him also even of strong Paul and of weak Paul strong in the Lord weak yet in and of himself and willing to glory in this that he knew himself to be weak and nothing As he * M. Nicholas Price of Lyn-Regis that said when he had attained to no small measure of mortification in the eyes of others I thank God I know my self to be a sinner while these proud up-starts think many of them have reached to the highest pitch of Perfection 3. It is Pride that hath bred and doth feed and nourish their opinions and practises What makes them level Legal and Gospel-light but Pride The light which every man hath saith William Deusbery i Christ exalted page 26 is not common to man by nature it is the great gift of God the Grace that hath appeared c. The truth is Every mans light where the Gospel comes not is neither for degree nor kinde the same with Gospel-light it is but a shimmering of the Laws light a gift of God indeed but no such great Gift as the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ or as the doctrine of that Grace Every man writes E. B. k True faith of the Gospel of peace p. 18. hath that which is one in Vnion and like the Spirit of Christ even as good as the Spirit of Christ according to its measure A proud elevation of the fallen posterity of Adam either exalting the gifts of the Spirit as high as the person of the Spirit or levelling the high and peculiar Grace of the Spirit in true Saints with the low and common work in every man Weigh but what J. Nayler hath in his Answer to Math. Cuffin l Light of Christ and word of life page 19. and see if there be not wicked Pride God is at liberty to speak to his people by them viz. the Scriptures if he please and where they are given by inspiration he doth so And so he is at liberty to speak by any other created thing as to Balaam by his Ass As if God did not speak constantly by the Scriptures the voices of the Prophets * Acts 13. 27 and Apostles though his people are not always alike affected with and by them nor doth the Lord give the same impression from the same Text at one time as at another or as if all the Scripture at all times were not of divine Inspiration and as if he would have his disciples with himself ascribe no more authority to the Scriptures then to Balaams Ass 4. Unbelief begets and procreates all their Errors and their love of Error with their derisions of the Truth How come they to slight the Scriptures and the Ordinances of Christ They have lost that first faith or never 1 Tim. 5. had any concerning their Institution and Authority or the efficacy of the Spirit put forth by them Would they else judge it Blasphemy m To all that would know the way p. 4. for any to say the Letter or Scripture is the Word of God when as 't is that which the Spirit dictated and hath ever blessed and prospered to his own purposes Would they else scribble and quibble as they do n Ibid page 8. Thou that sayest thou had not come to repentance if thou had not known the Letter thou deniest Christ The Scripture is say they A Declaration of the Spirit but the Spirit is not in it A Declaration of Power but the Power is not in it And why is not the Spirit and Power in it this is nothing but the voice and spirit of unbelief which makes them so to judge How like a Pelagi-Arminian doth J. Nayler speak o Answer to Quakers Catechism p. 24. Who hath the Spirit hath an infallible guide in matter and maner if he keep to it And I know that so far as any are led by the Spirit it guides into all truth if it be not erred from Whence come these ifs but from unbelief What Luther said of his Popish Devotions is true here We always prayed in Colloq mens Popedom conditionaliter with condition uncertainly and at hap-hazard And upon such a hazard do these ifs run mens salvation beside the pride of such ifs determining all Grace the Spirits infallible guidance and what not upon the will of man and his improvements Whence is it that they speak with such disparagement of Christ dying at Jerusalem but from unbelief Had Ed. Burrough a Faith working by love when he sounded his Trumpet p A Trumpet of the Lord sounded out of Sion by E. B. page 17. and upbraided all that are called Presbyterians and Independents with their feeding upon the report of a thing done many hundred years ago They that believe not that word John 6. 53. will not tremble at it Did those called Presbyterians and Independents more heartily feed upon Christ who dyed and as he dyed above sixteen hundred years ago by faith every day and meet ofter at the Lords Table in faith and love they would be more strengthned in one against their common enemies 5. They do subtilly couch many Errors under specious words of Truth or terms that are ambiguous and of a doubtful sense q The inheritance of Jacob page 24. The Righteousness saith Francis Howgil whereby the Saints of old pleased God and was accepted was wrought in them the same that is now wrought in the Saints by Christ As if God were not pleased with them as clothed with the imputed righteousness of Christ or they would have that which is within the Saints to be that which is imputed to their pardon and acceptance whereas God is more pleased with that which Christ wrought for them then with what he worketh in them Yea that which Christ wrought in his own person and in that flesh which he assumed is that alone which the Father accepteth and imputeth to their Justification Not but he is pleased with his own work in us in a way of Sanctification and Service That seems very fair which Alexander Parker hath r Testimony of God p. 4. It is an inward work that every one must know and witness if ever they know true peace and rest But let all know that the work within is not the ground and purchase of their peace but the blood of Christ alone and his obedience although it is a witness and an evidence and yet every inward work is not an evidence or witness of peace with God but that alone which is the New-birth or true Sanctification and the parts of it flowing from and inseparably attending and accompanying the Believers union with the Lord Jesus Light saith Tho Lawson Å¿ Lip of truth c. page 45 and 47. is the same in him that hates it and in him that loves it And again Grace is the same in him that turns it into lasciviousness as in him that is taught by it The same seed as fell on the good ground fell on the high way
to settle the hearts and hopes of them that flee thither for refuge with strong consolation In a word the Covenant of Grace excludes works as any condition of life for it is the declaration of Gods way of saving by Grace according to the Election of Grace which if it be of Grace as it is then Rom. 11. 6. is it not at all of works These meditations are heart-establishing you will say in wavering times and all Doctrines agreeable to the fulness of Christ and his Covenant are so David found it so so may you It was a soft pillow to David God 2 Sam. 23 5. hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure on his Death-bed whereon to rest his head so it will be to all that take hold on it and mix it with faith For secondly it is not the Doctrine of the Gospel abstractly considered but as believed that will establish you Faith establisheth Col. 1. 23. by its object acts reflections and fruits Continue in the faith grounded and setled and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel which ye have heard Consider brethren what you believe and in whom ye have believed Christ and his righteousness without you is a sure foundation for your Faith to Isaiah 28. 18. build upon He that believeth on him shall not be ashamed unsetled beaten off Faith gives you an evidence of things not seen and makes things absent present Every act of Faith tends to your establishment having some certainty in its bosom and bowels and so much as strives against doubting and that shall not miscarry in the issue and event But reflections of Faith help on yet more to stedfastness When you know you do 1 Pet. 3. 21. believe then you have the answer of a good conscience wherewith comes peace and liberty Peace with God is discerned and peace with Conscience is setled hereby in much serenity with liberty of access to the Throne of Grace and of making your Appeals to God by vertue of Christs blood sprinkled on the Conscience and by reason of the Acquittance which Christ received for the Believer at his resurrection His discharge is ours and hence the other benefits which Faith brings along with it of Vnion with Christ Communion with God Justification Redemption Adoption and Sanctification But if with the Doctrine and Faith of the Gospel there comes thirdly the Grace of sense or the sense of Gods grace and love in all that is taught and believed how is the heart established by the holy Rom. 5. 5. Spirit that is given us This Spirit is both the seal of what is past the witness of what is present and the earnest of what is to come making all that is in reversion as sure to us as that which is already in our possession Adde unto this fourthly Experimental exercise of grace in all Gospel-institutions and what establishment shall your hearts want now or hereafter Communion with God in Gospel-Ordinances gives rest and satisfaction when we finde the effect of Water-baptism and of Infant-baptism in Christs blood and the Spirits regeneration when we discern the effect of Bread and Wine-Lords-supper in Christs presence at his Table and the quicknings of his Spirit in our singing Davids Psalms and Scripture-spiritual songs use of publique as private Prayer ministery of the Word c. Your souls brethren cannot but finde it eminently helpful to be established with this gospel-Gospel-grace First you have hereby an Antidote against all poison of diverse and strange Doctrines Your hearts are as ships well-ballasted against all contrary winds The Doctrine of Free-grace rightly understood believed and adhered to doth at once dispel and scatter all Popish and Arminian fogs The fulness of Christ believed lays open the emptiness of Quakerism The Covenant and Promises grasped by Faith are as the little stone which they say the Bee takes up to flie with in a high wind so as the biggest blasts shall not dash you to the ground Let who will say that Christ doth not justifie by a righteousness without us the Scripture saith We are made the righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5. 21. and the Grace of Faith carries out the Soul for righteousness and life in another viz. Christ of this the Spirit with the Conscience and Experience of Believers beareth witness Let the poor Quakers say that the Scriptures are not the word of God the heart that believeth and experienceth the power of the Scripture changing and transforming will finde him a liar and blasphemer Let them say that will they have no sin dwelling in them and their warfare is at an end a gracious heart will slight and despise these Contradictions to all the Experiences of the Saints held forth in Scripture Let them say there is no Baptism of water or let them call the Lords Supper as used by the Churches a humane Invention because they have found no comfort in it or by it the heart established in the faith of the Institution will give them the lie and although he findes not these seals always alike efficacious yet he knows and believeth them always to be the Lords Ordinances and to have a promise of efficacy annexed to them which God will make good at his day and hour and not at our season Secondly The fears which false doctrine terrifieth the Conscience withal are removed and made to vanish Fears of non-acceptance by reason of daily failings in duties fears of falling away totally and finally are expelled by the pure doctrine of faith and of justification by grace alone and by nothing inherent in us as a habit or adherent to us as an act c. Thirdly There is this advantage all pretended Revelations are cast off dreams are not hearkned unto leading from the Scriptures The faith of a Promise makes things as sure to your souls as if God had spoken immediately from the Clouds The sense of Gods Love is as sweet as a rapture into the third Heavens Moses and the Prophets are as sure to a gracious heart as if one arose from the dead for he could not bring up greater Truths or stronger Arguments of perswasion then are found in the Scriptures he could not speak more pathetically with higher strains and stronger lines with more majesty of stile and elegancy of phrase or sweeter floods of eloquence or with more plainness and godly simplicity then the Spirit expresseth himself in the Scripture holding forth all along an evidence and demonstration of himself with holy harmony and efficacy Fourthly When your hearts are established with Gospelgracious Doctrine Faith Sense and Experience thereof you are fortified against all powerful temptations Sometime the soul is tempted to forsake Ordinances but faith of that promise that the house of Jacob shall not seek God in vain keeps Isaiah 45. 19. the heart close to means of Gods appointment Sometime the Christian is tempted to go to a second Baptism or to
gave forth the Letter Hereby setting the Word and Spirit at difference whereas the Spirit gives forth his word in the Scripture and in the word written lays down the grounds of the Saints actings and believings also yea he hath ordained the very Scripture to be one ground of their acting R. F. in answer returns me this language * Pag. 7. 1. Here thou art blinde and knows not the Saints ground and 2. Accusing them falsly that witness to it 3. With thy Logick and Magick Art would make the Scriptures God and Christ but cannot and would make them the ground of the Saints acting when they are not Rep. 1. If R. F. will but understand what is and may be said to be the ground of a thing he may possibly believe I know the Saints ground of acting as they are Saints The word Ground is ambiguous and hath divers acceptions In strict propriety of speech the Earth we tread upon and Ground are all one as the same Ground or Earth brings forth the same fruit By a metaphorical Allusion the word Ground is sometime put for the Cause of a thing sometime for the first ground-work of a Building or for the first Principles and Rules of Art and Science or for the first habits in a man of his actings The Cause and that principal-efficient Ground of the Saints acting is God and the Father by Christ through the Spirit The Scriptures are How the Scriptures are the Ground of the Saints acting instrumentally a Cause without which since the Lord caused them to be given forth he doth not ordinarily act upon the Saints or draw forth their acts of grace and godliness They are the first external ground-work of all their faith and workings as Saints They are the Rule and Warrant of all their ordinary actings yea the grounding Touch-stone of all extraordinary Impulses and Revelations By their Authority they are a sufficient ground or reason of our faith and practice The Scripture-commands are one ground the Scripture-promises another the Scripture-threatnings another the Scripture examples backt by and bottom'd upon a precept another the Scripture-Prophecies and Revelations another As every word of God is pure Prov. 30. 5. so every part of the Scripture is a pure grounding-rule for a Saints faith and conversation Rev. 21. 14. The wall of the City the new Jerusalem made up of Saints indeed hath twelve foundations and in them the names of the Apostles of the Lamb whose writings we have with the doctrine of the Prophets Ephes 2. 20. founding-grounding doctrine as that golden Reed Rev. 21. 15. to measure the city and the gates thereof and the wall thereof 2. If the Word and Spirit cannot be set at difference but are inseparable as R. F. yieldeth yet I did not falsly accuse them as he saith that witness to the Saints ground because by Word he and others expresly hold forth none but the Person of Christ and God the Word but deny the Letter of Scripture to be the Word of God which is strange contradiction to God himself and to his Scripture and to themselves also For while they grant he wrote or caused to be written the whole Letter yet they deny him to have written a word It is true in propriety of Grammar-speech a letter is but the least part of a word yet it is a part But the Bible consists of many books of letters which God hath left written for his friends and people to be grounded and setled in the faith yet because John 1. 1. speaks of God the Word and 2 Cor. 3. 17. of the Lord the Spirit therefore Christ and the Scripture must not be called by the same name and because Christ and the Spirit are inseparable therefore the Spirit and the Scripture must be parted as to the Case in hand and if the Spirit be the ground of the Saints acting the Scriptures must have no part nor lot in this business I shall still accuse such Logick to be false reasoning and yet not accuse the Logician falsly R. F. thinking to mend the matter marres it with his additional gloss * Page 7. The Letter is not God nor the Letter is not the Spirit therefore not that Word which liveth and abideth for ever 1 Pet. 1. 23. by which the World was framed Heb. 11. 3. and made Heb. 1. 2. For what if it be not that WORD yet it is the word of that Word it is the word of Christ who is God the Word And if Christ be the ground or meritoriously efficient cause of the Saints actings his Scripture or written Word is the regular Card and Compass by which his Spirit steers their course to the Haven of Happiness and Eternal Rest And why may not the word Peter speaks of in that place be the Scripture He sets not 1 Pet. 1. 23. with 25. opened Christ spoken of in opposition to that Scripture in Isaiah 40. 8. but from the Prophets testimony advanceth the word that speaks of Christ in opposition first to mortal and corruptible seed and then to withering flesh and all the glory of man even in his words fading away as the flower of grass And is not every Scripture-Gospel-promise that immortal seed which being emitted from the Scripture by the Spirit and quickened as it is cast into the heart doth it not there abide and remain in life and power If verse 25. may give any light to verse 23. not Christs person but Christs promise is there beyond all dispute intended by the Apostle when he saith The word of the Lord endureth for ever for the Greek word is not that which is used when Christ in person is spoken of Logos but Röma both in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first and latter clause which is an explication of the former And this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you as if the Apostle should say Would ye know what word is that which endureth for ever even the Scripture-promise which we daily do evangelize or speak of unto you as constant good tidings If any say in verse 23. it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Logos it must be noted for a certain truth that although Logos the Word be sometimes necessarily to be understood of Christs person as John 1. 1. c. yet not * Apud Gracos latè patet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beza in Joh. 1. 1. always and this is as certain that Rëma is never used for Christs person but this is used ver 25. and therefore ver 23. in Peter is to be expounded by it Again Is it not the same with the sincere milk of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 word * cap. 2. 2. which nourisheth and ministreth growth to the new-born babe Was it the wonted maner of any of the Lords Nurses to bring up Gods children by hand as we say as soon as they are new born and not guide them to the breasts of
who may be for a while in this point seduced I shall open three things 1. What the Covenant of Works and what the Covenant of Grace are 2. Shew the different administration of the Covenant of Grace 3. Give some arguments farther to disprove the Levitical Law from being a Covenant of Works 1. The Covenant of Works is that part of the word or What the Covenant of Works is declaration of his will which is pure Law and a Covenant of Justice which promiseth life to them that personally perfectly and perpetually fulfil it but is the ministration of death to them that break it in the least Iota or Punctilio as we may say of it The Covenant of Grace is that part of the What the Covenant of Grace word or of Gods revealed will in and according to Scripture which is pure Gospel issuing forth from Gods absolute free love wherein he promiseth Christ for righteousness and life or upon condition of Christs satisfaction to give righteousness and all that appertaineth to salvation unto all that are Christs peculiar purchase whether of years or infants These two Covenants are of differing kindes and contradistinct each to other 1. The one is a Covenant wherein Justice bears sway Defferences specified the other wherein mercy and grace or Gods free distinguishing love doth reign though in a righteous way also 2. The one sets forth a promise of life that is of continuance in that which is given the other a promise of salvation from sin and death The former promiseth no salvation mentioneth nothing of a Savior or a surety the latter promiseth restitution or deliverance from a fallen state 3. The Condition and foundation of the one is mans personal obedience of the other Christs obedience and satisfaction thereby to the justice of God on others behalf for whom he freely becomes a surety Hence the Covenant of Grace is called a Testament as well as a Covenant not so the covenant of Works 4. The one admits of no failing upon pain of present death and accepteth of nothing but all or the whole payment of the debt by the party himself the other admits of a surety and though it allows of no sin yet it gives forth a pardon with faith and repentance and accepteth of what is given and acted when first the person is accepted in Christ and a willing minde is wrought by the Spirit This were easie to demonstrate from Scripture but that I study rather to contract then enlarge 2. The covenant of Grace admits of a twofold administration thence it is called the Old and New Testament A covenant yea a Testament or will of Christ it was before his death and since That which the Scripture expresly call's the Old testament or covenant Heb. 8. 20. was but the old administration of the covenant of Grace the old copy of Christs will that which it calls the new The Covenant of Grace covenant is the old is the old for substance though new for the administration the new copy of Christs Will First the old and new is one for the substance one Testament of Grace one Gospel of life and good tidings of salvation One for the substance by Jesus Christ from the first promise to Adam and Eve after the fall to Abraham from Abraham to Moses from Moses to the Prophets from the Prophets to Christs death from Christs death to this day from this present time to the end of time and to all eternity For the clearing of this let the Apostle be heard speak or the holy Ghost rather by him Heb. 13. 8. Christ the same yesterday to day and for ever As Christ-personal so the doctrine of Christ and of salvation by him is the same in essence and substance without change and in his covenant without alteration Heb. 11. 13. The true believing Fathers of the Old Testament did all of them embrace the same promises for the substance that we do Christ then to be exhibited and Christ now exhibited in the flesh and in his grace and Spirit is all one yesterday to day and for ever Adam and Eve had Gospel preached to them Gen. 3. 15. Christ that eminent Seed of the woman which should break the Serpents head i. e. by sufferings and satisfaction to God should overcome all the power of his accusations of the elect the redeemed seed before God Abraham had the Gospel preached to him Gal. 3. 8. concerning justification by free Grace The promise of Christs coming out of his loins contained in it the promise of life and salvation so did the promise of Gods being a God of him and of his seed God holds up the same covenant from Abraham to Moses for he renews it to Isaac Gen. 26. 4. And when he puts a message into Moses mouth he calls himself the God of Jacob as of Abraham and Isaac Exod. 3. 6. 16. which shews he dealt with Jacob after the same covenant and so would he carry it on with his posterity then in Egypt In Moses time it holds in force when the Law is given as the Apostle clears it Gal. 3. 16 17. The moral law was not repeated to disanul the promise but to make way for a discovery of the need of the promise and Moses preacheth the righteousness of faith Deut. 30. compared with Rom. 10 In Davids and the Prophets times the same Gospel-covenant is upheld thereupon we have the account of Christs line and genealogy all along Matth. 1. Luke 3. and many precious promises of him accordingly Rom. 1. 1 2. That which Paul preached was promised before by his Prophets in the holy Scriptures and as any believed they were partakers of the saving benefit of this gracious covenant Rom. 3. 21. The righteousness of God or his Rom. 3. 21. opened righteous way of saving sinners by Christ without our personal obedience to the Law and without the Laws discovery as it is a covenant of Works is now manifested by the preachers of the New Testament that before was witnessed by the doctrine of Moses and the Prophets under the old administration The Apostles all of them preached for substance what was in Moses and the Prophets Act. 26. 23. that Christ should suffer c. and be a light and salvation to the ends of the earth Act. 13. 47. Peter professeth Act. 15. 11. this was that he taught and believed that we through the grace of the Lord Jesus shall be saved as they as who as the believers of the Old Testament It was the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that saved then and now and if any mixed Gospel be taught not that which was of pure grace from the beginning the holy Ghost Gal. 1. would have the doctrine and the Doctor accursed Secondly The maner of dispensation of this Gospel-covenant 2 In the maner of dispensation was different from that it is since Christs death 1. It was administred after a legal and servile way urged with legal conditions
