Page 22. reproof as so many Mephibosheths their Master teaches them to go uprightly but they still shew their lame leg and shame their Master as if a man might be a Christian and yet be the vilest person in the World doing such things for which the Laws of men have provided both smart and shame and the Laws of God have threatned the intollerable pains of an unsufferable and never dying damnation And in his measure of the Evangelical Righteousness he saith It must at least be so much that is as the Scribes and Pharisees We must keep the Letter of the whole Moral Law We must do all that lies before us all that is in our hand the outward work must Page 24. be done and it is not enough to say My Heart is right but my Hand went wrong a right Heart alone will not do it or rather the Heart is not right when the Hand is wrong for once for all let us remember this That Christianity is the most profitable the most useful and the most bountiful institution in the whole World and the best definition Page 25. I can give of it is this It is the Wisdom of God brought down among us to do good to men Christian Religion is something that is not seen it is the hidden Page 29. man of the heart * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is God that dwells within True Christians are men who as the Chaldee Oracle said †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hos 2. 14. are cloathed with a great deal of mind I will speak unto their Heart To preach the Gospel saith he where the Spirit is the Preacher and the Heart is the Disciple and the Sermon is of Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Our Service to God must not be in outward works and Scenes of Religion it must be something by which we become like God solemn Prayers and the Sacraments and the Assemblies of the Faithful Page 31. and Fasting dayes and Acts of external Worship are the Solemnities Page 32. and Rights of Religion but the Religion of a Christian is in the Heart and Spirit And this is that by which Clemens Alexandrinus desired the Righteousness of a Christian * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the parts and faculties which make up a man must make up our Religion but the Heart is Domus Principalis it is the Court of the great King and he is properly served with Interior Graces and Moral Virtues with a humble and a good Mind with a bountiful Heart and a willing Soul and these command the Eye and give Law to the Hand and make the Shoulders stoop but anima cujusque est quisque then he is within A mans Soul is the man and so is his Religion and so ye are bound to understand it No external action can purifie the Soul because its Nature Page 33. and Operation being Spiritual it can no more be changed by a Ceremony by an external Solemnity than an Angel can be carressed with sweet meats or a mans Belly be filled with Musick or long Orations The Sum is this No Christian does his duty to God but he that serves him with all his heart and although it becomes us to fulfil all righteousness even the external also yet that which makes us gracious in his eye is not the external it is the love of the heart and the real change of the mind and obedience of the Spirit That 's the first great measure of the Righteousness Evangelical Our Righteousness must be the purification and the perfection of the Spirit A Christian must not look upon a Woman to lust after her he must hate sin in all dimensions and in all distances and in every Angle of its Reception To abstain from all appearances of evil Charity vaunteth not its self And upon this Saint Basil saith That Ecclesiastick Persons and so every Christian in his proportion ought not to go in splendid and vain Ornaments every thing that is not wisely useful or proportioned to the state of the Christian but ministers only to vanity is a part of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a vaunting which the charity and grace of a good Christian does not well endure it is no wonder if Christianity be nice and curious it is the cleanness and the purification of the Soul and Christ intends to present his Church to God without spot or wrinkle or any such thing N. B. or any such thing if there be any irregularity less than a wrinkle the Evangelical Righteousness doth not allow it And certain it is he is dull of hearing who understands not the Voice of God unless it be clamorous in an express and a loud Commandment proclaimed with Trumpets and Clarions on Mount Sinai A willing and an obedient ear understands the still Voice of Christ and is ready to obey his meaning at half a word and that is the Righteousnesse Evangelical The Righteousness Evangelical must be like Christ's seamless Coat Page 44. all of a piece from the top to the bottom it must invest the whole Soul Misma Dumah Massah said the Proverb of the Rabbins it is this and it is the other and it must be all it must be an Universal Righteousness not a little knot of holy Actions scattered in our lives and drawn into a sum at the day of Judgment but it must be a state of holiness To be zealous for God and for Religion is good but that will not Page 45. legitimate cruelty to our Brother