference in Worship or Opinion proceedeth from the Spirit of Cain the murtherer and is contrary to the Truth providing always that no Man under the pretence of Conscience prejudice his Neighbour in his Life or Estate or do any thing destructive to or inconsistent with human Society in which case the Law is for the transgressor and Justice is to be administred upon all without respect of Persons The Fifteenth Proposition Concerning Salutations and Recreations c. Seeing the chief end of all Religion is to redeem Man from the Spirit and vain Conversation of this World and to lead into inward communion with God before whom if we fear always we are accounted happy therefore all the vain customs and habits thereof both in word and deed are to be rejected and forsaken by those who come to this fear such as the taking off the Hat to a Man the bowings and cringings of the Body and such other Salutations of that kind with all the foolish and superstitious formalities attending them all which Man has invented in his degenerate state to feed his pride in the vain pomp and glory of this World as also the unprofitable Plays frivolous Recreations Sportings and Gaming 's which are invented to pass away the pretious time and divert the mind from the witness of God in the heart and from the living sense of his fear and from that Evangelical Spirit wherewith Christians ought to be leavened and which leads into sobriety gravity and Godly fear in which as we abide the blessing of the Lord is felt to attend us in these actions which we are necessarily engaged in order to the taking care for the sustenance of the outward man AN APOLOGY For the true CHRISTIAN DIVINITY The first Proposition Seeing the heighth of all happiness is placed in the true knowledg of God this is Life eternal to know the true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent the true and right understanding of this foundation and ground of knowledg is that which is most necessary to be knâ—wn and believed in the first place HE that desireth to acquire any art or science seeketh first those means by which that art or science is obtained If we ought to do so in things Natural and Earthly how much more then in Spiritual In this affair then should our inquiry be the more diligent because he that errs in the entrance is not so easily reduced again into the right way he that misseth his road from the beginning of his Journey and is deceived in his first Marks at his first seting forth the greater his Mistake is the more difficult will be his Entrance into the right way Thus when a Man first proposeth to himself the knowledg of God from a sense of his own unworthiness and from the great weariness of his mind occasioned by the secret checks of his Conscience and the tender yet real glances of Gods Light upon his Heart the earnest desires he has to be redeemed from his present trouble and the fervent breathings he has to be eased of his disordered Passions and Lusts and to find quietness and peace in the certain knowledg of God and in the assurance of his love and good will towards him makes his heart tender and ready to receive any Impression and so not having then a distinct discerning through forwardness embraceth any thing that brings present ease If either through the reverence he bears to certain persons or from the secret inclination to what doth comply with his natural Disposition he fall upon any Principles or Means by which he apprehends he may come to know God and so doth center himself it will be hard to remove him thence again how wrong soever they may be For the first anguish being over he becomes more hardy and the Enemy being near creates a false peace and a certain confidence which is strengthened by the minds unwillingness to enter again into new doubtfulness or the former anxiety of a search This sufficiently verified in the example of the Pharisees and Jewish Doctors who most of all resisted Christ disdaining to be esteemed ignorant
for this vain Opinion they had of their knowledg hindered them from the true knowledg and the mean people who were not so much preoccupyed with former principles nor conceited of their own knowledg did easily believe Wherefore the Pharisees upbraid them saying Have any of the Rulers or Pharisees believed in him But this people which know not the Law are accursed This is also abundantly proved by the experience of all such as being secretly touched with the call of God's Grace unto them do apply themselves unto false Teachers where the remedy proves worse than the disease because instead of knowing God or the things relating to their Salvation aright they drink in wrong Opinions of him from which it 's harder to be dis-intangled than while the Soul remains a blank or tabala rasa For they that conceit themselves wise are worse to deal with then they that are sensible of their ignorance Nor hath it been less the device of the Devil the great Enemy of Mankind to perswade Men into wrong notions of God than to keep them altogether from acknowledging him the latter taking with few because odious but the other having been the constant ruin of the World for there hath scarce been a Nation found but hath had some notions or other of Religion so that not from their denying any Deity but from their mistakes and misapprehensions of it hath proceeded all the Idolatry and superstition of the world yea hence even Atheism it self hath proceeded for these many and various opinions of God and Religion being so much mixed with the guessings and uncertain judgments of men have begotten in many the opinion that there is no God at all This and much more that might be said may shew how dangerous it is to miss in the first step All that come not in by the door are accounted as Thieves and Robbers Again how needful and desireable that knowledge is which brings Life Eternal Epictetus sheweth saying excellently well cap. 38. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Know that the main foundation of piety is this to have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 right opinions and apprehensions of God This therefore I judged necessary as a first Principle in the first place to affirm and I suppose will not need much further explanation nor defence as being generally acknowledged by all and in these things that are without controversie I love to be brief as that which will easily commend it self to every Man's reason and Conscience and therefore I shall proceed to the next Proposition which tho it be nothing less certain yet by the malice of Satan and ignorance of many comes far more under debate The Second Proposition Of Immediate Revelation Seeing no man knoweth the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son revealeth him Matt. 11.27 And seeing the revelation of the Son is in and by the Spirit therefore the Testimony of the Spirit is that alone by which the true knowledge of God hath been is and can be only revealed who as by the moving of his own Spirit he disposed the chaos of this World into that wonderful order wherein it was in the beginning and created man a living Soul to rule and govern it so by the revelation of the same Spirit he hath manifested himself all along unto the sons of Men both Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles which revelations of God by the Spirit whether by outward voices and appearances dreams or inward objective manifestations in the heart were of old the former object of their faith and remain yet so to be since the object of the Saints faith is the same in all ages tho held forth under divers administrations Moreover these divine inward revelations which we make absolutely necessary for the building up of true faith neither do nor can ever contradict the outward testimony of the Scriptures or right and sound Reason yet from hence it will not follow that the Divine revelations are to be subjected to the Test either of the outward testimony of the Scriptures or of the natural reason of Man as to a more noble and certain rule and touchstone for this Divine revelation and inward illumination is that which is evident and clear of it self forcing by its own evidence and clearness the well disposed understanding to assent irresistibly moving the same thereunto even as the common principles of natural truths do move and incline the mind to a natural assent As that the whole is greater than its part That two contradictorys can neither be both true nor both false § I. IT is very probable that many carnal and natural Christians will oppose this Proposition who being wholly unacquainted with the movings and actings of God's Spirit upon their hearts judge the same nothing necessary and some are apt to flout at it as ridiculous Yea to that highth are the generality of all Christians apostatized and degenerated that tho there be not any thing more plainly asserted more seriously recommended nor more certainly artested to in all the writings of the Holy Scriptures yet nothing is less minded and more rejected by all sorts of Christians than Immediate and Divine Revelation in so much that once to lay claim to it is matter of reproach Whereas of old none were ever judged Christians but such as had the Spirit of Christ Rom. 8.9 But now many do boldly call themselves Christians who make no difficulty of confessing they are without it and laugh at such as say they have it Of old they were accounted the Sons of God who were led by the Spirit of God ibid. verse 14. But now many averr themselves Sons of God who know nothing of this leader and he that affirms himself so led is by the pretended Orthodox of this Age presently proclaimed a Heretick the reason hereof is very manifest viz because many in these dayes under the name of Christians do experimentally find that they are not acted nor led by Gods Spirit yea many great Doctors Divines Teachers and Bishops of Christianity commonly so called have wholly shut their ears from hearing and their eyes from seeing this inward Guide and so are become strangers unto it whence they are by their own experience brought to this strait either to confess that they are as yet ignorant of God and have only the shadow of knowledg and not the true knowledg of him or that this knowledg is acquired without immediate revelation For the better understanding then of this proposition we do distinguish betwixt the certain knowledg of God and the uncertain betwixt the spiritual knowledg and the literal the saving heart-knowledg and soaring airy head-knowledg The last we confess may be divers obtained but the first by no other way then the inward immediate manifestation and revelation of Gods Spirit shining in and upon the heart inlightning and opening the understanding § II. Having then proposed to my self in these propositions to affirm those things which relate to the true and effectual knowledg which brings
the daily clamours of their Preachers did not only violently take up the Houses of the reformed Teachers overturn their libraries and spoil their furniture but also with reproachful words yea and with stones assaulted the Marquess of Brandeburgh the Elector's brother while he sought by smooth words to quiet the fury of the multitude they killed ten of his Guard scarcely sparing himself who at last by flight escaped out of their hands All which sufficiently declares that the concurrence of the Magistrate doth not alter their Principles but only their method of procedure So that for my own part I see no difference betwixt the actings of those of Munster and these others whereof the one pretended to be led by the Spirit the other by Tradition Scripture and Reason save this that the former were rash heady and foolish in their proceedings and therefore were the sooner brought to nothing and so into contempt and derision But the other being more Politick and wise in their Generation held it out longer and so have authorized their wickedness more with seeming Authority of Law and Reason But both their actings being equally evil the difference appears to me to be only like that which is betwixt a simple silly Thief that is easily catched and hanged without any more ado and a Company of resolute bold Robbers who being better guarded tho their offence be nothing less yet by violence do to evite the danger force their Masters to give them good terms From all which then it evidently follows that they argue very ill that despise and reject any Principle because Men pretending to be led by it do evil in case it be not the natural and consequential tendency of that principle to lead unto those things that are evil Again It doth follow from what is above asserted that if the Spirit be to be rejected upon this account all these other principles ought on the same account to be rejected And for my part as I have never a whit the lower esteem of the blessed Testimony of the Holy Scriptures nor do the less respect any solid Tradition that is answerable and according to Truth neither at all despise Reason that noble and excellent faculty