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
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
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
that are translated from the death of sinne and condemnation through a dissolution of the body by a natural death unto everlasting life and salvation for there is and ever will be a gulfe betweene you and your Captain General and their eternal habitation Qu. 16. And if you have no sinne to what end is Christ beneficial as an Advocate Intercessor and Mediator or is he no such Answ. 16. Christ that gives a man a light to see his sinne who redeems and cleanseth him from sinne is of use to us and all that knowes him as the Mediator and of use to keep his from the wicked one and that he toucheth them not 1 John 5. 18. And the same who sets free from sinne is he that keeps free from sinne and this benefit we have by him as Advocate Intercessor and Mediator Ephes. 16. 17. Reply 16. And here O secret Deceiver you grant what you so lately denied for if you had not owned perfect and present perfection this Query had been void and not to have been answered and therefore in answering it without any exception or caution in the least you grant the subject perfect perfection and to this alludes the whole drift of your Answer namely to justifie what you before denied even perfect purity or perfection and so endeavour to ordaine Christ a new matter and manner of officiating as Advocate Intercessor and Mediator and that Christ gives a man that beleeves in him light to see his sin I own and witnesse and therefore you knowing not your sins it is unto me an evident manifestation that you have not the true light of Jesus Christ but to particulars Intercession is a passing between or being surety to undertake to satisfie for ones debt now if you acknowledge no debt due for sinne what need have you of a surety is he not uselesse unto you in this respect And a Mediator is one that goeth betwixt or withstandeth a matter that it goeth not forwards that is betwixt us and Gods wrath against us for sinne and how can he withstand that which is not And if there be no sinne what need is there of an Advocate to plead for us will not innocency acquit it selfe But if any man sinne not else we have an Advocate with God the Father Jesus Christ the reghteous and he is the propitiation for our sinnes that is a Sacrifice for to appease Gods anger for so the word signifies kindled by our sinnes and quenched by his blood for without blood is no Sacrifice made Now if we have no sinne there can be no wrath unlesse God can be unjust which is impossible and therefore there needs no appeasment where there is no anger And thus if you have no sinne is Christ uselesse as a Mediator and Advocate for sin So this Query rests unanswered also Qu. 17. And if you are perfect in purity what is the cause you are not also perfect in glory Answ. 17. Perfect glory is perfect purity and every one according to their measures are glorified therewith but this world knows not whose glory fadeth neither can they judge of it with their impure spirit 2 Cor. 3. 18. And of this glory all the Saints have a measure in this life but the world hates it Reply 17. Here you also grant againe that which before you denied to wit perfect purity that you in no wise here deny but rather justifie the present enjoyment of it but if you are now perfect in purity and glory is there not yet a greater and more sublime perfection of both to be expected by the faithful and if there be is not this you now pretend to enjoy imperfect by reason of that which excelleth and if there be not what then is Scripture untrue and is not this an alluding unto an immediate enjoyment of heaven upon earth and if so then that which you before denied is here also confessed concerning heaven upon earth and if this be perfection then I am sure that as is the world so is thy spirit ignorant of that which indeed is perfect and true perfection which no carnal or apostatiz'd eye can see unto for it is spiritually discerned Qu. 18. And if you disown method in teaching I Quere whether you have any command against it and whether you esteeme confusion better then uniformity Answ. 18. That method and teaching which is out of the doctrine of Christ which is in the wisedome of man and in the wisedome of words of mans wisedome out of the unity of the light of Christ and his Spirit this we see to be confusion and not uniformity and against it we have a command which was judged with the spirit of the Apostles so do we 1 Cor. 2. Reply 18. This pretended titular answer savours so much either of ignorant folly or of sophistical deceit is so far exorbitant from the thing required that it rather deserves to be laugh'd at then in the least to be reply'd unto Qu. 19. Whether ever intentively the Gospel was promised to be made known or practically that it was made known without the means to wiâ— the Ministration of man if not why then doe you resist it Ans. 19. The Gospel was made known and promised intentively and practically to the servants and children of God without the ministration of man as to Adam Enoch Noah Abraham Isay and all the Prophets John Baptist Simeon the Shepherds Paul and divers others and the same he doth at this day and none can limit him nor doe I resist what meanes he uses but such as resist his works deny his light and would limit him Gen. 3. 