of doing and darkly vailed over with Types and Ceremonies They heard of doing more then believing and the administration gendred as the Apostle saith Gal. 4. 24. unto bondage every carnal heart conceiving there was nothing ministred of righteousness or strength at all from another and being called and counted nothing but Law hence it is that the spirit of bondage is said more commonly to sute that Old administration The Church in this time was considered as an Heir in its minority As an Heir it was free but as an Infant or in its minority it was but as a servant under Tutors and Governors Gal. 4. 1. As an Heir true believers had then the Spirit of Adoption and Liberty As a Childe it had the spirit of fear and servitude And as it was but a dark and servile administration comparatively to what it is So 2. There was but a scanty proportion of graces and gifts as to the generality even of true believers they had little illumination and a small measure of sanctification I speak of the greater number of the Saints to what is and will be given since Christs Ascension from the greatest to the least 3. The dispensation of Grace and its covenant was but to a few families for a time and afterwards but to one nation springing out of those families under the new admistration the Covenant is made with all sorts of families and with some of every nation In stead of one there have been and are many Churches Acts 9. 31. and 15. 14. Every where God hath had and will have a people taken out from among the Gentiles or nations a select company for his Name 4. The seals and witnesses of the Testament are altered from Old to New and although the writings of the old copy remain i. e. the Books of the Old Testament because the substance of the covenant is there to be read and understood by the shadows yet there are new writings added i. e. the Books of the New Testament for clearer understanding and more assurance of faith when both are compared together The reason of the whole change of the old administration The reason of the change of old into new administration to the new in the particulars named was faultiness or imperfection It is the wisdom of God to proceed from ways less perfect to that which is more perfect Heb. 8. 7. If that first Covenant or Testament that is the first administration of the covenant of Grace had been fault less Heb 8 7. opened then should no place have been sought for the second How was it faulty 1. In that it made nothing perfect Cap. 7. 19. All in that old way especially the Sacrifices being typical and shadowy they of themselves could not take away sins therefore Christ whose body was fitted for a sacrifice he comes and puts by the shadows and types Heb. 10. 9. He takes away the first administration that he may establish the second the perfection of his own sacrifice and all that attends it in the new administration His blood stancheth all other blood stays the further shedding of the blood of Bulls and Goats and he coming by Blood and not by Water onely hath left to his Church a commemoration and obsignation of both in his new Institutions of Baptism and his Supper 2. In that people could not as it was dispensed after the maner of a covenant of Works though not so in it self possibly see how to stand or continue in it They stumbled at the Ceremonies and stuck in the Letter of the Law and could not see unto the end of that which is now abolished 2 Cor. 3. 13. But whence was the fault God was not to be blamed nor the substance of his Covenant but he lays the blame upon them who were willing to stand under such an administration and would not look to the kernel marrow and substance of it which was Christ But as it was the Jews infidelity which turned as to them that which was a covenant of Grace into a covenant of Works sticking in the rinde and bark of the Ceremony and which excluded and shut them out from the Grace of the covenant so do many thousands under the new administration the greater is their sin insist upon terms of doing and obeying the Light within them and God lets them go on and work their heart out if they will for life let them get it win it and wear it although he tells them it is impossible for if the Jews in all the Ceremonies of old should have lookt to Christ in them and beyond them the Gentiles should upon the first hearing of Christ believe on him and begin and end all their duties with the use of all New Testament Institutions in him or they will lose all their labor as did the Jews Arguments to disprove the Levitical Law as no covenant of works 3. I shall adde a few Arguments to disprove the Levitical Law from having been a covenant of Works 1. It was a covenant outwardly made with the people and that the people outwardly made with God by sacrifice Psalm 50. 6. But the covenant of Works was never made by sacrifice it admits of no expiation or atonement The sacrifices under the Law were shadows of that blood which is the blood of the everlasting covenant Heb. 13. 20. The blood of Christ the blood of the New Testament or the new administration of the covenant of Grace not to be altered but to abide for ever in its all-sufficient vertue and efficacy 2. That which carried all along with it remission of sins was no covenant of Works but of Grace but the Levitical Law had remission of sins going along with it for as the Apostle reasoneth Heb. 9. 22. with 18. without shedding of blood there is no remission whereupon the first Testament or * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 disposition of Christs will was not dedicated without blood but that there might be assurance of remission to believers even then that blood was shed which not being able to take away sin of it self did type out Christs blood which could and should effect it A covenant dedicated by blood first typical and then true is the same for substance 3. In the Levitical Law was a Mediator a Priest daily to offer and a high Priest once a year to offer the incense of mediation in the Holy of Holies in the covenant of Works there is no Intercessor or Mediator but we have in the covenant of Grace Christ our Priest and high Priest answering that in the new which was typed out in the old dispensation Heb. 9. 15. For this cause he is the Mediator of the New Testament c. and Ver. 12. by his own blood he entred in once into the holy place c. 4. In the Levitical Law was the Mercy-seat there is no Mercy-seat set up in a covenant of Works There was a common favor in it that God should vouchsafe to enter into
there is hyperbolical That seems simply and absolutely to be denyed which is to be understood but in part and comparatively in respect of the greater and more constant elaborate employment of preaching as is the Lords maner of speech Jer. 7. 22 23. But such as Paul Baptized as few as they were he did not Baptize short of besides or without a command And in short every one in his particular vocation the Apostle in his place the Pastor in his the Church in their relation the Husband in his place the wife in hers c. are to obey the commands given to those relations But Object 3 3. You go to duty as you call it by imitation from the Letter without Answ 1. Imitation properly respecteth examples and obedience precepts and it is but duty and obedience to hearken to Scripture-commands for imitation of holy and godly examples Jer. 6. 16. Philip. 3. 15 16 17. and chap. 4. 9. 2. While professors old and new decline the old and good paths let them beware of dangerous precipices of Apish Popish Monkish imitations and of un-warrantable pretences to the Prophets extraordinary Raptures and Postures such as those Isa 20. 2. Ezek. 4. 9 10. c. Object 4 4. You go to duty in your own wills and time your sacrifice is not accepted Answ 1. They that look rightly to a Scripture-command will eye the maner end and other circumstances and watch unto seasons of prayer reading hearing c. required in Gospel-times 2. Every duty or performance to which a Saint is duly tyed by a command respecting his relation and calling and consequently his person is accepted by God for the matter of it because he requireth it but his person is accepted as he is a Believer within the covenant of Grace and hath Christs righteousness reckoned to him for his justification and he is also accepted in the sincere Gospel performance of a duty not for the works sake but for Christs fake Object 5 5. You go without the moving of the Spirit in your own strength and you know not what a command from God in the Spirit is Answ This might be laid in a carnal mans dish and at an unbelievers door but being an objection against Saints to beat them off from performing duties by reason of a Scripture-command is as false as it is bold and daring For 1. Every true Saint hath the Spirit dwelling in him 2. There is no warrantable evidence that the motion is from Gods Spirit if it be not according to a Scripture command and if it be according to it it is as uncharitable as untrue to say the holy soul goes without the moving of the Spirit A command from God in the Spirit is no other What a command from God in the Spirit is for the matter of it then what already he hath commanded in the word of Scripture and that which he forms and stamps upon the fleshy tables of the heart by the Spirit of the living God so effectually that the mind understands it and the will obeyeth it in newness of spirit 3. The Spirit of God is free to move when he pleaseth in and upon the heart but the Saint is obliged to duty when through the flesh he is very dull and indisposed to it Matth. 26. 41. 4. He goes in his own strength to duty who follows Who act in their own strength the light of a natural conscience onely or undertakes it in the strength of his natural parts or moral abilities or common gifts of the Spirit but it is one of the greatest scandals which I have known cast upon the Scriptures and upon the Saints together to say they go in their own strength to duty who act by virtue of a Scripture-command for although Who in the strength of Christ they have not such movings and stirrings of the Spirit at one time as at another yet in sense of greatest deadness they act their faith for acceptation of their persons and believing the work is duty indeed trust not to the stock of grace within them but act faith again upon Christ for fresh influence and new supply in the present performance ordinance or exercise And another is like unto this that they know not what a command from God in the Spirit is when as Saints experience about a command 1 Past every Saint more or less hath had a twofold experience about the commandements of God and from him one in a legal way of ministration when the commandement comes as Paul speaketh of himself Rom. 7. ver 9. 10. that Rom. 7. 9. 10. opened is in the light of its spirituality striking at heart-corruptions which in their native rebellion rise up sin revived the more against the commandement and by the way it was the written-commandment as that opposed the Pharisaical pride of his heart and I died here is yet no Gospel mortification but legal consternation Paul is slain in his false perswasions and presumptuous hopes of getting life by his own blameless obedience to the Law Thus the Spirit of God sets home the law in its vigor of spirituality and rigor of exacting absolute freedom from the least swerving thought and takes off a soul from expecting life in his own righteousness or by the best frame of heart that he may reach unto and keeps him for longer or shorter time as he please under fears of the second death and of the first because of the second The other in a Gospel dispensation 2 Present is experience by the Saints when they are through Gospel-enlightning faith and renovation made to understand what the covenant of Grace is and what a Gospel-command The covenant of Grace calls for satisfaction at Christs hands and hath it The Gospel command from God in the Spirit is not some sudden impulse or rare impression upon the soul which few Saints meet with but it is every Scripture-precept which the Spirit of faith holiness and liberty works the heart to a sweet compliance withall according to the measures of grace received amidst the present and constant conflict with in-dwelling sin This was Pauls experience after conversion as he lays it forth Rom. 7. from ver 14. to the end and in the following Chapter The command wherewith he had no compliance before as to the spirituality of it now he consenteth to and delighteth in and complains against that contrary frame of corrupt nature which remained though it reigned not and rebelled in him but as sin served it self and its own ends grace and the new creature made him serviceable to the law of God the Scripture-command with which he and his new nature was reconciled and he that cannot finde something of this experience will not finde himself a Saint he that elasheth with Scripture-commands so far discovers himself to be unregenerate Let E. B. and R. F. a little more examine themselves by what spirit they are acted while they decline the Scripture-Gospel-Rule 5. Head of Scripture-contradiction
they preach that men should repent I ask how shall the ungodly sorrow after a godly maner If they lay the burden upon the ungodly onely and absolve the godly altogether they may by that way preach down all godly sorrow and startle the wicked with legal convictions and that which is remorse of conscience but no way help toward the pulling down the old man or building up the new in the true Believer 11. Head of their Scripture-contradiction Concerning the Word and means of Grace Section 37. I Had expresly cited C. Atkinsons words viz. I deny that God did ever or will ever reveal himself by any of those things thou callest the means of grace which were spoken of before in his book as reading hearing prayer c. contrary to 2 Tim. 3. 15. Rom. 10. 17. Luke 11. 13. c. R. F. in answer * Page 19. saith I would raise a slander c. as if they should deny the way and means that God useth to reveal himself to his people by How makes he it to appear why Christ is the light and the way to the Father and that they own and he reveals his secrets by his Spirit Rep. In all this confession here is no acknowledgement Christ and the Spirit give light and grace by outward means of reading hearing prayer c. That Christ is the light and light-giver hath never been denyed by me and that with his Spirit he is the author and worker of all grace who but graceless men will gain-say We do with the Scripture attribute higher things to God and Christ and the Spirit then to be the means of grace but R. F. will not ascribe so much to the Scriptures read heard sung prayed upon i. e. according to the rules and patterns of prayer there set down to be so much as outward means of grace we can have no such outward ingenuity from him But what saith he The Scriptures are not Christ nor the Spirit Rep. What if they be not they are Christs word and the word of the Spirit as hath been shewed and what the Scripture saith Christ saith and the holy Ghost also the same He therefore that rejects the Scripture and its several exercises from being the means of grace rejecteth Christ and his Spirit also But the Spirit he saith teacheth us how to pray and profit Gal. 4. 6. 1 Cor. 12. 7. c. and this doth not contradict the Scriptures Rep. No for the Spirit of grace and the outward means agree very well yet this is not a yielding them to be the means by which Christ and the Spirit revealeth their secrets and convey grace It is one thing for the Spirit to teach how to pray and read another thing for the Spirit to work by reading praying c we grant the former but he grants not the latter as he ought that I can finde Yes may some say what think you of that which followeth we know that faith is given by the ministery of Christ in the Spirit Rep. But speak plainly is it given by reading and hearing the Scriptures opened and preached as 2 Tim. 3. 15. Rom. 10. 17. hold it forth And we know that God giveth us his holy Spirit Rep. But doth he give it in a way of preaching and prayer as Act. 10. 44. and Luke 11. 13. bear testimony As soon as Paul is converted is he not at Prayer and had he not the fillings of the Spirit given him in that way as by Ananias putting his hands upon him Act. 9. 11. 17. And the wisdom saith R. F. which is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be entreated and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace James 3. 17 18. for which we praise God Rep. 1. But doth he give this wisdom by asking as saith James 1. 6. If any lack wisdom let him ask it of God is not prayer a means of wisdom 2. I wish we could finde the wisdom James describeth in R. F. As yet I discern not any seeds of it sown in his books one or other 3. Let him beware of taking Gods name in vain by praising him legibly in print for that which he hath not printed in his heart nor holdeth forth visibly in practise Why but he addeth we own reading hearing prayer and the teachings of God according to his promises Rep. I wish he doth well understand the promises of Means of grace have a promise of blessing annexed God Gods promises are made of a blessing upon such means as reading hearing and prayer as well as of gracious abilities to read hear and pray with Isaiah 55. 3. He that heareth and inclines his ear shall live 1 Tim. 4. 13. 16. If Timothy attend to reading meditation preaching to others watching himself In doing this he shall save himself and those that hear him To prayer is promised salvation Rom. 10. 13. Christs presence Matth. 18. 20. Returns and answers Matth. 7. 7. To preaching Christs presence assistance and blessing Matth. 28. 20. To the Saints conditions which C. Atkinson rejected with the ordinances all blessed success Rom. 8. 28. They shall look unto him and run to him and their faces shall not be ashamed Psal 34. 5. why so Ver 6. This poor man cryed and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles and therefore we may from others experiences together with our own have hope Rom 5. 4. And Hope in and by a promise an experimental promise and a promised experience maketh not ashamed If therefore R. F. doth own these means and the teachings of God according to Gods promises he must own them otherwise then C. Atkinson even as means by which God hath revealed himself and will communicate his grace and then I will not accuse him as I have not slandered C. A. when I speak the truth I harm them not The more nakedly their Errors are detected by the Truth the more good it may do them and I wish it with my heart 12. Head of Scripture-contradiction Concerning Baptism Section 38. THat they are against Infant-Baptism I had noted contrary to Acts 2. 38 39. where the command for application of Baptism reacheth as far as the Promise and as I hinted in my shorter piece the Promise extendeth it self to Children while Children they are part of the Saints of the Church at Corinth 1 Cor. 7. 14. if but one of the parents be a Believer and a Church-member R. F. is for the Negative in a transition from what was spoken of before But your brain-imaginations we deny and sprinkling Infants with water Rep. 1. If he puts this scandalous title of brain-imaginations upon the other means of Grace reading preaching hearing prayer experiences c. he doth but back his sellow Atkinson Suppose God should leave him as one of that name if it be not the same C. A. to Fornication were it not just for his casting reproach upon the ways of God 2.
agrees with the saying of Christ Matth. 6. 6. Matth 6. 6. vindicated when thou prayest enter into thy Closet c. as if the publique ordinance may not stand with the private for the most retired and secret duties are to fit and make ready for the publique onely 't is our Lords scope there to confine a private prayer to a private place as it is the Apostles order from the Lord 1 Cor. 14. 14 15 16. when 1 Cor. 14. 14 15 cleared vindicated we pray publiquely in Church-conventions all which have a publiqueness in them to pray so as others may be edified thereby who are Saints and those who occupy the room of the unlearned may testifie their consents by saying Amen which they could not do if either the person praying spoke onely to his own hearing or in the heart not with an audible voyce to others or when they heard him they could not understand him because he exprest himself in an unknown tongue All that I drive at with the Apostles and our Saviours scope is that every ordinance and outward part of worship be owned in its place and that this of publique prayer may not be disowned ere the more because of these mens crying up their praying by the Spirit in opposition to the Churches publique prayers which the Primitive Church at Jerusalem Act. 2. 42. attended and continued in and which the present Saints and Churches in these nations hold up according to president and precept R. F. in another Pamphlet of his * Truth cleared of Scandals pag. 2. saith they are led by the Spirit and he maketh intercession for them according to the minde and will of God But their practise shews they are not in this led by the Spirit when they cross the minde and will of God by refusing to joyn with the Saints in a publique prayer we acknowledge that no wicked mans prayer is accepted publiquely or privately made by him It is their duty to pray but not their priviledge who are destitute of the Spirit and out of Christ But to profess prayer from the second birth while yet they know not how to pray as they ought but as the Spirit maketh intercession with sighs and groans which are J. Parnells words * Shield of truth p. 14 15 is to contradict their doctrine of perfection And to give a dash at all our publique prayer as the long prayer of the Pharisees is to strike at the Spirit and contradict the Scripture allowance of the publiqueness and length of prayer upon occasion while we give no allowance to Pharisaical ends and pretences but can approve our persons and hearts to God in Jesus Christ our persons in Christs righteousness reckoned to us by faith our hearts so far as renewed by the grace and power of his in-dwelling Spirit James Nayler hath expressions one would think of this tendency that complies with our doctrine in his common place of Worship * Love to the Lost p. 8 9. wherein he instanceth in no part of worship but prayer he acknowledgeth as we teach The worship of the true and living God stands out of mans will and before any man can rightly worship God he must wait to know the Spirit But now let the lost soul beware of his counsel where should they wait you must saith he know the light and in it wait till therein you finde the Spirits leading acting and ordering This counsel if followed keeps men off from the positive parts of worship revealed in the Scripture The light that every man hath as he comes into the world which is the light they nourish up people in in opposition to Scripture-light makes known nothing of publique ministery Church officers therein of water-Baptism Lords Supper publique order of prayer c. nor of Christ mediator nor of the The Spirit of Prayer to be found in the publâ—que ministery Spirit of promise nor of one promise of grace or gracious acceptation in Christ Had not the lost soul better counsel while he was under publique ministery to attend there for the coming of the Spirit the Spirit of faith and prayer where God useth to give it Acts 10. 44. and promiseth to pour it out Prov. 1. 22 23. with 20. 21. verses How true is that which J. Nayler hath in the same place according to our Scripture-doctrine when a man hath been doing evil neglecting good and then he runs to act a worship to get peace the prayer becomes abomination for he that regards impurity the Lord will not hear his prayers nor accept his worships that 's Cains sacrifice and Esaus prayers but either must your worship be performed in one that never sinned or it cannot be accepted with the pure God Yet here is his mis-guidance of lost souls 1. That he would lead them off from joyning with him that makes long prayers such a one he seems to speak of who hides his wickedness with pretence of godliness but he makes no difference of any that serve Christ and his people publiquely in the nation as if they were all such to be separated from 2. He directs to the commands in Spirit in opposition to the Scripture-Letter for thus he delivers himself * Page 11. All the Saints have their commands in Spirit but yours is in the letter and so of another ministration for the literal ministration is done away in the spiritual As if the Spirit did not give out his commands by the written letter or the Scripture and his power also by the reading and hearing of it and by praying according to the rules and patterns of prayer therein contained But something O ye lost souls you will finde when the great Shepherd seeks up his lost ones and brings back that which is gone astray Ezek. 34. 16 ever and anon that alienated your hearts from the Scripture by the spirit of Contradiction that is in these mens Teachings and Writings 15. Head of their Scripture-contradiction Concerning Singing Section 42. I Gave account of their express words We are against all your Davids Praises and Prophecies in meeter contrary to Ephes 5. 19. Col. 3. 16. and other Scriptures R. F. * Page 21. makes me this return Singing of Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs we are not against but own but your Poetry we deny Rep. He might as well say your translation of them into English meeter we deny But if Psalms Hymns and spiritual Songs be owned they are either Davids and other of the Saints penning and the Spirits inditing in the Scripture or of their own composing if they own none but of their own composing they reject Davids and what was left for Psalms cannot be sung without meeter or due measures of speech our use in Scripture contradicting both it by that rejection and themselves also by owning Psalms Hymns and Songs and dis-owning meeter or Poetry for never was there Song Hymn or Psalm sung forth as it ought to be but it had
or not it would something savor of an humble spirit But as some deem this exercise of the gift of Prophesie too high for a believing brother so he and those of his Spirit not in this guided by the Spirit of God think it too low for themselves and all other Teachers and therefore whosoever are not taught as immediately as the Apostles of the highest Form are no Teachers with them Hence he addes * Page 22. And thou that art not taught of him shews that thou speaks a vision of thy own heart and not from the mouth of the Lord. This is his judgement but erroneous enough and contradictious to the whole Scripture as not being the mouth of the Lord. And if I affirm as I did the true Prophets studied the Scripture True prophets studied the Scripture that is my imagination Rep. The true Prophets were either under the Old or New Testament before or since Christ 1. Before some of them studied the word who were at other times immediately inspired as I instanced in Dan. 9. 1. Dan 9. 1. vindicated If Daniel understood by books he read and considered what he read in those books what was prophesied of the captivity when it began when it should end and the writings of Jeremy were the Books as Daniel himself tells us by which he understood the number of the years c. Others were trained up in a ordinary way in the schools of the Prophets under Samuel at Ramah 1 Sam. 19 under Elijah at Bethel and Jericho although the Lord added impulses and inspirations more then ordinary and more immediately to some of these afterwards this is none of my imagination If R. F. goes on to charge it I shall still lay his Scripture-contradiction before him and at his dore it will lye till he repents of it for he chargeth not falshood upon me but upon the word of God whence I demonstrate what I affirm 2. Since Christ the true Prophets studied the word The Scriptures studied Gods Spirit going along therewith made them Prophets in ordinary of whom Paul speaks 1 Cor. 14. as it fitted A pollos and Timothy for Evangelists what hath R. F. to say against it no prophesie of the Seripture came in old time by the will of man then not studied but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the holy Ghost and the Scripture is of no private interpretation Rep. 1. By prophecy of Scripture 2 Pet. 1. 20 21. is 2 Pet. 1. 20. 21 vindicated meant the word and minde of God declared in writing God lest it not to mans will what and when and how he should write his Canon But he did immediately inspire and dictate to the Pen-men of Scripture matter maner and time It follows Scripture is to be studied because inspired of God not because the Secretaries of the holy Ghost wrote by his immediate inspiration therefore the Prophets and Teachers are not to teach others but as they are immediately inspired But it will follow from hence and make against R. F. as it did in the first Section and the sixth that if there is nothing of the will of man or private-selfish meaning and sense in the Scripture then is it a rule for Teachers as Scholars and they that will teach sound doctrine must teach from and according to the Scripture and therefore had need study and meditate on the Scripture that he may be a right man of God the title of a true Prophet throughly 2 Tim 3. 17. furnished to all the work of a Minister as of a Christian 2. This truth is not onely given forth by sound consequence but directly and expresly the will of God is laid down 1 Tim. 4. 15. Meditate upon these things Timothy an Evangelist must study that Epistle which Paul wrote to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 him and be wholly in them he must be taken up altogether therewith referre all his studies bend all his thoughts to the knowledge of the Scriptures And 2 Tim. 3. 17. with 16. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God c. that the man of God the minister of the Gospel may be perfect i. e. have a sacred library to converse with in all ages and be made a compleat Scholar able to teach reprove instruct and comfort out of Scripture store and furniture Hence we Bonus Textuarius bonus Theologus use to say A good Text-man a good Divine or an able man of God and he is likely to be a light and treacherous Prophet who slights the meditation of Scripture-Text and speaks onely quicquid in buccam venerit what comes next to his tongues end A fourth sort of ministers are Pastors and Pastors and Teachers mediately taught Teachers who having the grace of God and gift of prophecy are called out from among the Brethren to office and oversight of the flock as Bishops of the Lords institution These were not so immediately taught that I can finde in the Apostles times but rather by means and ways of the Lords appointment they were trained up and fitted for the office as by the exercise of their gift of Prophecy before-hand 1 Cor. 14. each Church being as a School of the Prophets and that of Corinth eminently so by their submission to tryal at election 1 Tim. 3. 10. And besides none but disciples of some years in nature and standing in grace and profession were called to the office of Pastor or teaching Elder now such disciples were first taught of others of catechized instructed in an outward way hence the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greek word for disciple comes of another that signifieth to learn by outward teaching Those that heard John Baptist were first called disciples whereof Andrew was one Simon Peters brother John 1. 40. They that heard and followed Christs Sermons were also called disciples and so we are all believers and members of the Churches till at Antioch they were also called Christians disciples as taught outwardly Chrians as anointed with the Spirit and partakers of Christs grace and gifts And such being chosen who were outwardly as inwardly trained up I conclude immediate teachings did not onely furnish men for a Teachers or Ministers function but mediate ways also which is both a warrant for them that desire the office of a Bishop first to study the Scriptures and an encouragement also for Churches to covet gifts and chiefly that they may prophesie and for University Scholars to give up themselves to present catechizings and exercises after Sermons as they have begun in the Colledges for the better storing of them with grounds of knowledge and discovery of such disciples as the Lord hath begun to teach inwardly by and with outward teaching that they may be issued forth for service in the ministery after grounds laid in their understandings and some experimental work of grace approved of if it might be in some of the Churches of Jesus Christ And oh that to this