of the mind because wicked men have abused the name of them to cover their wickedness and deceive the simple So would I not have any reject or diffide the certainty of that unerring Spirit which God hath given his Children as that which can alone guide them into all Truth because some have falsly pretended to it § XV. And because the Spirit of God is the Fountain of all Truth and sound Reason therefore we have well said that it cannot contradict neither the Testimony of the Scripture nor right Reason yet as the Proposition it self concludeth to whose last part I now come it will not from hence follow that these Divine Revelations are to be subjected to the examination either of the outward Testimony of Scripture or of the humane or natural reason of Man as to a more noble and certain rule and touch-stone for the Divine Revelation and inward Illumination is that which is evident by it self forcing the wel-distosed understanding and irresistibly moving it to assent by its own evidence and clearness even as the common Principles of Natural Truths do bow the mind to a natural assent He that denies this part of the Proposition must needs affirm that the Spirit of God neither can nor ever hath manifested it self to Man without the Scripture or a distinct discursion of Reason or that the Efficacy of this Supernatural Principle working upon the Souls of Men is less evident then natural principles in their common Operations both which are false For First through all the Scriptures we may observe that the manifestation and revelation of God by his Spirit to the Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles was immediate and objective as is above proved which they did not examin by any other principle but their own evidence and clearness Secondly to say that the Spirit of God has less evidence upon the mind of Man then natural principles have is to have too mean and low thoughts of it How comes David to invite us to tast and see that God is good if this cannot be felt and tasted This were enough to overturn the faith and assurance of all the Saints both now and of old How came Paul to be perswaded that nothing could separate him from the love of God but by evidence and clearness which the Spirit of God gave him The Apostle John who knew well wherein the certainty of Faith consisted judged it no ways absurd without further argument to ascribe his knowledg and assurance and that of all the Saints hereunto in these words Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit 1 Joh. 4.13 and again 5 6. it's the Spirit that beareth witness because the Spirit is Truth Observe the reason brought by him because the Spirit is Truth Of whose certainty and infallibility I have heretofore spoken We then trust to and confide in this Spirit because we know and certainly believe that it can only lead us a right and never mis-lead us and from this certain confidence it is that we affirm that no revelation coming from it can ever contradict the Scriptures Testimony nor right Reason not as making this a more certain rule to our selves but as condescending to such who not discerning the revelations of the Spirit as they proceed purely from God will try them by these mediums Yet those that have the Spiritual sences and can savour the things of the Spirit as it were in prima instantia i. e. at the first blush can discern them without or before they apply them either to Scripture or Reason Just as a good Astronomer can calculate an eclipse infallibly by which he can conclude if the order of Nature continue and some strange and unnatural revolution interveen not there will be an eclipse of the Sun or Moon such a day and such an hour yet can he not perswade an ignorant rustick of this until he visibly see it So also a Mathematician can infallibly know by the Rules of Art that the three sides of a right triangle are equal to two right angles yea can know them more certainly than any man by measure And some geometrical demonstrations are by all acknowledged to be infallible which can be scarcely discerned or proved by the Senses yet if a Geometer be at the pains to certify some ignorant man concerning the certainty of his Art by condescending to measure it and make it obvious to his senses it will not hence follow that that measuring is so certain as the demonstration it self or that the demonstration would be uncertain without § XVI But to make an end I shall add one argument to prove that this inward Immediate objective Revelation which we have pleaded for all along is the only sure certain and
by some citations out of them hereafter to be mentioned will appear though this Doctrine hath not since the Apostacy so far as ever I could observe been so distinctly and evidently held forth according to the Scriptures Testimony as it hath pleased God to reveal it and preach it forth in this day by the witnesses of his Truth whom he hath raised to that end Which Doctrine though it be briefly held forth and comprehended in the Thesis it self yet I shall a little more fully explain the state of the Controversie as it stands betwixt us and those that now oppose us § III. First then as by the explanation of the former Thesis appears we renounce all natural power and ability in our selves in order to bring us out of our lost and faln condition and first Nature and confess that of our selves we are able to do nothing that is good so neither can we procure remission of sins or justification by any act of our own so as to merit it or draw it as a debt from God due unto us but we acknowledg all to be of and from his Love which is the original and fundamental cause of our acceptance Secondly God manifested this love towards us in the sending of his Beloved Son the Lord Jesus Christ into the world who gave himself for us an Offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour and having made peace through the blood of his Cross that he might reconcile us unto himself and by the Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot unto God and suffered for our sins the Just for the unjust that he might bring us unto God Thirdly then forasmuch as all men who have come to man's estate the Man Jesus only excepted have sinned therefore all have need of this Saviour to remove the Wrath of God from them due to their offences in this respect he is truly said to have born the Iniquities of us all in his Body on the Tree and therefore is the Only Mediator having qualified the Wrath of God towards us so that our former sins stand not in our way being by vertue of his most satisfactory Sacrifice removed and pardoned Neither do we think that remission of sins is to be expected sought or obtained any other way or by any works or Sacrifice whatsomever though as has been said formerly they may come to partake of this remission that are ignorant of the History So then Christ by his death and sufferings hath reconciled us to God even while we are Enemies that is he offers reconciliation unto us we are put into a capacity of being reconciled God is willing to forgive us our iniquities and to accept us as is well expressed by the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.19 God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them and hath put in us the Word of Reconciliation And therefore the Apostle in the next verses treats them in Christs stead to be reconciled to God intimating that the Wrath of God being removed by the obedience of Christ Jesus he is willing to be reconciled unto them and ready to remit the sins that are past if they repent We consider then our Redemption in a two fold respect or state both which in their own Nature are perfect though in their application to us the one is not nor cannot be without respect to the other The first is the Redemption performed and accomplished by Christ for us in his Crucified Body without us The other is the Redemption wrought by Christ in us which no less properly is called and accounted a Redemption than the former The first then is that whereby man as he stands in the fall is put into a capacity of Salvation and hath conveighed unto him a measure of that Power Vertue Spirit Life and Grace that was in Christ Jesus which as the free Gift of God is able to counter-ballance overcome and root out the Evil Seed wherewith we are naturally as in the fall leavened The second is that whereby we witness and know this pure and perfect Redemption in our selves purifying cleansing and redeeming us from the power of Corruption and bringing us into unity Favour and Friendship with God By the first of these two we that are lost in Adam plunged in the bitter and corrupt Seed unable of our selves to do any good thing but naturally joyned and united to evil forward and propense to all iniquity servants and slaves to the Power and Spirit of Darkness are notwithstanding all this so far reconciled to God by the death of his Son while Enemies that we are put into a capacity of Salvation having the glad tidings of the Gospel of peace offered unto us and God is reconciled unto us in Christ calls and invites us to himself in which respect we understand these Scriptures He stew the enmity in himself He loved us first seeing us in our blood he said unto us live he who did not sin his own self bare our sins in his own Body on the Tree and he died for our sins the just for the unjust By the second we witness this capacity brought into act whereby receiving and not resisting the purchase of his death to wit the Light Spirit and Grace of Christ revealed to us we witness and possess a real true and inward Redemption from the power and prevalency of sin and so come to be truly and really redeemed justified and made righteous and to a sensible union and friendship with God Thus he died for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and thus we know him and the Power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his Sufferings being made conformable to us This last follows the first in order and is a consequence of it proceeding from it as an effect from its cause So as none could have enjoyed the last without the first had been such being the will of God so also can none now partake of the first but as he witnesseth the last Wherefore as to us they are both causes of our Justification The first the procuring efficient the other the formal cause Fourthly we understand not by this Justification by Christ barely the good works even as wrought by the Spirit of Christ for they as Protestants truly affirm are rather an effect of Justification than the cause of it But we understand the formation of Christ in us Christ born and brought forth in us from which good works as naturally proceed as Fruit from a Fruitful Tree It is this inward Birth in us bringing forth Righteousness and Holyness in us that doth Justâ—fie us which having removed and done away the contrary Nature and Spirit that did bear rule and bring condemnation now is in dominion over all in our hearts Those then that come to know Christ thus formed in them do enjoy him wholly and undivided who is The LORD our RIGHTEOVSNESS Jer. 23.6 This is to be cloathed with Christ and to have put
