as abrogate How little Antinomians esteeme Moses and the Prophets wee all know 15 The third rancke called Apostolici said we must become young with children Antinomians abandon sense nature reason and say we must live by faith only So hony-combe Towne Saltmarsh Den. 16 The third ranke were Spiritualists who abstained from cloathing meat feasts musicke to Saltmarsh all externalls are legall and carnall 17 The fourth ranke were the holy and sinlesse ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and would not pray the Lords prayer forgive us our sinnes and contended for Saints in this life without spot or wrinkle Crispe and other Antinomians say the beleevers are as cleane from sinne as Christ himselfe and cite the same place Ephes. 5.25 26. for it So Del the spirituall Church is led and taught by the anoynting the carnall Church by councels letter of the word 18 These denyed originall sinne in infants Antinomians deny it in all the elect who are justified from eternity or from Christs Death or from the time of their beleeving 19 The fifth ranke were Silentiaries tacentes they denyed necessity of preaching as Antinomians doe because the anoynting is sufficient they thought it indifferent to deny their Religion 20 The sixt ranke prayed only which Antinomians doe never but praise onely 21 The seaventh were arreptitiously and Enthysiastically inspired and fell in transes and saw visions of lyes Antinomians hold revelations and rapts of the Spirit without the word for their rule 22 The eight rank were these in higher Germany that are called libâri fratres free brethren they were abominable impure and so uncleane that they were excommunicated by the rest they said they were delivered by Christ from all lawes covenants vowes paying of tithes or debts as Saltmarsh saith to doe any thing from these grounds is law-bondage free grace pag. 180 they owe no obedience unto Magistrates they said marriage was free with any of neerest blood that men could not be saved except they were Publicans and Harlots they held men might have many wives at once that after rebaptization they cannot sinne as Eaton the Antinomian saith hony-comb c. 3 p. 25. that not they but the flesh sinned as Towne saith asser pag. 35. 23 The ninth ranke were called also liberi fratres they said baptizing of infants Magistrates oathâs were things indifferent preaching âearing scriptures were needlesse because we shall be all taught of God Sacraments are but common signes that beleevers need not it was free and indifferent to confesse Christ before men if danger be God delights not in our blood nor requires he that we dye for his truth we may dissemble our religion deny Christ before men so we keepe the truth in our hearts I often prove Antinomians to run in this straine 24 The tenth sort were called Huttites from Iohn Hut these took on them to cut off all the Cananites that is all the ungodly with the sword and gave away their goods because they said the day of judgement was neare at hand Ioh. Hut and the like false Prophets in their owne name could not learne wit from Cochebaâ the Jew the son of a starre who called himselfe the Starre of Iacob and Redeemer of Israel but proved Benchozba the sonne of a lye he and his were destroyed by Tynius Ruffus president of Palestina he arose in time of Aelius Adrianus An. 118. or 120 Eusebius eccle Hist. l. 4. c. 5. nor would learne wit from the folly of a Jew who rose Anno. 379 in the time of Theodosius the great he called himselfe Moses promised to lead the people to Canaan drye through the sea caused the Iewes leap into the sea who drowned themselves and beat out their brains in the rocke and counterfeit Moses it may be the Devill disapeared and was seen no more Tripart Hist. l. 12. c. 9. Nicep l. 14. c. 4. 25 The eleventh ranke were called Augustinians from one Augustine a Bohemian Enthysiast they were ruled by scriptureles dreames 26 Anabaptists deny that scripture can prove any thing by consequence but it must be in so many syllables logicke and consequencies say Antinomians are to be abandoned in divinity 27 Melchior Hoffman a Skinner an 1529 said Strasburg was new Ierusalem 2 He was to be called an Apostle from heaven 3 Leaned to Enthysiasmes 28 Hoffman said he was Elias and Cornel Polterman Enoch 29 Menno Simonz the sonne of a secular priest borne in Frizland neere Harlingen about an 1532 rejected Enthysiasmes and yet slighted the scriptures 2 rejected apostolick calling 3 maintained the grosest Pelagianisme that the saints live free from all sinne as Eaton the Antinomian honie-combe CHAP. IIII. Of David George DAvid Georgius born in Delâ was the son of a Mountebank or Iugler say some by trade a painter he vented his heresie an 1540 he was a composed plaistered hypocrite austerer than any bare footed Fryer or Capucian did often fast three dayes together was eloquent he taught that He himselfe 1 was the sonne of God the true and spirituall David borne of the spirit where as Iesus Christ was borne of the flesh 2 He was sent to restore the house of Israel not by death but by grace 3 The doctrine of Moses the Prophets Christ and the Apostles was unperfect carnall litterall Antinomians reject all written law and Gospell as a legall covenant of works and his was spirituall and perfect 4 He said the law was abolished as doe also Antinomians and he was the true and living law to his discipâes Antinomians say the Spirit of life in beleivers is all their law Del. Ser. pag. 26. Saltmarsh free grace 146. 5 He transformed the scriptures in allegories said Angels were but motions in the minde of man so do Familists and Antinomians Randel the Familist preached that because Christ preached parables therefore it is lawfull to expound the scriptures in allegories and that all things in nature and art were sacraments of the supernaturall mysteries of the Gospell therefore they expound God manifested in the flesh to be a believer Godded and Christed with the being of God in Faith and love The pâice called Philosophy dissected maketh all the workes of Creation Articles of faith 6 He said to act adulteries and all villanies without sense of sin and shame as with a deadned conscience was the onely spirituall mortification and new birth his followers should labour for and then and not while then were they borne of the Spirit the same Libertines taught and so doe Antinomians and Familists that to repent sorrow and mourne for sin or to be touched with any sense thereof or from this sense to confesse sin is from fleshly unebeliefe and the old Adam then to sinne without sense is faith and mortification and this is cousen German with the Libertines regeneration and nearer 7 All marriage of nearest of bloud though under Moses and Christ they were forbidden yet are they now lawfull under this mâre spirituall
but the Son of God became flesh in us that is weak in the Saints who beare his image therefore Gorton expounding flesh and blood Joh. 6. saith p. 106 107. By blood is here meant the life Spirit and power of the Son of God as he discends from the Father even as the life spirit power vertue and vigour of the Son of man runnes in the blood in creatures and such is the life discent and power of the Son of man as he is of the life discent and power of the Father from above and so is God blessed for ever Amen So the Apostle this is he that came by water and blood that is by weaknesse and strength that is by weaknesse in us or in our nature then not in Christ personally but by power in God or in that nature divine so is he said in the like sense to be crucified in the flesh but quickned in the Spirit then it s but metaphoricall flesh and blood that Christ took not reall and materiall but in regard the Saints that bear his image are men Christ is a man in them and Christ weak in them that is Christ lives in them according to the wisdome skill strength study and forecast about the things of God that a creature meerly as he is a creature is able to procure and bring forth now the best thing that is in man saith he p. 106. which is his wisdome is enmity with God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be so we have from these Familists an imaginary and a Metaphoricall Saviour And if we eat the flesh of Christ and drink his blood saith he p. 107 108. that is if we eat and communicate with that weaknesse and frailty that is naturally in man and which the Son of God assumed and took into unity he saith not unto the unity of the second person with himself without alike drinking in and communication with that spirit and life wherein he visits us and comes into our nature from on high even out of the bosome of the Father then doe we surfeit and suffocate the Spirit so is flesh eaten to the body without drink and dye in our selves and in our sins and so also if we neglect that weaknesse that is in us as though no such thing were and dreame of an high and spirituall estate which doth not arise out of and is the result through the wisdome of God of that weaknesse that is in us then doe we either sink in our folly and become sottish the things of God being drunk up onely with the things of this naturall life else are we puffed up and become giddy in our selves thinking that we know something when indeed we know nothing as we ought In all these Familists 1 Deny the Trinity three persons in on God And if the reader consider it Saltm speaketh the same way with Gortine and H. Nich. Sparkles of glory p. 288. Others say he meaneth himselfe and Familists whom he divideth from Protestants the mystery of salvation is no other then Immanuel or God with us or God in flesh Christ being no more but an anoynted one and that anoynted one is our nature or weakenesse anoynted with the spirit even God himselfe who is strength There is not a word here of God and man in one person and of true God consubstantiall with the Father and man like us in all things except sinne in the unity of one person but Christ is our nature in every Saint and beleever and weaknesse anoynted with the spirit Then every saint is Christ and Christ hath no body and soule of his owne but every beleever Goded deified and anoynted with the spirit is Christ. 2 Christ is not one single man who was crucified on Mount Calvery But every weake beleever made of flesh and a fraile bodie and of a soule Goded and anoynted with the spirit is God manifest in the flesh and another Messiah we have not but every Saint is his owne Saviour Christ is nothing but mysticall Christ by his spirit dwelling in the flesh and weake nature of all Saints is not this the Antichrist who denyeth that Christ is come in the flesh Now Christ suffers in us saith Gortyn p. 105. Because no other creature in the creation was made according to the Image of God but man alone and so no other creature in regard of degeneration can bear the image of death and hell but man alone Then the Father and Spirit suffers in us and our weaknesse because of the unity of images that is in God and in us If this be all here is no incarnation or suffering personall in the Sonne more then of the Father and the Spirit 2 This is but the imaginary and Metaphoricall Saviour of H. Nich. and unclean Familists for if flesh and blood be but Metaphors that is the weakenesse and nothingnesse of man and blood be Metaphorically only the power of the divine nature and if the blood and water that issued from Christs side was not materiall blood and water and if Christs being crucified according to the flesh and his living according to the Spirit be but faire Metaphors as we say the Medows laugh when they are but vigorous greene and flourishing and are not capable of materiall laughter more then of a reasonable soule then surely Christ was not true man borne of the virgine Mary but a Metaphoricall man that is weake in us who alone are his Image by creation 3 Then dyed hee but in phantasie and Metaphorically for his flâsh that hee was crucified in is not true flesh nor the true manhood assumed in the unity of his person but only it is Metaphorically the weaknesse that is in us And John saith Hee saw the water and the blood that came out of his side and did beare record and his record is true yea they heard Christ with their ears they saw him with their bodily eyes and looked on him and their hands handled the Lord of life John leaned on his bosome they pierced his hands and his feet they parted his garments among them they tooke downe his body off the Crosse folded it in clean linen layed him in a new Tombe hee truely rose againe eate with his Disciples when they doubted if it was he he called to them to make their senses and fingers witnesses a spirit hath not flesh and bones as yee see I have 1 Joh. 1.1 2 3. Joh. 19. Mat. 26 27 28. Luk. 22.23 ch 24.39 40 41. And he was seene of all the Disciples and was seen of more than five hundred brethren at once 1 Cor. 15.5 6. And hee shewed himselfe to his Disciples after his suffering by many infallible proofes being seene of them fourty days and spake of the things concerning the Kingdome of God yea Paul saith Act. 20. â28 God purchased a Church by his blood Our Divines with good reason say Here is concluded against the Socinians a real satisfaction a true real not a morall
unity but imaginary unity because outward and in visible formes before men not inward not spirituall not most glorious so are whoring lying chambering sinnes in the justified only before men and done by the flesh not sinnes before God nor against any Law all that preach duties and against such sinnes to our Familists are literall outside carnall and legall preachers to H. Nicholas Evang. c. 4. s. 4. unilluminated unregenerated unrenewed ungodded unsent all because they are Scripture-learned and to these men the Scripture is but as formes and outward things and so no sin to neglect it there is no unity of professing hearing speaking the same truth of walking as the Redeemed of the Lord. Love in the heart is all H. Nich. 1 Exhor c. 16. s. 2. calleth all Ordinances and Chriâtian walking in Christ false exercises or usages which beare a godly shew 1. The Author will have no reall unity but inward and spirituall What then is become of all outward Ordinances that have an outside by Christs appointment answering to an inside and these two united make but one and the same spirituall Ordinance for the body followeth the soule and both follow the Spirit of Jesus according to the written word and the vocall praying the preaching the hearing visibly acted by a beleever in the outward is no lesse spirituall when inside and outside both joyne with the word and Spirit then the inward acts of the minde transacted only within the soule This Author following H. Nicholas and Mr. Del and Saltmarsh would exclude all unity in the body to the head that consists in outward Ordinances as if Christ were not the head of the body visible and of the true visible Church as well as of the invisible Church and as if Christ as the head of the Church did not command and appoint there should bee a visible Ministery an externall Church-government which is spirituall and outward Ordinances of hearing preaching praying Sacraments written word of the old and new Testament but had left all these free to men therefore H Nicholas condemns all knowledge of the Scriptures as Ceremoniall false literall and fleshly wisdome So his Epist. to the two daughters of Warwicke speakes and Evangel ch 34. he rejects the figurative services and Ceremonies that arise from the knowledge of the Scriptures as contrary to the spirituall and inward service of the holy being of God in love and godly wisdome Therefore these Authors call the word of God and externall Ordinances nothing but formes the letter characters figures flesh or externall fleshly Ordinances that perish with the using and are no better then the Ceremonies of Moses Law that are gone and buried and may not be used Saltmars Sparkles of glory p 293.287 288 243 244 245 246 247. Del uniformity examined pag. 7.8 wee know Familists and especially Mr. Dels Sermon before the House of Commons p. 7 8 9 10 18 19 c. cryes downe all Reformation but that which is of the heart and inward and spirituall So Saltmarsh Sparkles p. 217. And this Antichrist is one who denyes Christ comming in the flesh or God in his people who is comming and comming that is ever flowing out in fresh and glorious discoveries and manifestations of himselfe forbidding all beyond them as new lights and false revelations and fixing God and his appearances in their conceptions votes and results and councels and consequents and Lawes of worship In which you see these are one and the same denying Christ comming in the flesh and denying his comming in fresh and glorious discoveries of himselfe then must God incarnate and manifested in the flesh and borne of a woman and of the seed of David be nothing but God by his Spirit opening a new light of Familisme as H. N. taught every spirituall man was Christ and there was not another second Adam and every sinning man the first Adam 2. Christ in the flesh is but a forme and flesh and to bee under his heavenly and spirituall teaching as he preacheth Matth. 13. Joh. 13. Joh. 15 16 17. c. is to bee under the Law and the bondage thereof as under a more legall Christ then that of all Spirit and pure and glorious Spirit It is most considerable that Familists and Antinomians who make every Saint to be Godded and Christed with the godly being make every beleever to be God manifested in the flesh And as Papists make as many hosts as many Christs in their dreame of Transubstantiation so only Familists and Papists multiply many Christs to us and no doubt Christ had an eye to both but specially to Familists Matth. 24.23 then if any man say unto you Loe here is Christ or loe there is Christ beleeve it not 24. For there shall arise false Christs and false Prophets c. 3. The forbidding of new lights and new discoveries of God beyond what is revealed in the Scripture to which under pain of a curse we may not adde Rev. 22.17.18 is unlawfull because the scripture to Saltmarsh is but a forme that perisheth with the using and to Familists a fixing of God Idolatrously wâthin created formes Vnion in formes commonly called Vniformity every Christian for peace sake will study Why should the Authour speake of Uniformity with such an estranging and detestable expression for with his hand lifted up to the most high God he swears to endeavour to bring the Churchâs of God in the three Kingdomes to the nearest Vniformity in Religion confession of faith forme of Church government Now by uniformity we understand not figures words characters which we tye no man too so they speake not as Hereticks and Familists who tell us of an incarnating of God in every Saint or a Godding a Christing of a Creature see H. Nicholas Evange c. 34. Nor doe we meane union in time places persons as Mr. Del ignorantly phancies in his Vniformity examined he may examine his owne examination for he speakes he knowes not what by Vniformity we meane union in the things and in the true Doctrine and substantial practises of faith worship government of the Church in the fundamentals But the Arguments of Del and other Familists prove that the Saints are not to be taught by any ordinances preaching reading hearing I should be glad this Authour were neither of the faith of Del nor Saltmarsh but hâs letter smellâth rankly of them Yea by this way all England are licenced ãâã doe what they list on the Lords day and the Booke of spoââs licencing all Plays and pasttimes from morning till night on the Lords day must be called for agaâne which ãâ¦ã Bishops were ashamed of for Vniformity of all Christians and Churches to âeâpe the Lords day is but a form and no spirituall worship to Familists Del saith the spirituall Church is taught by the anoynting the carnall Church by councels By this the Familists dâny all Oathes and Covenants and abjuration of false Doctrine under the new Testament in which they will
ãâã ãâã ãâã carried rolled moved acted immediately by the Holy Ghost for God used not reason or humane discourâing as an intervening organ or acting instrument to the devising and inventing of spirituall or Gospell truths 2 Pet. 1.20 21. but yet this immediately inspiring Spirit spake written Scripture commanded the Ordinance of actuall prophesying commanded the Prophets to write and the people to hear and to read the words of the Prophesie Antinomians and Familists conceive that now when divine truths are framed and come forth to the immediately inspired Scripture that the same immediately inspired Spirit must act the Saints as meere passive organs to preach in the Spirit immediately to pray to heare to write in the Spirit but then Familists should be as infallible as the Prophets both in preaching praying interpreting Scripture but the ordinary actings of the Spirit doth include and carry along the actings of reason minde will and affections but elevated above themselves The Spirit is opposed to carnall and wilde logicke and ratiotinations and so all carnall thoughts and sinfull ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã discourses are Sathans fortifications and Souldier-works against the knowledge of God 2 Cor. 10.5 6. 1 Cor. 2.1 2 3 4. 1 Cor. 1.17 but the Spirit siteth upon and acteth reason to make our whole service ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã reasonable service yea and all the Scripture is a masse and booke of discoursive refined reason unbeleevers are ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã absurd unreasonable men going against sense and sound reason And the spirit goeth on in a perswading way 2 Cor. 5.11 Gal. 1.10 Paul Act. 13.43 perswaded them to continue in the grace of God Act. 18.4 he perswaded the Jewes and Greeks Act. 19.8 hee perswaded the things concerning the Kingdome of God So doth the Spirit carry us along with exhorting Act. 2.40 2 Cor. 9.5 2 Thess. 3.12 2 Tim. 4.2 Heb. 3.13 1 Pet. 5.1 Jude v. 3. 5. Amongst the characters of a spirituall state and condition Some concerne the state some the actions For the state a renewed man is said to be in the Spirit Gal. 5.25 If ye live in the Spirit let us also walke in the spirit So as the Spirit is the life of the man in his spirituall walking so are we as touching our state said to receive the Spirit Gal. 3.2 Rom. 8.15 to be borne of the Spirit as receiving a new spirituall nature Joh. 3.6 Gal. 4.29 and the Spirit said to dwell in us Jam. 4.5 and the spirit is given to us Rom. 5.5 For the actings the Spirit determineth the action according to the nature and specification and rendereth the action spirituall so as they are led in their conversation by the Spirit and so are knowne to themselves to be the Sonnes of God Rom. 8.14 If ye mortifie through the Spirit the deeds of the flesh ye shall live Rom· 8.13 Paul was pressed in Spirit and testified to the Jewes that Jesus was Christ Act. 18.5 Apollos fervent in Spirit spake and taught diligently Rom. 8.25 For wee through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousnesse by faith 6. The exercise of spirituall acts is managed most from the Spirit when there is more Spirit and lesse Law in our acts of obedience But that this may be rightly understood give me leave to distinguish in the Law 1. Directive and obliging light revealing the binding will of God 2. The setting of it on with power and life upon the minde will and affections 3. The compelling rigor of the Law in exacting highest and superlative perfect obedience in thought word and deed and the terrifying threatning Directive and obliging light being the commanding will of the Lawgiver revealed to us in the written word is not contrary to the Spirit but written to us by a divinely and immediately inspiring Spirit as all Scripture and as the written letter of the Gospel 2 Tim. 3.16 17. though to us naturally fallen in sinne in the second respect or in regard of the setting on of this directive obliging light upon the soule with power and life to produce actuall obedience the written and preached Law as Law and as a Covenant of workes is void of the Spirit and hath no more power to cause us obey then dead and spiritlesse figures and characters written on ââone can worke men to bow their necke to obey the Law of God 2 Cor. 3.6 7. yea but so the written and preached Gospell externally proposed without the Spirit is a dead letter also I grant the Gospell in its letter both promiseth a new heart and a new spirit which the Law as the Law doth not and when the Spirit joynes with the preached Gospel and the Law also doth prepare the sinner for Christ by the word of the Gospell the Spirit is given and so the Apostles and Pastors are Ministers of the New Testament not of the letter but of the Spirit But 3. The Law in compelling under the paine of eternall death to superlatively perfect obedience hath the Spirit by accident and extrinsecally conjoyned with it as it is the Spirit of the Mediator that makes use of it to cause the broken man see his unpayable and to him impossible debts and cause him heare the tinkling and noise of the fetters and chaines of hell that he may flye to the Gospell-surety which the same Spirit reveales to him in the Gospell Now this is an extrinsecall use of the Law For 1. The Law should have its intire and perfect essence and full operation in rewarding or punishing if we suppose there never had beene a surety for sinners nor a Gospell 2. It s a Gospell-spirit that makes this use of the Law above its nature for that which can but reveale to the broken man debts unpayable by him and incloseth him in an eternall jayle and gives no strength nor way of redemption cannot have of it selfe any influence to lead the broken man to a surety But this the Law doth of it selfe hath not of it selfe one fourth part of an ounce of Gospell-courtesie or grace to bestow on the sinner But 2. The compelling rigor of the Law as touching perfect and eternally active and passive obedience must bee considered in its severall branches as it commands perfect active obedience or as it obligeth to passive obedience it respects two sorts of persons the man Christ in the dayes of his flesh and the elect Angels or 2. fallen sinners In the former consideration the Law in it selfe as the Law eternally and immutably presseth perfect active obedience but gives not strength to obey but supposeth strength to these to whom it is first given but if so be that these to whom it is given have abundance of the Spirit and strength to obey perfectly as Christ in the dayes of his flesh and the elect Angells have the Law in its highest rigor of commanding perfect obedience it is not properly rigor though we must use the word but strictnesse hath no compulsive power
the Spirit not that wee are partakers of the essence or substance of the Godhead or equall with Christ in any respect hee speaketh soundly as the confession of Britaine cleareth but his words are not sound 2. Whoever except Henry Nicholas and David Georgius spake as Del who saith The Spirit of God dwels in our flesh till the whole body of sinne bee destroyed and the naturall man be made spirituall If his meaning be as Familists and Antinomians dreame that Christ incarnate is nothing but every godly man Christed and made conforme to the image of Christ we are at a point and know his minde so teach the New England Familists and the Author of the Bright Starre who tells us of God humanized and that the Crosse of God is God 3. The Spirit dwelleth not in our flesh that is in our sinfull and unrenewed part for so is flesh taken Rom. 7. who dreamed that grace dwelleth in originall sinne or if by flesh he meane the naturall man or the carnall man or the outward man that is in our person hee then thinks this outward and naturall man or our body is turned in a spirit or spirituall nature so as we are made by justification spirituall as Angels and need no more Ordinances Word Seales reading the written Scripture then if we were glorified Saints as Saltmarsh speaketh of the beleevers and as he himselfe saith You may as well goe about to bring the Angels of heaven under an outward and secular power as the faithfull who being borne of the Spirit are more spirituall then they If so then beleevers being more spirituall then Angels and so lâsse literall and lesse carnall because by imputed righteousnesse they are Christed and Godded and so the body of sinne destroyed by the the imputed righteousnesse of Christ fully and compleatly then as Angels need no secular power because they are spirituall so need they not heare the Morall Law preached nor the threatnings thereof nor need they give attendance to reading nor need they marry nor can they die nor sin as our Saviour saith and that because they are spirituall if then beleevers be more spirituall as Del saith they need farre lesse then Angels the written Word or the Preaching of the Law or any Ordinances nor should they marry or dye nor can they sinne nor lie nor whore nor steale nor kill but bee as the Angels of heaven I cannot but professe my jealousie of all Familists I much feare when Del saith beleevers are more spirituall then Angels and that the naturall man must bee made spirituall which is done saith he by the imputed righteousnesse of God Pag. 6.7 that hee mindeth with Mistresse Hutchiâon that these who are united to Christ have in this life new bodies and two bodies 1 Cor. 6.19 And that the soules of men are mortall in regard of generation like the beasts Eccles. 3.8 but made immortall by the purchase of Redemption And that the Resurrection Joh. 5.28 is not meant of the Resurrection of the body but of our union here and after this life with Christ. And so taught that abominable Priest Anto. Pocquius and the Quintists with him with Phyletus and Hymeneus that the Resurrection of the dead was in this life and that we are not saved in hope onely in this life but really and compleatly before we die and the same perfection of life eternall in this life is taught by Antinomians to wit by Towne and Saltmarsh the colleague of Del. These must lie upon Antinomians while they condemne their Fathers the Familists upon whose principles they walke which they have never yet done nor have they denyed the foule Heresies that are in the Story of the Rise raigne ruine of Antinomians 4. Ecclesiasticall reformation in the intention of the work hath no kindly ends that are fleshly and carnall and therefore is as constant as internall reformation except Master Del meane so much as the Nicholaitans doe that the Letter of the Scripture and all Ordinances externall Word scales prayer reading bookes under the Gospel are abolished to the just man and onely the Spirit leadeth him yea that these are all Elementish Ceremoniall carnall and fleshly and that its unpossible that any act meditation thinâing aspiring or working can be sufficient to attaine the seeing of God in this life that no discourse exercise nor rule of Law Gospel Scripture or Ordinance or any meane can bee interposed betweene the soule and God that wee are onely passive in receiving the will of God that we and all our acts of the soule of willing loving trusting hoping c. are annihilated and turned to nothing in a spirituall communion with God And the reason of the constancy of externall reformation in its owne nature I give Because as grace in the soule being a beam and day of eternall and unchangeable love is ever like God the Author constant and so like its Father so is externall Reformation constant for the Letter of Law and Gospel commands ever and immutably a perfect conformity betweene the outward man and God that eyes eares hands confession of Christ before men hearing the Word reading praying abstinence from fleshly lusts be ever the same according to the rule of the Gospel as internall Reformation is constant It s true outward Reformation is not constant in the sinnefull intention of the worker because it takes not hold of the heart and therefore the ends of externall Reformation in the intention of men is often sinnefull fleshly carnall yea devillish and so unconstant in good and therefore it s a vaine thing for M. Del to argue from the abused and sinnefull ends of men against outward Reformation which of the owne nature is an Ordinance of God 5. All the differences between inward and outward Reformation prove an excellencie of Christs inward Reformation above mens outward Reformation which is most true but proveth not but outward Reformation is a good Ordinance of God for honouring of God before men 2. For an externall blamelesse profession and confession of Christ and his truth before men is commanded in the Gospel Math. 10 32.3â And abââinence ârom grosse and scandalous sinnes Del pag. â0 If the Church be to be redeemed Christ must redeeme it if it be governed Christ must governe it if it be to be protected Christ must protect it if it be to bee saved Christ must save it 1. God hath committed the care of reforming the Church to Christ onely and to no body else and this is a thousand times better for the Church then if hee had committed it to all the Princes and Magistrats in the world All things are given to me of my Father Christs love to redeeme is his love to reforme he will not break the bruised râed c. and he reformes not ruggedly and with violence Answ. This Argument shall prove that none ought to come out to helpe
except the Spirit quicken it in the soules of the hearers as well as the Law otherwise the very Law in the Letter and as written by Moses was a part of Scripture and given by Divine inspiration as well as the Gospel and the Tenne Commandements as given on Mount Sinai were the formall Word of God and Scripture given by Divine inspiration except Antinomians Familists and Del make the Law and Old Testament to bee expunged out of the Canon of Scripture as Anabaptists did or to come from an evill Spirit as Manicheans said for David Georgius said The Word of God was preached but litterally by Christ and the Apostles and not in the Spirit and that he himselfe was the true David and the true Messiah nor borne of the flesh but of the Spirit Now its sure Christ and the Apostles taught the Gospel But because they taught as it is written in the Prophets and in the Scriptures and taught not the Dictates of an Enthysiasticall spirit David Georgius said they are Legall and Literall Preachers and Christ but the Literall Messiah and he the true spirituall Sonne of David borne of the spirit not of the flesh So doth Del meane by the Word of God or the Gospel the Spirit of God excluding the Letter of the Scripture yea even of the Gospel as hee excludeth the condemning Law because it was but a written Letter Now sure the written yea or Preached Gospel without the Spirit is no lesse a dead Ordinance in the New Testament then in the Old 1. He proveth by the onely Word of God Christ reformeth inwardly and doth all in his Kingdome He saith All the powers in the world cannot reforme the Church as the Word of God can doe for it is quick and powerfull and sharper then a two edged sword Now remember he speaketh of inward reformation 2. Of the word of the Gospel excluding the Law his reason is Pag. 17. The Law maketh nothing perfect Now that by the Word he meaneth not the Scripture or the Letter of the Word even of the Gospel 1. I prove the Word that inwardly reformes excludeth all meanes but the Word Christ saith he doth all in his Kingdome by his Word onely that is as hee must bee expounded by his Spirit onely for the Word cannot be the Letter of the written Gospel For its false that Christ doth all in his Kingdome and reformeth inwardly by the Letter of the Gospel onely for that may be Preached to Judas and by Judas to multitudes hardened but never converted Math. 13.14 15. Joh. 9.39 Joh. 12.35 36 37 38 39 40. Nor can he meane the Word in its Letter but accompanyed by the Spirit for the Word that Del speaketh of Pag. 17. clearely excludeth the Law but the Word in his Letter accompanied by the Spirit doth not exclude the Law for the Law quickned by the Spirit with the Gospel is a meanes of inward reformation and so cannot be excluded 2. This Word excludes all the powers of the world for he saith All the powers of the world cannot reforme the Church inwardly as the Word of God can doe But the Letter of the Word or Gospel doth reforme onely outwardly not inwardly 3. This word that onely reformes inwardly excludeth the powers of the world and all that man can doe Now man can onely outwardly reforme by the Letter of the Word Hence Henry Nicholas said the two daughters of Warwicke and the godly in England regenerated were but Antichrists because they were regenerated onely by the Ceremoniall Elementish Fleshly Literall Word he meaneth the Scriptures that are not Preached by their Enthysiasticall Spirit of Familisticall love that acts without beside and contrary to the Scripture Paul and Apollos when they water and plant doe preach the Word but this reformeth not inwardly nor is it mighty in operation and sharper then a two edged Sword without the Spirit so that this is the very Spirit who onely as the efficient and Author of inward Reformation not as the meanes or the onely meanes as Del saith doth comfort and convert effectually the soule 4. Del citeth Esai 61.1 to prove that the Word is the onely meanes of conversion The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me he hath annointed me to Preach good tydings to the poore If Del meane that this Spirit and anointing on Christ is the Word of God Christ should say The Scripture of God is upon me and he hath anointed mee to Preach c. that is God hath Scriptured me and gifted me with the knowledge of the written Gospel excluding all Law or dueties to preach the Gospel to the poore Now Del cannot for shame give us so Literall a Christ. For sure this Spirit whereby Christ was anointed was the Holy Ghost in gifts and fulnesse of grace given to him above his fellowes And beyond all Controversie if Christ saith truely citing that Text Esai 61.1 This day Luk. 4.21 is this Scripture fulfilled in your eares Then Christ Preached in a pure Gospel-way and not as a Legall Preacher as Saltmarsh saith he was to some even to these that were filled with wrath and persecuted him vers 28.29 30. and so were under the Law if then Legall Preaching bee to Preach deadly the naked Letter of the Gospel without any spirit or life in the Preacher then Christ did not speake from the Spirit of God when hee said The Spirit of the Lord is upon me he hath sent me to Preach and this day is this Scripture fulfilled in your eares which should bee against the Text and a horrible blasphemy to wit that Christ should be a Literall Preacher as David Georgius said and so a Legall Presbyterian as Familists and Antinomians say But if Familists and Del mean that the Spirit went not along with the pure Gospel-preaching of Christ as is clear from Esai 61.1 and Luk. 4.21 Then its false that Del saith That the Gospel hath the Spirit alwaies joyned with it Pag. 18. Ser. 2. The pure Gospel must be preached to such as are under the Law which is absurd 3. Then the Letter of the Gospel comming to the eares of obdured persecuters must be that Spirit of the Lord whereby Christ was anointed for so Del expoundeth it So doth Del cite Psal. 2. I will publish the decree and he expoundeth Esai 59. the Spirit to be the Word which cleareth that he acknowledgeth no word of Scripture for a meanes of inward reformation For hee saith Pag. 18. The Word whereby Christ reformes is not the Word without us as the Word of the Law is but the Word within us as it is written the word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart and this is the word of Faith So this is just David Georgius and Henry Nicholas their internall Enthysiasticall word that is the Spirit excluding all Law and Gospel that are but written Inkie and dead Letters of themselves doth all the Scripture is nothing Now the Law or Word written in
Prince m Obedience to the Kings laws to the effusion of their blood can have no orher sense but they will raise bloody wars against Puritans if the K which I hope shall not be command them I pray God it be not fulfilled in their children this day in England they promise they have been and ever will be obedient to the Kings laws which respecteth the time to comâ so as if the King and Parliament should againe establish Popery they say for all time to come they shall be ever truly obedient and adde no limitation condition of obedience in the Lord. You may see the consciences of Familists that as after ye shall heare they prostitute themselves to avouch or deny take or leave all Religions as the times and mens lawes shall ãâã prove them or not n What Pharisees bee these doth not Paul judge himselfe the chiefe of sinners is not Elias a man compassed with infirmities No wonder it bee hârd to prove any wickâd doctâine or practise for H. Nichoâas in his Epistle to the two daughters of Warwicke would prove men may bely and dissemble and deny their Religion and Christ before men so the heart be good o Shall wee then beleeve that Familists now in England will not be deadly persecuters of Puritans p Puritans are against all religious ceremonies of mens devisings so that tything of mint is unjustly ascribed to to them q To Familists all outward worship and ordinances are traditions they live only upon love within and are swine without and yet sinne not q There is to Familists no judgement and mercy but that which is inward let men as touching the outward man be swine for filthinesse Lions for blood and rapine they may have inward righteousnesse and that is all and enough r Then Puritans only none or few of the prelaticall way or other Sectaries refuted Familists s Familists count all Religions popery or any thing as they come out to the view of men neither up nor downe t But the Saints of love say Familists are above and beyond all laws and Rulers Magistracie is but for fleshly men t Familists by their principles may professe or deny any Religion as the Market goes t This is no little exception in which they swerve from the Religion of England in that they are Familiâts and of a sect destructive to all Christian religion to Châist his person office righteousnesse imputed faith repentance Scriptures heaven hell judgement resurrection c. w He that doth evill hates the light H.N. was once thought to be homo novus But H. Nicholas was a fleshly abominable seducer and false prophet a Mercer in Amsterdam x Neithâr Calvin nor Luther knew any thing of God but only H Nicholas is the Catholick Apostle of the world and cannot erre y Nothing here of Christ by whose name only we are saved Act. 4.11.12 dutifull obedience to God and Magistrates and to love âur neighbour are such Law-âighteousnesse as pagans doe diefie as highest devotion in all this petition nothing smelleth of Christ his Spirit eternity nothâng of Scripturall or spirituall communion with God in Christ Jesus z All hereticks make the Scripture their rule and only judge but not simply but as they understand them which is to make their owne understanding only umpire and judge in the matters of God a They afterward tempt the King to forsake the Protestant Religion and to turne Familist b It s a pure commendation that H Nicholas wrote much the more the worse since he writeth against the Prophets and Apâstles c Christ and his Apostles name false teachers Saduces Hymeneus Philetus Simon Magus Elimas c. but though hee name neither Calvin nor Luther yet their doctrine he calleth often carnall fleshly false ceremoniall wisdome the letter the flesh the devill hypocrisie d Thâse men that cry out aâgainst Scripture-wisdome as carnaâl ceremoniall âevilish selfie as H. Nicholas and his cannot speake hânourably of the perfection of Scriptuâe d The family of love have no heads or Kings that are borne oâ the flesh and blâod of sin spirit lauâ c 4. sect 8. they themselves reigne as only Kings on earth everlastingly fideâitâs decl c. 4. sect 18. e Of all the meanes by which men are saved through Christ they speake only of the works of the Law of inherent righteousnesse and repentance not one word of free grace faith in Christ and the impuâed righteousnesse of Christ. Familists then are the legall Pelagians not we no reformation is knowne to Familists but inward that of the heart f Not more said then truth can beare for H Nicholas his doctrine is a seâtina a pumpe dunghill and a sea of many fleshly errors and heresies f The due fruits of repentance and newnesse of life are here made antecedent meanes and wayes going before our saving in Christ or our free redemption that is in Christ Jesus so as we must be justified by workes otherwise let any man make sense of these words g Our Saviour saith yee shall know thâm by their workes h The foulest of the bookes of H. Nicholas containing the mystery of Familisme and fleshly loosenesse are only to be seene by the wise and experienced Eldeâs who can digest them â It is hard to prove any thing against them who profâsse it lawfull to deny their Religion before men H.N. Epist to the daughters of Warwicke h It is not likâ but Q. Elizabeth heard of these bookes and saw them since many of her and K James his Court favoured them i Ioh. Knewstuâ M Microniâs H. Amswârth wrote against thâse filthy errors and set downe their own words to the world k The Prelates the Popish Magistrates never troubled these licentious men because they tooke part with them agâiâst the Puritans only some godly Magistrates nick-named Puâitans cast some of them in prison l Neither by oath or any other way could they be brought to make confession of the secrets of unpure Familisme l They say they will take or leave their Religion of love as the Laws thinke fit but they lie fâr here being cast in prison by the inferiour Magistrate they persist then the infeâiouâ Magistraâe to them is no Magâstrate the Law is no Law m All heretickes and impure sectarâes say they dâe wilfully maintaine no heresie and therefore plead for liberty of conscience and a toleration of all religions The Familists defame the doctrine of the Apostlâs and Scriptures and have nothing to doe with the martyrs of the primitive Church for H. N. as I observe taught that Christ never had any man lay down his life for him or his truth his meaning was only allegorically to renounce his lusts for Christ otherwise Christ rejoyceth not said he in our death or blood o The Puâitans refusing the Popish ceremonies and the Romish denomination of Prelates are branded by those men as disobedient to Magistrates p They desire the Popish Laws against hereticks to be used against
sanctification in the Gospell be fashioned without the external preaching of the Gospell an outward commandement if no why excludes he an outward commandement as contrary to the preaching of faith Swenckfeldius and Enthysiasts make an opposition betweene the word preached and the preaching of faith that is the Spirit we make a subordination no opposition 3 whether Saltmarsh or any Antinomian in conscience can say that wee so go on with Pelagians Old Anabaptists and Arminians as to say Sanctification is framed now or at any time by a law of outward commandements the Antinomian Del. who has printed in defence of Anabaptists Arminians and Antinomians teacheth so not we So Del joyneth with Swenckfeld Ser pag. 6 7 8. read the stile words and doctrine of Enthysiasts all along in the serm 11 Swenckfeld said that that is born of the flesh is flesh these that say justifying faith is from externall hearing they teach that the Spirit comes from the carnall letter the heaven is bornâ of the earth 12 Blessednes comes not from externals nor was Thomas blessed because he saw and beleeved nor Simon Peter because flesh and blood but because the father revealed Christ to them 12 Swenckefeldius taught that the preachers of his time were not sent of God because no man was the better or converted by their preaching So Antinomians say all but themselves are but litteral and carnall teachers 13 Swenckefeldius said that he himselfe preached the Spirit inwardly teaching and that men must live by the rule of the Spirit else they could not be saved so speake Anti. of Gospell reformation of life so Del. ser p. 26 27. 14 Neither Baptisme nor the Supper of the Lord should be Administred till the true doctrine that he taught be preached and be revealed immediately from the substantiall and eternall word Christ without preaching or reading or hearing the word so Del. uniformity examined the worship of the New Testament is onely inward 15 In such dissentions of minds among Teachers the word should not be heard Antinomians say all may be heard sects and opinions are but names and things indifferent 16 The word hath a twofold sense one literall which profiteth nothing another the true and spirituall which only the spirituall do understand 17 We must try the word by the Spirit and not the Spirit by the word so say the Antinomians rise reigne er 61. All doctrines revelations and spirits are to be tryed by Christ the Word rather than by the word of Christ this is against Christs way who when it was a controversie whether he was the sonne of God or no was content that they should Iudge of him and decide the matter by Scripture Joh. 5.39 so 2 are all controversies ended Act. 17.11 Act. 9.11 Act 24.14 15. 1 Cor. 15.3 4. Mat. 22.29.30 31 32 33. Esay 8.20 which were a rule impossible if the scripture have two senses one literall that proves nothing and another spirituall and allegorick as Enthysiasts Antinomians say that none can understand but the spirituall now when Christ and Paul prove the resurrection of the dead and that Christ is the Messiah by the scripture and referres the denyers of these Iewes and Pharisees and Saduces to the scripture to be the Iudge he supposeth the scriptures hold forth a cleare literall sense which these men though not spirituall might understand 2 nor could Christ say yee both know me and whence I am Ioh. 7.27 28. if they could not see any thing of Christ by light of scripture 3 all the murthers whoredomes villanies practised by Muncer T. Becold David George Swenckfeld they fathered on the Spirit leading them without the Scripture or on such an allegorick sense as their uncleane spirit expounded the word so as men know not when they sin when they serve God 17 The preachers not being taught by the immediate teaching Spirit are such as the Lord speaketh of They ran and J sent them not 18 There is a middle reformation to come betweene papists and Lutherans 19 No doctrine of word Sacraments or any externall thing written in the writings of Moses the Prophets or apostles doe conduce to salvation God is to be sought in his naked Majesty in dreames inspirations and revelations of the Spirit 20 Repentance contrition the knowledge of sin is not to be taught out of the Law but by Christ onely How neere Antinomians side with this I leave to the reader 21 The Law is not unpossible but easie to be fullfilled by Grace Antinomians teach that both the persons and workes of beleivers are perfect free of sin then must they be perfectly agreable to the Law Honeyâcombe c. 3. pag. 25. c 11 12.322 323 324. Towne ass grace pag 76 77. Salt free grace p 140. 22 Our renovation is the very Holy Ghost so Antinomians Rise Reign er 1 2.7 8. 23 Our Righteousnes and iustification is not in the imputed obedience and righteousnes of Christ but in a conformity with Christ in glory by the undwelling Spirit of Christ. 24 Faith and workes iustifie us 25 All beleivers are the naturall sons of God begotten of the essence and nature of God so Familists and Antino teach that we are Christed and Godded 26 There was no remission of sins no righteousnes no entrance ânto heaven before Christ dyed So say Antinomians under the old Testament there was no inward nor heart reformation no covenant of grace no pacefying of Gods wrath for sin c. So Saltmarsh free grace pag. 166 167 168. Honey-combe chap. 11.334 335 336. Del. ser. pag. 2.3 4 5 6 7 8 9. c. CHAP. VI. How the Word converteth TOuching the necessity of the word of God preached for the conversion of sinners against Swenckefeldians Enthysiasts and Antinomians these conclusions we hold premising some considerations 1 The vocall or preached word is the instrument and Organ of the Holy Spirit in our conversion not the author nor efficient thereof 2 The word written or preached is a created thing not the formall object of our faith and affiance nor the objeâtum quod but the objectum quo or the interveening meanes or medium of our faith 3 The word as all instruments are must be elevated above its nature to more then a literal impression of Christ beleeved in 4 The writing speaking conveyance of Christ to the soule in the word preached may be humane and literall but the thing signified by the word Christ faith the Image of the second Adam is divine supernaturall and the way of conveyance of it to the soule in regard of the higher operation of the Spirit above the actings and motion of the letter is divine heavenly supernaturall 5 The action of the Holy Ghost in begetting faith may be said to be immediate two wayes 1 as if the word did onely prepare and literally informe the externall man but the Spirit commeth after and in another action distinct from the word infuseth faith this we cannot deny but then the Spirit of
higher Spirit then that which speaketh in the letter of the Law it 's true it s the same infinite Spirit The Lord that speaketh in all Scripture but in the Law he saith nothing but either perfectly doe all or die eternally But in the Law as handed by the Prophets Christ and the Apostles the Lord condemneth and convinceth that we may flee to the suretie of a better Covenant Heb. 7.22 Now in this sense Law and Gospell called the word of God is not a dead letter in it selfe for Psa. 19.7 The Law of the Lord converteth the soule c. Rom. 1.16 The Gospell is the power of God to salvation to every one that beleeveth both to worke faith Rom. 10.17 and to give salvation Rom. 15.4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning that we through patience and comforâ of the Scriptures might have hope this must be the written scriptures ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 1 Cor. 1.21 For after in the wisedome of God the world by wisdome naturall knew not God It pleased God by the foolishnesse of preaching to save them that beleeve then is the word preached a mean to save the beleevers Act. 13.26 To you is this word of salvation sent Yet the Jews to whom it was sent Blasphemed and judged themselves unworthy of eternall life ver 46 Act. 20.32 I commend you to the word of his grace which is able to build you up 2 Cor. 10.4 For the weapons of our warefare are not carnall but mighty through God to the pulling downe of strong holds casting downe imaginations and every bâight that exalteth it selfe against the knowledge of God That which is the strong weapons by which men fight word and discipline and is mighty through God is not a dead letter though these weapons be mighty through God so is the word a hammer and a sire and the people wood and the sword of the Spirit and sharper then a two edged sword to discerne the thoughts and intentions of the heart Ier. 5.14 Eph. 6.17 Heb. 4.12 Re. 1.16 Ps 45.3 The Rod of Christs lips by which he smites the earth Esa. 11.4 The Sceptor of his Kingdome all which evince that the word externally preached hath power in it selfe to destroy and being accompanied by the Spirit hath power to coÌvert and so is an instrument of the Spirit both wayes 3 Conclusion The Lord hath made and sanctified a ministery and ministers to be fathers of the second birth and instruments to save themselves and others 1 Cor. 4.17 1 Tim. 4.16 2 Cor. 3.2 Yee are our Epistle written in our hearts read of all men 4 Forasmuch as yee are manifestly declared to be the Epistle of Christ ministered by us written not with inke but with the Spirit of the living God not in tables of stone but in the fleshy tables of the heart 1 Thes. 2.19 For what is our hope or ioy or crowne of rejoycing are not even yee in the presence of our Lord Iesus Christ at his comming 20. For yee are our glory and crowne Swenckfield denyeth that he destroyeth Scripture or the ministery or preaching but saith he Epist. An. 1529 In a Christian there be two things 1 The new and internall man 2 The old or externall man called the flesh God dealeth with the Christian man internally by the word of Spirit and life he meaneth the substantiall word in whcih he reveales himselfe through Christ by the various riches of heavenly blessings but externally he dealeth with the flesh of man by the word of the letter and by preaching and by signes and seales So Saltm as if brought up at his feet saith free grace pag. 150. And this Gospell fits man who is made up both of flesh and Spirit and so hath need of a law without and in the letter aswell as in the heart and Spirit The law is spirituall but we are carnall Rom. 7 nor can such a state of flesh and Spirit be ordered by a law onely without for the word of the law and Spirit meerely is for a spirituall condition or state of glorie as Angels who onely liue by a law spirituall and word of revelation then both agree in this that the law is given to the outward man the flesh the body and the law of the Spirit of life to the inner man the soule and Spirit hence these foule consequences 1 The law belongs not to a beleever but to civill courts as Islâbius said 2 The word of God can lay no tye no band on the inner man to know God beleeve in Christ love God intend his glory long for heaven and Christs second appearance for the law is given to the flesh and the outward man nor can the letter of the Gospell bind him to any Gospell or heart obedience absurd 3 There can be no sinnes in spirit or soule or inner man because no law and so no obedience most absurd 4. All Ministry scripture is not to rayse an inward spirituall conformity between the Soule and the Gospel nor to make us lowly and meek in spirit as Christ is but to put on us an outside of externall conformitie between the flesh or outward man and the law how then is the law spirituall I should rather think that the spirituall law and commandements of the Gospel were given first and principally and most kindly to our spirits and thoughts and intentions and rather secondarily to the body and outward man so farre as the acts of the outward man fall under the dominion and command of the will and faculties of the inwardman 5. The spirit without the word is the law and only rule that regulateth man in all his inward and most spirituall actions and not the scripture and so the more spirituall the more lawlesse loose and carnall And Mr. Del goeth farther on with Swenckfeld for he will have the accomplishing of Gospel reformation that is the justification of a sinner and his conversion to Christ to be done by the spirit only without all power of man and so it is not visible nor ecclesiastick ser. pag. 4. It stands not in making lawes to consciences add Mr. Del contrary to the word of God act 15.22 23 28 c. by the sacred power or clergie by the messengers of Christ and of the Churches for externall conformity only and meerly externall its false wee aime at more in outward dueties worship and government and to have these confirmed by civill sanction To have Artaxerxes and Kings to ratifie and command under penalties the building of the house of God and to have Kings and Queenes nursefathers and mothers to the Church is lawfull and should be our aime and prayer to God 1 Tim. 2.1.2 3. and that the Kings of the earth bring their glory and honour to the New Jerusalem Revel 21.24 wee heartily desire though the Lord can build Jerusalem without the sword of sectaries and the arme of the Magistrate And Del sayth this Gospel reformation
up by God according to his promises in the most holy service of God under the obedience of his love The Familists of New England and Antinomians professe all of them are Christed with Christ. The Apostles doe not so extoll themselves Towne Assert of Justifica p. 39. So soareâh Keep the Law saith he and works here below on the earth and as Enoch converse in Spirit and walk with God in the alone righteousnesse of Christ apprehended by faith As if a holy conversation and a spirituall walking with God in faith and duties were low base and for men of the earth onely The speciallâ errors and Heresies holden by H. Nichol. are such as are for the most part either abominably blasphemous or much like to the errors of Anabaptists David-Georgians Swenskfeldians from whence they sprang as have been and shall be God willing cleared to be the same with Libertines and Antinomian errors 1 H. Nâcholas challengeth to himselfe that which is proper to Christ Esa 61. Lu 4. that the Spirit of the Lord is on him to preach glad tydings to the poore The Antino Beacon saith that none can be true preachers but they run unsent that run without the Spirit of sanctification 2 H.N. saith c. 1 Evan. not one man Adam sinned and we in him but man from the beginning to this day was disobedient Hence Adam was no one man 2 Wee have no more sinne from the first Adam then by following the sinnes of all men 3 The story of Adam of the tree and fruit is but an allegory Antinomians turne all in allegories Randal serm a sower went out to sow here is a warrant from parables to expone scriptures by allegories all things of nature are sacraments of Gospell mysteries as doe this in rememberance of me 3 H.N. saith c. 1 All that walked not in the forme of Abel according to the manner and ordinance of Seth were not of the right stocke of Seth. Then righteousnesse commeth by personall imitation of Seth not by the imputed righteousnesse of Christ. 4 Christ to H. N. is head of Abrahams faith not Abrahams flesh which destroyes his humanity for H. N. applyeth these words the power of the most high shall come on thee and overshadow thee by an allegory to all beleevers which had their discent out of the faith of Abraham partakers of the Godly nature and being and according to the will of God are wholly minded with God so Antinomians as Christ was once made flesh so is he now first made flesh in us ere we be carryed to perfection Del. ser. 17 18 19 20. tells us of two meanes of Gospel-reformation 1 The word dwelling in the flesh reformes the flesh and it dwells in us through faith this word is not the word without us then it is not the scripture word but the word within us Jt sheweth us Christ and changeth us into his image The 2 meanes is the Spirit which God promised long before to powre upon all flesh and so to reforme all flesh the Spirit reformes 1 By taking away all evill out of the flesh as pride ânvy and all errors and false doctrines for the Spirit burnes up all errors as âay and stubble I feare Del give us no more for God manifested in the flesh but this not one word of the Scripture or preached Gospell is once mentioned heare foâ feare Enthysiasts offend 2 The Spirit reformes by changing the flesh into its owne likenesse as fire changeth every thing into its selfe so doth the Spirit in the flesh make the flesh spirituall heavenly holy meeke good loving c. Here I desire M. Del to separate from H. N and give a reason of his faith to those that offend at his doctrine 1 How is the Spirit powred on all flesh and so is all flesh reformed p. 19. l. 20. Is he for universall salvation of all the Scripture speaketh not a word of the heart reformation of all This Devill is going abroad in our times Del speaketh like this wandering Spirit 2 How is the inward word which he carefully distinguisheth from the outward word p. 18. l. 3 4. differenced from the Spirit p. 19. for the inward word is the word made effectuall by the working of the Spirit and he saith the word not the letter without the Spirit which is but the dead law saith he and Spirit are alwayes joyned that is the inward word that is faith wrought by the Spirit as I take it is ever joyned with the Spirit who doubts but the Spirit is ever with the Spirit 3 The Spirit takes all evill out of the flesh what is that out of the man out of the soule and body this is a rare expression 4 How dwells the word in our flesh pag. 18. l. 1. God the substantiall word the sonne of God dwells in our flesh that is personally in the nature of man Ioh. 1.14 why does Del speake with hereticks and not explaine himselfe 5 How does the inward word change us into the image of Christ p. 18. he hath not told us of the Spirit all this while p. 19. which only changeth us into the image of Christ. 6. How doth the Spirit change the flesh into its owne likenesse by flâsh yee meane not corruption so the scripture Rom. 7. Rom. 8. Gal. 5.17 and in many places takes the word flesh Now the Spirit maketh not corruption and sinne spirituall heavenly holy meeke good loving c. then by flesh yee meane the fabrick of the nature of man soule and body Why speaketh not Del with protestant divines and calleth it the mortification of the old man and the vivification of the new but he speakes with H. N. and puts us to request him for the truths sake to expone what a God manifested in the flesh and what a word dwelling in the flesh he acknowledgeth for H.N. grammer rules his pen and tongue not the Holy Ghosts 5 To H. N. Every Godly man partaker of the being of God and Spirit of love is God incarnate and Christ and Christ is not any one man the son of Mary but the condition of all men beleeving and loving and Christ is no where else saith Theo. Ger. p. 22. but he is the same man 6 Gods being is love it selfe The damned apostate should acknowledge his being to be some other thing then love onely as Moses doth Exod. 34.6 The Lord strong gracious slow to anger c. 7 There is no diety belonging to God but love of which mortall men doe pertake in this life so H. N The Lord hath Godded me with God in his Godly being with the Spirit of his love 8 By our obedience of love we become sonnes 9 Love is faith working and doing is faith Whereas faith worketh love and obedience as the cause of love saith the scripture Iam. 2. Heb. 11. 10 Obedience of love and misliking of sinne bringeth us unto the being of Christ cleare
