Iames James 1.5 6. how then are they who pray most the greatest fools both Papists and Protestants then is not the wisest man as a wave of the Sea when the Sea is over the whole earth Isa 4.11 and the best are in the waters Truly we are all sick let us send then to the Elders of the Church and see if they have the prayer of faith to heal us or heal themselves from the stroke of their wound Isa 30.26 Jer. 30.17 Who among all the gathered Churches can hold forth a Gospel-faith to the scattered Saints who of all their Gospel-Ministers can go forth freely to the world Col. 24.15 1 Pet. 1.12 where is the Power from on high or holy Spirit sent downe from heaven for that work Yea where 's the Spirit of Faith in any of their Believers Gospel-believers were all of one heart and one soul because but one body Act. 2.44 Act. 4.32 c. ours are all divided believers then had all things common c. our Churches and Christians are all for self-interests and to seek their own This is not love as I shall shew anon nor faith indeed which works by love All have not faith saith the Apostle in those Gospel-times no man has a Gospel-faith in these times of the Apostacy and being of the Saints in Babylons captivity Yet this is the confusion that hath ever followed the Churches to this day to take up the Apostles words and writings and to apply that to our selves which was possible to those times and proper only to primitive Saints and Churches where that power was which is now wanting to all the world Thus the Baptists now take up the Apostles call and commission which was never given them by Christ much less by the Spirit afterward Again like the Angel of darkness or Devil cutting off part of Gods word they still tell their Proselytes Mat. 3.6 Mat. 28.19 Go teach and Baptize c. whereas 't is written Go Teach all Nations and Baptize c. Thirdly 't was not directed to the Disciples but to the Apostles upon this ground and the Eleven are mentioned by Matthew and Mark Mat. 28.16 Mark 16.14 for every Disciple had not that power from on high to Teach all Nations Fourthly Who can shew unto us that he is sent of God to Baptize seeing none baptized but either the Apostles or such who had a manifestation of the Spirit to confirm their call Act. 8.6 Act. 9.17 as Philip and Ananias Lastly 'T were well if they would not onely chuse their members by a confession of faith but catechise them and themselves first in the doctrine of Faith For the mystery of Faith was more then men imagine and it may be more then Paul wrote to the Romans and Churches of Galatia Rom 4.2 for both it seems had gone so far back to the Law to begin in the Spirit and end in the flesh that the Apostle goes no farther then a Legal Faith Gal. 3.3 for Faith as justifying was no more and Faith on the promise was no higher then their Faith under the Law as is proved in the dispute hereafter Gospel-Faith was wholly exercised in our union with God in Christ and Christ in us which Paul rather points at in himself then teacheth the Church unless what he hints to some spiritual Saints therein Gal. 2.20 who had the anointing in them teaching them all things that they needed not any man should teach them 1 John 2.27 Therefore as Christ never heard any man preach so neither did the Apostles hear one anothers preachings or sit at a Sermon as our Gospel-preachers do This I onely speak by the way at present and another thing that the Apostles never preach'd a common place of the nature of Faith or repentance to bring people to repeat and believe but so preached Christ to all that they might believe and repent gospel-Gospel-Faith properly was this in knowing our followship with the Father and the Son in the Spirit to know our union with God in Christ and Christ so in us that we are in one with the Father as He in the same love and life in God with him John 14.19 Iohn 17.1 20 21 22 23. now the mystery of God even the Father and of Christ was not manifest to any under the Law nor to Abraham himself who though he saw the day of Christ yet 't was a far off Joh. 8.56 Heb. 11.13 for so the Fathers saluted the promises whose Faith was on the promise or power of God in performing the same and so it s justified Rom. 4.14 to 21. but the justifying faith of Christians was on Christ dying and raised up verse 24.25 though Abraham in a typical mystery believed on Christ dead and raised in his son sacrificed and slain in purpose verse 17. and raised in a figure Heb. 11.19 But as Christ was a mystery so his death and resurrection was a mystery also that none but the Apostles could manifest it by the Spirit which being not given to any one living the Faith which comes by hearing is no higher then theirs under the Law to justify and to save yea we know by experience the best Preachers when