be truly one must be much more necessary to make a man a Minister of Christianity seeing the one is a degree above the other and has it included in it nothing less than he that supposeth a master supposeth him first to have attained the knowledg and capacity of a Scholar They that are not Christians cannot be Teachers or Ministers among Christians But this inward call power and vertue of the Spirit of God is necessary to make a man a Christian as we have abundantly proved before in the second proposition according to these Scriptures He that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his As many as are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God Therefore this call moving and drawing of the Spirit must be much more necessary to make a minister Secondly all ministers of the New Testament ought to be ministers of the Spirit and not of the letter according to that 2 Cor. 3.6 and as the old Latine hath it not by the letter but by the Spirit But how can a man be a minister of the Spirit who is not inwardly called by it and who looks not upon the operation and testimony of the Spirit as essential to his call As he could not be a minister of the letter who had thence no ground for his call yea that were altogether a stranger to and unacquainted with it so neither can he be a minister of the Spirit who is a stranger to it and unacquainted with the motions thereof and knows it not to draw act and move him and go before him in the work of the Ministery I would willingly know how those that take upon them to be ministers as they suppose of the Gospel meerly from an outward vocation without so much as being any ways sensible of the work of the Spirit or any inward call therefrom can either satisfie themselves or others that they are Ministers of the Spirit or wherein they differ from the ministers of the Letter For Thirdly if this inward call or testimony of the Spirit were not essential and necessary to a minister then the ministery of the New Testament should not only be no ways preferable to but in divers respects far worse than that of the Law for under the Law there was certain tribe allotted for the ministery and of that tribe certain families set apart for the priesthood and other offices by the immediate command of God to Moses so that the people needed not be in any doubt who should be Priests and Ministers of the holy things yea and besides this God called forth by the immediate testimony of his Spirit several at divers times to teach instruct and reprove his people as Samuel Nathan Elias Elisa Jeremiah Amos and many more of the Prophets But now under the New Covenant where the ministry ought to be more spiritual the way more certain and the access more easie unto the Lord our adversaries by denying the necessity of this inward and Spiritual vocation make it quite otherways for there being now no certain family or tribe to which the ministry is limited we are left in uncertainty to chuse and have pastors at a venture without all certain assent of the will of God having neither an outward rule nor certainty in this affair to walk by for that the Scripture cannot give any certain rule in this matter hath in the third Proposition concerning it been already shewn Fourthly Christ proclaims them all Thieves and Robbers that enter not by him the door into the Sheep-fold but climb up some other way whom the Sheep ought not to hear but such as come in without the Call movings and leadings of the Spirit of Christ wherewith he leads his Children into all truth come in certainly not by Christ who is the Door but some other way and therefore are not true Shepherds Obj. § VIII To all this they object the succession of the Church alledging that since Christ gave a call to his Apostles and Disciples they have conveyed that call to their Successors having power to ordain Pastors and Teachers by which power the authority of ordaining and making Ministers and Pastors is successively conveyed to us so that such who are ordained and called by the Pastors of the Church are therefore true and lawful Ministers and others who are not so called are to be accounted but intruders Hereunto also some Protestants add a necessity though they make it not as a thing essential that besides this calling of the Church every one being called ought to have the inward call of the Spirit inclining him so chosen to his work but this they say is subjective and not objective of which before Answ. As to what is subjoined of the inward call of the Spirit in that they make it not essential to a true call but a supererogation as it were it sheweth how little they set by it since those they admit to the ministery are not so much as questioned in their trials whether they have this or not Yet in that it hath been often mentioned especially by the Primitive Protestants in their treatises of this subject it sheweth how much they were secretly convinced in their minds that this inward call of the Spirit was most excellent and preferable to any other and therefore in the most noble and heroick acts of the reformation they laid claim unto it so that many of the primitive Protestants did not scruple both to despise and disown this outward call when urged by the Papists against them But now Protestants having gone from the testimony of the Spirit plead for the same succession and being pressed by those whom God now raiseth up by his Spirit to reform these many abuses that are among them with the example of their Forefathers practice against Rome they are not at all asham'd utterly to deny that their fathers were call'd to their work by the inward and immediate vocation of the Spirit cloathing themselves with that call which they say their Forefathers had as Pastors of the Roman Church For thus not to go further affirmeth Nicolaus Arnoldus in a pamphlet written against the same Propositions called a Theologick Exercitation sect 40. averring that they pretended not to an immediate act of the Holy Spirit but reformed by the vertue of the ordinary vocation which they had in the Church as it then was to wit that of Rome c. § IX Many absurdities do Protestants fall into by deriving their ministry thus through the Church of Rome As first they must acknowledg her to be a true Church of Christ though only erroneous in some things which contradicts their fore-fathers so frequently and yet truly calling her Anti-Christ Secondly they must needs acknowledge that the Priests and Bishops of the Romish Church are true Ministers and Pastors of the Church of Christ as to the essential part else they could not have been fit subjects for that power and authority to have resided in neither
wills than obey God's will have heaped up Sacrifices without obedience and thinking to deceive God as they do one another give him a shew of Reverence Honour and Worship while they are both inwardly estranged and alienated from his Holy and Righteous Life and wholly strangers to the pure breathings of his Spirit in which the acceptable Sacrifice and Worship is only offered up Hence it is that there is not any thing relating to man's duty towards God which among all sorts of People hath been more vitiated and in which the Devil hath more prevailed than in abusing man's mind concerning this thing and as among many others so among those called Christians nothing hath been more out of order and more corrupted as some Papists and all Protestants do acknowledg As I freely approve whatsoever the Protestants have reformed from Papists in this respect so I meddle not at this time with their controversies about it only it suffices me with them to deny as no part of the true Worship of God that abominable Superstition and Idolatry the Popish Mass the Adoration of Saints and Angels the Veneration of Reliques the Visitation of Sepulchres and all these other Superstitious Ceremonies Confraternities and endless Pilgrimages of the Romish Synagogue Which all may suffice to evince to Protestants that Anti-Christ hath wrought more in this than in any other part of the Christian Religion and so it concerns them narrowly to consider whether herein they have made a clear and perfect Reformation as to which stands the controversie betwixt them and us For we find many of the Branches lopped off by them but the Root yet remaining to wit a Worship acted in and from man's will and spirit and not by and from the Spirit of God for the true Christian and Spiritual Worship of God hath been so early lost and man's wisdom and will hath so quickly and throughly mixed it self herein that both the Apostacy in this respect hath been greatest and the Reformation herefrom as to the evil root most difficult Therefore let not the Reader suddenly stumble at the account of our Proposition in this matter but here us patiently in this respect explain our selves and I hope by the assistance of God to make it appear that though our manner of 〈◊〉 and Doctrine seem most singular and different from all 〈…〉 of Christians yet it is most according to the purest Christian Religion and indeed most needful to be observed and followed and that there be no ground of mistake for that I was necessitate to speak in few words and therefore more obscurely and dubiously in the Proposition it self it is fit in the first place to explain and hold forth out sense and clear the state of the controversie § II. And first let it be considered that what is here affirmed is spoken of the worship of God in Gospel times and not of the worship that was under or before the Law For the particular commands of God to men then are not sufficient to authorize us now to do the same things else we might be supposed at present acceptable to offer Sacrifice as they did which all acknowledge to be ceased So that what might have been both commendable and acceptable under the Law may justly now be charged with superstition yea and Idolatry So that impertinently in this respect doth Arnoldus rage against this Proposition Exercit. Theolog. sect 44. saying that I deny all publick worship and that according to me such as in Enoch 's time publickly began to call upon the Name of the Lord and such as at the command of God went twice up to Jerusalem to worship and that Anna Simeon Mary c. Were Idolaters because they used the publick worship of these times Such a consequence is most impertinent and no less foolish and absurd than if I should infer from Paul's expostulating with the Galatians for their returning to the Jewish Ceremonies that he therefore condemned Moses and all the Prophets as foolish and ignorant because they used those things the forward man not heeding the different dispensation of times ran into this impertinency Though a Spiritual Worship might have been and no doubt was practiced by many under the Law in great simplicity yet will it not follow that it were no superstition to use all those Ceremonies that they used which were by God dispensed to the Jews not as being essential to true worship or necessary as of themselves for transmitting and entertaining an holy fellowship betwixt him and his people but in condescension to them who were inclinable to Idolatty albeit then in this as in most other things the substance was enjoyed under the Law by such as were Spiritual indeed yet was it vailed and surrounded with many Rites and Ceremonies which is no waies lawful for us to use now under the Gospel § III. Secondly albeit I say that this worship is neither limited to times places nor persons yet I would not be understood as if I intended the putting away of all set times and places to worship God forbid I should think of such an opinion Nay we are none of those that forsake the assembly of our selves together but have even certain times and places in which we carefully meet together nor can we be driven thereform by the threats and persecutions of men to wait upon God and worship him To meet together we think necessary for the people of God because so long as we are cloathed with this outward tabernacle there is a necessity to the entertaining of a joynt and visible fellowship and bearing of an outward testimony for God and seeing of the Faces of one another that we concur with our Persons as well as Spirits To be accompanied with that inward love and unity of Spirit doth greatly tend to encourage and refresh the Saints But the limitation we condemn is that whereas the Spirit of God should be the immediate actor moreover perswader and influencer of man in the particular acts of worship when the Saints are met together this Spirit is limited in its operations by setting up a particular man or men to preach and pray in man's will and all the rest are excluded from so much as believing that they are to wait for God's Spirit to move them in such things and so they neglecting that which should quicken them in themselves and not waiting to feel the pure breathings of God's Spirit so as to obey them are led meerly to depend upon the preacher and hear what he will say Secondly in that these peculiar men come not hither to meet with the Lord and to wait for the inward motions and operations of his Spirit and so pray as they feel the Spirit to breath through them and in them and to preach as they find themselves acted and moved by God's Spirit and as he gives utterance so as to speak a word in season to refresh weary Souls and as the present condition and state of the peoples hearts requires
