cries up one while and down another the self and the same thing And are not Scriptures external means and so granted by you to be useless and how then are they means of perfection if they be not useful or doe you mean something not external and so intitle a false thing Scripture But I fear your Ministry is rather misery then mercy for if you had receiv'd the mercy that Paul had you would also renounce the hidden things of dishonesty as Paul did not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully as you do And if you look a little further into the very same chapter of Paul to the Rom. you shall find him make it a matter not only of difficulty but also of impossibility that any should believe without hearing or hear without a Preacher by whom Christ is preached even by them that bring the word of God whose feet are beautiful And this is the word nigh us even at our doors not leaving us to travel to Jerusalem as of old to hear the word of the Lord which now is nigh to us though he be in heaven and we on earth by faith in him But if that that light in every individual man and woman be the sure word of Prophesie is there then a Prophetick light in all if so what doth it prophesie of life and righteousnesse for sinners in a Mediator or of death for disobedience and if this be the light that shines in a dark place what is the day-star and the Sun of righteousnesse for though the Apostle hath said that all may prophecy one by one yet hath he said again are all Prophets no but I wish the Lords people were all such and that Preaching is powerful I believe though you once denied it and I now see truth is no truth till it serve your turn And for every thing that you adde further we know it without your teaching as that every man which comes into the world of nature Christ as God enlightens with the light of nature as reason sense and the like and that he is the Saviour of the world Qu. 5. And if that the external means be useless to what end were those most sacred gifts bestowed upon men Eph. 4. 10 11 12. And how the end and intent for which they were given became void Answ. 5. The end of those gifts was for perfecting the Saints and bringing all into one faith unto a perfect man which they that teach that none can be perfect by those gifts while they live do set up a faith in people contrary to the end of those gifts and by setting up external things in stead of these spiritual gifts have you lost the gifts and have made them void and so are become enemies to the end and intent of them in others who have them and believe the end of them And thus the end and intent for which they were given are become void to you Eph. 4. 10 11 12. Rep. 5. Here also you abuse my intentions wrest my meaning as you doe the Scripture unto your owne will which we are not to query what for that I know as well as you can tell me if not better but if external means were useless and so consequently these gifts how became their end void for which they were given so that you answer not at all to the question but at confused randum and stuffe up lines with lyes First that to teach that none can be perfect in this life by these gifts is to set up a false faith produce a president of one person in all the Scripture that ever was perfect by any meanes whatsoever except Christ if you can or else yeild your self a lyar Secondly that by setting up external things for those spiritual I have made them void which is another lye and that two-fold First prove that ever I set up external things in stead of spiritual things if you can but have not you and your Ghostly Father the Pope done it in setting up carnal dictates of your own brains for that of the spirit of God Secondly that I have made them void testifie this if thou canst O subtil deceiver Thirdly that I am become an enemy to the end of these gifts in others I declare in the presence of God I honour though you oppose them wheresoever they be which is backed by a fourth lye that the end and intent of them is become void to me when my end is is not yet come but how soon it may God knowes but this I can testifie the fruits of those gifts have I reaped in my measure and by them in others have been both established and instructed in the truth and so I can witnesse the effects though not the end of them as yet But what means Paul by the spirits of just men made perfect in heaven if they were perfect before on earth and whether is Paul or you a lyar herein Qu. 6. If natural light be sufficient without the help of the means what then is become of the work of grace Eph. 2. 5 8. Rom. 11. 6. and of the growth of faith Luke 17. 5. Mark 9. 24. The practical use of Ordinances 1 Cor. 11. 2 23 24. As Baptism Matth. 8. 9. The Lords Supper Reading 1 Tim. 4. 13. Preaching Matth. 28. 20. and several other places Prayer 1 Thess. 5. 17. Rom. 12. 12 Communion of Saints in publique Assemblies Heb 10. 25. Answ. 6. The light of Christ is the gift of the grace of God which brings salvation which teaches to deny ungodliness and worldly lufts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Tit. 2. 11 12. And with this light is the work of grace seen but thou that callest this natural light or wouldst make people believe it is not sufficient must needs be ignorant of that spirit whereby that work of grace and growth of faith prayer and communion of Saints Supper and Ordinances is known for without faith in the light of Christ these are not known nor accepted though dark natural imaginations may make an imitation from them in the letter 1 Cor. 2. 14. And thus are the works of grace become to all that deny the light and spirit of Christ within and take up a tradition from the letter without sensual having not the spirit Jude 19. Reply 6. O deceitful sophistry Is this an answering or a baffling Is it a satisfactory resolve when I asked you what was become of the work of grace faith the growth of Faith which is by the natural use of ordinances c. all which we own as did the Apostles though you deny most if not all of them when you wave it and proceed contrary to request to declare though but shallowly what the work of grace is how sin and how the rest are known all which is impertinent to the thing required and therefore it being only a titular answer it scarce deserves a reply so that it resteth as at