they would raise men to believe pitch them on the promise not on that power from on high or promise of the Father which they that believed on Christ did receive and by which the first Preachers of the Gospel brought men to believe But take faith in the lowest acceptance for justifying Faith was but of a legal temper which the Church of Rome beginning to fall from the Apostle is faine to set before them the faith of Abraham and David c to whom the mystery of Christ and of the Gospel being not yet manifested by the Spirit Rom. 3.13 Rom. 4.3 6. as to the Apostles and primitive Saints that Faith of theirs was but suitable to a legal estate I say take Faith in the lowest acceptance as justifying before God and men as working by love where is it when there is no love among you neither to other Churches or Saints differing from you nor to your own Churces who differ in doctrine as I said before much less love to all Saints The Sword doubled Col. 1.4 Tit. 9.3 2.4 to those scattered ones who cannot come to any of your Church-wayes as for love to all men 't is a thing you look not after though this be a higher degree of love then brotherly kindness or love to the brethren 1 Thes 3.12 2 Pet. 1.7 compared But alas the brotherhood is broken Zach. 11.6 9 14. vers there is not love to the brethren among you not onely love unfeigned but love out of a pure heart fervently is not to be found for the love of the best is but cold God knows not that fervent unfeigned that is without Hypocrisie 1 Pet. 1. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oh how far are believers from that love the Apostle
and many with me that as the eares of the deaf shall hear the words of the book so the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness Isa 29.18 19. This Scripture I spake of at Brecknock the last first day The Book I shewed was God dwelling in men Immanuel God with us that 's Christ God in us God manifest in our flesh as in his is Christ in us the hope of glory for all the Saints shall be taken up into the same glory with himself and the Nations by this called and joyned to the Lord. This Book is sealed to the learned and unlearned Preachers Isa 29.11 yea to the Prophets and Seers and most seeing men yea sealed with seven seals that 's perfectly sealed and from all Churches for it relates to the seven Churches enclining to the Apostacie which followed Secondly 'T is but a sma book a very little one for Iohn could swallow it at a bit Rev. 10. and 't was bitter in his Belly 't is so to flesh for it suffers by it as Christs did but the little Book is no more then God manifest in flesh in his flesh and in ours Thirdly It shall be open and that surely for the ministery of God shall be finished fully known and the Angel sweares by God that time shall be no more for all shall be taken up into eternity into God himself and God shall be all in all I shall repeat no more onely the remembrance of the Lord and his love to me in your dear deceased Wife who lives with me and in me for there 's the Lord in whom she is and in whom we both are though we know not but we shall when the book shall be opened My dearest salutes to all the Saints with you Farewell Brecknock the 23 of Aug. 1652. Your William Erbery For Mr. Vavasor Powel Dear Sir I Am owing to you in much love and in a Letter you long since sent unto me but now I shall repay you an answer which I had not so fit an opportunity to returne till by the present bearer I do not remember the contents of that onely I conceive 't was something concerning Christ and 't is that alone I shall in this confer with you for your Church-fellowship is at an end with God though some men may see somewhat in it yet 't is but a dead carcase they look upon the form of a man but the Spirit life and power form on high appears not at all to me nor to many in it as I have hinted in a Letter to Mr. Moston This is not to direct you in preaching but to desire your second thoughts in the things you spake of the personal reigne of Christ which with confidence you declare to be in that fleshly presence of his with which he ascended and shall so descend to reign a thousand years on earth and the Saints with him This hath some shew in the Letter of Scripture but if the Spirit hid in your flesh and mine shall be suffered to come forth and truely to interpret without the Tradition and Teaching of men God may shew you another sense then what is commonly revealed by Christians and Churches The first ground whereon your foundation or fundamental doctrine stands is Act. 1.11 Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing up into Heaven this same Iesus which is taken up from you into Heaven shall come so in like manner as yee have seen him go into Heaven To this know that the Disciples