that envious Spirit of man's Eternal Happyness knoweth well how to accomodate himself and fit his snares for all the several dispositions and inclinations of men if he find one not fit to be engaged with gross Sins or Worldly Lusts but rather averse from them and Religiously inclined he can fit himself to beguile such an one by suffering his Thoughts and Imaginations to run upon Spiritual matters and so hurry them to work act and meditate in their own wills for he well knoweth that so long as self bears rule and the Spirit of God is not the principal and chief Actor man is not put out of his reach so therefore he can accompany the Priest to the Altar the Preacher to the Pulpit the Zealot to his Prayers yea the Doctor and Professor of Divinity to his Study and there he can chearfully suffer him to labour and work among his Books yea and help him to find out and invent subtle distinctions and quiddities by which both his mind and others through him may be kept from heeding God's Light in the Conscience and waiting upon him There is not any exercise whatsoever wherein he cannot enter and have a chief place so as the Soul many times cannot discern it except in this alone for he can only work in and by the natural man and his Faculties by secretly acting upon his Imaginations and desires c. And therefore when he to wit the natural man is silent there he must also stand And therefore when the Soul comes to this silence and as it were is brought to nothingness as to her own workings then the Devil is shut out for the Pure Presence of God and shining of his Light he cannot abide because so long as a man is thinking and meditating as of himself he cannot be sure but the devil is influencing him therein but when he comes wholly to be silent as the Pure Light of God shines in upon him then he is sure that the Devil is shut out for beyond the imaginations he cannot go which we often find by sensible experience For he that of old is said to have come to the gathering together of the Children of God is not wanting to come to our Assemblies and indeed he can well enter and work in a meeting that 's silent only as to words either by keeping the minds in various thoughts and imaginations or by stupifying them so as to overwhelm them with a spirit of heavynses and sloathfulness but when we retire out of all and are returned in both by being diligent and watchful upon the one hand and also silent and retired out of all our thoughts upon the other as we abide in this sure place we feel our selves out of his reach yea often-times the Power and Glory of God will break forth and appear just as the bright Sun through many Clouds and Mists to the dispelling of that Power of Darkness which will also be sensibly felt seeking to cloud and darken the mind and wholly to keep it from purely waiting upon God § XIII Thirdly The excellency of this Worship doth appear in that it can neither be stopped nor interrupted by the malice of Men or Devils as all other can Now interruptions and stoppings of Worship may be understood in a twofold respect either as we are hindered from meeting as being outwardly by violence separated one from another or when permitted to meet together as we are interrupted by the Tumult Noise and Confusion which such as are malitious may use to molest or distract us Now in both these respects this Worship doth greatly overpass all others for how far soever People be separate or hindred from coming together yet as every one is inwardly gathered to the measure of Life in himself there is a secret unity and fellowship enjoyed which the Devil and all his Instruments can never break or hinder But Secondly it doth as well appear as to these molestations which occur when we are met together what advantage this True and Spiritual Worship gives us beyond all others seeing in despite of a thousand interruptions and abuses one of which were sufficient to have stopped all other sorts of Christians we have been able through the Nature of this Worship to keep it uninterrupted as to God and also at the same time to shew forth an example of our Christian Patience towards all even often-times to the reaching and convincing of our opposers for there is no sort of Worship used by others which can subsist though they be permitted to meet unless they be either authorized and protected by the Magistrate or defend themselves with the Arm of Flesh but we at the same time exercise Worship towards God and also patiently bear the reproaches and ignominies which Christ Prophesied should be so incident and frequent to Christians for how can the Papists say their Mass if there be any there to disturb and interrupt them Do but take away the Mass-book the Calice the Host or the Priest's Garments yea do but spill the Water or the Wine or blow out the Candles a thing quickly done and the whole business is marred and no Sacrifice can be offered Take from the Lutherans or Episcopalians their Liturgy or Common Prayer Book and no service can be said Remove from the Calvinists Arminians Socinians Independants or Anabaptists the Pulpit the Bible and the Hour-glass or make but such a noise as the Voice of the Preacher cannot be heard or disturb him but so before he come or strip him of his Bible and his Books and he must be dumb for they all think it an Heresie to wait to speak as the Spirit of God giveth utterance and thus easily their whole Worship may be marred But when People meet together and their Worship consisteth not in such outward acts and they depend not upon any ones speaking but meerly sit down to wait upon God and to be gathered out of all visibles and to feel the Lord in Spirit none of these things can hinder them of which we may say of a truth we are sensible witnesses for when the Magistrates stirred up by the malice and envy of our opposers have used all means possible and yet in vain to deter us from meeting together and that openly and publickly in our own hired Houses for that purpose both Death Banishments Imprisonments Finings Beatings Whippings and other such Devilish Inventions have proved ineffectual to terrifie us from our Holy Aâ—â—â—…blies I say and we having thus often-times purchased our Liberty to meet by deep sufferings our opposers have then taken another way by turning in upon us the worst and wickedest People yea the very off scourings of men who by all manner of inhumane beastly and bruitish behaviour have sought to provoke us weary us and molest us but in vain It would be almost incredible to declare and indeed a shame that among many men pretending to be Christians it should be mentioned what things of this kind mens eyes have seen
consisting in outward observations to be performed by man at set times or opportunities which he can do in his own will and by his own natural strength for else it would not differ in matter but only in some circumstances from that under the Law Next as for a reason of this Worship we need not to give any other and indeed none can give a better than that which Christ giveth which I think should be sufficient to satisfie every Christian to wit GOD is a SPIRIT and they that Worship him must Worship him in Spirit and in Truth As this ought to be received because it is the words of Christ so also it is founded upon so clear a demonstration of Reason as sufficiently evidenceth its verity For Christ excellently argues from the analogy that ought to be betwixt the Object and the Worship directed thereunto God is a Spirit Therefore he must be Worshipped in Spirit This is so certain that it can suffer no contradiction Arg. yea and this analogy is so necessary to be minded that under the Law when God instituted and appointed that Ceremonial Worship to the Jews because that Worship was outward that there might be an analogy he saw it necessary to condescend to them as in a special manner to dwell betwixt the Cherubims within the Tabernacle and afterwards to make the Temple of Jerusalem in a sort his habitation and cause something of an outward Glory and Majesty to appear by causing Fire from Heaven to consume the Sacrifices and filling the Temple with a Cloud through and by which mediums visible to the outward Eye he manifested himself proportionably to that outward Worship which he had commanded them to perform So now under the New Covenant he seeing meet in his Wisdom to lead his Children in a path more Heavenly and Spiritual and in a way both more easie and familiar and also purposing to disappoint carnal and outward observations that his may have an Eye more to an inward Glory and Kingdom than to an outward he hath given us for an example hereof the appearance of his Beloved Son the Lord Jesus Christ who instead that Moses delivered the Israelites out of their outward Bondage and by outwardly destroying their Enemies hath delivered and doth deliver us by suffering and dying by the hands of his Enemies thereby Triumphing over the Devil and his and our inward Enemies and delivering us therefrom he hath also instituted an Inward and Spiritual Worship so that God now tieth not his People to the Temple of Jerusalem nor yet unto outward Ceremonies and Observations but taketh the heart of every Christian for a Temple to dwell in and there immediately appeareth and giveth him directions how to serve him in any outward acts Since as Christ argueth God is a Spirit he will now be worshipped in the Spirit where he reveals himself and dwelleth with the contrite in heart Now since it is the heart of man that now is become the Temple of God in which he will be worshipped and no more in particular outward Temples since as Blessed Stephen said out of the Prophet to the Professing Jews of old the Most High dwelleth not in Temples made with hands as before the Glory of the Lord descended to fill the outward Temple it behoved to be purified and cleansed and all polluted stuff removed out of it yea and the place for the Tabernacle was overlaid with Gold the most pretious clean and clearest of all metals so also before God be worshipped in the inward Temple of the heart it must also be purged of its own filth and all its own thoughts and imaginations that so it may be fit to receive the Spirit of God and to be acted by it and doth not this directly lead us to that inward silence of which we have spoken and exactly pointed out And further This Worship must be in Truth intimating that this Spiritual Worship thus acted is only and properly a true Worship as being that which for the reasons above observed can not be counterfeited by the Enemy nor yet performed by the Hypocrite § XVI And though this Worship be indeed very different from the divers established invented Worships among Christians and therefore may seem strange to many yet hath it been testified of commended and practised by the most Pious of all sorts in all ages by many evident Testimonies might be proved so that from the professing and practicing thereof the name of Mysticks hath arisen as of a certain Sect generally commended by all whose Writings are full both of the explanation and of the commendation of this sort of worship where they plentifully assert this inward introversion and abstraction of the mind as they call it from all Images and Thoughts and the prayer of the will yea they look upon this as the heighth of Christian perfection so that some of them though professed Papists do not doubt to affirm that such as have attained this method of Worship or are aiming at it as in a Book called Sancta Sophia put out by the English Benedictines Printed at Doway anno 1657. Tract 1. Sect. 2. cap. 5. Need not nor ought to trouble or busie themselves with frequent and unnecessary Confessions with exercising corporal labours and austerities the using of Vocal Voluntary Prayers the hearing of a number of Masses or set Devotions or exercises to Saints or Prayers for the Dead or having solicitous and distracting cares to gain Indulgences by going to such and such Churches or adjoyning ones self to confraternities or intangling ones self with Vows and Promises because such kind of things hinder the Soul from observing the Operations of the Divine Spirit in it and from having liberty to follow the Spirit whether it would draw her And yet who knows not but that in such kind of observations the very substance of the Popish Religion consisteth Yet nevertheless it appears by this and many other passages which out of their Mystik writers might be mentioned how they look upon this Worship as excelling all other and that such as arrived hereunto had no absolute need of the others yea see the Life of Balthazar Alvares in the same Sancta Sophia Tract 3. Sect. 1. cap. 7. such as tasted of this quickly confessed that the other Forms and Ceremonies of Worship were useless as to them neither did they perform them as things necessary but meerly for order or examples sake and therefore though some of them were so overclouded with the common darkness of their profession yet could they affirm that this Spiritual Worship was still to be retained and sought for though there be a necessity of omitting their outward Ceremonies Hence Bernard as in many other places so in his Epistle to one William Abot of the same order saith Take heed to the Rule of God the Kingdom of God is within you and afterwards saying that rheir outward orders and rules should be observed he adds But otherwise when it shall happen that none