why not the Word of God also and what differerence between the oracles and the word and wherein consistent and what those principles of the doctrine of Christ be whether the same with those of the wherein different and wherein congruant and what the growing up unto perfection is and when the end and whether in this life or in another Q. 12. What is the Kingdom of God that our Saviour speaks of Luke 11. 21 and what that Kingdom Mat. 11. how did it suffer violence by whom and after what manner Q. 13. What is that Election what that Ordination what that Adoption and what that drawing so oftentimes spoken of in Scripture and who they be that are capable of it here and after what manner administred and make out your judgement herein by plaint Scripture Q. 14. And since I have proved Scriptures may be expounded why not a verse or a chapter or more or less and since it ought to be divided can there be any division without parts if so prove it if not why may it not be distinguished under the names of Doctrines Reasons Uses and the like as well as to goe without name or doe you resist it because the Scriptures allowes it Q. 15. And since you seem to exhort that none ought to begin or conclude their speech in Preaching till the spirit move them thereunto by irresistable motions did ever the gift of the Spirit exclude prudent reasons so much as to set mens tongues so on going as that they had no power to stop them and is not your tongue oyled with a spirit of confused delusion Q. 16. Whether it extend not unto or come within the limits of the blasphemy against the holy Ghost to cry down that which he hath set up and to belch forth lyes slanders heresies false doctrines and perhaps blasphemy and yet to lay all on this spirit or what is that sinne which is unpardonable Q. 17. Are not the Ministers you now cry down the same that Rome would destroy and with you say they are false Teachers and no true Ministry and were not the holy Martyrs as Theodorus and Ignatius c. and in Q. Mâ—ries dayes Graâ—mer Latimer Hooper Ridley Farrar Bradford Philpot Saunders Glover Taylor and many others of the same profession or wherein did they differ or were they false Ministers and so died as evil doers and were they not called Masters took tithes and preached upon Texts and in Pulpits and doe not you justifie their murders in condemning their cause and so joyn with their persecuters and condemn those afresh and is not the spirit in you a truth-opposing and Rome-upholding one Q. 18. Is Baptism and the Supper Sacraments yea or no or whether there can be any Sacrament without some outward signe or whether a Sacrament is consistent in words or an Element or of the one or of the other or of both or of neither and how there can be any Sacrament without an Element speak plainly to the purpose Q. 19. And since you say I am damned where is that pious charity spoken of by Paul 1 Cor. 13. or is it to be owned by and practised of a Christian yea or not if yea after what sort and in what measure and why do not you use it if no when was it made void and whether it be the spirit of Christ or of something that cals it selfe Christ that saith Judge not lest ye are judged or of Satan which seeketh to drive men into desparation without cause as thou art damned when and at what time were you made privy unto Gods determinate will to know that I am damned or to his secrets that I believe not or sauours not this of a diabolical censorious envious spirit in you and how comes it to passe that I must believe James Naylor and then be faithful and though I believe in Christ yet be faithlesse is there more objects of faith then one in unity and what be the degrees and what the effects what the grounds of a saving and sanctifying faith and how known Q. 20. Whether the power that worketh in you and in the rest of your quaking Fraternity be divine or diabolical if divine prove it by Scripture or may we not know the Tree Antichrist by its fruits heresies in you if diabolical then cease like Simon Magus to seem to be some great one to draw disciples after you and resist this spirit in your self better repent then perish Q. 21. Whether it be by the spirit of Satan or the power of God say you that worketh by charms whereby some of your Proselytes have been possessed with devils as Gilpin Mary White and others and whether Peter or Simon Magus be the Apostle of Christ or whether it be the work of the spirit of God to inspire with the holy Ghost or with Satan and hereby let us know whether you be Saints or sorcerers make it out upon a Gospel account Q. 22. And since you so much rail against superiority dignities when as the very Angels in heaven bring no railing accusations againgâ— them and wherefore did our Saviour speak against being called Masters and upon what occasion and why may not Ministers be called Masters as well as Rulers and what is the difference between a Master and a Ruler and is the title of Ministers