or exemplary dying by way of imitation only to teach us the like patience but that Christ God-man really offered to the Father blood as a perfect ransome to redeeme his Church The deceiving Familists eluding the whole history of Scripture and this Impostore Gortyn saith his blood is to bee exporâed only of the power of his God-head and his flesh of the weakenesse of our natures or of us who only in creation are made according to the Image of God Yea Gortyn saith p. 104. Christ suffereth in them that is in the weake Saints else can he have no death at all and then no Saviour then he suffered not in his owne Manhood then hath hee not by himselfe purged our sin Heb. 1.3 Nor was it Christ himself who in his owne body on the tree bare our sins 1 Pet. 2.24 The body of Christ say the Familists and Antinomians is his Church Now the Church is his mysticall body but Christ had and yet hath another true real naturall body besides his body the Church This seemeth to mee to bee the doctrine of M. Saltmarsh who in his latest peece that I cannot now examine this worke being printed but it is the very picture of the spirit of Henry Nicholas giveth hints that Christ is not true man Sparkles of glory p. 39. The baptisme of Jesus Christ is that whereby wee are baptized into his body Now his body is a spirituall one and fashioning like his gloryous one that place Phil. 3.20 21 that speakes of Christs naturall body Saltmarsh exponeth of his mysticall body the Church as if Christ had not another body then his Church his mysticall body Now Christs mysticall body suffered not on the Crosse for our sinnes And pag. 43. When Jesus saith he went out of flesh into spirit or ascended he confirmed this ministration c. Then Christs ascension to heaven in his manhood is not locall and visible though the scripture say Act. 1. His Disciples saw him locally and visibly ascend and the Angels said these men of Galilie should see him after the same manner come to judgement but his ascension is but his leaving of his flesh or mysticall body on earth and being turned into a spirit or his entring in a more spirituall and glorious being into heaven and if this bee true that his ascension is but his going out of flesh into spirit then hath not Christ taken our nature and flesh and a mans heart to heaven with him that hee may be touched with our infirmities Contrary to these Scriptures Eph. 2. ver 6. Phi. 3.20.21 Heb. 4.14 15. Heb. 7.24 25 26. Heb. 10.20 21. Againe by blood in scripture is never meant the power or life of God How shall wee then make sense of that Heb. 2.14 For as much as the children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himselfe likewise tooke part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devill And what is that but he was true man v. 17. Wherefore in all things it behooved him to bee made like unto his bretheren that he might be a mercifull High-Priest Now the Children were not partakers of flesh and blood that is of weakenesse and the power of God or the God-head for so Familists expone flesh and blood except we say that every beleever is both borne of the seed of David according to the flesh and is God blessed for ever A horrible blasphemy for so Christ Rom. 9. partakes of flesh and blood according to the Familists way And this way of changing all histories of the word in allegories is the way to elude all truth When it is said God created the Heaven and the Earth the Sea Man Beasts Birds Fishes wee must make the world an Imaginary and Metaphoricall world the Creation must be but an allegorie men must be figures allegories and metaphors so must heaven earth sea land birds fishes be metaphors for there is as true a reall history of all that Jesus did and said untill the day he was taken up to heaven Act. 1.1 2. As of all other true histories in the word Else Familists puts us to a stand in all the Articles of our faith I confesse the way that Del and the Familists take when they cite these words for an internall word and a spirituall and allegorick sense besides the litterall sense The words that I speake are spirit and life Is an unavoydable way to elude all scripture and M. Beacon in his Catechisme while he cleare himselfe is a grosse Familist to mee for he speaking of Christ crucified turnes all Christ in a Metaphoricall Imaginary Christ in these words pag. 137. Q. how long did this suffering last A. Till he gave up the Ghost Q. Who was crucified hereby A. The old man Q. What was the old man A. The sinfull man Q. Is the sinfull man ceased A. Yes in Christ. Q. How so A. He was left nailed on the crosse These words who was crucified in a Catechisme aske in what nature Christ suffered and whether or no Christ God man in regard of communion of properties may be said to suffer Who did suffer Now he should answer the Lord of life in his humane nature But passing the answer touching all personall and materiall sufferings of Christ which is a speciall and fundamentall article of our faith and ought not to be omitted in a Catechisme he cometh to a morall suffering of the body of sin by influence of Christs death on our soules now first and primarily Christ himselfe was nailed to the Crosse as a sacrifice for our sinnes this is omitted by Beacon secondarily as a fruit of his death the Old-man is crucified with him Rom. 6. but not as Beacon means that the Old-man is ceased and we sin no more being once justified as if the Old-man were perfectly crucified as he answereth And it is true that Christs dying teacheth us to die to sinne and so Christs death is spiritually to be exponâd where the scripture exponeth it as Rom. 6.1 2 3 and 1 Pet. 1.23 24. and else where But that is no ground for Papists Antinomians and Familists to take away all the truth of histories touching Christ his incarnation death resurrection ascension sitting at the right hand of God redeeming of the world heaven and hell and to subvert our faith and change all in spirituall and allegoricall senses under pretence of a spirituall Gospel-preaching we cannot then by the learning of these Jugglers expone the story of the drowning of the world by waters but of allegoricall men allegoricall drowning not literally For if we expone the stories of the Scripture literally Familists say we are literall expositers and know nothing of the spirit and spirituall learning 7 These Familists teach that Christ reveales his will by no voyce but the voyce of the Spirit in the Saints p. 104. that is the internall Spirit and word is our onely rule and not the writen word
29. nor was Christ for that under any absence of the Spirit 1 Tim. 4.14 15 16. and Revel 1.3 compared with Rev. 2.7 whereas he sayth The Ministery that is to destroy Antichrist is more glorious then Arts and Tongues and this is Jesus Christ himselfe 1. Libertines said the Gospel or Word was the Spirit himselfe Saltmarsh here sayth the Ministry destroying Antichrist is Christ which is most false The Ministery is but 1. an Instrument 2. a created Ordinance Christ is God Man and Mediator 2. The Ministery that destroyeth him is the Word preached as an instrument and Christ the principall cause But the principall cause removes not the Instrument as Familists imagine but the Ministery of Familists shall never do it Whereas former Antinomians made two contrary administrations one under the Law in the old Testament another undâr grace or the Gospâl in the new Testament Onely John Baptist was pinned in as halfe a Legalist between both Saltmarsh p. 68. after he with the Familists hath made a greater number of spheres and circles of Administrations following the spirit in his fulnesse and variety he foldeth them up in three of Law Gospel and Spirit or of Letter Graces and God or of the First Second and third Heavens After the cut of David Georgâ who said the first Ministration was the law of death and the letter the second was under Christ and the Apostles but not very spirituall but fleshly literall carnall but the last under David George the true Messiah was spirituall purely spirituall beyond that of Christ and the Apostles and so spirituall that to have conscience or sense of uncleannesse or sinne was a work of the flesh And Saltmarsh saith it is fleshly and literall that a pardoned man should confesse sin p. 69 70 a Christian saith hee passeth throâgh severall ages even as Christ was under the Law circumcision Supper of the Lord Baptisme and then hee crucified all that flâsh hee walked in under these dispensations and entered unto glory Answ. Then he crucified Baptisme the Lords supper preaching of the Gospel the Ministery the visible Church and every outward letter of conference praying for Saltmarsh now turned Seeker denies all these and hee must have crucifyed all his preaching tongues writing of books 2. What tongue or Science of the Holy Ghost taught Saltmarsh to call the Ordinances of the New Testament flesh or fleshly Ordinances for I doubt he meaneth not that Christ true man dyed for our sins for 185 186. he saith It is a discovery of the highest attainment of Protestants generally that we are born in sin And that the way of salvation was by Jesus Christ the Sonne of God born of a Virgin in the fulnesse of time made under the Law bearing our sinnes crucified dead buried and risen and ascended and entred into glory c. but pag. 190 191. he forsaking this as legall doctrine tels us of a further discovery as to free grace as if the Protestant Doctrine were merits of men not the free grace of God And he setteth downe that of the Antinomians and not a word of Christ God-man crucified and dead for our sins And the confession of Faith made in this Assembly at Westminster yea all the Reformation now is onely in some outward ordinances saith he not any purer or more glorious discoveries of God or the Spirit or Jesus Christ or our union with the Spirit or glory as to spirituall things or Christ risen but as to Christ in the flesh or under the Law of which these Ordinances were a signe And p. 198 199 200 201. which he calleth the last highest and most glorious discoverie of God by love and grace for to the Familists there is no Article of the Protestant faith that savours of truth for to them all our Doctrine is a dead Letter Nor did Christ die for our sins and rise for our righteousnesse but onely the dying of Christ is a meere figure insinuating that he dyed not in our nature as true man but as Gortyn saith the sufferings of every Saint who is the figure and image of Christ is all the Christ crucified the Scripture knows There is nothing in all the books or writings of Familists discovered touching the controversies between Protestants and their Adversaries Papists Arminians Socinians Arrians Antitrinitarians Sabellians Libertines Swenckefeldians Anabaptists c. Concerning Election Reprobation the power of free-will the supremacy of the Pope Idol-worship the consubstantiality of the Son of God Christs manhood his dying satisfaction merit buriall resurrection ascension the last judgement heaven hell the resurrection of the body in all which they are unsound and ought to give a confession of their faith as Anabaptists have done 12 The Jewish Church saith Saltmarsh p 70. or dispensation that was according to Moses and the Letter in which they were led out in carnall and more fleshly courses as in proceeding against the Nations by warre and fighting with all their other legall Rites and Rudiments were a clear figure of the Christian under age or under tutors and Governours and worldly Rudiments Here lawfull Warres and the use of the Sword are made legall rites and figures War saith he with all other legall Rites then Warre is no more lawfull to us under the New Testament then Circumcision and all the Law of Ceremonies Saltmarsh then would no more goe as a Priest to the Campe to preach to the Generall then he would be Circumcised except with H. Nicholas he thought all Moses Law indifferent and that the spirit without scripture led him to be accessorie to unlawfull bloodâshed and the spirit is his rule not the word of God 2 If the ceremonies of Moses be the figure of a Christian under Tutors and worldly rudiments such as hearing of the Gospel baptisme prayer confession reading then all these must bee abolished in this life to the Christian and if Christ have crucified all these as fleshly ordinances to Pray heare must be as unlawfull as to be circumcised which Paul saith Gal. 5. is to fall from Christ. See if these men mind God 13 The Disciples of Châist saith p 70 71. according to Johns ministerie were a type and figure of such as are under Tutors as Gal. 4.1 and as carnall and Babes in Christ 1 Cor. 3.1 2. Answ. These under non-age Gal. 4.1 are under the Law of Moses and yet Heirs of the promise The Disciples were under Christs ministerie and beleeved in Christ as come and were blessed in that the Father revealed Christ to them not flesh and blood Matth. 16.16 17. The Baptists ministery and his Doctrine and baptisme were all one with the ministerie and baptisme of Christ and the Apostles as our Divines prove against Papists for both preached Christ the Saviour that taketh away the sins of the World justification by free grace faith repentance to life sanctification c. Corinthians are called carnall not because they prayed and heard and beleeved but because though Babes
7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15. he never once saith Christ the Sonne of God was made true and very man in all things like unto us sinne excepted or the second person of the Trinity assumed the nature of man in the unity of his person or Christ was the true Sonne of David borne of a woman c. as Scripture and Divines speak but by the contrary only in this appearance of flesh he was a figure of God whose designe it is to make his Saints his temple his tabernacle his body and God thus manifested in the flesh that is God by his Spirit giving us faith and a new birth to be the Sonnes of God in whom he dwells by faith is the Immanuel God with us that is all the God-man or God incarnate which this spirit of the Antichrist will yeeld to us is nothing but every Saint anointed is Christ and Immanuel now the Father and Spirit both make the Saints the Temple of God the new creation the body of Christ thus and so the Son is no more God incarnate then the Father and God is thus manifested in the flesh in making us his dwelling house and Temple and body by faith as Saltmarsh is sure not to speak against but with the heretickes who denyed Christ to have a true body or to be true man but only to be a figure or appearance of a man or a man in representation in forme in meer shape not truly and really so as the Disciplâs heard saw with their eyes and looked on and their hands handled the Lord of life 1 Joh. 1.1 of him they said He is not here he is risen againe except ye beleeve that I am he yee shall dye in your sinnes And in his crucifying saith Saltmarsh p. 13.14 all his first glory in which he appeared revealed that old designe of God that mystery hid from ages and now made manifest to the Saints nayling all the flesh of his Saints to the same crosse and being lifted up drawes all men to him which is the mystery of the Gospel or Christ crucified H. Nicholas document c. 3. sen. 5. to be borne of the Virgin Mary out of the seed of David after the flesh is to be borne of the pure doctrine of H.N. out of the seed of love How Christ nailed all the flesh of his Saints to the crosse except mystically and figuratively and in a spirituall sense I know not but this is all Christs dying on the crosse except Familists say that Christ dyed not really and truly but only in a figure or they say Christ as an extraordinary holy man was God manifested in the flesh and that he was not the consubstantiall Son of God but being a man Godded with the holy being of love dyed as an example of singular love and patience and most submissive obedience and so nailed to his crosse all the flesh of his Saints exemplary that we should follow him as the Socinians teach and so his death must be no reall no true satisfaction nor any satisfactory ransome to justice for us but that God forgave all men their sinnes without a price or ransome of blood and Christ gave not himselfe as a reall ransome price or satisfaction for our sinnes but dyed as a rule and patterne of holinesse that we should imitate him and without his but by our owne personall merits wee might be saved as we were saved by following the godly lives of other holy men The Scripture saith he nailed his owne flesh to the crosse for so it is 1 Pet. 2 24. Who his own selfe bare our sinnes in his body on the tree And Act. 13.28 Though they found no cause of death in him yet desired they Pilate that he should be slaine 29. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him they tooke him downe from the tree and laid him in a sepulcher but God raised him from the dead Now the man Christ that was nailed to a tree and buried in the grave of Joseph of Arimathea that same man God raised from the dead but Christ nailed not the Saints flesh and the bodies of beleevers of Saltmarsh and others really to the crosse nor were their bodyes really laid in Josephs new tombe nor did God truly and really raise them from the dead only in a spirituall meaning we dyed are buried with Christ and partakers of his resurrection But saith Peter Act. 5.30 The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom ye slew and hanged on a tree But Saltmarsh saith the Christ crucifying and nailing all the flesh of his Saints to the same crosse and being lifted up drawes all men to him is the mystery of the Gospel or Christ crucified But Christ crucifying the flesh and sinfull corruption of beleevers in the same crosse is Christ mystically and spiritually and by the merit of his bloody death mortifying sin in the Saints and the sufferings of the Saints are not satisfactory to divine justice as Christs sufferings were but castigatorie to deaden them to the lusts of the flesh and the Saints sufferings are not Christ crucified nor Christ on the crosse drawing all men to him For Christ died and was but once really and truly in his blessed flesh and humane nature crucified Heb. 9.26 27 28. Matth. 27.34 35. Marke 14.24 Luke 23. v. 33 34. Joh. 19.23 on Mount Calvarie But the Saints were not really crucified with him for many of them were not borne when he dyed I have observed before that Gortyn and H. Nicholas make the Saints who beare the image of God suffering and persecuted in the world to be Christ crucified and nothing else because saith Gortyn Christ being the Lord of life cannot dye nor suffer in himselfe and therefore hee suffers in his Saints and so every suffering Saint is all the crucified Christ that these men grant Yea H. N. never confesseth Christ to be true God and very man but sometime the sabbaoth is Christ Evang. c. 2. s. 15. or the service of love is Christ. Exhor 14. s. 1. or the godly being in men is Christ Evang. 13. s. 16. or the eldest Elder of the family of love is Christ that is H.N. or a godly life is Chriât so are we saved by our owne good works And Saltmarsh saith p. 14. Now all this of this new or second creation as they are spirituall and heavenly are only in and through the same Spirit and discerned in the same Spirit Hence a Christ of flesh and blood who is true man and dyed for us is but Christ in the letter and the Protestant legall Christ that as a killing letter killeth and perfecteth nothing and cannot give life but the true Christ is a Spirit and spirituall and discerned in the Spirit that is to say only the family of love knoweth by the Spirit abstracted from Scripture and from all flesh and letter the true God manifested in the flesh of every Saint and crucified in beleevers and disclaimeth the
Then Familists who seeke no more but love in the heart will be glad that all externals be cut off now there is nothing then of Religion but Opinions knowing beleeving hoping fearing loving for bowing to Idols perjury adoring of the Devill vocall covenanting with Sathan these have nothing to doe with Religion for they are not things of the mind I observed before that H. Nicholas epistle to the two Daughters of Warwicke said Christ gives leave to any man to deny his Religion before men if the heart be good Christ is not so cruell nor taken with the blood of men as to will any to lose his life his houses children brother sister lands for him and the Gospel Hee may deny God and Christ and both Law and Gospel before earthly Judges if hee keep a good heart to God he failes not against Religion or any of the first foure commands for Religion is fettered within the circle of the minde 2. If all Religion be a thing of the minde If any think and beleeve he may take fifteene wives and offer his childe a sacrifice to God as Abraham did and that hee may take his neighbours goods because the Saints are the owners of the earth and may marry his wives sister his owne mother in law he cannot act according to his faith because he may be compelled to unact and abstaine from such things of the mind by the power of the sword Now this is great compulsion to things of the minde 3. I know not any that ever I read or heard said the sword of men can compell the minde or compell men in things of the minde for let the persecuting Emperors and all the Tyrants on earth armed with the fury and power of the Prince of the bottomlesse pit torture torment or kill they cannot reach soule minde will conscience and affections we never said that the sword is a meanes of converting soules to Christ or that Religion is or can be compelled but wee hold that the sword is an externall though not simply necessary meanes to hinder wolves and grievous foxes to destroy the soules of others by bringing out of their corrupt mindes in word writing teaching professing another Gospel such as fleshly and abominable familisme now the not perverting of the soules of others the only object of the Magistrates sword is not the conversion nor any signe that the false teacher thus hindered to hurt the flocke is converted to the faith The Magistrate then defendeth only and guardeth the Law of God and Church from pestilent heresie but neither he nor his sword is hereby made a means way or cause of conversion of soules or propagating the Gospel who ever usurpe the sword to defend ravening wolves that with such doctrine destroyes the flocke of Christ they give their power to the beast and their hornes and strength to the false Prophet and I writ it God shall deliver soules out of their captivity for the elect cannot finally be seduced Matth. 24.24 and shall make their carcases fall as dung upon the open field and as the handfull after the harvest man and none shall gather them and make them as a wheele and as stubble before the wind and fill their faces with shame But if conscience ought to bee the ruling principle in all we doe in acts of the second as well as the first Table of the Law yea in eating and drinking 1 Cor. 10.31 the sword hath no place at all over Christians or any at least professing Christ these that marry many wives at once and sacrifice their children to devills and thrust men out of their possessions and take them to themselves because they being Saints are the only just owners of the earth and the meeke shall inherit the earth these that sweare a Covenant when they are low as Familists doe professe they may and deny their Religion before men as H. Nich. taught and divers Anabaptists and Nicodemits in Calvins time and then unsweare and perjure and breake their Covenant with God and men when they have the sword in their hand will sweare and suffer for it that they doe all these from meere conscience and upon Religious grounds in the minde and the Magistrate is as much obliged to beleeve that conscience leads them in all these as he is to beleeve all Religions are to be suffered and the justified man cannot sinne cannot steale murther swear whore blaspheme cosen and he ought not to compel with the sword godly men in some things of the minde and not in all things except he be partiall in the Law In other things God hath put the sword in the Parliaments hands for the terror of evill doers If any plead exemption from it he knows not the Gospel Answ. If for the terror of evill doers then for the terror of false teachers who are grievous wolves not sparing the flock Act. 20.29 evill workers Phil. 3.2 and make these that receive them in their houses and farre more in an Army of Saints partakers of their evill deeds 2 Joh. v. 10 who subvert whole families Tit. 1.11 make their followers twofold more the children of hell then themselves Matth. 23.15 2. If by other things the Author meane all things but Religion then Parliaments have no place to be Nurse-fathers to the Church they have done usurpingly to sweare to defend the Reformed Religion of the Church of Scotland to extirpate heresies and what is contrary to sound doctrine that is to root out Familisme Antinomianisme Socinianisme Arrianisme Antiscripturisme Papists Prelates Seekers Arminians 3. If any plead exemption from the Parliaments sword he knowes not the Gospel that is a poor punishment vale at totum many of the Authors way subvert the doctrine of the Gospel as all the familists But the Author saith not hee shall feele the weight of his sword but only he knowes not the Gospel then many Anabaptists who hold this thing of the minde under the new Testament there ought to bee no Christian Magistrate no Christian ought to beare the sword cannot know the Gospel there are of these that thinke they know the Gospel as well as this Author And Saltmarsh the prime Chaplaine of the Army professeth he knowes more of the Gospel then Wicklef Calvin Luther and all Protestants generally Yet he sets the Magistrates up for worldly societies and more principally for the people of God in the flesh Sparkl glo p. 138. but the Saints in this life saith he attaine to all Spirit pag. 71 72 198 206 207. and are above the flesh and Ordinances and to returne to a dispensation of the flesh that needeth Magistracie is to come backe and remaine in Sodome pag 75. when the Lord hath bid you come out pag. 121.122 The Author and M. Saltmarsh must herein renounce H. Nicholas and they are so neare of kin that all the water in Thames cannot wash their bloud asunder the one from the other for H.N. saith Spirit Laud. c. 34. s. 8.9 The family of
principle of grace by which they were to bee faithfull to him who sent them and durst not preach smooth things nor conceale the visions of God False Prophets as Balaam and Caiaphas doe out of a Propheticall impulââon both see and speake the visions of God and are punished of God for speaking Propheticall truths which they cannot chuse but must speake for they preach them not because they are awed of God and dare not heale the wound of the daughter of Gods people with faire words but beside their intention as Balaam did Num. 23. ch 24. And thus it is not necessary when Prophets reveale visions that in that act of revelation they see them to be true revelations with only a Propheticall light And because the Propheticall light is not perfect but infused ad modum recipientis as we are capable to receive the speces of things may be objected to the Prophets understanding and they see them as things but not in the spirituall signification they stand under so Iohn saw seven starres and seven golden Candlestickes but knew not that the one noted the seven Angels of the Church and the other the seven Churches The way God offers the speces to the understanding is not knowne to us but it is sutable and congruous to the nature of Spirits Yet doth not God let the Prophets see the things themselves but only the intellectuall speces for 1 King 22.17.19 20. compared with v. 28. cleareth that Israell was not really scattered nor Ahab really killed at Ramoth-Gilead but only visionally for Ahab then should really both be dead and alive Israel scattered not scattered at the same time which involveth a contradiction yet Micajah said he had seene the one and the other then he saw the visionall images printed in the revealed decree of God or some other way offered to his imagination Now this Propheticall Spirit doth not act the Saints in beleeving and praying or the like as Antinomians would have all to be Prophets but the Spirit of grace and supplication of which these considerations may serve to cleare truth between us and Antinomians who runne the way of Enthusiasts Hence 1. That we may more exactly know the nature of worshipping God in Spirit and in the letter We are to consider 1. a spirit is opposed to that which is a body and bodily and externall as Luke 24 39. Handle mee and see for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see I have thus they call Christ in the flesh not a spirituall Christ. David George and H. Nicholas call him a fleshy and a literall Christ because such a Christ say they commeth under the senses as if Christ because true man in the flesh who was filled with the anointing above his fellowes and because he was cloathed with our flesh could not preach and pray more spiritually then David George or H. Nicholas 2. A spirit is opposed to that which is literall and externall and is only a signe a forme a sound and hath nothing of life and spirit in it Ioh. 6.63 It is the Spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing the words that I speake unto you they are spirit they are life The Spirit there is opposed to carnall these of Capernaum dreamed of an orall carnall materiall bodily and externall eating of Christs flesh and drinking his blood Christ refuteth that and sayeth it was the Spirit of Christ not his bare flesh that quickneth dead sinners and that his words spoken v. 54 55 56. Of eating the sonne of mans flesh and drinking his blood must be taken spiritually not carnally and grossely and so Antinomians falsely impute to us that we expone all tropes and allegories that should be exponed spiritually in a carnall and literall sense 3. 2 Cor. 3. The Spirit and inward working is opposed to the letter and outward working and so externall and outward worship only and in the only letter and sound of words is opposed to the spirituall and internall worship in life and power But if yee speake in sensu composito only and meerly externall and literall working is hypocriticall when there is no heart-worke and it is as if a painted man should speake no heat no warmnesse of breath commeth out of his mouth this acting is no Ordinance of God but an act of hypocrisie so we doe not plead for externall reformation in concreto nor for the reading hearing meditating and preaching on the Scriptures with this positive act of doing these hypocritically if we speake againe in sensu diviâo of the word in the letter and Scriptures in themselves not including the Spirit or any influence thereof in or with the word we judge these two the word and the Spirit to be subordinate not contrary and see not but we are to stand for and defend all Ordinances in themselves Scripture reading hearing praying Sacraments as in or of themselves Ordinances of God and of divine institution though as they are such the Spirit joyn not with them nor doth the word of God make any such opposition between them as that some Christians should bee under these externall Ordinances as being more legall and lesse spirituall and others beyond above all Ordinances externall and taught of God immediately because they are forsooth ânder all-all-spirit and purely spirituall and so taught of God as they have no more need of Ordinances then learned Doctors have to read the horne-booke as Waldesso saith But how the word and Spirit are particularly united happily is more then the learned and godly can define I should thinke the word and Spirit are united as the King and the Kings Law revealed to his Subjects are one as we say the King is in every Court in regard the Kings Law is there or the Master is with the servant in his masterly authority that the servant carrieth when he speaketh in the name of his Master So as when Ieremiah and Esaiah yea or any faithfull Ambassador speaketh in Christs name the word and will of God God is said to speak by the mouth of those his holy Prophets and servants 2. The word and the Spirit are united as the principall and instrumentall cause as Christ is where his word is either converting or convincing and because the way of Christs working by the word is much in a morall way as by a signe conveying the thing signifâed by his Spirit Therefore the 3. way how Christ or his Spirit is in the word may be thus Christ cloatheth himselfe with the word or Scripture read or sounding in the eare as the thing signified is in the signe as the King carries himselfe to the minde and affection of his Spouse in a farre Countrey by the pourtrait of the King or by a friend an Ambassador or ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã by whom she is married to him though shee never saw the King himselfe in face and countenance And when Christ is in our hearts by faith and we regenerated by the
the Ordinances and hearing untill the day-starre the saving light of the Spirit that goeth before the Sunne and day-light of the vision of glory shine in the heart to make the word effectuall for though candle-light and sunne-light cannot concurre to make one light because the lesser light evanisheth and disappeareth at the comming of the greater light and the moon-light or starre-light of faith cannot be mixt with the noonday-light of glory 1 Cor. 13.11 12. no more then the knowledge of a young child and of the same come to be an aged man can be in one and the same man yet the light of the Scripture the light of the Spirit may and must necessarily be together and are no more contrary as Waldesso and Familists vainely suppose then the light of the Sunne without in the aire is contrary to the visible faculty of seeing within in the eyes the Spirit is by a metaphor called the day-starre for the Spirit is not formally light but effectually only for it is that faculty by which the eyes of the understanding are strengthened to perceive the things of God and therefore called the spirit of Revelation Eph. 1.17 the eye-salve is not properly the light that makes colours visible though I may say to a dim sighted man when I give him an excellent eye-salve see I give you the light of your eyes When I give him but that by which his seeing faculty is strengthened to see perfectly that Scripture is not to be layed aside upon pretended sufficient light of the Spirit without the Scripture light is cleare Rom. 15.4 2. Because the perfectest beleevers have patience and comfort in the Scripture meditating in it day and night Ps. 1. and are strengthened through reading againe and againe the premises lest they faint Ps. 119.49 3. Because the Scripture to every new reading and hearing suggesteth some new thing of God as a fountaine that can never goe dry Ps. 119.96.92 93.72 2 Pet. 1.13 14 15. Phil. 3.1 8. That saying The more of the letter the lesse of the Spirit hath truth as touching the only and meere letter rested on and confided in but is not simply true that the more of the knowledge of the letter the lesse of the Spirit but the more rather of the Spirit 9. The nearer to glory when we shall be all-all-spirit and have nothing of a Temple and of Ordinances and of the mirror or glasse of the word the lesse literall we are that is we repose the lesse on the letter and are the more spirituall as the nearer to the morning the lesse of starre-light 2 Pet. 1.19 1 Cor. 13.10 11 12 13. But it followeth not that the nearer beleevers are to an immediate vision of glory the lesse knowledge they have of the letter of the Scripture though this knowledge of the letter shall fully be abolished at the dawning of that morning for the nearer it bee to the full harvest the more abundance of the first fruits and yet when the full harvest commeth the first fruits cease and give place to the harvest and the more of the morning twilight the nearer day though the morning twilight evanish when the perfect day commeth yea the nearer that the dawning of the morning face of God shine in at the windowes of our soule when we are in the child-birth paine of eternity the more of the knowledge of the will of God we have in regard we are 1 Pet. 3.14 to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and this knowledge doth include not exclude the knowledge of the letter The Spirit is not a part of the rule of faith or of the word the Spirit is not the word the word is not the Spirit but the Spirit is that which maketh lively and effectuall application of the word to our soules as the Mason is not the art of building but he is regulated by the precepts of art and reason and tyes himselfe to the following of art in all the workes of building the word is that which tyeth us as our guide rule conduct but the Spirit goeth along in a reall uniting of our hearts to Christ as it were enclosed in the word and in applying the word to our heart and so is called the anointing 10. The spiritualty of our soules is in a sort of dominion over the letter of the word when our soules are transformed into the things contained in the Gospell and we are changed into the spiritualnesse of the word so Rom. 6.17 the Gospell is called a forme a mould a signet for looke what letters and characters are in the signet of silver or brasse these same characters in length and breadth and just proportion are instamped on the wax or the paper the Gospell containes the Lord Jesus his image the lineaments of Christ in a new minde new will renewed affections knowledge love meeknesse patience lowlinesse c. it is a morall containing of Christ as the signe containeth the thing that is signified by the signe the Spirit instamps and forms as it were another Christ that is his living spirituall image in our soule Gal. 4.19 a new ingraving of the new worke and new creation of the second Adam 2 Cor. 5.17 on our hearts which is called the Law in the inward parts when wee have the same stampe and image of Christ and are changed over into the Gospel not into the letters of the Gospel or into the externall words but are new-moulded into the Spirit and new spirituall nature of the second Adam and are borne of the Spirit Joh. 3.5 6. the word is called the seed 1 Pet. 1.23 the tree is vertually in the seed the new birth and new Spirit we receive in regeneration is in the word vertually as the thing signified in the signe so are we said 2 Cor. 3.18 to bee changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. And the Spirit lookes to his copy or sampler and looke what lineaments legs limbs proportion of members are in the second Adam these same the Spirit by the word preached draws and frames in us now the second Adam the man Christ in his spirituals is the first borne of every creature Col. 1.15 Christ is the master peece the flower and glory of the Acts of God in creating new creatures after the second creation and there is framed on him holinesse lowlinesse meeknesse humility patience heavenly mindednesse and the spirit according to this glorious mould draws the legges armes and all the severall limbes and members of the new creature in the Saints and he makes efficaciously good that part of the word Learne of me that I am meek and lowly Mat. 11.29 let him take up his crosse and follow me Matth. 16.24 let this minde be in you that was also in Christ Jesus Phil. 2.5 so doth the Spirit change us unto al Spirit and this is the right Christing of the Saints when
the Lord by the word Spiriteth and of new Natureth us over againe into new spirituall children like our brother the fairest among the Sonnes of men holy heavenly spirituall meeke lowly like Christ though because of in-dwelling sin in all all the new Creatures come farre short of the first coppy And when we are thus changed and made spirituall the Gospel is acted on us so are we spiritualized into Christ and made one with him by faith and planted into the similitude of Christ Rom. 6. now the letters and characters or sounds of the written and preached Gospel are transient things but the Gospel and new Covenant in the glorious promises spirituall priviledges contained therin stand stil as the everlasting rule according to which we are daily more and more conformed till we become one spirit with the Lord. And because the continuation of the lif hid up with God in Christ is a protracted thread of continuall dependence by renued acts of faith of patience and comforts through the Scriptures of growing in faith the word must give a daily new objective life to our faâth and the renued acts thereof for faith is our victory 1 Joh. 5. and we overcome by the word Rev. 12.11 if Antinomians can give us a time when we shall be secured from the fiery-darts of Sathan on this side of heaven we yeeld that the sheild of the word is to be layed aside but that we know not see Ephe. 6.15 16 17. 1 John 2.14 1 Pet. 5 8 9. Were we indeed made perfect intire without spot or wrinckle of indwelling sin in this life and such as wee can sin no more as Antinomians vainly boast of themselves as Towne Eaton Salmtarsh Den and Crispe will hereafter teach us I could yeeld there were some more colour or hew of reason to say that we are being justified invested in a state of all and pure spirit beyond the orbe and sphere of all necessitie of Ordinances and Scripture because pure spirits need no characters or letters of Scripture seals or other ordinances no more then learned Doctors need the Horn-book to use the vaine comparison of John Waldesso But we must go in over the threshold of heaven holding the booke of the Old and New Testament in our hand growing in knowledge till we be perfected with him who dwells in light inaccessable and so there is not any thing signified and holden forth to us in the scripture nor promised or prophecied in the Covenant of grace Deut. 39. Ezech. 11. Jer. 31. Ezech. 36. Heb. 8. but the coppy extract or the double thereof is written ingraven and created in the souls of the elect in which sense the assumption of this syllogisme Whosoever beleeveth shall be saved But I John Marie beleeve ergo Is in Scripture and the same spirit of faith and the beleeving spoken of by Esaiah Ieremiah Ezechiel c. The same circumcised and new heart that they prophecied of is in Iohn Mary and so the Spirit worketh the same new heart and the worke or act of beleeving in length breadth figure limbes parts to speake so that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament promise as a Painter draweth the portrait head face eyes cheeks mouth whol body in colours al by looking on a liveing man now how the man Iohn or Mary in a reflect knowledge can prove the same to his owne comfortable assurance and peace is another thing But here is no new discovery of God or of the Spirit which Saltmarsh calleth for Sparkles of glory pa. 194 195. for he complaineth that there hath beene no reformation further in this Assembly at Westminster nor any higher attainment in these things points of doctrine as to justification sanctfication faith c. the ministery word Sacraments which they call meanes of salvation then the Bishops made and the Synods in England formerly We grant all we know no new cut nor other new way of justification then the way David and Paul were justified Rom. 4.1 2 3 4 5 6. Psa. 32.1 and we glory that wee adde nothing to Articles of faith contained in the Scripture we only explicate them and vindicate these Articles from the false glosses of Popish Bishops and the same that Saltm objecteth to us might any object against the Canonicall Epistles of Iohn the Apostle and say This fellow tells us only of some outward things and outward Ordinances of Christ precepts of love to the brethren of doing righteousnesse and all these but written with paper and inke too we see no higher attainments then these that the Prophets Christ and Paul and Iames and Peter told us he tells us nothing of any purer or more glorious discoveries of God or the Spirit or Iesus Christ or our union with the Spirit or glory as to spirituall things and Christ risen but as to Christ in the flesh or under the Law of which these Ordinances were a signe we grant ' wee can reveale nothing but old truths and we cannot give to Saltmarsh any other new cut or fragment of truth but what the Scriptures held forth 2. Wee can but hold forth outward things that is truths of ancient faith spoken by sinfull men and printed in paper and these of Christ both dead risen and ascended to heaven and wee confesse we can but baptise with water and can but build plant water and are but underworkmen and instruments of words formes sounds printed books and the Prophets and Apostles received these and no other thing from the Lord but our Master can doe more he can and doth by our weake labours and the foolishnesse of preaching give the holy Spirit If Saltmarsh can give purer or more glorious discoveries of God of his Spirit Christ Jesus c. let him take H Nicholas and Da. George to helpe him let us heare them produce your reasons c. for we ever urge this these new discoveries of God or the Spirit are either revealed in the word or not revealed if in the word then are they but outward Ordinances such as former Synods have discovered and so according to Saltmarsh to be rejected if they be not revealed in the word they must be additions to the word and so unlawfull Rev. 22.18 Deut. 12.32 Prov. 30.6 2. The Spirit that comes with new positive doctrines without the word must prove it selfe to bee from God by signes and miracles as Christ and his Apostles did 3. Isaiah Malachy prophesied of John Baptist though hee did no miracles Let us see the like warrant for these new discoveries 4. This Spirit must be tryed by the word as Christ was willing to make the Scripture judge whether he was the Messiah or no Joh. 5.39 Paul out of Moses and the Prophets proved that Maries sonne must be the only Saviour so did the rest of the Apostles 5. Wee are commanded to judge them cursed impostors and not to receive them in our house or bid them God speed who bring any new discoveries of God
or the Spirit which is not the doctrine that Paul and Iohn received from the Lord Gal. 1.8 2 Ioh. v. 10. 1 Cor. 11.23 But Familists will have the Scriptures to beare witnesse to us of and to reveale the Father and the Son but for the holy Spirit he must be revealed without the testimony of Prophets and Apostles though Christ our dying friend hath left us his will in his last testament confirmed by the death of the Testator and forbids us to expect any farther revelation Heb. 1.1.9.16.17.27.28 Rev. 22.12.18.19 Is it not safer to beleeve the Prophets and Apostles upon whose word and doctrine we are builded as living stones and a habitation to God Eph. 2.20 21 22. then to relye upon the word of such seducers as H. Nicholas Del Saltmarsh and the like who come in their owne name and bring neither word nor workes to witnesse their doctrine not so much as Simon Magus and the Antichrist who bring wonders and living miracles to evidence that they are sent from God Familists have no escape but to say that their new discoveries are revealed to them by the Spirit to be contained in the spirituall and allegoricke sense of the Scripture Now undeniably the Scripture hath a literall sense and here it hath a mysticall and spirituall sense and so many senses as the Papists teach So Bellermine de verb. dei l 3. c. 3. Thomas p. 1. art 10. So Cajetanus ibid. Alpâonsus a Castro l. 1. adver her Lyra in 2. Reg. 7 Bucanus in Theolog. Scolastic part 2. c. 3. q. 5. 11. The same Gospell-truths in the manner of preaching and delivering of them may be spiritually by some and literally and dryly published by others and nothing is thereby either added or taken away from the substance of truth But duties commanded in the Law are then pressed upon the consciences of the hearers in a legal way when they are forced upon the consciences of the people upon legal motives Law-obligations threatnings of curses sad judgements but they are then spiritually preached when they are pressed upon the hearers in a terrible Law-way but for that end discovered to them that they may be chased into Jesus as to the Gospel-sanctuary and City of refuge to such as runne themselves out of breath to be in the bosome of our Saviour 2. They would be pressed so spiritually as there may bee still a pointing at a pardoning ransome and a healing and curing spirit so that all obedience must be new from new principles of the Mediators grace and upon Gospell motives only not from Hagar and the covenant tending to bondage Nor 3. upon the same necessity and account they were to be performed by vertue of a Covenant of workes What I before said toucheth the question whether the formall and last object of our faith be the word of God or the anointing strength saving grace and eye-salve of the Spirit as some Schoolmen Granado and others affirme the latter but the word is the formall object of faith the saving grace or anointing the efficient by which we are anointed inabled and quickned to beleeve the word now the eye-salve or anointing is not that which we see and beleeve that which we see is the saving Gospel-truths we beleeve Saltmarsh with Familists denying the Scripture to bee the word of God will have the inward supernaturall grace and anointing to be the only obliging rule of faith otherwise saith he it s in vaine to write bookes one against another for we then but set letter to letter argument to argument reason to reason but all in vaine without the Spirit as if Christ in proving the resurrection against Saduces Paul in proving justification by faith without works against such as turn the grace of God into wantonnes had not set letter to letter argument to argument and all in vaine for they remained still blinde yet Christ and Paul convinced and silenced these obstinate wranglers by the word of God without powring the Spirit on them without whose power they remained unconverted and hardened against the truth the formall object is that into which our faith is resolved when we give a reason of our faith as thus for what cause or formall motive doe you see with the eye of faith and believe that Maries son is the Messiah only Saviour ye do answer because so saith the Lord in the Old and N. Testament and that is the true object but yee doe not give an account of your faith when yee answer I beleeve it because I have eyes within inlightned because that is not to answer what is the true object of your faith if any aske you upon what morall grounds goe you to Rome yea give no reason if yee answer I goe to Rome because I have a will and a locomotive power in the nerves and muscicles of my body to move for now you answer by the efficient cause when the question is made of the formall objective cause If any aske why doe you see colours in day-light yee doe not answer because I have eyes and a seeing faculty but to the former you say I goe to Rome for such businesse to the lâtter I see colours in day-light because they are seeable and colours cloathed with light before my eyes so 1 Ioh. 5.10 He that beleeveth on the Sonne of God hath the witnessâ within him that is the beleever hath objectively the the truth stamped in his heart but the anointing by which he was inabled to receive the testimony and truth is not for that the object or the thing beleeved or received but the saving helpe by which wee are strengthened to beleeve and receive the testimony the inward speaking of God to the heart as Augustine saith lib. 11. confess c. 3. sine strepitu syllabarum without noise of words is the saving apprehending of Christ and Gospell-truths but it is not the thing or object savingly apprehended the day-starre in the heart is not the Gospell-truth that wee see and receive but the light of Christ inabling and the Spirit strengthning the soule to beleeve and receive these Gospell-truths for without the day-starre and Spirit no man can see these truths 12. Upon the principles of Antinomians and Familists these and the like Gospell-promises I will give you a new heart and a new spirit Behold I make all things new a bruised reed shall hee not breake Come to me all yee that are weary and heavy laden and I will ease you Him that commeth I will in no wise cast away but will raise him up at the last day Yee that have no mony come buy and eat c. are as literall and legall being written and preached and as carnall for they value them to be but outward ordinances as this Cursed be every one that abides not in all that is written in the Law of God to do it or as the very Law and Covenant of workes which promiseth not any new heart but presseth the Law in its
own gift laying hold on the righteousnesse of Christ freely and of onely pure grace imputed to us 5. Cornewell and other Antinomians make arguing obedidience and perswading comforts by inferences and consequences works of man not able to produce assurance and Saltmarsh thinketh discoursing and reasoning not enough to produce assurance of faith and he thinks it a Legall bondage to support the soule from marks and such things as cannot give evidence but by inferences yet all the superstructures of faith in Gospel-obedience as binding upon perswading arguing reasoning All other assurances saith Saltmarsh beside the assurance of the light of faith such as are from marks and love to the brethren that come by way of reasoning and arguing are rotten conclusions from the Word and such things as true legall teachers have invented not understanding the mystery of the kingdome of Christ then all Scripture and Gospel-arguing are vaine janglings by this 6. Nor doth the Gospel command by patterne rather then precept as if the examples of the cloud of Witnesses who running their race with patience inherit the promise of free salvation Hebr. 12.1 2 3. should destroy commands or as if patternes without Law or any otherwise but in so farre as they are warrantted by the Law of God did tye and oblige us to obedience and imitation for if patternes as patternes did tye us then should we be obliged to follow the Fathers and Christ in their extraordinary works and miracles which neither Law nor Gospel commands us to doe 7. But the truth is outward commandements written or preached by Antinomians are given to us in the Gospel onely by accident and because we are carnall and sinnefull but were we as spirituall as we should be wee should need no Law but that which is spirituall and written in the heart no more then Angels need a written and outward Law Now that Antinomians meane this is cleere by Saltmarsh his Divinity Commands saith hee are for obedience as well as tydings of forgivenesse this kind of Gospel fits both God and man and God the Father may be seen in commanding holinesse and the Spirit in forming the holynesse commanded and the Sonne in redeeming us to holynesse even to the will both of the Father and the Spirit And this Gospel fits man who is made up both of flesh and Spirit and so hath need of a Law wâthout and in the Letter as well as in the heart and Spirit the Law is spirituall but we are carnall Rom. 7. Nor can a state oâ flesh and Spirit bee ordered onely by a Law within for the word and Law of the Spirit meerely is for a spirituall condition or estate of glory as Angels who live by a Law spirituall and state of revelation Answ. 1. Here be strange conceits of old libertinisme Gospel commands are as well saith he for obedience as tydings of forgivenesse But why for obedience Any disobedience to them is no sinne in a beleever as is proved then they are not to a beleever for obedience 2. I know not how man because hee is flesh hath need of a Law without and the letter of an outward command then because he is spirit or as he is spirituall he hath need of no Law nor letter of an externall command Timothy then hath no need as he is a renewed man to give himselfe to meditation and reading and doctrine nor to continue in the things that he had knowne from the Scriptures which are given by divine inspiration to save his owne soule and others and to make him perfect to every good worke Nor have the Saints at Colosse need that the word of Christ dwell richly in them Nor the called of Iesus Christ at Rome as they are called and sanctified any need of learning from the Scriptures that they through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Onely the flesh and the old man possibly hath need of the Scriptures and the letter of the command then it was not Davids inward man that esteemed the testimonies of God and his promises sweeter then the honey and the honey combe and as his heritage and more then thousands of silver and gold Nor did Peter or the Saints as regenerated to a lively hope 1 Pet. 1.3 and as they obtained the like precious faith relish the promises as great and precious but onely their flesh found sweetnesse in Gods word And Mary not as renewed but according to the flesh and corruption sate at Christs feete and heard his word and choosed the better part that could not bee taken from her And this sorts well with the old Anabaptists who said that the unregenerate onely needed outward ordinances as the Word preached by men and hearing reading Sacraments but for the regenerate there is no need that any teach his neighbour because we are all taught of God and the annoynting teach-them all And the Sonnes of God are not subject to the Law that is they are not to bee taught what they should doe or leave undone seeing the Spirit of God which is their instructor will teach them sufficiently neither is any thing to bee commanded or injoyned them as to doe good or eschew evill or the like The same Spirit I say doth command or injoyn them likewise to retaine the best and quit the contrary and obey them accordingly And so speake the Libertines of N. England These that bee in Christ are not under the Law or commands of the Word as the rule of life 3. If man because he is flesh hath need of a Law without and in the Letter by flesh is either understood a body and sensitive soule but then the meaning must be that the Law of Word and Gospel is given to the outward man to regulate him in his animal and vitall actions as eating sleeping walking seeing hearing and other senses as if no Law were imposed on the Spirit heart understanding conscience and will a carnall dreame that many put upon the Pharisies or by the flesh must be understood the unrenewed and sinnefull corruption This must be the sense of Saltmarsh for hee citeth Rom. 7.14 The Law is spirituall that is just and holy as vers 12. Wherefore the Law is holy and the commandement is holy and just and good but I am carnall that is sinfull flesh unholy and sold under sinne Now thus Law and Gospel commands threatnings Gospel-promises sweet invitations of free grace that loaden sinners would come to Christ and bee refreshed eased saved are all given to man because he is sinnefull and no outward Commandement would be laid on man if he had not sinned which is a conjecture and fancie Divines say the Tree of life and of knowledge of good and ill were Sacraments to innocent Adam the Sabbath was ordained for Adams worshipping of God an outward Law was laid on him If thou eate thou shalt die when as yet Adam was not