of these two must be omitted in such a case these are much rather to be omitted than those former for by how much the Spirit is more excellent and noble than the Body by so much are Spiritual exercises more profitable than corporal Is not that then the best of Worships which the best of men in all ages and of all sects have commended and which is most suitable to the Doctrine of Christ I say is not that Worship to be followed and performed And so much the rather as God hath raised a People to testifie for it and preach it to their great refreshment and strengthening in the very face of the World and notwithstanding much opposition who do not as these Mystiks make of it a mystery only to be attained by a few men or women in a Cloyster or as their mistake was after wearying themselves with many outward Ceremonies and Observations as if it were the consequences of such a labour But who in the free love of God who respects not Persons and was near to hear and reveal himself as well to Cornelius a Centurion and a Roman as to Simeon and Anna and who discovered his Glory to Mary a poor Hand-maid and to the poor Shepherds rather than to the High Priests and Devout Proselytes among the Jews in and according to his free love finding that God is revealing and establishing this Worship and making many poor Trades-men yea young boys and girles witnesses of it do intreat and beseech all to lay aside their own Will-worships and voluntary acts performed in their own wills and by their own meer natural strength and power without retiring out of their own vain imaginations and thoughts or feeling the pure Spirit of God to move and stir in them that they may come to practise this acceptable worship which is in Spirit and in Truth But against this worship they object § XVII First It seems to be an unprofitable exercise Obj. for a man to be doing or thinking nothing and that one might be much better imployed either in meditating upon some good subject or otherwise praying to or praising God I answer That is not unprofitable which is of absolute necessity before any other duty can be acceptably performed Answ. as we have shewn this waiting to be Moreover those have but a carnal and gross apprehension of God and of the things of his Kingdom that imagine that men please him by their own workings and actings whereas as hath been shewn the first step for a man to fear God is to cease from his own thoughts and imaginations and suffer God's Spirit to work in him for we must cease to do evil ere we learn to do well and this medling in things Spiritual by man's own natural understanding is one of the greatest and most dangerous evils that man is incident to being that which occasioned our first Parents fall to wit a forwardness to desire to know things and a medling with them both without and contrary to the Lord's command Obj. Secondly some object if your worship meerly consist in inwardly retiring to the Lord and feeling of his Spirit arise in you and then to do outward acts as ye are led by it what need ye have publick meetings at set times and places since every one may enjoy this at home or should not every one stay at home until they be particularly moved to go to such a place at such a time since to meet at set times and places seems to be an outward observation and ceremony contrary to what ye at other times assert Answ. I answer first To meet at set times and places is not any religious act or part of worship in it self but only an outward conveniency necessary for our seeing one another so long as we are cloathed with this outward Tabernacle and therefore our meeting at set times and places is not a part of our worshsp but a preparatory accommodation of our outward man in order to a publick visible worship since we set not about the visible acts of worship when we meet together until we be led thereunto Secondly God hath seen meet so long as his Children are in this world to make use of the outward senses as a means to convey Spiritual Life as by speaking praying c. which cannot be done to mutual edification but when we hear and see one another but also for to entertain an outward visible testimony for his Name in the world he causeth the inward Life which is also many times not conveyed by the outward senses the more to abound when his Children assemble themselves diligently together to wait upon him that as Iron sharpeneth Iron so the seeing of the face one of another when both are inwardly gathered unto the Life giveth occasion for the Life secretly to arise and pass from vessel to vessel and as many Candles lighted and put in one place do greatly augment the light and makes it more to shine forth so when many are gathered together into the same Life there is more of the Glory of God and his Power appears to the refreshment of each individual for that he partakes not only of the Light and Life raised in himself but in all the rest and therefore Christ hath particularly promised a blessing to such as assemble together in his Name seeing he will be in the midst of them Matth. 18.20 And the Author to the Hebrews doth precisely prohibit the neglect of this duty as being of very dangerous and dreadful consequence in these words Heb· 10.24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works Not forsaking the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledg of the Truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins And therefore the Lord hath shewn that he hath a particular respect to such as thus assemble themselves together because that thereby a publick testimony for him is upheld in the earth and his Name is thereby glorified and therefore such as are right in their Spirits are naturally drawn to keep the Meetings of God's People and never want a Spiritual influence to lead them thereunto And if any do it in a meer customary way they will no doubt suffer condemnation for it Yet cannot the appointing of places and times be accounted a ceremony and observation done in man's will in the worship of God seeing none can say it is an act of worship but only a meer presenting of our persons in order to it as is abovesaid Which that it was practised by the primitive Church and Saints all our adverlaries do acknowledg Lastly some object Obj. That this manner of Worship in silence is not to be found in all the Scripture I answer We make not silence to be the sole matter of our Worship Answ. since as I have abovesaid there are many Meetings which are seldom if ever altogether silent some or
thou determine not precisely to speak what before thou hast meditated whatsoever it be for though it be lawful to determine the Text which thou art to expound yet not at all the interpretation lest if thou so dost thou take from the Holy Spirit that which is his to wit to direct thy speech that thou mayst Prophecy in the Name of the Lord denuded of all Learning Meditation and Experience and as if thou hadst studied nothing at all committing thy heart thy tongue and thy self wholly unto his Spirit and trusting nothing to thy former studying or meditation but saying with thy self in great confidence of the Divine Promise the Lord will give a word with much power unto those that preach the Gospel But above all things be careful thou follow not the manner of Hypocrites who have written almost word by word what they are to say as if they were to repeat some Verses upon a Theatre having learned all their Preaching as they do that act Tragedies and afterwards when they are in the place of Prophecying pray the Lord to direct their tongue but in the mean time shutting up the way of the Holy Spirit they determine to say nothing but what they have written O unhappy kind of Prophets yea and truly cursed which depend not upon God's Spirit but upon their own Writings or meditation Why pray'st thou to the Lord thou false Prophet to give thee his holy Spirit by which thou mayst speak things profitable and yet thou repellest the Spirit why preferrest thou thy meditation or study to the Spirit of God otherwise why committest thou not thy self to the Spirit § XIX Secondly this manner of preaching as used by them considering that they also affirm that it may be and often is performed by men who are wicked or void of true Grace cannot only not edifie the Church beget or nourish true Faith but is destructive to it being directly contrary to the Nature of the Christian and Apostolick Ministry mentioned in the Scriptures For the Apostle preached the Gospel not in the wisdom of words lest the Cross of Christ should be of none effect 1 Cor. 1.17 But this preaching not being done by the actings and movings of God's Spirit but by man's invention and eloquence in his own will and through his natural and acquired parts and learning is in the wisdom of words and therefore the Cross of Christ is thereby made of none effect The Apostles speech and preaching was not with inticing words of man's wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of Power That the Faith of their Hearers should not stand in the Wisdom of men but in the Power of God 1 Cor. 2 3 4 5. But this preaching having nothing of the Spirit and Power in it both the Preachers and Hearers confessing they wait for no such thing nor yet are often-times sensible of it must needs stand in the enticing words of man's wisdom since it is by the meer wisdom of man it is sought after and the meer strength of man's eloquence and enticing words it is uttered and therefore no wonder if the Faith of such as hear and depend upon such Preachers and Preachings stand in the wisdom of men and not in the Power of God The Apostles declared that they spake not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth but which the Holy Ghost teacheth 1 Cor. 2.13 But these Preachers confess that they are strangets to the Holy Ghost his motions and operations neither do they wait to feel them and therefore they speak in the words which their own natural wisdom and learning teacheth them mixing them in and adding them to such words as they steal of the Scripture and other Books and therefore speak not what the Holy Ghost teacheth Thirdly this is contrary to the method and order of the primitive Church mentioned by the Apostle 1 Cor. 14.30 c. where in Preaching every one is to wait for his Revelation and to give place one unto another according as things are revealed But here there is no waiting for a revelation but the Preacher must speak and not that which is revealed unto him but what he hath prepared and premeditated before hand Lastly by this kind of preaching the Spirit of God which should be the chief instructor and teacher of God's people and whose influence is that only which makes all preaching effectual and beneficial for the edifying of Souls is shut out and man's natural wisdom learning and parts set up and exalted which no doubt is a great and chief reason why the preaching among the generality of Christians is so unfruitful and unsuccessful yea according to this Doctrine the Devil may preach and ought to be heard also seeing he both knoweth the Truth and hath as much eloquence as any But what avails excellency of speech if the demonstration and Power of the Spirit be wanting which toucheth the Conscience We see that when the Devil confessed to the Truth yet Christ would have none of his testimony And as these pregnant testimonies of the Scripture do prove this part of preaching to be contrary to the Doctrin of Christ so do they also prove that of ours before affirmed to be conform thereunto § XX. But if any object after this manner Have not many been benefited yea and both converted and edified by the Ministry of such as have premiditated their preachings yea and hath not the Spirit often concurred by its divine influence with preaching thus premeditated so as they have been powerfully born in upon the Souls of the hearers to their advantage I answer though that be granted which I shall not deny it will not infer that the thing was good in it self more than because Paul was met with by Christ to the converting of his Soul riding to Damascus to persecute the Saints that he did well in so doing neither particular actions nor yet whole congregations as we above observed are to be measured by the acts of God's condescension in times of ignorance But besides it hath often times faln out that God having a regard to the simplicity and integrity either of the preacher or hearers hath faln in upon the heart of a Preacher by his power and holy influence and thereby hath led them to speak things which were not in his premeditated discourse and which perhaps he never thought of before and those passing ejaculations and unpremeditated but living exhortations have proved more beneficial and refreshful both to preacher and hearers than all their premeditated Sermons But all that will not allow them to continue in these things which in themselves are not approved but contrary to the practice of the Apostles when God is raising up a people to serve him according to the primitive purity and spirituality yea such acts of God's condescension in times of darkness and ignorance should ingage all more and more to follow him according as he reveals his most perfect and spiritual way § XXI Having hitherto spoken of Preaching