brings all that is in the Letter to remembrance for to what end doth he bring it to remembrance not onely for explication of Scripture by Scripture but for consolation of our spirits by the good words of the Spirit of God When heaviness makes the heart to stoop a good word seasonably remembred as spoken makes it glad and he that slights the turning over of the sacred Pages of the Bible after he hath got his evidence within may be glad of crums one day after his high Feastings and well if seeking the Spirit where he lost him his comforts return at last upon him Many lose the Spirits comforts by slighting his Love-letters in the Scriptures where the Spirit is and whereby he giveth forth himself Such a passage I had in my former piece That the Spirit is in the Letter and given by it which R. F. hath excepted against once and again heretofore but now in its due place where it was spoken he lets it pass I promised in the first part of this Reply to clear it further for his conviction if it may be or for the Saints edification First The Spirit is in the Letter or the whole Scripture for so these men comprehensively use the term Letter How the Spirit is in the Scripture-Letter 1. As he owneth what he dictated to his Secretaries the Pen-men of Scripture He is in all their writings with the subscription of his own hand as it were they spake and wrote as they were moved and inspired by the Holy Ghost Rev. 1. 10. John is in the Spirit viz. he is rapt up by the Spirit and the Spirits impulse is more then ordinarily upon him when he is commanded to write and of all that John writeth the Spirit beareth Testimony that it is himself that speaks it Rev. 3. 22. He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches what wretched men are they who will not suffer the Spirit to be where he speaketh 2. If the Spirit was in the Pen-men he is more in the matter and contents of the Scripture penned down None will deny but he was in the Pen-men more then ordinarily when they wrote from his mouth or inspiration and therefore he is in what they wrote much more for the word written is of greater Authority and Spirit then the Writer or Secretary They were holy men of God who wrote but that which is written is the holy Truth of God They were imperfectly holy but Gods word as written from the Spirit is perfect in all degrees of holiness 3. The Spirit is where there is with perfect holiness perfect Truth and Majesty in the Matter and in the very Stile and where is sweet Harmony in all the parts put together In the Scripture-letter there is not one Iota or Tittle that shall fall to the ground to eclipse the Glory Truth and Majesty or spoil the Harmony of it Secondly the Spirit is given by it in this sense How given by it 1. As his minde is given out by it whether the words be proper or figurative the Spirit hath his proper intendment scope and sense in the whole Letter and in every part of what is written and as by his words he makes known his minde he is where his words are 2. As his work is given by it even what work he pleaseth See second part Section 10. of Conviction Instruction in Righteousness Consolation c. If the Scripture convinceth gainsayers and sinners evil livers if it instructeth the ignorant comforteth the feeble-minded it is as the Spirit gives out himself thereby He is there indeed as a free Agent ad placitum not tyed to work or manifest himself or put forth his power and grace but as the wind bloweth where it listeth so he worketh where when and upon whom he pleaseth 3. As the Promises of the Scripture are his Chariot to convey him whither he pleaseth to go into the hearts of the Elect that they may believe and after they have believed that they may be established Thus according to his promise he will fill a Believers sails of endeavor in reading meditating c. with gales of grace and advances towards glory To conclude that the Spirit is in the Letter and given by it daily experience doth demonstrate For such as forsake the Scriptures authority and own not the Spirits dwelling in the Letter as truly as in the heart they lose their faith of the Spirits presence with them in the reading and meditation of it and losing this faith they run to other Doctrines and Gospels The spirit of error is in all mens doctrines which have not the Spirit in them that breatheth in the Scriptures We may easily discern whether R. F. his spirit be not in his writings and whether much of the spirit of Error not conveyed and given out by his and other mens Pamphlets of the same stamp And shall the spirit of Satan the father of lyes be in Seducers books and not the Spirit of God and of the Father of truth be in and go along according to his free mercy with his own blessed Books of the Scripture Yes verily and James Naylers words import as much when he saith * Few words by J. N. p. 11. That the Spirit opens and brings all that is spoken in Scripture to remembrance which if R. F. denies he contradicts his fellow if he grants it a truth he must recant his frequent descants upon that which I asserted and judge himself as erring because he knew not the Scriptures and the Spirit and power of God dwelling in them and acting by them Section 9. WHat answereth R. F. to this Section where I evidenced another of their Self-contradictions concerning the Scripture which was this He that believeth is born of God without Scripture and yet Let all see if we do not set the Scripture in the heart of every one Why this is his answer * Page 25. 1. So saith the Scripture 1 John 5. And that the word of God is nigh in the heart is witnessed Rom. 10. 8. And he that believes and is born of God knows the seed of God within him 1 John 3. 9. Rep. Do any of these Scriptures bear witness against themselves or say That he that believeth is born of God without Scripture yet dare R. F. put it forth in the front of his answer So saith the Scripture The Scripture saith the full truth He that believeth is born of God but the Pamphlet I quoted * Answer to 7 Priests p. 13 said more then the Scripture that the believer was born of God without the Scripture and R. F. pretends to answer to what their Pamphlets hold forth but cannot in his answers salve his own nor his fellows contradictions Ans 2. He is not born of the Letter as thou wouldst have him yet he is begotten by the immortal word which endureth for ever which the Letter declares of and that doth not contradict
THE REVILER REBUKED OR A RE-INFORCEMENT OF THE CHARGE AGAINST THE QUAKERS So Called For their Contradictions to the Scriptures of God and to their own Scriblings which Richard Farnworth attempted to answer in his pretended Vindication of the Scriptures but is farther discovered with his Fellow-Contradictors and Revilers and their Doctrine to be Anti-Scriptural Anti-Christian and Anti-Spiritual By JOHN STALHAM a Servant of the Great Bishop and Shepherd of Souls appointed to watch his little Flock at Terling in Essex Titus Cap. 1. ver 7 10 11 13. A Bishop must be blameless holding fast the faithful Word as he hath been taught that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers whose mouthes must be stopped wherefore rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the Faith Zach 3. 2. And the Lord said unto Satan The Lord rebuke thee O Satan even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee London Printed by Henry Hills and John Field Printers to His Highness 1657. To His Highness OLIVER Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England Scotland and Ireland AND To the Right Honorable The Council of State SIRS IF the Highest himself shall establish Psalm 87. 5. Zion there is encouragement sufficient and abundant for You his Servants rejoycingly to serve him in the countenancing of his Truth and contending with the men of this Generation for the Faith once given unto the Saints by the most proper means and methods which the Lord of lords in his wisdom hath directed and shall lead you unto The Liberty proclaimed to Godly-Gospel-Preachers and your fostering of Orthodox Pastors and Teachers will much conduce by the Spirit of Christs mouth to the consumption of the Man of Sin and what abuse soever is made of the Press for the spreading of Anti-Scriptural and Antichristian Errors yet it needeth not to be feared while Pulpits and Presses are open through Your Highness and Honors favors for a Testimony against them but that God will confound their Language who by false and perverse Interpretations of the Scriptures would seduce the mindes of the simple into an expectation of nothing but Immediate Raptures and Revelations Some indeed cry up nothing but Club-law against the men called Quakers and can give no other measure then their Prelatical Fathers to those that dissented from them But by Your Indulgence and Forbearance of Saints erring and otherwise minded many have conscientiously made enquiry after those Truths which lay hid or were defaced and have the more heartily embraced them and do hold them fast after Scripture-conviction And however the Men I deal with for the present do debate the Scriptures and decry the Ministery Churches all New Testament external Worship and whatsoever beareth the stamp of Divine Authority as not to be found among us yet by Your Lenity and Gentleness exercised towards them while You espouse or patronize none of their Errors it may be firmly expected that the Elect supposing such among them shall be reduced And as for others that are evil men and seducers from that perverse Principle of their Self-adoring Light they shall wax worse and worse and as the madness of some is evident so shall the folly of other be made manifest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Tim. 3. 9. to all who are not bewitched with their Spiritual sorceries MY LORDS Let but the Saints and the Churches of Saints according to Scripture-evidence be protected and cherished as You have graciously begun and the Officeministery will soon be known setled and established Let every stumbling-block as speedily and safely as lyeth within Your Power be removed from the way of the blinde and occasion cut off from them that seek occasion and ere long the Lord himself will rebuke them to silence that they shall neither talk nor write so presumptuously nor shall arrogancy come out of their mouth The lip of truth shall be established for Prov. 12. 19. ever but a lying tongue is but for a moment Let Learning be advanced among pious men for God hath his Wits and his Learned ones and through the sanctified Improvement thereof Ignorance its froward enemy will creep into corners as darkness vanisheth before the light Some of these men * Lip of truth opened by Tho. Lawson page 13. Christs innocency pleaded by Tho. Speeds Epistle with his Guilty covered Clergy-man unvail'd page 69. begin to appeal unto the Consciences of the Learned for Idioms and propriety of speech in Hebrew and Greek with the Dorick dialect they will give us leave then to make use of our English dialect also and speak vulgarly while we think as the Philosopher Our contentions with them are not about 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tu or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but pro aris focis for the lamp life of our Religion the Rule of the Holy Scriptures the Glory of the Blessed Trinity the peculiarness of the Covenant of Grace the sole matter of our Justification before God the continuance of our Christian warfare during this natural life the truth and efficacy of Christs own Institutions c. Amidst which digladiations our Lord Jesus is fighting against them with the Sword of his mouth and him wee 'l trust with the issue of the battel whereupon I humbly supplicate That every person whatsoever may not impunè strike them corporally in the Steeple-house streets or prison for they think it a great triumph to have this to object That any are tolerated with this mutinous word in their mouths * Answer to the Quakers Catech. p. 19. Fight Lads for the Gospel and they 'l still cry out Persecution as they have done if every Turn-key or Tapster in the prison may without check be permitted to wreak their teem and spite upon them with some base illegal and inhumane usage or other But while any of this Sect for their exorbitant courses meet with legal and due correction Be pleased to let them all know that we are guarded by a better Law then what they * Teachers of the world unvail'd p. 29 30 upbraid us with enacted in the Marian times And that while they carry Popish and Jesuitical Doctrine along with them they are to have no more liberty for divulging it in our Assemblies then the men of that profession Popish Doctrines and Idolatries are as abominable as ever were the Paganish And some of these mens Tenents are as reprobate stuff as the Jesuits Their blasphemies as horrid as the Popish Parasites What is Rome but Babylon the Mother of Abominations And what is this Sect but a daughter of that great whore who doubts but the Romish Emissaries are abroad to seduce Some quondam Professors of the Gospel have lost their Garments and men see their shame They bid farewel to Imputed Righteousness in the Scripture-sense and how they can be girt with
inherent Graces who put off the Saints or believing sinners best robe I see not The Setters and Abettors of this Sect would be more narrowly watched and according to their crimes stigmatized There is one * This for each Parliament man by George Fox page ult hath suggested to the Right Honorable Parliament after this maner All that have a word from the Lord seek not to stop them and limit them from speaking it by the counsel of those Teachers which are made by the will of man and have not the word of the Lord according to the word of the Lord they are to be stopt and to be silent And after the same measure shall it not be meted out to them But whereas he concludeth with an Interrogation that hath a sting in the tayl Is there any law or limit to be made to limit the Spirit of God I shall close with Christ his own charge for the purity and peace of the Churches which some * Brightman Cotton of no mean account do conceive was partly fulfilled by the Edict of Darius Ezra 6. 11 13. * Cant. 2. 15. Take us the Foxes the little Foxes that spoil the Vines for our Vines have tender grapes Now that Your Highness and Your Honors may be all as Angels of God discerning the false spirits and the true such as proceed out of the mouth of the Dragon and out of the mouth of the Beast and out of the mouth of the false Prophet from Him that proceedeth from the Father and from the Son that Ye may be established in the old and present Truth that Ye may be preserved blameless that all men may acknowledge their Mercies under Your Government that Your Graces may be heightned yet to farther Service of the Lord and his peoples Interest in the three Nations And that Ye may be prospered in all Your high undertakings at home and abroad for Glory to the Highest is and shall be the Prayer of Your HIGHNES and Your HONORS Meanest Servant in the Gospel JOHN STALMAM TO THE CHURCH of CHRIST Which is at TERLING Grace be with you mercy and peace from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of the Father in Truth and Love Beloved in our Lord JESUS AS you were obedient in my absence while I was removed from you for a season so I have endeavored since my return that the Truth of the Gospel might continue with you and therefore have I not given place by subjection no not for an hour to any that have attempted to bring another Gospel among you though there is not another but there be some that have troubled others and would by perverting the Gospel have troubled you also Yet blessed and praised be God who hath kept you in the hour of temptation and helped you to keep the Word of his Patience and not deny his Name That you and yours may ever be preserved when this my earthly tabernacle shall be dissolved I have drawn up this REPLY and do commend it to your diligent perusal charging you in the Lord that you redeem some time for the reading of it especially such of you as have allowed spare hours for the reading of the Adversaries Pamphlets It is above a year since the first of the Sect called Quakers came into the Town and scattered his opinions You had then cautions given you from the Lord. Remember them I beseech you lest you be carried about as the stubble whisked and Heb. 13. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whirl'd about here and there in a circle with the wind of diverse and strange doctrines diverse in colour from the truth and strange to the Scripture-language or meaning of the Spirit speaking in the Scripture Beware of wheeling to the right hand or to the left Take heed what you hear and how you hear Beware of the leaven of the Quaking Pharisees and Sadduces It argues weakness at the best and childishness in the best if they be tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine Children will run after a bubble in the wind or on the water a feather on the ground or froth upon the waves Be not like them or as giddy hearers that have no mould but what the next Novellist casts them into Diverse and strange doctrines such as these men I deal with especially open out of their packs tend much to the unsetling of the judgement and disquiet John 10. 5. of the conscience It is a Character of Christs sheep to keep the ear close to his voice they know not the voice of strangers whereas goats will receive those that come in their own name and they whose names are not written in the Lambs John 5. 43. Booke of Life will wonder and wander after thâ— beast and the Rev. 13. 8. false prophet the Doctors and Doctrines of Antichrist But it is a good thing * Heb. 13. 9. saith the Holy Spirit that the heart be established with grace It is eminently benâ—ficial against all distracting opinions to have your souls and consciences established with the doctrine faith and sense of Gods free Favor in Christ and with the experimental exercise of Grace in Gospel-worship 1. The doctrine of his redeeming purchasing grace his pardoning of sinners and reconciling them to himself according to his free electing love establisheth against the thoughts of our greatest unworthiness for the free gift of Christ and his righteousness for justification of life reigneth over all your guilt and the design of Grace is to bring all that obey the doctrine of Grace into a kingdom of Grace and to settle a crown of Life and Glory upon the poor unworthy sinner Hold fast to this as not onely it is free but full The Gospel of our salvation is so full as it answereth all the souls necessities partly from the fulness of the person the Son of God our Savior God and man in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwelleth bodily If there be all-sufficiency of power love will faithfulness in God to save 't is in Christ yea the fulness of Gods vindicative Justice is satisfied and glorified in him This we teach for your heart-satisfaction and settlement partly from the fulness of the covenant whereby God makes over Christ and Life to us which is heart-establishing as 't is founded in the blood of Christ as it is the efflux and issue of Gods everlasting love as all the promises are Yea and Amen in Christ and as the Covenant is of the nature of a Testament which is more absolute then ordinary contracts in full force Heb 9. 16. by the death of the Testator written not onely in the Scriptures the Old Copy and the New but in the hearts of Believers Heb. 8. 10. God begins with promises and writes them and then his Commands are all inlayed and inamel'd with the promises This Heb. 6. 17. Covenant is confirmed by an Oath to shew the immutability of his counsel and
deny Water-baptism altogether but the Experience of Christs blessing Infant-Baptism and the un-warrantableness of Rebaptization keeps him from these extremities If you be tempted to absent your selves from the Lords Table or leave Church-fellowship the Promise and Experience of the Love of God in the use of these Ordinances aws and keeps you in order When Christ until his second Coming in the clouds and visible Glory is lookt at as spiritually present with his own Institutions they are neither trusted to nor neglected Sometime you have been tempted to go hear known Seducers but an establisht heart will not step out of doors unless he hath the more special call to bear witness against them and to strengthen others Lastly Let your hearts be establisht with Gospel-grace and it will produce a well-ordered conversation to the end of your days it will make patient in affliction joyful in suffering even under darkness and in desertion the heart is willing to wait and is made ready for Heaven for it stirs up to watchfulness to have grace in exercise and the soul in preparation for death and then it cannot want boldness at the day of Christs appearing Why then my Brethren dearly Beloved and longed after my joy and crown so stand fast in the Lord my dearly Beloved see that none of you fail of the grace of God Be not as reeds shaken with the wind but as unshaken rocks and pillars in your profession Prize and press after more of heart-establishing grace to this end Hold fast the purity of Doctrine about Justification Election Redemption the Covenant of Grace and the whole pattern of sound and wholesom words in the Scriptures and in the Churches Confessions of Faith consonant to the Scriptures Be active in faith upon the Author and Finisher of your Salvation Be obedient to the Spirit who witnesseth and sealeth the Truth and sheds abroad the Love of God in your hearts Make much of your Experiences built upon and backt with promises cry not woe unto them as some upon their revolting to Quakerism have done Set before you the example of stable Christians as so many Jerome's standing like old well-rooted Oaks and breaking the winds of Doctrines and Oppositions which assault them on every side Decline infectious company cease to hear the instruction that causeth to erre from the words of knowledge Beware of a blinde-zealousaffecting of any man Take heed of curiosity and a itching desire of Novelty or of knowing any new way to Christ and Heaven Stand in the paths and enquire for the old and the good way that ye may walk therein Maintain a humble spirit daily abased in the sight and sense of heart sinfulness and instability The Lord will teach and root the humble Exercise a clear Conscience in profession and communion with the Saints and Churches The mystery of Faith is held in a pure Conscience when men put away a good Conscience or prefer a natural Conscience before a Conscience purified by Faith they make shipwrack of the doctrine of Faith Let Gods power be lookt after in and with Gods own Form The Kingdom of God may be among men when 't is not within their hearts so Luke 17. 21. Christ speaketh to the Pharisees enemies of his Gospel The kingdom of God is among 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in medio vestri Bez. you i. e. was preached in the midst of his enemies and working upon others hearts while they were not aware of it They madly wrest the reading of the words within you who apply it to a Kingdom of Grace begun in the enemies of Christ by the light in every man and would thereupon have all Christs outward Forms and positive Institutions laid aside But what God hath joyned together power and form where and to whom he pleaseth do not you separate You have not hitherto been like these sheep which eat no grass more greedily then that which rots them If our new Teachers and their disciples boast of an astonishing Power coming along with their doctrine remember 2 Cor. 6. 7. The word of Truth and the Power of God whereby Christs Ministers are approved do go together If power goes forth with a word of falshood 't is Antichrists power which is after the working of Satan not the Lords It will be sad with any Church-member under Gods institution and form to fall short of his 2 Thes 2. 9. power But while you use his Ordinances in Faith of a promise of Christs power annexed to them you are and shall be more wrought up to and brought under the power promised And that I may be partaker of the Gospel-power as Priviledges with you yea that this Reply as weak as it is may be accompanied according to the truth of it with the mighty power of the Lord Let it be your prayer as it is and shall be mine who am through grace Your Loving Brother and Faithful Pastor JOHN STALHAM To all Honest Godly Conscientious and Judicious Readers BELOVED AS Honest Godly and Conscientious you are invited by Richard Farnworth in his Epistle before his pretended Vindication of the Scriptures in Answer to a piece I put forth in Scotland to the reading of all the Quakers Pamphlets with mine which I referred to in the Margent and of his Answer thereunto if any of you can finde the leisure Now it is my request that such as have met with his reviling Vindication would in honesty do me the favor yea the right so far as to bestow a few spare hours in the perusal of this my Reply and attending Truth as it is after godliness exercise in your reading a good conscience according to a renewed principle joyned with the diligent search of the Scriptures And As you are judicious and grown up to mature and manly knowledge I speak as to wise men judge ye what I wrote before and now write again Many Charges my adversary casteth upon me in his Epistle as so many fiery darts I list not to recriminate but have undertaken to make good my Collection of the Contradictions at first found among this sort and Sect of men Judge ye whether I have wronged any mans books or mixed my deceit with them Judge ye whether I have violated any of Gods Precepts or Truths and taught men so Judge ye which of us twain is given over to lie slander and falsly accuse Judge ye whether I have discovered a spirit of envy against them and the Truth I know the Scripture saith the spirit that dwelleth in us i. e. Believers so far as unregenerate lusteth to envy yet I can appeal to the Searcher of hearts that I found none of this stirring in my bearing witness against these mens doctrine What I see of the truth and of Christ in any I love I wish there was not to be seen in this Sect that which is to be pitied not envied Judge ye who is the Antichrist the Deceiver whether I deserve his Anathema