of Christ were too much taken with his fleshly presence while he was living with them in the dayes of his flesh John 16.7 Joh. 20.13 20. and his departure from them or dying of flesh filled their hearts with sorrow as after he was raised those who were weeping at his grave John 20.17 rejoyced to see him in the flesh again and so to touch him but that must not be saith he till I am ascended and this touch could not be but by the Spirit that in them was to take and touch the Spirit in him And what was he even Jesus but God manifest in flesh for 't was God who rose and ascended up on high Joh. 5.19 30. Joh. 8.27 28. Joh. 14.9 10. compare Psal 68.1 18. that 's God in flesh and what was his coming but when that Spirit and power of God in his flesh should appear in theirs the same Jesus came again for as the shedding forth of all the Gifts of the Spirit on the Disciples was the same so Christ tells Paul persecuting the Saints or the Spirit rather in them I am Jesus whom thou persecutest Act. 9.5 Jesus was therefore come again for his coming that he promised 't was nothing but the promise of the Father which they heard of him and in him for as the Father was all in all in his flesh who dwelt and did all his works spake his words so when God even the Father should appear thus with power in their flesh as in his then he came indeed Iohn 14. 18 19 20. He that believeth on me saith he the works that I do shall he do also and greater works then these shall he do because I go to the Father His going to the Father was his disappearance in flesh for when he no longer appeared to them in flesh then he was said to depart therefore his coming again was in the Spirit when he who was with them should be in them then Christ was the Spirit the quickning Spirit because I live ye shall live also Iohn 14.17 19. thus Christ was the Comforter verse 16. called another Comforter because he came in another presence then that of flesh he came and yet was he the same Comforter for I will not leave you comfortless I will come to you verse 18. yet a little while and the world seeth me no more but ye see me c. the world that 's carnal Christians could see no more of Christ when his fleshly presence was gone but ye see me ye who are spiritual or when spiritual ye see me how sure in the Spirit in the Spirit of life v. 19. and in the Spirit of light or knowledge v. 20. At that day ye shall know that I am in the Father and you in me and I in you No more Christ in the flesh but in the Father and Christ no more to be known after the flesh but he in us and we in him This spiritual understanding of Christ the disciples while carnal yea while Christ was in the flesh were ignorant of therefore he calls them in a common name Ye men of Galilee Acts 1.11 and their gaping up to heaven after his fleshly presence is reproved there also The spiritual knowledge of him is then taught This same Iesus which is taken from you in the flesh shall so come unto you in the spirit and ye shall see him as was said before Joh. 14.19 that is after a little while they should see him Joh.
all particulars were written it would nauseate any Scholar or spiritual man Such a one I wisht my Antagonist had been for then he should have understood me or I him therefore I desired Mr. Nichols in a Letter the week before that we should reason together in private among Rational and Religious friends both his and mine But he was resolved to have it in publike either that the simple Welsh people might wonder at his wisdom or that his folly and mine might appear to all And truely I was a fool to accept of a dispute before an illiterate multitude and without a Moderator for many sometimes would be speaking at once But it was agreed upon at last that M. Nichols should be Respondent because I was by Argument to maintain the Truth that I taught which he had rumoured abroad to be Errour and Heresie The things were these First That the new Jerusalem is a state of the Saints in this life This he denied Secondly That the Saints this day have not a Gospel-faith This he affirmed Thirdly That God is in union with mankinde This he was negative too But I was to maintain all three in these following Arguments For the first I had many grounds to build upon and to prove that the new Jerusalem is a state of Saints in this life First because it must be immediately after Babylons fall which is in this lise where Babylon must fall and rise no more Rev. 18.21 Rev. 19. throughout Rev. 20.1 7. Rev. 21.2 3. Secondly New Jerusalem comes down from God out of heaven not goes up to heaven from earth Thirdly there God dwells with men not men with God for 't is a new earth as well as a new heaven Fourthly whole Nations are here to be saved and the Nations saved with their Kings bring their glory and