If there be any such thing as vain Oblations or Prayers that are abomination which God heareth not as is certain there are and the Scripture testifies Isa. 66.3 Jer. 14.12 certainly such Prayers as are acted in man's will and by his own strength without God's Spirit must be of that number § XXIV Let this suffice for probation Now I shall proceed to answer their objections when I have said something concerning joyning in prayer with others Those that pray together with one accord use not only to concur in their spirits but also in the gesture of their body which we also willingly approve of It becometh those who approach before God to pray that they do it with bowed knees and with their heads uncovered which is our practice Obj. But here ariseth a controversie Whether it be lawful to join with others by those external signs of reverence albeit not in heart who pray formally nor waiting for the motion of the Spirit nor judging it necessary Answ. We answer Not at all and for our testimony in this thing we have suffered not a little for when it hath faln out that either accidentally or to witness against their worship we have been present during the same and have not found it lawful for us to bow with them thereunto they have often persecuted us not only with reproaches but also with stroaks and cruel beatings for this cause they use to accuse us of pride profanity and madness as if we had no respect or reverence to the worship of God and as if we judged none could pray or were heard of God but our selves Unto all which and many more reproaches of this kind we answer briefly and modestly that it sufficeth us that we are found so doing neither through Pride nor Madness nor Prophanity but meerly lest we should hurt our Consciences the reason of which is plain and evident for since our Principle and Doctrine obligeth us to believe that the Prayers of those who themselves confess they are not acted by the Spirit are abominations how can we with a safe Conscience joyn with them Obj. If they urge that this is the heighth of uncharitableness and arrogancy as if we judged our selves always to pray by the Spirits motion but they never as if we were never deceived by Praying without the motions of the Spirit and that they were never acted by it seeing albeit they judg not the motion of the Spirit always necessary they confess nevertheless that it is very profitable and comfortable and they feel it often influencing them which that it sometimes falls out we cannot deny Answ. To all which I answer distinctly if it were their known and avowed Doctrine not to Pray without the motion of the Spirit and that seriously holding thereunto they did not bind themselves to Pray at certain prescribed times precisely at which times they determine to Pray though without the Spirit then indeed we might be accused of uncharitableness and pride if we never joyned with them and if they so taught and practised I doubt not but it should he lawful for us so to do unless there should appear some manifest and evident hypocrisie and delusion But seeing they profess that they pray without the Spirit and seeing God hath perswaded us that such Prayers are abominable how can we with a safe Conscience joyn with an abomination That God sometimes condescends to them we do not deny albeit now when the Spiritual Worship is openly proclaimed and all are invited unto it the case is otherwise than those old times of Apostasie and Darkness and therefore albeit any should begin to pray in our presence not expecting the motion of the Spirit yet if it manifestly appear that God in condescension did concur with such a one then according to God's will we should not refuse to joyn also but this is rare lest thence they should be confirmed in their false Principle And albeit this seem hard in our profession nevertheless it is so confirmed by the Authority both of Scripture and right Reason that many convinced thereof have embraced this part before other among whom is memorable of late Years Alexander Skein a Magistrate of the City of Aberdeen a man very modest and very averse from giving offence to others who nevertheless being overcome by the Power of Truth in this matter behoved for this cause to separate himself from the publick Assemblies and Prayers and joyn himself unto us Who also gave the reason of his change and likewise succinctly but yet substantially comprehended this controversie concerning Worship in some short questions which he offered to the publick Preachers of the City which I think meet to insert in this place 1. Whether or not should any act of God's Worship be gone about without the motions leadings and actings of the Holy Spirit 2. If the motions of the Spirit be necessary to every particular duty whether should he be waited upon that all our acts and words may be according as he gives utterance and assistance 3. Whether every one that bears the name of a Christian or professes to be a Protestant hath such an uninterrupted measure thereof that he may without waiting go immediately about the duty 4. If there be an indisposition and unfitness at some times for such exercises at lest as to the Spiritual and lively performances thereof whether ought they to be performed in that case and at that time 5. If any duty be gone about under pretence that it is in obedience to the external command without the Spiritual Life and Motion necessary whether such a duty thus performed can in Faith be expected to be accepted of God and not rather reckoned as a bringing of strange Fire before the Lord seeing it is performed at best by the strength of natural and acquired parts and not by the strength and assistance of the Holy Ghost which was typified by the Fire that came down from Heaven which alone behoved to consume the Sacrifice and no other 6. Whether duties gone about in the meer strength of natural and acquired parts whether in publick or private be not as really upon the matter an image of man's invention as the popish worship though not so gross in the outward appearance And therefore whether it be not as real superstition to countenance any worship of that nature as it is to countenance popish worship though there be a difference in the degree 7. Whether it be a ground of offence or just scandal to countenance the worship of those whose professed principle it is neither to speak for edification nor to pray but as the Holy Ghost shall be pleased to assist them in some measure less or more without which they rather chuse to be silent than to speak without this influence Unto these they answered but very coldly and faintly whose answers likewise long ago he refuted Seeing then God hath called us to his spiritual worship and to testifie against the humane and voluntary worships of
really did administer the baptism of water did in so doing not administer the Baptism of Christ so that if there be now but one Baptism as we have already proved we may safely conclude that it is that of the Spirit and not of water else it would follow that the One baptism which now continues were the baptism of water i. e. John's baptism and not the baptism of the Spirit i. e. Christs which were most obsurd If it be said further that though the Baptism of John before Christs was administred was different from it as being the figure only Obj. yet now that both it as the figure and that of the Spirit as the substance is necessary to make up the one baptism I answer this urgeth nothing unless it be granted also that both of them belong to the essence of Baptism Answ. so that Baptism is not to be accounted as truly administred where both are not which none of our adversaries will acknowledg but on the contrary account not only all those truly baptized with the Baptism of Christ who are baptized with water tho they be uncertain whether they be baptized with the Spirit or not but they even account such truly baptized with the baptism of Christ because sprinkled or baptized with water though it be manifest and most certain that they are not baptized with the Spirit as being enemies thereunto in their heart by wicked works So here by their own confession baptism with water is without the Spirit Wherefore we may far safer conclude that the baptism of the Spirit which is that of Christ is and may be without that of Water as appears in that Acts 11. where Peter testifies of these men that they were baptized with the Spirit though not then baptized with Water and indeed the controversie in this as in most other things stands beiwixt us and our opposers in that they not only often times prefer the form and shadow to the power and substance by denominating persons as inheritors and possessors of the thing from their having the form and shadow though really wanting the power and substance and not admitting those to be so denominated who have the power and substance if they want the form and shadow This appears evidently in that those truly baptized with the one baptism of Christ who are not baptized with the Spirit which in Scripture is particularly called the Baptism of Christ if they be only baptized with Water which themselves yet confess to be but the shaddow or figure And moreover in that they account not those who are surely baptized with the Baptism of the Spirit baptized neither will they have them so denominate unless they be also sprinkled with or dipped in Water But we on the contrary do alwaies prefer the power to the form the substance to the shaddow and where the Substance and Power is we doubt not to denominate the Person accordingly though the form be wanting and therefore we alwaies seek first and plead for the Substance and Power as knowing that to be indispensable necessary though the form sometimes may be dispensed with and the figure or tipe may cease when the Substance and Anti-tipe comes to be enjoyed as it doth in this case which shall hereafter be made appear § IV. Fourthly that the one Baptism of Christ is not a washing with Water appears from 1 Pet. 3.21 The like figure whereunto even Baptism doth also now save us not the putting away of the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good Conscience towards God by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. So plain a definition of Baptism is not in all the Bible and therefore seeing it is so plain it may well be preferred to all the coined definitions of the School-men The Apostle tells us first negatively what it is not viz. Not a putting away of the filth of the flesh then surely it is not a washing with Water since that is so Secondly he tells us affirmatively what it is viz. the answer of a good Conscience towards God by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ where affirmatively defines it to be the answer or confession as the Syriak version hath it of a good Conscience Now this answer cannot be but where the Spirit of God hath purified the Soul and the fire of his judgment hath burned up the unrighteous nature and those in whom this work is wrought may be truly said to be baptized with the baptism of Christ i. e. of the Spirit and of Fire Whatever way then we take this definition of the Apostle of Christ's baptism it confirmeth our sentence for if we take the first or negative part viz. that it is not a puting away of the filth of the Flesh then it will follow that water-baptism is not it because that is a puting away of the filth of the Flesh. If we take the second and affirmative definition to wit that it is the answer or confession of a good Conscience c. then Water-baptism is not it since as our Adversaries will not deny Water-baptism doth not alwaies imply it neither is it any necessary consequence thereof Moreover the Apostle in this place doth seem especially to guard against those that might esteem Water-baptism the true baptism of Christ because lest by the Comparison induced by him in the preceeding verse betwixt the Souls that were saved in Noah's Ark and us that are now saved by Baptism lest I say any should have thence hastily concluded that because the former were saved by water this place must needs be taken to speak of Water-baptism to prevent such a mistake he plainy affirms that it â—s not that but another thing He saith not that it is the Water or the putting away of the filth of the Flesh as accompanyed with the answer of a good Conscience whereof the one viz. the Water is the Sacramental Element administred by the Minister and the other the Grace or thing signified conferred by Christ but plainly that it is not the puting away c. than which there can be nothing more manifest to men unprejudicate and judicious Moreover Peter calls this here which saves the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Anti-type or the thing figured whereas it is usually translated as if the like figure did now save us thereby insinuating that as they were saved by water in the Ark so are we now by Water baptism But this interpretation crosseth his sense he presently after declaring the contrary as hath above been observed and likewise it would contradict the opinion of all out opposers For Protestants deny it to be absolutely necessary to Salvation And though Papists say none are saved without it yet in this they admit an exception as of Martyrs c. and they will not say that all that have it are saved by Water-baptism for seeing we are saved by this baptism as those that were in the Ark were saved by Water and that all those that were in the Ark were saved by water it