reformation besides this as if sanctification were no heart-reformation Del pag. 5. and pag. 6. alledgeth that the new covenant standeth for onely a heart-reformation and writing of the Law in the heart Jer. 31. but forgetteth that the same covenant saith Ezech. 36.27 I will put my Spirit in them and cause them to walke in my Commandements and that the covenant of grace expressely forbiddeth Psalm 89.30 31 32. The forsaking of Gods Law the breaking of his Statutes and the following after the heart of their detestable things and commandeth the externall as well as the internall walking in Gods Statutes and keeping his Ordinances Ezech. 11.19.20 and the Separating from Beliall and unrighteousnesse and the touching no uncleane thing the cleansing our selves from all filthynesse of the flesh and spirit and perfecting holynesse in the feare of God 2 Cor. 6.16 17 18. chap. 7.1 these speake outward and inward reformation M. Dels righteousnesse of Christ in the heart by faith his onely inward reformation he knoweth must then be to beleeve Christ was Reformed inwardly for him beleeved repented sorrowed for sinne and obeyed the Law for him and that is all the reformation as Saltmarsh his Colleague saith that is required of us Nor is this reformation wee urge Hypocriticall like that of the Pharisees of old and of the Prelats of late because it is externall For though the Church can doe no more and the Ministers both in Preaching and in Synodicall decrees holding forth the Lawes of God as Acts 15.22 23 24 25 26 27 28. but externally reforme the Lord must give the increase yet they neither injoyne nor preach hypocritall reformation And it s of the same Mettall and Coine that Del bringeth Pag. 89. Gospel-reformation is thorow and compleat in the inner and outward man Eccâesiasticall reformation is by halfs and the power of God in creating and redeeming the elect may as well bee resisted as the reforming of them the power of God is ingaged in it Ecclesiasticall reformation hath only the power of man and by it the heart and nature can never be changed Answ. Gospel-reformation to Del is the taking away and destroying the body of sinne and this saith he is thorow and compleat a great untruth the body of sinne in this life is never compleat But Del meaneth with Eaton and Towne and other Familists that we are as perfect as cleane from sinne as the Lord Jesus or as the glorified in heaven and as Pocquius the Libertine said They cannot sinne being once inwardly reformed and would prove it from 1 Joh. 3.9 2. It is an argument against the whole Ministery of the Gospel seales promises rebukes commands threatnings as the Swink-feldians and Seekers teach For Paul is called a Father that begat the Corinthians Timothy is said to save himselfe and others Now Dels Argument fights with the Scripture Paul begetteth men Instrumentally Timothy saveth Ministerially sure neither Paul nor Tymothy doe convert men thorowly compleatly perfectly within and without nor doe they it irresistibly and by an omnipotency in them as the Lord doth shall wee then say Paul and Timothy their saving begetting and converting of men is no converting at all And no more lawfull then the Civill and Ecclesiasticall States reformation which is utterly unlawfull to Del Because saving of men and begetting of men by the Gospel in Paul and Timothy was externall and of it selfe by halfs without the effectuall working of the Spirit which Spirit neither Paul nor Timothy could command to blow was onely externall literall incompleat by halfes carnall as all the Ceremonies of Moses were to Del nor could Paul and Tymothy write the Law in the heart and inward parts so Del must meane that all Ministery Preaching Seales Covenants Praying praysing fasting all reading all bookes and Arts and learning as all holy practises and walking with God and acts of sanctification incurring in the senses and eyes of men might be cryed downe because all of a Christian is spirituall invisible and the Gnostic faith in the heart onely in which M. Del and Familists surpasse the deedes of old Enthyasts For at Munster there arose a Prophet saith Bullinger named Mathias Harlenius a Hollander by trade a Baker hee professed Visions and Dreames and by his Propheticall spirit commanded that they should bring all their goods and lay all downe at his feet and that all Books should be burnt except the Bible M. Del excepteth not the Bible nor Scripture because it is an externall carnall thing and so not sutable to the spirituall Kingdome of Christ. For saith he pag. 6. As the Kingdome of Christ is Spirituall so all the things belonging to it are spirituall Del. pag. 9. The Gospel-reformation is constant so long as Gods nature dwels in ours it will dayly be reforming it till it be altogether like it as long as the Spirit of God dwels in the flesh it will still be reforming the flesh to the Spirit till the whole body of sinne be destroyed and the naturall man be made spirituall But Civil Ecclesiasticall Reformation at first makes a great noise but when men have attained their owne ends its activity ceaseth Answ. 1. This poore Argument proveth great odds and wide differences betweene the Lords inward and spirituall way of reforming and the externall reforming by the ministerie of men which this man may know is not the question but it proveth not that ministeriall reformation by men whether Magistrates of which I cannot speake here but I hope if God will to demonstrate that the Monster of the lâberty of Conscience is Socinian and Epicurcan Atheisme or Ministers of the Gospel is either unlawfull or no part of Gospel-reformation but onely it concludeth that inward reformation is not outward reformation 2. M. Dels expression So long as Gods nature dwelleth in ours and so long as the Spirit dwelleth in the flesh it will be still reforming till the naturall man be made spirituall is hereticall and not according to the forme of sound words for there is abominable Heresie in speeches Henry Nicholas the father of the fleshly Familist speaketh so God was one in substance with man In the beginning when God made all things there was no more but one God and one man and they were one and had in all one order being and nature for God was all that man was and man was all thaâ God was and all must become one being with God by love say the Familists by faith say the Antinomians by regeneration said the Libertine Pocquius and his and his Godded man and so be all manned Gods and children of the most high Let Del cleare himselfe of this sâme spirituall fury Sure neither Scripture nor Protestants nor any save Familists say as Del doth that Gods nature dwelleth in ours But if he have one sense with Peter who saith Wee are made partakers of the Divine nature that is by Faith and the created graces of
within And its true the onely naked Letter without the Spirit can doe nothing without the Spirit but it followeth not that the Spirit renewes without the sense of the Letter received in the understanding And most false it is that in the Gospel the Word and the Spirit are alwaies joyned as Del saith for then all hearing the Gospel should belong to the converted and saved onely whereas the Scripture saith the contrary for many are hardned and heard the Gospel without faith damneth eternally the hearers as well as the Law It is as wild Libertinisme that Del speaketh That the Spirit reformeth by taking all evils out of the flesh he meaneth in Justification as if we were Angels being once justified and the evill of sinne dwelt not in us while we are in this body as is proved before And its wild stuffe that the Spirit doth change the flesh into its owne likenesse for saith he dreaming awake the Spirit is as fire that changeth every thing into it selfe and so doth the Spirit in the flesh make the flesh spirituall But Master Del what meane you by flesh The corruption of sinnefull nature then is sinne made Spirituall heavenly holy meeke good loving c. Familists and Libertines thanke you for that but sinne is destroyed as yourself grant 2. Doe you meane by flesh the body Then belike justification turneth our bodies into Spirits and wee have two bodies as Familists said in New England I cannot like that 3. If by flesh you meane the soule yee speake as Hereticks doe and that without Scripture or example The Spirit dwelleth in our flesh that is in our soule and spirit and changeth our spirit in a spirit strange Divinity Familists I know say As we came from Gods essence so wee and our soules returne to God and are made in God eternall and turned into his essence and so spiritualized so teach Libertines and by this they deny the Resurrection But 4. if by flesh you understand the sinnelesse frame of soule and body take heede of Libertines grosse dreame of our dying and returning to God who onely is and all beside him are nothing Theol. Germanica and the Bright Starre sport so with the truth of God CHAP. LXXXV Libertines and Antinomians come nigh to other in making God the author of sinne Paral. 16. LIbertines taught That all things fall out good or ill by the will of God and so that rebukes and exhortations should cease and that so we should pardon the sinnes one of another and beare the infirmities one of another For to the cleane all things are cleane and hee that is purged is altogether acceptable to God but let him beware that he be not an offence to his brother for it is written love thy neighbour neither desire to revenge and therefore said Pocquius the Libertine in his booke Rebuke not one another for sinne since its Gods will it should be so Bullinger tells us that in the yeare 1526. there were two brethren Thomas Schykerus and Leonard who were at a night-meeting having spent the night in Enthysiasticall conference with other Anabaptists Thomas commanding his brother Leonard to sit downe on his knees before him in the sight of his Parents and others who admonished him to doe nothing but what was to be done answered in the same Argument of Libertines nihil metuendum esse neque enim hic quicquam praeter voluntatem Patris fieri posse Nothing was to be feared because nothing here can be done beside the will of our heavenly Father and with a Sword he cut off his brothers head and having done this with shirt and hose onely he did runne through the Town and cryed The day of the Lord was come and the will of God is done and gall and vinegar drunke for which by the Magistrate he was justly put to death But Gods decree doth not excuse us from sinne nor remove necessitie of rebuking or holy and religious abstaining from sinne because Gods revealed will in his word not his secret and unsearchable decrees can be our rule of walking rebukes are also acts of love not of hatred or revenge The same course doe the Libertines and Familists of New England take For none say they are to bee exhorted to beleeve but such whom we know to be the elect of God or to have his Spirit in them effectually And we should not pray against that which cannot be avoided nor yet against all sinne The Antinomians come nigh to this For Doctor Crispe the Antinomian and Archer both disswade beleevers to be troubled or dismaied at sinne their reason holds good against all sinnes of unbeleevers also because its contrary to the care and providence of God and to Free grace whether of eternal election or of effectuall calling to feare for or sorrow at sinne Surely I should thinke then that sinne were not to be eschewed by the Saints nor to bee rebuked by any Wee are not to be troubled at or feare sinne because all changes by sinnes or sorrowes come from God Some Divines saith M. Archer aknowledge not so much of God in sinne as is in sinne and Gods will and pleasure is the wombe that conceived and whence springs every worke of the Creature whether it be good or bad Secondly saith he All things by sinne or sorrow which befall beleevers come from God by a decree powerfull yea even by that eternall love and counsell in and by which they were ordained to life eternall And by and through a covenant of grace made with them To the same purpose M. Del crying downe all outward Reformation saith Serm. pag. 13. I doubt not of the Churches Reformation because it is Christs own worke and he hath undertaken the doing of it and none of the powers of the earth can helpe him nor of the powers of hell can hinder him therefore he disswades the Parliament from building the Temple but so hee himselfe should preach none for Gods decrees none can hinder So Antinomians teach men are justified pardoned and saved before they beleeve without faith upon this ground that they were elected absolutely to glory as if God had ordained them for the end but the meanes might miscary and as if unbeliefe could not hinder them or as if through unbeliefe many could not enter into their rest of glory or as if sinne were an indifferent thing simply depending on the will of God in whose wombe M. Archer thinketh it was conceived CHAP. LXXXVI Libertines and Antinomians would have us doe nothing because God doth all Paral. XVII LIbertines said All that are without God are nothing all that wee doe or know is but vanity therefore are we to deny our selves this they said inferring we may live as we list and doe nothing but beleeve that God workes all our works in us and for us and impute all things to God
Saltmarsh speaketh most like this when he saith that all the precepts of Sanctification set forth Christ to be all in all Christ hath beleeved repented sorrowed mortified sinne perfectly for us and we are but dead passive creatures and the Spirit so acts in us as in blocks and so we must act nothing being as blocks and God must be the author of all sinnes of omission Familists commonly say I have nothing from the Creature I can doe nothing CHAP. LXXXVII Antinomians answered in that they say wee make the actings of the Spirit like to the acts of Morall Philosophie IT is a most unjust charge that Antinomians put on us That the way of the Spirit is grosse and carnall which we follow and our Divinity carnall But saith Saltmarsh We Antinomians find it hard to tresse and find the impressions of the Spirit and doe not take our impressions so low by the feelings of flesh and bloud and signes not infallible as to write of Regeneration as Philosophers doe of Morall vertues Let us examine whether Antinomians way bee Spirituall Divinity We professe it to be a most carnall way of Antinomians to say as Eaton doth An unjustified man that beleeveth that Christ hath taken away his sinnes is as cleane without sinne as Christ himselfe And To a beleever nothing is sin to Faith there is no sin Blasphemers if you have either face or conscience can yee say that Christ could sinne or that a beleevers denying of Christ his lying his Adultery are no sinnes Is not this carnall Divinity 2. If God see not Drunkennesse Lying Murthering in beleevers to be sins Are they not then no sinnes And should not the beleever say My light of faith seeth no sinne in my selfe but my Drunkennesse Lying Murthering committed I beleeve are no sinnes for sure justification and abolishing of sinne should be seene by my faith as they are seene by God if God see them and count them no sinnes its unbeliefe in me to see them and count them sinnes If a beleever steale his fellowes purse doth he not lye if he say Brother I have sinned against you behold I restore you your purse For if God say it is no sinne and see it no sinne I know his Judgement is according to righteousnesse and truth then it must bee no sinne and the beleevers judging of it to be sinne must be a lying and a false judging contrary to Gods judgement of truth 3. Doe not Antinomians say to sorrow for oâ to bee troubled in conscience at pardoned sinnes is unâeliefe and a work of the flesh and that it is Regeneration and Faith not to see sinne in our selves and that it was Adams and Eves sinne to see their sinne for then it was imputed to them as sinne and the Pharisees sinne was Joh. 9. that they saw their sinne and therefore their sinne remained These bee the words of Pocquius that Carnall Libertine and are the words of Saltmarsh Eaton Towne Denne and Crispe and their matter is the same when once we beleeve we sin no more then Christ doth but all these that are supposed to be sins as the Adulteries Murthers Lying Swearing Cousening Oppressing wee fall into being once beleevers are no sinnes before God nor to our Faith nor are we to see them as sinnes they be sinnes onely to our sense to our flesh and to menward 2. This is Antinomian reason but the old objection of the most abominable Anabaptists in the time of Bullinger who said advers Anabaptist lib. 1. cap. 4. Tota reformatio quae tum justituebatur illis displicebat ut minus Angusta exilis non satis spiritualis alta perfecta So Tho Muncer whose followers said against Luther Zwinglius and others the writings and Epistles of Muncer was more spirituall then theirs and their whole reformation was narrow hungry not perfect and high enough 3. The way of the Spirits Divinity is in this like to Morall vertues that 1. both are learned by teaching the one by Morall Phylosophie the other by the Scriptures Antinomians are thus Spirituall with a carnall and divellish Spirituality to reject the Scriptures and follow an Enthysiasticall Spirit and so wee acknowledge our Divinitie in this sense is not so Spirituall as that of the Libertines and Antinomians 2. The way of the Spirit is in this like Morall vertues that both bring an externall reformation though the Spirit throughly also changeth the inner side both inforce a ceasing to doe ill a learning to doe well and procuring of things that are honest in the sight of men Antinomians boast of a Libertine Idle faith and of a phancied purifying of the heart when the hands are not purged also and this is carnall Divinity to us 3. Morall vertues are increased by frequent exercise and so are gifts and graces five talents rising to ten the Saints growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. But Antinomians carnall Divinâtie teacheth we are as perfect when we are first justified as wee want nothing of that we shall have in heaven but to beleeve we are in heaven and there wee are a Spirituall lye cannot but be a most carnall sinne 4. But the Spirituality of our Divinity above Antinomians and Moralists we place 1 in that God infuseth supernaturall habits in us even a new heart a new Spirit whereas Antinomians deny any stocke of grace inherent in us Moralists acknowledge onely acquired habits and deny all infused and supernaturall habits 2. We judge the Law to be Spirituall and the Gospel written read or preached the power of God to salvation the arme of the Lord and the most lively quicke and operative word in the world and when the Spirit doth accompany Law and Gospel no man can stand before this Word Antinomians make the Scriptures but dead Inke and a killing Letter 3. Our Divinity maketh men heavenly minded to savour of the things of the Spirit so as they misse God and the sweetnesse and excellency of Christ when the Gospel is carried onely in the bare Letter and the preaching of the Gospel is but Literall with humane eloquence not in the evidence of the Spirit Morall vertues knoweth not any such power 4. When the Authority and Majestie of the Lord commanding in the Letter leadeth the will by the Spirit of the Lord freely willingly and withall indeclinably and irresistibly to yeeld it selfe to God 5. A Moralist knoweth no over-clowding of desertion a sanctified soule doth know it Nor doe Antinomians and Familists know any desertions or any ebbings and flowings of the Spirit for they say none are converted till they have faith of full assurance with excludeth all doubtings or inward conflicts this broad Seale being received they are ever in a merry mood ever rejoycing to mourne for sinne to call in question Gods favour to them is proper to onely unconverted Legalists under the Law
Recantation of the Antinomian errour in an Epistle of D. Luther to Mr. D. Guthel containing the minde of Luther touching Antinomians as a Sect that had their rise from the Devill 69 70 71 72 73 74 Luther is for the Law 70 71 That none is perfect in this life and we are to sorrow for sin 73 74 Islebius recanted his Recantation and returned to spread Antinomianisme after Luthers death 80 81 The tenets of Islebius Antinomians in Luthers time 81 82 The Antinomian way of Paulus Crellius in Luthers time 182 183 184 How Antinomians stated the question of old 83 How the Law is a patient to beleevers 84 Of the Antinomianisme of Michael Neander 84 85 Divers distinctions touching the use of and freedome from the law tending to cleare Luthers mind 86 87 Three speciall uses of the law according to Luther Ibid. Luther refuteth Antinomians in terminis and is most contrary to them 86 87 89 How faith only justifieth as Luther saith 100 How faith and works are contrary 101 How according to Luthers minde the Law hath power over the flesh and not over the renewed conscience 102 103 How Good workes conforme to the law are not necessary 103 The law the same now and under the covenant of works Ibid The law is given properly to the new man not to the flesh 103 104 How the terrified conscience is freed from the law 105 106 How the law condemneth and terrifieth how not 106 107 How the law is given to the New man how not 108 109 Excellent replyes of a beleever to the accusing law 109 110 The tempted beleever freed from challenges of the law 110 111 How a tempted beleever is to comfort himselfe against law-temptations in the conscience 112 113 Luther is for conditions in the Covenant and for preparations before conversion 114 115 Sundry excellent answers to Satan and the law what a sinner is at the brink of dispaire 115 116 117 118 How we are patients in justification how not 118 119 How the law is weak 119 How good workes are naught 120 121 How the law is abolished how not 121 122 That the law is to be preached to all 119 120 Of the union betweene Christ and a beleever opposite to the phancied union of Familists and Antinomians who say that a beleever is Godded and Christed 123 124 125 Of our legall union our union by faith our union by marriage by nature and the intervening of interests and conditions with Christ and a sinner 125 126 127 Luther makes sin to dwell in the justified contrary to Antinomians 129 130 How it is in them and how removed pardoned sinne is essentially sin 131 132 133 134 How we are under the law and under grace in regard of the flesh and the Spirit 134 135 The divers respects of Law and Gospel 138 How the law is a dead Letter 139 Of the Letter and the Spirit 139 140 Luther detesteth allegories 139 How the beleever needeth not the Law in the Letter 142 143 None are perfect in this life as Luther saith contrary to Antinomians 143 144 We must then have patience 144 145 Sin in the beleever rageth to their feeling and yet is made lesse sin 145 146 Luther taught that the Jewes were Justified and actually pardoned by faith as we are contrary to Antinomians 146 147 148 Ch. IX Of Christian liberty and of true false sense 148 149 c. Luther in the point of Christian liberty is against the Antinomians 148 149 How the Law hath nothing to doe with the conscience according to Luther 149 150 151 152 Antinomians distinction that we sinne not against the Law but against Christ removed 151 Luther unduly chargeth these he calleth Sacramentarians with making the Spirit without the word their rule it being the doctrine of Antinomians in his time 153 154 How wee are to judge of our spirituall estate by sense how not 153 154 Luthers minde of freewill and contrary to Antinomians therein 155 156 How the will is a patient rather then an agent in good 157 158 Of the subjective and active power of freewill 158 159 Thirteen considerations of the Author touching freewill 160 161 162 163 An absolute independent power in the will to doe without the predeterminating grace of God neither peculiar to the Covenant of workes before the fall nor to the Covenant of grace after the fall 160 161 Chap. XIV Of the piece called Theologia Germanica and of the Bright starre 163 164 c. Libertines sprang from the Gnosticks Familists from Libertines Antinomians from both 163 164 165 Of John Waldesso who hath sundry principles of Familisme and Antinomianisme in his booke 164 165 God is the creature saith Theologia Germanica 165 To ascribe any thing to the creature is sinne the new man is Christ. 165 166 How creatures are under-causes of their owne working 166 The hell and heaven of Familists 167 The Familists acknowledge no Christ but a metaphoricall Christ. 167 168 So Theol. Germanica and the piece called the Bright-star The workes of H. Nicholas 168 Familists of England dissemble their grossest points Their Petition to King James 168 Vent their malice in the Petition against Puritans were tollerated by Prelates because they railed against non-conformists 169 The contents of the Petition of the Familists in England to King James 168 169 170 Chap. XV. Of the Familists and Antinomians in New England 171 Their rise ib. Their tenets 171 172 173 The Saints suffering are God manifested in the flesh as Saltmarsh and Familists say 172 173 174 Saltmarsh Chaplaine to the Generall Sir Tho. Fairfax goes along with the Familists of N. England ibid. Ordinances of preaching reading hearing Sacraments are not to be seperated from the Spirit nor the Spirit from them 175 Chap. XVI Of the first Authors of Antinomianisme and Familisme in N. England as Mistresse Hutchison M. Wheelwrit their preaching seditious railing and foule tenets 176 177 178 Mrs. Hutchison bold maintained she might preach to a Congregation and alledged the example of Priscilla 178 Her abominable tenets in which she denied the immortality of the soule the resurrection Christ heaven sanctification asserted revelations beside and without the word of God 178 179 A Generall Assembly at Cambridge in N. England confuted and condemned M. Hutchison M. Wheelwright and others 180 M. Hutchison bare thirty formed monsters 181 Was excommunicated banished to the Road-Iland killed by the Indians she and all her house 181 182. as is reported Mrs. Dyer a Familist the wife of William Dyer a prime Familist brought forth a terrible monster 181 182 Chap. XVII Of the late Familists banished out of N. England in Massachusets and now inhabitants of Shaw-omet otherwise called Providence 188 The blasphemous tenets of Sam. Gortyn a wicked Familist who preacheth openly in and about London 183 184 185 Gortyn and these Familists deny God incarnate and say every suffering Saint is Christ and there is not another Christ. 184 185 186 So doth M. Beacon
276 277 Saltmarsh defineth Heresie in relation to the Spirits teaching not to the written Word 279 And Schisme to be in relation to the invisible not to the visible Church 280 Chap. XXXIII Familists minde touching prayer 281 282 Chap. XXXIIII A tast of the wild allegorick interpretations of Scriptures that Saltmarsh fathers on the spirit 282 283 284 c. All in Covenant with God are preachers of the Gospel to Saltmarsh 282 Saltmarsh and H. Nicholas makes Christ's comming againe and judging of the world to have beene these 1640. yeares 284 Saltmarsh would prove by Scripture there should be no baptizing by water 284 285 Christ crucified is nothing to Saltmarsh but the Saints Godded and Christed and suffering with faith patience 285 Ordinances are onely for the unconverted before ãâã to supply the absence of the spirit 285 286 The story of Adam but a figure to Saltmarsh 286 The Doctrine of John Baptist is gone saith Saltmarsh 286. Saltmarsh with Socinians will have the love of our enemies not commanded in the old Testament 287 Saltmarsh dreames of a Church on earth that shall want Ordinances 287 288 The place Gal. 4.1 Of the Heire under Tutors vindicated from Saltmarsh's glosse 289 The Corinthians called carnall unduely 1 Cor. 3.1 2. by Saltmarsh the place vindicated 290 Christ's disciples not under a stinted liturgy 291 The place 1 Cor. 10. they did all eate c. speakes nothing of the Idolatry of meanes and Ordinances as Saltmarsh phancies 292 The Disciples of Christ not under a carnall ministration but had the revelation of the spirit as well as we 293 2 Thess. 2. touching the Antichrist vindicated 293 294 The place John 17. Father glorifie me c. foully abused vindicated 294 295 Exod. 33. None can see mee and live vindicated from Saltmarsh his glosse 295 296 The place Zach. 13. of killing false Prophets under the Gospell vindicated 296 297 Chap. XXXV Of the anoynting of the Spirit and the Letter 297 298 c. Of the knowledge of such as are under actuall vision in a Trance 297 298 Prophets not ever under actuall visions in actuall prophecying to men as when in a dreame or trance they see the visions of God 298 299 Prophets see not really the things themselves but the speces or images in the opened decree of God 300 301 The spirit opposed to bodily and externall 300 Externall Ordinances in sensu composito and diviso how they suit with the Spirit 301 302 Three wayes of union betweene the word and the spirit 302 303 The reall influence of spirituall operations on the body 303 304 We adore not Characters 304 The spirit because the spirit and seperated from the word nât our obliging rule but the law and the testimony 304 305 We are to wait on God in the use of outward meanes though the spirit worke not ever upon our hearts 305 306 Divers wayes of the spirits concurring with the word 306 307 The places Jer. 31. They shall no more teach his brother and 1 Joh. 2.27 The anointing teacheth you all things cleared and vindicated 307 308 309 We make not the word to have two senses one externall and preparatory another internall and spirituall 309 310 311 The one literall sense the true and native sense of the word 311 312 Divers other considerations of the word and Spirit The Spirit opposed to humane eloquence 312 313 To cold dead and dry speaking 313 314 To that which smells most of our wit 314 To wild logicke 314 315 The characters of a spirituall condition 315 316 The Spirit determines the actions according to the specification and to the exercise 315 316 317 The Spirit how he goes along with the Law 315 316 The obliging Law and the free Spirit consist together 316 The morall compulsion of the Law is exhausted by the freenesse of a Gospel-spirit 318 Threatnings legall had influence on the will of the first Adam not of the second or of confirmed Angels 318 319 The place 2 Pet. 1. Untill the day-starre arise c. vindicated 319 320 How the Spirit is the day-starre 320 How true that is the more of the letter the lesse of the Spirit 321 322 How wee are changed into the same spiritualnesse contained in the Gospel 322 323 324 Familists have no new discoveries 325 326 How duties are spiritually taught in the Gospel 326 327 The Word the formall object of our faith the Spirit the effâcient 327 328 The Gospel to Antinomians a meere killing letter 328 329 The word spirituall beyond figures and letters in every consideration 329 330 The spirit determineth the actions of the spirituall man 330 The order of acting in supernaturall actions often from the Spirit 331 332 The assumption of a syllogisme of conscience proven by the Spirit 332 333 How farre the Saints are to leave Rome for new light 334 3â5 Preaching of duties not contrary to the spirit 335 336 What the Law of the spirit of life is 336 Characters of a spirituall condition 336 337 The written Word to Familists is but a type and a shadow 337 338 Ordinances to continue to the end 338 339 Climbing from ministrations naturall or civill to higher ministrations an unwritten phancy of Familists 340 341 The garment wherewith the Sonne of God was clothed is opeâeâ to consist in six points by Saltmarsh and to bee divers ministrations 339 340 How mortification is a signe of a spirituall condition 341 342 A Petition of the Familists of England to King James anno 1604. 343 344 345 c. Their virulency and malice to Puritans 343 344 Their extolling of H. Nicholas 346 347 They will have us saved by workes of righteousnesse that wee doe 347 Prelates never troubled Familists because they were enemies to Puritans and conforme to the Prelates wayes 341 They clambe to the Apostolicke Church and reject the Apostolick Scriptures 348 Divers of the Court of Queene Elizabeth and King James were Familists 349 Familists are for universall grace 349 They labour to pervert King James to Familisme 350 They condemne all as Antichristian that are not of their way ibid. They professe uncouth phrases that Protestants cannot understand as Libertines did ibid. They professe they will take and imbrace reject or refuse their Religions which is the only true way to salvation as the King and his Laws shall enjoyne 350 351 An abjuration tendred to Familists in England aâ 1580. the 10th of Queene Elizabeths reigne by the Lords of the secret councell declaring H. Nicholas to be an Heretick 353 354. II. Part Contents of the second Part called a Survey of Antinomianisme CChap I. Antinomians unjustly accuse us p. 1 2 Chap. II. Antinomians are Pelagians Chap. III. Protestants hold no preparations with Pelagians Papists and Arminians going before conversion 2 3 4 Sinners are not healed of Christ as sinners but as such sinners who are freely chosen and loved of God 4 Chap. IIII. How we teach a desire of grace to be grace ibid. Chap. V. How we
are freed from the law how not 5 Chap. VI. How the Command of the law layeth an obliging bond on us 5 6 Proven by six arguments Chap. VII How the Law and the Gospel require the same obedience 7 8 Chap. VIII Of the promissory part of the law the differences betweene the two Covenants mistaken by Antinomians are opened 9 10 Chap. IX of the threatening of the Law and the Gospel 10 11 Chap. X. of Gospel-feare 12 Serving for a reward not mercinary ibid. Chap. XI Law-feare and Gospel-faith are consistent 12 13 Antinomians make the Gospell the very spirit of grace 13 14. And remove all Ordinances 14 Chap. XII Antinomians deny remission of sinnes to the Jewes 14 15 Chap. XIII Of the non-age of the Jewes what it was 15 16 Chap. XIV The old man or the flesh to the Antinomians is under the law the new man freed from all law 16 Chap. XV. Antinomians hold that the justified sinne before men and as touching their conversation not before God as touching their conscience 17 Chap. XVI Antinomians take justification to be an extirpation of sinne root and branch 17 Chap. XVII Christ not intrinsically and formally the sinner 18 Chap. XVIII We are not justified till we beleeve 19 20 Antinomians hold that we are united with Christ before we beleeve 20 Chap. XIX Gods love of goodwill and of good likeing a warrantable distinction 20 21 21 Chap. XX. There is a reall change of our state in justification 22 Chap. XXI We mixe not workes and grace in the matter of justification 23 24 Chap. XXII Antinomians deny sin to be in the justified 24 Chap. XXIII Antinomians say to faith there is no sinne 25 Chap XXIV The Reigne of faith not absolute as Antinomians say 25 26 Chap. XXV God seeth sin in the justified 26 27 Chap. XXVI Confession required in the beleever 27 28 Chap. XXVII The law is to be preached to beleevers 28 29 How duties are to be preached 29 Chap. XXVIII Strict and precise walking a Gospel-duty 30 Chap. XXIX God truely angry at the sinnes of beleevers 31 Chap. XXX The justified countable to God for sinne 32 Chap. XXXI God punisheth sinne in beleevers 32 Chap. XXXII beleevers are to mourne for sin 32 33 Chap. XXXIII Antinomians deny that beleevers should crave pardon for sin or have any sense thereof 34 Chap. XXXIV Men boyling in their lusts without any humiliation foregoing are to beleeve say Antinomians 34 35 Chap. XXXV Spirituall poverty mistaken by Antino 35 36 Chap. XXXVI Repentance mistaken by Antinomians 36 Chap. XXXVII How good workes are necessary 37 38 Chap. XXXVIII The Gospell conditional and how 39 40 Chap. XXXIX Antinomian mortification rejected 43 44 Chap. XL. Antinomians the perfectists of the tyme. 43 Chap. XLI We are compleatly saved in this life say Antinomians 44 Chap. XLII Our happinesse in sanctification as well as in justification 45 46 Chap. XLIII Sanctification crushed by Antinomians 46 47 48 Chap. XLIIII All doubtings inconsistent with faith say Antinomians 49 50 Chap. XLV Antinomians Merit-mongers not we 50 51 Chap. XLVI There is grace inherent in us 52 53 Chap. XLVII We are not meere patients in acts of sanctification 53 54 55 Antinomians abet all reasoning cânsequences promises 57 58 59 Chap. XLVIII Beleevers cannot sinne against God but against men say Antinomians 60 61 How the justified are not obliged to eschew sinne according to the Antinomian way 61 Townes vaine objections tending to prove that good workes are not the way to salvation 61 62 63 Good workes are not necessary either by a necessity of meanes or of a command of God to Antinomians 62 63 How sanctification fitteth us for heaven 64 65 Chap. XLVI Antinomians free us from any obligation to Evangelick commands and exhortations to duties and say faith is the only thing commanded in the Gospell 65 66 Chap. L. How we are freed from the law in regard of sanctification as of justification 68 Chap. LI. Antinomians ignorant of Jewish law-service and of Gospel-obedience 69 70 Neither the Jewes under the Law nor we under the Gospell could ever buy the love of God ibid. The errour of the Jewes touching righteousnesse and the state of the Jewes confounded by Antinomians 70 71 Chap. LII That we are not freed from outward ordinances 73 74 Chap. LIII The necessity of outward Ordinances 75 76 Chap. LIV. What peace we may fetch from gracious performances 76 77. Peace with God not the same peace from our selves 77 78. What qualified performances can âottome peace 77 78 Antinomians reject all experiences 7â 80 Antinomians condemne all experiences ibid. Chap. LV. How farre inherent qualifications and actions of grace can prove we are in the state of grace 81 82 Meere âxternall performances prove nothing 62. To eye the actings of the Spirit and overlooke our selves is the surest arguing of a spirituall state 82 Keeping of the Commandements may prove to our owne Spirits that wee are in Christ. 82 83 Supernaturall acts may reciprocally prove one another 8â Antinomians conspire with Papists to deny all evidences of our certainty of our being in Christ because all acts or qualifications or workes of sanctification may be called in question 86 87 88 Their certitude of faith being no lesse questionable 88 89 Good workes meanes not pillars of our assurance 90 91 Chap. LVI How duties and delight in them take us not off Christ 91 92. How they may be abused 93 Chap. LVII Of liberty purchased by Christ. 93 94 How we are freed from the Law how not 95 96 Magistrates cannot punish ill doers by the Antino way 100 101 Chap LVIII Antinomians teach that beleevers must not walke in their conversation as in the sight of God but must live by faith with God 101 102 Chap. LIX How justification is one indivisible act not successive as sanctification 104. and sins yet are daily pardoned 105 106 Chap. LX How sinnes are remitted before they be committed 106. Chap. LXI How faith justifieth 107. And Saltmarsh's arguments that Christ is not ours by faith 108 109 110. Answered The order of conversion and of justifying the sinner 111 112 Chap. LXII The Antinomians way and method of a sinners comming to Christ confuted 114 115 116 The abuse of preparations to merit Pelagianisme the abandoning of the practise of humiliation and sin sickenesse before we beleeve is presumptuous Antinomianisme 116 117 Chap. LXIII The law and the spirit subordinate not contrary 117 118 Saltmarsh a Familist 118 Chap. LXIV Antinomians differences betweene the law and the gospell confuted 119 120 Law-obedience did not win God to be our God 119 The authority of God a Law-giver and God a Father not contrary 120. The Gospell commandeth not any thing by the Antinomian way 121 122 The Gospel doth both command and perswade 122. Antinomians call obedience to God a miserable yoake ibid. How Law-rigor and Gospell-sweetnesse doe consist 123 Antinomians reject all arguing and logicall inferences of the Holy Ghost
in scripture and matters of faith 123 124 Though we be regnerate yet we need scripture-teaching 124 The written scripture not given to the flesh 124 125 Chap LXV The Gospel is a rare Covenant in al things 127 128 Chap. LXVI Antinomians errours touching the Covenant of grace 128 129. In the conditions thereof ibid. The time of it 129 130. And in the parties 130 131 Chap. LXVII Of legall and Gospell-conversion 131 How meere commands worke no change 132 133 Naturall men cannot propose a supernaturall end 134 Obedience at set houres not legall 135 136 Whether Covenants Vowes Promises be legall 136 137. What other things are legall 138 139 Chap. LXIX The dead and bastard faith of Antino 140 141 Faith and nothing commanded but only faith in the Gospell how true 140 141 Of Antinomian faith 143 144 Reason for immediate beleeving without all preparations 143 144 145. Taken off Who immediatly invited 144 145 146 Chap. LXX Faith not the onely worke of the Gospel as Antinomians say 148 149 Doing subordinate to sweet Gospell-attractions 149 The way to heaven not so short as Antinomians dreame 149 150 Chap. LXXI The justified obey not God by necessity of nature as the fire burneth 151 152 Chap. LXXII Glorifying of God in sanctification needfull 153 Of our active and passive glorifying of him 153 154 Chap. LXXIII Sanctification concurres as well as justification to make Saints 155 156 Chap. LXXIV The harmonious compliance of old Libertines Familists and Antinomians 157 158. In seventeene paralels to chap. LXXXVI p. 221 Antinomians with Libertines refute all personall mortification 158 159 Chap. LXXV Libertines Familists and Antinomians free us from all law 161 Chap. LXXVI Libertines and Antinomians deny all scripture 163 164. H. Nicholas maketh two words of God 164 165 Antinomians turne Perfectists with Libertines 166 167 The Fathers of old saved as we 167 Chap. LXXVII Antinomians and Libertines foule opinions touching God and the authour of sin 169 170 171 Chap. LXXVIII Libertines and Antinomians take away all sense or remorse of conscience for sin 172 173 Chap. LXXIX Libertines and Antinomians paralel beleevers with Christ incarnate 173 174 Chap. LXXX To follow sense and naturall inclination as a law is our rule say Libertines and Antinomians 174 175 Antinomians sin according to their owne lying sense and declaratively not truely not really and in the Court of God 175 176 Chap. LXXXI Antinomians plead for liberty to popery and to all Religions 177 178 Chap. LXXXII Libertines and Antinomians doubt of the resurrection and of the life to come 178 179. H. Nicholas and New England Familists teach the same 179 180 181 Chap. LXXXIII Familists Libertines Anabaptists go before Antinomians in denying all externall worship and obedience 181 182 183 Chap. LXXXIV M. Del Saltmarsh and Familists deny all outward Reformation scripture seales and ordinances 187 188 Del denies any worke of the spirit or conversion to God in the Old Testament with Socinians· 188 189. Del a Familist 180 181. Del a Libertine 193 194. He denies all lawes 195. Del a disciple of Muncer an Anabaptist 196 197. How ecclesiasticall reformation is spirituall 198 199 Del a Libertine in removing all the working of second causes 199 200 Dels arguments for onely internall reformation against all the Ministery and Ordinances of the Gospell as Swenckfeldians taught 201 202 Beleevers as spirituall as Angels saith Del What need then of preaching to them 204 205. Outward Reforming no more our duty then to redeeme the World 206 207 Del maketh Gods absolute decrees to destroy all the working of second causes 208 209. Del and Familists deny the scripture and contend for an internall enthysiasticall word 210 211 212 213 The middle way between Papists and Enthysiasts 216 217 218 Chap. LXXXV Libertines and Antinomians come neare to other in making God the author of sin 219 220 Chap. LXXXVI Libertines and Antinomians would have us doe nothing âecaâse God doth all things 221 Chap LXXXâII Antinomians refuted in saying that we make the actings of the Spiâit like to the acts of morall Philosophy and the differences between these two 222 223 224 225 Chap. LXXXâIII That wee are tâuly righteous in the sight of God and yet sinners in our seâves proved against Antinomians 225 226 227 228 Chap LXXXIX Antinomians are ignorant of faith to dreame that its faith to beleeve against sense that our sins are no sins 230 231 Chap. XC Antinomians free all converted or non-converted from obligation of obedience 233.234 Chap. XCI How and for whom Christ intercedeth for in heaven 234.235 Chap. XCII Antinomians contend for the faith of assurance and reject the faith of dependence 235 236 Chap. XCIII Antinomians deny the Law to be an instrument at all of our sanctification 236 237 Del with Libertines maketh the word and the Spirit all one 238 239 Errata Pag. 14. line penult for the r. that p. 15. l. 18. d p. 17. l. 5. till he made r. till he be made p. 21. l 17. r. from p. 44. l. ult for 4. r. 5. p. 50. l. 14. for and r. an p. 53. l. 37. for they r. there p 64. l. 3. d. in p. 99. l. 7. r. simply p. 101. l. 33. for none r. now p. 123 l. 4. r. claram p. 135. l. 32. r reatu p. 162. l. 25. a castro p. 194. l. 18. but. r. both p. 223. l. 25. for not be r. not to be p. 235. l. 11 forme to Scriptures and ordinances then r forme to Scriptures and ordinances Then p. 254. l. 5 for is r. as at Troas p. 268. in marg will it r. will have it p. 275. l. 3 r. yeelded 290. in mar r. 1 Cor. p. 307. l. 34. r. contrariety p. 316. l. 33 r. because Errata in the II. Part. Pag. 3. l. 12. who ever will have Christ. r. who ever will have Christ and pay not a penny p. 17. l. 18. r. makes p. 65. for Chap. XLVI r. Chap. XLIX p. 65. l. ult r. calleth p. 72. l. 17. r. giveth p. 83. l. 9. for hath r. have p. 96. l. 5. d. and. p. 159. l. 27. for glorification p. 80. l. 28. d. âhen r. gloriation p. 199 l. 21. d. is 209. l. ult for them r. him p. 223. l. 15. r. in spicitis 236. l. 16. without was r. was without THE DISCENT OF ANTINOMIANS and FAMILISTS PART I. CHAP. I. The Originall of Antinomians and of other unclean Sects who have taught the same things not unlike to their blasphemies THOUGH out of doubt Antinomians have given signification of the first dawning of that Heresie in Paul the Apostles time Shall wee continue in sin that grace may abound Rom. 6.1 and Is the Law sin God forbid Rom. 7.7 and James his arguing against the dead faith voyd of good works Jam. 2. intimateth they were peeping up in his dayes and John hinteth at some denying signes of Justification Yet their Originall seems to be from the old Katharoi called Puritans who rose
about the year 1115. 1118. who being justified affirmed they were perfect and free of all sin as the glorified in heaven as Saltmarsh Free Grace p. 140. and Mr. Towne Assertion of Grace say p. 69.77 78 79. though Flaccus Illyricus Catolo testi ver l. 15. fol. 1531. say the Papists ascribed this opinion to the Waldenses but most unjustly and Gualterius the Jesuite in his fabulous Chronicle to the Lutherans Tabula Châonographica An. 1200. c. 10. or we may say they came from these called Aetiani from Aetius or Eunââius the Disciples of Aetius who taught that sin and perseverance in sin could hurt the salvation of none so they were partakers of his faith that he taught so Augustine de Heres tom 6. Heres 54. CHAP. II. Of Libertines IF we come a little lower about the year 1525. arose the Libertines which are a kind of men that come near to the Antinomians and Familists and all of them savour strongly of the Manichaeans Valentinians and Cerdonites Calvin advers lib. c. 2. observeth that Libertines under pretence of Christian Liberty trampled under-foot all godlinesse so doe Antinomians Before them Cârdo the Disciple of Heracleon as Epiphanius in Anaceph stood for his two principles one good another evill as Tertull. also saith de praescript He said that Christ suffered imagiâârily as Tertull. relateth so Familists and finer Antinomians deny the Incarnation and say Every beleever is Christ incarnate and is Godded and Christed with the holy anoynting Cerdo denyed the Resurrection so do Antinomians and Familists Marciân his Disciple taught the like With Manichaeans they are not farre from rejecting all the Old Testament for Antinomians will have no actuall Remission of sin in the Old Testament so saith Denâe Doctrine Jâh Baptist p. 51.52 Del. serm p. 3 4. no inward conversion of sinners to God no holy Spirit given no Covenant of Grace then as Crispe and Mr. Del say The first man of the Libertines was an unlearned rude fellow Coppinus a Flanders man after him arose one Quintus a Taylor in Piecardiâ a drunken proud man and to him was joyned one Bertrandus who dyed soone and one Claudinus persevalus But a chiefe man among them was Antonius Pocquius a Priest who still said Masse though Papists shamelesly call them Calvinists these fellows spread their flesâly Heresies in Holland Brabantia and other parts of Low Germany and infected thousands drew away many in France Antonius Pocquius a dissembling hypocrite remained at Geneva for a space desired of Calvin a Testificate that hee might pretend Calvins name but what he could not obtain from Calvin who saw him a phantastick foole he found at Martin Bâcâr who was more simple then Calvin and that Quintinus said to Calvin when he rebuked him for his vaine and new expressions that he understood not his words so do Antinomians and Familists say none but themselves know anything of the Spirit and of the mystery of free grace 2. Libertines revealed none of their secrets but to those of whom they exacted an oath to follow them So doe Familists and Antinomians cautelously keep up their mindes from any they know to be contrary to their way 3. They spake in darke obscure mystick and sublime words not with the Scriptures and so doe Antinomians alledging they are Godded and Christed Moses is not in their conscience they live in Heaven they are neither male nor female they walke by the rule of the new Creature 4. Libertines professed they would speak so ambiguously as their words might cary two senses because Christ preached darke parables to the people Antinomians have not to this day explained in their writings whether the justified can sin or no âut in practice they say they may lye whore sweare cousen God seeth no such sinnes in them 5. Nothing was more frequent with Libertines then the Spirit the Spirit Antinomians say to preach duties to rebuke sinne is not a Spirituall straine of Gospell-preaching it 's legall literall Moses-like not Christ-like The chiefe errors of Libertines which I prove to be holden expresly or by undeniable consequences by Antinomians and Familists are these 1. The Scripture is a dead and killing letter the Spirit that quickneth is our rule so say Antinomians 2. The Scripture is to be exponed in an allegoricall and spirituall sense so Antinomians 3. The Evangel is a spirituall doctrine because it comprehendeth Christ who quickneth us the Antinom Del. pag. 19. to prove this citeth the same Text with Libertines John 6. The words that I speake are Life and Spirit 4. d The word is nothing but the Spirit that Christ is the Spirit we are made Spirits Godded with him say Antinomians with Christ and our life should be the Spirit it selfe so Familists and Antinomians teach 5. God is that one Spirit that acteth and worketh all in all creatures especially in Angels and men good or ill and worketh in us all vitall actions of living growing willing understanding in place of our soule so doe New England Antinomians teach 6. Quintinus that hogge saith Calvin called Paul a broken vessell John a foolish young man Peter a denier of his Lord and Mathew an Vsurer We know Antinomians say Peter leaned more to a Covenant of workes Paules doctrine was more for free grace then Peters to Antinomians Moses the Prophets Christ John-Baptist are legalists preach carnally litterally The Old Testament is a dead letter saith Del serm pag. 3.4 under all the outward Religion men he excepteth neither Patriarchs nor Prophets nor Godliest then living were inwardly as corrupt and wicked as very Heathen for all their circumcision in the flesh they were uncircumcised in heart for all their outward washing they were inwardly uncleane So that notwithstanding the outward worship of God the people remained inwardly corrupt filthie and uncleane and without any true Reformation before God till Christ who was God in the flesh came with the Ministration of the Spirit and then indeed was the time of Reformation then the Spirit was not given to Moses David Abraham till Christ came in the flesh more then to Pharoah Nebuchadnezar or other heathen 7. They say with Sadduces that Angels good or ill are nothing but imaginations thoughts and motions of the minde of man as if imaginations were sent to deliver the Saints beare them in their armes pitch their tents about us open prison doores taught us Gods will saw the face of God tempted us to sinne send diseases on us lied teached lies spoke Scripture to Christ as good and ill Angels do They say man was made of a body and opinion in place of a soule that the other enemy the world is nothing and sin an naked opinion 8. They said God was not onely he in whom we live move subsist have a being Act. 17. but there was neither reason nor will in us more then in stones God doth all the wickednesse villanies perjuries incests in
David Antinomians call much for freedome of all kindes 8 Shame is no consequent of sin faith banisheth away all shame from bodily nakednes Antinomians abandon feare trouble of minde and the like affections for evils either of sin or punishment death or any thing else they are much for abandoning sense and for the absolute reign of faith 9 Heaven and Hell and the last Iudgement are no where but within a man in a spirituall manner Heaven is in this life Antinomians as Town and Saltmarsh hold that in this life we have as much of Heaven in full and compleat possession as the glorified in Heaven 10 Confesion of Christ and his truth is not necessary 11 Vnder David George is the time of perfection when all Ordinances shall be uselesâ so Ant. ut supra 12 David George is Iudge of quick and dead 13 Jt is the sin against the Holy Ghost to refuse the spirit in David George his ministery and to goe backe to the Prophets and Apostles Antinomians extoll their spirit above the scriptures 14 The resurrection of the dead the blowing of the last Trumpet the shout of the Arch-angell the comming of Christ to Iudg all are to be taken in a spirituall sense of the doctrine and discipline of David George as Hyminaeus and Phyletus said see hereafter the Paralell between Antinomians and Libertines so said Libertines Calvin advers libert c. 22. p. 458. 15 Marriage-covenant tyeth the parties no longer together then their temper and naturall dispositions agree 16 The Kingdome of God is the spirit of Jesus which shall shortly be under David George 17 David George shall rise from the dead which he did in that his body for his impostures found after his death was dragged out of his grave and his bookes burnt though he promised to his disciples to reveale wonders and to rise from the dead againe shortly 18 The body or flesh sinneth but not the soule 19 The Heaven was empty but he was sent to adopt children to God 20 All the prophecies of the old Testament were to be applyed to David George 21 Christ and his Apostles were but shadowes and types of David George This beast dyed of an Apoplexie an 1556 and left the seed of his heresies in low Germany and Transilvania CHAP. V. Of Casper Swenckfield his Tenets complying with Antinomians CAsper Swenckefield was borne about the yeare 1499 spread his errors in about an 1520 as he died in Sweden 1561. he was a Knight of Ossing in Silesia he was so grave civill fervent in prayer that it was said of him he wanted not a good heart but a solid head and wit he allured to his way Valentinus Krantwald a simple religious man and Ioan. Sigismundus werner pastors and professors of Lunenburgh Schlusserburgins catalo hereticorum l. 10. p. 27. saith that Luther and Melancthon gave him the name Sâenckfeldius from the noysome smell of his doctrine he was eloquent unlearned ignorant of the Latine tongue wrote all in Germans ignorant of arts once a hater of Romish Idolatry but seeing God honoured Luther being a proud man he sought a name pretended that he stumbled much at the bad conversation of the Churches turned from popery pretended the spirit and Enthysiasticall dreames as Antinomians and Familists doe he was a Sceptick and a Neutrall betweene papists and Lutherans through occasion of Anabaptists risen then he cryed downe a litterall carnall church framed by Luther as he said and called for a new and perfect Church as Antinomians doe Rise reigne er 79 80 81. In Silesia he seduced many with his eloquence and new speculations he calls for spirituallnesse and the spirit and the internall word that we must not depend on the externall word Iust as M. Del doth But yee may say Del. pag. 7. ser. calls for an outward change such as flownes from an inward change in his Gospell Reformation So did Swenâckfeldius say the Scriptures must be read that the externall man may be instructed so said Saltmarsh Scriptures were given by divine inspiration and profitable but if I mistake not Antinomians neither law nor any letter of the word is needfull to their regenerate persons he adhered to somewhat of Anabaptists somewhat of Calvins way to somewhat of the papists he was banished out of Silesia by the prince of Lignice Fredricke wandring through Germanie came to Luther and revealed his phancies was sharply rebuked by hâm but to no purpose pertinacie cleaves to the plague of Heresie hee went through Sweden Nornburg Vlms Tubinga in private houses accuses the Pastors that no man was the better of their preaching extolls the spirit that does all At Argentorat hee infects a little Wolfangus Capito at Ulms he was confounded at a dispute by Martiânus Frechus before the Senate At Augusta hee perverted many men and sillie women hee wrote many epistles to Men Women Virgins he writes an 1556. that in 18 yeares hee had writen above fiftie bookes He troubled Luther with his bookes which hee sent to him for an answer Luther said to the Messenger the Devill was the Author of them and the Lord rebuke thee o Sathan Sathan raised up Swenkfeldius to trouble the Church of Christ after Servetus was burnt at Geneva Bucerus Calvin Pet. Martyr Beza Musculus Freâbus Simon Grynaeus Dani. Tossanus admonished him but without any fruit In Saxonie Luther Melanthon Illyricus Nich. Gallus refutes him In Hasia Corvinus and Kymeus in Silesia Hyronimus Wittich Ioan Gigas Laurentius Harenraffe refute him A Synod at Norimburg an 1554. condemned the errors of Swencfeldius The confession of the divines of Mansfeild in 1555. condemns him and sayeth hee hath now 30. yeares vexed the Church His Errors and Heresies are shortly these 1. Christ as man is borne of the essence of God and grew till he obtained the full essence of the Godhead by birthright and was disposed to be our Saviour for it is said wee grow to the stature of God and are partakers of the divine nature Who is such a stranger in the writings of Familists and Antinomians who readeth not these blasphemies the Saints are Christed and Goded a beleever is Christ a beleever is partaker of the Godhead being a justified man is God manifested in the flesh now to be partaker of the divine Nature is to partake of graces and created goodnesse and anoynting of the Spirit otherwise the essence and nature of God in us should be subject to change sadnesse sorrow feare dispair unbeleefe sin c. 2. the flesh of Christ is not a creature nor created of the Father but conceived and borne by himself through the Holy Ghost and changed in the essence of God and glorified with the glory he had with the father before the world was 3 Though there be two natures in Christ yet now is the flâsh of Christ made equall in essence and glory with God 4 Christ is not once onely borne but often till he
spoken it Micha 4.4 The mouth of the Lord of Hoasts hath spoken Deut. 30 8. Obey the voyce of the Lord. How often is it said the Lord hath said Esa. 29. Because they have not heard my words saith the Lord which J spake to them by my servants the prophets rising and sending them c. 1 Thes. 2.13 For this cause also thanke we God without ceasing because when yee received the word of God which yee heard of us yee received iâ not as the word of men but as it is indeed the word of God which also worketh effectually in you that beleeve Heb. 13 7. Remember them which have the rule over you and have spoken to you the word of God all which and many other places can carry no other sense then the word externall written and preached which God rendreth effectuall by his Spirit is an instrument of conversion 11 Err. Faith and conversion to Christ commeth not mediately by the preaching of the word but immediately from the inspirations of the holy spirit and from heaven His arguments are not a whit different from the reasons of Mr. Del in which Del proveth laws synods ministery are all externall carnall literall things so Del. ser. pag. 6 7 8 9. c. Gospel reformation is internall Spirituall and the law written in the heart as Ier. 31.33 the word vocall externall or written reformes by halfes not constantly and intermits and againe lyes still as dead as a stone because men can doe it But Gospel-reformation is as proper to God as to redeeme the world and to take away sin and bring in everlasting righteousnesse if all the Angels in heaven should undertake the work of reformation they should sink under it how much more the powers of the world Del. ser. 10 11 12 13. Iust so argues Swenckefeld Epistola ad quendam Ecclesiasten excussa Basil. an 1527 his 1 argu which is Dels also ser. pag. 6 7. is this iustifying faith is of the nature of internall and spirituall things for it is of God yea faith is the gift of the Holy Ghost then it hath not its originall from things bodily the word and hearing but comes from the internall word for the naturall man perceaves not the things of God 2 Saith Swenckefeld what ever is not of faith is sin then outward hearing of the word without faith is sin 3 All preaching is in vaine except the man have eares to heare Mat. 13. since the word cannot be received but by an enlightened minde and the light of faith and the grace of God the soule being fore-disposed by Iesus Christ though you should heare the word a thousand times in thy unbelieving eares they shall receive no more but a sound they shall reciâve no more but a carnall affâction of a fanzied and counterfeit faith from free will which shall not indure long so read Del. serm pag. 4.5 and as if Swenckefeldius had spitted him out at his mouth so he speakes 4. The Ministers saith Swenckfeld should be someâwhat 5. Then Paul and Apollos should give increase 6. Then the word of God should be tyed to Elements and sounds and and all that heare the word should beleeve 7 But saith hee hee that is of God heares the word of God thân must Grace prevening prepare us before wee can heare the externall word with fruit 8 Their is one Maister Christ the cheif corner stone and he teacheth the externall man not by externalls but by his Spirit when God teachâs as he doth Ephe. 3.5 he needeth no perishing and vanishing thing to helpe him to save us Conspice hic inquit Swnckefeld epist 16. verum doctorem veram doctrinam veritatem ipsam âternam quae nullo Caduco sive transitorio in adminiculum sui egeaâ ut nos salvet 9. If the vocal word did necessarily goe before justiâieing faith then justification should be the work of our hands or not without our helpe But Abraham beleeved God not the word preached 10. Then should man not God lay the first stone in our Iustification and experience teacheth us what a building it is we have an historicall faith and a certaine apprehension and assent of naturall reason form the letter of the word so Saltmarch the Antinomian 146 fr. g. the law is now in the Spirit and in the Gospel for a believer to walke by Now the Spirit and the Gospel is all one to the Antinomian to the Enthusiast Libertines and Swenckfeldians so Saltmarch sayeth Nor is the holinesse and sanctification now such as is fashioned by the law of outward commandement Swenckefeld calleth it verbum vocale but by the preaching of faith by which the Spirit is given which renewes and sanctifies a beleever and makes him the very law of commandement himself what this Antinomian calles the preaching of faith Swenckefeld calleth verbum substantiale Christ himself not any created thing so doe the Familists teach Rise Reigne er 9. The whole letter of the Scripture say they holdeth for a covenant of works so er 7. er 8. Know that it is most false that sanctification is not now fashioned by the Law of outward Commandement that is by the word externally preached as by an instrument subordinate to the working of the Spirit for his conscience knowes we never ascribe more to the word for more is contrary to the word Rom. 10.17 Faith commeth by hearing that is the word of the Gospell externally preached 1 Cor. 1 24 we preach Christ to the Jewes a stumbling block but to the called Christ the power of God and the wisedome of God this preaching of Christ is the preaching of faith but not in the Antinomian sense this is the effectuall working oâ the Spirit for so Saltmarsh meaneth as his exposition evidenceth for the effectuall working of the Spirit can never be a stumbling to the Iewes then this preaching of Christ and of faith must be outward and externall preaching of the Gospell which instrumentally giveth the Spirit For Gal. 3.2 Paul opposeth the hearing of faith that is the externall hearing of the letter of the Gospell that giveth the spirit instrumentally to the workes of the law or the externall doctrine of the Law that can neither promise to give nor give the Spirit instrumentally for if by the hearing of faith he meane the inward hearing and effectuall working of the Spirit then he saith as much as yee receaved the Spirit by the effectuall receiving of the Spârit and also he must meane that all that heares externally the doctrine of the Gospell as the Galatians did must receive the Spirit whereas Paul clearely makes an opposition between the externall preaching of the Gospell and of the Law otherwise by the externall preaching of the law accompanied by the Spirit we also receive the spirit But let Saltmarsh answer if either now or under the Old Testament true holinesse and sanctificattion was fashioned by the law of outward Commandement without the Spirit in some measure or degree 2 If