the Scripture Against their magnifying of every mans light and the Law within them Mr. Saltmarsh hath this savory passage The natural Law Rom. 2. 14 15. Flowings of Christs blood page 6. is but weak in respect of any transforming power it hath as the Law of the Spirit hath in it self We see in a clear frosty night though the moon shines very bright and the stars too yet not so but it is cold and hard as if there were no light at all c. If R. F. stumbled at that passage * Ib. page 146 Though the Law be a beam of Christ in substance and matter yet we are not to live by the light of one beam now when the Sun of righteousness is risen himself He might have recovered himself by that which followeth * Ib page 150 There is a doctrine of holiness in the Gospel as of grace and love Gospel commands fits man who is made up of flesh and spirit and so hath need of a Law without and in the Letter as well as in the heart and spirit The Law is spiritual but we are carnal Rom. 7. nor can such a state of flesh and spirit be ordered by a Law onely within c. He might have learned how the justified person is perfect while his sanctification is imperfect A person justified or in covenant is as pure in the Ib. page 129. sight of God as the righteousness of Christ can make him though not so in his own eyes that there may be work for faith because God sees his onely in Christ not in themselves He might have been instructed That Christ is not ours by an act of our own but Gods Ib. page 188. God imputing and accounting Against the dream of perfect sanctification in their sense he might have observed such a passage as this The body of sin is in a Ib. page 67. Believer more or less till he lay down this body and take up a glorious one And again Can you have any assurance that the change that is in any childe of God in this life or their sanctification is such in any particular act or work as there is no spot of sin in it is it not mixt of flesh and spirit If he grew sick of opinion by one passage he might have been cured and relieved by some other But whatever were that good mans Naevi blemishes or specks my Antagonist and his fellows are transported with another kinde of spirit even with that of Marcion and Montanus and his Enthusiastical Associates and the Manichees who troubled the Church as a very learned Brother * Dr. John Owen vindic Evang Pref. to the Readers page 4. hath already hinted with their madness and folly and with that spirit which acted the fanatick and furious Libertines who called themselves spiritual in Calvin's time ninety years ago who placed our redemption in this That Christ was but as a Type Image or Exemplar in whom all those things were figured which were required to our salvation Moreover as they imagine saith Calvin Caeterum ut imaginantur nemo nostrûm non est Christus quodque in ipso factum est in omnibus effectum dicunt Calvini Opuscula Instructio adversus Libertinos pag. 214. there is not one of us but is Christ and what was done in him they say is performed in all Hence one Quintinus * Quomodo inquit an Christus male habere potest pag. 215. was very angry as often as he was asked How he did How said he can it be otherwise then well Christ * Christus ipsis idolum est 10. a Deum blasphemari alunt siquis limentetur aut sensum aliquem doloris prae se serat ibid. pag 217. They as that most learned and godly man saith make an idol of Christ Further as he noteth a They say that God is blasphemed if any bewails his condition or makes a shew of any sense of grief So as a by their opinion to a Sic corum sententia veterem Adamum mortificare nibil aliud est quam nihil discernere ibid. pag. 218. mortifie the old man is nothing else but to be sensible of nothing b Siquis peccata sua considerans sibi displiceat ac moerore afficiatur peccatum adhuc in ipso regnare aiunt sensu carnis suae captivum teneri ib. pag. 219. For if any be displeased with himself and grieved upon the consideration of his sins they say sin reigneth in him and that he is held captive by the feeling of his own-corruption Such a spirit follows these men as acted H. N. in Flanders who wrote seven and twenty small Treatises and Epistles to brood the Sect and broach the doctrine of the Familists admired by some at this day that understand not the mystery of iniquity See Answ to a famous Libel of ◠◠by John Rogers printed An. 1579. therein or love not the truth in Scripture but are given up to strong delusions that they might believe a lie The lie of perfect holiness and justification thereby The lie of the light in every man to be Christ And that Adam was nothing but the old man or corrupt qualities and Christ nothing else but the new man or new qualities Hence our men make nothing of the Historical letter of Christs Death Resurrection c. but turn all into an Allegory and according to H. N. * Joyful message of the kingdom by H. N. p. 170. they are ready to call those things meer lies which the Scripture-learned through the knowledge which they get out of the Scripture bring in institute preach and teach From what spirit that H. N. wrote may clearly be discerned by that one piece of his translated out of base Almayn into English An 1652 wherein after all his exotick and uncouth divinity c See from page 153. to 163. he plainly cries up the Catholique Church of Rome the Holy Father the Pope his Cardinals his Bishops his Parish-priests his Deacons his Sextons and Monks and condemneth them that have deserted Rome as having unorderly rejected and blasphemed the Services and Ceremonies of the Catholick Church rented the Concord and nurturable Sustentation of the same and turned away therefrom The scope of the book is but to lead captive to Babylon all blinded Professors who hold not the Truth if ever they received it in the love of it Yet again such a spirit haunts these men called Quakers as professed Jacob Behme in Germany about thirty years by-past He slights * Two Theosophical Epistles p 24. the righteousness imputed from without so do they * Concerning the Election of Grace by J. Behme p. 81 and 142. He magnifieth the little spark within whereby the Father he saith draws them all to Christ and teacheth all within them thereby so say they In Adam a Ib. page 118 quoth he stood the kingdom of grace and R. Farnworth will not have Adam stand in innocency under
is seen and known to be one that hates it and why 1. He bears record of himself against Christ and his Apostles Let that be found in any passage of his former or present piece and R. F. shall be no false Apostle J. S. will hide his head in a hole or openly recant the folly and wickedness 2. He calls the true light saith R. F. the Light of nature and the common Light of reason Where 's the proof of this allegation J. S. doth peremptorily deny that he ever so exprest himself since he had the Light of reason in him The true Light as 't is printed both in R. F. his Book * Page 2. and in the Bible John 1. 9. with a great L and there spoken of is Christ J. S. never called Christ the Light of nature or the common Light of reason or reason as Page 34. R. F. clamoreth and clattereth Haply he may say again and again That Christ as the very God and the true Light giveth the Light of nature to all men and common light of reason more or less to every man for he is able to distinguish betwixt the Donor and his Gift betwixt the un-created Light-living God and created Light-given before the fall to Adam or given back since the fall to him and his posterity If R. F. or any man will confound Christ-giving or enlightning with the Light-given or lighted up as a Candle in every man he may as well confound God and the Creature and make them as some blasphemously imagine to be one and the same Essence Therefore as in this so in all other instances Fourthly J. S. is confident after R. F. his impudence in his Preface and Proceedings he shall neither be found Lyar nor false Accuser but as he is sure that Saint Pauls Anathema was out long since Gal. 1. 8 9. and is still in force against those that preach another Gospel-way of Justification as do these Quaking-Papists or Popish-Quakers so the Anathema Maran-atha that R. F. denounceth imperatively and imperiously Let him be an Anathema Maranatha against J. S. shall be as the curse causless that shall not come but that God will do him more good as already he hath done something for him by Shimei's railing Tyrants Sectaries Seducers and Hereticks as Luther said do nothing else but drive us unto the Bible to make us read more diligently therein and with more fervency to sharpen our Prayers and I may adde by their buffetings to be more taken off from self-estimation and to be viler in our own eyes then we can be in the eyes of our Adversaries who know not our hearts THE Reviler rebuked PART 1. 1. Head of Scripture-contradiction Touching the Scriptures themselves Section 1. THe holy Scriptures by one thunder-stricken in spirit and blasted in profession with the Quakers Books and company in Scotland were denied to my face to be the word of Truth which I noted as the first and great Contradiction R. Farnworth in answer returns me thus much of truth in form of words That the Scriptures are words that proceeded from the Spirit of Truth we do not deny but own and so they are the words of truth Plainly he doth not say they are the words of truth nor plainly joyn Scripture the word of truth to all issue with him that denied them to be the word of truth but if they be own'd for words of truth as proceeding from the Spirit of truth then for the advantage of Truth I argue 1. They are the word of God and so should be owned by them Surely the Spirit of truth is the Spirit of God proceeding from the Father and the Son and these three John 15. 26. being one their word is one That which is the word of the Spirit of truth is the word of the Father of truth and of the Son of truth The Scripture by R. F. his confession is the word of the Spirit of truth therefore he must grant it to be the word of the Father and of the Son of truth and consequently the word of the true God 2. If they be words of truth as proceeding from the Spirit of truth then they are the Rule Standard and Touchstone of truth the true Spirit being known by his words and directing us to know his minde by his words what we should believe as truth and practise as truth or according to it but we shall anon hear R. F. denying the Scriptures to be the rule of a Christian as of other men that are unchristian 3. If they be the words of the Spirit of truth then they are so to all men or but to some men 1. If so to all men that have the Scriptures by them then why doth not R. F. challenge him that denied them to be so to unbelievers as I noted in my Book Why doth he challenge me for falshood with a therefore too * Page 2. therefore thy saying is false What saying of mine is false and wherefore I truly related what I had from him I mentioned above in discourse once and again That the Scriptures were not the word of truth And doth it follow because R. F. acknowledgeth them to be the words of truth that therefore I heard not the contradiction or mis-related what was spoken 2. If they be the words of truth but to some men not at all to wicked men and unbelievers no not condemningly as were his expressions then it seems the unbelief and wickedness of men doth make the Faith or Truth of God of none effect but S. Paul Rom. 3. 3. is of another minde Rom 3. 3. cleared yea the Spirit there by the Interrogation first and second What if some did not believe shall their unbelief make the faith of God of none effect forcibly denieth the frustration or making void of Gods word of truth by the Jews former or following continued unbelief God hath laid his faith and truth to pawn as it were in the holy Scriptures and as he is a God of truth his word is a word of truth taking hold of men by the threatning as Zech. 1. 6. who misbelieve or reject the promise And Is he the God of the Jews onely and not also of the Gentiles to justifie and condemn all that are believing or unbelieving according to the Scriptures Such therefore who will say No more is the truth of God or word of God to me then what I believe were they never so dear friends must be as roundly taken up and faithfully rebuked as sometimes Luther took up a man of no mean account Bullenger you erre you know neither your self nor what you hold According to your falsities if the Word findes not the Spirit but an ungodly Person then it is not Gods word whereby you define and hold the word not according to God who speaketh it but according as people do entertain and receive it Whereas as he again a true Christian must hold for certain and must say That word
which is delivered and preached to the Wicked to the Dissemblers and to the Ungodly is even as well Gods word as that which is preached to the good and godly upright Christians And I may adde even so are the Scriptures that word which condemneth unbelievers already But as he again The Sectaries understand not the strength of Gods word read or preached and we may wonder with him that they write and teach so much of the Scriptures or of Gods word seeing they so little regard the same For whatsoever R. F. saith of his and their owning of the Scriptures hearken to what follows in his backing of Scripture-contradiction That the Scriptures are the Word God and eternal The Scriptures are the word of God and truly so called Life as thou wouldest have them thou canst not prove nor all the Magicians to help thee Here is good stuff kitchin-stuff or smoak out of the bottomless pit 1. Take the Word for the Son of God where did I ever attempt to prove the Scriptures to be the Son of God God and eternal Life The Lord rebuke this false spirit 2. Because I with others call the Scriptures as they are and as they speak themselves to be the word of God are we therefore Magicians The Lord again rebuke this reviling spirit R. F. and others may talk of owning and owning the Scriptures as often as they fancy it but they honor them not I am sure who deny them that title of honor The Word of God Shall R. F. his Pamphlets be called his Books his Writings and his Words and shall not that which God hath written be called Gods written Word He answers nothing to that place in Hosea 8. 12. nor could that stripling J. P. * At Coggshall sometime give any reason against the Argument drawn from it viz. That which God hath written is the word of God But God hath written the Scriptures Therefore the Scriptures are the word of God R. F. Objecteth such as witness to the word and Gods power witness against thee to strengthen the new-coyned distinction is it which was given me in Scotland The Scripture is not the word of truth but the witness of Gods power Why I grant it to be both the word and the witness The Scriptures are Gods words and Gods testimonies some make The Scripture is Gods Word and Witness also them two witnesses Revel 11. But I reasoned thus by way of Quere How can the Scripture be Gods witness if not true how is it true if not the word of truth R. F. undertakes to answer That the Spirit of truth in the Prophets and in the Apostles did carry them forth to witness what of Christ is declared in the Scriptures by words that proceeded from the Spirit of truth Had he gone no further he had pretily well quitted himself but he addeth by way of objection The Spirit is not in the Letter neither is the Spirit given by the Letter but by God and Christ and yet he grants presently in the same Page 2. The Letter proceeded from the Spirit By the Letter I meant when I said pag. 22 of my book the Spirit is in the Letter c. the whole Scripture and so I suppose doth he Now the whole Scripture is given The Letter in a large sense and Scripture all one by inspiration of God the Father Son and Spirit who is 1. Where he breathes forth truth holiness c. all along 2. Where he speaketh The Scriptures are the Oracles of God Rom. 3. 2. Will R. F. by denying the Spirit to be in the Scriptures stop the mouth and breath of God What How the Spirit is in the Scripture-letter profane boldness is this Can he hold the winde in his fist and restrain the Spirit from giving forth himself by the Letter or Scripture when the Spirit will make good his promise to bless the reading of it I think he is not so full of presumption yet he presumes to say The Spirit is not given by the Letter What thinks he of Scripture-promises did he never finde the Spirit warming his heart by the reading of them He speaks as if he knew nothing of the Spirits consolations enlightnings teachings or convictions by the Scriptures And he writes as if he would have none read the Letter of Scriptures in faith of a blessing by them but to think when they are reading of them they are cracking a hollow shell that hath no kernell in it or drinking a draught of dilute wine that hath no spirits in it or reading of his and his fellows Pamphlets wherein the Spirit of God is not present by any gracious operation but the spirit of Satan for the most part unto efficacy of delusion His simple Reader may think the words that follow tend much to the honor of the Spirit of God The Letter proceeded from the Spirit but the Spirit did not proceed from the Letter but such expressions as disparage the Scriptures will never bring honor to the Spirit which is in them and worketh by them what disparagement is there in these words to the Scriptures will the simple-hearted say 1. The phrase Letter is extenuating as if all the The Letter taken strictly is but legal administration 2 Cor. 3. 6. explained Scripture were Law or had a Legal administration as the Apostle useth it 2 Cor. 3. 6. in a strict sence The Letter killeth i. e the bare legal command without a promise of power or pardon as a bare letter void of strength life and spirit it leaveth all men under a killing sentence and curse Now thus to represent all parts of the Scripture is to affright men from the reading hearing or regarding of it 2. The Letter or Scripture is set by R. F. in other passages in such opposition to the Spirit as if the Spirit disowned it after he hath caused it to be written no way accompanieth it with his power The Spirit proceeds not from How the Spirit proceeds not from the Scripture and how he doth proceed from by with it the Scripture-Letter in respect of his Essence or Being he is God of himself nor in respect of his personal subsistence which is of the Father or from the Father and from the Son of which R. F. is ignorant or inadvertent denying him page 8. to be a Person but in respect of his operation 1. Improperly it may be said the Spirit proceedeth from the Scripture as a man goes from his outward shop to work in his inner room so the Spirit proceedeth from that which he hath put within the Book or Bible into the heart to work a sweet ingraven work there 2. Properly and plainly he proceeds by the Scripture and with the Scripture to effect and beget that in the soul which is like himself Spiritual and like the Scripture holy and good That is but a bravado therefore which he addes in the close of his second Page Therein thou hast erred not
those that follow after as many as have spoken have likewise foretold of these days the days of the New Testament and the things of Christ Acts 3. 24. As God spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets which have been since the world began Luke 1. 70. There is no contradiction between the Old Testament and the New in the sense I have given therefore none in my collection from Luke 16. That Christ asserts the Scriptures to be a standing rule 3. Reason It crosseth many Scriptures as Ephes 5. 1. Rom. 8. 14. 2 Cor. 3. 17. Rep. Not one of these nor any other for the Scripture cannot doth not contradict it self how ever it seems so to them that understand them not and have not will or skill to clear the harmony The first Scripture alledged Ephes 5. 1. requires that Ephes 5. 1. opened Christians be followers of God as dear children Dear children of God will minde their Fathers will in Moses and the Prophets and if we be followers of God we must follow him in his whole written word as it is plain in the Old or as it is explained and cleared in the Books of the New Testament The second Scripture Rom. 8. 14. hath nothing against Rom 8. 14. vindicated The Spirit leads by his Letter the Scripture rule however R. F. improveth it to his purpose thus They that follow him in the Gospel are led by his Spirit and that is not the Letter for although the Letter is not the Spirit yet the Letter is the Spirits Letter and they that follow God in the Gospel do and dare not upon the hazard of disobedience to their Father but follow him in the Spirits written Gospel seeing the Spirits inward leading and guidance is to the same obedience which the Scripture leads unto The Spirit leads by and to the Scripture never from it as the Spirit in Seducers doth The third Scripture 2 Cor. 3. 17. God is that Spirit 2 Cor. 3. 17. vindicated what then Then the Spirits Letter is Gods Letter I can conclude Or thus The written word of the Spirit is the very written word of God and again God that gave the Letter gives the Spirit with it and by it with it even to those that yet are unbelieving and are ever resisting the Spirit speaking in it and from it Nehem. 9. 20. Acts 7. 51. By it to those whom he effectually preventeth and calleth home to himself or buildeth up Acts 8. 35. Acts 10. 34. with 44. But R. F. his drift in quoting the words above to make people believe that because God or the Lord is that Spirit as saith that Scripture therefore that and all the rest of the Scripture is not a standing rule which follows as much as if it should be said God is the Lord therefore the creature is not his creature I shall for his learning and better improvement of that Text turn the edge of his allegation against himself If that Scripture saith The Lord is that Spirit then that Scripture is the rule for me and him also to believe the Lord is that Spirit and if that Scripture be not fallen out of its authority it is a standing rule for us so to believe but that Scripture says as much and R. F. runs to the authority of it as yet in force therefore that Scripture is a standing rule for the faith of that truth and consequently other Scriptures are the rule for other truths and all Scripture for all truth what we are to believe and what to practise A fourth Argument seems to be drawn from current experience But we follow God who are guided by the Spirit and that is our guide and rule to wit the Spirit of truth Rep. 1. Whose experience is this whom means he by we If onely himself and his companions who deny the Scriptures to be a rule then I deny they are guided by the Spirit of God who breathing forth the Scriptures and guiding men to write them guides men to read hear believe and obey them as their rule If by we he means all sober Saints and godly conscientious Readers not so in his opinion but really so and if he meaneth by the Spirit the Spirit of God then I appeal to all such and all the Saints who love the truth in sincerity whether they have the Spirit for their guide without or not rather with and by the Scriptures The Spirit indeed is promised to be the Saints guide John 16. 13. but it is neither there said although John 16. 13. vindicated R. F. affirms it That Christ appointed him to be the rule nor is he properly the rule but the giver of the rule and the guide unto and by the rule The schoolmaster which sets the copy is not the copy but he guides the hand of the scholar to write after the copy in like maner the Spirit of God appoints the Scripture to be written for a rule and guides the Saints to believe and live according to it Yet would R. F. have the force of a fifth Reason lie in these words Since he promised it as if the Scripture was not a rule since the Spirit was promised as well as before Surely if it was a rule before it is still the same rule as it is the same Scripture And the promise of the Spirit in a larger measure doth not in the least hinder the Scripture from being a rule but the larger measures of the Spirit help towards the understanding of that rule for a clearer and more Gospel-like administration and application 6. Reason If thou wouldst have the Letter to be the rule and Moses and the Prophets onely then thou wouldst not have Christ and the Apostles to be followed according to 1 Cor. 11. 1. Rep. 1. I used not the word onely although the Books of Moses and the Prophets when Christ referred to them Luke 16. were the onely Scriptures extant and a sufficient rule for the present 2. When Christ by his Spirit in the Apostles enlarged the Scriptures he altered not the rule for the substance of it Moses and Christ the Prophets and Apostles are so to be followed that he who leaves the one will forsake the other and he that loves the one will cleave to the other Had ye believed Moses saith Christ ye would have believed me for he wrote of me but if ye believe not his writings how shall ye believe my words John 5. 46 47. And such is the harmony of the Apostles with Moses and the Prophets that the one preached and consequently wrote no other things then what the other did say should come that Christ should suffer c. Acts 26. 22 23. What if the new Testament was written after the Old the matter contained in both is of the same concernment to believers as unbelievers What if Paul gives that godly exhortation Be ye 1 Cor. 11. 1. vindicated followers of me even as I am of Christ is Christ divided Is not Christ