Water-baptism Thirdly that Baptism which Christ commanded his Apostles was such that as many as were therewith Baptized Arg. did put on Christ. But this is not true of Water-baptism Therefore c. Fourthly the Baptism commanded by Christ to his Apostles was not John's Baptism But Baptism with Water was John's Baptism Therefore c. But first they alledg that Christ's Baptism though a Baptism with Water did differ from John 's because John only Baptized with Water unto Repentance but Christ commands his Disciples to Baptize in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost reckoning that in this form there lieth a great difference betwixt the Baptism of John and that of Christ. I answer as to that John's Baptism was unto Repentance Answ. the difference lieth not there because so is Christ's also for our adversaries will not deny but that adult persons that are baptized ought ere they be admitted to it to repent and confess their sins yea and that Infants with a respect to and consideration of their Baptism ought to repent and confess So that the difference lieth not here since this of repentance and confession agrees as well to Christ's as to John's Baptism But in this our Adversaries are divided for Calvin will have Christ's and John's to be all one Inst. lib. 4. cap. 15. Sect. 7 8. Yet they do differ and the difference is in that the one is by water the other not c. Secondly as to what Christ saith in commanding them to baptize in the Name of the Father Son and Spirit I confess that states the difference and it is great but that lies not only in admitting water-baptism in this different form by a bare expressing of these words for as the Text saith no such thing neither do I see how it can be inferred from it For the Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is into the Name now the Name of the Lord is often taken in Scripture for something else than a bare sound of words or literal expression even forhis Vertue and Power as may appear from Psal. 54.3 Cant. 1.3 Prov. 18.10 and in many more Now that the Apostles were by their Ministry to baptize the Nations into this Name Vertue and Power and that they did so is evident by these Testimonies of Paul above-mentioned where he saith that as many of them as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ this must have been a baptizing into the Name i. e. Power and Vertue and not a meer formal expression of words adjoyned with Water-baptism because as hath been above observed it doth not follow as a natural or necessary consequence of it I would have those who desire to have their Faith built upon no other foundation than the Testimony of God's Spirit and Scriptures of Truth throughly to consider whether there can be any thing further alledged for this interpretation than what the prejudice of Education and Influence of Tradition hath imposed perhaps it may stumble the unwary and inconsiderate Reader as if the very Character of Christianity were abolished to tell him plainly that this Scripture is not to be understood of Baptizing with Water and that this form of Baptizing in the Name of Father Son and Spirit hath no warrant from Matth. 28. c. For which besides the reason taken from the signification of the Name as being the Vertue and Power above expressed let it be considered that if it had been a form prescribed by Christ to his Apostles then surely they would have made use of that form in the administring of Water-baptism to such as they baptized with Water but though particular mention be made in divers places of the Acts who were baptized and how and though it be particularly expressed that they baptized such and such as Acts 2.41.8.12 13 38.9.18.10.48.16.15.18.8 yet there is not a word of this form and in two places Acts 8.16.19.5 it is said of some that they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus by which it yet more appears that either the author of this History hath been very defective who having so often occasion to mention this yet omiteth so substantial a part of Baptism which were to accuse the Holy Ghost by whose guidance Luke wrote it or else that the Apostle did no waies understand that Christ by his Commission Matth. 28. did injoyn them such a form of Water-baptism seeing they did not use it and therefore it is safer to conclude that what they did in administring Water-baptism they did not by vertue of that commission else they would have so used it for our adversaries I suppose would judge it a great Heresie to administer Water-baptism without that or only in the Name of Jesus without mention of Father or Spirit as it is expresly said they did in the two places above cited Secondly they say if this were not understood of Water-baptism it would be a tautology and all one with teaching I say nay baptizing with the Spirit is somewhat further then teaching or informing the understanding for it imports a reaching to and melting the heart whereby it is turned as well as the understanding informed besides we find often in the Scripture that teaching and instructing are put together without any absurdity or needless tautology and yet these two have a greater affinity than teaching and baptizing with the Spirit Thirdly they say Baptism in this place must be understood with Water because it is the action of the Apostles Obj. and so cannot be the Baptism of the Spirit which is the work of Christ and his Grace not of man c. I answer Baptism with the Spirit though not wrought without Christ and his Grace is instrumentally done by men fitted of God Answ. for that purpose and therefore no absurdity follows that Baptism with the Spirit should be expressed as the action of the Apostles for though it be Christ by his Grace that gives Spiritual Gifts yet the Apostle Rom. 1.11 speaks of his imparting to them Spiritual Gifts and he tells the Corinthians that he had begotten them through the Gospel 1 Cor. 4.15 and yet to beget people to the Faith is the work of Christ and his Grace not of men to convert the heart is properly the work of Christ and yet the Scripture often times ascribes it to men as being the instruments And since Paul's commission was to turn People from Darkness to Light though that be not done without Christ co-operating by his Grace so may also baptizing with the Spirit be expressed as performable by man as the instrument though the work of Christ's Grace be needful to concur thereunto so that it is no absurdity to say that the Apostles did administer the Baptism of the Spirit Lastly they say that since Christ saith here that he will be with his Disciples to the end of the world therefore Water-baptism must continue so long Answ. If he had been speaking here of Water-baptism then that might have been urged
end therein is to shew forth the Lord's death and remember his body that was crucified for them and his blood that was shed for them If notwithstanding they believe it is their duty to do it and make it a matter of Conscience to forbear if they do it without that due preparation and examination which every religious act ought to be performed in then instead of truly remembring the Lord's death and his body and his blood they render themselves guilty of it as being in one Spirit with those that crucified him and shed his blood though pretending with thanksgiving and joy to remember it Thus the Scribes and Pharisees of old though in memory of the Prophets they garnished their Sepulchres yet are said by Christ to be guilty of their blood And that no more can be hence inferred appears from another saying of the same Apostle Rom. 14.23 He that doubteth is damned if he eat c. where he speaking of those that judged it unlawful to eat flesh c. saith if they eat doubting they eat their own damnation Now it is manifest for all this that either the doing or forbearing of this was to another that placed no Conscience in it of no moment So I say he that eateth that which in his Conscience he is perswaded is not lawful for him to eat doth eat his own damnation so he also that placeth Conscience in eating bread and wine as a religious act if he do it unprepared and without that due respect wherein such acts should be gone about he eateth and drinketh his own damnation not discerning the Lord's body i. e. not minding what he doth to wit with a special respect to the Lord and by way of special commemoration of the death of Christ. § VI. I having now sufficiently shewn what the true communion of the body and blood of Christ is how it is partaken of and how it has no necessary relation to that ceremony of bread and wine used by Christ with his Disciples it is fit now to consider the nature and constitution of that ceremony for as to the proper use of it we have had occasion to speak of before whether it be a standing ordinance in the Church of Christ obligatory upon all or indeed whether it be any necessary part of the Worship of the New Covenant-dispensation or hath any better or more binding foundation than several other ceremonies appointed and practised about the same time which the most of our opposers acknowledg to be ceased and now no ways binding upon Christians We find this ceremony only mentioned in Scripture in four places to wit Matthew Mark and Luke and by Paul to the Corinthians If any would infer any thing from the frequency of the mentioning of it that will add nothing for it being a matter of fact is therefore mentioned by the Evangelists and there are other things less memorable as often yea oftner mentioned Matthew and Mark give only an account of the matter of fact without any precept to do so afterwards simply declaring that Jesus at that time did desire them to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. To which Luke adds these words This do in remembrance of me If we consider this action of Christ with his Apostles there will appear nothing singular in it for a foundation to such a strange Superstructure as many in their airy imaginations have sought to build upon it for both Matthew and Mark press it as an act done by him as he was eating Matthew saith and as they were eating and Mark and as they did eat Jesus took bread c. Now this act was no singular thing neither any solemn institution of a Gospel ordinance because it was a constant custom among the Jews as Paulus Riccius observes at length in his Coelestial Agricultur that when they did eat the Passover the master of the family did take bread and bless it and breaking it gave of it to the rest and likewise taking wine did the same so that there can nothing further appear in this than that Jesus Christ who fulfilled all Righteousness and also observed the Jewish Feasts and Customs used this also among his Disciples only that as in most other things he laboured to draw their minds to a further thing so in the use of this he takes occasion to put them in mind of his death and sufferings which were shortly to be which he did the oftner inculcate unto them for that they were averse from believing it And as for that expression of Luke Do this in remembrance of me it will amount to no more than being the last time that Christ did eat with his Disciples he desired them that in their eating and drinking they might have regard to him and by the remembring of that opportunity be the more stirred up to follow him diligently through sufferings and death c. But what man of reason laying aside the prejudice of Education and the influence of Tradition will say that this account of the matter of fact given by Matthew and Mark or this expression of Luke to do that in remembrance of him will amount to these consequences which the generality of Christians have sought to draw from it as calling it Augustissimum Eucharistiae Sacramentum venerabile altaris Sacramentum The principal Seal of the Covenant of Grace by which all the benefits of Christ's death are sealed to Believers and such like things But to give a further evidence how these consequences have not any bottom from the practice of that ceremony nor from the words following Do this c. Let us consider another of the like nature as it is at length expressed by John c. 13. ver 3 4.8.13 14 15. Jesus riseth up from Supper and laid aside his Garment and took a Towel and girded himself After that he poureth Water into a Bason and began to wash the Disciples Feet and to wipe them with the Towel wherewith he was girded Peter saith unto him Thou shalt never wash my Feet Jesus answered him If I wash thee not thou hast no part with me So after he had washed their Feet He said Know ye what I have done to you If I then your Lord and Master have washed your Feet ye also ought to wash one anothers Feet For I have given you an Example that ye should do as I have done to you As to which let it be observed that John relates this passage to have been done at the same time with the other of breaking Bread Both being done the night of the passover after Supper If we regard the Narration of this and the circumstances attending it it was done with far more solemnity and prescribed far more punctually and particularly than the former It is said only as he was eating he took bread so that this would seem to be but an occasional business But here he rose up he laid by his Garments he girded himself he poured out the Water he washed