of the Holy Ghost and they ought to have read the article of the resurrection Exod. 3.6 in the consequence of it as the Scripture it selfe 2 Paul drawes arguments by good logick and so doth Christ and the Apostles from the scripture it is written it is written and what saith the Scripture And Isaiah saith Hosea saith then arguing by Logick from the old Testament to prove articles of âaith in the new which is a facultie of reasoning by art acquired by industry and learning is lawfull and necessary for the understanding of the Scripture 3 The Prophets and Apostles almost in every line use logicall reasoning from nature from the cause the effect the consequent and motives from good to convince and rebuke to exhort and stirre up to duties from wrath life reward threatnings promises c. 4 Paul citeth Heathen Poets as Aratus Act. 17.28 to convince the Athenians and Menander 1 Cor. 15.33 to convince the Corinthians and Epimemdes Titus 1.12 to silence the Cretians 5 Our owne language that we understand by education and teaching from the breasts from parents and others we heare speake hath an use of naturall necessity that faith may come by hearing Rom. 10.14 were the Gospel to be preached by the English to the Indians we must make use of arts and tongues 6 In the Bookes of Moses are secrets of Physick true antiquity of tracts of rare historicall providences Exodus a rule of Iustice and righteous lawes Joshua a glasse of holy warre Iudges of Magistrates and Tyrants Samuel Kings Proverbes Ecclesiastes sacred polititicks In Iob use is made of Astronomy c. And Herodotus Iosephus Quintus Curtius Xenophoâ and other heathen writers conduce not a little to give light to the textuall knowledge of Chronicles Nehemiah Ester Daniel as all those that write of the Babylonish Assyrian and Persian Kingdomes and Empires and the Roman history may in regard of our dulnesse add light to the Prophets and Evangelists Acts and Epistles of Paul in the New Testament so that these Spirits like Mââhie Becold and Swenckefeld who would have all books burnt except the Bible in regard that humane arts hinder the spirituall understanding of the Scripture declare their madnesse for upon the same ground God should in the conversion of a sinner root out the naturall understanding senses and faculties of soule and body for except they be sanctified and Elevated above their naturall sphere in an actuall illumination they can doe nothing yea and all Bibles translated out of the originalls in Germans Latine Italians French English Slâvââicke Persian and Arabick c. tongues must be burnt for all these translations must be done by singular art and the knowledge of tongues All that can be said on the contrary may be blowen away easily for the naturall sinlesse knowledge of sciences arts tongues are a substraâum a foundation to and for the Spirituall knowledge and faith of the mysteries of the Gospel Christ and his disciples knew the art of sowing corne on divers grounds of fishing of buying a field where a Pearle is and this knowledge did not hinder but much contribute to the spirituall knowledge of the mysteries of the Gospel nor is the literall sense of the scripture in the Saints distinct from the Spirituall but it is the same with two sundry lights and evidences as with the same eyes and seeing faculty I read the booke of God in the night with candle light and in day-light with the sun-light then none can say I have for that two divers or contrary Bibles and so the capacity naturall that makes me see and know Jesus to be the saviour of the world literally is heightened indeed with a reall removall of spirituall blindnesse and a reall addition of a new distinct higher supernaturall visive facultie the Spirit of revelation but I see with this new faculty the same Iesus the saviour of sinners not another but with a light and a sun-shine and day-light raying of a farre higher nature then I saw before But this proposition Maries sonne Iesus is the saviour of the world hath no new different sense and meaning nor foundes it another new objective Christ different from that Christ objected before to the literall or naturall visive capacity or humane understanding onely the proposition shines with the same very sense now as before but now it is seene with a higher day-light irradiation and splendor and apprehended with the same naturall literall understanding the same humane vitall and created faculty to which is added a new reall power a new visive heavenly capacity to see the same Iesus in his beauty and glory nor yet get I two naturall understandings nor can the scripture have two senses Obâeât 1. 1 Ioh. 2.26 27. Thâse things have I written to you concerning them that deceave you but to fence them from this dâceeving he opposeth the anoynting so as they needed not that any man should teach them for the anoynting taught them Now that anoynting did never teach them such tongues and arts ãâã were humane therefore the Saints had not need of any such learning and yet this anoynting taught all truth and obedience in it also Ioh. 16. Hee shall lead you in all truth ergo no more truth is necessary Ans. 1 Had this man a head to frame a Syllogisme as he bringeth a confused argument it should appeare how weake he is thus he that teacheth us all truth so that we need not humane teaching is a sufficient teacher without all humane teaching of arts and tongues But the anoynting or holy Spirit is such a teacher ergo wee need no other teacher so the old Anabaptists and Enthysiasts I answere to the major he that teacheth us all truth as the onely inward principall and efficacious teacher of all truth immediately and without all instruments and externall meanes so that we need no other externall teacher It is true he is in his kinde a sufficient teacher but the assumption to wit that the anoynting and Spirit teacheth us so without all instruments and externall meanes is most false the Holy Ghost by this reason should immediately and onely in his owne sole and singular person preach to us without so much as speaking in our owne knowne mother tongue and without vocall preaching of pastor or gifted prophet Now Christ who promised the Spirit did also when he ascended on high promise and actually Ephes. 4.12 Give some Apostles and some prophets and some Evangelists and some pastors and teachers 12 for the perfecting of the Saints for the worke of the ministery for the edefying of the body of Christ. Now the place speaketh not exclusively but comparatively he that teacheth all truth mediately by the ministery of men needeth not any teachers as organes and instruments in the ordinary course he hath set to gather saints by a ministery it is most false for this argument doth with equal strength conclude against all ministery preaching and comming of faith by hearing
for Calvin beside the example of Paul Act. 17. whose Spirit was stirred at the Idolatrous Alter at Athens brings the Testimony of 1 Melancthon who saith Nec tantum interior cultus necâssarius est sedetiam externa significatio seu confessio seu professio Mat. 10 qui negavârât me coram hominibus negabo eum coram patre coelesti so Mar. Bucerus Peter Martyr and Calvin condemne the same externall observance of popish superstition Calvin excusatio ad Pseu Nicode pag. 521 522. It followeth then that from Beacons way I preaching of the Gospell false opinions of Papists controversies betweene Protestants and Socinians Antinomians Arrians Familists Enthysiasts Brownists Jndependants c. must be but matters externall triviall and circumstantiall in religion 2 the profession of truth since it is an externall outward thing a testimony of Christs truth before men and of Christ before the world then is triviall and so indifferent and free which yet is commanded by Christ and hedged with the greatest reward and threatning in the word Mat. 10.32 3 Yea for outward things and all externalls reading hearing scripture preaching seales praying baptisme the Lords Supper There is no law but the law of love not a law of the soveraigne authority of God the commander contrary to Mat. 28.19 20. and so men sinne not in neglecting a command of God in not observing all things whatsoever Christ hath commanded Mat. 28.20 whereas we conceive the Lord commands not only in the Gospell by the law of love but by his soveraigne authority as God in covenant with us that we doe all whether inward or outward things that he commands 4 So all externalls under the New Testament of being baptised or not baptised hearing or not hearing a sent ministery confessing or not confessing Christ before men are as free and indifferent though expresly commanded of God so as we sinne if we dispise prophecy 1 Thes. 5. and reject the counsell of God as did the Pharisies and Lawyers in not being baptised Luk. 7.29 30. whereas the publicans in obeying these commandements Iustified God They are I say as free triviall and indifferent to Antinomians as eating or not eating meats meerely indifferent in the case 1 Cor. 10. 1 Cor. 8. so if it were not a scandal we may refuse baptisme the Lords Supper the scriptures hearing the word confessing Christ before men teaching and admonishing our brother yea all duties of keeping our body cleane of speaking the truth of not lying not killing for all these are commanded beleevers by no law but by the law of love for say the Antinomians we are under no morall Law else 5 Yea so also we may suspend the use of all outward things by Beacons Antinomian argument we need not heare pray prayse receive Sacraments teach the ignorant comfort the the feeble minded releeve the poore visit the sick c. Why al these are both outward things and are abused most men place all religion in them as in Pauls time Gal. 2. they placed religion in circumcision the Iews placed all holines in them Es. â Mi. 6. 6 Why then was Christ circumcised for in his time many said they were Abrahams circumcised sonnes and that was enough to save them which was to place all religion in circumcision but though we may suspend the use of things indifferent when religion is placed in them yet may we not neglect commanded externall ordinances because they thinke they are good christians if they be baptised and goe to Church nor doth Paul Gal. 2. thinke circumcision to be nothing but a thing indifferent for that the false Apostles and be witched Galatians thought their Iustification stood in circumcision but Paul saith Gal. 5. Not onely circumcision was not indifferent but damnable and whosoever was circumcised had fallen from Christ. 6 Conseq To Beacon they are all Iewes who judge baptisme the Lords Supper the scriptures read and preached heavenly things It s true they are externall and without the Spirit they availe not but there is a Majesty and divinity in the Scriptures and in the power of God in the foolishnesse of preaching and baptisme also and they are in themselves spirituall ordinances of God and though baptisme be a shadow yet striving about the doctrine of baptisme is in Moses and Paul no token of their unacquaiâtednesse with Christ the substance of all ordinances as M. Beacon imagineth 7 This is to turne all orthodox and sound opinions touching Christ free grace redemption worship scriptures over into Septicisme doubtsome bickerings and to leave us doubting and knowing nothing with certainty and full assurance of faith but to halt betweene two in all opinions touching God Christ the Spirit Trinity incarnation free grace scriptures law Gospel resurrection heaven hell as these opinions are professed before men and Angels and this will turne to professed Atheisme to doubt and professe we doubt of all things 5 And to be ever learning and never to come to the knowledge of the truth 8 If they be Iewes who thinke not all things externall all observances and our outward conversation with men which is most externall most indifferent and free then the letter of the written and preached old and N. Testament must be free and indifferent and it must be Iudaisme to read heare or study the scriptures for they are outward things in which carnall men ever have and ever will place all religion 9 We are to contend earnestly for the faith and for every truth of God Jud. 3. Touching baptisme and all the ordinances of God and to consent to wholsome words against all perverse disputing of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth 1 Tim. 6.3 4 5. 2 Tim. 2.14 15 16. nor 10. Can any Antinomian say that Paul was unacquainted with Christ the substance of ceremonies and circumsion when with such Godly animosity he withstood Peter to the face Gal. 2.11 12 13. and so sharpely rebuked the Galatians c. 3. c. 4. for lesser truths then we now contend for But in this Antinomians bewray of what Spirit they are when they professe all religions Popish Protestant Socinian Arrian Arminian Antitrinitarian Antinomian Familisticall to be free and indifferent and if we have love and faith in the heart we are perfect Christians though we live in wickednes disobedience and rebellion against God 16 Our second birth is our saviour Christ and dominion over sin the very son of God said H. Nicholas 17 H. N. His Christ is neither man nor the consubstantiall son of God but a holy disposition or Godlinesse whereas the Lord Jesus himselfe appeales to the senses the eyes and fingers of his disciples even after his resurrection when he was most spirituall and now in some measure entered into glory that he was a speaking man and had flesh and bones and the print of the âailes in his hands and sides yea the scripture saith he was the sonne of Adam Abraham Isaack Jacob David Mary 3 hee was like us
acknowledgement of sin and of the Law Thus doe all the Prophets Apostles and Saint Paul Rom. 2. Knowest thou not that the goodnesse of God leads thee to Repentance But admit I had taught or said that the Law should not bee preached in the Church although the contrary be evident in all my writings and in the constant practise of my Catechising from the beginning why should men so stiffely adhere to me and not rather oppose mee who having ever taught otherwise were now revolted from my self even as I dealt with the Popes Doctrine For I will and may boast of it in truth that there is no Papist now adayes so conscientious and in such good earnest as once I was For those that now professe Popery doe it not for any feare of God as I a poore wretch was given over to doe but they seek somthing else as the world may see and themselves know I was faine to learn by experience what Saint Peter writes Crescite in cognitione Domini Nor doe I finde that any Doctor Councell or Fathers though I should distill their books and extract the quintessence out of them have on a sudden and in their first entrance perfected their Crescite Or that the word Crescite should be as much as perfectum esse For instance Saint Peter himself did learn his Crescite from Saint Paul Gal. 2. and Saint Paul from Christ himself who told him by way of incouragement Sufficit tibi gratia mea c. Good God! will not men endure it when the holy Church acknowledgeth her sins beleeves the remission of sins askes in the Lords Prayer the forgivenesse of sins But how come we to know what sin is if there be no Law nor conscience And where shall we learn what Christ is and what he hath done for us if we could not know what the Law is which he hath fulfilled or what sin is for which he hath satisfied And though we should not stand in need of the law for our part but could pull it out of our hearts which yet is impossible notwithstanding there is a necessity of preaching it in respect of Christ which also is done and must be done that the world may know what he hath either done or suffered for us For who could know what and wherefore Christ hath suffered for us if no body could tell what sin was or the law I conclude therefore that the Law will wee nill we must be preached if we mean to preach Christ though we should not use the word Law For doe what you can the conscience will be terrified by the Law when it is told that Christ was to fulfill the Law for us at so deare a rate Why therefore should any goe about to abolish it when it cannot be abolished Yea when by the abolition of it it is the more firmely established and deeper rooted For the Law terrifies farre more dreadfully when I am told that Christ the Son of God must necessarily satisfie the same for me then if without Christ and such great torments of the Son of God it had been preached to me with bare threatnings For in the Son of God I really see the wrath of God which the Law declareâ but verbally and with farre lesse operation and efficacy Alasse that my own friends should thus molest me I have enough to doe with Papists I might say almost with Job and Jeremiah O that I never had been born Yea I might almost say O that I had never appeared in Books I did not care but would be content if all of them were already perisht And that the works of such haughty spirits might be sold in all Book-sellers shops which is that indeed they would have that so they might be satiated with their goodly vain-glory Againe I must not count my selfe better then our Lord Jesus Christ the Master of the house who complaines once and againe In vain I have laboured and spent my strength in vain But it is so the devill is lord in the world and I could never be brought to beleeve that the devill was the Master and God of this world till I found by a pretty deale of experience that Princeps Mundi Deus hujus soeculi was also one of the Articles of Faith Howbeit the children of men still remain in their unbeliefe and I my self but weakly beleeve it For every one is in love with his own way and all perswade themselves that the devill sure lives beyond Sea and that they carry God in their pocket But for the godly which desire salvation wee must live preach write doe and suffer all things Otherwise if you regard the devill and false brethren it were better to preach and to write nothing at all but presently to dye and to be buryed For doe what you can they will be still perverting and traducing all things and raise meere Scandals and mischiefes according as the devill doth ride or lead them There is no remedy but we must and will fight and suffer We must not thinke to faire better then the blessed Prophets and Apostles which were used as we are They have invented to themselves a new Method which is that the doctrine of Grace should be preached in the first place afterwards the revelation of wrath that by no means forsooth the word Law might be heard or spoken of This is a curious Crotchet wherein they might please themselves imagining that they can turne and winde the whole Scripture as they list that so they may be Lux mundi But S. Paul must and shal be that light Rom. 1. These men see not how the Apostle teacheth that which is directly opposite to their tenents denouncing first the wrath of God from Heaven and making all the world to be sinners and guilty before God When he hath made them so then he teacheth further how they may obtaine Grace and be justified and this the 3 first Chapters mightily and clearely evince But is it not a singular blindnes folly of theirs to conceit that the manifestation of wrath must be something else beside the law which cannot possibly bee For the manifestation of wrath is nothing else but the Law where it is acknowledged and felt according to that of the Apostle Lex iram operatur And have they not now bravely hit it when in abrogating the Law they teach it againe by teaching the Revelation of wrath But thus they preposterously put the Cart before the Horse teaching the Law after the Gospell and wrath after grace But what foule errors the Devill drives at by those jugling Gypsies I discerne in part well enough but cannot now stand to discusse them And because I hope they will proceed no further it shall not need It hath been a speciall peice of pride and presumption in those men that they would bring something to light that is new and singular that the people might say Heâr's a brave fellow indeed Here 's another Paul Have they
sense but to faith and the promises for the unrenewed part never told us good news of our selves our Spirituall estate or of Christ except it speak truth as the Deviâl speaketh to deceive and to render us secure sluggish haughty proud vaine but Antinomians say all the murthers and adulteries of beleevers are sins onely in our sense that is in the apprehension of our unrenewed part not to the light and judgement of faith now so Antinomians follow sense But 1. I should as soon beleeve the Devill saying that the adultery of a beleever is no sin as beleeve sense that is the inditement of flesh and the unrenewed part it is true the devill can say truely as the flesh also the adultery of a beleever is a sin that actually condemnes for ever to hell and argueth the committer thereof to bee in nature not in Christ which is a lye both in the matter and specially in the end to cause a beleever despaire 2. The sense and apprehension of a beleever that saith adultery in him is no sin because it was pardoned before it was committed is as false as the Devill Now the light of faith saith the contrary the Word of God saith adultery in justified David is sin but the inference and logick of the flesh is not to be beleeved therfore David is not in Christ and so farre sense is not to be beleeued 3. Antinomians know no sense but the sense and inditement of the lying flesh which they teach men to beleeve when it saith falsely that the adultery of a beleever is no sin now no whorish mother will call her own childe a Bastard and it s no wonder that the flesh especially in the fleshly Antinomian plead for the Devill and sin but sense is taken in another meaning in the Scripture for the spirituall knowledge and apprehension of the Spirit as Heb. 5.14 The strong in Christ have their senses exercised to discerne both good and ill so the use of the spirituall sense is spoken of Cant. 2.3 I sate down under his shadow with great delight and his fruite was sweet in my mouth Cant. 1.3 Because of the savour of thy good oyntments thy name is as anoyntment powred out therefore the Virgins love thee Joh. 6.45 All that have heard and learned of the Father come to mee Here is the actuall exercise and use of the spirituall and renewed sense which we are to believe no lesse then faith and what this sense indyteth that the Holy Spirit in us indyteth and teacheth and that we are to beleeve Luther never willeth us to close our eares and to hear nothing that this sense saith to us 12 Conclusion Luther speaketh pathetickly of the slavery and impotency of our free-will by nature but no wayes to favour Antinomians and Familists who would have us blocks and stones in all wee doe and not to pray but when the Spirit acts us immediately Man cannot naturally desire God to be God for he would have himselfe to be God and God to be no God Non potest homo naturaliter velle DeuÌ esse Deum imo vellet se esse Deum Deum non esse Deum Luther in regard that the efficacy and successe of free-will as of all second causes is from God depresseth the creature to heighten God Tom. 3.103 Deus labore nostro utitur sâu larvâ quadam sub quâ benedicit nos sua largitur ut fidei sit locus God useth our labour as a shadow or cypher under which there is place for faith Luther meaneth of imperated acts of the will flowing from the corruption of a naturall man desiring to be above a Law and without God that he may sin without being awed of Justice or of a God but there is a naturall inclination going before acts of will and reason by which a naturall man desires the being of God in so farre as he desires his own being that he may subsist in God if we suppose reason to bee in no shadow we cannot think it naturally and simply would desire that the body on which it depends were just nothing or that the rayes of the Sunne would wish the Sun to be turned into pure nothing or the streames that the fountaine were nothing Luther The will of every man would desire there were not a law if it were possible and that it selfe were altogether free grace is necessary to friend the law and the will and the Gospel Free-will since the fall by a subjective power can be carryed to good by an active power ever to ill nor could the wills active but only its subjective power stand even before the fall or promove into good Luther Free-will is meerly passive in every act that is called willing because the will is nothing except it be pulled drawn moved which drawing having influence on the members and strength either of soule or body is the wills activity and no other as the drawing of the Saw cutting the wood is to the Saw meerly passive from the Sawer nor does it conferre any thing to the drawing by way of co-operation but onely being drawn it workes on the tree being more drawn then drawing which Sawing is called the work of the Saw with the Sawer when yet it meerly suffers Luther Voluntas cujuslibet mallet si fieri posset esse nullam legem se omninò liberam necessaria est mediatrix gratia quae conciliet legem evangelio voluntati Liberum arbitrium post peccatum potest in bonum potentiâ subjectivâ in malum vero activâ semper nec enim in statu innoceÌtiae potuit stare activa sed subjectiva potentia nedum in âonum proficere Liberum arbitrium est merè passivum in omni actu suo qui velle vocatur quia voluntas non nisi rapitur trahitur movetur qui tractus redundans in membra vires seu animae seu corporis est ejus activitas nulla alia sicut tractus serrae secantis lignum ' est serrae merè passivus a sectore nec ad tractum suum quicquam cooperatur sed tantum tracta jam in lignum operatur impulsa magis quam impellens quae serratio opus ejus cum serratore dicitur cum tamen merè patiatur It is cleare that Luther makes us not blocks and stones in beleeving praying or other supernaturall works as if after our conversion we were mere patients and ought not to pray but when the winde of the Spirit bloweth faire upon the flowers and the Garden Or as if the person of the Holy Ghost and Christs grace were the onely formall efficient cause and principle in all supernaturall works and we truncks and stones and not to be rebuked as slothfull servants in sins of omission or commission Luther saith the contrary To. 2. in Gen. c. 24. f. 232. Antinomoi docent simpliciter omnia peccata sublata nec arguenda esse nec homines terrendos lege Antinomians say simply
in me a sinnerr that is by his merit and Spirit Christ hath wrought in me and in my sinful person perfect obedience and so hath made my personall sanctification my personall new obedience by his grace perfect and perfectly conforme to the Law which is most false And when Paul saith I am able through Christs strength to doe all things his meaning must be Christ worketh in me in my sinfull soule understanding will affections and whole man to doe all things through Christs strength perfectly as Christ doth all things perfectly Now sure Christ doth all things perfectly and without sinne But did Paul by Christs strength all things perfectly and so as he was free of siâne I think not 3. Saltmarsh taketh upon him to yeeld us some purer and finer Gospel mortification then the Protestant Legalists have done in former times as he saith pag. 61 62. Now if his mortification be in Christ onely and not in the sinner himselfe nor any act of him and a perfect mortification in Christ onely as the meritorious cause and also as the onely efficient not in us and as in Christ the onely subject not in us then I grant he gives us a finer mortification because what Christ doth onely and perfectly and in himselfe not in us must be finer then any mortification or acts of sanctification we doe in our person though we doe these by the Merit and Spirit of Christ working in us to will and to doe But then Saltmarsh nill he will he must say the Gospel-mortification is that whereby Christ hath perfectly mortified sin for us and not that which he sayth Sparkles of glory 324 325. mortification which Christ first doth in himself and then in us through himself and so he vindicates not himselfe 4. I never yet saith he denied graces and fruits of the Spirit of God which appeare in faith repentance new obedience mortification of sinne I speak it in another conception and measure of light The Christian as the English or French can onely speak in his own tongue or language till the Lord be One and his Name One amongst us It is true 1. Saltmarsh and Antinomians say there are graces of Faith Repentance Mortification or rather as Town saith gifts of Faith c. But 1. they are not Gospel-mortification Why Gospel-mortification is perfect in Christ saith Saltmarsh Free Grace pag. 84. these that are in us are not perfect at all nor conformable to Law and Gospel 2. They are not commanded so as the contrary omissions should be sinne they are onely free and arbitrary acts of the Spirit and of a spirit separated from the word 3. Saltmarsh denies not graces in faith repentance and mortification But he denies the necessity of the things themselves as acted personally by us Yea Saltmarsh saith Confession Repentance are sinnes at least infirmities or sinnes of weaknesse For free Grace pag 87. he sayth You say well For David câyed out in the bitternesse of his soule that his sin was ever before him and then his sanctification was out of his sight and that God had forgotten to be gracious but I said saith he this is my infirmity In whicâ words Davids confessing of his sinne which is aâ act of ãâ¦ã is joyned with his quarrelling with God ãâ¦ã had been a changed God Psal. 77. and of both it is sayd that David sayd This is my infirmity or my sinne Now if hee spak not of both the words can beare no sense and if so confession of sinne and by the same reason repenting of sinne must bee a sinfull infirmity How then can Saltmarsh acknowledge grace or fruits of the Spirit except he acknowledge grace in sinning which were absurd 4. Saltmarsh calleth his unsound speaking a Christian speaking till the Lord be one and his Name One as if the expressions of Antinomians and their Hereticall doctrine were the language of a Christian when it is the language of the Antichrist And if Saltmarsh failed but in expression he should have answered his own Arguments and the Scriptures that Mr. Gattaker alledges on the contrary and confessed Mr. Gattakers doctrine was found in that point and his own Familisticall in his way of expression of it at least Yea Saltmarsh further enlargeth himselfe in other Articles of Familisme more unsound then before and worse if worse can be as 1. Man is sayd to be made after Gods own Image which Image was Jesus Christ called by Paul the Image of the invisible God the brightnesse of his glory the expresse Image of his person Scripture sayth not that man was made according to the Image of God Christ for Christ is the Substantiall and eternall Image of the Father Man was created in the created participation of God in righteousnesse and holinesse Eph. 4.23 24. and especially if Saltmarsh speak of Christ as Mediator as he doth it is most false 2. Man while he stood was the figure and Image of Jesus Christ in his new creation or whole body or Saints p. 4. Sparkles of Glory An. P. 201. he setteth down this as the last highest discovery of God to man above beyond what Protestants say of salvation by faith in Christ crucified died buried ascended sitting at the right hand of God c. For all these Gospel truths he rejects as literall and fleshly They say sayth he speaking of Fumilists Adam was a way by which God preached first to man and was not the first man in whom all stood and fell but a way figurative and allegorick not literall and historicall as if Adam were a true reall man by which this mystery of God was made to appeare But what Scripture is âhere that Adam ân the stââe of Innocency was a figure of the Mysticall body of Christ Mediator We may not at our will fansie figures and types where the word goeth not before us 3. This excellency and glory of the first man as it left God life and communion in him was a figure or image of this creation departing from God and living out of God Ans. What reason hath Saltmarsh to speak with H. Nicholas who saith man sinned from the beginning buâ speaks not one word of the first Adam that sinned as if thâ first sinner were not one single man sâe Knewstub against H. Nicholas 2 The Scripture saith Rom. 5. All sinned in the first Adam as the head root first nature and publick father of all mankinde By one man many were made sinners inherently and intrinsecally Saltmarsh will have all men to sin in Adam as in the first figure type and Sampler by imitation onely as Pelagius said or he will have the first Adam a man figuratively onely not really and indeed and wee know Familists change the whole story of Adams fall and say the tree the Garden eating were not materiall trees gardens c. but meer figures 4. Jesus Christ is the Revelation of God even the Father this is the glasse or Christall of God in whom we with open
subdued Now this is not in this life 5 That Saltmarsh and his Spiritualists should stay under the ministration of Ordinances of preaching praying beleeving hearing reading or that they should preach is as unlawfull as for Lot to remaine in Sodome But when is there a ministration that Peter Paul and beleevers in this life should pray no more when they are to pray continually to heare and read no more when John saith they are blessed who read and Christ that they are blessed who heare and doe and they are to watch to the end to grow in grace CHAP. XX. Of the ceasing of Ordinances since the Apostles dyed as Saltmarsh teacheth SInce Antichrist now reigneth and Prophets Apostles Evangelists are no more there is no warrant to labour a reformation like the Apâstolicke times God hath no where said hee will have them restored but he aimes at a pure spiritual worship more glorious than that of the Apostles when there shall be no Temple nor Ordinances ând that place Ephes. 4 Till we all meet in the unity of Faith is till hee fill all things 1 âor who ãâã perfect the Saints but Christ Apostles cannot doe it and we ãâã no Apostles now nor any of the pure gifts of the holy Ghost Doth the scripture any where speak of Apostles Evangelists Prophets only for the first age and Pastors and teachers onely for the ages after And that of Matth. 28. Lo I am with you to the end of the world is if more clearely translated to the finishing of the age or that age of ministration pag. 108 109 110 111. Answ. It cannot bee denyed but Antichrist reigneth but where in false Doctrine in the Protestant Churches It is most false Wee have separated from Babylon Nor is it true that Saltmarsh saith locall separation is Legall and Jewish and hath begotten strife and abated love p. 53. For separation out of Babylon cannot be Jewish when the Lord hath expresly commanded the Christians come out of her my people and a Church-separation where there is nothing found as to come out from the unclean Family of Love is Christian not Jewish except we should communicate with the unfruitfull workes of darkenesse and not care to defile our garments And Familists separation from Protestant Churches upon their owne ground must be fleshly legall and Jewish and hath begotten much ãâã and abated love But any outward performance or duty done out of conscience of a command even not to goe to Masse not to worship Jdols is legall to Familists if wee doe it not upon the impulsion of the Spirit separated from the command as for corruption in conversation if that be the reigne of Antichrist our separation I confesse is to scarce then must he reigne more in Familists the uncleanest of sects then in the truely godly who hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans 2 Familists and Seekers would have no Churches reformed according to the Apostlick paterne because they think the Apostles legall and Jewish men and they judge all externals and outward Ordinances as hearing baptisme praying to bee Jewish and legall and hold that love is all And another commandement there ought not to be Upon this ground I judge Antinomians say this is the only gospel-worke and way to beleeve and there is no sinne but unbeliefe adultery murther sodomy covenant-breach perjury treacherie of Armâes Servants to Masters are sinnes before men onely but not against God and in these we are obliged by no Law but to please one another in love adultery is against no obligation of command Saltmarsh free grace 193 74.14â 154. Town 39.40 Honey-combe 95.37 Den sermon of the man of sin 9 10. 3 Another more pure and spirituall and more glorious Ministration where love all spirit reignes then is warranted by the Doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles wee know not Yet Saltmarsh pag. 194 195. condemneth the Assembly of Divines the seven Churches of the Anabaptists their confession and reformation because they indevour a Reformation only in some outward Ordinances and not any purer or more glorious discoveries of God or union with the spirit or glory Why and what cause is there For these new discoveries and new lights of a more pure and glorious spirit are either warranted by the Word of God in the Old and New Testament or they are not warranted If the first be said the Assembly and Reformed Churches Calvin and Luther whom Saltmarsh carpeth at as p. 107. darke legall and Jewish reformers because they loved not the Spirit of the Family of Love ought to have gone no further on to reform or measure the Temple then according to the golden Reed of the word of God But Saltmarsh cannot away with any reformation but such as setteth up a firmament of new lights especially of Antinomian and Familisticall wild-fire to shine to men and we confesse we indeavour no new discoveries of that kinde for they are not known to the Apostles such as that the justified cannot sinne their Adultery is no Adultery they are as free of any indwelling sin as Jesus Christ. 2 They are not to be touched in Conscience for sin 3 Nor to crave pardon 4 Nor to doe any duty because commanded in the Law 5 Nor to beleeve that Christ died for sinners rose for their righteousnesse 6 Or to pray continually 7 To heare 8 To be baptized with Water c. Answ. 1. Paul saith 1 Cor. 2.1 He determined to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified then Paul knew no discovery or new light nor any more spirituall way that is all spirit and a dispensation beyond the Law and that of the Prophets and beyond the Gospel which is that of the Spirit all spirit and pure spirit For Paul would have no doubt desired to know it yea all other things ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã what-ever they bee are dung and losse to him in comparison of the super-excellent knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord Phil. 3.2 John the Apostle who saw so many Divine revelations and discoveries of the spirit if any man else must bee above Law and Gospel and up at this highest and most spiritual discovery But John even in his actual visions and spiritual ravishments Revel 1.10 was never beyond sinning and a capacity of exhortations consolations and rebukes for Idolatry as is cleare Revel 1.16 17. Revel 19.10 Revel 22.8 9. Then there can be no such pure and spiritual dispensation to the Saints in this life as is beyond all ordinances of exhortation consolation rebukes for the Holy ghost telleth us that John in the discoveries of God that are most spiritual had need of these Feare not I am the first and the last and see thou doe it not I am thy fellow-servant worship God 2 It will be found that the anoynting and the holy spirit that leads in truth leadeth by no other meanes then by the word preached Rom. 10.14 Esa. 59.19 20 21. But if these new discoveries be not warranted
Gospel his Kingdome had an end above fourteen hundred years agoe 6. Now to all this we must say Christs order is strange First he led his people through the Law then to a purer and more glorious Gospel-dispensation and say Familists to a pure spirituall way of all Spirit And yet after his ascension and ceasing of Apostles he led them by a retrograde motion and âook away all ordinances of the preached Word all Seales all Preachers and witnesses all Churches and they have ben so under a darker then a Law-dispensation these fourteen hundred yeares and shall bee till men of the Family stamp shall arise even men that are all pure spirit such as H. Nicholas and Mr. Dell Randall and Saltmarsh who teach that beleevers cannot sinne nor confesse sinne nor are to walke in any Commandement of God nor after any Ordinance of Word covenant of Grace Seales Faith Prayer c. 16. In this most pure most spirituall manifestation of God saith he pag. 36. all shall be spirituall Disciples This ministery is of the whole body of the Saints not of one Tribe or sort of men page 51 52. and that immediatly in all gifts and operations without studying or industry Answ. Here 1. all distinction of Church-Officers which Paul saith shall endure till we all meet in the unity of Faith Eph. 4.11 12. and is proven from the order Christ hath established that some not all shall be Apostles and Teachers 1 Cor 12.28 29. and onely those that are sent Rom. 10.14 and onely such as have such and such operations in Christs body 1 Corinth 12.19 Rom. 12.4 But it is apparent Familists dreame of a dispensation when either Christ shall not be head and have no body and the Familists so denude him of his headship or if Christ have a body then all the members have the same Office contrary to Rom. 12.4 and all the body is one member and so no body at all 1 Cor. 12.19 and when there shall be none to obey in the Lord and none to command contrary to 1. Thess. 5.12 13. Heb. 13.7.17 Tit. 1.5 7 8 9 10. 2. There is a cleare contradiction in this That all shall be Teachers and Edifiers and yet there shall be none to be taught and edified No Temple no Ordinances they are fleshly and Jewish carnalities none but all Spirit and taught of God page 88 89. page 72 73. page 66 67. 3. A time in this life there must bee when Timothy shall give no attendance to reading and yet be a Prophet and all men and women shall preach the Gospel without studying Now the Scripture speaketh of no such time and we cannot take such a poynt upon tradition from Familisis 17. The Christian is and was saith he 93 94. under Prelacy Presbytery Baptisme Independency c. Why not under Popery Socinianisme Arrianisme Judaisme and the profession of all these For they are Christians beleevers and saved under all Religions by H. Nicholas his grounds who saith we may deny Christ and Religion before men 2. Saltmarsh saith p. 100 101. under all these Religions he excludes not Gentilisme if they wait to come up to higher revelations of the Spirit when discovered they are true and spirituall Disciples of Jesus Christ. This is grace universall given to every man to gain and purchase by his industry and honest merit more and more of Christ till he come to the highest measure of all spirit It is known H. Nicholas established a righteousnesse by the Law and workes CHAP. XXI The Doctrine of Saltmarsh and Familists touching Magistracy and Spirituall discerning of Saints amongst themselves MAgistracie saith he p. 135. is a power ordained of God an Image of the power and judgement committed to Christ Scripture and the gift of wisdome justice and righteousnesse are his unction now Page 138. They are set up more specially to minister peace and judgement to Gods people in the flesh Then Nero the great Turk the Indian Kings being ordained of God Rom. 3.1 as the image of Christ must be his submediators and under Deputies little spirituall Kings and Prophets and Priests under Chrâât as Mediator And who gave the Scriptures the Law written Gospel and such an unction to the Indian Kings for they are Magistrates The man cannot speak of Christian Magistrates for Rom. 13. which he citeth speaketh of Nero whose head was dry from all unction of the Gospel or new Testament If the Magistrate be an Image of Christs power and that power committed to him they may under the Mediator Christ ministerially judge of the doctrine preached by Ministers if true or false And if they be set up to minister justice more specially to Gods people in the flesh then the people of God in the Spirit and in all Spirit as Saltmarsh saith most of them all are shall be under no Magistrate but this he saith of all page 288 293 200 201 202 c. And by this every Magistrate must be a Christian âf an image of the Mediators power or then no Christian or spirituall man can be a Magistrate 2. They are set up to minister justice to the people of God in their flesh But these that are spirituall having no flesh how are they under Magistrates The flesh is to Saltmarsh that which is under Law not under grace then Saints are no more under Magistrates then under the Law to him and when they are not under the sword of the Spirit or any ordinances are they under the steel sword of the Magistrate And what judgement minister they to Saints in whom there is no more sinne nor in Christ And is a beleever obliged to confesse murder paricide adultery to a Magistrate who is a man and to crave him pardon when Saltmarsh saith he is not to confesse any sinnes to God page â92 He seeâs to grant Magistracie and so do the Familists in their petition to King James But it was their doctrine there should be no Magistrate 141 142. 19. Spirituall men may know each other in Spirit and in Truth as men know men by the voyce features statures of the outward man An. T is true there is a spiritual instinct that will try the spirits but dul in many cannot go in to election reprobation nor doe Seekers and Familists any other thing then take their marks by the Moone when they say Presbyterians Divines of the Assembly to their spirits are the Antichrist the false Prophet 2 Familists will have none judged Hereticks because none can see whether they be truly Godly and selfe-condemned that hold such Doctrines Here they say they know one another whether they be Saints or Hereticks to be avoyded as one man by sense knoweth another 3 Let us judge none before the day tares grow and goe for wheat even to the most spirituall 4 The Familists of New England take on them to judge who are elect and who are reprobate and Saltmarsh wil have one Saint to know another
is no Rule and if so in all the sinnes committed by Christians be they never so heyâous the Christian sinnes not for he goâs against no Law noâ any obligiâg Commandement CHAP. XXIV Of the Indulgence of sinning under Law and Gospel granted by the Familists GOd had a time before Christ came in the Spirit as he had before Christ came in the flesh in which he suffered with patience their sinnes so now under Episcopacie Independency Presbytery he useth much forbearance but he hath a time in which he will judge the world and destroy Antichrist and then shall all the Saints Indulgencies cease to all these things under which they are walking some in conscience some in liberty Sparkles 251 252 253. Answ. The Scripture speaketh of no Indulgency to sinning after the revealed Gospel because after his ascension he came both in the flesh and Spirit and men have no excuse for their sins Acts 14.16 Acts 17.30 In times of ignorance God winked but now even in Pauls time he commands all to repent 2 Cor. 6.2 Behold now is the day of salvation And Rom. 13.12 Now the night is far spent and the day is at hand The Gospel day is dawn a day of the Spirit beyond the Gospel day the Scripture knoweth not except the incomming of the Jews which is a Gospel day in which the Moon light shall bee as the Sunne in his full strength 2. Here is a new Familistical day of judgement begun in this life and why not also the Libertine and Nicolaitan resurrection in this life 3. Sinning in conscience and liberty excuseth no sinne nor can Saints sinne at all in the Antinomian way as is proven and shall be hereafter God willing Now under Episcopâcie must God give dispensations to Prelâticall Saintâ under that Antichristian ministration to bow to Altars and ãâã to all their Popery that now they professe and practice and they sin not in that case yea and such walk with God in all âis removes p. 316. and in all outward religious Administrations page 314. and even following Popery CHAP. XXV Familists will have us to be very Christ or Christed and Godded 25 SOme say CHRIST in us is no other then the habit of grace and such a work of sanctification wrought by the graces of the Spirit and this they say is CHRIST formed in us This the Protestant Generally Others say CHRIST in us is when we are made the anointed of God which is Christ or the whole intire Christ as one spirituall new man 1 Cor. 12.12 and that the Image of Christ in us is Christ manifested in our flesh as to sufferings and death whereby the flesh is crucified in the power of God and of the Spirit the outward man or flesh dying daily and it is no more we that live but Christ manifested in us as in resurrection Sparkles 255 256. Answ. Saltmarsh here quits the Protestant but leaves him with a slander and blot that Christ in a Christian is but a habit of mortification but he speakes nothing of imputed righteousnesse and Christ living by faith in the heart which he knowes the Protestant teacheth to be Christ in the Saints the hope of glory 2. Hee takes him to H. Nicholas and makes every Saint one intire whole Christ and the whole mysticall body of the Catholick Church in every beleever 1 Cor. 12.12 that is every man is Christ and God manifested in the flesh and Godded with God and Christed with Christ in suffering and this is all the incarnation of God and crucifying of the Lord of glory that Saltmarsh will allow us But we beleeve Christ died and rose and in our flesh is sitting at the right hand of God and withall that in a spirituall manner he dwels in us by faith cloathing a sinner in his whites of glory and breathing living acting in him as in a Tabernacle a redeemed and graced palace which he will cast down and raise up at the last day and plaster and more then over-gold with finest purest glory This is Christ in us the hope of Glory CHAP. XXVI The Familists fansie of our passing from one ministration to another of higher glory in this life and the Lords Prayer and Christian Sabbath 27 THere is a fiery triall of the Spirit 1 Cor. 3.13.15 2 Pet. 3.10 Rev. 2.9 in which a Christian passing from Law to Gospel and from a Gospel state of graces gifts and ordinances to more glorious manifestations of God and all Spirit burneth and crucifieth all his former workes and ministrations as vile and nothing Answ. Law or Gospel-merit are daily to be burnt and trampled under foot and not only when we passe from Law to Gospel except men under the old Testament be saved by Law-righteousnesse 2. When we passe from Law to Gospel we leave shadowes and approach nearer to the Sunne and the night-torches of ceremonies are blown out because the day dawneth But that we are to admit new lights contradicent to the old is an untruth there was ever the same truth from the beginning 1 John 1.1 Jer. 6.16 Gen. 3.16 Heb. 13.8 neither Christ nor Truth weares out of fashion the matter is not thus It was not of old Confesse sinne and now it is sinne to Saints to confesse sinne Nor was it of old that David was justified by workes but now Paul is justified without workes by the imputed righteousnesse of Christ. Nor was it of old a pardoned man can sin and is forbidden to murther but now a pardoned man can not sin no written law forbids a Saint to murther Thus we burn no we crucifie no truths no acts of righteousnesse the grace of God commands them now as then Tit. 2.11.12 and never bad crucifie them Thus we wash our hands of new lights or rather new lies contradicent to old truths new and clearer manifestations of ancient Christ are our new lights 2. 1 Cor. 3. There is no passing from Law to Gospel the Law and Gospel-truths are never called Hay and Stubble and opposed to silver and gold truth is not opposed to truth 2. God burnes that trash law-merits we are to burn 3. That hay is laid upon a golden foundation Christ Law or Gospel-merits are not builded on Christ the Spirit expones not this text so as Saltmarsh doth 3. It is Saltmarsh his hap to misexpone all places for the last judgement and the resurrection of the body I dare say the Spirit of truth never minded his passing from one ministration to another 2 Pet. 3. the burning of the earth and the works of it is not mens burning of all their works For 1. Scoffers mock the last day and the promise of Christs comming but not the joyfull day of their passing from their scoffing merits selfe-righteousnesse to a new ministration of glory 2. Peter minded a reall not metaphoricall destroying of the world in Noahs time not with figurative but most reall waters and from that of burning the earth with fire really not figuratively
3. The whole frame of the creation here is put out of order v. 10.11 4. It is the day that shall come as a Thiefe in the night which is the day of judgement Matth. 24.43 44. 1 Thess. 5.1.2 5. It is the day before which God will gather in his own willing them to be saved 6. It is called The day of the Lord v. 4.9 10. I should not spend time to refute such new dreames 28. Page 262 263. Saltmarsh censures the Lords Prayer as a legall peece because it sayes Our Father which art in heaven but as we are not to dreame of a locall God so neither should our thoughts be creeping low and clayie in prayer 29. The Spirituall Christian knowes no Sabbath but the bosome of the Father 266. Answ. No wonder Antinomians destroy the fourth Commandement they destroy the other nine and all the letter of the Bible as fleshly and a killing Letter I beleeve the Lords day is morall and perpetually morall till Christs comming from Gen. 2.2 Exod. 20.8 Deut. 5.12 Matth. 24.20 John 19.42 Luke 24.56 1 Cor. 16.1 Acts 20.7 Rev. 1.10 Let Saltmarsh and Familists call for the book of sports on the Lords day I knew never any truly Godly in either Kingdom despise the Lords day 30. The Scriptures or writings are the true Scriptures not as they are meerly in their Grammaticall construction sense or common reading which any that understand the Hebrew and Greek may perceive And according to such and such interpretations are not to be imposed as meere things of Faith and Fundamentals but so farre as the Spirit of God reveales them to be the very mind of God else they are received for the authority of Man The Pharisees had the Scriptures in the Letter Answ. Scriptures are not the word of God but in their Grammaticall sense and reading otherwise Jewes and Pharisees have not the Scriptures in the letter that is in the true literall sense for the Pharisees corrupted the Scriptures and made them null the literall sense is the most spirituall sense because Familisticall and Popish allegories and new-light-senses are wild-fire not Gods word Saltmarsh and H.N. doe as corruptly also expone Scripture as the Pharisees did of old For example 1 Tim. 3. God manifested in the flesh and Zach. 13.3 4 5. and 2 Pet. 3.1 2 3 4 c. and Rom. 5. that notable place concerning the first and second Adam and 2 Thess. 2. and the place Rev. 11.1 2. where Saltmarsh saith p. 17. the outer Court of the Temple troden upon by the Gentiles is the flesh and first creation and all outward administrations and many the like so as they leave off to be the word of God being abused by their phantasticall allegories and senses that are not the minde of the Spirit nor his scope 2. If yee receive not Fundamentals but in so far as the Spirit reveales them in the literall sense yee doe well But a naturall Spirit may receive the Orthodox sound sense and be farre from inward revelation that makes the word effectuall 3. We will no man to receive the Word beleevingly because men or Churches command so to doe But of this before the same is Swenckfields argument CHAP. XXVII How Ordinances and the letter of the Word are Instruments of conveying of Christ and his grace âo us and neither adored of us nor uselesse to us 31. NO outward Ordinance or Ministration of the Creature or of Letter can convey or conferre any spirituall thing they are but images or shadowes of spirituall things the seeing of things darkly as in a glasse 1 Cor. 13. Sparkles of glory p. 247. Answ. This is that which Swenckfield and Mr. Dell and all Libertines teach that the written read and preached Word is no instrument of saving soules because it is not an effectual instrument without the Spirit but the word internall or the Spirit within teaching must be all then is every mans inward word Spirit Conscience his Bible Rule and obliging Lâw and every man is obliged to follow his blind guide his consciencâ and then he is not infallible Hence no compulsion in matters of Conscience yea nor in Polygamy murther For the Word is no Rule say Familists 2. There is not one faith but every man hath a faith and Religion of his own by which he is saved 32 Saltmarsh now riseth higher for whereas he said Free grace c. 49. p. 179 180. To doe any thing merely as commanded from the power of an outward commandement brings but forth legall and mixt service or at best finer hypocrisie Now hee saith in his Sparkles of glory now the outward Ordinance or ministration of the creature or of the letter cannot convey spirituall things to us and epist. to the Reader p. 6. The other opinion of Protestants is that the letting up of such a forme of worshiping God in ordinances scripture letter of the word praying faith habits of graces c. is an immediate way of fixing God and his Spirit upon it which is indeed a finer kind of Idolatry to conceive that God enters into outâard things and conveys his al-glorious and allmighty spirit by them when as they are onely signes figures and Images of more spirituall things injoyed or to be injoyed and that of Gods appearance and conveyance of himselfe in outward things according to this opinion is such as the Papists hold as to Images c. Or things conferring grace ex opere operato and all Idolaters accordingly conceiving that God immediatly informes and glorifies and spiritualizeth those formes and figures to the beholders as the Israelites when the Calfe was made cryed these are thy Gods O Israel I know Ordinances used in their true nature and as things that are the parables figures and types of spirituall thingâ are not to be rejected but many Christians doe sweetly partake of them in this their estate of weakenesse or bondage wherein God makes heavenly things appeare by earthly that men as Thomas may see and beleeve though blessed are they that have not seene and yet doe beleeve Thâre is something of the mystery of God in this and somâthing of a mystery of Sathan in it That of God is this that the Lord doth in much wisdome suffer the weakenesse of some spirituall men to come forth and by this hee carieth spirituall things in more mystery and manageth the glory of his spirit through wayes and things which are an offence and scandal before the world by which some stumble and fall and are broken Christ was set up for the falling as well as rising of many in Israel That of Sathan is this of reproaching the pure spirit of God by reproaches viz. Of praying by the spirit and preaching by the spirit and new revelations and new lights thus making the world blaspheme and the weaker Saints affraid of the glory of the spirit lest it proove delusions Answ. Here is good Reader a more avowed reproaching of the wisdome of