in the Old Testament and in the New the same yesterday to day and for ever He that followeth the Apostle as he followed Christ and followeth the Prophets as they spake and wrote by the Spirit of Christ doth the same thing 7. Reason Seeing we are not under the Law but under Grace the Spirit of Christ is our rule and guide Rep. This is added to no good purpose but still to contradict the Scripture and to blot it out from being a rule For Râ—m 6. 14. cleared 1. Albeit true believers are not under the Law in respect of its ceremony curse rigorous exaction and domination yet they are under the direction and rule that it holds forth and that as they are regenerate Rom. 7. 25. With the minde that is the regenerate part I my self saith Paul serve therefore am under the law of God So again 1 Cor. 9. 21. Vnder the Law to Christ as the rule of holiness and righteousness is dispensed in the hand of Christ and for obedience with a Gospel-frame of spirit unto Christ 2. When the Apostle saith We are under Grace he singleth not out a Sect of men called Quakers unknown in his days but he intendeth all true Christians and their condition under a covenant of Grace not Legally but Evangelically administred having the Spirit of liberty to lead them from under the dominion of sin to the obedience of Christ according to a written word or rule What if the vail be upon the hearts of unbelieving Jews 2 Cor. 3. 15. because they own not the Son of God and Son of the Virgin to be the Messias is the vail therefore upon my heart as R. F. reasoneth Yes because thou setst up Law in stead of Gospel Rep. I wish he well understood what it is to set up Law What 't is to set up Law instead of Gospel in stead of Gospel It is not onely to set up Jewish ceremonies and Typical shadows after Christs abolition of them as the Jews endeavored but to set up all or any act or work required in the Law or word of God whether done in natures strength or by moral abilities or by the Spirits strength to be a mans justifying righteousness before God this is far from what I urge and press when I plead for Moses writings c. to be a standing rule to direct to Christ and to direct in a way of sanctifying righteousness when a soul is come to Christ But we witness the glory that exceeds c. but thou art ignorant of that Rep. I confess I know that glory of Gospel-ministration which the Apostle speaks of 2 Cor. 3. but in part but this I know that when our Lord appoints men constantly to hear Moses and the Prophets as writing of him and as giving out the same rules for Faith and Holiness which himself gave he that shall take men off from attending their writings according to their true scope seduceth and draws off from Christ And as ignorant as I am I can see to the end of that which is abolished which is Christ the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth and I can see that he that believeth not in the same Christ which Moses pointed at believeth not at all or but in a false Christ yea with half an eye through the same grace I can see that he who takes not Moses writings as he wrote of Christ and makes them the rule of his faith and maners and also refuseth the writings of the Prophets to be the like rule he doth more then implicitely refuse the writings of Christ and of the Apostles from being a rule also R. F. * Pag. 4. therefore holding to the first contradiction That the Scriptures are not a standing rule may well pass on to a second That they are not a more standing rule The Scriptures a more standing Rule then visions c. then visions and revelations as I had collected from Luke 16. 31. If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead The reason hereof is strong rising from the dead which is of the same nature with visions and revelations Matth. 27. 53. may be counterfeited as we finde 1 Sam. 28. Moses and the Prophets were extant in the volume of Gods book and their authority is owned among the Jews to this day and it is so authentique that when either particular Jews have been or the Nation shall be converted to the Lord they presently adhere to it as to their Rule so the Apostle prophesied 2 Cor. 3. 16. when it any poor Jew or rather 2 Cor 3. 16. with 14. opened collectively when the people and children of Israel the ten Tribes with the two Shall turn to the Lord the vail shall be taken away which is now upon their heart in the reading of the Old Testament that is of the books thereof The books and writings of the Old Testament stand and shall still abide at their conversion though the old administration of the Covenant of grace is abolished and they shall be their Rule together with the books of the New Testament which they will then understand own and imbrace as more certain to them then if one rose from the dead not in a faigned but real way Hence it is that Christ after himself was risen as others with him and appeared called his disciples to the Scriptures and opened them unto them Luke 24. 29. yea he urgeth his own death and resurrection that it ought to have been so And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself This made their hearts burn within them ver 32. when as the rest were cold at heart through fear at their first sight of Jesus supposing they had seen a spirit ver 37. Let visions and revelations be never so certain yet the Scriptures quoad nos as to us are a more standing Rule Why they are not so in R. F. his judgement and others we shall know by his reasons 1. Christ saith in Matth. 11. 27. No man knoweth the Son but the Father neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son and he to whomsoever the Son not the Scripture but the Son will reveal him here revelation is the surer rule of knowing God Rep. If I should deal as rudely with R. F. as he with me Matth. 11. 27. vindicated I should not onely say the assertion is thine not the Lords but therefore thou art a liar and accuser of the Lord but I will not exchange words I will prove him to be what he would fasten upon me He that sets the Son of God and the Scriptures at distance belies Christ accuseth the Lord R. F. doth thus by his Parenthesis not the Scripture but the Son his conscience will draw up the conclusion one day Again he that grants one part of truth and denieth another part wrongs the truth
is proved to be God but while he can and doth go to the bottom of all things in and concerning God his revealing is ad placitum when to whom in what measure and in what way he pleaseth Although the Spirit knoweth all things infinitely and therefore God revealeth what he revealeth of the things of grace and glory by his Spirit yet to some he revealeth nothing immediately to others he revealeth but some things or but something of every thing needful to consolation sanctification and salvation as they are capable of it 3. As deep things as the Spirit hath revealed they are all in the Scripture It is one way of the Spirits revelation to give forth deep mysteries in writing and that as mysteriously Section 2. as if it were by Hieroglyphicks Stenography or Characters The Spirit revealeth by Paul to the Romanes cap. 9. and 10. and 11. deeper things then Paul can fathom which makes him cry out cap. 11. 33. O the depth And the last piece of Scripture which God hath left us is the Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him to shew unto his servants and he sent and signified it by his Angel unto his servant John that he should write it to the Churches and leave it with the rest of Scripture as a compleat and sufficient Rule not to be added unto nor to be substracted from unless therefore R. F. will be lyable to the plagues threatned Rev. 22. 18 19. he must not bring in his un-written Revelations no though they were un-written Verities as any part of the Rule to be added unto the words of Gods book And from all that hath been replyed to him in this Section I conclude He that denieth the Scriptures to be our Rule denies them to be the Scriptures of God and he that denies them or some of them to be a standing Rule denies them or some of them to be no Rule as if sometimes they were a Rule sometime not And he that denies them to be a more standing Rule denieth the scope and sense of Christs words in Luke 16. 31. and other places But such a Denial we have from R. F. in the name of others of his judgement Therefore thus far in stead of vindicating the Scriptures he with his fellows have contradicted them Section 2. IN my second Section of their Contradictions to the Scriptures themselves and their Authority I had quoted Francis Howgil in his own phrase The Scripture is other mens Words contrary to 2 Tim. 3. 16. R. F. * Page 5. tells me that by a piece of Logick I would raise a false accusation against F. H. and make a false conclusion to wrest the Scriptures to serve my own turn but cannot The Scriptures not mans word but Gods Rep. 1. He denies not but the words I quoted are the words of F. Howgil 2. How doth my Logick make either the Accusation or Conclusion false The word of Scripture is Gods I said as is the Inspiration and because it was given by Inspiration therefore it is and is known or proved to be his Word as thus I make it out further and more plainly That which is given by Inspiration of God is not one mans word or anothers but Gods word But all the Scripture was given by Inspiration of God Therefore all the Scripture is Gods word and not one mans word or anothers What an under-valuing Expression then is that of F. H. to call the Scripture other mens words And what Chop-logick have we from R. F. Holy men of God spoke as they were moved and spiritual men spoke forth those words therefore they were words spoken by the men of God this is idem per idem a proof of the same thing by the same a delighting to hear himself speak and a tyring of his Reader before he hath read five pages of his book 3. Why will R. F. yield one part of the Argument and not the other He yieldeth the Scripture to be given of God and by the Spirit the Spirit of truth why then yields he not the Scriptures to be the word of God but that he will continue to contradict the Scripture and himself also while he joyneth in confederacy with F. H. and speaks disdainfully of the words of God as the words of men this man and that Grant we that both of them F. H. and R. F. sometime alleviate that harsh expression as if not used in opposition to God but to us The Scriptures are others mens words that spoke them freely saith the one And They were spoken by the holy men of God other men that were holy and spoke them freely and not by you that are sinful and preach for hire saith the other yet will they not confess they were spoken by God and are the very word of God nay R. F. page 4. * Line 18 and 21. had before set the visions of Ananias and Paul in a comparative Opposition to the words of Moses and the Prophets and preferring the former before the latter viz. the Scriptures these being but the words of other men and the words of others what is this but to sow seeds in mens hearts of alienation from the Scriptures which the yong man should take heed to and cleanse his ways by in youth which children shouldbe trained up in from their childhood and which are not to be despised or forgotten when they are old Such a contradicting scope hath all R. F. his pains taken pag. 6. to prove the Scriptures are other mens words and not mine or theirs in Scotland I would ask him what did the Preacher Eccl. 1. speak his own words or Gods but that he prevents the question by telling us * Page 6. King Lemuel was a man and his mother who taught him the words he penned down Prov. 31. was a woman And the Song of songs was Solomons and he was a man Cant. 1. What followeth from hence therefore Solomons words are not Gods words it better followeth from R. F. his reason viz. he was a man and not God then that the Scriptures are not ours for we are men as they were that penned them and although we were not the Pen-men we are the Readers and God onely is the Author of the Scriptures which in a way of disparagement R. F. calls a Printed Bible and reasoneth vainly against our use of the Scriptures because neither did Jeremiah nor any Prophet or any Apostle ever stand with a Printed Bible in his hand and say Hear the word of the Lord Then the word of the Lord was declared and spoken without Printed Bibles and before Printing was invented Rep. 1. They had a written Bible or Volume and did many Scripture to be read and preached from times speak out of that as always according to it Exodus 34. 28. with cap. 35. 1. Moses speaks what was written on the mount upon the Tables of stone And Deuter. 31. 19. Write ye this song for you and teach it
the Old and New Testament-Scripture thence to suck and draw for their refreshment preservation and consolation But such cursed step-dames have we now sprung up who would wean every new-born babe from any further tastes of Scripture-milk it must be no ground of their acting then no means of their growth no food to them at all nay it shall be no seed instrumentally to beget them as not milk to nourish them 3. They that deny the Scriptures to be in any good sense the ground of the Saints acting in effect deny them to be Gods Scriptures and Christs Scriptures for either the Authority of God and Christ is stampt upon them or not if it be then by their Authority may and ought the Saints to act if it be not then are they but humane and not the Scriptures of God and Christ But let us examine what R. F. saith for himself * 2 pag. of his Epist and 7. p. of his book and men of his judgement The Lord God and his Spirit is the ground of the Saints acting as it was formerly Isa 48. 16 17. For the Lord God and his Spirit hath sent me And the Lord Isaiah 48. 16 17. cleared vindicated teacheth his that he so sends to profit Rep. 1. So reads he or writes I must not say wresteth lest I retort but the words are directed to the people or Church and truly thus read which teacheth thee to profit The prophets had more extraordinary impulses of the Spirit then the Saints in ordinary for their actings 2. One way whereby God then taught and now teacheth his people to profit was by reducing them to the written Rule ver 18. O that thou hadst hearkned to my Commandments which they had in writings from God before the Lord God and the Spirit sent Isaiah to them Christ who came with the Spirit as he received it not by measure came with the Scriptures taught the people and his disciples how to profit by them Luke 4. 18. Matth. 5. Luke 24. 27. and as the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal which Scripture 1 Cor. 12. 7. R. F. alledgeth in 1 Cor 12. 7. vindicated part so is all the Scripture given by inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in righteousness 2 Tim. 3. 16. neither is there any manifestation of the Spirit in any Teacher if he doth not manifest his doctrine from or according to the Scripture when required so to do It is not to be believed that God ever gave his Spirit to such a Teacher who doth manifestly or covertly under pretence of the Spirit flie from the light of Scripture The Spirit of God never taught any The property of the Scriptures to speak dishonorably or diminishingly of his written word but to give unto the Scriptures what is its due viz. That they are Gods holy Scriptures Rom. 1. 2. able to make a childe wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus 2 Tim. 3. 15. and given ver 17. That the man of God the Prophet Apostle Evangelist Pastor or Teacher and others by their ministery may be perfect throughly furnished unto every good work and unto the Spirit what is his due The prerogative of the Spirit prerogative to work by the Scripture when and upon whom he pleaseth to their saving profit But haply I might have spared this pains in reference to R. F. though others have need of it because in his Epistle he hath this passage The Scriptures in the Letter onely are not the true ground of the believers faith as they in Scotland affirm for he seems to be a little yielding that they are the ground of the Saints acting though not onely if in any good sense he will grant them to be the ground of the believers faith he must in that The ground of the Believers faith is the ground of the Saints acting sense yield them to be the ground of the Saints acting for the Saint and the Believer is all one and all acts of holiness in general as of any particular grace spring from the same root that the acts of faith do and are built upon the same ground-work that is laid by God for the edification of faith and its actings Onely I must advertise him and others that I know none in Scotland that so affirm or express themselves as he speaks They may say and say truly that the Letter i. e. the Scriptures which never were without their true sense nor without the Spirit breathing in them though it be not manifested to every one that reads them nor a like manifestation given at all times to all the Saints are the onely visible and legible Rule of faith and Judge of Controversies as all sound Protestants have hitherto maintained this truth against the Papists And they that are of a sound minde in this British Isle as in all Europe and the world have from Gods Authority stampt upon the Scriptures asserted them to be a true Ground of the Believers faith which R. F. weakly denies * Epist because Christ is the true Ground of faith whereas the affirmative is hereby the more strongly proved For the true adaequate or proportionable Object of faith is the true Ground of faith but Christ speaking in the Scriptures is the true adaequate Object of faith therefore Christ in the Scriptures is the true Ground of faith And thus again If Christ be the true Ground of faith then the Scriptures of Christ which are his written truth are a true Ground of faith as if the man be honest I may build upon his word so if Christ be true and Truth itself his word is true and the truth as his Fathers word is John 17. 17. when written down for a more certain ground as to us and our actings then if but spoken in the air or to the ear Let R. F. therefore or all that have a minde to be sound in the faith if he hath none hear the Scripture speaking for it self and hear Christ together for himself and his Scripture Prov. 22. 19 20 21. That thy trust Prov. 22. 19 20 21. opened and urged may be in the Lord I have made known to thee this day even to thee Here is a ground of faith laid by the Lord himself What is it his making known of what Have not I written to thee excellent things in counsels and knowledge Here is excellent matter made known as a ground of trusting in the Lord and here is the maner of revelation by writing Have not I written wherefore That I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth Behold the maner of making known a ground also of certainty of knowledge and consequently of faith for a mans self and it followeth that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee Lo here is the ground of our Embassie and Message for others
perswasion and satisfaction with our selves and here is the ground of mens believing what we speak from and according to what is written Will R. F. or any say If our trust must be in the Lord we are not then to ground our faith on the Scriptures I must tell him from Christ that the not grounding a mans faith upon the Scriptures is an evidence that he grounds it not upon the Lord the very Scriptures will accuse such to be unbelievers for thus our Lord reasoneth against the Jews John 5. 45 46. There is one that accuseth you even Moses in whom ye trust For had ye believed Moses ye would have believed me for he wrote of me Section 6. I Had charged them with putting figurative Glosses upon plain Scripture R. F. pag. 7. shuffles in here and there a line or two for answer but nothing to the purpose onely in way of shift he hath these two subterfuges 1 In quoting John 1. 1 2 3. he addeth this is plain Scripture without figurative gloss the glosses are thy own Rep. 1. As plain Scripture as it is it is alledged by him to set all the rest of Scripture aside from being Gods word For what if by the Scripture-letter the world was not made but by Christ the Eternal Essential Word of which John speaks hath it not been sufficiently shewed in what sense the Scripture-letter is and is truly called the word of God 2. By his unreasonable reasoning he doth altogether hide and conceal from the Reader of his book what instance I gave in mine of their figurative gloss upon plain Scripture viz. 1 Cor 14. 34 35. By woman is meant the weak 1 Cor. 14. 34 35. vindicated with 1 Tim. 2. 11 c. corrupt part and by man the Spirit in either sex and by the Husband is meant Christ contrary to the true sense of the Apostle given by the same Apostle not onely in his reasons upon the place but in that first Epistle to Timothy 2. 11 12 13 14. This Gloss is theirs and yet unreasonably he calls it mine the fancy mine and the meaning 's mine which he denieth whereas I gave none but the Apostles own Hence I argue He who sets Paul against Paul or owns not Paul's plain exposition of himself but puts figurative glosses upon the Text contradicts the Scripture but thus doth R. F. with others He that would be further satisfied about his egregious glossings this way may read his Pamphlet of a sheet * Entit led A woman forbidden to speak in Church printed 1654. by it self A taste whereof whosoever meets not with that sheet may take as followeth a page 3. The woman or wisdom of the flesh is forbidden to speak in the Church b page 5. The Apostle saith Let your women keep silence in the Church he doth not say Let the Spirit of God keep silence in the Temple c page 7. It is carnality that is forbidden to intermingle with Spirituality If this be not to play with Scripture and grieve the Spirit that spake it I know not what doth A second subterfuge is in citing that Scripture I will pour out my spirit and your sons and your daughters shall prophesie and such may speak of the things of God Rep. 1. Who denies but they may speak according to their gift place and call but women endued but with an ordinary gift are set by and not allowed either the office of teaching or the liberty of a gifted-brothers place to speak to edification c. had they the gift as eminently as some Brethren have or so much as to ask a question for their own learning in the publick meeting place of a Church in order and every place and meeting of such a Church hath a publickness in it because they are commanded to be under obedience it becomes not their sex 't is usurping of the males authority they were the latter sex in creation the first in the transgression and are easily led into deceit as Eve was all which are the Apostles reasons 1 Cor. 14. 1 Tim. 2. and the holy Spirits not mine who dare contradict them and their true sense and scope dare contradict the Spirit to his face 2 Pauls limiting-order issued out from Heaven teacheth us how to understand Peter Act. 2. 17 18. taken out Act. 2. 17 18. opened of Joels prophecy viz. partly as allusions to the old Testament-times when God by dreams and visions by prophecies or predictions of future things revealed his minde in those ages past to a few and so the pouring out of the Spirit c. notes a large and abundant measure of saving grace in ordinary given to some of Gods servants of all sorts and sexes in all nations where the Gospel comes far excelling the ordinary measures of Saints before Christs ascension partly that some of Gods servants women as men daughters as sons should have a prophetical instinct of foretelling things to come which ever hath been a gift more then ordinary and out of a Church-order and course as Acts 21. 9. Philips four daughters and virgins were inspired withall or if any say why might not their gift of prophecy be the gift of explication and application of the Scripture to the profit of the hearer though it is not so probable yet then I say they were subject to the Apostles Rule aforesaid and were kept free from disorderly extravagancies 3 That standing Rule and order of Paul 1 Cor. 14. 34 35. leads us to the understanding of ver 31. ye may all prophesie c. i. e. as all called to the office of Pastor and Teacher 2 Cor. 14 31 vindicated must teach exhort c. so all the brethren gifted with the abilities of prophesying or speaking to edification exhortation and comfort may prophesie the exception of women breaks not the Rule for men but rather confirms the liberty to the brethren and to all of them so gifted which are but a few when the number is cast up in every Church And again what that meaneth Thou shalt not muzzle the 1 Tim. 5 18. cleared Ox that treadeth out the corn c. which the Apostle applyeth to the laboring Elders not to women as R. F. ver 17 of 1 Tim. 5. and at the end of the 18 verse there 's light given to the beginning of it for the laborer is worthy of his reward which words are a reason of the Prohibition and the Prohibition is not to open womens mouths in publick for himself Chap. 2. had stopt them by the injunction of silence but to beware of discouraging their preaching Elders and laboring Pastors and Teachers by abridging them of their honorable maintenance yea that Canon of the Apostle above mentioned is the Key to open all those Scriptures which R. F. produceth in his sheet aforesaid concerning Phebe Priscilla Mary Tryphena and Tryphosa Persis Rom. 16. and those women Philip. 4. Rom. 16 1 2. and ver 6 12. Phil. 4