of Christ the Stewards of the Mysteries of God Embassadors of Reconciliation Bishops Overseers inferiour to the word Master did Paul transgresse or was he no Minister because he called himselfe a wise Master-builder or did the holy Ghost erre when he called teachers Masters of Assemblies or did the spirit erre when it commends Sarah for calling Abraham Lord or Paul who called Festus most noble Festus and Agrippa O King Agrippa did not Paul and Silas own the title Sirs from the Gaoler or doe you not stumble at a straw and run over a mountain and see a mote in anothers eye but not a beam in yours Q. 23. Did not your spirit speak in Corah Dathan Abiram and their adherents and did not they raile against their Ministers 〈◊〉 take too much upon you and say not you the same in effect and said not they all the Congregation is holy and so themselves in their own eyes and you say you are pure said not they The Lord is among us and so say you The Lord Christ is within us and is not the same spirit in you that was in Diotrephes who rejected the Epistles of the Apostles And did ever any more presumptuously boast of and yet act more contrary unto the Spirit of God or did ever any generation shew such audacious arrogant impudence in opposing the Doctrine for which Martyrs holy men of God have spent their blood for the testimony thereof and yet take unto themselves the justice of their cause for a defence of their basenesse and is not this spiritual presumption if not abomination Q. 24. Is a lye the fruit of an
till this upstart Faction spread it selfe abroad like an infectious cloud for if in all this time there were no Church then could Christ be no Head without a body nor no Husband without a Spouse nor a Saviour without a people saved Answ. All formes differing from the light of Christ are in Babylon darknesse and distraction and the true Church is in God 1 Thess. 1. 1. Such onely are out of Babylon who are gathered out of the world by the spiritual light of Christ and there it hath been ever since his passion and he hath never been without though but in a small number which he hath saved which the world hated and scornfully miscall'd and into Prisons and corners have they been driven all this time of the man of Sinne and his Papal Priesthood but now he is come who is spreading his truth and multiplying his seed as a cloud to the Egyptians wherefore the Heathen rage exceedingly But it seems by the Query that thou ownest the Church all along since the Apostles to have been in the multitude of the Popish Priests rather then in the Martyrs seeing thou speakest so scornfully of a small number to be the Church of Christ who are so contemptible which the Church ever was and so it is at this day Luke 12. 32. Mat. 7. 14. Mat. 20. 16. Reply 9 10. Now I beleeve you speak truth as that all Formes differing from Christ and so yours among the rest are of Babylon and under the destruction thereof not but that there may be difference in circumstance and yet a concurrence in substance as there was in the Primitive times even amongst the very chiefe of the Apostles and though there be some difference in part of opinion yet may those so different be Christians still but not so if like you they erre in the main And what you tel me here is nothing but what I knew before ever I heard of you and is nothing to the thing required at all for we know and are sure that there now is and ever hath been a Church on earth as also was that of the Thessalonians as well as other Churches which is evidently declared in many places And what I queried was concerning a visible Church not of an in visible Church of which you speak nothing at all and in that you grant that Christ had ever a Church since his passion you also grant your selves to be none of his Church you being never heard of until of late years unless in the days of holy Moses but if you follow their wayes be careful of their end And for what you further adde it is nothing but of words without proofe and the Pope calls them that dye for the testimony of his Apostacy Martyrs which are rather malefactors and for them who are Martyrs indeed they dyed for the testimony of that Religion Doctrine and Ordinances which we professe and you now oppose and like the Heathen rage exceedingly against the Ministers and professors thereof who are so contemptible in your eyes and others of your society as to be railed against with the unchristianlike termes of dumb dogs serpents sons of perdition instruments and children of the Devil and the like and if this be the language of the spirit of God what then is the speech of Satan Qu. 11. Whether you own the Resurrection of the body after death if not of what doth and shall Christs Kingdome consist for he can be no King without his subjects Answ. I say yea the Resurrection I own according to the Scriptures Rep. 11. This is no satisfactory Answer in general unless you do descend unto particulars for I know not whether you doe mean according to the sense you wrest it unto and so by such subtilty smother perhaps heresie in privacy for some of your Fraternity have affirmed to me that there is no other Resurrection spoken of in Scripture but in this life as from the death of the first Adams fin unto the life of the second Adams righteousnesse contrary to the true me aning and so not according to the Scriptures which usually speaks of a resurrection from the dead after a dissolution of the body therefore speak out your meaning plainly Qu. 12. Whether you acknowledge the Trinity of the persons in the Godhead the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost one substance but three in subsistence or manner of beings Answ. For the word Trinity thou mayst send it to Rome from whence it came but God the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost and that these three are one I know and acknowledge according to the Scriptures 1 John 5. 