15. Gen. 9 9. Gen. 17. 7 Luke 3. 20. Luke 2. 10. Gal. 1. 11 12. Reply 19. O blind Sophister could probability have rendred such absurdity as possible to be in any especially one so much pretending peculiar and sacred knowledge as to bring the meanes as a testimony against it selfe as you doe and as absurd would it be to imagine that any should preach the Gospel of Christ as from themselves though I dare presume to say you doe for then would it be of man not of God And I meane thus whether ever God by promise or by practice intended or did make publick his Gospel but by the use of the meanes to wit man which it could not be but it must be first reveal'd to man and so be by man but not of man as you falsly affirm it is which meanes was Enoch who preached the Gospel in publick which had been revealed unto him in private and Noah the eighth person was a Preacher of righteousnesse and so was Isay insomuch that I have heard it made a question whether he were most properly a Prophet or an Evangelist and so were the rest of the Prophets Preachers of the same Gospel and therein were those meanes which you seem to deny and the like was John the Baptist a Preacher of the Gospel and therefore a meanes and a Minister of
to the faithlesse except ye be Reprobates and again Know you not that no unrighteous person inâ—eriteth the Kingdom of God where it is cleare that it does not possesse men as inheriting them for this implyes a contradiction but it is to be possessed of men and they to inherit it and from this inheritance the unrighteous are excepted and exempted too therefore it is certainly a most notorious lye to say Christ preached the Kingdome of God in unbeleevers though among them for he himselfe and all his excellencies that attended him in his Incarnation were among them but not in them and an error in the Translation makes not an error in Christs Doctrine Thus for the first I come now to clear the Apostle from your falshoods for you speaking of unbeleevers say he saith that all which may be known of God or of his glory is manifest in them This you pretend to be a proofe that there is a light in every man to reveale all that may be known of God or of his glory which I say can be nothing lesse then the Spirit of God when if you read the verse following for the first hath a dependency on the latter you shall see the extention of the former expression The invisible things of him from the Creation of the world are clearly seene being understood by the things that are made Now this cannot be the Spirit of God or Christ which teacheth all things needfull for salvation except you can prove him to be made at the Creation and so a creature and not a Creator and therefore it must be something in the creature which can be nothing else but the eye of the rational soule which is reason by which may be seen the invisible being of God and that he is so Cicero Aristotle Plato but meer Heathens have attain'd unto therefore this is humane not divine I shal not stand to state arguments to prove it experimentally because I intend brevity I Come unto the other Scripture which you adde that the Apostle saith that they speaking of unbeleevers still came to the knowledge of God and his glory by the light that shone in them A most notorious lye wresting the meaning of the Apostle unto your owne wills and I leave it to you to examine with feare and trembling whether it be not also unto your own destruction too for the words are these For God who commanded the light to shine out of darknesse hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the grace of God in the face of Jesus Christ Where is observable First what it was that shined God that commanded the light to shine out of darknesse hath shined Secondly the persons to and in whom he shined in our hearts Now the word our maketh a separation between Paul and the Corinthians to whom he writ who were Beleevers and Reprobates who beleeved not therefore you must needs acknowledge you have belyed him in saying he spoke of unbeleevers when he spoke to and of Saints in our hearts unlesse you can prove that that Paul and the Corinthians were such as you speak of even unbeleevers Thirdly the intent and purpose for which he shone to give it was not free to all as you say but particularly given to some the light of the knowledge of the glory of God And then Fourthly the manner how in the