The Righteousness Evangelical is another kind of thing it is a holy conversation a God-like life an Universal obedience a keeping nothing back from God A Sanctification of the whole man and keeps not the Body only but the Soul and the Spirit unblameable to the coming of the Lord Jesus These are such things saith he a little before which if a man will stand to defend possibly a modest reprover will be more ashamed than an impudent offender Page 40. Page 49. Among the Hebrews the Trees of the Lord did signifie such trees as grew of themselves and all that are of God's planting are such as have a vital principle within and grow without constraint I do not know how to give a fuller expression to the Principle of the People called Quakers and indeed the whole of them are very full as much as in so many words can well be exprest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one said it of the Christians They obey the Laws and by the goodness of their lives exceed the Laws And certain it is no man hath the Righteousness Evangelical if he resolves alwayes to take all his liberty in every thing that is meerly lawful or if he purpose to do no more than he needs must that is no more than he is just commanded for the reasons are plain The sum of all is this The Righteousness Evangelical is Page 67 68. the same with that
initio l. 3. f liberii r. liberi l. 5. f. Uno ciâ—ca r. quocirca l. 8. f. eam r. eum p. 231. l. 10. f. by Arrians r. from Arrius l. 31. f. Treatises r. Treatise p. 234. l. 31. f. father r. further A Looking-Glass for the TIMES c. THE Everlasting God which setteth the bounds to the Nations and declareth to man his thoughts is not circumscribed to time or place but in every Nation he that feareth God and worketh Righteousness is accepted of him This said Peter of old who once thought as did the Samaritans that all Religion was impaled to the Jews who had the Circumcision to whom pertained the Adoption and the Glory and the Covenants and the giving of the Law and the Service of God and the Promises whose were the Fathers and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came who is over all God blessed for ever Amen Therefore he thought it much in the Vision that was shewen him to Arise slay and eat Not so Lord said he for I Acts 10. 13 14 15. have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean But said the Voice the second time What God hath cleansed that call not thou common in the Case of the Centurion unto whom he was sent being a Gentile to turn unto the Faith And said Christ Jesus to the Woman of Samaria who said Our Fathers worshipped in this Mountain and ye say That in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship Woman believe me the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this Mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father Ye worship ye know not what We know what we worship for Salvation is of the Jews But the hour cometh and now is when the true Worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in Truth John 4. 20 21 22 23 24. And said the Apostle Who hath also made us able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit for the Letter killeth but the Spirit giveth Life but if the ministration of the Letter written and engraven in stones was glorious so that the Children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance which glory was to be done away How shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious for if the ministration of condemnation be glory much more doth the ministration of Righteousness exceed in glory for even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of the glory that excelleth for if that which was done away was glorious much more that which remaineth is glorious 2 Cor. 3. 6 to the 12. The intent and substance of all which is as much as to say That there is no Religion under the Sun or no prescription that ought to be as to any thing that relates to the Worship of God or that is ground of Worship since Christ came in the flesh and was offered up but what is within in Spirit and in Truth which is in opposition to all outward Forms which proceed not from the Spirit For Israel of old during the State under which they stood of an outward Administration had no further reference than to themselves who had the Circumcision or outward Administration the Law of Commandments contained in Ordinances which Law was added because of transgression till the Seed should come which is Christ who being come put an end to Circumcision and that outward Administration which with the Jew ended who was of the Stock of Sem which related not to the Gentile So that whole Administration with the particularity of the Jew in the flesh had an end and hath no more ground of enforcement wherefore the Gentiles should be obliged to a form or that form of Worship or outward Administration then if the Jew in the flesh had not been or that outward Administration for it related to time and persons and not to the body of the World or the universality of dayes which time being out or expired and those persons or Nations at an end as to that for which they were taken into a