Revelations contrary to the woâd for the Scripture saith the justified person can sin must confesse sin because God is faithfull to forgive But Antinomians say the spirit that exponeth Scripture to them without arguing discoursing reasoning or comparing Scripture with Scripture but by an immediate revelation teacheth that the justified cannot sinne are not to confesse sinne and that they are no more to sorrow for sinne then âo goe backe again to Legall bondage after they are justifiâd in Christ which is contradicent to the word of Truth and therefore such a spirit wee know not 11. The weaker are much dâlâded by Sâltmarsh and his if they beleeve a Spirit separated from thâ Word CHAP. XXVIII Of our assurance and comfort from Acts of free Grace 33. THe pure rationall and glorious assurance of salvation comes from the pure manifestation of the Spirit bearing witnesse This is the white stone Rev. 2.17 The unction whereby we know all things 1 John 2.20 and the things freely given us of God 1 Cor. 2.12 There is assurance 1. by Reason or the meere light of nature and works of this creation as in Job and Cornelius but sure there is no salvation out of Christ. 2. By graces gifts or fruits of the Spirit selfe-deniall faith repentance and by the Letter Promises or outward Ordinances or duties this assurance is of no higher and clearer and more glorius certainty then God through these doth afford and that is darkly as the Apostle saith as in a glasse Paul Hobson who speaketh more congruously to Scripture then any of this way I read saith he speaking of our joy It is one thing to rejoyce in an act and another thing to draw our joy from an act It is one thing to rejoyce in our sutable walking up to a Rule another thing to draw our joy and refreshing from the apprehension of a sutablenesse betwixt the Act and the Rule Men may pray and mourne for sinne or perform any other particular duty and have much joy in that opportunity and yet not draw their joy from it but onely their joy is distilled from a sâcret in-come of Christ which carries them above it while they are acted in it but these poore soules they onely are joyfull when they see they act suitable to a Rule and they draw their joy from that suitablenesse which appeares in this that if their suitablenesse flagge their joy is destroyed I doe not say but that every sin eâought to produce sorrow in us but it is one thing to mourn for sinne ânâoying faith with peace and another thing to mourn for sin to confirm faith and to beget peace Answ. 1. I deny not but there is a pure and immediate assurance that floweth from the witnesse of the Spirit Rom. 8.16 2 Cor. 1 21 22. Eph. 1.13 14. So as the shining of the Suâne maketh evidenâ that it is day without a syllogisme and discourse and the seeing of the mother teacheth the Lamb without any argumentative light to follow the mother and to follow no other And the Sun-shine of glory on the soule teacheth it is in a state of happinesse with immediate light but I utterly deny that in every moment of time when the person beleeveth he is assured he is in the state of salvation for this reflect assurance is not essentiall to faith Many beleeve and say My God and yet complain that God forgetteth them and shuttâth up their prayers and casteth off their soule as is cleare in prayers put up to God in faith in which the Saints want assurance Psalm 22.1 2 Psalm 31.22 Jonah 2.4 Esay 49.14 15. Cant. 5.4 6.7 Cant. 3.1 2 3 4 5. 2. Many doubt and these both godly and learned of the immediate word and testimony of the Spirit they say it is from signes and effects of saving grace by which as by Arguments the Spirit testifies that we are the children of God as thus He that beleeves and loves the brethren and hath a hope causing a man to purifie himselfe is in the state of salvation But I am such an one therefore I am in the state of salvation Both the Major and Assumption may be witnessed by the Spirit of God and our own sense And the places alledged by Saltmarsh speak not of the way or the manner how the Spirit the white stone the âunction doth teach us or bear witnes they onely say they beare witnes and teach but say nothing of the manner and if the Spirit teach us to know the things freely given to us of God and the annoynting teach us all things then far more doth the Spirits anointing teach us that we are the Sonnes of God because we love the Brethren because we beleeve and saith is our victory by which we overcome the world 3 There is assurance by reason of the meer light of nature and works of this Creation that there is a God and that hee rewardeth them that seeke him but that men have assurance of salvation or that they are in a state of salvation as Salâmarsh his title of the Chapter intimateth or that Job and Cornelius have assurance or salvation by reason or the meer light of nature and works of this Creation is the new Divinity of Jesuits but hath no warrant in the Scriptures and that Job and Cornelius were voyd of all Gospell-revelation is contrary to Job 19.25 26.27 Act. 10.1 2 3 4 5 6.34 35 4 Far lesse was it ever heard that Protestants teach that men may have assurance of salvation from the mâer letter of scripture Saltmarsh fathers many untruths on Protestants to make his own way of all spirit taketh better with the people 5 I ââove else where that the way of assurance by divers places of Scripture âs rationââl and Argumentative and that most of all the Articles of our faith in the new Testament are proved ãâã from the old nor are the assurance of the spirit and âationâll and argumentative discourses of the ãâã contrary one âo another For the Holy spirit almost iâ every ãâã of scripture is an arguing spirit and infers on conclusion from an antecedent and from an other conclusion 6 Nor did we ever teach men to build assurance on meer outward duties done without the grace of Christ. 7 Nor can the assurance by the immediate testimony of the spirit be more cleare and glorious then God doth afford light more then certainty by signes and effects can be 8 It is a wonder to me that Saltmarsh so undervalueth all assurances by effects and works of grace so as they assuâe us darkly as in a glasse Then the immediate Testimony of his all spirit must yeeld an higher âvidence ãâã darkely and in a glasse this must be the light of the immediate vision of God in heaven Hence Familists will but have the day light of moââing or noone day glory shinâ on us in this life whereas the Apostle makes all the light we have in this life to be darke and in a
the crosse all the naturall faculties power and excellencies that the Creator gave to us when we were created and nailing these to the crosse was Christs crucifying of the flesh and we are the same way crucified with Christ as so many joynt Saviours with him by suffering afflictions and in place of this crucified flesh all the Saints have the Spirit to act in them and our conversion to God or restauration in the second Adam is in that we are made againe in Christ partakers of the divine nature and of the substantiall being of God or godded with the new heavenly being of God in love and Christed with Christ and turned when we are perfectly renewed into all spirit Saltmarsh Sparkles of glory pag. 71. And the naturall faculties of our soule mind will affections are in our conversion removed and in place of them comes the very Holy Ghost in person and very Christ himselfe acts in us Rise Reigne Ruine of Antino art 1. art 2. pag. 1. and lives in us not by faith and created grace but substantially and personally and for this they alledge Gal. 2.20 I live not but Christ lives in me and so neither our naturall power or any thing nor is created grace any thing but Christ is all in all CHAP. XXX Familists will have all externals indifferent 2. SAltm saith Christians should live in the unity of the Spirit under their severall formes and attaintments Now by forms and attaintments he meanes Prelacie Presbyterie Independencie yea Poperie and all outward worship and ordinances of which he saith there is no forme nor model in the letter of the Scriptures and so he maketh the Scriptures as unperfect as the Papists doe the one dreaming of a Spirit in the breast of the Pope and cursed Clergie to be the master of our faith the other an Anabaptisticall Spirit of unwritten revelations to be our leader and they reproach the word of God as formes characters figures a faith Ceremoniall and figurative services out of the knowledge of the Scripture as H.N. saith Evang. ch 34. sent 10. And by Christians he meanes Saints of divers and contrary sects wayes Religions such as is the Chaos of a Church in the Sectaries Army in which there are Arrians that say Christ was but a mere godly man Antitrinitarians Socinians Arminians Seekers Anabaptists most of them all being Arminians Familists Antinomians Enthysiasts and all these should agree in the unity of the Spirit and as he saith after pag. 20. in these outward things they ought to please one another to edification Rom. 13.10 Rom. 8.2 Col. 2.20 the Law of love and spirit or life being more royall and excellent then any worldly rudiments whatsoever Now it is cleare that his meaning is they should keep the unity of the Spirit and please one another in all outward things as Rom. 15.1.2 so I thinke he should cite the place that is doe as Anabaptists among Anabaptists be a Presbyterian among Presbyterians an Independent among Independents Prelaticall among Prelaticall men that we offend not one another because the Law of loving our neighbour is above being baptised or not baptised and using of the signe of the crosse or not using it and all the five Popish bastard Sacraments are lesse then loving our brother upon this ground Familists make all externalls free and indifferent and so doth Oliver Crumwell in his letter to the House of Commons 1645. which I set downe here that many in both Kingdomes who looked on him as a godly man may be satisfied toward him whether he favour Familisme or no for it smelleth rankly of that fleshly sect it was printed before by Authority Presbyterians Independents all have here the same Spirit of faith and prayer the same presence and answer they agree here know no names of difference pity it is it should be otherwise any where All that beleeve have the reall unity which is most glorious because inward and spirituall in the body and to the head for being united in formes commonly called uniformity every Christian will for peace sake study and doe as far as conscience will permit and from Brethren in things of the minde we looke for no compulsion but that of light and reason in other things God hath put the sword in the Parliaments hands for the terror of evill doers and the praise of them that doe well if any plead exemption from it he knows not the Gospell if any would wring it out of your hands or steale it from you under what pretence soever I hope they shall doe it without effect that God will maintaine it in your hand and direct you in the use thereof is the prayer of Now because this Letter was publickly Printed and containes doctrine unsound and scandalous to me and many other every Christian is obliged to be ready to give an answer to every man that asketh a reason of the hope that is in him with meeknesse and fear 1 Pet. 3.15 especially when he giveth a publick scandall of unsoundnesse in the faith I thought my selfe tyed in conscience and others are debters to me for the same freedome of conscience in the truth which they crave to themselves in errors and hereâies to shew how scandalous and unsound this Letter is Presâyterians Independents all have the same Spirit of faith and prayer the same presence and answâr Answ. This is no just enumeration to prove the inward and spirituall unity in the Army which he intends for there bee in the Army Socinians Arminians Anabaptists and by name Jo. Saltmarsh Mr. Del and Seekers who in Print disclaime both Presbyterians and Independents and to my knowledge there is not this day in England any that is a mere Independent which maintaineth nothing but Independencie with moât of these of N. England and does not hold other unsound and corrupt tenets especially that of Liberty of conscience which bordereth with Atheisme Scepticisme and with all faiths and no faith 2. I am not of the Authors minde that Presbyterians and Independents as now they are can have the same spirit of faith and prayer except we say with H Nicholas the first Elder of the family of love that all externalls in Religion Presbyterians Independents Popes Cardinals Bishops Priests Deacons Sextons Services Ceremonies yea and the Church of Rome till contentions arose about these as H N. Evangelie c. 32. c. 33. saith are indifferent and no wayes unlawfull H. N. saith his followers are subject to no Gods no Lawes or Ceremonies but only to the Lord their God and to his most holy service of love they are not likewise subject in bondage unto the creatures neither yet to any created thing but only to the Creator c all their life minde and delight only is in God and God himselfe likewise with his mind life or Spirit is in them and they are even so of one conformity or substance with each other namely God and his people of peace Spirit l. and c. 55. l. 9. No
preaching another doctrine be an outward thing yea we are not to receive him unto our house nor to bid him God speed for he that bids him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds and we are never biddân keep the unity of the spirit with false teachers 5 It is true love is more then outward things and the greatest commandement next to the love of God But loves excellency stands not in this that we must breake any Commandement of God to please our Brethren in love Christ should have the preheminence in all things above our Brother 6. Saltmarsh hath no warrant to call the Commandements of Christ in outward things such as to read and search the Scriptures to preach the Gospel to heare the preaching of faith to be baptised worldly rudiments which name Gal. 4.9 and worse yea the name of weake and beggarly rudiment Paul giveth to Jewish Ceremonies that were then in their use unlawfull Christ speaketh more honourably of the Commandements of the New Testament Mat. 28.20 teaching them to observe all whatsoever I have commanded you Joh. 15.14 You are my friends if you doe whatsoever I command you Joh. 13.17 If yee know these things happy are yee if yee do them Mat. 12.50 whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven the same is my brother my sister and my mother Mat. 7.21 Not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is heaven I well remember that H. Nicholas Evang. c. 31. s. 1.2 and s. 23. Calleth the Church of Rome the communion of all Christians the Pope the chiefe anointed the most holy father the Cardinals most holy and famous and next to the most ancient and holy father the Pope in most holy Religion and understanding no doubt because there is no sinne no Idolatry in externall worship if love be in the heart The Familists repute all personall morfication and sanctification done in the strength of Grace worldly rudiments and all outward things killing or not killing whoring or not whoring pleasing our neighbour or sister in whoring or not whoring hearing the word or not hearing praying or not praying Prelacie and Popery or the contrary as they please or displease men indifferent and nothing to one that is in Christ Jesus This is a faire way for John of Leyden to take fifteen wives and for plurality of wives and promiscuous lusts robberies and the world of David George to act all villanies externall for the Familists and Saltmarsh say the outer man cannot sinne and in all externalls we are to please one another in love and not to count a rush or a straw of pleasing or displeasing of the Lord our God if there be familisticall love or Antinomian faith in the heart all is well 3. I doe not saith Saltmarsh undervalue other attaintments or lessen them he meanes Prelacy Popery Presbytery Independency though he bee in words against them all being now turned Seeker but if they bee unlawfull as you judge them yee should not only undervalue them but hate them as spots of the flesh have no communion with them as being unfruitfull works of darknesse but rather reprove them Ephes. 5.11 as meere will-worship and lies spoken in hypocrisie but all that is contrary to true sanctification is but trifles to Familists 4. In severall dispensations Christians are not to hasten out of any till the Lord himselfe say come up hither This come up hither is a call of the Spirit effectually moving and drawing men from Prelacy Popery the way of Legalists for these are the attaintments he speaketh of up to higher attaintments to a Gospell way of Antinomianisme to a higher way of all Spirit and pure Spirit which now Saltmarsh hath found out though H. Nicholas David George Muncâr and Becold of Leyden have saved him a great deale of labour For H. Nicholas proverbs ch 3. s. 12. divised sundry orbes or severall out-breakings of light 1 From Adam to Noah 2 Then from Noah till Abraham 3 Till Moses 4. Till Samuel and David 5 Till Zorobabel 6 Till Christ. 7 Till cursed H. N. But if these lower attaintments of Popery Prelacy c. be sinfull and unlawfull wayâs and if the state of Law-bondage be a denying that Christ is come in the flesh and the attaintment of Presbytery that teacheth the Magistrate should use the sword againât wolves and false teachers be to Salâm persecution then must Christians not hasten out of that dispensation of Popery and persecution of the Saints but must sleep in Sodome as being obliged by no letter of a commandement to hasâen out till the Spirit inwardly call Come up hither as John was in a rapture and vision called to come up hither Rev. 4.1 So then 1. We must beare one anothers burthens of Popery and persecution so doth Saltmarsh countenance a bloody War against the Presbyterians that for Liberty of conscience this is to beare our corps in a wet and bloody winding sheet to the grave in waiting for raptures of the Spirit 2. Then are we not obliged to come out of any sinne or way of Popery Presbytery or persecution till by a vision and rapture of the Spirit God speake effectually to the heart and say Come up hither 3. Then we doe nothing against a Law obligation till the Spirit move us So the Spirit not moving shall be the cause of all sinne and not the sinner for he doth nothing against an obliging rule because the Spirit saying Come up hither is the only obliging rule of men not the letter of any Commandement say they Saltmarsh Sparkles p. 243. 4. Saltmarsh but the last yeare said Free grace pa. 97.98 Wee cannot too hastily beleeve in Jesus Christ and hasten from out of the inthralling law now this yeare he will have men staying under any dispensation and not hasten out till God say Come up hither 5. All men must please themselves in the false religions and know its Gods will they hasten not out of Sodome till a Rapture say Come up hither and if that never come they are contentedly and submissively unto Gods revealed will to sit still there in a sinfull and unlawfull worship for this is Gods will so to doe â I am not against the Law saith he nor repentance nor duties nor ordinances so as all flow from the right principles Ans. But I never knew a controversie between Antinomians Protestants whether repentance duties flow from the principles of Free grace and the in-dwelling Spirit of Jesus if Antinomians move this question their Arminians and Pelagians of which divers are with them not we are their adversaries 2. For the right principle of ordinances we know none but the Spirit speaking in the word Familists will have no ordinances but the Law written in the heart this wee disclaime But 3. The question is touching our obligation to repentance and duties they say to sorrow
for sinnes that Christ hath so blotted out that they have neither name being nor nature of sinnes is unlawfull and we are obliged by no Commandement of God say they to duties the Spirit maketh us willing but the word and Spirit are not contrary as we conceive the Spirit doth oblige as it goes along with the obliging word for if ye commit murther or lie say they being justified yee sinne not but the flesh in you 2. Wee are not guilty therein because the Spirit acted us not to forbeare 3. It was pardoned and remitted before it was committed and so hath neither name nor nature of sinne for the right end of duties we know no other but to glorifie God to be land-marks or a way to our countrey and to testifie we love our Redeemer we make them not one penny of payment for heaven â I am not against the settlement of Church-government prudently as now Ans. If Prudential-government be from Christ and his Testament it is not enough not to be against Christ but ye must be with him if it be not of Christ the more shame to you and all your way not to be against that which hath not Christ for its Father and Authour 2 The King of the Church in all substantials hath set out a plat-forme in his word Humane prudence is too bold to prescribe to Christ how he should rule his House But this way Saltmarsh is not against the Church-government of Rome by Popes Cardinals Patryarchs Metropolitans Arch-Bishopes and the Government abjurd in his Covenant for these be prudential Church-governments 3 It is a wide Familisticall conscience to teach there is no Church no ministry no preaching no censures now on earth as you and all Seekers doe and yet not to bee against a Church-government in a prudential way in which the Magistrate sits as a Church-Officer to judge But this is the detestable Neutrality of Antinomians in all Religions to be neither hot nor cold this nor that 6 Nor is this any cause or reason why Saltmarsh should not be against the Prudentiall Government of mans devising because God hath his people under severall attaintments and measures as in Queen Maries Martyrdome for then because God hath saved some under Prelacie some under Poperie yea before Christs comming some under Gentilisme as Saltmarsh thinketh of Job for then Saltmarsh and Familists should not be against the settlement of Prelaticall Government and of their Romish Ceremonies not against Popish and Heathenish Prudentiall and Idolatrous Church-Government I thinke then Saltmarsh will be any thing in externals Paganish Popish or Prelatical no wonder then that Familists in their Petition raile against Puritans for none-conformity and professe in their Petition to King James their obedience to all the Prelaticall will-worship CHAP. XXXI Saltmarsh and Familists teach that there is salvation in all Religions I Am onely against a forme as it becomes an Engine of persecution c. Ans. So Saltmarsh here opens a great mystery of Familisme which is Liberty of conscience and salvation under all Religions for if any forme of Religion never so sound be commanded even by a Law of God and ratified politically by a Law of man and none left free to mens owne Spirit as to the only binding rule though it be a Spirit of Sathan it is no lawfull Religion to Saltmarsh Now that this is his minde is cleare from that he saith Spark 171 172. In books of controversie we can but set letter to letter and Scripture to Scripture and argument to argument and nothing can be judged till the day or time of more revelation of truth till the Holy Ghost and fire sit upon each of us trying every mans worke and burning up that in us which is hay and stubble in which words beside that Saltm judgeth and condemneth himselfe in writing this same booke of Controversie in favour of the Familists condemning in expresse words the Protestants in all the articles of their faith he will have no man to see truth or to judge any otherwise or know what he beleeves but by conjectures till the day of revelation come that he turne Familist and become all Spirit and all glory so all the Protestants that are not Familists set but letter to letter and are literall legalists and have no certainty what they beleeve and when this Spirit commeth he teacheth not by the word setting letter to letter and Scipture to Scripture but by immediate inspiration above and beyond the word 2. This Spirit even having come upon Saltmarsh as hee plainly saith p. 68. And in his Epistle to the Parliament p. 2.3 does but dictate to him errors hay and stabble that must be consumed for if he so do when he hath taught these toyes hee teacheth the contrary the next day what a spirit is this 3. If the Scripture be not the judge of controversies by setting letter to letter Scripture to Scripture understood according to the naturall and genuine grammaticall sense which the words yeeld without constraint then is the Scripture as Scripture and in its native sense a nose of wax and hath no native sense but wee are to expect a higher spirituall allegorick sense then the letter can beare that from the Spirit We have by this way then no certain rule of faith the unââable then may lawfully wrest the scripture to their own desâruction Paul proveth Jesus to be the true Messiah and that convincingly he confounded the Jewes ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã confuting them that they were confounded in their mind and strongly proved with violence and strength of Scripture light that this is the Christ ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Act. 9.22 and Christ remitteth the Jews to the Scriptures as the judging rule Act. 5.39 If the Scriptures be so dark uncertain doubt some to naturall men void of the Spirit ye shall not convince Cain by the 6. Commandement that he is a murtherer nor Achan by the 8 Command that he is a theef nor Ananias that he is a lyar All may say the Spirit hath the coÌtrary sense that truly by this way And in the following words he would not be against an Assembly or Synod at Westminster though he deny there is any such Ordinance of God now as Synod or Ministers or Church if they would minister as they have received that is propound to all the Kingdome he saith not all the Churches what they are perswaded of in their conscience and leave it without compulsion to the Spirit of God to perswade for this were true liberty where we see to minister as we receive 1 Pet. 4.10 to Saltmarsh is to teach and propound to others and walke themselves and accordingly beleeve as they have received that is according as they are perswaded in their conscience then if the Assembly of Divines were perswaded in their consciences that to one man to have fifteen wives at once as John of Leyden and his beleeved and that the Alcaron were the
not ergo the invisible Church at all times and finally may simply fall from the sound faith of fundamentalls necessary for salvation more then this is a good consequence this particular beleever may in one particular fundamentall point erre fouly and grossely for a time ergo he is not infallibille simpliciter but may finally and totally fall away And that of our Saviours I have prayed for thee that thy faith faile not Luke 22.32 though it free not Beleevers from particular failings both in doctrine of faith and conversation of life and that grossely and fouly yet it secures them by Christs intercession in a state of infallibility in fundamentalls and in a condition of indeclinability in conversion so as beleevers are infallible in point of faith touching fundamentalls necessary to salvation except Familists hold the Apostacie of the Saints or that all may goe to heaven finally doubting Pag. 174.175 Sparkles Saltmars tells what are the tradions of man and for Mark 7.9 he citeth Matth. 9. or heresies Now a heresie saith he is something against the doctrine of faith in the word or Scriptures not against any interpretations doctrins conclusions glosses comments or preaching of men who speak not Scripture originally nor infallibly as the Apostles did but so far as that is the very Scripture they speak so far as they speak the truth in Jesus and in the Spirit of God else they teach for doctrines the traditions of men Answ. Traditions of men are not necessarily errors in fundamentalls except only by a remote consequence as all errors are against the fundamentalls 2. There are heresies that are by good consequence against fundamentalls else the Saduces their denying of the resurrection Mat. 22. was no heresie for Christ proveth by a good consequence that they denyed the Scripture I am the God of Abraham when Abraham was then dead when God spake out of the bush to Moses Exod. 3. yet they denyed but conclusions deduced from Scripture 3. There is another strange ingredient in heresie according to Familists and that is because God speakes not now immediatly his word to us as he did to the Apostles no man is an hereticke that denyeth the whole faith except he that denyes the Scripture as the Scripture and except he deny it in so farre as teachers speake the truth in Jesus and in the Spirit of God else that is if they be not Familiâts that teach and speake not in the Famisticall spirit they teach for doctrines the traditions of men that is heresies for Gods truth then to speake heresie is to speake only against fundamentall truths when a Familist in the Spirit of God speaketh them 2. But then when a hereticke readeth in the word this fundamentall Christ came in the world to save sinners 1 Tim. 1.15 though he deny it and spit at it that is no heresie because the paper and printed booke speaketh not in the Spirit of Jesus 3. The written word of God is not the word of God but only the word is spoken by a Familist in the Spirit of Christ. 4. When Preachers void of the Spirit speake that which is the very word of God and fundamentalls of faith these truths are not the word of God but the traditions of men and heresies so his Master H.N. taught the Scripture preaching to be but figurative service the word of God was never published to the world till H.N. the least among the holy ones of God was made alive through Christ anointed with his godly being manned himselfe with H N. and godded H.N. with himself published the light of glory H. Nicholas Evangelic c. 34. sent 9. Pag. 175. Schisme is a dividing from Christians who are in an outward profession of truth Now there may bee schisme iâ visible Churches or fellowships of Saints upon this account but there can bee none in the true body of Christ or the spirituall Church for they that are joyned to the Lord are one spirit and they are made perfect in one Answ. There is no outward Schisme or renting but it begins at the heart Schisme is a dividing of the hearts as well as a visible parting with the Church or a part thereof else schisme were no sinne which yet Paul reproveth as a sinne 1 Cor. 1. 1 Cor. 3.1 2. The Church of Corinth and these that made a rent were both the visible and the invisible Church that they were the visible Saltm cannot deny they were the invisible Church also 1 Cor. 1.13 Christ was crucified for them and they were babes in Christ fed with milke 1 Cor. 3.1.2 and built upon one only foundation v. 10. Saltmarsh must say they were all unconverted that made the schisme 3. Familists will have none the true body and spirituall Church of Christ but the invisible Church so that upon this account they that beleeve and visibly professe neither Christ nor his truth before men yea who all their dayes deny Christ and so shall be denyed of Christ before the Father and his holy Angells Matth. 10.32 33. may be and are the true body of Christ and the Spirituall Church so H. Nicholas Epistle to the two daughters of Warwicke 4. May not a schisme and seperation fall in these that are both the true body and spirituall Church when of a Church of beleevers effectually called consisting of foure hundred two hundred seperate from two hundred I think they may as well as Barnabas a good man and full of the Holy Ghost seperated from Paul But in so farre as they are saith he in that one Spirit they cannot be divided Ans. True but Saltm speakes lyes in hypocrisie when he saith the spirituall Church are made perfect in one Lord in this life upon the same reason as they are one and as united to the Lord they cannot lye whore steale murther but out of some remnants of corruption they can sinne But Familists put them in a condition they can in this life sinne no more or if they sinne their transgression is not sinne it is not they but their Asse the flesh that sinnes as Libertines said but that is no violation of the Law of God CHAP. XXXIII Saltmarsh Sparkles pag. 22â Familists minde touching Prayer ALL constant speakings to God in this as they call a conceived way or impremeditate or extemporary way is taken commonly amongst Christians for prayer in the Spirit and for that Spirituall way which the Disciples of Christ used in the Gospel who were growne up from the infancy and childishnesse of formes or words taught them which is but a meer natural or outward thing as they say which any may perform by strength of naturall parts as wit and memory and affections Saltmarsh here first condemneth prayer morning and evening under the words of constant speakings to God because he will have no praying but when the Spirit acts immediatly 2. All extemporary prayers goe not for praying in the Spirit among Christians commonly he belyeth Protestants and the truly
anointed of God in this words are but the outward skin of prayer the Spirit must adde soule heat and breath to words Some have a sort of eloquence in praying who have as little of the Spirit of adoption as some that cannot pray without a booke a growing up from booke praying to extempory praying is no growing in the Spirit because if we distinguish as we should between a gift of praying and preaching and the grace of adoption or of praying and preaching in the Holy Ghost many al their daies have a naturall liberty of praying and say Lord Lord without a Booke that are but workers of iniquâty as divers Antinomians and Familists are for the most part and their mere shining gifts and golden words are bought and sold by the simple for grace and the spirit of adoption 3 Nor is extemporary prayer always a mere outward thing because wit memory and affections act therein these powers are not mere blocks and stones in praying and by this argument all that Saltmarsh writes is but a mere naturall and outward thing and not writing in the spirit as he vainly boasteth in his Books because wit memory affections act in the producing of such prayers yea they that are fleshly may write all the new discoveries and sparkles of darknesse and flesh that Saltmarsh writes for the Spirit never taught such dreames or rotten phancies nor such interpretations as he doth offer to us as dictates of the pure spirit CHAP. XXXIV A tast of the wild allegorick interpretations of Scripture that are in this peece of Saltmarsh which he fathers upon the pure immediate actings of the Spirit beyond law and Gospel FRom this Is God the God of the Jews only and not of the Gentiles also Rom. 3. He inferreth that God hath not limited ordination to the Presbytery so as none in a constituted Church should preach but they as if to be a God to his people in Covenant were to make al in Covenant men women sent preachers of the gospel 2 Psa. 50. Thou thoughtest I was such a one as thy selfe Because I punished thee not but was silent at thy Adulteries and Slanders so the true sense is but Saltmarsh saith that is a God merely of one image or figure Therefore God is not in one forme of worship saith he the law the gospell but in another beyond both to wit the spirit What greater violence can be done to the scripture 3 And the Heavens cannot containe him therefore God is not in one forme of worship doctrine or confession He may inferre therefore he hath not sufficiently revealed himselfe to us in his word and works contrary to Psa. 19. Saltmarsh 284. The day of the Lord will be upon all our Cedars and Oaks and pleasant Pictures and Idols of gold and judgement shall be upon all the Merchandise of Babylon the pearlesse and pretious stones the Cynamon and Odors then must God poure shame upon all flesh and fleshly glory upon all the visions and dreames that man hath of God by reason creature-imagerie or outward administration notion by letter or by graces c. Answ. In such a noone-day light of the Gospel can we beleeve that Antichrist should call Gospel-administration by the letter that is the preached Gospell inward graces and faith laying hold on Christs imputed righteousnesse with the name of flesh dreames imagerie idols oaks of Bashan Babiloâs pretious wares Did the Holy Ghost Isa. 2.12 13. c. Rev. 18 12. intend any such thing 4 Touch not mine anoynted ergo give the anoynted liberty of conscience to preach or teach of God what they please An. but that doe my anoynted no harme will warrant that the Prophets should not sâdden the hearts of the anoynted in the way of righteousnesse But it shall never follow ergo Nathan may not rebuke David the anoynted of God for his adultery and murther ergo if an anoynted of God commit murther the Magistrate should not punish him for it nor ought the anoynted to be rebuked or hurt with the tongue though they deny God Christ Scripture Not as Lords over Gods inheritance or having Lordship over your faith ergo liberty of all Religions is lawfull Answ. Saltmarsh shall never prove this consequence To the weake I became as weake then are all outward things in worship indifferent We are to please one another to edification Rom. 15.2 ergo all outward things are indifferent see Sparkles p· 20. Answ. The place Rom. 15. is to please one another in acts of the second Table as not to offend our Brother in meats then may we please him in drunkennesse gluttony whoredome except the words be other wise exponed 2 Thess. 1. Christ shall come to be gloryfied in his Saints that is the Lord Jesus his second comming in spirit and glory in revelation in his Saints Sparkles p. 22. Answ. Then Christs second comming is not in the end of of the World in a bodily manner but so spirituall as it is daily fulfilled and the day of Judgement is even now and in this life as said Henery Nicholas and it hath beene these 1647 yeares Antichrist or the man of sin 2 Thess. 1. is the old man Answ. Saltmarsh will not have the Pope the Antichrist because Popery and all Religions are indifferent The first Tabernacle stood in meats and drinks and diverse washings and carnal ordinances then baptizing with water is Jewish Sparkles 29.30 we are circumcised with him in baptisme ergo there is no baptizing with water Spark 31.32 Answ. The affirming in some respect of the operation of the first cause doth not anull all the actings of the second cause nor bring to nothing all ordinances Job 29.2 The candle of God shineth upon their heads and the secret of the Almighty on their Tabernacle that is the Disciples had the Summer sun shining on them while Christ was among them in the flesh when that ministration came but to its point it became a place for Satyrs and Owls Answ. Job speaketh of his worldly prosperity before his troubles came on him and Psa. c. 13.19.20 of the desolation of Babylon neither of which the Disciples saw Salmarsh citeth the place of Job as if the Holy Ghost intended his monkiâh sense which was never in the heart of God Hee shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire ergo ther 's no water-baptisme 33. Answ. It is no consequence Goe tââch and baptize that is goe Disciple and baptize now Paul and Apollo were nothing and cannot wake Disciples then hee must speake of the ministration of the Holy Ghost or gifts which were to continue for that age only Answ. But the Apostles ministerially as instruments and Servants could make Disciples and baptizeâ outwardly Christ only inwardly and effectually as the principall cause Col. 2. Being circumcised with circumcision made withâuâ hard then as true circumcision is made without hands so is baptisme Answ. But it followeth not circumcision with hands is forbidden Gal.
5.3 4. but bâptizing is commanded Matth. 28.19 20. By this argument Saltmarsh should not preach nor write books nor bow his knee nor pray nor read Scripture because true preaching to the heart is God teaching without a mans tongue and true writing is God writing his Law in the inward parts without inke or paper and true praying in the Spirit is without knee tongue or lifting up eyes or hands c. by such arguments H. Nicholas and Enthusiasts abolish all ordinances Jesus Christ is the Prophet whom we are to heare and they shall be all taught of God ergo no ministery by the letter can destroy the Antichrist p. 49. Ans. It followeth not for when the Antichrist is revealed to men to be the Antichrist he is destroyed otherwise the Antichrist must be converted to the faith by this way Christ is perfected and entered into glory Luke 24. that is all Christs body and Saints are made Ministers and preachers Sparkles p. 51. and a pure Spirit without all ordinances Ans. Saltmarsh with H. Nicholas turne Christ dying and entring into glory over into a Christ spirituall that is God living by grace in the Saints then as many Saints as many Christs crucified and rising againe 1 Cor. 8. We know that an Idoll is nothing nor an Idol Temple then outward formes and orders are only a supplement to the absence of the Spirit of God and to order the outward man amongst men to their fellow-Saints or the world while the Law of the Spirit of life is not in them shining and conforming them in Spirit and love to the image of Christ then preaching and ordinances are but characters of bondage to the unregenerate and while they see darkly and in a glasse and not face to face 1 Cor. 13. Ans. The meaning of that an Idol is nothing is or is vanity as the Prophets say an Idoll is of no force or power to hallow or pollute meats that of themselves are indiâferent yet the things sacrificed to Idolls should not be eaten before the weake and if they be eaten in the Idoll Temple we partake of the devills Temple and that is nothing what ever Familists imagine Then we are to abstaine from Popish Idols and to abââaine from murther and to walke in love according to the rule of the Gospel and Law commanding good forbidding ill only while we are unrenewed men Ordinances are as the horne-booke to children come to the family of love that are old men in Christ and need no Ordinances an Idoll is nothing but an indifferent thing to them all the Scripture is but to order our walking before men and the world not before God nor to lay any obligation of conscience on a Saint or Familist so as hee should sinne in kneeling to or praying before an Idoll or abstaine therefrom The Serpent Gen. 3. was fleshly wisdome the espousalls of the woman the weaknesse of creation p. 57. Ans. Then the story of Adam Paradise serpent trees eating man woman marriage are no reall histories but meere allegories and metaphors and mysticall things which only can be expounded by the spirit of Familists and Antinomians and this is the only spirituall preaching praying and expounding of Scripture that Saltmarsh giveth us Saltmarsh Sparkles p. 64.65 By meeknesse of the Saints only shall the Jelousie and enmity of their enemies be allayed Revel 14. here is the patience of the Saints Ans. There is not in the text one jot of overcomming the enemies with meeknesse here is matter of ground for the patience of the Saints as chap. 13.10 and with as good ground he may say the keeping of the Commandements of God and of the faith of Jesus is that which allayeth the hatred of the world contrary to 1 Joh. 3.12 Joh. 15.19.22 Matth. 5.11.12 for the enemies doe expound Christs meeknesse and silence to be guiltinesse they wonder that Christ answered nothing the world hate and malice the meeknesse of the Saints though an eminent grace as they doe all other shinings of Christ in them and yet by dying they strengthen the faith of others Rev. 12.13 Joh. 3.30 He must increase I must decrease that is my ministration by word and water must be gone and another more spirituall must succeed and as the fire from heaven licked up the foure barrells of water so the baptisme of the Spirit as fire was to licke up this of water 1 King 18.34 to .38 p. 60. A. But. John speaketh not so much of his Ministery which was in the same doctrine and Sacrament to continue to the end as of Johns evanishing in his person and as the day star at the rising of the Sunne for Iohn was to be gone and to dye and his time of actuall service to expire though the doctrine liveth till this day and in his graces the fulnesse whereof was in Christ and that Elijahs sacrifice was a type of the Spirit Baals of John Baptists Ministery is a Monkes dream the Spirit of God never intended such a thing for we are still builded upon the doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ being the chiefe corner stone Eph. 2.20 21 22. and so an habitation of God through the Spirit and so the same doctrine of the Prophets and of the Baptist must continue but this is to deprive us of all the old Testament as the Anabaptists doe Eye for eye and tooth for tooth was the Law Matth. 5.39 And love your neighbour but there is a higher ministration of the Spirit in the Apostles time Love your enemies avenge not Ans. The Spirit never meant that under the old Testament we might revenge our selves and hate our enemies the contrary is evident Deut. 32.35 Prov. 20.22 Prov. 25.21 22. and this was long before Christ came in the flesh this is Socinianisme and Popery if Saltmarsh understand either of the two Blessed are the meeke Christ prophesied of a ministration in the Spirit by meeknesse and patience of the Saints Revel 14.12 and Heb. 4. there remaineth a rest to the people of God Ans. This meeknesse and patient suffering of injuries and heavenly Sabboths was in the old as well as in the New Testament Ps. 37.7.8 v. 11. Ps. 34.2 Heb. 11.33 34 35 36 37 38. I saw no Temple there then in this life the Saints shall be without ordinances and the Kingdome shall be delivered up to the Father he that can receive it let him receive it p. 65.66 This ministration is not only done upon the whole body of Christ at last but is fulfilled in its particular accomplishments and mystery of Spirit here Answ. 1. There is no more ground for such a ministration in this life then there is for no death no crying no sorrow no paine in this life Rev. 21.4 no Sunne nor Moone v. 23. no uncleane thing no sinne v. 27. and no more warrant for delivering up the Kingdome in this life 1 Cor. 15. then for the resurrection of the dead 23.37
and the blowing of the last Trumpet 52. and the swallowing up of death in victory 55 56 57. as if all these should come to passe in this life agreeable to this saith H. N. Evangel ch 35. se 9. In which resurrection of the dead God sheweth unto us that the time is now fulfilled that his dead or the dead which are fallen asleepe in the Lord rise up in this day of his judgement and appeare unto us in godly glory which shall also henceforth live in us everlastingly with Christ and reigne upon the earth wherein the Scripture commeth to be fulfilled in this present day And Saltm willeth these that are as spirituall as himself and his Familists to beleeve this and receive it that is except we make shipwracke of faith and say the resurrection is past in this life as did Hymeneus and Philetus wee are all legall literall men and void of the Spirit 2. Saltmarsh is unwilling to contradict the truth of God 1 Cor. 15.24 too openly to wit that in the end the Kingdome shall be delivered up Now whether this be meant of Christs reigning no more in his Church in this life by Ordidinances or as Chrysostome doth expound the place it be the rendering up to the Father his conquâisâd and purchased people as it is most agreeable to Eph. 5.27 I dispute not now but Saltmarsh saith faintly This is not only done on the whole body of Christ at the last but also here He dares not say this rendering up is not onely at the last day but also in this life yet the Apostle is cleare he thought of no rendering up of the Kingdome in this life as Saltmarsh by this new spirit supposeth for the text is cleare v. 22.23 every man shall rise againe from the dead Christ first and then his members ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Then is the end when he shall deliver up the Kingdome to the Father Then there is no rendring up till the dead in Christ be raised v. 23.24 but the dead in Christ in their bodies of which undoubtedly the Apostle speaketh 1 Cor. 15.1 2 3 4 c. doe not rise in this life 2. This rendering up is not till the end then shall the end be 3. It is when all rule and authority shall be put downe v. 27. This is not in this life 4. It is when the last enemy shall be subdued 26. 5. When God shall be all in all 28. These are not in this life therefore Saltm dreames Saltmarsh Sparkles p. 165. Jer. 38 2. He that goeth forth to the Chaldeans shall live but if yee stay in the City yee shall be consumed this is a figure of abiding no longer under any dispensation Law Christ in the flesh Gospel Spirit then God and his presence appeares upon it Ans. We know not this Spirit that dreames of phansied types and allegories without shadow of reason in the holy Scripture wee have no ground to beleeve that the Holy Ghost intends any thing of this kinde only Saltmarsh his Popish Spirit saith so the Scripture is silent Saltmarsh pag. 145.147 148. he saith Mal. 3. ver 18. Ye shall discorne betweene the righteous and the wicked proveth the Spirit of discerning by which we shall know false teachers Antichrists as in the Apostolicke Church and who feares God truely who not as the sense knows its object Answ. By this Familists deny the spirits and hereticks are to be judged by the word but that man is the Hereticke the Legalist though never so heavenly if he be a Puritan the spirit of Familists discerns him to be a Cain or a Judas 2 The place of Malachie is this ver 14 15. Ye say it is in vaine to serve the Lord and there is no reward for it But serve ye God and ye shall finde in your owne experience a reward and comfortable fruit in differencing betweene him that serveth God and serveth him not for ch 4.1 Christs trying day cometh Saltmarsh also sparkles p. 70 71. abuseth these Scriptures Gal. 41. and 1 Cor. 3.1.2 He applyeth the former to the Disciples of Christ under Johns ministery and Christs in the flesh but these words The Heire so long as he is a child differeth not from a servant though he be Lord of all Touch not the times of John Baptist or of Christ in the dayes of his flesh though in these times the Ceremonies were still in vigor but the Heir under nonage and Tutors Gal. 4. is the Church of the Jews under the bondage of the Law and the Ceremonies thereof and the Rudiments of the World it was not the Holy Ghosts mind to speake of Christ in the flesh as a Mosaicall Lawgiver or that his heavenly Sermons he preached Matth. 5. Matth. 23. John 10. Joh chapters 13 14 15 16. his heavenly Prayer John 16. hâs death and sufferings and resurrection was a dispensation to be layd aside as the tutory of the law and beggerly Ceremonies Sabbath and shadows he speaketh of Gal. 4. for then the Apostles in vaine call us to mind of the words and commandements of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ as hee commanded them to doe Matth. 28.19 20 21. 1 John 1.1 2 3 4. 2 Pet. 1.15 16 17 18 19. and though Christ promised at his ascending to send the Spirit this was not to abolished the doctrine of John and that which Christ had taught them in the dayes of his flesh for of that Spirit he promiseth to send he saith Joh. 14.16 Yee know that Spirit for he dwelleth in you for the present and shall be in you in a larger measure when I shall send him Act. 2. But Familists and Antinomians must have no ministration of the Spirit till Christ ascended to heaven And for the other place Paul 1 Cor. 3.1.2 calleth the Corinthians carnall and could not write to them as spirituall not because they were under the doctrine of Iohn Baptist and Christ as Saltmarsh dreameth for that doctrine taught no carnall divisions but he calleth them carnall on this ground v. 3.4 Whereas there is among you envying strife and divisions are ye not carnall and walke as men For while one saith I am of Paul another I am of Apollo are ye not carnall if the Apostle call the Corinthians carnall as Saltmarsh saith because they were under the doctrine of John Baptist and Christ in the flesh of which there is not a syllable in that text or in all the Scripture then must Christ and John Baptist have taught their hearers striving envying schismes and one to say I am of Paul and another I am of Apollo which is blasphemous Now it is against sense and reason that ever God ordained any ministration so carnall as that these under it were carnall because of their striving and envying Saltmarsh tells us as I observe every man should stay under the ministration he is in till the Spirit say come up hither then Paul calleth the Corinthians to abide in this carnality of
envying striving and schisme till the Lord say come up hither whereas he sharply rebuketh them for their envying and schismes Now if for envying and schisme the Corinthians bee carnall as no doubt they were carnall in so far and if therefore under the ministration of Christ in the flesh and not under all Spirit upon some other considerations they must have been spirituall and so under the all-all-Spirit or pure glorious spirit of M. Saltmarsh for as they are called carnall so also spirituall 1 Cor. 1.10 11 12 13 14. washen justified sanctified in the name of our Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God temples of the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 6.11.15.19 changed into the same spirit from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 espoused to one husband Christ 2 Cor. 11.2 let Saltmar answer if none of these were converts that are called carnall for their envying 2. whether one part of this Church were under Johns and Christs Ministery some under all-all-spirit 1 Cor. 1. Christ sent me not to baptise but to preach Then hee baptised according to his spirituall liberty to the Jew he was a Jew p. 82. Ans. Hee sent not Paul to baptise rather then to preach for Paul baptised 1 Cor. 14.16 then he did it as sent but it is a tricke of Familists to comply with all Religions and deny the true Religion where there is hazard as H. Nicholas said Epist. to the two daughters of Warwick and call that compliance the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free 2. Then baptizing with water was a part of Pauls Ministery which Saltmarsh denyes The spirits of just men made perfect or the true Christian in spirit are these true spirituall Elders in the New Testament Ans. The spirits made perfect are the glorified in heaven associated with the Angels Heb. 12.22 But Saltmarsh will have life eternall confined within this life only to the Elders of the New Testament that is as I conceive Elders of the family of love The true triall of the gifts is when the spirits of Prophets are subject to the Prophets that is when the gift by which any one speakes of Jesus Christ is manifested in the hearts or spirits of the Saints when they see the truths they minister as they are in Jesus and in themselves and in them that are spirituall and truly anointed by the same Spirit 91 92. Ans. Such a subjection to the Prophets hath no warrant in the Text for it supposeth none to be Prophets but those that are inwardly anointed and manifest their spirit of Prophesie to the anointed only as if the anointed may not take him for an anointed Prophet who is only gifted and void of saving grace So H. Nich. Exhor 1. c. 16. No man can rightly according to the truth of the holy Scripture or according to the spirituall understanding of the godly wisdome deale in or use the true Gods service nor should take in hand to busie himselfe therein but only the illuminated Elders in the godly wisdome which walke in the house of love c. ãâ¦ã nothing in this triall of his aptnesse to teach ãâ¦ã in the Scriptures ãâã p 272 They did all drinke the same spirituall drinke that is the Ordinances of the Old Testament were as much spirituall as these of the New and signified Christ in the flesh But he concludes be not yee Idolaters that is idolize not outward formes the rocke baptisme 271. these both of Old and New Testament are alike outward letter visible and perish with the using Ans. The Ordinances of the Old Testament are called carnall in opposition to endlesse life Heb. 7.16 and because weake and they could not though bloody take away sins Heb. 7.18 19. Heb. 10.1 2. for the new Covenant promises in Christ the true better eternall Mediator doe all these then it is against Scripture that the Ordinances of both were alike carnall though without the Spirit neither availed 2. The Idolatry of outward Ordinances is condemned as trusting in lying words The temple of the Lord sacrifices new Moones c. Jer. 7.8.9 Esa. 1. But it was never in the minde of the Holy Ghost that Israel worshipped Manna water Passeover or that the Corinthians did adore preaching baptising for their Idolatry 1 Cor. 10.7 is the worshiping not of the Passeover Manna water but of the golden calfe Exo. 32.6 when they feasted and played Saltm then deviseth an Idolatry the Holy Ghost never intended So here 1 Cor. 10. hee disswades from Idoll feasts in Idoll temples 18 19 20. And never did Paul intend 1 Cor. 10. to charge the Corinthians with that sinne of idolizing or worshiping baptisme written Scripture figures letters or outward Ordinances but of sitting at the Idolls table which was to be partakers of the table cup of devils and the Holy Ghost would in the Old Testament have told us of some such adoring of Manna water Passeover but Salm. his new Spirit devised it to reproach all Ordinances Scripture Sacraments Prayer Church c. Lord teach us to pray as John taught his Disciples Then they were under a forme and rule of prayer they saw little more of Christ then his fleshly presence and miracles they loved him and clave to him but had very few discoveries of him in the Spirit except some few at his transfiguration Answ. No Prelate nor Priest nor any I know say Christs Disciples during their conversing with him in the flesh were under a forme and stinted liturgy so that they prayed only the Lords prayer 2 It is cleare the revelation of Christ in the Spirit wee now have the Disciples had the same for Christ Mat. 16 17. Declareth Peter to be blessed because that the Father that is the Spirit of the Father had revealed that to him which flesh and blood had not revealed and Mat. 11. Christ thanketh his Father 25. for revealing to Babes his Disciples and others the Mysteries of the Kingdome and to none other though Worldly wise and great Mat. 13.11 12 13. The Mysteries of the Kingdome are revealed to them not to others who are judicially blinded and Iohn 1.11 12. Iohn saith they have the priviledge of Sonnes and so the spirit of adoption Rom. 8.14 and so have the seale and witnesse within them 15 16 17 26 27 28. who beleeve in him which faith undoutedly the Disciples had And for the discovery of God at the transfiguration it was rather an extraordinary rapture not bestowed on men in this life as beleevers as Familists would live upon raptures of spirit without the word but an extraordinary revelation bestowed of speciall favour on three Disciples Peter Iames and Iohn who were to be Apostles and Pen-men of Scripture as the Prophets were 2 Pet. 1.16 17 18 19 20 21. If Familists be all Organs and Pen-men of scripture immediatly inspired by the Holy Ghost we say no more they are seene to others as well as to us to be Impostors
and not infallible Prophets and Apostles 2 Thess. 2. pag 110 111. The Antichrist is not the Pope but a ministery in the letter and 107. Hush Luther Wiccliffe Calvine Martyr and Bede had but faint and small discoveries of the spirit and letter and pag. 111. pag. 24 25. He that did with hold and hinder the revealing and the dominion of the man of sin was the spirit He that sits in the seat of God is men in Synods judging the spirit himselfe and God in the Saints p. 147 148. H. Nicholas Evang. 31. Sect. 1 2. saith the Pope is the cheife anoynted Answ. Except H. Nicholas and Saltmarsh no Protestant Divine exponed the man of sin to be any other then the Pope and the Hinderer that he should be revealed the Emperor and only Saltmarsh and the Anabaptists of Munster put a note of shame Antichristianisme on Luther Calvin as literall reformers no question because Martyr refutes Anabaptists Calvin the Libertines and Anabaptists Bullinger the Anabaptists and Enthusiasts Luther the Antinomians Mr. Saltmarsh sets himself above them in the all-spirit and highest discovery of glory I am with you to the end of the world that is to the end of that ministration till the Apostles dyed and no longer A. of this before The Iews sparkles of glory p. 151 152. were not onely a type of the true Christian Church but of the Christians in the lowest dispensation and in their armed tribes and Generals as Moses and Joshua were a figure of Christians under pupillage and bondage to nature and so they were led out against the nations who were a figure of worldly tyranny and oppression to recover their land of rest or such worldly priviledges as they had in promise donation from God under the Gospel the Lord suffered the same figure in Peter who walked about with Christ in his fleshly appearance with his sword girt about him till Christ had him put up his sword in his sheath because he was goeing out of that dispensation of flesh into more glory into the same glory he had with God before the world was Answ. Who ever mocked the word of God as these men do Yet these froathy allegories must be discoveries of all-spirit above Calvins and Luthers light 1 Such types or dreames have nothing so much as in a shadow of ground in the word 2 Christians under bondage to nature is a new phancy while men are in mere nature they have nothing of Christ or Christianity nor feelâ any Law bondage yea nor know it 3 If Peters Sword was a figure of ministration of the flesh to be layed aside wheÌ Christ now ascended to glory how dare Christian Magistrates then bear the sword for after the ascention of Christ they are entered into glory with the Father and such glory as Christ had before the World was golden imaginations What mocking of the word of God is this Because Christ prayed John 17. Father gloryfie me with the glory that I had with thee before the world was therefore Christ mysticall and the Saints his body were then to enter into the glory that Christ had with the Father before the world was that is eternall glory when Peter was at Christs command to lay aside his sword 1 What warrant to make Peters Sword a figure of Christs fleshly dispensation and his laying downe of his Sword a type that Christ and his Saints ought after this to fight no more but to enter into a glorious dispensation into which all the Saints were to enter even the same glory that Christ had with the Father before the world was 2. Whether ought the Saints to dye eat drinke marry after Christ hath commanded Peter to lay aside his sword should they not enter into the same life of glory farre above and beyond all these infirmities and bee as Christ was dwelling in the glory he had with the Father from eternity Then should not Familists warre any more but disband and breake their speares into plowshears 3. Who made them capable of the glory Christ had before the world was 4. What Spirit fancied this interpretation Father glorifie me c. that is Father carry my Saints out of a dispensation of blood wars to a life of pure and all-Spirit and glory even in this life Saltmarsh despiseth interpretations by consequences and whence had he these more then monstrous consequences 161. p. In that a Christian is bone of Christs bone he is more then a conquerour Ro. 8. quencheth the violence of fire Heb. 11. Ans. Our having the same flesh and nature that Christ had makes us not victors but our faith is that which overcomes the world 1 Joh. 5.4 None can see mee and live pag. 282. so as they that see God doe not live or that thing called themselves doe not live that which is called a mans selfe is his owne reason his wisdome his righteousnesse his desires or will his lusts c. Now if these live God was never yet seene Ans. This place Exod. 33.20 is foolishly wrested by Saltmarsh for God speaketh not in that place of the seeing of God by faith in the light of his Spirit as if these naturall faculties were annihilated and pulled out in regeneration and God did actually see know beleeve love in us and our soules were turned over unto dead passive organs nor doth God speake there to Moses of regeneration but he represseth the spirituall and too much curiosity of Moses who desired to see God face to face and more then the Lord was pleased to reveale in this life to him or to any in the state of mortality Moses desired to see more then the Lords backe parts v. 18. Moses said I beseech thee shew me thy glory God answers so much as is good and profitable for him hee should see but his glory as in the life to come he could not see in this life Saltmarsh 307.308 exponeth the place Zach. 13. more spiritually By the false Prophet is ment the Spirit of Antichrist by the father and mother that begat him they who made him a Prophet or cryed him up and their thrusting of him through for lyes is the spirituall smiting of the Antichristian working with the sword of the Spirit through some new enlightnings from God Ans. Such lying wresting of Scripture from the literall and native sense of the Spirit is the way with Origen to turn all Scripture into allegories and types for read the words and they are a Propheticall threatning of death to the false teacher by his nearest bloud-friends alluding to Deut. 13. where father and mother were to cast stones at those dearest to them if they should prophesie lyes and this is to be fulfilled under the Messia's opened fountaine of his blood v. 1 2 3. I will cause the Prophet to cease his father shall threaten him Thou shalt not live he shall be ashamed and shall not dare to professe himselfe a false Prophet but a herdman and