7. Reply 12. Now O subtil Deceiver yet simple Etymologer doth not thy pen here stink with the tinkture of ancient Hereticks whom you here imitate in that you say that the word Trinity came from Rome in a derision of it I shall not stand to dispute it as a Controversie because perhaps you brought it thence with most if not all of your Tenets but this I know it was a word long time used and never disallowed that I know of by any unlesse erroneous Hereticks for the Latines have it as well as the English thus Trinitas as we Trinity both signifying three in one and so agreeable unto Scripture But O wretched imitator of Hereticks who with thy self hath stumbled at this word Michael Servetus that heretical blasphemer compared the Trinity unto Cerberus the Porter of Hell-gate and Arius that notable Heretick counted the word Trinity a Fiction and a laughing-stock whose end was as wretched as his life was wicked for in easing himselfe of natures courses he disburdened himselfe of his bowels and the same opinion is now upheld by his Successor Biddle a man no lesse obstinate then erroneous The Turkish Mabomet and Sabellio likewise held the word Trinity in derision as doe you and many more of your Society and I fear in many more of your Tenets concurre with them Qu. Whether Jesus the Son of Mary incarnated in the flesh Godman in one person who dyed at Jerusalem upon the Crosse rose from the death to life the third day and ascended on high into the highest heavens and sitteth on the right hand of God be the true Messias that you own and say is within you Answ. Jesus the Sonne of God and Eternal Word which came downe from God became flesh borne of the Virgin God and man who dyed at Jerusalem rose againe ascended and sitteth at the right hand of the Father the true Messias which Christ we own to be within us which no carnal minde which denies his light can comprehend and Christ in you except ye be Reprobates 1 Cor. 10. 4. Reply 13. This is in some sort more then any of the rest satisfactory but that the true Messias is within you I have not faith to beleeve it because I see such opposite actings to him or any thing of his spirit That I apprehend them rather
it and so was Paul also a Preacher of this Gospel who received it by the revelation of Christ Jesus and declared what he had so received so that though it were of Christ yet was it by man still deny this if thou canst. But tell me hath that man any one spark of grace or truth in him that cannot see you are truthlesse or hath he the least faith in Jesus that is so faithlesse to his cause as to beleeve in and be besotted with your false delusions and erroneous heresies and is not he blinde with errour that sees not your wayes are erroneous and may not any whose eyes are not wholly darkened see Antichrist in your Doctrine and that man of sinne in your practises Prove what you say by Gospel or else be silent An Answer unto 14. Queries subscribed JAMES NAYLER By me JOHN DEACON Quere 1. NOw seeing you so much oppose the light within and spirit and sets up the letter for the light I say seeing it is plaine all the Saints had a light in spirit to guide them in wayes accepted in all Ages before the Letter was if you be spiritual men give it in writing what that light was where is was and how they came by it when they had no letter or was it sufficient before the letter is it the same now or when or how was it changed and the letter set in its stead An Answer to the first Query Mr. James Naylor what that Fabrick will be whose Foundation is a lye may easily be discerned by an impartial eye and what the Exodiam will be of that Epistle whose exordium is an untruth the fruition of this discourse will demonstrate and a thing beyond the limits of my faith to beleeve it is that when I see Satan as the Porter stand in the porch that in that Palace should be inhabiting one spark much lesse the whole of the spirit of God for a most incomparable lye it is to whisper in a corner much more to sound on the point of your pen to the world that horrid falshood that I oppose the spirit or light of Christ far be it from me to oppose it in the meanest of his Saints and farther be it or at least as far from me to own that for the light spirit of Christ which indeed is onely and alone the spirit of Antichrist which as God sitteth in the Temple of God shewing himselfe that he is God That the Saints in all Ages had a light within them and now have the same by faith in Jesus Christ in you Colossians the hope of glory This I own and will rather cease to be eternally then deny but would be as loath to own every thing for Christ which shall take on it the name of Christ But since the latter part of this Query consists of an examination of the original being and authority of the Scriptures the unity and difference of the Law heretofore written in mans heart and now in the letter I shall be the more large in my answer because it is one of the most principallest controversies betwixt us Christians and you Quakers When Adam stood in his created state of innocency there was then an exact Law engraven not then in Tables of stone as afterwards but in the fleshly Tables of his heart this I suppose you grant But then when he fell from that state of blisse unto wretchednesse he also fell from the Image of God unto the effigy of Satan and so became so far