particular consideration the thing hath also an end with them and cannot admit of a force upon themselves or those that are yet left of the Jewish Nation much less upon those who are not Jews but Gentiles whom the Lord never so took in nor dealt with as to any outward Administration So that to enforce or to endeavour so to do from what was once the Administration of God in the flesh to the Jews on them who are not Jews but Gentiles what the Scriptures hold forth to be the outward administration of the Jews or to seek to ground from thence a bottom why all Nations or the Nations of the Gentiles should be in an outward administration of Worship and should be bounded in or denominated by any particular form is to put force upon the Scriptures and to hold forth that which neither doth the Scripture nor is the intent of the Spirit and which Christ Jesus ended in the Jew and the Apostles testified unto so to be ended as aforesaid For in the first place Where there is no ground or bottom for such a thing no such thing from such a thing can be concluded But no such bottom or ground is there for any such thing as from the Judaical Policy to enforce a legal Administration or outward form of Worship as hath been declared since Christ was offered up and an end put thereby to that Administration Therefore to enforce any such thing now that he is offered up and that Administration ended is to enforce such a thing without a ground or bottom In the next place The Lord Jesus when he was offered up and ascended gave gifts unto men not outward Administrations as to Times Places and Nations Some Evangelists saith the Apostle some Prophets some Pastors some Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the Body of Christ till we all come saith he in the unity of the Faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Ephes 4. 10 11 12 13. Thirdly The Administration of the Spirit or of Righteousness is that which excels in glory as hath been said and even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of the glory that excelleth 2 Cor. 3. 9 10. Fourthly All outward Administrations had a time to end as well as to begin and they had a signification which the thing signified being come vanished and came to nothing So all that which was the Administration to the Jews had its beginning and end its time to come to nothing and to vanish as it had to begin which
the World and the Prince of it hath sought to pull down but hath not been able Naked Truth which is greater than all by its own force and virtue which is spiritual hath overcome and given all to do the same who have been led and guided by it that which subdues the spirits of men that which chains that binds the strong man armed and makes the Devils subject can certainly prevail to keep all that are guided by it in whom it lives and by whom they are preserved and kept The Lord the everlasting God neither fainteth nor is weary there is no searching out of his understanding The Power of God Christ Jesus by whom all things were made and preserved without which said he to Pilate nothing could be done unto him without doubt is able and will as he sees its most advantage to his Truth and the glory of his Name keep those in whom it lives who know the Rock that is higher than they the strong Tower the Name of the Lord to which the Righteous fly and are saved This may suffice to answer the Objection which happily may arise in some in point of safety should that be insisted on which looks to outward Arms the Truth had never been at this day had not the virtue and power thereof preserved and kept it self and all who have kept to it Wars and the Sword were not in the beginning in the beginning it was not so man was made in that or by it which made the Creation there was no variance Adam gave names to all the Creation the Creatures came to Noah by an instinct not humane to be preserved in the Ark. The first use of Arms was found in Cain who killed his Brother because of Religion the enmity entered with transgression the strange Nature which knew not that in which all things were made which sought the destruction of that which was made that which is come to redeem from transgression redeems from the consequence or that which followed by reason of transgression as well as transgression removes the enmity casts it out which having entered into the Creation seeks to destroy it which is the Devil and brings where man was in the beginning where one Spirit that by which all things were made which is tender to that it hath made which is the Harmony or Union where no Jar is lives and rules and hitherto things must all come again And as that in and by which all things were made comes to live as it comes to live works to this out of the contrary and that which will be in the end must be in the beginning and a beginning it must have and some must begin it and who should or can do this but those in whom this is so come to live that in the particular hath so far overcome that this it can do which is to be an example or a leader to the rest till iniquity being overcome and that which destroyes the Creation being cast out the Earth enjoy her Sabbaths again and the oppressor ceaseth out of the Land Happy is that people who are in such a case saith the Psalmist Psal 144. 