face of Jesus Christ I intend not to write an Exposition on the words but onely rightly to divide them and so to cleare them from the scandal laid on them by you which is clear So that your Query being thus handled I suppose there can be no more required in answer to it and farre be it from me to hold a judgement willingly any further then is concomitant to and with Scripture proofes and practice Learne to speak truth and cease to endeavour the building of so lying a Babel which is not in that one language of God but that of Satan For every lye is of Satan the Father of lyes Query 4. Whether that New Birth spoken of in the Scriptures be Christ within or some other thing and if not he then what is it and how people may know it by the Letter without the Light when they have Christ and when they have a spirit of delusion and whether the light of the Spirit alone be sufficient without the letter to reveale the Sonne of God the Father and all truth and judge of all spirits whatsoever without any addition to it An Answer to the Fourth Query The New Birth or Regeneration is a repairing of the Image of God once in the first Adam through the effectual working of the Spirit and grace of God by faith in the second Adam which they that looke unto the first Adam and in their own strength endeavour to renew cannot comprehend for it is spiritually discerned though the policy of the Serpent may so far prevaile as to cast them into a kinde of pleasing slumber of Security and so pretending to lead them back unto that earthly Eden by personal obedience which they lost by disobedience like lambs led to the slaughter they may passe a Celestial Paradise by and perhaps arrive at a perilous disconsolate place of eternal sorrow or if you will it is a remission of sinne and a renewment of sanctity called Sanctification on the whole Doctrine whereof to insist at large would require a greater volume then either I intend to trouble you to peruse or my selfe to compose but for the satisfaction of them among you or elsewhere whose intentions are to be informed out of sincerity not curiosity I shall speak a little unto some particulars of it In brief man hath no hand at all in this work but the spirit of God for even as in the compositure or making of any thing there must two things concurre First the Agent or Workman which giveth the forme shape or being to the Work Secondly the matter whereof the work must be made or formed the which cannot be said to work it selfe but onely to suffer the operation of the Worker This is the summe of Regeneration First the the spirit of God is the workman in this work he is the begetter of this new man the framer of this new creature and the re-builder of this sacred Fabrick Secondly the minde and will of man is the matter whereof this new creature or image of God in man is made not working together with the Spirit of God but onely suffering the operation of the holy Ghost this is the Epitomy of this whole work for Regeneration is nothing else but a sanctified minde and will so the begetter of this new man is God even the Holy Ghost For that which is borne of the flesh is flesh and that which is borne of the spirit is spirit So that this New Birth is the work of the Spirit and although by the Ministry of man as the matter yet not
not themselves therewith to sit downe and rest here as did the Apostles For the present I shall leave it to them to examine whether they fight not against Gods Councels and determinations and let them be careful how they grope for a heaven on earth left they misse it where it is even above all Principalities and powers in Christ his presence where there is fulnesse of joy and pleasures for evermore Quere 6. Seeing you say the Scriptures is the ground of faith and that they who can read the Scriptures have power to beleeve as you did the last first day then I say can any beleeve who have not read or heard the Scriptures if yea then is not their faith without ground by your opinion or is there more grounds of faith then one or is the Scriptures Christ An Answer to the Sixth Query Most impudent and no lesse disconsolate and thrice wretched man whether it be properly the fruits of thy spirit to speak truth or a lye seems unto me a matter neither doubtful nor disputable but apparent for the first are as rare to be read in thy writings as to see a blazing star in the Firmament for ought I can conjecture I had almost said as to see a Phoenix in England which was never known but in Arabia for what you relate that I said the Scripture is the ground of faith is as notorious a lye as to affirme James Naylor to be no lyar and both as incomparable untruths as to say light is darkness or darknesse light yet I say the Scritures read and preached is a meanes to work faith for faith is by hearing and who is Paul or who is Apollo but Ministers by whom ye beleeve And since your brains