from accomplishing that command which called for exactness in moral righteousness that he was wholy alienated from Sanctity and nativitated in or to sin so that by continual increase of transgression the ingression of sinne wrought the exgression of sanctity insomuch that this Law became abbreviated if not extinguished for so much did sinne exuperate notwithstanding the Reliques of this Law or book of natural conscience that God repâ—nted that ever he had made man yea and so far repented as to destroy them utterly except a few And the Lord seeing how fraile man struck saile unto the pride of Satan in the turbulent Ocean of this transitory world and sinne by its subtilty aspired that soveraignty as to subdue and extinguish for the most part that Law once written in mans heart and God having determined by an eternal purpose to redeem wretched man from that lost state wherein he stood chose in his due season Abraham fro m amongst all the men on the earth that he might raise from his Posterity a Messias and a deliverer unto his Israel and it so happened in the dayes of Jacob the great Sonne of Abraham the Sonne of Isaac the child of promise that by reason of the Famine that was in Canaan Israel was driven into Egypt where they sojourned till God in his good pleasure hearkning unto the groanes of their oppressions willing to deliver his Israel from their unsufferable bondage sent his servant Moses one of their brethren by a strong hand to conduct them into the Land of Promise and in their journey to their rest at Mount Sinai God made unto them a repetition of that Law once written in mans heart which Steven calls the lively Oracles of God then not a dead letter This is the time and manner how it was changed and that which once was written in mans heart and was sufficient is now become unsufficient for else if it either then was or now is sufficient of it selfe then hath God wrought a work in vaine which to assert is to suspect if not to accuse God of folly But then if that Law written in mans heart were not sufficient to its proper end as to direct and guide in matters of moral righteousnesse but that it was necessary that the Law should enter on mount Sinai as an exact rule that so offences which were not manifest might abound in the eyes of sinners how much lesse could or can that Law which brings the knowledge of sinne and a curse and yet is but the same that once was written in mans heart and therefore that which you so much stand for both justifie and glorifie wherefore it was a gaine not onely necessary but of necessity that the Gospel or Law from Mount Sion the Law of Faith should also enter which leads us in a neerer way by a Mediator who came to doe what the Law from Mount Sinai or in mans heart could not do and hence it is that both your Society and naturally all men runs unto Mount Sinai for righteousnesse and life in and by personal obedience because it is that Law which is or at leastwise once was written in mans heart which cannot but own what it could not so fully dictate and you with the rest of your factious Fraterty put your Proselytes upon and man so easily closeth with contrary unto the Gospel which is not first made known this I dare boldly assert by seeing within but hearing tydings
any thing that men or Angels are able to conceive but onely the finger of God is able to accomplish it as the worker for with man it is impossible but not with God for though we may heare the word of God sounding in our eares as a whistling wind yet cannot we comprehend the secret motions of it in our hearts and therefore not understand the depth of this unsearchable Mystery In a word the begetting or fashioning of this New Creature the Ministry of the word of God by man is but the instrument whereby the spirit of God worketh without the which it is no more able to form this new creature then are the tools belonging to any work able to bring the same to passe without the hand or guidance of the Artificer and he that knoweth it by the Letter of Scripture knowes it not without the light for the Scripture was written by man but revealed by the true light and therefore the words of him from whom it proceeded and God is pleased to reveal himself but two wayes to the best of my knowledge and that either ordinary by his written Word by which we may try and in some sort judge of spirits too that hee which denies Christ as come in the flesh is a lyar and an Antichrist and he that denies the use and ministration of Ordinances mentioned there resists that power that instituted them and he that resists receiveth unto himself damnation a sad word or extraordinary by his spirit which is not commonly usual but still with this limitation he never reveales himselfe to any by his spirit to oppose his commands in the letter And since your spirit is such a one I leave it unto you to examine whether it be a spirit of delusion or no for Christ never resisteth his own will and ordinances and if it seems so unto you remember Satan hath transformed himselfe into an Angel of light and if you be his Ministers as the tree Antichrist is known by his fruits heresie in Doctrine cease to call thy selfe the Minister of Christ and pull off the sheeps cloathing of your faire pretences that so we may discerne you in your colours and see the Pope in your wolvish shapes Quere 5. Whether the least measure of saving faith in Christ Jesus be not present power above the Devil and all the powers of darknesse which if it be then what is the cause that men must be captivated to commit sin while they live whether it is want of faith or that there is not power in faith