honour to it which cannot be in heaven above as men conceive but 't is a third dispensation differing from Law and Gospel-Order For the first was a nation saved by the Lord. Deut. 33.29 Act. 2.47 Zach. 2.11 In the second believers of all Nations were saved or joyned to the Lord not to a Church but to the Lord not in any particular form of Religion Isa 60.21 but in the power of righteousness The first Argument was thus The Nations of them that are saved walk in the light of the new Jerusalem Rev. 21.24 and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honour to it Ergo the new Jerusalem is a state of the Saints in this life Secondly Jerusalem shall be inhabited Zach. 2.4 as a city without walls for the multitude of men and cattel therein Ergo 'T is in this life M. Nichols Answers to both truely I remember not nor his to most of my Arguments onely to this second his answer was in laughter like Solomon's wise man Eccles 7.6 crying aloud to the people Hawer here 's cattel in heaven whereas my proof was that New Jerusalem in Zechariah was not heaven because cattel are there Yet contrary to Order Mr. Nichols would needs object and what That the new Jerusalem is not this life why Because saith he none shall enter in that defileth or telleth a lye Rev. 21.27 I caught him presently in three before witnesses One was a great untruth for whereas I was saying upon occasion that Zechariah's prophecie was after the Captivity M. Nichols would face me down before the people that his Prophecie was before and Adeodate saith he is of the same judgement with me The next day that I spake Adeodate was brought and read in publike Adeodate in Zach. 1. whose words were quite contrary to that M. Nichols said of him yea the Scripture is clear that Zachary prophesied in the second and fourth yeers of Darius that 's after the Captivity Zech. 1.1 7.1 Ergo said I Mr. Nichols must not enter into the new Jerusalem 'T was his own Argument Isa 65.22 But my third was this In the new Jerusalem men shall build houses plant vineyards labour and live long Ergo New Jerusalem is a state in this life The second thing that I held forth as truth to me was this That none of the people of God this day have a Gospel-faith Which I proved first by an Argument ex enumerat is or ex particularibus c. Neither M. Nichols nor any of the godly Preachers with him nor the people of God this day have a Gospel-Church Ergo None have c. 'T was proved thus Those who live not of the Gospel Isa 2.4 have not a Gospel-faith For the just live by faith But neither M. Nichols nor any of the godly Preachers with him live of the Gospel Ergo. The minor or second Proposition I proved thus Those who live upon Tythes 1 Cor. 9.14 live not of the Gospel But M. Nichols and the rest of the godly Preachers in Wales live upon Tythes Ergo. This was unanswerable therefore to the people of God I proposed a second Argument thus Those that have not received the Spirit which Jesus gave after he was glorified have not a Gospel faith John 7.39 But the Saints this day have not received that Spirit c. Ergo. This I proved First because that Spirit was not before given or as the Greek there reads The Spirit was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Secondly the Spirit which the Apostles had before and afterward breathed on them by Christ risen John 14.17 John 20.22 was not that Spirit which Jesus gave when he was glorified or ascended but the Saints this day have not that Spirit as the Apostles had before much less the Spirit which Jesus gave after he was glorified Ergo. Thirdly the Spirit which Jesus gave after he was glorified was the Baptism of the Spirit which the Apostles themselves had not received before Act. 1.5 till not many days after the Resurrection that is the pouring forth of all the gifts of the Spirit on the Church Act. 2.33 38. which present Churches and purest Christians are far from Ergo Nâ—ne have a Gospel-faith The third Argument was from Joh. 14.12 Those who do not the works which Christ did and greater also then those have not a Gospel-faith But none of the Saints this day by all their faith can do those works and greater also Ergo. The Argument is stronger in Christ who gives a double asseveration to it Verily verily that is not onely assevers but swears as Calvin interprets Joh. 14.12 Secondly those who believed on Christ did greater works then he did in the days of his flesh Act. 9.18 Act. 2.8 41. Act. 4.4 for some gave the Spirit by the laying on of hands 2. Others could speak to every one in his own tongue 3. They converted many thousands at once 4. Could preach the Gospel to every creature under heaven whereas Christ did onely to one Nation Col. 1.23 Mat. 15.24 Mark 6.4 Mark 16.17.18 for his commission was no farther 2. Converted but