hee shall have visible wounds these are the wounds I received in the house of my friends 2. What sense is there here these that begat him that is his cryers up that extolled his learning shall say thou shalt not live that is thou shalt be a Prophet no more in request and they shall thrust him through by strength of reason and confound him What is it to mocke the word if this be to expone it his cryers up are his Disciples and seduced followers shall they refute him and they only not the Pastors and teachers 3. This thrusting through of the false Prophet shall cause the false Prophet dissemble and deny his Religion for feare of his life and say I am a herdman not a Prophet This is the great argument that Libertines have against the coercive power of the Magistrates sword against false teachers and here it followes upon the strong convincing arguments used against them by Libertines as the sole and only way of extirpating heresie and are false Prophets so afraid of arguments that convince them that they deny their Religion for feare of them this is prodigious false teachers boast that they cannot bee answered 4. These false teachers shew the visible wounds they received in the house of their friends and complaine of the zeale of their friends against them in delivering them up to the Magiâârate to suffer bodily punishment v. 6. lesse then death pro merito culpae if they be silenced by strength of truth they shall be ashamed of no such thing CHAP. XXXV Of communion with God and serving him in the Spirit THere is much talking by Enthusiasts and Familists of the Spirit teaching in the Spirit I shall therefore speake to to that And 1. Of the Propheticall Spirit 2. Of the Spirituall life and serving of God common to all Saints Hence these Conclusions of the former 1. Conclu All the Saints as Saints are not Prophets but some only called by God thereunto 1 Cor. 12.29 Are all Prophets Eph. 4.11 Christ gave some to be Prophets Obey them that are over you in the Lord. 1 Thess. 5.12 13. 2. The Spirit of prophesie is master of the man in whom he is Rev. 1.10 I was in the Spirit in the Lords day Hee saith not the Spirit was in me but I was in the Spirit as in a capacious house Glory went round about me above mee below me on every side of me I was as a vessell casten into the sea there is more of the sea without it then within it So these that are in a trance are said to fall Numb 24.4 from themselves Hence that question whether these that Prophesie doe know perfectly what they prophesie To which I answer there is a twofold knowledge one naturall and conjoyned with organicall knowledge another intellectuall and abstract 2. There is an evident intellectuall knowledge and a more imperfect and darker knowledge Then if we speake of an organicall knowledge the man under actuall vision knowes not whether he be in the body or âut of it as Paul 2 Cor. 12.2 yea and Peter in a trance not only could not see heare or eat Act. 10.10 but was wholly acted upon by God but Act. 12. an Angel comes to him and loseth his chaines and causeth him gird himselfe and binde on his sandals and he thought it had been a vision and knew not that it was any thing but an intellectuall visionall representation not a reall deliverance till he came to himselfe v. 11. yet something of a trance there was for hee was not at himselfe then we may see and act bodily with Angels and walke and not know the necessity of what wee know see or doe 2. If we speake of a weaker Propheticall sight since the light of Prophesie can let us see in the opened speces things to come and we may know that we know them that they are revealed but when the Prophets preach of new what they have seen in a vision and prophesie to Kings and to men they are in far other condition then when under an actual vision because under an actual vision I conceive they are not under the dominion of free-will Jeremiah cannot chuse but see a seething pot toward the North because the object naturally offers it self to the fancy God never threatneth a Prophet under pain of punishment to see visions for he cannot here wink and close the eyes of his mind Balaam could not chuse but see the visions of God and the goodlinesse of Jacobs tents Num. 24. and if the Spirit thus should act the Saints to pray praise hear with faith I thinke their acts should not bee acts of free obedience nor capable of a precept nor the omission of these acts lye faire for a threatning rebuke or punishment But when the Prophets deliver these truths that they did see in raptures and visions they doe not ever speake these truths to men and preach them by a Propheticall rapture but by the Spirit of grace sometimes or by a common Propheticall gift as in wicked Prophets not that Prophets doe actually publish their visions and Prophesie not as Prophets but as godly men I have not that meaning but that an immediately inspiring impulsion of an actuall extasie doth not ever lead them to preach So God never doth command and threaten men to see the visions of God for here there is no place for free election but God chargeth and commandeth Jeremiah to preach the truth which he saw in a vision Jer. 1.17 Thou therefore gird up thy loynes arise and speake unto them all that I command thee and he threatneth him in case of disobedience Be not dismayed at their faces lest I confound thee before them and he comforteth him in the following words 18. Behold I have made thee this day a defenced City and an iron wall So the Lord speaketh to Jeremiah also c. 15.19 20. then we need not say necessarily that Jeremiah did actually prophesie or see the visions of God when he saith ch 26.15 of a truth the Lord hath sent me to you at least there is no warrant to say that when the Prophets doe speake and publish their visions to these to whom God hath sent them to Prophesie that they are in the act of publishing and preaching to men under the same actuall and immediate impulsion of the Holy Ghost that they are under while they are in a trance and actually see the visions of God as Jeremiah was c. 1.11.12 when hee seeth these visions Ieremiah only obeyeth Gods command and relateth his visions that he had seene before and did this by the Spirit of grace common to other beleevers by which he was inclined to bee faithfull in speaking what he had heard and seene and the like I say of Micajah in preaching to Ahab and of all the true Prophets who did not ever from a Propheticall instinct utter or preach to men the things they had seene in extaticall visions but often from a
immortall seed of the word 1 Pet. 1.23 after this new birth there remaineth something of the word some other thing passeth away that which remaineth is the thing signified in the word or produced by the word which is Christ formed in the heart by faith or the new creature But the characters and letters we read the sound of preaching wee heare remain not but are transient and passing away things they are not limbs nor members of a new creation the speces or images of the word may remaine in the memory but in the new creature there is nothing transient or corruptible such as figures letters signes and sounds as when a grain of wheat is casten into the earth the husk passeth away and rotteth but the substance of the graine remaineth and is turned into thee stalke blade and eare of growing wheat and though these expressions and similitudes come short of the thing it selfe Chriât is pleased thus to convey himselfe through words and sounds as a chariot of his owne appointing which we must not neglect except we would dispise God and so Christ lodgeth himselfe in the heart passing through the outer gates and senses eyes taste and feeling in the Sacraments and the eares in the word preached But what ever here I speake of the Spirits actings not seperated from the word let me not be mistaken as if I did thinke that every acting of the Holy Ghost should goe along in an exact Mathematicall length and breadth with the letter and sound of the word as if the word were the bellowes the Spirit the hand that stirreth the bellows for though all utterings and stirrings of the soule that flow from the Spirit be warranted by the word yet I am assured some are and have beene even in our time so changed from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord that their faces have shined like the face of an Angel they have been at singing and a desire to shout for joy yea to leap and dance and have been so filled with the fulnesse oâ God that they could not speak and have been like vessells filled with new wine that wanted vent that one said Lord hold thy hand thy servant is an old vessel and can hold no more of thy new wine and another cryed Full full pained with a fulnesse of God with marrow and faânesse Heb. 3. which I am sure is the joy unspeakable and glorious spoken of 1 Pet. 1.8 and the begunne fulnesse of God Eph. 3.19 and a bodily soule-sicknesse for Christ a fit of the swoone that Iohn fell into Rev. 1.17 And when I saw him I fell at his feet as dead It is true that was a Propheticall extasie in Iohn like that of Daniel c. 10.7 8 9.15 in which the operations of the bodily senses or organicall actions were suspended so as the Prophets in these cases could not eat nor drinke so by proportion here I know some stricken with palenesse trembling and deprived of the use of the body for a time which I judge to be a trembling at the word one a dying said I feel a strong ranke smell of perfume and the sweetnesse I feele but cannot speake Another said I injoy I injoy Another I see heaven open and the high throne prepared Another could doe nothing but smile and looke like heaven All these to me are the over-banke and high tydes of the Spirit by way of redundancie acting on the body because of its neare union with the soule and I know warranted by the word produce no new doctrine but how the word and Spirit in these actings are united and move together I confesse I am ignorant 2. We professe we hate with our soules that Christians should adore and fall downe before an inke-Divinity and meere paper-godlinesse as if the Spirit were frozen into inke and dead figures writings letters or as if naked languages of Hebrew Greeke and Latine could save us The Kingdome of God is not in letters nor in externalls but in life and power The glasse of the Physitian workes not the cure but the oyle in it The Doctors written directions in the sicke-mans pocket helpes him not a whit no man shall lay the only outside of ordinances lower in the dust then we All the obliging power is from the letter of the word all the strengthning physicall power by which we are inabled to act is from the Spirit that worketh with the word and if we speake properly a beleever is not under an obliging and morall commanding power because the Spirit acts them in prayer or beleeving for the naked Spirit as the Spirit is not a morall rule to me to act by nay it is not to me the Spirit of God now when the Canon of Scripture is closed but as the Law and the Testimony goes along with it for by the Law and testimony I know now that it is no deluding Spirit but the Spirit of God but all the commanding and morally obliging power is from the word as it noteth the sign and the will of God signified for I must obey because God intimates his will to me in the word and I am strengthned to obey from the acting of the Spirit of the Lord. But Saltmarsh Sparkles of glory pag. 245. refuteth this in the Protestants generally Outward Ordinances are commands of Christ and therefore to be done because they are commanded and that they are sanctified by God and by his Spirit and that we are to wait on God in the use of means his reason which Swinkfield used also is that spirituall things are not by Ordinances conveyed into the soules of men Now Antinomians deny outward Ordinances to be commands of Christ that oblige to obedience for p. 243. the meere Commandements or letter of Scripture is not a Law to a Christian why he should walke in duties but the Law written in our hearts he saith and he citeth Rom. 6 14. Rom 7.1 2 3 4. because sin hath no dominion over us and we are not under the Law but under grace and under a new husband Christ being dead to the Law Ans. The outward Commandement sure is neither sinne nor the dominion of sinne nor is the Law sinne God forbid the Law is holy just and good Rom. 7.12 and the unconverted stand under an obligation to outward Commandements though they want the Spirit or then the unconverted cannot sin more then the justified because these that faile against no commandement sinne not and Christ hath laid upon justified David Peter and all beleevers outward Commandements that we sinne not 1. Joh. 2.1 v. 26. that we keep our selves from Idolls though the Spirit act us not to abstaine from sinne otherwise no man can sinne whether unconverted or justified 2. Christ bad his Apostles write and yet hath not inclosed his Spirit in inke and paper then the written Command must be an Ordinance sanctified of Christ for blessed is he that readeth But whereas Saltmarsh will have the Commandements of the Gospel
teaching man Sparkles of glory pa. 247.87 Yea John should in writing this epistle contradict himselfe for he was a man not God who wrote and hee saith even to these who had the anoynting in them in the same place ver 26. These things have I written to you concerning them that seduce you 1 John 2.1 these things write I unto you that ye sin not and ver 12 13 14. He professeth he writeth to little children in Christ to young-men to fathers then either John wrote what was not needfull to wit that a man should write to anoynted ones or then John was more than a man or then in writing that he might teach the anoynted he contravened what he wrot in all his exhortationes and teaching in these three epistles and the Evangel and the Revelation Againe it is a cleare Hebraisme of which there be many in Johns writings for the Hebrews deny positively when they intend to deny only comparatively or secundum quid as when God and men are compared together or the action of God with men Ps. 127.2 the sense is so great shall be the abundance of the Spirit of grace would Jeremiah say under the New Testament that rather God himselfe shall be the teacher then one man shall teach another there shall be such exuberancie and seas of knowledge under the Messiahs Kingdome and the new Covenant above the Covenant God made with his people when he brought them out of Egypt And yee need not would John say so much that men teach you so full so rich so glorious is the Anointings teaching it is like to this Hos. 6.6 I desired mercy and not sacrifice yet sure he desired and commanded sacrifice so he exponeth it I desired the knowledge of God more then burnt offering and Christ exponeth it so Matth. 12.7 that mercy to the life of the hungering Disciples who plucked eares of corne on the Sabbath is more then externall observing of the Sabbath yet doth not Christ deny positively the externall observing of the Sabbath So 1 Sam. 8 7. They have not rejected thee but they have rejected me Certaine it was they rejected Samuel and would not have him to judge them but would have a King But the words are to bee exponed in a comparative sense though they be spoken positively that is rather or with a more hainous measure of disgracement and reproach they have rejected me their Lord and God in Covenant that I should not reigne over them then my servant Samuel 1 Cor. 15.9 10. Not I but the grace of God with me that is not I so much who am but a weake man but far rather the grace of God was the cause why I outstripped all the Apostles in labour And 1 Cor. 3.7 So then neither is he that planteth any thing neither he that watereth but God that giveth the increase that is he that planteth or he that watereth is nothing in comparison of God yet the planter is something he is the Minister of Christ and Steward of the mysteries of God 1 Cor. 4.1 Paul saith 1 Cor. 1.17 Christ sent me not to baptise but to preach the Gospel yet Mat. 28.19 he sent all the Apostles to baptise also Nor can we beleeve that the word of God hath two senses one internall spirituall more excellent and perfect that doth affect the heart and is divers from the literall and genuine sense and another written sense of the letter that is lesse excellent and but preparatory for the more excellent as Arminians falsely impute to us Sim. Episco par 1. Thess. 17. dispu 2. But as it is the opinion of Enthusiasts falsely imputed to us because we teach that there is a neceâsity of the supernaturall illumination of the Holy Ghost to cause us savingly know and beleeve the one onely true and literall sense of the Scripture with an evidence of light spirituall and supernaturall which we knew before with a common naturall and literall light and evidence which is not wanting in Devills otherwise they could not beleeve and tremble apprehending Christ as their tormenter and in many wicked men or then they should not be inexcusable 2. The Scripture could not say they know God Joh. 7.28 Joh. 3.2 c. 3. Nor could they mocke and scoffe at the wisdome of the crosse if they were void of all knowledge of the doctrine of the crosse as they doe 1 Cor. 1.18.23 24. 1 Cor. 2.14 this opinion we lay at the doore of the Antinomians and judge to be absurd For 1. The unregenerate man were obliged to beleeve and apprehend one sense of the word and the inlightned another different sense whereas both may literally know one and the same sense that Jesus is the Sonne of God and Saviour of the world and the one beleeves and the other scoffes mockes and stumbles at the word Matth. 11.25 1 Cor. 1.18.25 1 Tim. 1.15 1 Pet. 2.6.7.8 2. Then should these words Christ is God and man the Saviour of belâeâers have one sense to beleevers which they receiving by faith saveth them and another to others that Christ is not man but onely God as manifested in a Saint is Christ the Saviour of Saints but not the man that on Mount Calvery dyed and bare the reall punishment due to us by divine juâtice for our sinnes for the spirituall sense is either all one with the literall sense or diverse therefrom if all one we have our intent if diverse no man can have certainty of faith For 1. How can we be assured by any supposed Spirit or internall rapture of minde that this is the true sense of the Gospell That Christ is but God or the anointing of God suffering afflicted and dying in the Saints when the words in the letter doe beare the just contradicent that he was a man like us in all things except sin 2. The Scripture should be no light to our eyes no lanthorne to our feet if it have two senses for how should we with assurance of faith and an undoubting conscience in all wee beleeve in all we practise doe all for how shall poore people be resolved which of the two senses to follow since contradictory senses were offered to them for Protestants literall sense and Familists spirituall sense are as contradicent one to another as yea and no light and darknesse 3. Since Familists deny that they are infallible in exponing any Scripture and yet the Spirit doth suggest these spirituall senses that Antinomians and Familists boast off and ââat immediately acting on our soules as dead paâsive orgâns without discoursing reasoning and arguing which to âe is the very Propheticall immediately inspiring Spirit that carried the Prophets and Apostles in seeing the visions of God this must be a Spirit that is fallible and a Spirit that immediately suggesteth and teacheth untruths to some and âo others such truths and senses as may admit of a further light and of a retractation and a beleeving of the very contrary and so a Spirit both
fallible and infallible like to the Spirit immediately inspiring the Prophets We take literall exposition sometimes as it is exposed to figurative and typicall and in this sense we condemne such as presse all borrowed metaphoricall and allegoricall speeches in Scripture according to the letter whereas these by analogie of faith must have a spirituall sense and yet the grammaticall and the spirituall sense are opposed as Ps. 72.16 There shall be an handfull of corne in the earth upon the top of the mountaines the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon Jer. 31.12 Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion and shall flow together to the goodnesse of the Lord for wheat and for wine and for oyle and for the young of the flocke and the herd These words and the like Calvin and our worthy Reformers Musculus and Luther of whom Saltmarsh saith they had but little discoveries of the Spirit because Calvin wrote against his fathers the Libertines Luther against Antinomians Bullinger against the Anabaptists and the Enthusiasts in regard of himselfe and the Family of love as Barrow railetâ more against Calvin then any Jesuit can doe These words I say our worthy Reformers expone of the spirituall glory and fruits of the Spirit under the Kingdome of the Messiah because the the Scripture cannot beare another interpretation which saith Rom. 14.17 The Kingdome of God is not meat and drink c. So we detest their grosse and literall exposition who expone Christ as meaning that we must dismember our body when he compared the renouncing of our vilde affections to the plucking out of our eyes and cutting off our hands and feet because this literall and grosse exponing of Scripture is contrary to the sixt command Thou shall not murther and wee say here that figurative speeches have no literall sense but that which they would have if they were turned into modified and simple expressions though none more then Enthusiasts and Familists reject all literall expositions and so cast away Scripture Ministery reading hearing because the Scripture depresseth all these and calleth them nothing in comparison of the operations of the Spirit that are above nature But that the literall and spirituall sense are one and the same and the Letter and Spirit subordinate not contrary we affirme for Scripture hath not two senses but the grammaticall and native sense that the words offer without violence or straining of Scripture is the true meaning of Scripture indeed there be two evidences and lights that manifest one and the same sense as the naturall man seeth the true sense of the same Scripture with the naturall literall and star light of meere naturall reason and the evidence of a naturall literall orthodox Spirit and the renewed man seeth the same sense with the supernaturall spirituall and Sunne-light and spirituall evidence of a Spirit of grace above nature Hence how farre the spirit and spirituall actings of the Holy Ghost are opposed to externall literall and naturall actings and the letter of the word and externall ordinances to what is said I adde thâse considerations 1 To preach the like I say of praying hearing and the using of all ordinances in their kinde with the wisdome of words 1 Cor. 1.17 with excellency of speech with the loftines high riding and soaring of words or humane eloquence and wisdom a predominant starre shining in al faâse teachers especially in Enthusiasts Familists and the like who give out that they speake coales and fire-flaughts when it is but wildfire 2 Pet. 2.3 Rom. 16.18 much in request now to preach I say so loftily is contrary to preaching in the evidence or demonstration of the spirit so Saltmarshs Sparkles of glory Gortynes dreames H. Nicholas his writings are farre from any spirituall or heavenly forcing and convincing power they have great swelling words like globes or balls of capacious swelling bagges or blathers of wind but every word is not a pound weight but a wandering cloud a fleeting aire such as the spirit pure spirit discoveries of the spirit hightenings of pure free grace all God all Christed fully and purely spiritualized Saints that live not on any of these creatures below no not on ordinances are ordinary to them But then 1. They speake none-sense that others more heavenly then themselves not understanding them may go for carnall legal literall men as not having the spirit and so not able to understand or judg of the things of the spirit wheras they are the only spirituall men that judg all things in the mean time they know not what they say speak contrary to the Scripture to sense 2. They have a sort of high lofây speaking but far from the Scripture-stile that as it is high yet runneth with Christs feet and pace in the simplicity of Jesus Christ now their eloquence is a combing decking and busking of Christ and the beauty and glory of the Gospel which is as if you would cloth the noon-day-sun with a gowne of cloath of gold set with rubies and precious stones or as if one would make a purple coate of fine pure silk to a faire Rose or Lilly the Sun and the Lilly are twise more beautyfull without these then with them 2 To speake in the spirit is to speake with power life majesty in a peircing way in the power of God 1 Cor 2.5 and this is not a naturall power Again to speake or preach in the letter is to speake drily coldly deadly or if it be with sense and affection it is naturall like Cicero Demosthenes but without the majesty and some what of heaven and Christ in the tongue like a very Scrib and Pharisee in the chaire not as Christ who spake with Authority for when pursevants were sent to take him with bodily violence he tooke them with heavenly power they could not lay hands on him but returned with their apoligie never man spake as this man suppose the same sermon and thâse very words in matter and sense had come out of the mouth of a Pharisee they had lost the Majesty in his tongue I confesse every hearer cannot know this and a spirituall Preacher can no more cause a naturall eare heare this then yee can write sounds or your eyes can discerne the sweetnesse of honey where the tasâe is only judge and a basâârd Spirit may goe on far to counterfeit the true Spirit but in the manner of speaking he comes short but so nigh he can come as if it were possible he would deceive the very elect Matth. 24.24 and keepes many elect and many precious Christians in England this day captives under the power of abominable heresies but God shall I hope rescue them and seek out his sheepe that are scattered in the darke and cloudy day 3. That which excludes humane industry and much of the actings and ratiocinations of man in the first moulding of heavenly truths is most spirituall So the Prophets were inspired ãâã ãâã
condemning rigor in the old heart for the Gospell is but a form to them and these Gospel-promises of pure free grace as opposite to the Law of works in their gramaticall sense are but carnall legall fleshly outward visible formes 271. now to us the promises of free grace in that which they signifie and promise are no killing letter as the Law is but the ministration of the Spirit and of life except wee say the promises of the Gospell are but faire lying words and that God intends to keep nothing he promises to us and no more to give a new heart in Gospel-promises nor in the Law which undoubtedly is false when we consider the word of God especially the Gospel the spirituality thereof above and beyond all letters and characters appeareth in that 1. The Author can be none other but God an infinite and glorious Spirit 2. The matter spirituall so heavenly as the imputed righteousnesse of a slaine Saviour justifying the ungodly eternall life by a despised and crucified man bosomed in an union with God a spirituall communion with God mortification to every thing eminent to the creature the hidden manna the white stone the new name the flesh lying down in the dust with the seed of the hope of a glorious resurrection the invisible imbracements of Christ love-sicknesse for him joy in tribulation c. all smell beyond characters paper inke or any thing visible 3. The forme is spirituall if we consider the Majesty Divinity the omnipotencie of God as it were instamped on it 4. The end and intrinsecall effects are most spirituall for it changeth men into spirituall and heavenly Citizens of another world deadneth them to the created glory of the creature peirceth between the marrow and bones even the Law part of it is sharper then a two-edged sword peircing even to the dividing asunder of the soule and spirit and to the joynts and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart Heb. 4.12 carrieth along Christ to the soule casteth in a lumpe of love in the heart that contrary to nature and all the strong impressions of nature it stampeth and sealeth eternity heaven apprehensions of glory beyond all the visible sensible borders of time dayes life royalty fathers mothers children wives lands inheritances and that on the tables of the soule It is in upon the Spirit downe in the reines and yee know neither doore window nor passage it came in at then how doth the Spirit act with the word so all the actings motions turnings ebbings flowings various ups downes high tydes hell-downe-castings heaven-visits raptures of love signes of joy actings of morning-dawnings of eternities glory are more hardly discerned then the growing of the bones in the wombe of the woman with childe 14. For the exercise of spirituall acts through the Spirit we then testifie a spirituall being in Christ when the straine of our conversation runneth most in a heavenly communion with God and we have our City-dwelling and conversing in heaven our love our heart our life our Lord being there and upon these grounds as risen with Christ wee are there Phil. 3.20 21. Col. 3.1 2 3. Matth. 6.20 21. Heb. 10.19 20 21. 2. When we savour much of the Spirit and the breath that comes out of the mouth comes from the abundance of the Spirit in the heart the speech is much the language of Canaan Isa. 19.18 smelleth of a savoury heart Col. 4.6 Eph. 4.29 30. And though humane wisdome learning in the Scriptures that is meerly literal be not of it selfe not idolized contrary to the Spirit but is capable of being spirituallized heightned above it selfe and is actually gilded skied with saving light comming from God in the face of Christ yet when the Spirit reignes all knowledge learning and arts are hunted for only in order to a saving communion with God and when in the creature and gifts the spirituall man feeleth and tasteth nothing of Christ but misseth Christ in all these they are as tastelesse to him as the white of an egge yea all dry sapelesse dead his Lord Jesus is not in that empty grave and therefore his heart lodgeth not a moment there Cant. 3.1 2 3 4. Phil. 3.7 8 9. yea the spiritual man fathers no good upon the empty creature 1 Cor. 3.8 the creature smels of flesh and vanity to him Zach. 4.6 2. Ordinances inherent righteousnesse saving grace created because creatures are saluted by him as creatures he gallops by them as a Post that seeth them not to be his home but a far other poore lean and despised nothing in comparison of Christ in point of confiding or glorying for the gold-bracelets are not the bridegroome the Spirit aimes pants and breaths after a personall enjoyment of God himselfe in Christ. The joy and comforts of the Holy Ghost to him are but accidents created chips and fragments that fall from Christ. 3. The Spirit carrieth the soule from the sight of all things as from visible objects things created of God up to the bosome of God and there the spirituall soule loves lives breaths dwells 3 When the outward senses suck spirituall apprehensions out of earthly things from the Well of Iacob Christ draws a consideration of the Well of life Iohn 4.13.14 Paul possibly from his Tent-making draweth thoughts of the falling of this Tabernacle of clay and our being closed with our house from above 2 Cor. 5.1 2. so the outside of the creature the skin of it that lyes before our senses is turned into inward and spirituall thoughts of God Because the beleevers sense of smelling is spirituall and draws all in to God And mind will affections thoughts intentions tongue yea and the naturall actions of eating and drinking are spiritualized and for God and his glory Nor could I thinke that as touching the order of marshelling and drawing up our spirituall thoughts and actions as why we doe this spirituall action first this second this third why we marshall this Petition first this second but this ranking is not so bound up by the rule of Scripture but a spirituall soule in the order of his acting secundum prius posterius is carried on by the only free blowings of the spirit of grace It 's true the acts must be regulated by the word that what we petition for must be lawfull and must be warranted from the sound Doctrin of the Gospel according to the proportion of faith but the ordering of them often cometh from the Spirit of utterance and so immediatly as it 's hard to say at least ordinarily in a set constant rule there is any consulting with Scripture reason memory art but the immediate breathing of the spirit ordereth and ranketh all And these fit words like apples of gold not others which meets hic nunc at this time with the heart of a sinner and catcheth Matthew Peter Saul floweth from Spirit-worke 2 This Major Proposition whoever
when Antichrist shall be fully destroyed and the riches of the Gentiles added to the Jewes there shall be one shepheard and one sheep-fold and admirable unity and peace like a river among the Saints and though Sectaries of old in Germany now in England doe it by the Sword we have no prophesie that that shall be the way of God or that Christ shall have a personall externall visible glorious reign on earth and the Law of God is exceeding broad and containeth the unsearchable riches of Christ for who knoweth all the glorious deductions and eonsequences of knowledge contained in the word and who can binde up the Spirit that he should not reveale more of Christ and more yet till the knowledge of the Spirit cover the earth But this new knowledge is of ancient truths and the Spirits ancient truths made out in broader and larger consequences and not such as destroyes the former articles of Protestant Reâigion in the faith of which millions are arrived safe to heaven and are now up before the throne Saltmarsh in his late giddy treates gathers these articles of Protestant Religion together and as chalke stones casteth them away and will lay a new foundation and put in a figurative Saviour of H. Nicholas and make a new building of his owne 15. Nor is the preaching of duties yea even of such as are externall and obvious to the eyes of men contrary to spirituall teaching or worship in Spirit for then should it have been our Saviours intent Joh. 4. when hee will have us to worship him in spirit and truth to remove in the New Testament vocall praying bowing of the knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus contrary to Act. 20. â6 Paul kneeled downe and prayed with them all Eph. 3.14 and he should not charge us Doe this in remembrance of me and obey these that are over you if it were so yea all the exhorting of the Apostles that children obey parents servants their masters brethren admonish one another should be against the discoveries of the Spirit to the Apostles and and Saints upon which ground Antinomians will have all the government of the Church inward and in the Spirit and invisible as if one and the same worship might not both bee externall and spirituall And now the Army send Laws to the Parliament to remove the penall statutes against all hereticks what ever they bee Arrians Libertines Davi Georgians Familists Antiscripturists such as deny there is a God a Saviour that bought them Antinomians and what hel can devise that their impure conventicles and Churches may be tollerated through out all England except only Popish Recusants and found and proven to bee such because the Papists disâurbe the peace of the state yet under the decke this lyes hid that all Religions being professions of the outward man are indifferent and no sinne in any worshipping of the Devill or any creature Yea there is nothing to be builded in favour of Familists on the Apostles words Rom. 8.2 For the Law of the Spirit of life is indeed the indwelling Spirit of sanctification mortifying the lusts of the sinfull flesh called a Law in opposition to the Tyranny of sinne and this Law as it is in Christ is the Law of faith and of the new Covenant by which wee are freed from the dominion and overmastering power of sinne and life and as the Law is in Christ we are meritoriously freed as in us we are freed by begun sanctification as a new Master freeth us from subjection to the old 9. We are then spirituall when we observe the wayes and various actings of the Spirit in externalls also as how God suggesteth motions into some by the crowing of a cocke as by it the Lord caused Peter to awake and by the appearing of a Star some come to Christ by the working of a miracle or a wonder or rare providence in Church and state others are converted 2. When we observe the Spirits various dispensations in leading some through hell and deaths and despaires to heaven Ps 88.15 and that from their youth and in feeding others with the flower of wheat with the hony combes of inward and spirituall feasts of joy and consolation filling them with marrow and fatnesse When the Spirit ebbes the fâowes to the sense of a beleever goeth and commeth casteth downe and benighteth the soule and againe shineth in glory and beauty 3. When we obey the breathings of the wind and yeeld with chearfulnesse to the comforting shinning witneâsing sealing inlarging of the heart with boldnesse and accesse to the overjoying strenthening quickning directing inlightning confirming works and acts of the Spirit 4. When we obey from freenesse and the sweet atâractions of grace from a Spirit of love not of feare and Law-bondage 5. When we try the spirits for the dumbe knocking 's of revelations without or contrary to the word are not from God and when we can judge that fire heat eagernesse of affection in praying for a way a sect a warre when wee hate the contrary sect Presbyterian as we imagine is not spirituall boldnesse and freedome of heavenly accesse to God through Christ. 6. When we inclose not the Spirit or God in the letter or sound of words nor obey for the awe of dead characters or sounds but formally are led because the Spirit goes along with an obliging precept or promise and we adore not dead characters and sounds but tremble at or submit to the word for the thing signified and doe not seperate the signe and the thing signified therefore Saltmarsh is farre out when he denies the distinction of Gospel-ordinances in opposition to legall ordinances because saith he p. 270. nothing is pure spirituall divine-Gospel but that which is light life glory Spirit for hee taketh the fruit of the Gospell and the spirituall efficacy of the Gospel for the Gospel But as the Law is one thing to wit he that doth these things shall live thereby is truly Law and actuall obedience to this Law is a farre other thing so the Gospel he that beleeveth shall be saved is truly Gospel and a Gospel way to salvation but actually by the grace of Christ to beleeve is a farre other thing Saltmarsh saith the letter and outward forme is a thing that perisheth with the use which is spoken of meat and drinke that waste away while we use them and as Christ saith Matth. 15.17 enter into the belly and are casten out with the draught not of the written Gospell which perisheth not as meat and drink but both in the letter and the thing signified hath indured since Moses and the Prophets were and shall doe to the end of the world and in regard of the thing signified Christ the yea and amen of all promises which we doe not seperate from the signe and letter is an everlasting Gospel Revel 14.6 and the word that endureth for ever and perisheth not as corruptible things doe 1 Pet.
the preaching of Faith by which the Spirit is given which renewes a beleever and makes him the very Law himselfe and his heart the two Tables of Moses For 1. perswasions and commands may wâll stand together and all Law-inforcings are but meere reasonings and morall and objective acts on the minde and will and so the Law no more inforceth then the Gospel 2. Holinesse and Sanctification commeth by the Law animated by the Spirit as well as by the Gospel for the Law converteth the soule but it doth this saith the Antinomians not as the Law but as the Gospel revealing Christ. But I am sure neither can the Gospel ââterally onely revealing Christ and being void of the Spirit it cannot convert the soule and the Law as animated by the Spirit leadeth to Christ as a Pedagogue I meane as mixed with the Gospel For the Law without the Gospel can never sanctifie nor lead to Christ and neither of them without Christs Spirit can doe any thing And I find Saltmarshes Euthysiasticall pulse and straine of Familisme when hee saith that the Preaching of Faith is the Spirit given to a beleever and it makes him the very Law it selfe For 1. the Preaching of Faith or the Gospel preached even to hardened Pharisââs cannot give the Spirit renewing the Pharisees for Faith was preached to them by Christ and his Apostles but they stumbled at Christ and never beleeved 2. The preaching of Faith and the Spirit differ as much as the principall cause and the instrument now who can say the writing of the penne is the writer 3. Antinomians meane by the Gospel or the preaching of Faith here divided from the Law not the glad tidings of peace preached but the renewing Spirit without all letter or word of promise or command that is the teaching spirit and thâ inward annointing without the Law or Gospel either Now Sanctification in this sense must bee wrought without Law Gospel Precept Command Promise and wee may lay aside the Bible then and all Ordinances and therefore no wonder then Antinomians tell us so often of the Letter and the Spirit for to them old and new Testament and all the sweet promises are a very Letter and in the new Testament we are not to serve God according to the Letter and therefore all Preaching Commands Exhortations Promises Threats of both Law and Gospel must be laid aside The Lord keeps us saith Towne under the Gospel in righteousnesse without all Law Ceremoniall and Morall and every where thây say ãâã serve God now according to the Spirit not ãâã to the Letter outward Ordinances then to Antinomians are matters of meere courtesie CHAP. XII Antinomians deny actuall pardon of sinnes to the Jewes ANtinomians deny that the knowledge of actuall and eternall remission was an Article of the Jewish Creed but a mystery not revealed till the Gospell But then David and the Fathers Abraham and others were justified by the impââed righteousnesse of Faith as wee are also David must Psal. 2.1 2. describe an happinesse he knew not what David saith Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sinne vers 5 2. We beleeve through the grace of the Lord Jesus we shall be saved as well as they 3. All the Fathers dyed in the faith ãâã did eat the same spirituall meat and did all drink of the same spirituall Rock and the Rock was Christ. 4. The Scripture foreseeing that God would justifie the heathen thrâugh Faith reached before the Gospel to Abraham Esaiah prophecied of Christ as an Evangelist Daniel of the slaying of the Messiah and everlasting righteousnesse through him The Prophets testified before hand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow actuall remission then was no mystery to them Abraham rejoyced to see Christs day and saw it CHAP. XIII Of the nonage of the Jewes what it was NOr was the tutorie bondage or nonage of the Jewes any thing but 1. A lesse measure of the Spirit then is now 2. A harder pressing of the Law on them 3. A keeping of that infant Church as a child under Pedagogues and Tutors in regard of the Elements of Ceremonies partly teaching them rudely and partly warning them by blondy Sacrifices and diverse washings of the desert of sinne and the filth of it but this is nothing to prove the Jewes were under the Law For 1. then should they be under the curse and so must eternally perish contrary to the Word nor was their pardon of sinnes by halfes and quarters 2. Then must they be saved by works Paul saith They came short of righteousnesse because they sought to establish their owne righteousnesse and stumbled at the stone laid in Zion and sought it not by faith And it was never lawfull for them more then us to seeke righteousnesse and justification by works of the Law so they were in this under no Law-Spirit more then we but justified the same way that we are 3. Yea many sweet Evangelike promises are made to them as to us Ho every one that thirsts come to the water c. Behold I lay on Zion a stone c. The just shall live by fath Who is a God like unto thee that pardons iniquity I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine owne sake and divers other Scriptures prove this 4. The Prophets cryed against legall and outward service and pressed washing in Christs bloud and faith and repentance as the Apostles doe And to Christ gave all the Prophets witnesse that through his name whosoever beleeves in him shall receive remission of sinnes There is much of the Spirit of adoption of spirituall liberty in praying wrestling with God giving no rest to God Heavenly boldnesse and accesse to the throne of grace in Jââkob David Moses and sweet Evangelike and Gospel-familiarity between Christ and his Spouse the Church in the Song of Salomon Feasting and banqueting together only the Lawâs administration was wrath by accident through our corruption lesse gloâious because of darke typs and a spaââr measure of the Spirit 2 Cor. 3. Ephes. 3.9 10. and Paul heightneth Gospelâglory and lesseneth the Law in the vaine sense that false Apostles and legall Teachers put on it in over-âxalting it as if without Christ it could save or with Faith it could justifie 6 All under the Gospel Elect and Reprobate must be freed from the Law if the Jewes were under it all to whom the Gospel is preached must bee freed from it and to Deâne and Moore who are both Arminians and Antinomians all and every one of mankinde must bee under ârace none under the Law of Commandements for the argument holdeth for all in opposition to the Legall Jew CHAP. XIV The old mân or the flesh to Antinomians is under the Law the new Man freed from all Law IT is admirable that Towne will
sickely many dead Zachary was stricken with dumbnesse because hee beleeved not the Angels word Luke 1. 2. The Covenant in which perseverance is promised threatning the rod of men to beleevers that transgresse the Lords Law prove the same 3. God was angry and in a mercifull anger punished Moses Aaron Salomon Jehoshaphat Nor is it of weight that God smote men to death in the Old Testament for light sinnes but it s not so in the New he is not so severe now But is not our God even in the New Testament a consuming fire Were there ever more Hell-like vengeance that fell on any then on Jerusalem so as Christ said barren wombs should bee blessed and they should cry hills fall on us and cover us 2. Did beleevers in the Old Testament make satisfaction to revenging justice for their sins that Christ did beare 3. Were there any halfe satisfactions made by men to infinite justice 4. Were they their owne redeemers from Hell CHAP. XXXII Beleevers are to mourne for sinne WEe judge the Spirit of grace to be a mourning spirit They shall looke on me whom they have pierced and mourne They that escape shall be on the mountaines like the doves of the valleis all of them mourning every one for his iniquity 2. As this is promised so is it practised Peter having denyed his Lord remembred the words of Jesus went out and wept bitterly and a woman that was a sinner stood at Jesus feet behind him weeping and beganne to wash his feet with teares Wee roare all like Beares and mourne like doues for our transgressions are multiplied 3. It is commanded Be afflicted and mourne and weepe Let your laughter be turned into mourning 4. Mourners are blessed Antinomians after Adultery rapine bid us beleeve rejoyce for God loveth not heavinesse dulnesse sorrowfull cogitations there is nothing to a beleever but joy comfort rejoycing sorrow for or sense of sinne is sorrow for a shaddow and sinfull unbeliefe for pardoned sinne is no sinne But say wee pardoned sinne is sinne and sorrow for offending him whom we have pierced is the Gospel-groaning of the Turtle and sorrow according to God and this is the Libertines mortification to sinne without sorrow or sense and to know and feele sinne after it is committed said Da Georgius is an act of the flesh and the taste of the apple that Evah did eat say the Libertines CHAP. XXXIII To crave pardon for sinne or to have any sense of sinne denyed to beleevers by Antinomians VPon this ground it s a worke of fleshly unbeliefe say they that a justified David crave pardon of sinnes committed after he is justified 1. But why more of sinnes committed after then before justification for both sorts of sinnes are removed by the bloud of Christs Crosse and cease to be sins as Antinomians teach and if we be justified ere we beleeve a beleever having committed Adultery mustâly when he saith out of the sense of sinne Lord in this I have sinned against thee These that call God Father Mat. 6.12 pray for forgivenesse dayly Sense of sinne is an act of unbeliefe to Antinomians if beleevers judge sinne pardoned to be sinne or any thing but a slip in our conversation before men not a breach of a Law in the sight of God and if they judge of adulteries and murthers committed after they beleeve pardon in Christ as of sins to be mourned or humbled for they judge amisse not by the light of Faith but by the carnall feeling and mis-apprehension of sense reason the flesh So to be deadned to all sense of sinne to have a conscience burnt with a hot yron is mortification CHAP. XXXIV Antinomians hold wee are in the boyling of our lusts without any foregoing humiliation immediately to beleeve on Christ. VPon this ground that we are justified by Christs bearing our sinnes on the Crosse and before that of unbeleevers by the grace of Christ wee be made beleevers without any reall change of our state and condition before God or any humiliation of soule or sicknesse for the want of Christ we are immediatly to beleeve in Christ though remaining Adulterers Murtherers Paricides c. Yea nor is salvation tyed to beliefe nor is Faith a condition without which no man can bee saved And a man may be the greatest sinner imaginable and Christ may be his Christ. So that Christ may bee the Saviour of a beleever and he truely united unto him Christ may dwell in his heart by faith and in that same state and time he be kept captive in the snare of the Devill at his will and hee walke according to the course of the world according to the prince of the power of the ayre that now worketh in the children of disobedience which clearely stateth a communion between Christ and Belial God and the Devill the enemy of God in one and the same soule CHAP. XXXV Of spirituall poverty and how it s mistaken by Antinomians TRue poverty of spirit doth not kill and destroy all sight of grace in our selves as Antinomians say and when we have grace to see we have no grace its grace saith Town But it is true to know that we are poore wretched blinde and of our selves miserable is spirituall povertie and the more we find our nothingness money-lesse and beggarly condition the more grace because the poverty of humility is riches he is neerest to Christ who findeth he cannot buy him 2. It s true that not to bee too quick-eyed in a reflect knowledge to know our graces and not to rest on them nor make bigge undertakings as Peter did that wee can doe all is also spirituall poverty A beleever cannot lay a sowme and a great wodfie on himselfe but grace doth not undervalue grace and belie the Spirit in it selfe 1. The Saints give judgement of their owne graces Lord I beleeve I am black but comly as the tents of Kedar I slept but my heart waked for I am the least of the Apostles and am not meet to bee called an Apostle but by the grace of God I am that I am In which the Saints doe lay low themselves yet not slander the holy Spirit in themselves If I may not slander another then may I not slander Christ in my selfe 2. The office of the Spirit is to know the things that are freely given us of God 3 The Spirit of Christ doth not counter-worke himselfe Now his light lets us see the worke of grace in us for our own comfort grounds of rejoycing and that wee may see our debts and wee may praise Christ because wee cannot pay him CHAP XXXVI Repentance mistaken by Antinomians REpentance is not as Denne saith a part of Faith or a change of the mind to looke no longer for righteousnesse from the Law but from Christ
you and to you who are troubled rest with us c. And Merit-mongers say our good works are made condignely and morally meritorious from Christs merits and so are made and dignified with a sort of infinitenesse to buy heaven as Antinomians say they have sinnelesse perfection from Christs merits and are made as white faire spotlesse as God can see no sinne in them but looking on them seeth them as faire as the works of Christ or the elect Angels Wee judge that there is no worth to come neere in value or proportion to grace or glory and that no reward is promised for them none to them but as to signes and fruits of grace CHAP. XLVI That there is grace inherent in the Saints beside that free favour and good will that is in God WEe accord not with Antinomians who say that grace is onely in Christ none in us they are but gifts and effects of grace in us saith Towne The new creature the armour of God and love is nothing but Christ. But wee say Grace or free favour is in Christ as the cause root spring but this is the infinite God freely of meere grace imparting his goodnesse mercy redemption calling us without hire or money and this indeede is not in us but in him but there is a grace created the fruit of this free grace in God that is in us subjectively and inherently and denominates us gracious and new creatures grace is in Christ as the floure in the root but in vs as the smell that comes from the floure and is communicated to us who have senses The Scripture saith 1. If any man be in Christ he is a new creature a new creature cannot be Christ the Creator the new man is created in righteousnesse and true holynesse and these be created graces in us as the lusts of the flesh contrary to these are not the first Adam but the fruits of this sinne so neither can these bee the second Adam 2. The Armour of God Ephes. 6. Faith Hope the Word of God Prayer the chiefe parts of that armour have Christ for their object and subject and wee are to pray in Christs name then they cannot be Christ himselfe faith may be weake Christ cannot be weake prayer lesse fervent Christ not so 3. The Scripture saith God putteth in the Saints a heart of flesh a new heart powreth water that is his spirit on the thirsty ground the Spirit of grace and supplication on the Family of David writes his Law in our inward parts gives a circumcised heart 4 There is an in-biding principle The seed of God remaining in the Saints the annoyting that teacheth them all Grace in Timothy faith unfained dwelling in him and his grandmother 5. The Saints are denominated new creatures from grace inherent faithfull and sanctified in Christ Jesus borne againe of God Sonnes and heires partakers of the Divine nature Kings and spirituall Priest to God changed and renewed 6. From this Libertines say there is no difference betweene hypocrits and beleevers whereas they are blessed meeke shall see God shall be satisfied have a great reward in heaven which is falsely said of hypocrits and it s neere of kinne to that foule errour The Spirit works in hypocrits by gifts and graces in the Saints immediatly whereas the Saints doe many things from the feare of God from Faith from humility and meekenesse which are graces in them and it neighbours with that heresie that Christ acteth immediatly in the Saints hee being incarnate in them and they Christed and Godded with him Christ dwelling in their flesh which maketh every Saint Christ and the onely begotten Son of God and it sides with that error that the efficacie of Christs death doth kill the activity of all graces and that all the activity of a beleever is to act sinne there being nothing in him but sinne Christ without acting all in him CHAP. XLVII That we are not meere patients in the acting of the Spirit of Sanctification SO doe Antinomians hold that we are meere patients under the actings of the Spirit the Spirit acting in us immediately as on blocks and stocks So there is say they no obligation to pray at set houres and times but when the Spirit acteth and stirreth us immediatly thereunto And Saltmarsh saith this is a bondage to times and no spirituall serving of God So hath Randel the Familist prefixed in an Epistle to two Popish Tractats furnishing to us excellent priviledges of Familisme the one called Theologia Germanica and the other the Bright starre which both advance perfect Saints above Law Gospel Scripture Ordinances Praying hearing to a Monastike contemplative life in which their perfectists see injoy live in God without beholding him in formes or materiall images the signe of the Crosse lawfull books as they thinke to young beginners without any acting in them either of understanding will desire or any power they and their love desire joy being all drowned annihilated and swallowed up in God immediatly injoyed and the Spirit acting immediatly Euthysiastically in them as men dead crucified mortifyed and if they have any acts of knowing or willing or loving they bee acts of the old man and the flesh And upon the same ground God not efficatiously and immediatly concurring in morall actions to act upon the creatures men and Angels The Libertines of old some Familists and Antinomians of late have said that God is the author of sinne that his working or not working on the creature is the cause of good and ill righteousnesse and unrighteousnesse 1. Because sinne is nothing but Gods not working 2. It cannot hurt God and why should he hate it 3. It hath its first being in God 4. It is his servant and conduceth to heighten free grace and rich mercy I doe not impute this to all Antinomians yet some have said it and written it the same principles common to Libertines and Antinomians as you may reade in worthy Calvin incline to the same conclusions It is true Saltmarsh comes not up to truth in this Mans sinnes was serviceable saith hee to the glory of Redemption and was but for the bringing forth of this though not decreed of God but occasioned by man God foreknowing the changeablenesse of his creature c. In which words not knowing what to make out of the Protestant doctrine out of ignorance hee makes sinne the mother and glorious Redemption the birth that was warmed with life in the wombe of sinne and was serviceable for the bringing forth of this We know what M. Archer said of late I scarse beleeve that that godly man would have spoken so faire and glorious grace was warmed and enlived from eternitie in the sweet bowels and heart of God and never lay never fetched heat of life from the foule wombe of