to overcome the evil one or hath any faith in Christ further then they have power over sinne and the world or is there any rest to a beleever short of that power An Answer to the Fifth Quere The least measure of saving faith in Christ Jesus is sufficient to support us from everlasting misery and from the condemnation which the Devil would by his power bring us under and to build us up to that inheritance immortal which fadeth not away but is reserved in heaven for us and it is present power above the destructive powers of the Devil and darknesse but not against the disturbative power of sinne whose policy hath in the first Adam purchased an interest in all his posterity unlesse that with the second Adam we became one in unity and glory with him and if it were present power to conquer Satan and all the powers of darknesse and by its puissance to wholly subdue him presently this were present victory which is the end of war when as a Christians pilgrimage to heaven is a continual warfare the victory whereof is onely sealed perfectly in death for though by faith in Christ we are free from the dominion of sin and death too yet is the most faithful not perfectly free from the remnants of sinne which is the sting of death for though the least measure of saving faith in Christ be sufficient to free and keep us from the dominion of sinne yet the greatest portion or fulnesse that ever was distributed unto the greatest of the Apostles exempted them not from the remnant of sinne not onely original but also actual too for Peter he was accused get thee behinde me Satan and after deny'd his Master and then dissembled so as to be contradicted by Paul who also was so far lifted up on the wings of ambition that he needed to be corrected and therefore received a prick in the flesh which was neither through the wants nor disabilities of faith through which he boasted he could doe all things but the law of his members the remnants of sin there warring against the law of his minde brought him captive to the law of sinne and death which remnants are commonly called sins of infirmity which are left as thorns in our sides to prove us whether we will continue faithful to the end that so we may be crowned with glory And who had faith so much and so strong as to be translated in the spirit and give his soule the prospect of that no lesse eternally sacred then incomprehensibly glorious object of the third heavens and by this overcame the power as a Saint but could not shun the temptation as he was a man but both his will and affections were so far subordinate as the latter to those powers of darknesse that faith he the good that I would doe that doe I not and the evil that I would not that doe I but then as the former If any man may bâ—ast muâ—h more I I live and yet not I but Christ that liveth in me and until the one be separated from the other there can be no perfect perfection for the same Apostle asserts this is a faithful saying Christ died to save sinners of whom I not onely was but am the chief and we including himselfe too have all sinned all none excepted and come short of the glory of God and James saith also the same that in many things we â—ffend all and John that Apostle of love and Eagle-ey'd Evangelist to pry into the secrets of those Mysteries of the Son of glory records this that he that saith he hath no sinne is a lyar and the truth is not in him and therefore you are lyars and void of the truth if then the Apostles who had the most eminent faith above all others were not free from the remnant of sinne nay and some grosse ones too I cannot be convinced that perfect perfection can be in any before a dissolution of mortality and a resurrection unto glorification I say since that they were contented to rest without discomfort in perseverance till Jesus the Author and Finisher of their faith should come to change their vile bodies therefore not pure and make them like his glorious body I cannot apprehend that any one shall attaine any higher perfection until they come to the end of their race eternal rest if they run so as to obtaine and they that content
trance of Security and whether it be a blessing or a curse that you know not your sins and whether Satan drill you not to himselfe with the lure of present perfection and whether all this be not inflicted on you as judgements for your Apostacy Qu. 2. Whether there ought not to be a special distinction made betwixt the dictates of the spirit of God and the spirit of man and whether it be not of the latter that proceeds from you if not worse and whether you are not in laying it on Christ Qu. 3. Whether that expression of Paul quoted by you That he was an Apostle not of man nor by man was spoke of officiating that Office as being an Apostle and therefore a Teacher of Christ not of man or the manner of his choice and election to that Office or is that a warrant to assure any that there can none be Ministers of Christ but who are immediately called and chosen by Christ himselfe as was Paul and then are not such Apostles of Christ as well as Paul and whether hereby you intend not to claim equal authority with Paul both in your preaching and writing and so set your selfe free from obedience to any of his Epistles and injoyn others to observe yours as well as his and whether we may not smell the Pope in this your practice as well as in many others and is not this spiritual pride Qu. 4. And since Paul chose Silas was not Paul a man or was Silas no Minister and was not Matthias who succeeded Judas chose by man or was he not an Apostle or was it by usurpation that Paul took unto himselfe