15. in a thing of another nature Yea happy are the people whose God is the Lord. He gave his back to the smiter and his cheeks to them that plucketh off the hair and hid not his face from shame and spitting Isa 50. 6. The same is now where and as he is witnessed and his Dominion is an everlasting dominion and his Kingdom that which shall not pass away All that were led by his Spirit in all Generations pertook of his mind in this and thereby overcame the Lord sustained them so that they fainted not That which fights with the Sword must subdue the Spirit or it cannot overcome the body in which the Spirit is if the Spirit be overcome without the Sword bound or chained up is it not the same yea is it not better and there is a way to this and the man sees and hath proved it so who knows the Wisdom and the Power of God So let all men be satisfied in this thing the Doctrine that I preach is not new it was in the beginning and is in measure in some again and will be in the end The Prophets have prophesied so the Lord of Life in his humiliation witnessed it to be so so did the Prophets and Apostles so have all his Witnesses to this day and so now it is witnessed and will be till all hath an end and till time is no more The Witnesses of Jesus though men of War otherwise laid down to this The Roman Captains and Souldiers when it came to this laid down their Sword-Girdles as aforesaid and imbraced death as Christians I am a Christian and so suffered so have the Christians in succeeding Ages Why should I fill the World with reports of what Histories have said of this matter any further The ground hath been shewn wherein War stands and the reason and ground of the alteration and wherein that stands which gives it I hope no considerate man by this time will look strange upon this Position but having duly weighed things will see the rise of the one and of the other Arms and that which subdues them and so will be more gentled at least to the contrary Principle if not convinced of it which they may be in due season for which cause this is written at least that the ground on which we stand as to these things may be understood or that we may give a reason thereof to this and Generations to come and not appear as Monsters which the opposites to us would make in this thing who are no otherwise therein then on the ground aforesaid which he that thinks he can overthrow let him manifest himself therein So far at this time is it with me to write of this thing and so I shall proceed THE Fourth General Head Concerning the Changeable Priesthood The fourth and last Head is the Changeable Priesthood the Rise and Original of that and of the contrary to which I shall speak and then I shall end as to these Heads or Particulars THE Changeable Pristhood had its Date with the Nation of the Jews it was Figurative and ended in him who changed the Priesthood who is a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedeck without beginning of dayes or end of life whom the Changeable Priesthood signified For Christ is not entred into the Holy Places made with hands which are the figures of the True but into Heaven it self now to appear in the presence of God for us Nor yet that he should offer up himself often as the high Priest entred into the holy Place every year with blood of others for then must be often have suffered since the foundation of the World but now once in the end of the World hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself And as it is appointed for men once to die but
which the Antients called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To live an Apostolick life that was the measure of Christians the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men that desired to please God that is as Apostolius most admirably describes it * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Page 69. Men who are curious of their very Eyes temperate in their Tongue and of a mortified Body and a humble Spirit pure in their intentions masters of their passions men who when they are injured return honorable words and when they are lessened in their estates increase in their charity when they are abused they yet are courteous and give entreaties when they are hated they pay love men that are dull in contentions and quick in loving kindness swift as the feet of Asahel and ready as the Chariots of Aminadabs True Christians are such as are crucified with Christ and dead unto all sin and finally place their whole love on God and for his sake on all mankind so that it was well said of Athanagoras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Legat. pro Christianis No Christian is a wicked man unless his life be a continual lie unless he be false to God and his Religion For the Righteousness of the Gospel is in short nothing else but a Transcript of the life of Christ De Mathana Nahaliel de Nahaliel Bamoth said Rabbi Josuah Christ is the Image of God and every Christian is the Image of Christ whose example is imitable but it is the best and his Laws are the