mens mindes or will he have his words The light is pure standing out of all corruption to be understood of Gods Essence onely and not at all of that which is but a quality in the creature If he would be understood to speak of Gods Essence onely we agree in the light and understanding of the Text 1 John 1. 5. But if he would have it partly meant of God and partly of the Light either innate or regenerate in the creature then he confounds uncreated and created Light and shews his own woful darkness 2. He that would speak aright of God must say with the Apostle God is light and in him is no darkness at all no ignorance 1 John 1. 5. impurity or corruption to be discovered or found in him And he that would speak aright either of the inbred or of the new-bred light in the creature must distinguish of it either as it is in it self or in the subject-person First in it self created light is pure such as it is and so much as there is of it since the fall but yet imperfect Secondly in the subject the person in general particularly the minde or understanding and there is a mixture of light and darkness purity and pollution the one discovers the other and if the Saints should say We have no darkness no ignorance no sin they are so much the more dark sinful ignorant and there is no truth in what they say 1 John 1. 8. But I say quoth R. F. and so doth the Scripture that he that abideth in Christ sinneth not 1. John 3. 6. Rep. Will R. F. make no Scripture of 1 John 1. 8. because 1 John 1. 8. with 1 John 3. 6. compared cleared and vindicated this in the third chapter is Scripture or will that perverse and wicked evesion pass with him which one at a meeting of their fraternity in Essex not long since vented to him that urged the Emphasis if we we that have communion with the Father and with the Son if we say we have no sin c. That the Scriptures have been much altred and corrupted and though it be now so written yet at first it was thus If we that have fellowship say we have sin we deceive our selves c. Oh the diabolical strong delusion that these kinde of professors are under and leading others into or let me farther reason with those who are not so far infatuated either the Apostle John and such as he wrote unto did not abide in Christ or there is some other sense of his words in the third chapter then R. F. or his fellows would give of it for as full of contradictions as men are the Holy Ghost by the Apostle doth not contradict himself Let God be true and his word true and every man a lyar and his words lyes which agree not with the Canon Doctrine and harmonious Sense of the Scriptures And therefore when it is said He that abideth in Christ sinneth not the words and sense must be reconciled in our mindes for in themselves they were never at variance with the words in the first chapter thus 1. Although every man that is in Christ while here hath sin in him and he is neither perfectly free from the presence of original nor actual sin yet so far as he abideth in Christ he sinneth not It is no sin to cleave to Christ and his Doctrine Spirit and Grace and to persevere in it and him 2. The meaning of verse 6. must be gathered from verse 1 John 3. 6. cleared by ver 8 9. 8. and 9. where the Apostle speaks of committing sin or of trading in sin and that in a constant course That this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very sense and minde of the Holy Ghost is clear from the reason for the devil sinneth from the beginning He therefore that constantly goes on to sin plots sin and practiseth it with delight he is of the devil He that abideth in Christ sinneth not after such a maner And yet more clear from ver 9. whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed Gods seed remaineth in him and he neither doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor can commit sin as the devils nor as those who have no regenerate part in them because he is born of God and so far as born of God be sinneth not nor shall he ever be left to a total and final relapse into sin seeing he hath a contrary principle of the new birth abiding and remaining yea reigning in him And me thinks R. F. his conscience tells him he should be captivated by the truth of this interpretation For he tells me thou commits sin and so art a servant of the devil for thou goest on with thy lyes It is not then the presence of sin that makes one to be of the devil but the purpose practice and procedure in a way of sin If we say we have not sin present with us and dwelling in us we lye and if any say that every one that hath sin in him is a committer of sin a workman in sin he is in a foul error If any say he hath not sinned since he was converted he goes about to make God a lyar and his word is not in him 1 John 1. 10. That nor any other Scripture that speak of the Saints sinnings is not written in his heart nor believed by him But although I have an old lying heart and flesh wherein there dwells no truth no good thing yet R. F. hath not hitherto detected and proved a lye in my right hand or in my pen nor will he be able to make good what he boldly calumniates me with Let tryal be made in what follows Section 15. R F. here reviles me with thou lies of Ed. Burrough because I had noted the expression which he puts upon every mans light which is but common light at the best viz. The corner-stone And how doth he prove it not by denying there is any such expression as the Corner-stone but there is not such a word as common light there Rep. Nor did I use the word common as E. Burrough's and therefore put it in a Parenthesis as now and ordered it to be printed as my own phrase not his in a differing letter from his and accordingly it was so printed What lye is here in my mouth that deserves the lake which he threatens Had I not studied brevity I might have more fully given it thus How can he teach saith E. B. * Warning to the inhabitants of Underbarrow p. 7 and direct toward true Religion who denies the Corner-stone the first Principle of Religion which is the foundation the light of God which hath enlightned every one that comes into the world which he denies speaking of the Preacher at Vnderbarrow to have enlightned every one R. F. backs him thus Christ is the Light and Christ is the chief Corner-stone Acts 4. 11. 1 Pet. 2. 6 7. and so saith
covenant with his Creature upon any terms but as there needed no mercy before it was broken so when it is broken there is judgement for the sinner without mercy It is the covenant made with Christ upon his satisfaction to Justice for others that he becomes our Propitiatory and Mercy-seat Many more Arguments might be added I conclude with this 5. and lastly The Levitical Law and all the old administration was a Testament and called the first Testament being the first disposition and discovery of free Grace but a covenant of Works is no Testament nor any where in Scripture so called for a Testament requireth the death of the Testator Heb. 9. 16. Christ of necessity therefore must die to ratifie the Will A covenant of Works exacteth death if it be transgressed but it is the death and blood of the sinner Under the Levitical Law the transgressors did not die but the beast died for the transgressor which plainly shewed it to be a covenant of Grace and gracious Testament wherein the death of Christ is accepted not the sinners as that by which all the Legacies of the Will and good things of the Covenant are both purchased and assured As to the Second particular noted in the beginning of this Section viz. That the Law which Adam had in innocency written in his heart was the moral Law this they deny and R. F. * Page 11 to back J. Nayler addeth for thy saying that Adam was under a covenant of Works and the same then canst not prove it Rep. What he meaneth by and the same I do not well understand it is well if he understands himself If his sense be that I cannot prove Adam to have been under a covenant of Works and the same with the Levitical Law which he holdeth to have been a covenant of Works I acknowledge it is against my judgement and conscience ruled by truth to confound the covenant of Works and of Grace together I have even now disproved the Levitical Law as no covenant of Works for the substantial matter and living form of it and therefore cannot speak daggers or contradictiously say That the covenant which Adam in Innocency was under was the same with that which true Believers of the Old Testament were under If his meaning be that I cannot prove Adam to have been under a covenant of Works and the same which is contained in the moral Law or ten Commandments given on mount Sinai and written in Tables of stone I shall premise a few positions of truth Positions of truth about the covenant of Works in Adam and the Moral Law and then produce a few Arguments for the Affirmative The positions I premise are these 1. Adam was created in the image of Gods goodness holiness justice c. Gen. 1. 27. else his nature had not been perfect Eccles 7. 29. 2. The covenant of Works is a covenant of Goodness Holiness and Justice as is the Commandment moral Rom. 7. 12. ordained to life by the keeping of it but found to be unto death after the breach of it ver 10. 3. Adam stood and fell as a publique person representing all mankinde that were in his loins Rom. 5. 14. 4. The condition of his standing in life to eternity was by the strength of that image of God given him in creation to do all that was written in his heart and to obey any particular positive precept of God as it should be revealed to him 5. The Moral Law contained in the ten Commandments may be considered abstractly and nakedly in the matter or as clothed and formed with circumstances 1. Abstractly It is a bright beam of Gods holy good and righteous Nature and Will and the Idea or express representation of that which was perfectly written in mans heart in the time and state of Innocency 2. As clothed with circumstances and so it is either inservient to Adam standing and his fallen posterity that would rise and stand in and by the covenant of Works or subservient to Adam and Eve and the Seed of the woman Gods chosen who being fallen as others were to be raised ruled and saved in and by the most free covenant of Grace The circumstances that make the Moral Law subservient to a covenant of Grace are 1. The Preface to the Precepts a free Promise so God began with Adam and Eve after the fall as with the Israelites Exod. 20. 2. Gen. 3. 15. 2. It is given in the hand of a Mediator Gal. 3. 20. Moses was the Typical Christ the true Mediator who because God loseth not his Justice in the covenant of Grace undertakes as a surety for some the Elect to pay their debt both forfeiture and principal the forfeiture by his Passive obedience the principal by his Active obedience for their justification John 1. 17. and Rom. 3. 31. 3. It is a directory and rule to true Believers as it is also in Christs hand guiding them by his Spirit for the ordering of their sanctification Mat. 5. from ver 17. to the end The circumstances that make the Moral Law serviceable to the covenant of Works made at first with Adam are the ingredients attendants and effects of that Law As 1. The absolute perfection of it 2. The maner of promulgation with thundering fire blackness darkness tempest sound of a trumpet terror of voice c. Exod. 19. Heb. 12. 18 19 20. 3. The rigorous exaction of all the debt at the hands of sinners with threatning of death Gen. 2. 17. and the curse Deut. 27. 26. 4. The tryal of the creatures strength as was that prohibition to Adam Gen. 2. 16 17. Exod. 20. 20. to restrain from sin 5. The discovery of transgressions Gal. 3. 19. increasing of wrath in the conscience Rom. 4. 15. and holding the whole world under guilt and some under the sense of a sinful estate Rom. 3. 19. 6. Although God in giving the Law with all these ingredients attendants and effects had Gospel-purposes to his true Israel yet that the Moral Law clothed with these last mentioned circumstances doth lead to Christ or to the promise of life by him it is onely Intentio agentis the scope of God to work by contraries not Intentio operis properly the work of the Law before Faith but what it doth work upon the Elect it is by accident as the Spirit by his effect of keeping them under bondage a while wearieth them out of conceits of self-righteousness c. that they look after Christ For the Moral Law is not contrary Gal. 3. 21. opened to the promise or so against the promises of God that it can forbid a Mediator or a pardon from another way though it provides none of it self nor so against them but that God can and doth provide a Righteousness in a Surety when the Debtor the Sinner hath none of his own and neither the Law nor Sin can put God besides his purpose 7. The Moral Law was so perfectly written in Adams heart
in Tables of stone yet the Ceremonial Law which hath been disproved from being a covenant of works was given at the same time or in the same forty days that Moses was upon the Mount Now no man that I know saith the Ceremonial Law was given to Adam in Paradise or that he was under that Law before the fall 2. As Adam was under the Ceremonial Law after the fall above two thousand years before it was given to Moses so he might be and it hath been proved he was under the whole Moral Law as a covenant of works before the fall notwithstanding the long space of time between his innocency and the promulgation of the ten Commandments on Mount Sinai 3. The reason of R. F. to the contrary is of no more force then if one should argue The promise was given to Abraham two thousand and fourscore years after Adams sin therefore it was not given to the Patriarchs nor were they under a covenant of grace before Abraham which to say would be manifest contradiction to the Scripture and a Non sequitur in Reason and such is R. F. his Divinity and Logick also Section 18. OF this Section R. F. takes no notice wherein I had noted what Ed. Burroughs saith in his Answer to choice experiences page 6 7. not 9 10. as was printed before That is no command from God to me what he commands to another Scripture general commands include particular persons and oblige to acting by virtue of such commands contrary to the whole Decalogue Exod. 20. which speaks to all in speaking to one Thou And the mystery of iniquity in this kinde of doctrine lyes here The word Command in Scripture is not a command to them till they have a word within them neither as E. D. adds did any of the Saints which we read of in Scripture act by the command which was to another not having the command to them selves I challenge to finde an Example to it By this doctrine 1. All the Scripture-commands as such are made void The absurdities of the contrary doctrine stand for Cyphers are of no Authority by them selves and no ways binding to carnal men who want the perfect principle that Adam had or the Spirit of grace which the Saints have whereas moral commands in Scripture are of perpetual obligation whether men have a principle or a Spirit to hear or forbear Ezek. 2. 7. And 2. As if what God commands one Saint as a Saint he doth not command all Saints as such Mark 13. 37. and Luke 12. 4. I say unto you my friends Fear not them that kill the body c. is a command obliging all his friends Or 3. There must be a particular Scripture for every Saint and every action that he puts forth Or 4. A motion from within must be above the motion from without in the Scripture whereas the Spirit of God is of one and the same authority in the Scripture and in the heart and he moveth to duty by commands 1 Thes 4. 2. 1 John 3. 23. Josh 1. 8. Have not I commanded thee yea by the written commandements he presseth Christians upon duty Ephes 6. 2. Honor thy Father and thy Mother Ephes 6. 2. explained which is the first commandement with promise The motive here is threefold 1. The Commandement of the written moral Law 2. The promise annexed That it may be well with thee c. 3. This fifth commandement is the First of the second Table and the first of the Ten that hath a promise and a special promise expresly added to it All the ten have as the Decalogue is subservient to the covenant of Grace a general promise prefixed and the second a general promise inserted but this is the first and the last indeed the onely one of the ten that hath a special express promise added to the keeping of it A command so backt and supported is no small encouragement it being also a command of the holy Ghost as certain as any he brings to the heart Or 5. As if what is spoken to all is spoken to none till the person be named or pointed out by the finger It will be accounted negligence and carelesness in children or servants when the Governor of a family ordereth to them all that the doors be shut up at night if none of them look after what is ordered and in a troop of souldiers not to take the alarum at a distance but the Drum must be beaten close by the ear of every one or else none will stir from their quarters such an abuse of commands to Saints is made of Scripture-general commands by these men who list themselves for Saints The allegations and objections of Ed. Burroughs * Page 7. weighed in the ballance of truth will be too light 1. I challenge to finde an example 1 Objection answered Answ What are all the examples of the Saints actings after the patern of other Saints who had the express precept 1 Thes 1. 6. ye became followers of us and of the Lord c. so that ye were ensamples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia Christ gave the Apostles an example of Self-denial with a command of taking up the cross and following him The Saints at Thessalonica acted by this Command and after the Lords and the Apostles example and became exemplary themselves for others that believed to act after them and suffer also Commands of this nature to others they took to be to themselves and are commended for such kinde of obedience Acts 1. 4. The Apostles have a command to keep together and not to deport from Jerusalem c. and Act. 2. 42. the converted three thousand which are a superabundant number of examples continue stedfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers here is acting sufficiently and constantly by virtue of the command for keeping fellowship given to the Apostles more immediately and to them but remotely and at the second hand Object 2 2. 'T is alledged The Saints obeyed every one their own command one was sent to Baptize and to preach the Gospel another was sent not to Baptize but to preach the Gospel Answ 1. Saints as such have general duties incumbent upon them and none of the commandements of God that belong to them as Saints are grievous unto their regenerate heart and part 2. To Baptize and to preach the Gospel are duties imposed but upon some Saints and acts belonging to special office and commission or mission at least Some may be sent to preach the Gospel that have not office-commission of Baptizing as Act. 11. 19. But none were in officecommission to preach the Gospel but might and did as opportunity was offered baptize also as Act. 8. 35. 38. And Paul himself did Baptize and was commissionated for it though his principal work was preaching 1 Cor. 1. 15 1 Cor. 1. 15 16. cleared 16 17. Christ sent me not to Baptize not
righteousness of another the righteousness of him that is God Jesus Christ and not onely that I may live in God but unto God This the Gospel teacheth Paul and us by faith to go out of our selves for life in another in Christ by his imputed righteousnes which when we finde we finde also a heart renewed and quickned in and unto holiness and the desires after sin in a degree mortified and crucified which by way of evidence is enough to quench the fiery dart of Satan cast against me by R. F. and so art an * Page 13. unbeliever and not redeemed So because I pleaded for the right way of justification not in his Popish way For through grace I can say with the Apostle ver 20. I am crucified with Christ i. e. As I was represented in Christ Gal. 2. 20. 21. opened my surety when he was upon the Cross and God was in him reconciling me unto himself not imputing trespasses unto me seeing they were then condemned in Christs flesh and put out of office from ever accusing and condemning me at Gods Bar so I am thus crucified with Christ that I will never look to any other way for the payment of my debts then what my surety hath laid down to Law and Justice and not onely thus that I am conformed to the Patern of Christ crucified by the power of his Cross to make me die to sin and self while Christ liveth in me yet is not that life of Christ so sensible or so perfect in me as if nothing was there but the life of Christ for there is a body of sin and of death dwelling in me also and therefore the life which I now live in the flesh or the weak frail body I live as to my Justification-life by the faith of the Son of God on whom I believe and live also for degrees of Sanctification which his life hath begun in me who loved me and gave himself for me And as the Apostle further Ver. 21. being of this Faith and Judgement I do not frustrate the grace of God as they who would have Justification by their outward or inward conformity to the Law which is all one as to frustrate or make void the death of Christ If R. F. saith I plead for sin because elsewhere Section 29. I said the roots of sin would not be pluckt up perfectly till soul and body part I shall take off his calumny in the due place Section 23. HEre I noted what I had from them in discourse That in Justification all guilt is not only taken away but all All filth not removed where all guilt is pardoned filth of sin Then could there no filth remain upon the Saints performances as there doth by their confession in Scripture Isaiah 64. 6. We are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags The defilements of sin in its presence remain when the defilement of sin in respect of guilt is taken away R. F. saith nothing to this Section unless it be answer sufficient to revile and say Sin thou art pleading for while I produced the Saints and justified persons confession of sin and hinted a difference between Justification and Sanctification which these men as Sin confessed is not pleaded for if they would profess themselves members of the man of sin do confound mistaking one thing for another If Saints confess their sin cleaving to their holiest reformations they plead against sin not for it To say we have sin in us is to plead against the Lye of dreamers who think themselves perfectly free from the remnants of filth But to awaken them let R. F. and others of his perswasion before they drink deeper into Babylons cup of fornications perpend and conscionably weigh these differences between a Believers Justification and Sanctification 1. The matter of our Justification is Christs obedience Section 23. Distinguishing notes between Justification and Sanctification inherent in himself and absolutely perfect admitting of no degrees the matter of our Sanctification is wrought within us imperfect as to degrees and admits of wanes and increases The very faith whereby we receive pardon is but as a grain of mustard-seed at first it admits of degrees but the object apprehended Christ and his righteousness is always the same and as much of Christs obedience even all is given to every Believer to the weak as to the strong and hence it is they are once and together perfected in Justification before they have all or half the measures of Sanctification which the Lord will give them in his time Let Francis Howgil put off no such counterfeit ware to Christs disciples and Church-members for it will not be received viz. * The inheritance of Jacob pag. 24. 25. That is not true faith which is imperfect And again The righteousness wrought in the Saints is as it was the righteousness of Faith 2. The form maner and way of our Justification is by Gods free act of imputation reckoning and account of Christs obedience to us the form of our Sanctification is by infusion of holiness by the Spirit of holiness from Christs fulness into our empty hearts 3. Justification causeth a relative change or it makes a change of relation Sanctification worketh in us a change of qualities by the creation of the new divine nature and mortifying of our old corrupt nature 4. The parts of our Justification are Gods not imputing of sin through his imputing of Christs sufferings and his accepting of our persons as righteous by his imputing of Christs active obedience the parts of our Sanctification are vivification or the creating quickning and begetting new divine qualities resembling Gods nature and mortification of the old sinful dispositions and seeds of sin 5. The contrary to Justification is guilt and condemnation wholly taken away Francis Howgil * The inheritance of Jacob pag. 8. either heard some unsound Teachers or mis-relates them as giving it out for Doctrine That sin was taken away by Christ but the guilt should still remain while he lived c. Or whom doth he expostulate with in these words Page 28. What Christ is this you preach What Gospel is this you preach which saves you not from guilt and condemnation For surely Christs blood and obedience reckoned to the believer doth this to purpose and effectually at present and for ever The contrary to Sanctification is in-bred pollution and filth of sin which by Christs power is destroyed as to the regency and hereafter to be removed at our death as to the residence Hence Justification is Gods gracious and just sentence pronouncing us righteous and entitling to life as Condemnation is his charging of guilt and vindictive punishment accordingly Sanctification is Gods special grace shed abroad in the heart called the first-fruits of the Spirit 6. In our Justification Christs obedience stands onely upon account and all our most sanctified works and righteousnesses stand by as cyphers and are to
and may be so called a covering of sin is warrantable by Scripture Psalm 32. 1. with Rom. 4. 7 24. but to say it is a covering for sin and for the man of sin is to speak blasphemy against God and to say our pleading for Gods not imputing of iniquity or for his covering our sins is to make a covering for sin is with Antichrist the man of sin * Rev. 13. 6. to blaspheme the Tabernacle and them that dwell in heaven In this Doctrine of Justification they call evil good by attributing that unto outward and inward acts of a Believers holiness in all which there is some mixed evil which properly and onely belongeth unto the personal acts of Christs own finless obedience and sufferings in the nature which himself assumed to perform the work of Mediatorship J. Nayler speaks plainly enough for them all and for all the children of the man of sin * Discovery c pag. 27. â— Our walking with God in his righteousness is our covering from wrath you know not the covering of Christs righteousness and holiness in which whoever walk with God are covered from wrath Which walking with God he meaneth not of our living by faith in Christs personal actings and sufferings for us to our perfect justification from wrath and from the guilt of sin binding over to wrath but of our personal acts of righteousness and holiness wrought in us by Christ and his Spirit which although they be good as wrought by the Lord in us yet meeting with mixtures of defilement in the hearts of Saints as they are their acts are but filthy rags and no covering at all to hide our nakedness from appearing in the eye of Gods strict Law and Justice This J. Nayler or some in his coat hath much for discovery of the rottenness of their judgement in this case in a piece lately come forth * Love to the lost pag. 4. With him Christ his righteousness is freely imputed or put into the creature Again This righteousness is wrought into the creature in that obedience which is contrary to the will of the flesh Imputing here is all one with infusing to him Justifying righteousness and sanctifying righteousness is the same individual obedience which is pure Popery or impure Babylonish Doctrine More yet * Page 5. Your faith without his works will be little worth to salvation Christs works for us are onely of worth with the Father for our salvation Christs workings in us are not to be joyned with our faith in Christs works or obedience for us in the business of our Justification This latter is intended by him who by his Title pretendeth Love to the lost but by his baits and snares would hold fast some and carry others back into the wilderness witness his confounding of Justification Sanctification and Mortification * Page 15. The living Faith is never without works which works are Love Meekness Patience Mortification Sanctification Justification c. We grant a presence of works the fruits of the Spirit in the subject or person that is justified and these works are evidences of the life and truth of our faith the fruits are evidences of the tree but to put Justification in us with the fruits of the Spirit and to say as afterward * Page 51. he doth men are so justified as they are sanctified and mortified and no further is to deny Protestant Doctrine which is according to Scripture that who so is justified is justified semel simul once and together perfectly and for ever Heb. 10. 1 14. And to revive the old Popish Tenet of degrees of our Justification according to the degrees of our Sanctification and no further whereas we say and say truly men are not at all justified as they are sanctified Two Arguments against Sanctification as the matter of our Justification when we speak of the thing it self and not of its declaration For 1. That which is the price of our Redemption is the matter of our Justification or that thing which justifieth us before God and reconcileth our persons to God Now put all the degrees of all the Saints holiness together these are no part of the price of our Redemption but the blood and obedience of Christ alone is the whole and sole price and ransom Rom. 3. 24. Rom. 5. 19. 1 Pet. 1. 19. 2. That which is the immaculate Sacrifice for sin is that which is the matter and merit of our Justification But the Sanctification and Mortification in Believers is not the immaculate Sacrifice for sin Christ is the sole and entire Sacrifice for sin that is to expiate and take away the guilt and curse of sin by his perfect obedience and sufferings in his own natural body And therefore as that onely merited our Justification so it is the onely thing that properly and for its worth is imputed to our Justification Rep. 2. For R. F. to all it my policy to go about to make Christ a sinner is pitiful weakness in him For it was no How Christ was made sin or a sinner 2 Cor. 5. 21. cleared man or Angel-invention but the master-piece of Gods infinite wisdom to have his Son who knew no sin be made sin i. e. a sinner by imputation and a sacrifice for sin in and by his sufferings in the room and stead of sinners which could not have been if their sins had not been imputed to him but seeing their sins were imputed to him they are in that way of imputation made or reckoned righteous in Christ 2 Cor. 5. 21. What foolishness soever there seems to be in this way of our Justification Christ crucified as a sinner and for sinners bearing their guilt and curse is the wisdom and the power of God and a poor sinner justified this way is the object of the eternal unsearchable riches of Gods wisdom and grace or freest choicest favor As for that contradiction to Scripture which R. F. * Page 14. saith is seen in this our doctrine because it is said He was made like unto us sin excepted it is but in his imagination and something he must say to color over and hide his own gainsayings for that place Heb. 4. 15. and 2. Cor. 5. 21. are Heb. 4. 15. vindicated no ways at variance Christ was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin so are the words to the Hebrews He yielded to no temptation He had no inherent sin to comply with a temptation He knew no sin as in the other Scripture yet was he made sin reckoned as a sinner tempted like a sinner deserted like a sinner yea accursed as a sinner the feelings and experiences whereof make him experimentally a sympathizing High priest and moves him to succor them that are tempted And his being free from sin of his own while he was tempted to sin as others and while he was charged with the sin of others frees us or justifies us from our sin