that authority to transmit power to others to ordaine Elders in every City or did he erre when he gave instructions to Timothy whom to make Bishops and whether were they of Paul false or of Christ true Ministers so chosen and since Timothy received the gift of Prophesie by the laying on of the hands of the Presbyter was that Presbyter a man or no man if a man was it not then by man though not of man if no man what then was he and what hinders that there should not be the same power in man now the state of man being the same still that it was then Qu. 5. And since you say there is a light in every man and woman that comes into the world sufficient if minded to lead out of all the wayes and works of darknesse is not this a leading to perfection and if it be so that there is that in every man which is sufficient was it not then a needlesse light that the Lord sent by Ananias to Saul by Peter to Cornelius by Philip to the Eunuch or was it not that there was no sufficiency in them And then do you not lye to say there is in all a sufficiency or was it that it then was unsufficient although it now is sufficient and how came it now to be sufficient more then then it was or was it not this indeed that God thereby gave them and us and all future posterity an evidential example of his manner and way of conversion by the concurrence of two the ministration of man and the operation of the spirit and if so why doe you resist it or is not your opposing of it a fighting against God and a spirit of delusion in you which calls it selfe Christ and why was it that Apollo though he was zealous in what he knew which was onely the baptism of John yet understood nothing of Jesus till he was taught it of Aquila and Priscilla is it not an apparent evidence that there is nothing in man to bring him to that knowledge without either an extraordinary inspiration or an ordinary tuition Qu. 6. And if Christ preached the Kingdome of God within unbelievers as you say he did what then is the difference between the faithful and the faithlesse and wherein doth it consist or is there none or shall both be saved if yes how so if no what is the reason since there is power in all as you say why is not the Redemption to all or is it that the light is sufficient in one and not in another or doth God will all to salvation but some men superwill and so come to condemnation Qu. 7. And whether is your spirit a lying one which saith the Scriptures are not the words of God but of men or Pauls spirit which saith Of a truth it is the word of God and that what he writ was the commands of the Lord or is a command consistent of words or no if not of what then doth it consist or if yes how can the command be Gods and the words mans Speak out plainly in truth according to Scripture and cease to equivocate sophistically to delude silly souls Qu. 8. Whether it be any better then hypocrisie to prate of and call for Scripture and yet deny the prerogative of Scripture that it is not the word of God and what doe you say unto the commandements are they the words of God yea or not if not what is meant by that phrase God spake all these words saying was that God or was it something else that called it selfe God and was not so and if they are the words of God why are not other Scriptures the same and how is it that some of you say the word of God cannot be contained in ink and paper Q. 9. And since you say that Christ only is the word of God I query whether he be meet to be a Teacher of others nay hath he not need himselfe to learn the first principles of Religion that cannot discerne between the temporal expressive word of God and the co-essential and co-eternal word with God for so is Christ Q. 10. And if that the Law written in every mans heart were since Adams fall and now is sufficient to teach us what to do observe as to sanctity wherefore then did the Law in the Letter enter on Mount Sinai and if you say that so offences might abound which were not made manifest in the eyes of sinners this I grant but then how could that Law in ' mans heart be sufficient if it were in some sort unsufficient and not perfect in every degree to its end and wherefore afterwards entred the Gospel the Law of Faith on mount Sion and to what end if not to direct in a new way by a Mediator which neither the Law in mans heart or on Mount Sinai could doe or was it once of such force and is it not the same still if not how came it to be disannulled Q. 11. What be those first principles of the Oracles of God made mention of by Paul as needful for believers to know what the oracles be whether the Scriptures or what else be the Oracles or the Principles how learnt and after what manner by what means or if the Scriptures be the Oracles of God
thorow the Red-Sea and were all baptiâ—ed unto Moses in the cloud and in the red Sea where was also the Element water and surely there were some buds of this now unmeasurable Sect in the Church when Paul saith The unbelieving Wife is sanctified by the believing Husband and the unbelieving Husband by the believing Wife for else were your children uncleane observe but now are they holy and if so then how much more are they holy when both the Father and Mother believeth too and if they are so holy why may not they enjoy holy things as Baptism c. And who doth know whether the Lord shall sanctifie unto himselfe a Jeremiah in the wombe And our Saviour himselfe thus declares setting a child before him Whosoever offendeth one of these little ones that believes in me observe that believes in me where its possible they may believe it were better for him that a milstone were put