that they shun to witness for Christ for fear of hurt to themselves lest they mistake them As for that private meeting of the Disciples we have only an account of the matter of fact but that suffices not to make of it a president for us and mens aptness to imitate them in that which for ought we know might have been an act of weakness and not in other things of the contrary nature shews that it is not a true zeal to be like those Disciples but indeed a desire to preserve themselves which moves them so to do Lastly as to that of Paul's being conveyed out of Damascus the case was singular and is not to be doubted but it was done by a special allowance from God who having designed him to be a principal Minister of his Gospel saw meet in hss Wisdom to disoppoint the wicked council of the Jews But our adversaries have no such pretext for fleeing whose fleeing proceeds from self preservation not from immediate revelation And that Paul made not this the method of his proceedure appears in that at another time notwithstanding the perswasion of his Friends and certain Prophecys of his sufferings to come he would not be disswaded to go up to Jerusalem which according to the fore-mentioned rule he should have done But lastly to conclude this matter Glory to God and our Lord Jesus Christ that now these twenty five years since we were known to be a distinct and separate People hath given us faithfully to suffer for his Name without shrinking or fleeing the Cross and what liberty we now enjoy it is by his Mercy and not by an outward working or procuring of our own but 't is he has wrought upon the hearts of our opposers nor was it any outward interest hath procured it unto us but the testimony of our harmlesness in the hearts of our Superiors for God hath preserved us hitherto in the patient suffering of Jesus that we have not given away our cause by persecuting any which few if any Christians that I know can say Now against our unparalleled yet innocent and Christian cause our malicious enemies have nothing to say but that if we had Power we would do so likewise This is a piece of meer unreasonable malice and a priviledg they take to judg of things to come which they have not by immediate revelation and surely it is the greatest heighth of harsh judgment to say men would do contrary to their professed Principle if they could who have from their practice hitherto given no ground for it and wherein they only judg others by themselves such conjectures cannot militate against us so long as we are innocent And if ever we prove guilty of persecution by forcing other men by corporal punishment to our way then let us be judged the greatest of Hypocrites and let not any spare to persecute us AMEN saith my Soul The Fifteenth Proposition Concerning Salutations and Recreations c. Seeing the chief end of all Religion is to redeem men from the Spirit and vain conversation of this World and to lead into inward communion with God before whom if we fear always we are accounted happy therefore all the vain customs and habits thereof both in word and deed are to be rejected and forsaken by those who come to this fear such as the taking off the Hat to a man the bowings and cringings of the body and such other Salutations of that kind with all the foolish and superstitious formalities attending them all which man has invented in his degenerate state to feed his Pride in the vain pomp and glory of this world as also the unprofitable Plays frivolous Recreations Sportings and Gaming 's which are invented to pass away the precious time and divert the mind from the witness of God in the heart and from the living sense of his fear and from that Evangelical Spirit wherewith Christians ought to be leavened and which leads into sobriety gravity and godly fear in which as we abide the blessing of the Lord is felt to attend us in those actions which we are necessarily ingaged in order to the taking care for the sustenance of the outward man § I. HAving hitherto treated of the Principles of Religion both relating to Doctrine and Worship I am now to speak of some practices which have been the product of this Principle in those Witnesses whom God hath raised up in this day to testifie for his Truth It will not a little commend them I suppose in the judgment of sober and judicious men that taking them generally even by the Confession of their Adversaries they are found to be free of those Abominations which abound among other Professors such as are Swearing Drunkenness Whoredom Riotousness c. And that generally the very coming among this People doth naturally work such a change so that many vitious and profane persons have been known by coming to this Truth to become sober and vertuous and many light vain and wanton ones to become grave and serious as our adversaries dare not deny yet that they may not want something to detract us for cease not to accuse us for those things which when found among themselves they highly commend thus our gravity they call sullenness our seriousness melancholly our silence sottishness Such as have been vitious and profane among them but by coming to us have left off those evils lest they should commend the truth of our profession they say that whereas they were profane before they are become worse in being hypocritical and spiritually proud If any before dissolute and profane among them by coming to the Truth with us become frugal and diligent then they will charge them with covetousness And if any eminent among them for seriousness piety and discoveries of God come unto us then they will say they were always subject to melancholly and to enthusiasm though before when among them it was esteem'd neither melancholly nor enthusiasm in an evil sense but Christian gravity and Divine revelation Our boldness and Christian suffering the call obstinacy and pertinacy though half as much if among themselves they would account Christian courage and nobility And though thus by their envy they strive to read all relating to us backwards counting these things vice in us which in themselves they would extol as vertues yet hath the strength of Truth extorted this confession often from them that we are generally a pure and clean people as to the outward conversation But this they say is but in policy to commend our heresie But such policy it is say I as Christ and his Apostles made use of and all good Christians ought to do yea so far hath Truth prevailed by the purity of his followers that if one that is called a Quaker do but that which is common among them as to laugh and be wanton speak at large and keep not his word punctually or be overtaken with hastyness or anger they presently say O!
use of these things which we would have wholly laid aside For that Men should be always in the same intentiveness of mind we do plead knowing how impossible it is so long as we are cloathed with this Tabernacle of Clay But this will not allow us at any time so to recede from the Memory of God and of our Souls chief concern as not still to retain a certain sense of his fear which cannot be so much as rationally supposed to be in the use of these thing which we condemn Now the necessary occasions which all are involved into in order to the care and sustentation of the outward man are a relaxation of the mind from the more serious duties and those are performed in the blessing as the mind is so leavened wlth the love of God and sense of his presence that even in doing these things the Soul carryeth with it that Divine influence and Spiritual habit whereby though these Acts as of Eating Drinking Sleeping Working be upon the matter one with what the wicked do yet they are done in another Spirit and in doing of them we please the Lord serve him and answer our end in the Creation and so feel and are sensible of his blessing Whereas the wicked and profane being not come to this place are in whatsoever they do cursed and their ploughing as well as praying is sin Now if any will plead that for Relaxation of mind there may be a liberty allowed beyound these things which are of absolute need to the sustenance of the outward man I shall not much contend against it provided these things be not such as are wholly superfluous or in their proper nature and tendency lead the mind into lust vanity and wantonness as being chiefly contrived and framed for that end or generally experienced to produce these effects or being the common engines of such as are so minded to feed one another therein and to propagate their wickedness to the impoisoning of others seeing there are other innocent divertisements which may sufficiently serve for relaxation to the mind such as for friends to visit one another to hear or read History to speak soberly of the present or past Transactions to follow after Gardnering to use Geometrical and Mathematical Experiments and such other things of this nature in all which things we are not to forget God in whom we both live and are moved Acts 10.26 as not to have alwaies some secret reserve to him and sense of his fear and presence which also frequently exerts it self in the midst of these things by some short aspiration and breathings and that this may neither seem strange nor troublesome I shalt clear it by one manifest instance answerable to the experience of all men it will not be denied but that men ought to be more in the love of God than of any other thing for we ought to love God above all things Now it is plain that men that are taken with love whether it be of a woman or any other thing if it hath taken a deep place in the heart and possess the mind it will be hard for the man so in love to drive out of his mind the person or thing so loved yea in his eating drinking and sleeping his mind will alwaies have a tendency that way and in business or recreations however intent he be in it there will but a very short time be permitted to pass but the mind will let some ejaculation forth towards its beloved And albeit such a one must be conversant in those things that the care of this body and such like things call for yet will he avoid as death it self to do those things that may offend the party so beloved or cross his design in obtaining the thing so earnestly desired though there may be some small use in them the great design which is chiefly in his eye will so ballance him that he will easily look over and dispence with such petty necessities rather than endanger the loss of the greater by them Now that men ought to be thus in love with God and the life to come none will deny and the thing is apparent from these Scriptures Matth. 6.20 But lay up for your selves treasures in heaven Col. 3.2 Set your affection on things above c. And that this hath been the experience and attainment of some the Scripture also declares Psal. 63.1.84 2 Cor. 5.14 And again that these games sports plays dancing comedies c. do naturally tend to draw men from God's fear to make them forget heaven death and judgment to foster lust vanity and wontonness and therefore are most loved as well as used by such kind of persons experience abundantly shews and the most serious and conscientious among all will scarcely deny which if it be so the application is easie § X. Fifthly the use of Swearing is to be considered which is so frequently practised almost among all Christians not only profane Oaths among the profane in their common discourses whereby the most HOLY NAME of GOD is in a horrible manner daily Blasphemed but also solemn Oaths with those that have some shew of piety whereof the most part do defend swearing before the Magistrate with so great zeal that not only they are ready themselves to do it upon every occasion but also stir up the Magistrates to persecute those who out of obedience to Christ their Lord and Master judge it unlawful to swear Upon which account not a few have suffered imprisonment and the spoiling of their goods But considering these clear words of our Saviour Matth. 5.33 34. Again ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time Thou shalt not forswear thy self but shalt perform unto the Lord thine Oaths But I say unto you SWEAR NOT AT ALL neither by Heaven c. But let your Communication be Yea Yea Nay Nay for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil As also the words of the Apostle James 5.12 But above all things my Brethren Swear not neither by Heaven neither by the Earth neither by any other Oath but let your Yea be Yea and your Nay Nay lest ye fall into condemnation I say considering these clear words it is admirable how any one that professeth the Name of Christ can pronounce any Oath with a quiet Conscience far less to persecute other Christians that dare not swear because of their Master Christ his Authority For did any one purpose seriously and in the most rigid manner to forbid any thing comprehended under any general can they use a more full and general prohibition and that without any exception I think not For Christ First proposeth it to us negatively Swear not at all neither by Heaven nor by the Earth nor by Jerusalem nor by thy Head c. And again Swear not by Heaven nor by Earth nor by any other Oath Secondly he presseth it affirmatively But let your Communication be Yea Yea and Nay Nay for whatsoever is