sinne 2. In the other extremity Saltmarsh denieth simpliciter any decree of God so much as permissive touching sinne and gives him no more but a bare fore-knowledge without any decree and makes man onely the occasion of sinne who undeniably is such an occasion as father and mother are of their owne births Man were to bee pittied and excused if hee were an occasion onely of sinne But 1. if the Spirit act immediately on us so as wee we are passive in beleeving praying and in all acts of Sanctification as Towne saith and we must be the same way passive as when God justifies us which he doth ere we be born again and as Crispe saith by forcing grace on us as a Physitian violently stoppeth Phisick in the mouth and downe the throat of a backward patient against his will and if wee bee not obliged to pray beleeve and upon the same ground not to abstaine from Adultery Murther for grace must act in both but when the Spirit doth stirre and excite us then we are no more guilty of sinne in omitting good and committing evill then a stone falling off a towre is guilty of beating out a mans braines for in these the man is a passive block as the stone is in its motion and if we abstaine from praying not being obliged to pray because the Spirit acts not on us wee sinne not judge then who is the father of sinnes of omission by the good leave of Antinomians and upon the same ground it is as unpossible but we must fall into sinnes of commission as swearing lying blasphemie heresie unbeliefe adultery murther stealing except either the restraining grace or the renewing sanctifying Spirit act upon us as wee cannot chuse but sinnefully omit duties of praying beleeving when the winde of the Spirit bloweth not faire on us for these duties and so Antinomians must either be Pelagians and say there is no need of grace to eschew sinne and so they must be un-friends to free grace or then men must be guiltlesse in all sinnes by this opinion and let them then choose upon whom they will father all sinne 2. We are to pray continually and watch thereunto with all perseverance and keepe our selves in the love of God Watch and pray Waite for the comming of the Lord with girded up loynes waite for the day of our redemption Then are wee obliged by the command of Christ whether the holy Ghost breath on us or the wind of the Spirit blow faire from Christs heart on our heart or no to the supernaturall acts of praying beleeving hoping watching Nor is Christs act of free grace in drawing stirring and actuall inliving our obliging rule but the revealed will of God in the Law and Gospel and if we be meere passive as stones and onely obliged to supernaturall acts when the tide of free love and rich grace floweth on the shoare and banks of our whithered Spirits then wee must not onely say we are freed from the Law but from all Gospel-commands all free invitations of rich grace according to the letter or then that the Spirit is obliged to attend and joyne his bedewings and flowing of free love and grace ever when we heare or read the Gospel But when Saltmarsh Towne and others of that Tribe say the Gospel is not in the letter dutie opinion sense reason but in the Spirit life grace faith they meane the same with New England Libertines That the will of God in the word or directions thereof are not the rule whereunto Christians are bound to conform themselves to live thereafter So as old Anabaptists taught wee shall all bee taught of God and the annointing teacheth us all things and therefore the written Scripture Law Gospel the Ordinances of Preaching Reading Praying Sacraments belong not to us to be under them is to be under the Law and the old dead Letter and the livelesse passive Inkie and poore Paper-ordinances of Men and not under the Gospel that is under the immediate actings of the Spirit contrary to the Word of God which maketh an harmonious subordination not a contrariety betweene outward ordinances and the inward working of the Holy Ghost to the Law and the Testimony the weapons of our warfare are not carnall but spirituall and mighty through God Here are both Word and Spirit As for me this is my covenant with them saith the Lord my Spirit that is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy Seed c. 2. It is a close rejecting of the Word of God written in the Old and New Testament which the Prophets Christ and the Apostles recommend to us as our onely rule it is to subvert all Ministery and Ordinances contrary to Scripture and to make the Gospel written the holy Ghost himselfe 3. This iâ to loose us from the Commandement and Gospel-exhortations to holy walking delivered by the Prophets Christ and his Apostles 3. And sure if we obey Gospel-commandements as stones and blocks without any action in us or from us at all and must then obey onely when the Holy Ghost acteth and stirreth the fire Commandements and Gospel-promises Reasonings Preaching Ordinances must be as vaine and unreasonable to move men as stones and dumbe wood Upon this ground Saltmarsh with Antinomians would have all Logick abeted But carnall ratiocinations and discourses ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã That exalt themselves against the knowledge of God wee are more willing should be abeted and exiled from Divinity then Antinomians who set free grace on pinnes of love rather then Faith as if wee were justified by loue as their brethren of the Family of love dreame And 2. who be they who remaining Antinomians turne Arminians and fight for free will and universall attonement and generall Redemption of all and every one upon the meere principles of carnall reason and such a naturall pitie and impotencie of love to all and every one of mankind as God cannot make out and which by naturall principles tendeth to the universall salvation of all and every one of mankinde yea of a world including Devils also And upon this ground Cornwell saith Such a faith as is wrought by a practicall Syllogisme because it followeth from the strength of reasoning or reason not from the power of God is but an humane faith And Saltmarsh The interpreting saith hee of the Scripture thus in the letter and in consequence hath much darkened the glory of the Gospel And the Gospel saith he is formed of exhortations perswasions conditionall promises commandements to the end that divinne and spirituall things might be more naturally conveyed in a notionall and naturall way as the key is made fit to the wards of the locke rather then for any supposed free will in man as some imagine Which doth farther evidence the mind of Familists and Antinomians
marrow of Antinomianisme that there is no sinne condemned in the Gospel but unbeliefe so there is no command of holy walking and sanctification in the Gospel but onely Faith therefore Saltmarsh saith All these Scriptures that set forth to us sanctification and mortification Christ is made to us sanctification I live not but Christ liveth in me But yee are sanctified but yee are justified we are his workmanship created unto good works I can doe all things through Christ that strengthneth me c. All these Scriptures set forth Christ the sanctification and the fulnesse of his the All in All. Christ hath beleeved perfectly hee hath repented perfectly hee hath sorrowed for sinne perfectly hee hath obeyed perfectly hee hath mortified sinne perfectly and all is ours and wee are Christs and Christ is Gods And so wee are to beleeve our repentance true in Christ who hath repented for us our Mortifying sinne true in him through whom we are more then corquerours our new obedience true in him who hath obeyed for us who is the ende of the Law to every one that beleeveth our change of the whole man true in him who is righeousnesse and true holynesse and thus without faith it is unpossible to please God And this is the divinity of Denne That mortification and vivification are but the living by or through faith and beleeving in him that justifieth the sinner And that learned Divine M r Tho. Gataker saith of one Heyden a follower of Eaton That in a Sermon on 1 Joh. 3.7 He that doth righteousnesse is righteous he expounded that place of our doing righteousnesse in Christ who hath done righteousnesse for us so hee expounded the doing of our heavenly Fathers will the putting on of the New man which is created in righteousnesse and holynesse abounding in the worke of the Lord to be the beleeving of Christs imputed righteousnesse to bee ours So doe Saltmarsh and his fellowes teach us to expound all the Gospel-precepts and exhortations to holynesse to walke in Christ to be aboundant in the worke of the Lord to walke in love to love one another to honour our father and our mother to obey Magistrats and Masters to deale justly with servants to abstaine from fleshly lusts to mortifie our members not to defraud one another not to lye c. to be nothing but beleeve Christ hath done all these for us So as the grace of God and the Gospel layeth on us no tye or obligation in our persons to deny our selves to live holyly justly and soberly in this present world to love one another by vertue of a Commandement for that is Legall saith Saltmarsh and Jewish so as Christ Jesus is made the same very way our imputed sanctification as he is our imputed righteousnesse and so personall holynesse should no more be added by any obligation of command to Christ our sanctification then to Christ our righteousnesse CHAP. L. How we are freed from the Law in regard of Sanctification as of Justification NOr doe wee deny as Antinomians would charge us But we are from under the Law in regard of Sanctification as well as of Justification thus farre that the Apostle saith As many as are Christs are led by the Spirit of Christ and so not under the Law and if yee be led of the Spirit yee are not under the Law But this onely beareth so much that our voluntary free sweet and loving obedience commeth not from the feare of cursings Rom. 8.15 or the Spirit of bondage but yet from the binding and obliging authority of the Law-giver nor is this obliging rule and government of the Law contrary to the sweet cords of Gospel-love by which the Spirit kindly draweth and gently leadeth the Saints in the way of Sanctification these two are made friends in Christ and jarre not as contraries which is the cardinall and first principle of grosse mistaking in the Antinomian while hee grosely conceiveth there is no awe of love in the Law which commandeth all gracious acts of feare though not from Law-principles for the Law is terrible and causeth Moses feare and quake but it is because it acteth and breatheth out curses on Moses as a sinner and a broken man to chase him in to his surety and the sweet sanctuary of a terrified conscience but the Law demandeth the same awe and feare of love of sinne as sinne and as done against a Father in a covenant of grace It is true when the man is once under sin he cannot pay the debt of lovely awe out of his owne unbroken and sinnelesse nature Yet the Law still craveth as the Law and it craveth the same debt if the broken man pay it out of money borrowed from his suretie that is from the sanctifying Spirit of Christ the Law is the same craver the summe is the same debt now payed in gold though clipped and wanting many graines because of the sinnefulnesse of flesh out of the Kings treasure the fulnesse of Christ and his Spirit of grace the sinner is the same debter that is obliged to the same creditor and Lawgiver onely the bond and the tenor of it is changed grace is in the bond and it is payed now not as Law-debt this doe and live by Law-right and a covenant of works which pre-supposeth neither a bankrupt nor a breach in the debter nor an offence to the creditor nor a surety or Mediator to bee baile for the broken man but it s payed with the same obligation and Law-power and commanding authority but also now from a new principall the summe is better money and in one respect is choiser it is the coyne of a new King and stamped with a new Image of Gospel-grace in another respect it is worse because tainted with sinne Whereas obedience under the covenant of works was to be perfect and sinnelesse or not at all CHAP. LI. Antinomians ignorant of Jewish Law-service and of Gospel-obedience ANtinomians speake evill of that they know not Saltmarsh saith All Gospel-ordinances are onely wayes and meanes for God to reveale his love and grace by the Spirit of adoption not any wayes or meanes of ours for getting some love from God which Christ himselfe hath not gotten for us So there is not now saith he Gospel-teaching and obeying but men now runne in a Legall straine and would worke God downe into his old and former way of revealing himselfe as under the Law when he seemed to be onely in the way to reconciliation and peace rather then pacified and thus in prayer and fasting and other acts of obedience they deale with God as under the Old Testament not considering the glorious love revealed in Christ crucified We cannot but complaine to God of these men who slander our Doctrine and cease not to pervert the right wayes of God For if Saltmarsh meane that we thinke by fasting praying and acts of Evangelick Sanctification to buy the love
beautifull morning skie is not the Sunne but the result and daughter of the Sunne and the faire skie together and faith that acteth much upon the promises as upon the report of credentiall letters doth and must apprehend more pardon then peace can beare witnesse to sinne hath a bloudy tongue and cryeth fury and vengeance aloud faith must lye on the attonement of the bloud of Jesus which our sense cannot reach Faith is a starre of a greater magnitude and higher elâvation then our poore low-creeping feeling So wee thinke we had more of Christ and the acting of the Spirit at our first conversion then long after because when our spirituall apprehension is young and tender the acts of apprehension are more wanton and fiery but when experience and growth of grace commeth the motions of sense are more stayed and solid and as spiritie and active and more but to greene sense little seemeth much But that which Antinomians ayme at is to blow away all peace that commeth from personall sanctification because they are enemies to personall mortification and make this to be our peace of repenting and mortifying sinne abstaining from fleshly luââs that Christ repented mortified sinne and lusts on the Crosse for us and we beleeve this and there is an end Hence they condemne aâl experience of the acting of God in and on the soule to comfort the soule or helpe faith in times of desertion For Saltmarsh who in his cures of all our Legall and carnall agues is silent of experience and thinketh outward ordinances and the promises written for our learning and comfort because outward and written and vocall to be old Testament and Legall waies though Peter call them sincere milke exceeding great and precious promises and Paul Thinke they were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope and Christ speaking of his Commandements which were written and spoken by him and so outward saith that they were a badge visible to all the world that they were his Disciples If yee keep my Commandements yee shall abide in my love even as I have kept my Fathers Commandements and abide in his love And to Job the words of the Lords mouth were more then his necessary food And Christ giveth his judgement in a spirituall not a Legall song of outward ordinances Thy lips O my Spouse drop as the honey combe honey and milke are under thy tongue To David they were sweeter then the honey or honey combe sweet to his tast yea above gold or fine gold as all riches better then thousands of gold and silver his heritage for ever To Saltmarsh the Word is a dead outward legall thing and all this to them must be spoken of the inward and spirituall word written in the heart as Libertines taught So Bulling advers Anabapti It is true it is for that soule-acting and Spirit-converting power so but in the meane time upon this ground old Anabaptists rejected the Word and the Ministery and tooke thâm to ãâã Law written in the inward parts and the annoinâing that ãâã all things abusing Jer. 31. â3 and 1 Joh. 2.27 So doâ Antinomians upon this ground reject all experiences contrary to the Scripture experience worketh hope then it should cheere us in sad houres thus the Church comforteth her selfe I considered the dayes of old and called to remembrance my songs in the night So David looketh back to this longing to see saith he thy power and thy glory so as I have seene thee in the Sanctuary 2. Peter puts it on the Saints If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious 3. It s a sinnefull neglect to look to no experience But none saith where is God my maker who giveth songs in the night saith Elihu 4. Antinomians are angry at experiences 1. Because they teach there is no difference betweene the graces of hypocrits and beleevers in the kinds and so no experiences betweene the one and the other can render any difference 2. Experience is an outward ordinance of gathering from such and such a dispensation of God such a tryed conclusion Now Saltmarsh thinketh all outward ordinances as outward Legall things and so it would appeare Christ in the New Testament-worship which is spirituall and in nothing Legall hath appointed neither preaching nor praying nor hearing nor Sacraments nor Christian Assemblies nor conferences nor admonishing exhorting one another nor writing for all these are outward things and I grant if Christ joyne not his influence of grace neither is Pauls planting nor Appollos his watering any thing Yet Apostles and Teachers are not Legall ordinances 3. Antinomians offend at all inherent grace and created quallifications in us as evidences or helps to testifie wee are in Christ for they are all deceiving differences saith Crispe and may be in hypocrits and say I they can be no otherwise in hypocrites then deluding signes then the voice and testimonie of the Spirit for there is a thing like a voice in the Temporaries and also a thing like faith which is no faith Now experiences remaine as inherent and habituall observations of the Spirits actings in the Soule CHAP. LV. How farre inherent qualifications and actions of grace can prove we are in the state of grace ANtinomians make a hideous out-cry against signes and marks of our justification because indeed they are enemies to sanctification For establishing soules saith Saltmarsh upon any works of their owne as away meane or ground of assurance as that upon such a measure of repentance or obedience they may beleeve by I dare not deale in any such way of our owne righteousnesse because I find no infallible marke in any thing of our owne sanctification save in a lower way of perswasion or motive I find none in the Old or New Testament but have cause to suspect their owne righteousnesse as David Peter Paul So the Libertines of New England Though a man can prove a gracious worke in himselfe and Christ to bee the author of it yet this is but a sandâe foundation And it is a fundamentall and soule-damning error to make sanctification an evidence of justification And it were to light a candle to the Sunne Yea it darkeneth justification the darker my sanctification is the brighter is my justification And I may know I am Christs not because I doe crucifie the lusts of the flesh but because I doe not crucifie them but beleeue in Christ that crucified them for me So D. Crispe Cornewell Towne teach that love to the brethren sincerity c. are marks by which others may know us rather then we our selves So Saltmarsh followeth Crispe We never said that a naturall mans devotion or his bastard prayers or wild-fire of blind zeale can argue the translation of the man from death to life as Saltmarsh
that Job David Heman Jonah say they are cast off of God yet at the same season Psalm 42. Davids heart was toward the Saints with whom he went to the house of God 2. Many we see dying who doubted for a time if ever they beleeved or were in Christ and yet were convinced that they loved the Saints but because they loved the Saints they could not make an actuall inference ergo they were translated from death to life because that actuall inference requireth the actuall blowing of the Holy Ghost a Saint in naturall Logick may be forced to yeeld an antecedent and the necessary consequence because both must be the cleere Word of God as 1 Joh. 3.14 I yeeld I love the Brethren and ergo I am translated from death to life But because hee seeth both the truth of the Antecedent and Consequence by the sparks of a meere naturall light he may be farre enough from faith and a supernaturall evidence of the Spirit to make him to beleeve it for his owne inward peace comfort and quieting of his soule and this deceiveth Antinomians that they thinke the knowing of their spirituall condition by marks being convincing and strong in a naturall way is presently the supernaturall evidence of the Spirit which it is not and 2. they inferre that it is to trust in their owne righteousnesse and stand on their owne legges if men come by assurance of a spirituall interest in Christ by their own inherent righteousnesse and then must they be justified saith Cornwell by works Yea 3. the New England Libertines say A man cannot evidence his justification by his sanctification but he must needs build upon his sanctification and trust to it And M. Towne saith The Saints are to forget and never remember their own holy walking So say they That true poverty of Spirit doth kill and take away the sight of grace But all the three consequences are false for a naturall evidence of my being in Christ cannot quiet my soule with the assurance of peace and for the other two wee are to forget our holy walking yea and as Towne saith to judge it losse and dung in the matter of our righteousnesse before God and thus to forget it so as we trust not in it is poverty of Spirit but simply to forget all our love to the Saints so as wee doe not remember it for the strengthening of assurance and our comfort is contrary to the whole Epistles of John and a begging of the question For sure it is damnable pride to trust in our own righteousnesse in that regard Paul may say I know nothing by my selfe yet am I not thereby justified And so also we are to cast all behind us as losse and dung but it is utterly unlawfull and contrary to spirituall poverty to make no use at all wholly to forget and not to strengthen our faith and our assurance and comfort in any holy walking at all For Ezechiah dying comforteth himselfe in this Remember now O Lord how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight And David I have kept the waies of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God all his judgements were before me And Job My foot hath held his steps his way have I kept and not declined neither have I gone back from the Commandement of his lips I have esteemed the words of his mouth more then my necessary food And Jeremiah Thy words were sound and I did eat them c. And the Church I am comely In my bed by night I sought him whom my soule loveth c. My heart waked In the way of thy judgements Lord we have waited for thee the desire of our soule is to thy name c Nor can a Legall Pedagogie be objected for spirituall poverty was injoyned confidence in our own righteousnesse condemned in the Old Testament as well as in the new and Paul hath the same in the New Testament Asser. 4. What ever objections Crisp Saltmarsh Towne and others have to prove that all the marks of sincerity love universal obedience agree to hypocrites and so can be no certain evidences of our faith and assured interest in Christ are 1. such as Papists bring to prove None can have undoubted assurance they are in the state of grace 2. The arguments that prove these marks may be counterfeit because they may be such in hypocrits We conclude also that the Faith of the Saints and their broâd Seale and immediate Testimony of the Spirit may be in hypocrits A white Devill and a noone-day Angel may interpose himselfe in a bastard voice counterfeiting the tongue of the immediate speaking-Spirits and the faith of the Elect and there can be nothing that Saints can rejoyce in no worke of grace in themselves by the in-dwelling Spirit and Christ may as well dwell in the heart of an hypocrite by faith as of a Saint contrary to Eph. 3.17 Hypocrites may be filled with all the fulnesse of God as the Saints and have the seed of God remaining in them The annointing abiding in them which teacheth them all things and need not any to teach them And the Holy Spirit in them and abiding with them The Father and the Sonne making their abode with them A new heart in the midst of them and the stony heart removed A circumcised heart the law in their inward parts All these are as doubtfull and litigious evidendences of interest in Christ and the counterfeits of these in hypocrits as universall obedience sinceritie love to the brethren and any inherent qualifications that are in beleevers for saith Crispe All these may be in hypocrits But it s true there is not a living man or beast or bird in nature but a painter can counterfeit the like by Art nor a rose or flower in the garden but there a is wild flower and rose in the mountaines like it The Devill is an exact painter But this wil not prove but that he that hath a new heart and the annointing dwelling in him and inherent quallifications of the Spirit of Christ knoweth with a full perswasion that these are not counterfeits or such as may be in hypocrits nor doth it follow as Papists and Antinomians argue a mad man or a sleeping man knoweth not that he is mad or sleeping for madnesse and sleepe remove all reflect acts of knowledge that therefore a sober man and a waking man knoweth not that he is sober Paul was not in a golden transe nor in a pleasant night-dreame when he said For this is our rejoycing the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdome but by the grace of God we had our conversation in the world and more aboundantly to you-wards Nor doe the Saints speake to God wild-fire and windmills in the
the beauty of grace and gracious actings are in Christ pure spirituall cleane abstracted In us in whom there dwelleth a Law in the members it is muddie clayie in dregs and concretion abstracta sunt puriora concretis 5. What we over-behold that we over love what we over-love in that wee over-confide the affections both in their flowings and their over-banke-flowings are linked together so we see not that actings of grace are made secret substituted Mediators with Christ but these flow from the corruption of our nature not from the straine of our Doctrine in these points CHAP. LVII Of the liberty which Christ hath purchased to us by his death ANtinomians generally contend for a Christian liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and we contend for the same but the question is wherein the liberty consisteth it concerneth us much that we take not licence for liberty We thinke 1. We are freed by Christ from not onely the Ceremoniall Law so as Christ profiteth us nothing if we come under that yoake againe but also from all Commandements of men for all these Ceremonies being now not commanded but forbidden of God become the Commandements of men from which both Jewes and Gentiles were freed in Christ. 2. We are freed and redeemed from the Morall Law as cursing and condemning by the Son of God who makes us free indeed 3. We are redeemed from the dominion of sin by the Spirit of grace for where this Spirit is there is liberty and Christ freeth us from this service of sin in regard that the Law is a Lord by irritating our corruption more and more though this be accidentall to the Spirituall Law that bringeth forth in us sonnes and children to death and over-aweth and compelleth us to keep the Law as a manifestation of wrath whereas the Spirit of the Lord is a free sweet lovely-constrayning-Spirit in the Gospel-working in a farre other way obedience to the Law then the Law-spirit of bondage doth And upon these are we 4. freed from a necessity of being justified by the Law or the works thereof 5. From all conquering Law-power of all enemies But we are not delivered and freed from the commanding directing obliging and binding power of the Law as a binding rule of life so as beleevers once being beleevers sinne not because they are under no Law farre lesse is it such a freedome as is that which is from the yoake of the Ceremoniall Law as Towne saith But if we be free from the Law with this kind of freedome which is licence it is free to us to sinne whereas the end of our Redemption is to change the yoake of a condemning and cursing Law in a sweet easie yoak of Christ to serve God in holynesse and righteousnesse the compend of the two Tables of the Law to deny ungodlinesse and worldly lusts 2. The Word of God calleth freedome from doing Gods will a not using our liberty in Christ as an occasion to the flesh and commandeth doing and fulfilling of the Law in loving our neighbour as our selfe 3. The service of sinne is the greatest bondage that is and the sinner is overcome by this Tyrant now the Sonne of God hath freed us from this bondage Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin if the Son make you free then are ye free indeed And to serve God is a free mans life as David saith I will walk at liberty for I seek thy precepts and Christ hath loved us and washed us in his bloud and made us Kings and Priests unto God Now Kings are of all men the freest on earth but Kings and Priests to God are Lords over their owne lusts which is more then to take a walled City and are to offer themselves and their bodies as a holy living and acceptable sacrifice which is their reasonable service 4. And the whole Gospel urgeth the same for it subjecteth us to Gods externall Commandement of honouring father and mother of having our conversation honest amongst the Gentiles in abstaining from fleshly lusts of walking in Christ as we have received him and it is the Commandement that the Apostle gave by the Lord Jesus which is our sanctification and that we should abstain from fornication and the whole doctrine of the Apostles that we be holy as he is holy nor doth the Law cease to be the Law to beleevers as Towne saith Because it neither can nor actually doth condemne and curse these that are in Christ and consequently it cannot oblige them as a commanding rule for you cannot separate the condemning power of the Law saith he from the commanding power of it If the Law cannot condemn it loseth the being of the Law and Luther saith it is no more Law Lex non damnans non est Lex not one jot or title of the Law can perish But the truth is the Law as it is an instrument of the covenant of works and justifieth or condemneth ceaseth to be the Law to the beleever as Luther saith it ceaseth to be the Law of life and righteousnesse and the way to heaven according to the tenour of the first covenant which is He that doth these things abiding in all things written in the Law in thought word and deed perfectly without the least breach in one Iota by his own strength he shall live that is he shall be justified and obtaine eternall life by the Law without a Mediator and shall be saved but not be in Christs debt nor obliged in one graine to the grace of the Gospel But where liveth I pray you this good man Neither in heaven nor earth except the man Jesus Christ. So the Law is not such a Law as can save to any man now under sin so Luther saith right but it was never Luthers mind that the Law simpliciter ceaseth to be the Law commanding and obliging to holy walking So it is a sophisme a ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ad dictum ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Law ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as it justifieth and saveth Legally is no damning Law and loseth its being as it is a covenant of works to all beleevers True ergo it is in no sort a Law to them it followeth not such a just Judge and King condemneth not this guilty man because his Sonne the Prince and heire suffered for him ergo he is not a Law-judge condemning the poore guilty man true but ergo he is not King and Judge to command this man to be obedient to all his good Lawes and ergo this pardoned man is in all other things and good Lawes loosed from this oath of allegeance and the band of loyalty and hee is no more the the Kings subject so as if the man now break the Kings Lawes and he doth not sin against the King as Law-giver or his Lawes surely it cannot
carnall or sold under sinne Yea so it would appeare to Antinomians nothing in man is under an outward Law or Command either of Law or Gospel or any Gospel-promise or Law-threatning save onely the fleshly body of sinne then Christ came in the flesh to redeeme and save onely the Old Adam and the corrupt flesh then is the corrupt flesh and it onely obliged by a Law without and the Letter to beleeve in Christ to eat the flesh and drinke the bloud of the Sonne of man to live with and in Christ to sit in heavenly places with Christ to have right to the Tree of life to have the hid Manna the White stone the new Name given to it And what then shall be the condition of the New man shall not he beleeve walke in Christ converse with God seeke the things that are above rejoyce evermore repent mortifie the deeds of the flesh c. this is strange Divinity 4. This savours strongly of another Antinomian and Familisticall fancie The old Adam sinneth Jam. 3.2 is found to bee a sinner reproved accursed condemned he and all his works shut up under the Law and wrath of God then the man sinneth not is under no Law no Gospel No Law without and in the Letter onely the flesh the Libertines Asse corrupt Adam sinneth is to be reproved sent to Hell and whither shall the other halfe or quarter of the man goe to heaven But if yee will listen to Scripture that which was under the Law was under the curse what was under the curse is redeemed by Christ beleeveth is justified by Faith is blessed with Abraham Gal. 3.10 11 12 13. But is the old Adam the flesh sinne dwelling in Paul redeemed from the curse justified by faith blessed and saved with Abraham Or is the beleever freed from the Law because of the flesh and for the old Adam that dwells in him Then because the flesh and sinne dwelleth in him while he is in this life he must then sinne bee under the Law deserve the curse in so far Or must the flesh be an invisible Spirit that lusteth in man against the holy and just Law but God seeth it not What dreames are these The last difference is The end of the Law saith he was to bondage feare tutorship revealing of sinne outward conformity the end of the Gospel-Lawes is to love newnesse of Spirit praise and thankesgiving for righteousnesse and life received Answ. Bondage and feare servile such as he meaneth here was never any proper or intrinsecall end of the Law the Law is spirituall and can command no sinne nor have any intrinsecall end that is sinnefull servile feare is sinnefull feare This is an use of the Law which God maketh through occasion of our sinnefull condition and holy feare that the Law commandeth is the end of the Gospel-Lawes as well as love Gospel-grace teacheth us to feare God and to walke in godly feare It s true we were shut up under the Law that the Law might be to us in its bloudy ordinances and legall washings and cursings a herald of our guiltinesse and a rigid exactor and craver of our debts to compell us to runne to the surety and as the persuer and avenger of bloud to drive us to our feet that upon life and death we may escape to Jesus our City of refuge our sanctuary and be safe not that for doing of the Law we may be justified but we come to Christ also to the end we may sow to the Spirit walke in holinesse not because we have heaven in compleat fruition already but that wee may attaine the resurrection of the dead and may come by life eternall the free reward of grace CHAP. LXV The Gospel is a rare Covenant of grace WEe agree that the Gospel is not a Covenant such as is betweene God and man in Law-termes like this If yee doe without a Mediators grace perfectly yee shall live God in a manner said of the Crowne Buy heaven and winne it and have it Give works without grace and it s your owne 2. Nor is the Gospel such a covenant as is betweene man and man in which he fulfils his part and he is the one not helping the other but because this is the covenant of grace all the bones articles joynts limmes lithes and parts of the covenant is free grace Christ undertaketh for his Father hee shall faithfully make good all he sayes hee undertaketh for himselfe as surety to make sure worke of the purchase to buy all with a ransome an over-ransome he shall give an over-summe an infinite price for all hee indents for he ingages for the Holy Ghost I will send you the Comforter Christ impawneth his word for all the three Christ bindeth for his people in covenant to give them of his fulnesse to keepe them in his truth to intercede and Advocate for them that their faith faile not and to raise them up at the last day this last is in no covenants between man and man But Saltmarsh speaketh not soberly when he indirectly challengeth the Holy Ghost as a Legalist for using the word Covenant which hath a little saith he corrupted some in their Notion of free grace and makes them conceive a little too Legally of it for it is a promise But with his leave a promise is as legall a word as a covenant and there be as peculiar characters of God and of free grace in Gods Gospel-promises above all Law-promises or promises and bonds betweene man and man as in the covenant of grace nor is any promise between man and man capable of such free grace as the Gospel-promises are and this is a false principle of Antinomians falsely asserted and never proved That if righteousnesse and life be covenanted to us upon conditions meerely Evangelick and which the pure free unmixed grace of Christ worketh in us then life should be purchased by us not for us CHAP. LXVI Antinomians errors touching the covenant of grace ANtinomians grossely mistake the conditions of the Covenant of works and of grace they would hold forth That wee were taken into the Covenant of works upon some condition in us before But in the New Covenant saith Saltmarsh we are not his people before he be our God first But I know none who ever wrot or spoke of free grace dâd draw the covenant of grace in such a proportion as that Christ should first woe and sue us to a condition in which by some preparing grace we might earne and as hirelings worke our selves into a meriting condition and make our selves first Gods people and first chuse Christ and provoke free grace so as in all reason and congruitie God must if he be rationall joyne in league and article himselfe to be our God Why We have first articled our selves by the condition of honest hirelings to be his people 1. This is as much as Christ will never covenant nor indent to be our husband while we
way of grace And its poverty of Spirit when we see we have no grace and Saltmarsh Denne Crispe Eaton Towne and the Antinomians reject all comforts assurance or rejoycing from acts of Sanctification and works in the regenerate and say that its a seeking of righteousnesse in our selves and sure then it must bee a worke of the flesh to exercise our knowledge that way to discerne our selves to be sonnes because wee walke in love and after the Spirit Paral. II. Libertines said All sinne was but an opinion that we sinne and under opinion they comprehend conscience scruples remorse sense of judgement That Christs worke of Redemption was to destroy opinion and sense of sinne and then are men new creatures And there is no Devill no sinne no world that are our spirituall enemies David Georgius placed the spirituall life of his in committing Adulteries without sense of sinne and that publickely without shame and that faith in Jesus Christ was the way to abolish this shame in acting this filthinesse which shame was the fruit of the first Adams disobedience And that they should confesse all their sins to their shame again and again in the publike assembly till all pride and glorification of the flesh bee crucified that grace and mercy may be seene to be more glorious And they must goe in this selfe-denyall while they be deaden or to the opinion of any propriety of goods or possessions or wives or Marriages and then they come naked to the new Kingdome of David Georgius where they are to live above all lawes of marriage c. or consanguinity or the like Antinomans doe well neere border with this way onely that which Libertines doe call opinion or discerning of sinne Saltmarsh Eaton and Den call sense Towne calleth it sense or unbeliefe all call it sinning not before God but before men and in the conversation So they say the Adulteries Murthers committed by the justified are seeming sinnes sinnes in mens account saith Saltmarsh but not so before God and to the eye of Faith Now to live by faith is Antinomian Sanctification or Mortification or these sinnes saith Towne before God are no sinnes to faith they are meere nullities but to our sense and flesh they are sinnes So Saltmarsh and Eaton to sense reason experience or to unbeliefe that can but lye and deceive they are sinnes to faith and before God who seeth no sinne in us they are no sinnes Or as Master Denne saith They are sinnes in the conversation before men not in the conscience and before God and all come from this the Justified are under no Law of God and so cannot sinne if then they thinke their adulteries to be sinne that is sense unbeliefe ignorance of their Christian liberty and the erronious opinion of the old Adam Faith beleeveth Adultery to bee no sinne at all It s true to the beleever it is no condemning sinne no sinne such as actually bindeth them over to eternall wrath say we but not a nullity for that not for that an exorbitancie against no Law of God as the Libertine and his brother Antinomian say Then no sense of sinne no trouble of minde for sinne as good Saltmarsh saith can be in beleevers because where there is no transgression there is no Law and no trouble of minde for a breach of the Law This is an opinion of faith that Christ hath purchased a power to beleeve sinne to be no sinne and this is with David Georgius not to thinke shame of sinne but to be deadned to all sense of sinne and so Faith pulleth the conscience out of the justified man hee may sinne with ease CHAP. LXXV Libertines Familists and Antinomians free us from all Law and that we neither sinne nor are to be rebuked for sinne Paral. III. LIbertines said Wee were freed from all Law either directing commanding or condemning And so did David Georgius and so teach the Libertines of New England These that are in Christ are under no Law and Antinomians as Towne Saltmarsh Crisp Denne say We are freed from all the Law of God in all its offices to direct give light rule binde oblige or command as well as to threaten and condemne Paral. IV. Libertines taught That when we are once regenerate we can sinne no more but are as Angels So Libertines of New England and Antinomians say A beleever is as free from Hell Law and bondage on earth as if he were in heaven nor wants he any thing to make him so but to beleeve he is so And Hee that beleeveth saith Eaton that Christ hath taken away his sinnes is as cleane from sinne as Christ himselfe And to Faith there is no sinne and the beleevers person and works are perfect before God and free of sinne and sinfull imperfections Paral. V. When Libertines were rebuked for sin they said It s not I that sinne but my Asse or sinne dwelling in me and they cited that text 1 Joh. 3. He that is born of God sinneth not It s true Paul saith Rom. 7. Not I but sin dwelling in me but his meaning was it s not I as regenerate who sinne because I make not sinne my taske and worke nor doe I evill with the whole bensell of my soule the whole strength of my mind affections and will in regard the unrenewed part protesteth against sinne but I as unrenewed and as fleshly in part as halfe a sufferer I sinne being as a captive sighing in my fetters and complaining that I am wretched through necessitie of sinning I doe the evill I would not doe Rom. 7.17.18.22.23 But the Antinomians conspire with Libertines in the same sense for Towne saith That the old Adam and all his works are shut up under the Law and wrath of God So it is but the Old Adam the flesh the Law of the members that doth sin but it was never the Apostles minde to deny that a beleever once justified can sinne any more For in many things we sinne all Jam. 3.2 And if wee say we have not sinne we are lyars 1 Joh. 1. But Antinomians deny that beleevers can more sin then Christ himselfe or then the gloryfied in heaven and to a beleever there is no sinne God can see no sinne in them Now sure Libertines who said the state of the regenerate was an Angelike puritie did thinke sinnes acted by their Asse the flesh were no sinnes as Antinomians deny Adulteries and cousening and robbing done by the justified to be sinnes but seeming sinnes as Saltmarsh and no sinnes before God as Eaton saith CHAP. LXXVI Libertines and Antinomians destroy Scripture and make the Spirit all and some Paral. VI. LIbertines saith Calvin are so spirituall in their owne fancie that they count no more of the sacred word of God then of Fables except when it serves their turnes The places of Scripture
objected they said must not be taken in the Litterall sense because the Letter killeth the Spirit quickneth And they turne the Scripture in Allegories and high Spirituall Speculations and the Scripture in its kindly sense they called a dead Letter it s the spirit say they that quickneth So David Georgius and so doth M. Dell Serm. pag. 19. citing the same words so Randel the Familist in a Sermon said That Christs Parables from Sowing a Draw-net Leaven c. did prove that to expound the Scripture by Allegories was lawfull and all the things of this life as Seed the Way-side a Rocke the Sea a Net Leaven c. were Sacraments of Christ and he cited Doe this in Remembrance of me and that a spirituall minde in all the things of nature and of this life might see the mysteries of the Gospel This man who preacheth most abominable Familisme is suffered in and about London publikely twise on the Lords day to draw hundreds of godly people after him The New England Libertines say The will of God in the Word and the directions thereof are no Rule whereunto Christians are bound to conforme their life And the due search and knowledge of the holy Scriptures is no safe way of searching and finding Christ And all Doctrines Revelations and Spirits must bee tryed by Christ not by the word of Christ. And the whole Letter of the Scripture holdeth forth a covenant of works Saltmarsh The interpreting the Spirit thus in the Letter and in consequence hath much darkened the glory of the Gospel But I pray are not all the heads of Libertinisme and Antinomianisme their rejecting of the Lawes direction of the Scriptures of personall sanctification and of repentance and mortification the perfection of beleevers persons and works c. all meere consequences from Scripture the contrary being commanded expresly in Scripture So Saltmarsh saith The power of an outward Commandement and precept in the word bringeth but forth finer hypocrisie and the Spirit worketh not freely therewith And M. Towne hath much of this stuffe through his whole Booke Much like to this is the doctrine of Henry Nicholas in his Epistle to two Daughters of Warwicke Ar. 7. While the Apostles dayly went about with Christ and had the word of the Father dayly amongst them understood not the Spirit of the the Lord till the day of Pentecost that hee descended on them how should then the multitude of these which now say they are Christians and yet neither have nor know neither Spirit nor Word but go on with their fleshly prudencie in the Literall Scripture and set forth the same with their fleshly hearts before the simple people as it seemeth best unto them and say even so very stoutly We have the word of the Lord whereas it is but their owne word wherein they with their own prudencie are genered and begotten feele either perceive the same They reject the word of the Lord Jer. 8. Here giveth the Prophet a distinction or diversitie betweene the word of the Lord and the witnessing of an unregenerate man which he bringeth forth out of the Letter of the Scripture Here H. Nicholas maketh a time when the Apostles were under the teaching of the Father when they were unregenerated and not pardoned but led with the Letter of the Scripture and a time when they were under the teaching of the Holy Ghost and were regenerated So the New England Familists Rise raigne Er. 41. say There be distinct seasons of the working of the severall persons so the soule may bee said to bee under the Fathers and not the Sonnes and so long under the Sonnes worke and not the Spirits And just so Saltmarsh Free grace pag. 113. The Fathers before Christ might conceive themselves rather not destroyed then saved and rather not damned then redeemed but now is fulnesse of the Spirit and of free grace pag. 115. discovered And Denne Doctrine of John Baptist p. 51. The knowledge of both actuall and eternall remission was no Article of the Jewish Creed but now 55. is remission past and done 2. Here H. Nicholas makes a difference betweene the word of God as it is in the Letter and the word as it is in the Spirit as betweene the word of man to wit which is in the Letter and the word of the Lord which is in the Spirit So doth Saltmarsh betweene the interpreting of the Word in the Letter and in the consequence which darkneth the Gospel and the yeelding of the sense of the Scripture in the Spirit which must by opposition cleare the glory of the Gospel Shaddowes fleeing away pag. 8. So doth Cornwell Confer with J. Cotton pag. 17. say A conclusion following from the strength of humane reasoning is but a humane not a Divine Faith now we judge the litterall sense of the word to be the very meaning and kindly sense of the Holy Ghost and doe hold that the word hath not two sundry senses and that the letter of the Word and Spirit are not contrary but subordinate though the one that is the letter of the word may be without the Spirit and then the Letter is a dead thing to the heardned hearer not in it selfe but yet should not the Letter of the Scripture and outward ordinances or prophecying be despised more then the Spirit should be quenched 3. N. Nicholas here maketh two sort of regenerated persons Some regenerated by the Letter of the word these have but their owne word not the word of the Lord others are regenerated by the Spirit and these have the word of God So the New England Familists Er. 13. and Saltmarsh Free grace 177.178 as if one Spirit breathed in all the three tell us of a legall conversion by the outward Commandement Letter and terrors of the Law and Gospel and such are but hypocrits and others converted by the Spirit Protestants halfe not the Spirit and the word but conjoyne them for the Spirit is the Father and principall cause of the second birth and the Word the seed and instrument but their way is to abolish Word Seales and all Ordinances as Legall things It is true this wretched man seems to give enough to outward ordinances for he saith Epist. to the two Maides They be outward means set forth by God to direct people to the inward righteous life of Christ in the Spirit Yet in the Epistle as Answorth in his answer observeth hee calleth the outward ordinances but Ceremonies and perswades them not to suffer death in confessing the Scriptures to be the perfect rule of our faith and life against the Romish Antichristian Doctrine and Ceremonies For saith H. Nicholas No man doth rightly according to the truth of the holy Scriptures nor according to the spirituall understanding of the godly wisdome deale in it or use the true God-services of the holy word it becommeth not likewise that any man should take in hand to busie himselfe thereabout but
only the illuminated Elders in the godly wisdome which walk in the house of love And in the Epistle Let no man saith he boast himselfe in any of the works of righteousnesse or take on the same to salvation neither to condemnation before that hee in the Spirit of Christ through the love of the Father be renewed in all righteousnesse of life not that I meane in the Elementish Ceremoniall righteousnesse which the man setteth forth or occupieth out of his owne prudency but I meane in that righteousnesse which according to the heavenly truth is in the being of Christ and is set forth through the Spirit of God So this abominable wretch maketh all reading or hearing or beleeving the Scriptures to be Elementish carnall righteousnesse and that wee are to doe no good works to obtaine salvation nor to eschew any evill to be freed from condemnation but to study an inward righteousnesse in being Goded and Christed and in communicating with the essence and godly being M. Towne also maketh the Law a sort of directorie of walking as doth H. N. Assert grace pag. 38. I know not where to learne my duty to my Superiour but in the matter of the fift Command nor what Murther or Adulterie is but in the sixt and seventh But Towne forgetteth himselfe and pag. 3. saith We are from under the Law in all its authority dominion offices and effects yea hee denyeth that wee are under the power and teaching of the Law And Saltmarsh will have us not to borrow one beame of directing light from the Law so as he seemeth to stomach and to bee angry that the old Testament but especially the ten Commandements are printed in the Bible Yet what ever direction of walking wee have from the Law I find them in all their writings grudging at any Law or Gospel written because writing speaking vocall covenants are the dead and killing Letter fruitlesse and livelesse and that the Spirit immediatly acting is all our rule Paral. VII Libertines speake disgracefully of the Pen-men of Scripture and called Paul a broken vessell John stolidum juvenem a foolish young man Peter a denyer of God Mathew an Vsurer The Church was in her infancy said Da. Georgius Vnder Abraham and the Prophets in its young age under John Baptist Christ in the flesh and the Apostles it s grown and now presently under David the Christ its spirituall and perfect So many Antinomians turne perfectists Who say they having the Holy Ghost as well as the Prophets and Apostles can pen and speake Scripture from the same Spirit The New England Libertines are so farre on this way that they disgrace the Apostle Peter as a halfe-Legalist and say Peter leaned more to a covenant of works then Paul and that Pauls doctrine was more for free grace then Peters And Saltmarsh maketh all the Prophets in the Old Testament Legall men and Christ in the flesh and his Apostles preached free grace but in degrees and parts but we dare not saith hee preach the Gospel so in halves and quarters as yee doe And Christ and the Apostles preached grace faith repentance new obedience in scantling of Doctrine as they are meerely and barely revealed in the history of the Gospel or Acts of the Apostles where onely the Doctrine is not so much revealed as the practise But we Antinomians preach Christ the power of all the fulnesse of all that we may exalt him whom God hath exalted at his owne right hand Hence Saltmarsh 1. saith the Antinomians in England reveale more free grace and fulnesse of Christ in their Sermons then Christ and the Apostles did in the halfe of the New Testament or all the Prophets in the Old 2. Christ and the Prophets and Apostles except in the Epistles were Legall Preachers What be Legall Preachers that I wrong not Saltmarsh as he doth Christ the Prophets and Apostles I give it in his owne words Legalists are 1. such as compound and bargaine with God for salvation and submit not to the righteousnesse of God and lye downe in the sparks of their owne kindling are Christ his Prophets and Apostles such Such as from the notion of a covenant conceive a little too Legally of free grace Such as have neither the use nor freedome of the heavenly inheritance that are subject to death and bondage Such to whom God appeared onely as it were upon tearmes and conditions of reconciliation Such as in fasting and other acts of obedience dealt with God to get some love from God which Christ himselfe had not gotten for us So belike the Prophets that dyed before Christ went not to heaven but to some chamber or higher roome in hell called Limbus Patrum or to some other place for Saltmarsh saith they had neither the use nor freedome of the heavenly inheritance whither then went their soules after death 2. They were chosen to salvation some other way then Jaakob Rom. 9. they purchased the love of free election by fasting and pennance 3. Their sinnes were not pardoned nor they reconciled to God a belying of the Old Testament 4. The Prophets submitted not to the righteousnesse of God but sought righteousnesse by the works of the Law All these how they agree in part to Christ John Baptist and the Apostles in the first halfe of the New Testament let Saltmarsh and Antinomians see and consider Paral. VIII Libertines said The whole Scripture was nothing but the Spirit of God and the Letter of the Scripture not Scripture but the Spirit was both Christ and the Scripture and a godly life must be the Spirit So the Libertines of New-England There is a Testimony of the Spirit and voice unto the soule meerely immediate without any respect unto or concurrence with the Word And from this Wee are not to keepe a constant course of praying at set houres or alwayes but as the Spirit move us And all doctrines and revelations must bee tryed by Christ that is Christ dwelling in us in a spirituall manner not by the Word of Christ or the Scripture In this same Grammer speake Antinomians So Saltmarsh The Law now is in the Spirit What is that And in the Gospel for a beleever to walke by nor is saith he holinesse and sanctification now such as is fashioned by the Law or outward Commandement but by the preaching of Faith by which the Spirit is given which renewes and sanctifies a beleever and makes him the very Law of Commandement in himselfe and his heart the very two Tables of Moses This is to say the Word begetteth not Faith but onely Historically instructeth the flesh and expressely in terminis the Libertines sense and minde is that the Word is changed in a Spirit without Scripture and the Christian in his walking and conversation which to Antinomians is all in faith is the Spirit it selfe Towne is much in this through his whole booke to
two contrary things Towne saith If the Spirit be free why will you controule or rule it by Law as if the Law could contradict any Spirit save the Euthyasticall Spirit of H. Nicholas and Antinomians 8. The Letter of the Scripture externall Ordinances Church-assemblies are nothing that there is no reformation but inward and of the Spirit as M. Del lately Preached before the House of Commons That the Gospel and a beleevers Law as Saltmarsh saith is Christ and his Spirit 9. All outward serâice ordinances confession of Christ before men are things free and indifferent and the Popish externall Service of Masse Images Pope Bishops Cardinals Deanes and such dirt are lawfull and free onely Antinomians and Saltmarsh will have them a little Legall and literall and that is all their fault 10. The laying downe of our lives and forsaking all for Christ are to be expounded Spiritually and Allegorically as Familists custome is and that abominable Peece called Philosophy dissected doth and so are other Scriptures to be expounded in the Spirit not in the Letter and in consequence as saith Saltmarsh to wit not of confession of Christ to the death as James who was beheaded for the Gospel Acts 12. and the Apostle Peter who dyed for Christ and the Saints who loved not their lives to death and were slaine for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus and the two witnesses against whom the Beast that ascendeth out of the bottomlesse pit made warre and killed them and the Apostles who were scourged the Saints who were killed all the day long and counted as sheepe for the slaughter for the Lords sake and confessed Christ and were not ashamed of him before men lest Christ should deny them before his Father and the holy Angels They say God delighteth not in our bloud and laying downe our lives and the outward man or forsaking of Father Mother Brethren Sisters and contrary to the Word of truth but it s spiritually meant of forsaking a Pope within us 2 Thess. 2. the Antichrist in our heart the Man of sinne so that we may lawfully receive the name and marke of the beast and conforme to the Masse or any Religion so we keepe the heart to God Baal the Devill may have the outward man 11. None can dispense the Ordinances Baptisme and the Lords Supper but the Regenerate I wish Independents in the constitution of their Churches without any warrant of the Word had not paved the way to this error 12. Outward Baptisme is no Baptisme which yet is a lawfull Ordinance of God though it bee not profitable to save without the inward Baptisme of the Spirit Antinomians border well-neere with Familists in many of these points For Saltmarsh is much upon the Spirit for a Law and against one beam of the light of the Letter of the Law and against all externall Ordinances Covenants Vowes as Legall and Old Testament service against conditions or performances or doing on our part by any Gospel-covenant yea against beleeving in that tenor of a condition as contrary to the Spirit and to Free grace against Precepts or Commands in the Gospel and he is much for reasoning and perswading against all commanding Law the Gospel is rather to them a promise then a Covenant against personall mortification trouble for sinne as all Legall unlawfull now smelling of bondage and Law-service and bondage it is to pray at such houres unlesse the Spirit move us to expound Scripture to expound the Spirit he meaneth the Scripture in the Letter and consequence hath much darkened the glory of the Gospel Now if Saltmarsh know any thing in Controversies betweene us and Papists he may know the Papists give sundry and divers senses to the Scripture that is Literall Spirituall Mysticall Allegoricall Tropologicall Anagogicall all which wee reject and acknowledge that the Scripture hath but one litterall Grammaticall and genuine sense which the nature of the words whether they be Sacramentall or Figurative as when Christ spoke of eating his flesh and said of bread This is my body or without figures doth carry in their face The Spirituall sense is not a sense different from the Literall as if they were two contrary or divers senses and therefore Saltmarsh rejecting the sense of Scripture in the Letter must imbrace the Familists and H. Nicholas or the Papists Allegorizing of the Scripture the greatest violence that can be offered to the Spirit the Author of Scripture the Spirit is the efficient by whose grace we gather the right Litterall sense of the Scripture and giveth no sense divers farre lesse contrary to Scripture as Libertines doe in the fancied revelations without beside and contrary to Scripture and their fond Allegories for such wee remit Saltmarsh to his brethren the Familists and the Author of Phylosophie defected and the like CHAP. LXXXIV Master Dell and Saltmarsh deny all outward reformation all Scripture seales Ordinances with Familists and flee to an Euthyasticall Spirit and an internall word onely ANd among other Antinomians Master Dell in his Sermon before the House of Commons excelleth in debasing the Scriptures and all Ordinances and setting up his Euthysiasticall Spirit not the Spirit of God for all For he holdeth that In the time of Moses and the Law till Christ came there was no true inward reformation but notwithstanding of outward duties performances Ceremonies and strict Lawes did carry along the severity of death they were inwardly as corrupt and wicked as the very Heathen and without any true reformation before God till Christ came in the flesh with the ministration of the Spirit But this man understood not his owne Text Hebr. 9.10 in which the Spirit of God opposeth Leviticall service in Sacrifices Ceremonies to Gospel-life not to Morall duties or inward conversion as if there had been no conversion no remission no actuall salvation to Abraham David who were justified as we are Rom. 4.4 5 6. and saved by the grace of Christ as we are Act. 15.11 as Dell imagines dancing to Dennes piping one Antinomian to another for both agree that David Asaph Heman Moses prayed and made heavenly and spirituall Psalmes being as unreformed inwardly and as farre from the Gospel-justification which David Psal. 32.1.2 Rom. 4.4 5 6. esteemed his blessednesse as very heathen 2. Del maketh Moses his Doctrine the Letter Christ Spirit and life So Del followeth the Antichrist in the Councell of Trent though he will have all Presbyterians the last prop of the Antichrist in England Sess. 7. cap. 2. Si quis dixerit ea ipsa novae legis Sacramenta à Sacramentis antiquae legis non differe nisi quia ceremoniae sunt aliae alij ritus externi anathema sit The Sacraments of the Old Testament say Papists doe but signifie not exhibit grace Socinus goeth before M. Del in this For Socinus saith in 1 Epist. Joan.