about his neck and â—e cast into the Sea Now what greater offence can there be then to exclude them from their society and fellowship with Christ Peter also speaking to the Jewes testifieth this The Promise is to you yea and to your children also not dividing that which God hath put together neither robbing God of his subjects by impairing his Dominions nor bereaving his subjects of that glorious priviledge of being his people but as God said I will be a God unto thee and to thy seed so said he The Promise is unto you and to your children and therefore as said the Angel to Peter so say I unto you That which God hath sanctified count not you unclean And for singing of Davids Psalmes in meeter establisheth a concord in the harmony and the matter being the same it is nothing to the lawfulnesse or unlawfulness of the thing but O thou hypocrite seest thou the mote in anothers eye pull first forth the beam or if you will adde an s and make it beams out of thine own eye and for finging Psalmes we have the practice of our Saviour himselfe Paul Silas and the recommendation of James and of Paul also and 't is reported of Theodorus that under the cruel persecution of Julius the Apostate suffered much in martyrdo me and being on the Rack to the amazment of all the beholders sung Psalmes most harmoniously and if there can be any song spiritual and yet unlawful why then did Paul admonish us to exhort one onother in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual songs and there can be no song but there must be meeter for so the word signifies and therefore take them as songs our practice is justified And if you look for more I refer you to them who have writ largely on this subject And for prayer I wonder you should cavil about it when your society so much abominates the exercise but it seems you look on the posture of the body more then the sincerity of the heart and for your Lordly commands send them to them that will be commanded by you if it be a Bull it is likely sooner to be baited then feared by any unlesse your Papistical Fraternity or some of Romes Society all which and whom we abominate but as was the beginning of thy first so is the end of this thy Query a lye in saying none of Christs Ministers worshipped so Quere 14. Are you wiser then the Jewes was or stricter in your profession or more able to search the Scriptures or are you fuller in your wisedome and prudence for that work any of you who deny the light of Christ And was not they ignorant of the voices of the Prophets though they was read every Sabbath day and so fulfilled in condemning him And are not you in the same work as to the word of Christ though you have them every first day beating in your Synagogues and haling before Rulers and think that you doe God the best service when you are greatest opposers And so fulfilling the measure of wickednesse as they did and how can you escape their end Mark 13. 9. Acts 13. 27. Matth. 24. 9. John 16. 2 3. And are not they who are in envy in Cain's way out of Christ hath God any respect to their sacrifice yea or no An Answer to the fourteenth Query What the natural wisdome of the Jewes was and how profound I care not to enquire and what the strictness of their profession or rather superstition was you know best who so far know as to imitate their Pharisaical precisenesse not of sacred devotion but rather secular hypocrisie but to search the Scriptures and the Mysteries therein comprised and for wisedome and prudence to that worke wee are fuller then they were though you having eyes see not for Christ having opened our eyes with the eye-salve of his grace to pry into the mystery of Gods word which hath been hid from generations and from you I fear also but is revealed unto us by faith in him we can see that he even Jesus is the Christ the Son of the living God and that in him and his name onely is eternal Redemption to be found or preached and salvation in no other under the Sunne that he is bodily ascended unto glory and sitteth at the right hand of God making intercession for us and this they could not see though we see this and much more by faith in him and wee can see the way wherein we must run to attain the end of our race even eternal rest which neither they nor you their successors could or can see But since with a parenthesis of nonsence you seem to direct your latter part of his Query To any who deny the light of Christ finde them out and let them answer it for it concerns not me and so I have ended my Answer And if you please you may begin your progresse to your ghostly father Pope Alexander the 11th and implore a blessing for better fortune in your future undertakings that so the fruits of your future policy may have more prosperous fruition that so he may have cause to rejoyce with singing Te Deum when his sheepskin of glorious pretences shall better hide his wolvish inside then thus to be unmasked Having accomplished what you and others of your Faction so much bawled for to wit an Answer to your Queries I hope I may claim it as a debt rather then a courtesie that you also answer what I here propose afresh that so a discovery of the truth may be further made and I doubt not but that truth will discover your falshood Query 1. WHether your quaking and trembling be not the effects and tokens of those curses 1 Sam. 14 15. Deut. 28. 65. Psal. 69. 23. And whether the Lord hath not given you eyes that you should not see And whether the god of this world hath not blinded your minds And whether the Lord hath not given you over to a spirit of delusion to believe lyes And whether you slumber not in that self-pleasing