most perfect but the most easie and the promises by which he invites our greater services are most excellent but most true and the reward shall be hereafter but they shall abide for ever the threatnings of them that fall short of this Righteousness are most terrible but most certainly shall come to pass they shall never enter into the Kingdom of God that is their portion shall be shame and an eternal Prison a flood of Brimstone and cohabitation with Devils to eternal Ages And if this consideration will not prevail there is no place left for perswasion and there is no use of reason and the greatest hopes and greatest fears can be no Argument or Sanction of Laws and the greatest good in the World is not considerable and the greatest evil is not formidable but if they be there is no more to be said if you would have your portion with Christ you must be righteous by his measures and these are they that I have told you So I have done with this Doctor or Bishop unto whose words I suppose I need not to add seeing that in themselves they hold out what the People called Quakers hold forth as their Principles in as full and large expressions as need to be signified I shall quote one or two particulars more of Alexander Henderson's the great Scotish Minister out of the printed Passages of the Papers that passed between the late King Charles the First and him in reference to Government when the said King was at Newcastle having cast himself on the Scotish Army when he came from Oxford Also something out of the said Kings Papers and his Book to his Son the now King Charles the Second called ΕΙΚΟΠΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΗ And then I shall draw towards a conclusion Alexander Henderson in answer to the Kings first Paper dated at Newcastle Alex. Henders Paper 1. Page 6. May 29. 1646. and to that part of it which related to the Kings education settlement in that Religion which he professed the Kings Plea or Allegation on that foot saith I do not wonder nor think it any strange thing that Your Majesty hath not at first given place to a contrary impression I remember that the famous Johannes Picus Mirandula proveth by irrefragable reasons which no rational man will contradict That no man hath so much power over his own understanding as to make himself believe what he will or to think that to be true which his reason telleth him to be false much less is it possible for any man to have his reason commanded by his will 2. It is a true saying of the Schoolmen Voluntas imperat intellectui quoad exercitium non quoad specificationem Mine own will or the will of another may command me to think upon a matter but no will or command can constrain me to determine otherwise then my reason teacheth me Then no man ought to be persecuted for his Religion then no man can be forced into a Religion then no Religion ought to be forced then every one ought freely towards God to exercise his Religion The matters are plain I need not mannage the words any farther to prove this mater The King in his reply to Alexander Henderson's Answer to the Kings Kings Reply Page 17. first Paper saith My taste cannot be guided by another mans palate And as for your Romanorum Malleus his saying which was Grosted of Lincoln whom A. Henderson in his Answer aforesaid to the Kings first Paper calls Romanorum Malleus The Roman Maul or the Maul of the Page 8. Romans or Papists In these words It was a hard saying of Romanorum Malleus Grosted of Lincoln That Reformation was not to be expected Nisi in ore gladii cruentandi i. e unless in the mouth of a bloody Sword It is well you come off it with yet this I may say for it seems to imply as if you neither ought nor would justifie that bloody ungodly saying saith the King which words Yet I may say were adjoyned to the former which he speaks of Grosled as some qualification or further testimony of his viz. A. Henderson's dislike of that bloody Principle which the King takes notice of as aforesaid as that which was to be detested and which he detested and argued against as being his own case as he understood the matters managed against him in that War of which the pulling up of Episcopacy or Bishops Root and Branch and reforming of Religion according to the Word of God Page 20. was part of the Covenant And further the King tells him in the latter end of that his Reply He saith the King speaking of his Father King * King James in his Apology for the Oath of Allegiance page 46 47. saith But as I well allow of the Hierarchy of the Church for the distinction of Order for so I understand it so I utterly deny that there is any Earthly Monarch thereof whose word must be a Law and who cannot err in his Sentence by an infallibility of Spirit Because earthly Kingdoms must have earthly Monarchs it doth not follow that the Church must have a visible Monarch too for the World hath not one temporal Monarch Christ is his Churches Monarch and the Holy Ghost his Deputy The Kings of the Gentiles reign over them but ye shall not be so Luke 22. 25. Christ did not promise before his Ascention to leave Peter with them to direct and instruct them in all things but he promised