better then two in the Bush a little of their own within them far beyond all Christs righteousness without them although we call for the witness within them that will not suffice they must have the ground-work of their justification within them as well as the evidence nay some work within shall be ground and evidence too or they fly off and will not believe till they see and feel but groping in the dark lose themselves in the wilderness of self-fulness and sufficiency 7. Head of their Scripture-contradiction Concerning Regeneration Section 27. I Had noted what they say He that believeth is born of God without Scripture and yet witnessed in Scripture contrary to James 1. 18. and 1 Pet. 1. 23 25. which Regeneration by the Scripture promise not onely bear witness of a new birth but saith also it is wrought by the word of truth the word of God the word that is preached which was never without or besides much less directly against but always according to the Scripture both as the Apostles preached it and others after them and their written doctrine R. F. * Page 15. returns me in a retorting way as is his wonted maner this for an answer If thou was not blind thou would see that thou contradicts the Scripture and not they that attributes the work of regeneration and the new birth to the Letter which thou calls the word and so therein denyes God who begets by his own will by that word which liveth and abideth for ever which was in the beginning with God and was God Rep. 1. Gods essential will and the free act of his love and good pleasure is the primary impulsive cause of his regenerating a soul 2. Christ by his death purchaseth the grace of regeneration and by the power of his resurrection applyes it 1 Pet. 1. 3. 3. The Spirit of the Father and the Son comes with the Scripture-promise and quickneth the soul to believing and by believing of the word of truth which at the beginning R. F. acknowledged the Scriptures to be and at that instant the believing soul is as Isaac conceived and formed a childe of promise a believer and a new-creature together by the word of grace which the Spirit useth as the external means of regeneration yea he carrieth the word and voice of the Son of God John 5. 25. from the ear to the heart and makes them hear and live That part of the Scripture which is pure Gospel is the ministration of the Spirit as of righteousness and life 2 Cor. 3. 8. 4. They that speak of a regeneration such as the Scripture helps them not to know and obtain speak wildely of it as J. Nayler in his new piece * Love to the lost page 34. treating of the new-birth he tells his lost creatures There is the old man and a new man but he doth not say there are two contrary qualities in the same regenerate soul lusting one against the other as the Apostle describes their state Gal. 5. 17. He saith * Page 35. Nicodemns knew not the new birth though he loved Christ He did not know the maner and mystery of it before his coming to Christ but if he loved Christ before it was a fruit of the new-born-seed of grace or spiritual principle for even J. N. confesseth as is the man so are his works and as is the Tree so is the fruit And I may adde as is J. N. so is his Book and his his love to the lost for if the man may be known by his writing he may haply know as little of the new-birth as Nicodemus did though he would be a great Teacher in our Israel Some may say he speaks * Love to the lost p. 35. of a Promise as well as a power that puts off the old man with his deeds lusts and affections but if you mark it it is to them who remain in the seed of God and it in them he doth not say the new-creature hath a promise that it shall remain although the Scripture saith it shall Joh 15. 16. 1 Joh. 2. 27. Well if he holds but to what he saith That all who remain in this seed and it in them hath the Promise I would have R. F. ask him whether it be the Promise that begets the new man which helps to put off the old if it be we shall finde the new man quickned as the old man crucified and slain by a word of promise in several places of Scripture scattered The word of promise serveth to regenerate and begin the work as well as to preserve nourish and maintain the regenerate man in his state He that shuts out Scripture from being Christs organ or the Spirits instrument and means of Regeneration it had been better for him he had never known the Scripture or written a word about it 8. Head of Scripture-contradiction Concerning Sanctification and its Perfection Section 28. I Had noted from a little conference with them in Scotland That sin dwelleth not in act where Christ reigneth Sin dwelleth and acteth in the Saints Rom. 7. 17. opened This R. F. defendeth as true though never so contrary as I hinted in my book to three as many more places of Scripture Rom. 7. 17. It is not I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me sin is doing as well as dwelling it will not be idle and in whom in Pauls heart where Christ reigned Gal. 5. 17. The flesh lusteth against the Spirit and Gal. 5. 7. cleared the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary one to the other in whom in the Galatians the sons of God in whom considered in their better part Christ and Grace reigned yet they could not do what they would they could not be so gracious as their regenerate part would have them nor yet so sinful as their unregenerate part would have them Here is sin active enough and yet its force is broken that it cannot reign where Christ reigneth but there it dwells and remains very troublesome to a good heart Rom. 7. 23 25. Rom. 7. 23 25 explained I see another Law in my members warring against the Law of my minde and bringing me into captivity to the Law of sin that is in my members here is action and passion too here is fighting and scuffling a continual conflict Sin in the Saints is no sleepy habit it will be plotting using stratagems striking and serving it self and its own turn as ver 25. With my flesh I serve the Law of sin sin is very active in the Saints when so officious to its self and its own ends What weapons think you will R. F. finde for defence of the Tenet none spiritual I dare say but carnal and weak as followeth * Page 15. Where Christ reigneth the body is dead to the acts of unrighteousness because of sin being destroyed and the Spirit is life because of righteousness living and ruling Rep. I suppose he refers in this
enjoyed the perfect beatifical vision of God which they have but a promise of for they that are sincere in holiness have here some communion with God and one day and to all eternity they shall enjoy him and his presence in fulness of that holiness and joy whereof now they have but the tasts and first-fruits He that boasteth of more hath neither as I said in my former piece pure lip nor pen for the least degree how much more larger measures of purity maketh a soul sensible of continual impurities intermixed therewith R. F. * Page 17. returns to this That is thy own condition Rep. I acknowledge it Again And so thou judgest others by thy continual impurities and therefore thy judgement must needs be false and not true Rep. I spake not my condition onely who may more deservedly be called less then the least of all Saints then Paul stiled himself but the condition of every one truly sanctified and yet living upon the earth Yet more And so thou denyest their doctrine who said Seeing ye have purified your souls have purified in the present Tense in obeying the truth through the Spirit see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently but thou art against a pure heart and so against the Scripture 1 Pet. 1. 22. 1 Pet. 1. 22. vindicated Rep. 1. If the Printer mistook not the present tense for the preter tense R. F. doth grosly apprehend that to be the present have purified which in English and Greek * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is expresly the Praeter or time past 2. Were the Apostles words in the present tense ye do purifie it would make in shew and form of words more against R. F. then for him but the truth is the word in Peter being a Participle of the time past and in the Active voice it shews the work of purifying themselves through the Spirit was not so done but that yet it was in doing And as their habits of purity were not perfect so they were far from perfection in the act but have need of stirring up as 2 Pet. 3. 1. fervently to exert and put forth their love and purity according to their principles for the growth of both which viz. act and habit of grace he exhorteth and exciteth them chap. 2. 2. to desire as new born babes far from highest perfection the sincere milk of the word and Chap. 5. 10. he prayeth that after they have suffered a while the God of all grace would make them perfect stablish strengthen settle them 3. I finde R. F. perfect in nothing that savors of a Gospel purity nor growing in any thing but his perverse abuse of Scripture But I shall pray for him and others that they may be awakened out of their dream of Perfection may see their present pollutions and be ashamed of their Gospelcontradictions till then they will not understand what Purity is nor whereof they affirm Section 31. TO the Quere of one of them Did ever Paul deny perfection I asked what he or others thought of that in Phil. 3. 12. Not as though I had already attained or were already perfect which R. F. * Page 17. undertakes to resolve He is so far from denying it that he pressed hard after it Rep. Is this an answer or an evasion Denial of such a How perfection may be denied how not perfection as Paul meant ver 12. is two-fold either that it is here attained or that here we must press after it Although neither he nor we deny it in the latter sense yet in the former expresly he doth for his own part and such as come short of him may well and truly deny it And our work in this life being to press after it doth sufficiently imply it is not here to be attained But saith R. F. to mar not mend his own case He said to such as had attained it press others on after it and they did Heb. 6. 1. Rep. 1. Let not people take these mens words for infallible oracles but search the Scriptures and finde if they can where Paul wrote to any such Churches or Saints as had fully attained and till they finde it suspect R. F. for a deceiver and when they finde it not conclude him a false teacher 2. Whereas the Apostle had set before the Philippians Phil. 3. 11. 15. compared vindicated and us his own example I press toward the mark c. In the next ver 15. he adds his exhortation Let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded where Paul either puts in himself with the many perfect or not if not but that he is to be understood as speaking to them that thought themselves perfect he would then take them off from the conceit of perfect attainments and have them so minded as he was that is as ver 14. to press toward the White of perfection as he did If he joyns himself with the many perfect then must the word perfect in the 15. ver be taken otherwise then in ver 12. For there he had denied himself to be already perfect and if ver 15. he should say he were perfect in that sense wherein he had denied his perfection he should be led by the Spirit of truth into a contradiction which were blasphemy to imagine let all the Quakers in earth and hell be first found lyars then one lye be found in the Scriptures or the pen-men of them as such The many perfect therefore must be taken when Paul was one of them not yet without imperfections for such as by Pauls and the Apostles ministery and with Paul through the Spirits teaching and working were grown up to a farther pitch and degree of holiness then some other sincere Christians who were to press on themselves as well as to press others on after the highest degrees of grace attainable which is the more clear by ver 16. Nevertheless whereto we have attained let us walk by the same rule whereto i. e. to what degree suppose the fourth or fifth Phil 3. 16. opened stair though not at the top we have attained let us walk which implies they are not at the end of their journey 3. What have we in Heb. 6. 1. but the same truth Let us Heb. 6. 1. vindicated go on unto perfection He that brings half an eye in his head to that text will collect no more but this That Paul or the Pen-man of that Epistle is travelling on towards perfection and putting on his companions in the way but neither he nor the Hebrews he writes unto are at their journeys end Is the Post therefore at York Berwick or Edenburgh because he is footing or riding thither He that is half way up the hill calls upon others to accompany him and go on-wards and up-wards yet more and more he is not therefore at the top of the hill But saith R. F. such obtained as so pressed after it Heb. 12. 22 23. Rep. But
stick to Christ who are in him and suck vertue from him they sin not yet at that time when they abide in Christ sin dwelleth in them not in the old regency and power but as a troublesom in-mate which they would gladly be quite rid of from the first moment of conversion if the Lord so pleased but it is there and remaineth for their exercise till the combat of flesh and spirit be at an end viz. at the end of our days Section 34. THe Reader may observe that R. F. answereth nothing to this Section wherein having shewed how they cry out against all that teach Sin is not perfectly mortified in this life to be upholders of the Devils kingdom I asked Were Paul John and the Apostles upholders of the Devils kingdom And doth the Scripture uphold the Devils kingdom when it positively asserteth there is sin in every good man while he is doing good according to that Eccles 7. 20. Eccles 7. 20. There is not a just man upon earth that doth good and sinneth not A Scripture that stands as an impregnable for t un-assaulted by the enemy and impossible ever to be taken or battered down although this generation of Perfectists rank and file the same with them spoken of Prov. 30. 12. should night and day lay siege to it and shoot all their Granado's against it The new gloss * Lip of truth opened p. 18. of Tho. Lawson is but a flash of gun-powder without bullet it will not batter 'T is true saith he there is not a just man upon earth c. for all that dwell on earth worship the beast Rev. 13. 8. but John saw 144000. redeemed from the earth whereas the material earth is understood by Solomon the mystical earth is meant by John set in opposition to the mystical heaven or the true Church ver 6. men redeemed from earthly ways of worship perfectly justified before God sincere in their sanctification and reformation and growing up indeed unto perfect holiness in Gods fear yet not one of them except in Gods account without their inherent failings adherent blemishes and conflicts from their in-dwelling concupiscence or unregenerate part 9. Head of Contradiction to Scripture Concerning Christian Warfare Section 35. HAving noted their denial of Saints to be always in the Warfare R. F. * page 18. returns me his justification of this Doctrine If they do they deny not the Scripture but agree with it How makes he it out Why Such as have overcome are more then conquerors Rep. This is a truth in some sense but proves not that Saints in this life not out of their warfare Saints are past the warfare Every Christian is an overcomer as well as a warrior but how when and in what measure 1. In Christ his Head and Captain he hath overcome 1 Cor. 15. 57. 2. When shall he have a perfect conquest over inherent corruption when the warfare is at an end when is that when his wayfare is at an end not before 3. In what measure is it wrought here In some more in some less as to the conquest of Sanctification of which is the Question in none absolutely and totally A victory the Saint may have to day in some particular combate a foil to morrow Shameful foils some of these men have had who have thought themselves at an end of their warfare if half that which is reported be true That of Atkinson at Norwich was true enough one who cryed up Perfection as loud as his fellows but became as unstable as water and was easily captivated to the act of Fornication I list not to rake in such kennels but I abhor boasting before the final victory That practice which violateth the seventh Commandment is as far from perfection as that Doctrine which contradicteth the seventh Chapter to the Rom. 23. R. F. tells me Thou brings that of Paul in the warfare but thou brings not his after experience where he says The law of the spirit of life in Christ hath made me free Rom. 8. Rep. I flatly deny that Pauls experience Rom. 8. 2. was Rom. 8. 2. vindicated an after-experience to what he speaks of himself and regenerate persons Chap. 7. 14. to the end as his and their present state which was no other then what he was in Chap. 8. and so to the end of the Epistle For Chap. 8. and ver 2. is brought in as a consolation under the combate The words are these to the full For the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of sin and death What is that Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus but the power and authority of spiritual endless life in him and particularly that habitual frame of holiness in Christs humane nature which from birth and conception he had and which being made meritorious by his Divine person in which the humanity subsisteth is imputed to Paul and every true Believer by reason of which imputation he is made free from the law of sin and death What is that Law of sin The condemning power of sin yet inherent and permanent As if Paul should have said If sin that wars and fights in me hath no power to condemn me then there is no condemnation to me the sentence that is cut off and where no sentence passeth there is no execution according to Law But sin hath no Law no power to condemn me for the Law of grace and holiness in Christs own flesh condemned sin there kept off filth from him and condemned all my guilt charged upon him so as sin is put out of office and cannot so much as serve a Writ of condemnation upon me nor can sin have a commanding power over me while it dwelleth in me seeing the Spirit which dwelleth in Christ brings life and power from him to quicken holiness and kill sin in me and that grace which reigneth in Christ reigneth in me while sin is rebelling And concerning the Law of death the sting of death which is sin being taken away by removal of guilt bodily death can do me no hurt sin may kill and pull down this earthly tabernacle it shall never slay my soul I am already free from the sentence of the second death it shall never have power over me though my present as by-past sin deserves it yet Christ hath freed me from it Thus Paul speaks his own and the Saints victories with their combates at one and the same time while they are warring they are Rom. 8. 37. cleared conquering and have more then earthly conquerors ever attained to How is that for R. F. cannot conceive there can be any warfare continued where there is more then a conquest already gotten To clear this let us take all the Apostles words before us ver 37. in all these things we are more then conquerors through him that loved us He doth not say after all these things but in them during the warfare we have the
No reason is given for his denial of sprinkling Infants with water which I called Sacramental water but he puts it upon a Quere Canst thou prove it Rep. What I affirm and practise I am not without grounds of proof from the Scripture as touching these three things 1. Sacramental water or Baptismal water or Baptism with water let it be called any of these it matters not which 2. Baptism of Children or Infants 3. A sprinkling Baptism or application of water by sprinkling or putting water upon the party baptized First What more clear then the appointment and use of Baptism with Water proved water-Baptism 1. Water was appointed by God to be used as the outward material sign of inward spiritual washing and cleansing by the Blood and Spirit of Christ John 1. 33. He that sent me to baptize with water c. 2. Where there was much water there were many baptized and the sooner dispatched as not onely at Jordan but in Aenon near to Salim John 3. 23. and at Jerusalem Acts 2. 41. Where there was no water the ordinance could not be administred and therefore the Eunuch till he came where water was called not for it Acts 8. 36. See here is water what doth hinder me to be baptized Philips answer If thou believest with all thy heart thou mayest hath no such intendment as * Martin Mason in his Reply to Jonathan Johnson p 8 one puts upon it to intimate water-Baptism to be a thing indifferent nor any such sense as he would dawb upon it with his untempered morter viz. As much as if he had said If thou believest outward water to be necessary to salvation thou mayest be baptized c. For the Eunuchs Reply out of which the scope and sense of Philips answer is to be gathered is not touching his faith of the necessity of water of which he stood convinced that the use of it in Baptism was an ordinance but respecting his faith of Jesus Christ to be the Son of God 3. When the inward Baptism of the Spirit and that by extraordinary gifts of Tongues was obtained it sufficed not but the ordinance of Sacramental-water must be obeyed Acts 10. 47. Can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized c. And ver 48. He commanded them to be baptized Whosoever is against Baptismal-water forbids or denies that which Peter by the Lords authority dares any man to forbid 4. When Paul baptized Lydia and her houshold the Jaylor and all his Crispus Gaius and the houshold of Stephanas what was it but with water He could do no more then John Baptist except in exercise of gift of tongues and miracles and laying on of hands upon those that were baptized before Acts 19. 6. with 4. 5. Baptism with water is by Christs institution to continue Mat. 28. 19 20. opened as long as Christs presence is with the Apostles or such as teach the same Gospel they taught and make Disciples as they did which is to the end of the world Matth. 28. 20. The words * in the Greek are the same with them in Mat. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 13. 40. * except a small variation of the Preposition and Case or addition of a Pronoun so shall it be in the end of this world which is not the end of the Age wherein the Apostles lived but of all Ages then and yet to come And that baptizing with water is meant in Matth. 28. is clear enough because Christ reserved the gift of the inward Baptism to himself but he commandeth his Apostles and Ministers to give forth the outward as subservient to his saving ends and purposes And although we prefer the inward before the outward part of one and the same Baptism yet we must not reject the outward part because the inward is to be preferred It will not excuse R. F. * Page 20. or any man to tell us Yet Baptism by one Spirit we own while water-Baptism is wholly dis-owned Nor do the Scriptures which he produceth for the Baptism by the Spirit exclude the Baptism with water 1 Cor. 12. 12 13. The Apostles scope in 1 Cor. 12. 12 13. cleared and vindicated the Chapter is to press on to a right use of spiritual gifts by every member for the good of the whole body as from other Arguments so from this ver 12. The body is one though the members are many How is it proved that the Church is one body because ver 13. by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body Hence the force of his Argument for right imparting of gifts If we all agree in the same Spirit and are taught by one Spirit and baptized into one body why should not our gifts be used for the mutual good of the members the whole and every part of the body Now what is in the inward part of Baptism among other things incorporation that is held forth by the outward part Water-Baptism declares and ratifies our being set ingraffed and joyned to the body mystical Ephes 4. 4 5. There is one Body one Lord one Faith one Baptism Is it Ephes 4. 4 5. vindicated enough for R. F. to mention this Here is nothing intended against Baptismal-water by the Apostle what ever be mens intentions now adays It 's a wresting of the Scriptures though the bare words be but mentioned to quote them for another end then they were written Both the inward and outward washing are appointed by one Lord to confirm one and the same Faith and they make but one and the same Baptism which consisteth of the sign and the thing signified He that would divide them or more then distinguish them crosseth the minde of the Lord Jesus Whatsoever R. F. addeth Such as are baptized into Christ have put on Christ and that we witness as doth the Scripture which is not contradiction Gal. 3. 27. The Scripture witnesseth the Gal. 3 27. vindicated outward part and the inward and the Apostle intendeth both in this place for pressing faith in Christ alone for Justification without dependence upon any of our acts in obedience to the Law he draweth an Argument from Baptism the outward part as well as the inward As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ for Justification alone as if he should say Ye did sacramentally put on Christ in Baptism you must not now put him off and be clothed with your own rags again in stead of his robes He that denieth either part of compleat Baptism as the Scripture expresseth it of Water and of the Spirit hath so much Contradiction to the Scripture in his denial Secondly As to the Baptism of Infants what ever R. F. Infant Baptism Christs institution thinketh with many others that it is an Invention and none of Christs Institution The grounds from Scripture for the Affirmative must be raised otherwise then he undertakes it ere I will clear him of his Christ and