without any foregoing teaching under paine of corporall punishments to the Jewes as he and his saith Presbyterians doe now urge consciences how shall Del prove that 2. Hee must say that outward and meerely litterall observing of Lawes and Synodicall Decrees according to the Word of God for any others beside or against the Word the Presbyterians know none without Faith in Christ doe make men perfect as pertaining to conscience which is Dels dreame not our doctrine 3. Hee and his condemne all Lawes of the Civill Magistrate yea all the written Scripture Law and Gospel and say an Arbitrary and Enthysiasticall Spirit in the Christian Magistrate without all Civill Lawes inacted or written should conclude of the heads and lives of Christians without the Law Morall or Gospel and so condemnes all Acts of Parliaments Answ. 2. You could not have heard more if Henry Nicholas or Anton. Pocquius or David Georgius had beene preaching to the Honourable House for Del followâs them at the heeles For Henry Nicholas if you but change Dels word of Reformation into the word regeneration or begetting in the same Spirit debaseth Christ in the Scriptures and all outward worship as if there were one Christ in the Scripture and another contrary Christ in the Spirit and inward working for sure hypocriticall and meere externall reformation and the inward reformation are by Protestants made two contrary reformations the one from God the other not from flesh and blood onely but from the Devill So Henry Nicholas If I could give all my goods to the poore c. If I had not love it were not any thing to me that is whosoever hath not Christ he is without God and without righteousnesse in this world I meane the being like Christ which is received through the power of the Holy Ghost and not any Ceremoniall Christ which one man speaketh to another or promiseth to another through the Ceremoniall service Dels Grammar is Pag. 6. through the word of the letter in their bookes in outward formes outward worship outward confession which he out of his prudencie according to his fleshly minde hath set up ô no the worke or begetting or procreating of the children of God commeth not so slenderly to passe as men now at this time teach each other out of their unregenerate Spirit Del out of a Spirit not inwardly reformed the bodie of sinne not being destroyed no reformation can come Henry Nicholas condemning all Scripture as a Literall and carnall thing and an Elementish Ceremoniall and fleshly service yea and confession with the mouth as carnall outward hypocriticall and Pharisaicall and doth expressely reject all the teaching of men or by the ministery of men which the Apostle asserteth Ephes. 4.11 1 Cor. 4.2 2 Cor. 4.7 And the Lord Jesus the great Apostle of our profession Math. 28.19 20. Act. 1.6 8. and pronounceth the Ministery of one man teaching another to be fleshly prudence and not such a way by which the begetting or procreating of the children of God commeth to passe Now that Monster of men knew Protestants whom hee refuteth in this taught against Pelagians and the Pope whom he denieth to be the Antichrist and Papists that we utterly deny that the Scriptures of themselves yea that the Man Christs teaching in the flesh or Paul or the Apostles Preaching or any mans externall instructing of another man most soundly according to the Scriptures can without the hearing and learning of the Father Joh. 6.45 and his omnipotent drawing of men to the Sonne Joh. 6.44 and the inward teaching of the Spirit inwardly reforme or beget men over againe to God So his condemning of one mans teaching of another as Fleshly Ceremoniall Elementish is a simple rejecting of the Scriptures and all outward and externall worship And just as David Georgius rejected the Literall Christ and asserted himselfe to bee the Spirituall Christ and true David In the same manner M. Del speaking of inward Reformation that is conversion of a sinner to God that onely being his Gospel-reformation hee knoweth well Presbyterians and the Assâmbly of Divines who are if they shall condemne his Gospel for the substance of it the enemies of the truth of Christ and the last prop of Antichrist in the Kingdome doe teach that inward reformation or destroying of the body of sinne is not wrought by the onely Letter of the Word and the teaching of men or Lawes or Constitutions of Synods but that wee conjoine with all outward meanes the inward and omnipotent power of the Holy Ghost without whose grace all other meanes are nothing yea Pauls planting and Apollo his watering are nothing effectuall to an inward reformation M. Del argueth against the Holy Ghost and Paul who Preached the Gospel to the blaspeming Jewes and scoffing Athenians Act. 13 Act. 17. for all he could say to them was but outward and litterall preaching the Apostles were but men and not Lords of the heart and therefore could but worke outward conformity to outward duties when the heart remained corrupt Nor is it much that Dell saith there is neede of an outward change in the Gospel which indeed is a belying of himselfe for an outward change is an outward reformation and hee saith Pag. 4.5 Gospel-reformation is a destroying of the body of sinne in the faithfull and elect by the presence and operation of the righteousnesse of God dwelling in their heart by Faith besides this I know no other An outward change is an outward reformation besides this But this is nothing Del acknowledgeth neither Ministery outward worship or outward ordinances as Familists did before him For the Author of that blasphemous Peece called Theologia Germanica saith Just men have neede of no law are led by the Spirit and are not to bee taught by any Law what they should doe or leave undone seeing the Spirit of God which is their instructer will teach them sufficiently neither is any thing to be commanded or injoyned them as to doe good to shunne evill or the like but Pag. 72. Yet hee saith more then Del doth to wit That both the life of Christ as also all Commandements Lawes Ordinances and the like ought not to be laid aside and cast off and to be neglected contemned and derided And Henry Nicholas saith The Lord speaketh in the Scripture but he saith withall that the Spirit is the Word not the Letter So Del maketh an opposition betweene the Letter in the bookes and the living Word of God in the heart 3. Del speaketh exclusively Other reformation beside this of the heart saith he I know none 2. Gospel-reformation saith hee onely mindes the reformation of the heart If only then it minds not externall reformation 3. Christ speaking touching the worship of the New Testament saith saith he Not one word of any outward forme So that God in his Gospel-reformation aymes at nothing but the heart Then hee aymes at no outward change nor any externall worship
inner man only and mindes onely the reforming of the heart and that doth change the outward man then he excludeth all Civill Externall and Ecclesiasticall power which is busied about outward formes outward orders outward government outward confession of Christ before men or confession of sinnes before men and outward practises For as Del saith Pag. 6.7 Gospell-reformation medleth not with reforming the externall man and so not with the preaching of the Word receiving the Sacraments reading Scriptures praying in publike confessing Christ before men if in the heart or the inward man a beleever have the Spirit and retaine God in his heart Dels reformation medleth not with outward practises to forbid and rebuke such practises as Paricides Murthers Incests Adulteries Thefts Opressions Lying Blasphemy Idolatry Sorcerie Sodomie neither the Preachers of the Gospel can reforme these with the Word nor the Magistrate with the sword by any warrant of the Gospel the Magistrate by the Gospel Rom. 13. beareth not the sword to take vengeance on ill doers for Gospel-reformation meddles not with outward practises nor outward order then it medleth not with the outward man nor commandeth it the outward man to walke circumspectly nor to walke in Christ nor to confesse Christ before men as we desire Christ to confesse us before his father and his holy Angels nor to observe externall order in the worship of God nor to abstaine from fornication evill speaking clamours bitternesse for all these be outward practises contrary to the rule of the Gospel and though the soule and spirit not the body nor whole man should be sanctified wholly as the Apostle prayeth Yet by this way I see not but all externals of either worship or conversation that concerneth our outward walking must be things indifferent and free neither commanded nor forbidden under the Gospel It is free to kill our brother or not to kill him to whore sweare worship Idols cousen and deceive steale robbe oppresse if the Faith of imputed righteousnesse bee in the heart then is the body of sinne destroyed saith Del and another Reformation that is outward he knowes not and Dels argument runnes thus The onely true Gospel-reformation is spirituall not carnall But the Civill and Ecclesiasticall Reformation is not spirituall but carnall and wrought by the power of flesh and bloud c. Answ. The Major is doubtsome and the Assumption false 1. For civill Reformation as civill is not spirituall formally but onely materially and objectively spirituall But to say that Ecclesiasticall Reformation should be spirituall as spirituall is opposed to externall and outward and onely spirituall and in the heart Satan could not fancie a more wicked untruth to destroy all godlynesse and holynesse as it appeares in the outward man in the duties of the first and second Table for Gospel-reformation as touching Gods part is inward spirituall invisible done by him that is Lord of soule and conscience but this is but the halfe though the choisest halfe of Reformation but as touching mans part it is externall and also spirituall and done by the Preaching of the Word and discipline of the Church For sure the Apostles and Elders Acts chap. 15. Reformed the Churches of Antioch Hierusalem Syria and Silicia and that spiritually and externally for these are not contrary when they send to them commandements not to bee circumcised nor to keepe the Ceremoniall Law but to abstaine from bloud and things strangled as at that time scandalous and from fornication as a sinne against the Morall Law because they that held the contrary opinion were lying Teachers and perverted soules and so deformed with a spirituall deformity the Churches of God as Del and Familists now doe Now the Assumption That Ecclesiasticall reformation is carnall as done by men and not spirituall is most false for carnall it may bee in some part and in some sense that is standing in outward externall Commandements and yet spirituall given by the Law-giver an infinite Spirit tying and obliging the Spirits of men and leading to a spirituall end so the Ceremonies of Moses are carnall not sinnefull not unlawfull vicious fleshly as Del pag. 2.3.4 foulely ignorant of the sense and meaning of his owne Text he preached on expoundeth it in opposition to Gospel-reformation which is spirituall lawfull not fleshly and sinnefull For then to obey the Ceremoniall Law had been sinnefull and unlawfull to the Jewes and God must have given Commandements to the Jewes which were sinnefull and unlawfull judgements and statutes and ordinances which is the blaphemy of old Manicheans So the Reformation done by the Gospel preached and by lawfull Assemblies holding forth the truth and condemning contrary errors is carnall that is externall and wrought by flesh and bloud Del meaneth by the word carnall the corruption of flesh and bloud as the phrase is taken Math. 16.17 which is a manifest untruth it is wrought by men consisting of flesh and bloud in a carnall that is in an externall outward audible and visible manner and yet spirituall also it is in that very externall Reformation is according to the Word of God who is a Spirit 2. It layes an obligation on the consciences and spirits of men both actively to reforme in that outward way though God must make it effectuall by an inward reformation it leadeth men even as it is externall to a spirituall end obedience to God in Christ according to the rule of the Gospell The Church and men take not on them to reforme hearts but instrumentally by going about an outward reformation by Planting Sowing Watering and labouring the Lords husbandrie his Church I might borrow Dels Argument and say true feeding and nourishing of men and upholding their life with bread is from the omnipotent power of God Deut. 8.3 For man liveth not by bread onely and inferre that they are grossely mistaken who take true nourishing of men to be outward plowing harrowing sowing earing grinding for all these are carnall fleshly and wrought by flesh and bloud and by the power of man but true effectuall nourishing commeth not from the plough or the husbandman but from the mighty power of God and therefore if God nourish plowing sowing earing cannot bee amisse So the Libertines made God the onely author of sinne Del citeth Joh. 4. God is a Spirit c. A place that Gnosticks Enthusiasts Libertines Anabaptists abused to deny all externall worship and acts of Sanctification and Towne cannot answer Doctor Taylor who objecteth that Antinomians deny all externall worship for he saith A man is a fulfiller of the Law in Christ who dyed for him so that faith is all and the same saith Del pag. 4.5 Gospel-reformation is a destroying of the body of sinne by the presence and operation of the righteousnesse of God dwelling in their hearts by faith He speakes not one word of sanctification and personall mortifying of the body of sinne and of walking with God but saith He knoweth no
hath undertaken to doe the powers of hell cannot hinder these that belong not to Christs care why should they heare pray knock or why should the Word be preached to them Saved they cannot be as not belonging to Christs care So saith the New England Familist If Christ will let me sinne let him looke to it upon his honour be it So Del yeeldeth to the Pelagian Arminian and Socinian that exhortations motives reasons preaching praying ought not to be for these that are absolutely reprobate and upon the same ground they need use no meanes who are absolutely chosen to glory Christs love and care is as great to reforme inwardly and to convert as to redeeme upon the same ground these whom God hath decreed shall live so many yeares sure God undertakes to fulfill all his decrees with alike strength of irresistible omnipotency they need not eate drinke sleepe plow eare labour for no power in hell can infringe one decree of God more then another all husbandmen sit idle all tradesmen buy and sell and labour with your hands no more be at rest and quiet take M. Dels word Gods undertaking takes away all reforming in men all undertaking in second causes the husband-man can no more feed your body with bread then he can redeeme your soules with his bloud both belongs to Christs care But though Paul knew it belonged to Christs care Rom. 9. To call whom he predestinate yet he had exceeding sorrow in his heart for his kinsmen the Jewes to save some of them that is to reforme them and the care of all the Churches lay on them M. Del hath more courage he will not be dismayed But wee heard that Libertines from Gods working all in all creatures said the creature cannot sinne cannot doe good sin is but an opinion And all good saith the Familist is onely God And God becommeth all things in man and nothing is or hath being but God and his will God is all and the creature nothing Del by this Argument inferres a cessation of all second causes of Ministery Ordinances Reformers converters of soules by Word and Gospel of Heaven and Earth Sunne Fire Water they may all sleepe God undertaketh to doe all and no powers of Hell can resist him no lesse then Christ redeemeth his alone Parliaments ought not to sit Assemblies should not dispute Ministers should not preach nor Print Sermons sure Christ shall make good his owne undertaking to reforme though Del and I both were buried and neither trouble our selves with Pulpit or presse But shall men therefore omit all dueties in outward reforming Stoicks can say no more Del Pag. 14.15.16 Holding forth the meanes of Reformation he saith Christ reformeth by the Word onely and doth all he calles rejects bindes looses terrifies comforts inlightens makes blinde saves damnes and does nothing in his kingdome without the Word Now are yee cleane through the Word The Word is quicke and powerfull he reformes not you with outward power but by his Word I will publish the decree the Spirit of the Lord is upon me My word shall not depart out of thy mouth When the time of Reformation was come he sent his Disciple to carry on the worke of Reformation he saith Goe teach all nations he sent them not out with Swords and Guns and this Word only truely reformes the outward power of the world sets up an image of reformation only Answ. 1. Del and Familists seeme to extoll the Word of God but they juggle with David Georgius and Henry Nicholas who understood by the word Verbum internum the Enthysiasticall inward word of the minde and the Spirit for he and Saltmarsh as they are sparing in citing Chapter and Verse of Scripture so they never expound this Word to bee the Scripture nor can I observe in all their writings that they call it the Scripture as Christ and his Apostles frequently say The Scriptures must be fulfilled as it is written in the Scriptures and in the Prophets The Antinomians in and about London Deny the Scriptures to be the word of God they say the Scripture is but the Letter not the Word of God 2. They say They themselves by the Spirit can write and dite Scripture Mistresse Hutchison with hers said That her particular revelations about events to fall out are as infallible as any parts of Scripture and that shee is bound asmuch to beleeve them as the Scripture for the same holy Ghost is the Author of both Some say they can worke Miracles as if the same immediatly inspiring Holy Ghost and in the same measure that was in the Prophets Apostles and Pen-men of Scripture were also the same sanctifying Spirit of grace that is in all beleevers whereas these differences are cleare betweene them 1. The immediately inspiring Spirit rendred the Prophets and Apostles in that they spake and wrot by such inspiration the immediate organs of the Holy Ghost and such as could not erre So that their word was formally Scripture which priviledge is not given to the most sanctified 2. The Prophets and Apostles were acted above the reach of free will humane doubtings discourses ratiotinations in searching and finding out the truth they needed not advise counsell teaching from men or Angels from flesh and bloud to come to the very knowledge of the Letter of the Gospel Gal. 1.11.12 Ephes. 3. vers 2.3 4. But the Saints need such helps though the Spirit teach them all things to come to know the Letter of Law and Gospel 3. What the Prophets spake God spake what holy men speaketh is Gods word secondarily and in so farre as it agreeth with the written Word of God and no otherwise Jeremiahs word was not secondarily the Word of God and so farre forth onely the Word as it agreeth with the writings of Moses and though Paul forbid Circumcision and Moses command it Pauls command is no lesse primarily and simply the formall object of Faith and the written Word of God then the word of Moses or the Ten Commandements written on Tables of stone by God himselfe But what Del and Antinomians say contrary to the Word of God is nothing else but the very word of the Devill 2 That Del and Libertines with him meane by the Word of God not the Scripture but the Spirit of God in his graces I prove because saith Saltmarsh This Law of the Gospel is not such as it was before a meere Law in the Letter but it is now under the Gospel a law of life spirit or glory it is a Law in the hand of Christ and with the promises of Christ to make it spirituall indeed therefore the word is called Scriptures given by Divine inspiration and the Spirit is called the annointing and teacheth all things and I will put my Law in their inward parts But the Gospel as distinguished from the Law and written by the Apostles is but a meere Law in the Letter
a trance Prophets not ever under actuall vision as Prophets when they preach their visions to men and in a far other case then when they are in a ârance aâd actuââly see the visions of God Prophets see not really the things themselves present offered to them in the visions of God but only the speces or images therof in the decree of God or some other way The Spirit opposed to that which is bodily and to that which is externall How externall Ordinances are contrary to the Spirits acting and how not Three wayes of unâân between the word and the Spirit How the word remaineth in the new birth and how it passeth away We are to wait on God in the use of outward Ordinances though the Spirit worke not ever with the word nor upon our hearts Divers wayes of the Spirits concurring with the word How the Spirit is opposite to the letteâ and to externals The spirit contrary to human eloquence ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã To speake drying and coldly is not to speake in the Spirit That which is most spirituall excludeth most of us yet not alwayes our discoursing and arguing part The Spirit is contrary to wilde and carnall logicke The expressions of the spirituall estate The Spirit determineth the actions of the spirituall man according to their specification or nature and kinde How obliging Law and a free Spirit consisteth together How morall compulsion of the Law is exhausted by the freenesse of a Gospel-spirit of love Threatning had influence on the will of the first Adam not of the second or of confirmed Angels The place 2 Pet. 1. untill the day-starre arise vindicated as making nothing for a naked light of the Spirit without the Scriptures How the Spirit is called the day-star how true that is to be taken the more of the letter the lesse of the Spirit and what truth is in it How we are changed into the same spiritualnesse contained in the Gospel Jer. 31. We know none of the Familists new discoveries of the Spirit that are not warranted by the word Act 9.23 Act 26 23. Luk 4 20 21 22 23. How duâies are ãâ¦ã in the Gâspel Aâl the Gospell to Antinomians a mâere killing letter as the Law is The word spirituall beyond figures and letters in every consideration The Spirit determineth the actions of the spirituall man according to the exercise of them The order of acting in supernatural actions often from the spirit· The assumption of a syllogisme of our reflect acts of knowledge of our spiritull state is at lengh proven only by sense and the testimony of the spirit without discoursing How far the Saints are to leave room for new light Many new deductions from ancient truths may be known which were knowne before only implicitly and in the an eâedent not distinctly Preaching of duties or of externall worship not contrary to the teaching of the Spirit as Antinomians dreame What the Law of the Spirit of life âs Characters of a spirituall condition Other characters of a spirituall disâosition Sparkles of glory p. 271. The written word to Familists is as a type or shadow of the ceremonial law that perisheth but wee hold the word written and preached to be the everlasting Gospel Ordinances of the written word and preaching are to continue to the end Sparkles of glory 314 315. Divers wayes and formes of worshipping of God and of leaving these formes and ascending higher and higher from natuââll to civill and morall Religion frâm thence to Law then to Johns baptism then to Christ in the flesh then to pure Gospel then to poore and all-all-Spirit or Familists phancies How mortification is a signe of a spirituall condition a There is nothing in this Petition the smels of Christs ointments nothing that looks with any face like the anointing that teacheth all things nothing to heighten Christ much to flatter K Iames all to lift that abominable impostor H. Nichoâas up above Christ the stile and words full of gall against Puritans and the truly godly in England thâe words base earthly low devilish hereticall temporizing a Basilicon Doron wâitten to Prince Henry b Their fleshly and abominable doctrine as especially that the Familists may wallow in adulteries blood rebellion perjury and if the Spirit helpe them not against these sinnes they are as innocent as the maid forced in the field who did cry and there was none to helpe and so by no Law can be guilty See their tenets as H. Nicholas taught b Their foule opinions may here be read in this Treatise and in H. Nicholas writings c King Iames was misinformed in that for Familists and the godly unjustly called Puritans are as contrary as light and darknesse d The unjustly so called Puritans did never owne Browne nor Penry who set on foot the old doctrine of the Anabaptâsts in England and Enthusiasticall revelations beside the word of God e It is not unlike that such fleshly teachers who crave Libertâ of conâcience to themselves will petition the Prince that the tyrannous laws of Prelates be executed against the truely godly and that liberty be denied to all save to themselves only a proper character of Hereticks and Schismaticks e The Familists and Antinomians because Purirans are esteemed the godly party now call themselves but most unjustly the true successors of the Puritans and all the godly opposite ãâã their way who strive to walke with God they call Legalists Pharisâes literall Doctors but because they change all colours with the court and wind oft times they are enemies to old non-conformists calâed sometime Puritans in that 1. against Puritans they make all externalls indifferent 2. They reject Scripture and imbrace revelations 3. They contemne close walking with God as pharaisme and law-living f But I noted before that Familists will have no Magistrates over them and we may see it to be their practise this day g The Familists subjection of their consciences to the spirituall Popish lawes of Prelates prove them to bee men of more wide consciences then Puritans they need not feare to bee called Puritans g Deceivers as Simon Magus and others take godly titles to themselves for H. N. saith fidelitas docl c. 4. sect 11. beside Gods service of love there is not another in heaven or in earth here they call themselves the family of God h They knew well that Prelates imbittered the mind of K. James against Puritans his faithfullest subjects i They say it to the praise of their Mr. Henry Nicholas that he names no mans name but here they name both sects and names k Protestants know Puritans to be godly and sound in the faith Familists turne their backe then on the Protestants and the soundest of them l Reader iudge how the Familists and Antinomians now in England shall deale with Puritans and the truly godly what a bloody heart they beare toward them since their fathers the old Familists do persecute them with so bloody a tongue before their
h Denne ser. of the man of sinne pag. 9.10.11.12 i Saltmarsh Free grace pâg 154. k Towne âsser pag. 39. Rollo in Ioan Dum jubeo credere omnia j. beo Calvin Fides omnia in se contineâ l Saltmarsh Free grace pag. 84.85 Heb 13.20.21 Antinomians deny âll peâsânall holynesse or any necessity thereof and make cantionaây righteousnesse all m Denne conf pag. 30.31 n Gataker Shaddowes without substance pag. 36. answer to Saltmarsh of Free grace o Math. 7.21 Math. 12.50 p Ephes. 4.24 q 1 Cor. 15.58 r Saltmarsh Free grace 168.169 a Towne asser 9. â0 b Rom. 8.14 c Gal. 5.18 The obliging rule of the Law not contrary to Gospel love d Hâb 12 2â How the Gospel and the Law demand the same debt of obedience how not Saltmarsh Free gracc 168 169. Neither the Iewes under the Law nor we under the Gospel could ever buy the free love or grace of Christ. b Rom 9.11 12 1â 4 â5 16 7. c Iob. â â6 1 Ioh. 4.9 The error of the Jewes a farre other thing then their state and Pedagogie though d Rom. 9.31 32. Rom. 4.1 2 3.4 Antinomians confound then e Rom 10.13 f Gâl 3. â4 25 ââ 8.19 20 21 22. Gal. 4.1 2 3 4 â g Esai 1.11 12 13 1â 15 16 17. ãâã 4â â3 24.25 l. r. 7 21 22 23 24. Mâ 6.7 8. Esâ 66.1 h Zach 7. vers 5 6. Esa. 8. veâs 3.4 5. i Iob. 1.9 cap. 2.4 5. k Hââ 7. â4 l Ioh 6. â6 27. m Towne osseâ Grace pa. 120. Honey combe pag. 15. n Esâ 64.8 Esa. â3 16 Deut. 32.18 Maâach 1.6 o Psal. 2.11 p Hoâ â 5 Ier. 33.9 q Psal. 130.4 r Genes 15.1 s Psal. 16.5 6. t Psal. 73.25 u Psal. 45.10 11. Cant. â 16 Cant. 1.7 Cânt 3.1 2 3 4. Cant. 5.6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1â x Psal. 78.34 35 36. y 1 Sam. 6.19.20 Deut. 28.1 2 3 4 5. Esa. 1.19 a 1 Tim 4. â 1 Câr 9.24 25. We strive for an incorruptible crown Heb. â0 34 Ye have in hâaven a better and enduring substance Heb. 11 1â.26 b Rev. 2â 3 4 Phil. 1 â3 c Luk. 18 6.7 d Matâ 7.7 e Ioh. 14.13 Town âssâr 8. â b Sâltmarsh Free grace 179 180. c Townâ assâr pâg 3.4.5 d Saltmârâh Free grace e Towne âsser pag. 6. f Towne asser pag 9.10 pag. 12.13 g Towne asser pag. 38. h Towne asser 1â7 i Rise raigne âr 22. Antinomians will have us oâliged to no dutie which we have noâ power to performe as the old Pelagians ãâã k Mârk â6 15 l Matth. 18.19.20 m Rise raigne er 34. n Rise raigne er 59. a Rise raigne er 51. b Sâltmarsh Free grace 1â0 New supply from Christ necessary notwithstanding of a sââcke within c 2 Pet. 1.12 13. 2 Cor. 7.6 d Phâl â 13 e 2 Coâ â 8 f Râm 7 23.24 25. g 2 Cor. 2 14. 2 Câr â 9 10 h 2 Cor. 1.9 10. i 1 Pet. 1.6 7. a Saltmarsh Free grace 180.181 b Towne asser grace pag. â9 How we gâther peace from sâirituall performance c Lâk 7.47 Peace with God not the same with peace from our selves d Rom. 5.7 What qualified performance can bottom our peace e Towne asser 1.9.120 2 Câr 1. â2 Râm 14.17 Esa. 26.9 verâ 1â k Towne ãâ¦ã pag. âââ l Râse raigne er 5â m Saâtmârsh Free grace pag. 1â0 n 1 Pet. â 2 o 2 Pet â â p Rom â5 4 q Ioh. 15.10 r Iob 23.12 Cant. 4.11 t Psal. 19.10 u Psal. 119.103 x Vers. 127. y Vers 14. z Vers. 72. a Vers 111. b Rom. â 4 c Psal. 77. â 2 â 4 5 6. vers 11. d Psal. 63 2. e 1 Pet. 2.3 f Iob. 35.10 Antinomians reject experiences g Rise raigne er 16. h Saltmarsh Free grace pag. 179 180. i 1 Cor. 4 7 k Saltmarsh Free grace 61 6â.63.64 Towne asser grâce pag. 120. Cââspe vâl â Ser. 15.4 2 433.3â.435.4â6 Râse raine ruine er 33. To act by vertue of or in obedience to a command is Legall a Saltmarsh Free grace pag. 31. b Rise reigne er 60. c Rise raigne eâ 72. d Rise er 75 er 77. Vnsavâurie speeches er â g Crâspe vol. 2. Ser. 5. pag. 32 430 431.432 433. c. Cornwel confer of M. Cotton pag. 8.9 â0 11.12 c. i Towne asser of grace pag. 25. k Saltmarsh Free grace pag. 31. l Saltmarsh Free grace pag. 17.18 Shaddowes fleeing away pag. 5.6 m Towne assert grace pag. 137. Naturall and externall devotion cannot argue the mans translation from death to life To eye the actings of the Spirit in our selves and overlooke our selves is the surest arguing of a spiritualâ state Keeping of the Commandements may prove to our owne spirits that we are in Christ. n 1 Ioh. 5.13 o 1 Ioh. 3.14 p 1 Ioh. 3. â8 q 1 Ioh. 2.22 r 1 Ioh. 5.13 s 1 Ioh. 3.10 t 1 Ioh. 3.18 u 1 Ioh. 3.22 x 1 Ioh. 3.7 y Cornwel âonfer of M. Co to pag. â7 z Saltmarsh Shaddowes fleâing away pag. â Calvin Inst. advers Libeti An Pockqââus ut Exâââiâiabam nu aâiquid intellâgeâe nec quic quam intellâgâ Dâus enâm intel ectus meus est virtus ãâã Calv. pag. 460. 1 Ioâ 3. â4 1 Ioh 1.7 1 Ioâ â 3 b 1 Ioâ 5. â 3 Suâârnaturall acts may reciprocally prove one another and argue our spirituall conâââor c Cornwell confe with Cotton pag. 18.19.20.21 d Rise raigne er 67. e Towne asser pag. 66. f Rise raigne er 17. g Esa. 38 3. h Psalm 18 21 22. i Iob 23.11 12. k Ier. 15.15 16 7. l Cant. 1.5 m Canâ 3.1 n Cant. 5.1 o Esa. 16.8.9 p Esa. 57. â5 caâââ â cap. â 1.4 Psal 37 11. Psal 15.9 q Râm 9 3â 32 33. Râm 0.3 Pâal 130. â Psal. 14.2 Acts. â0 31 3â 4 Heb. 13 18 2 Tim. 4.7 8 1 Cor. 15.9.10 Antinomians conspire with Papists to deny alâ evidence of our certainty of being in Christ and the state of salvation from inherent gratious qualifications in us s Eph. 3.9 t 1 Ioh. â 9 u 1 Ioh. 2.27 x Ioh. 14.16.17 y Ioh. 14.23 z Ezâch 36.26 27. Dâut 30.6 Ier. 31.33.34 a Crispe vol. 2. ser. 15. b 2 Cor. 1 12 Esai 26.8 d Psal 44 17.18.19 20. e Ier. 26 15. f Amos 3.8 g Heb. 11.17 h 1 Ioh 2 3. 1 Ioh. 4 18.9 1 Ioh. 3·14 2 Cor. 1.12 i Augustinus confess Discerno nescio quo sapore quem verbis explicare non postum ânter Deum râvelantââ animâm meam somniantem The testimony of the Antinomian spirit is a mâre litigââus and contraverted evidence of sâving grace âhân acts of sound sanctification Note Assurance from evidences and assurance from the Testimony of the Spirit are both divine and supernaturall evidences The good works of Saints not pillars yet meanes of faith and assurance a Towne asser grace pag. 66. b Rise raigne er 67. c
to Sir Tho Fairfax the Generall An. 1646. Nov. 25 a Del Ser. pa. 3.4 b Den Doââ Joh. Baptist pag. 51.52 The knowledg of both actuall and eternall remission was no Article of the Jewes Creed M. Del is ignorant of his owne âext and followes a âocâââan and Popish seâse c Pag 3. Del of the ãâã minde and his Antinomians with Papâsts Soâiniâns and ãâ¦ã the faith of the âewes in the old Tesâament and âurs in the new d Pag. â e Pag. 4. â Pag. 6 Pag 7. f Epistle to the two daughters of Warwick Sect. â h Epist Sect. 5 Sect 7. Sect. 10. i H. Nicholas Epist. ãâã 10 k Del. Sect p. 6 pag 7. l Epâst Sect. 27 m See Blesdikiuâ Histor. Dav. Georg. pag. 20.21 ar 1.2.3 4. Del for the fashion onely requireth an outward reformation i Theol. Ger. cap. 28. p. 71.72 k H. Nicholas Epist. sect 8.9 l Del Serm. p. 6. m Del Serm. pag 5. n Pag. 6. Del rejecteth all outward worship Scriptâre Preachiâg Hearing Ordinances Seals as Familists Libertines did before him Pag 6. p Rise raigne er 1.2 q er 49. r Er. 14. s Er 21. er 36. er 59. t Er. 4.5 u Iam. 4.8 x Ephes. 4.29.30 31. y Ephes 5.3 4 5. z Ephes. 5.5 6.7 Col. â 3.5.6 1 Cor. 6.9 10 a Bullingeros advers Anabapâis lib 1. cap. 1. Doceb it The. Muncerus Concionâtores qui illis temporibus praedicaâant neque â Deo missos neque verum Dei verbum pââedicâre sed esse Scribas prâedicare tantum mortuâm Scripturae literam extâr umque verbum non esse verum Dei verbum sed solum testimonium veri verbi hoc autem intârâum celeste esse immediate ex ipso Dei ore prodire hoc interius doceri oportere non autem Scripturlâ concionibus Baptismum aquae vilipendâbat infantium a Deo non esse Somnia ut inspirata a Spiritu sancto dicebant voluntatem Dei esse borum meritricium Diaboli prosibulum esse verum torum et impollutum Cap. 2. Celestes quasdam revelationes visiones jactabant b Calvin advers Liber in cap. 10. pag. 442 Verbum Dei Spiritum esse aiunt quia Dominus ait veâba quae loquor Spârâtus vita sunt Pag. 441. Verbum Dei nihil aliud quam Spiritum esse similiter Christum esse Spiritum nosque cum ipso spiritus esse oportere vitam etiam nostram spiritum esse debere c Pag. 141. Scripturam in naturali sensu suâ acceptam Literam mârâuam esse atque oâcidere ideoque missam esse faciendam ut ad spiritum vivificantem veniamus d Bullinger advers Anabap Lib. 2. ca. 4. Statuebant Pedobaptismum magistratum jus-jurandum esse res liberas medias exterâam praedicationem sacros coetus Sacramenta nihili faciebant fideles omnes eum habeant Spiritum externis signis non indigere Liberum esse fidem confiteri Si gravia pericula vrgent tum posso sideles dissimulare ac sacere satis enim esse coram Deo si quis veritatem in corde retinent etiamsi extârius coram hominibus contrarium faciat d Ephes. 5.15 e Col 26. f Mat. 10.32 g 1 Cor 14.32 33 40. Col. 2.5 h 1 Thes. 5 23 How Ecclesiasticall and externall Reformation is spirituall not carnall Externall and Spirituall reformations are not contrary Dâl removeth with fleshly Libertines all the working of second causes The covenant of grace and the Gospel commandeth externall as well as internal holines and refârmation whatever Del and Familists say on the cââtrary k Honey comb c. 3. p 25. l Towne asser pag. 77. m Saltmarsh Free grace pag â40 n Calvin adv Libert ca. 18. pag. 45â o 1 Cor. 4.15 1 Tim 4.16 Dels Argument for onely internall reformation is against all the Ministery and Ordinances of the Gospel as the Swink feldiaâs of old and the âeekers now teach p Bullinger advers ââabapt lâb â cap. 9. Del. Del proveth that there is a difference betweene internall and externall Reformatiân which is not in question but not that extârnall Reformation appârâaineth not to the Gospel q H. Niââols Epist. to the daughters Sect. 1. r H. Nicholas Evang. cap. 8. Sentence 3. s Assembly of Divines of both Kingdoms at Westminster cap. 26. art 1. art 3. Del holdeth with Familists that Gods nature dwelleth in our flesh t Rise raigne er 21. u Bright Star cap 19. pag. 225 226. x Pag. 19 pag. 244. y Saltmarsh ãâã gâace âag â40 z Del. Ser. pa. 2â Beleevers are no more in need of preaâhing or outward râformation saith M. Del thân the Aâgels in heaven a Rise raigne er p. 59. âr 3. b Ibid. ârt 1.2 c Pag. 90. art 5. d Calvin Instruct advers Libert cap. 22 pag. 458. e Towne asser of grace pag. 158.159 f Saltmârsh Free grace pag. 140. g Theolog. Germânica p. 28.71.72 h H. Nicholas Epist. Ser. 6. p 7.10 i Bright Stâr cap. 2. p. 11. k Bâight Star cap. â p. 13. Bââght Star cap. ââ pag. 106.107.118 109. â10 Externall Reformation constant in its owne kind as well as inward Del with Libertines mâke it ãâ¦ã aâtempâ to Redâem and save ãâã m Calvin Instruct advârs Liber cap. 13 ca. 14 15.16.17.18 pa. 44â 446.447 c. Covenant of the thrâe kiâgdomes Art 1. M. Del with other Familists mârre all use of meanes ceaseth âf God decries absolutely n Rise raigne Er. 64. o Isa 6.8 9 10 Ezech. â â 5. ch 3 4 5 6 7. Math. 13 â4 15. Math. 21.40 41 42. Ioh. 9.39 ch ââ 37 38. Act. 28 2â 25 â6 Rom. 9.30 31 32. ch 10.14 15 16 17. ch 11.5 6 7 8 9 10. p Rise raigne Vnsavory spâeches pag. 19. er 4. q R monstr in Script Synod art Object 4. Infringit praecipuas rationes pietateni promo ventes quae sumuntur ab utili inutili periculoso facili ergo inanes preces Art 1. in expos cap. 9. ad Rom. pag. 90 91. c. r Calvin advers Libert ca. 13.14 c. pag. 445.446.447 s Theologia Germanica ch 4. pag 8. t Theol. Ger. ch 55. p. 158.159 u Bright Star c. 8. p. 69.70.71 x Bright Star c 8. p. 72. Del and Familists seem to extoll the word but they intend to extoll an Enthysiasticall Spirit Del Saltmarsh Familists and Antinomians deny the Scriptures to bee the Word of God and call it a dead Letter as Libertines doe y Rise raigne p. 61. art 27. The Antinomian Spirit cannot Dyte Scripture The immediately inspiring Spirit in Prophets and Apostles is a Spirit or acting of God farre different from the Spirit of Sanctification in all Saints Antinomians by the Word of God meane the Spirit of God and the inward word as Swinckfâld taught them y Free grace 151. The spirituall word of Dav. George and of the Antinomians one and the same a Bullinger advers Anabapâist lib. 2. cap. 15.
wonder then this Author cry downe outward formes and cry up inward spirituall unity For the same Spirit of faith they cannot ãâã that beleeve contradictorie articles of faith But many that goe under the name of Independents and Presbyterians beleeve with Familists that Jesus Christ dyed not as true man for sinners and that he dyed as true man for sinners that the justified can sin that the justified cannot sinne that the justified are perfect in this life that the justified are not perfect in this life that the justified ought to confesse and crave pardon for sinnes that they ought not to confesse and ought not to crave pardon for sinnes For Saltmarsh telleth us there are contradictions between the faith of Protestants touching Christ his birth dying crucifying buriall ascending to heaven c. and of others hee meanes Familists and Antinomians who have attained the highest and most glorious discoveries of the Spirit Sparkles of glory p. 185 186 187 190 191 192 198 199 c. then such Independents and Presbyterians as the letter intendeth cannot have the same faith except also we hold every mans conscience within to be his rule and faith if he have love as the Familists say and that all faith or Religions without are indifferent as Familists in their Petition to K. James An. 1604 professe they will take or leave Familisme as the King and his Laws thinke fitting it may be for State intereââs âheir practise now is a little eccentrick to their faith 2. Nor can they have the same Spirit of prayer the same prayer or answer for Presbyterians pray for the nearest uniformity in Religion faith worship government And for all the ends in the Covenant extirpation of heresie of Famiâiâme Antinomianisme Scepticisme aâominable Liberty of conscience I should be glad if Independents and the Author of this Letter would pray and indeavour the same for William Del and John Saltmarsh have preached and printed to the world the grossest points of Familisme and they are ordinary Preachers to the Generall and the rest of the Commanders when Arminians and Socinians and men not halfe so absurd and monstrous in the faith as they did preach before the King the godly in both Kingdomes mourned for it to God and prayed against these things and I conceive the godly Presbyterians doe the same yet and have not forsaken their principles or the truth in a jot If the Presbyterian pray as they doe that God would avert that Athesticall plague of Liberty of conscience extirpate Familisme Socinianisme c. And Independents pray that God would grant them the grace of Liberty of conscience that Familists Socinians c. may be tolerated and promoted to highest places Can the Spirit bestow the same accesse and presence to the praiers of the one as to the other Have contradictory prayers the same answer from God Will God heare and satisfie both But I observe here that Saltmarsh and Familiââs father all their new lights on the Spirit and make the holy Spirit the author of Scepticisme and contradicent truths for Saltmarsh saith if there be not a toleration of all Religions all the glorious discoveries of God above or beyond that systeme or form of doctrine c. established and concluded by the Assembly of Divines according to the word shall be judged and sentenced as heresie and schisme and so God shall be judged by man Why because God himselfe speakes Familisme Arrianisme Socinianisme and all heresies in these that now goe for Independents and God speaks the juât contrary in Presbyterians and if men udge either because the same Spirit of faith is in both then God must be judged by men 3. Are not many Independents now turned Familists and so beyond any neceâsity of Ordinances praying reading Sacraments Scriptures and live upon only all Spirit pure glorious revelations 4. Wee know no names of difference True wee did all with one minde as we beleeved in the simplicity of our hearts with lifted up hands to the most high God swear to endeavour according to our places to defend the Reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland to endeavour the extirpation of superstition heresie schisme prophanenesse who hath left this oath of God Know we not Presbyterians now by their names Are they not now the most persecuted men in England Can God suffer persecution and blood in Independents because Independents All that beleeve have the reall unity which is most glorious because inward and spirituall in the body and to the head for being united in formes commonly called uniformity every Christian will for peace sake study and doe as farre as conscience will permit Answ. No union to this Author is reall and most glorious and spirituall but the inward union externall union is excluded from being a reall union Why this union in hearing the same word of faith receiving the same seales of the Covenant bowing our knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Church of Corinth 1 Cor. 11.17 18 19 20 21 22 23. is at Troas Act. 20.6 7 8 9 10. Drinke yee all of this Eat yee is an unity in the externall visibly acted and performed worship of God is it not both commanded and reall it is no notion of the braine but externall worship commanded True but not in the same forme manner way time place but we disclaime an uniformity in the Physicall circumstances of time place and never tye any but to the generall naturall simple conveniencie of time place persons But the Author hath a higher aime then to exclude this uniformity for I finde Mr. Del and Saltmarsh professed Familists speake to the minde of this Author most grosse Familisme for Mr. Del preached a Sermon before the Commons against outward Reformation and outward formes all his arguments conclude against the written word of God against the preached word by men Paul or Apollo because Gospel-Reformation is a worke not of the creature but of God and as proper to God as to redeem or create the world Now Preachers can have no hand in redeeming or creating the world and when this Author saith inward unity is the reall unity Observe he calls it the unity the reall unity then that we all speake the same thing 1 Cor. 1.10 is no unity not any reall unity and that we all walke according to this rule of the new creature in our conversation and Christian practice before men as Gal. 6.16 and according to the same rule as we are commanded Phil. 3.16 that we all walke in love and as children of the light abstaining from fornication uncleannesse coveteousnesse as Eph. 5.2 3 4 5 6 7 8. And that we all walke in Christ as we have received him Col. 2.6 7. c. honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkennesse not in chambering and wantonnesse not in strife and envying Rom. 13.12 13. 1 Thess. 5.1 2 3 4 5. 1 Pet. 2.11 12 13. is neither a part of the unity nor reall
but prayer hearing preaching Sacraments reveale them onely This is no Gospel-divinity 5. Nor was God in a way of reconciliation and peace with the Jewes under the Old Testament rather then pacified except Antinomians say God saw sinne in Jaakob under the old Testament Numb 23.21 He blotted not out their sinnes as a thicke cloud Esai 43.25 and cast not their iniquities in the depth of the Sea Mich. 7.19 20. Nor blessed them with pardon Psal. 32.1 2. but kept an after reckoning of wrath as a non-pardoning as an unpacifyed God toward them which belyeth the Holy Ghost in the Old Testament almost in every page 6. Nor is it true that Christ getteth us the love of God he purchaseth to us all the fruites of Gods free love such as Redemption pardon imputed righteousnesse effectuall calling justification repentance faith perseverance glory But we all maintaine against Papists that Christ given as Mediator Christ dying for us is the fruit of Gods free love and of our election to grace and glory but not the cause or a meane getting to us Gods love Learned Twist and protestant Divines to whom Saltmarsh though he undertakes to write of free grace is but a yesterday novice prove against Papists Dominicans Iesuits that Christ Mediator his bloud is not the Meritorious cause of the free and eternall love of God to man 1. Because nothing in time is or can be the cause of that which is eternall Christ is given in time and dyeth in time as our surety he is an eternall Mediator dying in Gods decree but that cannot make him the cause begetting Gods love to us 2. Gods free love and his grace is the cause why hee giveth his Sonne to dye for us Joh. 3.16 1 Joh. 4.9 then Christ dying cannot bee the cause of Gods love 3. The free love of God should not be free if it had a meritorious cause CHAP. LII That we are not freed from outward Ordinances nor is it Legall to be under them as Antinomians say ANtinomians pick a quarrell against the Law and would have us freed from it because it sanctifieth not and cannot give us grace to obey but by this wee are not under the Gospel because the Gospel of it selfe or any word of grace without the Spirit cannot worke faith or give grace or sanctifie But I know Antinomians thinke that the Spirit freeth us from all outward ordinances from any obligations that an outward command can lay on us whether of Law or Gospel For Saltmarsh teacheth us That the Spirit of Adoption worketh Legally not freely when wee doe things meerely as commanded from the power of an outward Commandement or precept in the word that brings forth but a Legall or at best but a mixt obedience and service of something a finer hypocrisie But if hee meane by a meere outward command the letter onely pressing obedience without the acting of the Spirit or any influence of the life of Christ this is a dead work and cannot come at all meerely from the power of an outward command for the very outward command of the Gospel holdeth forth to the understanding in the very Letter which is a signification of Gods good and holy will the authority of God the love of Christ as this Peter lovest thou mee feed my Lambs and none can out of the conscience of the majestie authority and love of Christ obey this command without the influence of the Spirit of grace so hee refuteth not us for we teach no such thing But Saltmarsh his meaning is that the meere outward Letter of the sweetest Gospel-command or promise such as He that beleeveth in the Sonne hath life and shall never come to judgement him that commeth I will in no sort cast away but will raise him up at the last day c. layeth no obligation of obedience on us at all but the Spirit acting and immediatly moving us effectually to obey layeth on all the obligation and all alongs M. Towne proveth wee are freed from the Law with all its authority offices and effects and are not under the Lawes rule to direct or teach yea nor is it to give us saith Saltmarsh So much as a heame of light nor to command bind or oblige us because the Law saith Towne hath not any sanctifying vertue and power to subdue sinne but we are under grace that is the grace of the Gospel which effectually subdueth sinne and sanctifieth And this is Townes Argument all alongs the Law of works is a meere passive thing and vrge the Law never so earnestly with all its motives and meanes yee can never make me keepe it ergo wee are freed from the Law and clearly then are wee under the commanding power of no outward ordinances because they cannot effectually sanctifie and subdue sinne not the preaching of the Gospel nor the Law nor praying nor hearing nor Sacraments wee are under nothing but grace and that onely actuall such as is the effectuall and irresistible blowing of the Holy Ghost for sure habituall grace in us cannot effectually worke for the subduing of sin So say Libertines of New England We are under no Gospel-exhortations to beleeve and none are to bee exhorted to beleeve but such whom we know to be the elect of God or to have his Spirit in them effectually The reason is outward exhortations oblige none but the Elect and not them all whereas Christ commanded to preach the Gospel to every creature to all Nations So say they We are not to pray against all sinne because the old man must be in us so long as wee live So said the Pelagians of old and A man may not bee exhorted to any duty because he hath no power to doe it All tend to this that to preach the Gospel to sinners and for Saltmarsh to write a booke of free grace is a Legall straine of teaching and not becomming the glory of the New Testament because grace goeth not ever along with teaching litterally 2. We are not under the Gospel or any Gospel-ordinances because of our selves we have no power to obey them this is to make us guilty of no sinne at all because to sinne is to act against an obligation of a Law and when grace acteth not on us we faile against no obligation at all because we can doe no otherwise 3. This is deepe Pelagianisme to say wee cannot sinne if we have not power to eschew sinne and obey God and to make our owne strength or the strength of another without us the measure and binding rule of our obedience CHAP. LIII Necessity of ordinances and of written and preached Scripture to the most perfect FRom this it commeth that Antinomians judge there is no need that a soule once in Christ goe out for new and fresh supply of actuall grace because it is acted by the Spirit inhabitating And Saltmarsh The more any motion or obedience is caused from things
without the more forced and unnaturall is all such obedience and the lesse from a spirituall power within The beleever is saith Towne washed from all sinne made perfectly just and holy the friend and Sonne of God the Spouse of Christ the heire of all things the conquerour of all his enemies advanced to sit and remaine in the glory of heaven with Christ for ever and ever he is out of the power kingdome and limits of the Law he is one Spirit with Christ hence is peace securitie consolation joy contentment and happines of a Christian. Hee is a compleat man if wee beleeve Antinomians 1. The word preached though it dwell within him yet that it bee applyed by a Preacher from without is necessary and that Peter writ Stirre up and put in remembrance the Saints that Paul be comforted by Titus and that Christ from without blow on and act the soule to will and to doe and that Paul beseech Christ thrise and have a new answer my grace is sufficient for thee is most needfull 2. There shall be no ground of new emergent complaints to God And 3. of praises to Christ for particular victories over our lusts and the world 4. Nor any ground of spirituall submission and patience while the Lord be pleased to deliver And 5. of trusting in God and exercising faith in him who delivereth us from so great a paâticular death as came on Paul in Asia and from heavinesse through manifold temptations if need be for the triall of our faith Now if all were within us and the obedience more violent and Legall lesse free and connaturall because we must goe to helps without faith needed not goe without doores or without it selfe to Christ and the in-dwelling Spirit should be one for all meanes and ordinances and new showres and bedewings and fresh drops from Christ the honey-combe of heaven should be uselesse our stock within should doe all nor should we know what it is to walke or stand on our owne clay-legs It s true if externalls and the Crosse or the Letter of Law or Gospel onely move us to obedience and there be no internall principle of grace within us then the obedience is but finer hypocrisie and lesse free and more violent and as it were forced But Antinomians imagine a beleever to bee so perfect because pardoned that the Spirit within him doth all and needeth neither Ministers nor ordinances because helps without are Legall not Gospel-like CHAP. LIV. What peace we may fetch from gracious performances THe Spirit acteth Legally say Antinomians when men measure forgivenesse by their sinne and sanctification and can beleeve no more then they have peace for and that peace dependeth on some of their owne performances in so doing saith Towne Legalists had rather gather peace and securitie from repentance and reformation of life then from justification which is onely effectuall to make and cause true peace But our minde is this Asser. 1. We are not to measure forgivenesse so by sinne and sanctification as the measure of pounds and talent-weights of pardon should arise from the like weight of pounds and talents of sinne and sanctification because great sinfulnesse and drames and halfe ounces of sanctification and love to Christ may argue to the beleever the pardon of tenne thousand talents Christ argued the woman loveth much ergo many sins are forgiven her we read not that this was the womans owne Logicke 2. We draw peace and pardon not from so many yards or ells of obedience as merchants measure cloth the Spirits consequence is not from the quantity but from the quallity of sanctification sparkles of gold may prove there is a gold mine in that ground and that in abundance nor draw we the consequence from sinnes simply but from sinnes hated subdued resisted Asser. 2. Peace with God or the peace of faith is not every way the same with peace with our selves and of our owne spirituall sense and apprehension Peace fundamentall and with God is solidly grounded on pardon Being justified by faith we have peace with God it s often so with the Saints that they have faith for pardon and yet no feeling for peace Asser. 3. We may have peace with God when wee have not peace with our selves as the covenant stands sure between God and us when we have great disquietnesse of minde either through some hainous transgression or present unbeliefe and it is not fit wee should have peace with our selves under some great sinne it is but carnall security if Peter after the deniall of Christ be quiet in Spirit and have deepe peace the disquietnesse of unbeliefe apprehending eternall wrath is sinfull but in regard of anxiety of godly sorrow its kindly there be stormes in winter when there are causes of them and faire Sommer-like weather is not so good for the season in Winter because not so kindly and sutable to a right frame of nature Asser. 4. Peace with our selves may arise from the works of saving grace but neither assurance nor peace can flow from naked acts of love and sanctification not quallified and goldned with Christ and his grace as Towne falsely slandereth us because such bastard works as are but white and comely sinnes and being in men out of Christ can but produce sandy and rotten peace but such acts of holynesse as essentially flow from heightned principles of soule-saving grace and are floured and crowned with Christs merits may bee grounds of solid peace though not causes and though some of our drosse still accompany our best performances yet may we difference in them Christs gold from our oare his wine from our dregs this peace is a heart not smiting but smiling and saying Our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience c. and where there is joy there is peace both are fruits growing in the same soile so speaketh the Church with my soule I have desired thee in the night whence followeth Lord thou wilt ordaine peace for us Why For thou hast wrought all our workes in us But wee had not rather draw our peace from walking with nor from beleeving in God thorow Christ nor did wee ever meane that faith farre lesse holy walking should bee the cause of that fundamentall peace of peace betweene God and the sinner as Towne supposeth works are not fellow-mediators with Christ works had no bloud to interpose as Christ the peace-maker had for he is our peace works faith nor any thing in us were not actors nor commissioners in the treaty of pacification and the truth is the peace we have in our conscience and apprehension even from faith is the result the bloome that groweth on the stalke the floure or rose of Jesse rather then peace and it hath the right hew and resplendencie of peace because there is so much of Christ in either our faith or holy performances the rosie pleasant and