are tosticated with invention and fomenting of heresie which breatheth forth nothing but lyes and falshoods and hath raised this forgery among the rest that I said he that could read had power to beleeve wert thou not led by the Father of falshood to heap up shame unto thy self though thou intendest it for others thou mayest remember I asserted that no man by any native light inherent in him had power to beleeve except he had an augmentation thereof and therefore finding the foundation of thy Quere but thy own invented lyes I shall returne it back unto thee to whom of right it belongs being forgeries of thine own head and no expressions of mine I send thee back thine own and if you please you may send it unto the Devil the father of lyes whose it was at first I deale plainly as you desired me Quere 7. Seeing you affirme that none can be Ministers of Christ but who are called of man and are learned men whether was the Apostle Paul a true Minister who saith he was neither of man nor by man and what he preached was not after man Nor was it but by revelation Gal. 1. 2 11 12. Or was Peter John and the rest true Ministers who were unlearned and ignorant men Acts 4. 13. And what lets that God may not chuse such now An Answer to the Seventh Quere If ever Satan had the penning of a paper stuffed up with untruths or Beelzebub the portraying of his unexpressible hypocrisie to the prospect of humane eyes with the pen of his falshoods then certainly he or his Agents are the Inditors of this your packet of lyes and particularly this Query which deserveth rather censure then answer or at the least to be turned back without either yet since you endeavour to render me odious in the eyes of your Proselytes I shall answer according to truth and returne thee thy lyes according as thou sentest them to me and yet be so far from revenging thy injurious slinders that I shall passe them by with an honourable scorne And whereas you say that I affirm that none can be the Ministers of Christ but such as are called of men is a branch of thy old root a most impudent lye for that were all one in effect to assert all that are called of men are the Ministers of Christ and none else and this were by consequence to affirm James Naylor that grand Fomenter of Heresie to be a true teacher of Divinity because unto me he appeares as called of man or of himselfe and so by man or else goeth not being sent and runs when the Lord bids him not goe for called of Christ he cannot be because he opposeth his commands and belyes his Institutions in general and he that preacheth downe Christ in any thing so much preacheth up Antichrist and therefore is his servant whom he obeyes and it is want of learning among the vaine praters of your Society that errours so much predominates as to exuperate in them who being ignorant of the truth speak evill of the things they doe not understand and for Paul he was a true Minister and one who was faithful in the distribution of that Gospel whereof he was made a Minister not of man nor by man but of Jesus Christ as a wise Master builder who did not erre though you may suppose he did when he transmitted of his Authority to Titus to ordaine Elders iâ— every City of Crete and for which end he was left there and directed Timothy whom to make Bishops who himselfe had received the gift of Prophesie by the laying on of the hands of the Presbyter And that Pauls doctrine was not after man but by Revelation of Jesus Christ proves thee a lyar and a seducer too that saith It is the words of men and therefore not Jesus And Peter and John were true Ministers of Christ and though that the high Priests and Rulers perceived them to be unlearned and ignorant men yet this is most sure that they spake with all manner of tongues none excepted and if this be ignorance void of learning I speak of humane learning I would gladly be informed what learning is and for Divinity if they were unlearned and ignorant woe unto them who build on their writings and ignorant indeed was Paul who saith The Scriptures are able to make a man wise unto salvation but this I am bold to say that if they were ignorant I would we were all so and such fooles as by our foolishnesse we might become exceeding wise and thereby obtain eternal Redemption and there is nothing lets but that God may doe what he will for he cannot be limited with whom all things are possible and therefore nothing impossible but yet this I dare boldly assert that God never did nor never will use any extraordinary meanes to destroy the ordinary standing meanes at you endeavour to doe neither did he or ever will send any though he may permit them to preach up Antichrists doctrine of Heresie as doe you neither did ever any except false Prophets come to claime credit unto the words that he spoke unto the best of my knowledge but he was to give proof of it either by the mighty operations of