Scripture-contradiction in this very particular To those two Arguments I produced from Acts 2. and 1 Cor. 7. mentioned in the beginning of this Section he saith little or nothing nothing at all to the latter and little to the former and that as falsly as weakly according to his wonted language But thou perverts the Scripture Acts 2. 38 39. saying Be baptized every one of you you and your children Here thou art a lyar it doth not command Children to be baptized with water neither did they ever so baptize them that thou canst prove by one plain Scripture Rep. 1. He attends not my reason which I must repeat for help to his memory or others understanding The Command there reacheth as far as the Promise the Promise extends it self to Children not to all but to their children To you and to your children is the Promise made and therefore the Command Be baptized every one of you is made to the Parent and concerning the Childe and Children also of such Parents as gladly receive the word of Promise for them and theirs as it is said they did ver 41. And although it is not there plainly exprest the Children and Infants were baptized yet the Promise is plain enough and the Precept is explained and enforced by the Promise which had been of far less force to the Jew and Proselyte also if their Children formerly circumcised upon their Parents taking hold of the Covenant Isa 56. 6. had been excluded and left un-baptized and why may not the yongest be included with the eldest among those three thousand souls according to Scripture-phrase elsewhere Gen. 46. 26 27. 2. Why should R. F. if he were not unreasonable tye me or himself to one plain Scripture That which one place giveth not forth so plainly another compared with it may explain that and its self also Let him consult Ephes 5. 26. opened Ephes 5. 26. There is plain mention of water and washing of water by whom by Christ He that sanctifies and cleanseth the soul Whom doth he sanctifie and cleanse or whose souls His Church his mystical body ver 23. How By water and the word both which are the outward means by which he applies his Blood and Spirit to all that he cleanseth The water distinguisht here from the grace of sanctifying and cleansing can be no other then Baptismal-water The word * Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this place distinguisht from Christ himself can be no other then the Scripture-command for the use of water and the Scripture-promise for the blessing of water to the ends he hath appointed it in Baptism The Scripture-promise we have found belongeth to Children and the Scripture-command for the use of water to all that have the Promise and to all that are of Christs mystical body Now some Children will be found to belong to his body the Church I hope R. F. will think if he doth not others will believe the Scripture is plain enough for that Luke 18. 15 16 17. In one Verse we read of Infants in another of little Children whom Christ owned as belonging to the Kingdom of God The Kingdom of God and the true Church that is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus 1 Thes 1. 1. differ not an hairs-breadth of some of that age or non-age we may call it of yong ones and little ones is Christs body made up in part yea he is so far from setting all Infants by and shutting them out that he professeth with vehemency ver 17. Verily whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little Childe shall in no wise enter therein Let R. F. be humblypassively capable of what a little Childe is capable and he may enter with Christs little ones into the knowledge of this mystery and benefit of Infant-baptism Thirdly I shall prove the sprinkling of Infants or application A sprinkling Baptism warrantable by Scrâ—pture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of water to them or others that way by plain and sound consequence from Scripture 1. Although the word Bapto signifieth to dip the word Baptizo signifieth to wash diverse ways The Jews had diverse Baptisms as the words are Heb. 9. 10. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated diverse washings Some by sprinkling or putting water upon persons or things to which Ezek. 36. 25. and Heb. 10. 22. alludeth Some civil or superstitious as Mark 7. 4. washing of vessels tables or beds which way was by casting water upon them as by dipping some things into the water so that the command for baptizing is a command for sprinkling as for dipping as the word is used 1 Cor. 10. 2. They were all baptized in the cloud and in the sea some might be more drencht or wet then others but they whether yong or old whether more or less washed or moistned with water were all baptized It is not the quantity but the quality and use of water that was then and is now significative in Baptism The general end and use of water is washing the effect whereof is cleansing and such is the use and force of the word as before hence I reason That action which fully representeth the main end and use of Baptismal-water is lawful and sufficient But sprinkling pouring or putting water upon the body doth represent this main end and use c. For the main general end and use of Water-baptism is to signifie spiritual washing and cleansing of the soul from sin Acts 22. 16. Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins and this is done significatively by a sprinkling-Baptism of yong or old as well as by a dipping 2. When John baptized Christ and Philip the Eunuch their going down to the water was one action and the baptizing another I stand not convinced by any plain or forcible Scripture-phrase or by any circumstance in Scripture-history that there was any other action or rite of baptizing when it came to that then sprinkling or casting water upon the person baptized 3. Sprinkling or putting water upon the baptized is the more ready and easie action and Christ hath not burthened his Church in the New Testament with painful Ceremonies Dipping and plunging is either of the whole body or of a part onely if but of a part it is hazardous and troublesom not onely to Infants but to persons of years Once upon a time I asked a neighbor of mine who was for Dipping how Paul dipped the Jaylor his answer was He took him plum up from the ground and put him into the water By the way I told him there had need be good store of strength in all Administrators of Baptism in this maner and little Paul might not be strong enough for the service if Silas was I asked again whether there was a pond or river in the yard betwixt the prison and the Jaylors proper lodgings and was answered there might be a brook running through the yard These are strange conjectures which men will assume and fancy to themselves
I may ask again what brook or pond was there in Judas's house where Paul was Acts 9. 11. who when weak and feeble was baptized ver 18. and was not strengthned in body till he had received meat ver 19. sure sprinkling or putting a little water upon Paul at that time and at all times upon feeble Infants as upon feeble Paul is a work of greater mercy which God prefers before sacrifice Who may not observe that dippers and the dipped are more put to their shifts to make out their way by Scripture then we are straitned to prove a sprinkling Baptism or a washing by sprinkling or such kinde of application of water to the party And therefore if water be appointed by Christ and Infants are not excluded the Covenant and Promise wherein their parents if but one do stand and if sprinkling or casting water upon the Church-member or confederate with God and his people be sufficient and suitable to the main end of Baptism I apprehend we depart not from the minde of Christ revealed in Scripture when we so Baptize them 4. As I forbear judging of Saints who differ in some inward notions and outward forms so I cannot but condemn this sect of men who are against all outward Baptism with water what way or to what persons soever it be applyed and vent many falshoods and absurdities in their dictates concerning the baptism of the Spirit onely I shall instance but in one or two of the busie Pen-men J. P. and J. N. * His shâ—â—ld of the Truâ—h page 11 12. James Parnell dictates thus They who would have one Baptism outward and another inward would have two Baptisms when the Scripture saith the Baptism is but one As for the Baptism of water which the Apostles used it was a command of Christ for its time Whereas the contrary hath been shewed from Scripture in this Section that the two parts outward and inward make but one Baptism by reason of the relation that the outvvard sign hath to the invvard thing signified vvhich relation by virtue of Christs ordaining it to be so is the foundation of the union and one-ness And as for his limiting the Baptism of vvater to the time past and novv out of date it is but a Tradition lately received to make void the commandement of Christ which will stand in force effect and virtue when the Tradition will vanish and come to nothing James Nayler a greater doctor J. Lilburn * Resur of J. Lilburn * Love to the Lost pag. 38. calls him a tall man in Christ dictates thus * It was not laid on the Apostles as of necessity but as they found it of service or dis-service This is rotten groundless stuff It was always of service since Christ did institute it and not to be denyed to the proper and capable subject If the Apostles did not always administer it themselves they appointed Evangelists Pastors or some that were commissionated to preach to do it according to Christs command Matth. 28. 18 19. which they were to teach others to observe and do And a necessity there was for Necessity of precept and of means in water Baptism them to obey their masters command and administer or cause to be administred as a necessity on the Believers part to use it for him and his as a means of faiths confirmation c. not but that God can and doth save without it where it cannot orderly be had But then will J. N. say * As above page 40. If any shall come in the power and Spirit of Johns Baptism or if any had a call from God thereto such we judge not nor gainsay But what call doth this man imagine observe what he saith afterwards * Page 42. God never called any to Baptize but first he called them out of the world and their habitations there to follow Christ as into the wilderness which were prophets and Apostles called immediately No call will please him but that which is immediate no minister but an Elijah or an Elisha a Peter or a Paul This man is yet a Seeker and not a perfect finder though he speaks much of present perfection attainable and gives them that deny it this jerking abusive character who preach up imperfection and sin for term of life whereas it is one thing to preach there will be sin in the Saints and need they shall have of the meditation of their Baptism to confirm their faith of the non-imputation of that which is inherent and another to preach it up I am more then afraid I do certainly discern it that the late preaching of present perfection in sanctification hath raised and preach't up the pride of many a Pharisaical spirit to such a height that we shall not expect their saving fall by many years labors unless Gods Almighty arm be revealed And to preach up that which is in deed the Baptism in Spirit on purpose to overthrow Christs institution of water is I dare say not from the dictate of Gods Spirit but of self and flesh in Ja. Nayler That which he saith in one page * Love to tâ—â— Lost pag. 4 is true The Apostles did not baptize Believers over again with water who had had it because they had it not before in their fashion But as false is that which he hath in the page before * Page 41. That Paul preached Baptism in spirit in its stead i. e. in stead of Baptism with water for it is a great injury to the Apostle to represent him as a justler out of any of Gods ordinances and as one like himself who saith prety well one while * Page 42. no form we deny into which Christ leads in Spirit yet presently as ill again and blows as cold as before he blew hot But all forms we deny that are used by men to keep people from following the Spirit For suppose it we may with grief enough that some men do abuse forms this way all men do not nor dare admit the thought but tremble to think any should be so formal and again what warrant hath he to deny any of Christs forms though he may with the best wisdom and zeal he hath help to batter down the Images that men have set up Christ hath withdrawn from men but he never sent for water-Baptism to heaven though it came from thence He never repealed the Covenant made with Believers and their seed The Promise holds to all Christs New Testament institutions to Baptismal-water applyed to all Christs little ones He that denyes it puts down Christ and his ordinance and sets up Idol-self in the room Let J. Nayler make a more privy search into his heart and ponder well of what I have animadverted briefly and of what I shall close with none of his stumblings at the divisions about forms should make him out of love with that which had a divine stamp and is not worn out but in his apprehension as in R. F.
the institution end and use during our corporal eating and drinking of them at that Supper of the Lord. The word which I used in the Concrete Spiritual he turns to the Abstract Spirit and thus clamors me * Therefore it is thy reason is so weak that saith The bread which you break although it be bread in the nature and substance yet it is Spirit in the institution c. What blasphemy is this to say that the Spirit is in the bread which is natural in the substance Here is a Papistical trick indeed Oh horrible delusion Rep. 1. I brought not 1 Cor. 10. 16. or any reason from thence to prove the bread to be material and outward though I could as above I have from the 11. Chap. but to shew it was not carnal in R. F. his sense set in opposition to the spiritual institution end and use For that which is appointed by Christ to be used for signification and assurance of many a souls interest in and communion of his natural body and blood broken and shed upon the Cross that is not meer carnal bread and drink But the bread and wine is after Christs institution to be so used as Paul admonisheth the Corinthians and not to be abused and profaned i. e. used in a common maner as if it were but ordinary bread and wine and had no special signification and end stampt upon it That natural body and blood of Christ which we remember in the Supper as broken and shed at his Passion was and is a true natural body then on earth now in heaven and yet it was and is spiritual food his flesh meat indeed his blood drink indeed there is no sweeter no better there 's none to that So the bread and wine is truly bread materially wine and yet withal in the Lords Supper it is Christs body and it is his blood How significatively a spiritual memorial of Christs death and a pledge of what Christ is to us that believe in him dying for us 2. This man R. F. coyneth phrases and then fathers them upon me The Spirit in the institution and the Spirit is in the bread and would make the world believe he were as ignorant of Popery as of true Protestant Doctrine The Doctrine I held forth according to Scripture was and is in professed opposition to all Papisticall tricks and devices touching the Lords Supper I said the bread as the wine was so and is so in its nature and substance but spiritual in the institution end and use And I adde neither Christs Institution nor the Ministers Blessing doth transubstantiate them or turn them into the natural body and blood of Christ as the Papists imagine after their consecration They do not say that I know the Spirit is in the bread nor did I ever so express my self in preaching at Edinburgh or elsewhere and what I wrote there * page 20. is to be seen and read of all men yet more then this of confused stuff would R. F. in his return to the Agreement of 42. Ministers * Contradiction of the Quakers so called p. 16. make the world believe he can produce under my hand and the hands of other Preachers in that City Had his mistake * See page 18. with the marginal not been onely in a letter of my name to put e for a it were a very venial offence but to refer as he doth to my whole name except that letter is a most impudent forgery But to return to the Pontificians this they hold Popish Transubstantiation a blinde dotage The body of Christ is corporally under the shew of bread and the blood of Christ is substantially under the colour of wine as if the accidents or qualities of roundness redness or whiteness could be without the subject and substance of those creatures and as if Christs natural body and blood for substance could be there and neither be seen felt nor tasted and as if Christ had laid down the qualities of a true natural body and were in moe places then one at once with many such blinde dotages this is to make a very carnal Supper of it indeed Hence it is that they maintaining in words onely and with fire and faggot not by any Scripture rightly understood nor sound Argument from thence the real corporal carnal presence of Christ we protest against them as Antichristian And so must we enter a protestation against R. F. and men of his way to be yet more mysteriously Babylonish For the grosser Papists speak broadly and make a nullity of the Lords Supper by their feigned Transubstantiation and carnal-corporal presence but these speak subtilly and nullifie it by transforming of the Institution and spreading the Lords Table with another cloth as it were and as will more appear anon while we hold up the Ordinance according to Gospel-primitive simplicity and do maintain upon sufficient Scripture-grounds both the outward and inward matter and form of the Lords Supper with the spiritualness of the Institution and the truly-spiritual presence of Christ with his own ordained signs who in relation to them and to his own promise and his peoples faith is there as at Baptism Matth. 28. 19 20. Lo I am with you c. by his Spirit to quicken confirm and seal up our communion with himself as crucified for us Hence The benefit of the Lords Supper it is that the Churches of Christ and every true believer active in his faith have found it and do still experience it to be a faith-strengthning conscience-refreshing soul-comforting love-increasing sin-mortifying salvation-assuring Ordinance although they have not always a like sense of his presence But to cast off this Ordinance and call it a carnal invention as R. F. hath done for want of expected assurance at the participation of it is a rash fruit of unbelief and proud impatience and to call us Deceivers * Page 20. for keeping to the Institution which remaineth firm in it self while it proves ineffectual to many an unworthy communicant is to hide himself in his self-deceivings Finally to cry out Oh horrible delusion is to cast a mist before others eyes that they may not see where the jugling and the jugler lie close together For what saith he further The Kingdom of God consists not in meat and drink but in righteousness peace and joy in the holy Ghost and in that Kingdom wheat-bread and red wine is not the souls food but the precious blood of Christ Rep. 1. Where the Apostle speaks of the choice things wherein the Kingdom of God consists viz. righteousness c. Rom. 14. 17. he is not treating of bread and wine at Rom 14. 17. vindicated the Lords Table but of meats and drinks which Jews and Gentiles made a difference about ver 2. One believeth he may eat all things another that is weak eateth herbs He was the stronger Christian who found his liberty to eat of all things i. e. all creatures appointed for
that in Chap. 17. or after his distinct consecrating words of blessing and thanksgiving and his giving and their taking of the bread and wine at the end of the whole action for John 18. 1. compared with Mat. 26. 30. the prayer after the Sermon ended and the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hymn sung by them all they go forth over the Brook Kedron into a Garden in Gethsemane near to the Mount of Olives It appeareth by what is said it was a distinct Supper from the rest attended with solemn Speeches Prayers and Praises in prose and in a Song If all the Quakers drink in James Naylers Doctrine they will then take up Prayer and Thanks at meals which many have laid down they will be frequent in singing Hymns even as oft as they eat and drink it must be done if they will believe what he saith the lord hath revealed unto him But some will be wiser I hope then some other and hear reason as it divinely lyeth in the Scripture The Scripture calleth the instituted bread and wine this bread and this cup and this cup of the Lord 1 Cor. 11. 26 27. And this bread it calls Christs body and this cup the cup of the new Testament and the wine Christs blood Will J. N. or any of his friends be so profane as to call every piece of bread he eateth and every draught of drink with such an Emphasis and such a title Will he make no meals of any thing but of bread and drink or will he have all his own and Believers drink to be of the fruit of the vine Thus the Scripture describeth the Lords Supper to consist for the outward matter of bread and wine as I have before proved for R. F. his conviction The Scripture neither from Christs mouth nor Pauls pen saith As oft as ye eat and drink it is the Lords Supper but as oft as ye do this eat of this bread drink of this cup ye do shew the Lords death till he come What boldness is it to make that temporary and of short continuance which the Apostle saith is to be held up till he cometh 1 Cor. 11. 26. And such a coming he speaks of there as in other of his Epistles but especially consult 1 Thess 5. 2. 2 Thess 2. 1 2. Secondly You will finde him suggesting to the lost bewildred soul * Love to the lost pag. 43. That the Church at Jerusalem did continue in the Apostles doctrine c. and breaking bread from house to house did eat their meat with gladness c. What then If their breaking bread and eating meat be confounded that in ver 42. with that in ver 46. here was confusion in the Churches greatest purity which J. N. denieth If bread and wine was distinctly used after the Lords institution and apart from their civil repasts and meals then he hath nothing makes for his transfigured Supper from this Scripture But ver 42. speaks of Church-ordinances by themselves Acts 2. 42. 46. cleared and ver 46. of Family-repast as distinct from the other and the latter words explain but the former their breaking bread domatim or at home is said to be eating meat which was not the Lords Supper J. Nayler reads it daily breaking bread from house to house but 't is not so read or to be read though 't is a truth to be supposed they did daily take their ordinary repasts more then once a day but they continuing daily with one accord in the Temple c. There is nothing of certain ground for daily use of the Lords Supper but Acts 20. 7. will shew us the primitive practise of assembling every first day of the week for that breaking of bread at the Lords Table and so Tremelius out of the Syriack hath it 1 Cor. 11. 20. When ye come together In die Domini nostri on our Lords day ye do not eat and drink as is meet And if it be read after the Greek as we read it When ye come together into one place c. it sheweth the eating and drinking of the Lords Supper was and should be by the Churches respectively as that at Corinth for one in some one place together and civil ordinary meals should be as they were at Jerusalem at first in their own houses 1 Cor. 11. 34. Thirdly saith J. N. * pag as above In their eating and drinking at all seasons they were to do it to the Lord and therein to have communion with his Body and his Blood and for that end were to keep themselves pure from all pollution It is a truth nor they nor we are to sin in any action but whether we eat or drink c. do all to the Lord and his glory we are not to feed without fear we are to keep from all excess do all in a mortified way think and speak of Christ at dinner and supper but this must not nullifie or make void the peculiar Ordinance of the Lords Supper but rather we must frequently observe it as a solemn help to purity and mortification influential into our whole conversation Communion with Christ and his Body and Blood is to be perpetually held up in all our actions natural civil and sacred by faith and the communion of his Spirit but the communion with him in the use of the memorative signs of his body and his blood viz. bread and wine solemnly set apart by his special appointment for that end is yet an advancing work distinct by it self from other actions of ordinary communion Fourthly J. Nayler in the place aforesaid presumeth when the Christians were to eat with Gentiles-unbelieving they were to partake of the Table of the Lord as is plain 1 Cor. 10. which is neither plain nor true understood of the same time place and company as this man holds it forth for their eating with the Infidels was at best when there was no meat offered to idols or no knowledge of it no scruple made about it but a civil correspondence and there was more then Bread and Wine the onely outward materials at the Lords Table even whatsoever was sold in the shambles ver 25. Besides the place and company where and with whom they did eat and drink at the Lords Table was in some one Meeting-house or other as the house of Gaius Rom. 16. 23. for one where the whole Church and onely the Church did participate It is to no purpose what he saith afterwards * Page 44. Whether they eat or drank they were to do it to the Lord as at his Table for every like is not the same and although different actions meet in the same general ultimate end yet there are special subordinate ends to each of them Fifthly he addes There is no other thing can keep from feeding in the lust and eating to the lust but to eat in remembrance of Christs death til he come c. And I subjoyn It is not our eating every day in fear
Jerusalem the promise of the Father of which he had told them before his death which they were to shew so often as they broke bread till he came and after he was come to the Apostles they continued it for their sakes which were weak in the faith to whom he was not yet appeared Where by the coming of Christ he would have his lost Souls understand his coming in the Spirit onely and not minde what Paul saith of the after-continuance of the Lords Supper till his visible glorious appearance onely if he hath appeared in the Spirit it is enough the Lord is come they are now perfect and may cast off Gods instituted Forms of Worship in the former figure onely for others sake they may keep them up but then poor souls what will follow You that are not yet arrived at their perfection must hold fellowship with them that may forget Christs death for they eat and drink no longer in remembrance of him and put dooms-day out of their thoughts and then the sensuality charged by James Nayler upon others seizeth upon themselves But against this poyson let me give you a few Antidotes 1. No Believer is without the Spirit and the Lords coming Antidotes in Spirit as it came at first to the Apostles before Christs death and to the Corinthians by Pauls ministery at their first conversion 1 Cor. 2. 4. and to the Thessalonians 1 Thess 1. 5. 2. There are none that have the greatest measures of the Spirit in a sanctified way but have need of more Phil. 3. 12. 3. The Apostles continued the Lords Supper after the pourings out of the Spirit Acts 2. 1. for their own use and benefit for 't is said Acts 2. 42. The converts continued in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and breaking of bread and prayers not that the Apostles continued it for their sakes onely who were weak in the faith The strongest Believer walks but by faith here and not by sight 2 Cor. 5. 7. and will have need of such wheat-bread and red-wine as a bait in his walk and journey And although the Apostles had gifts extraordinary Acts 2. 1 c. conferred upon them their Sanctification was not then perfected Peter one most forward slipt and stumbled now and then Acts 10. 14 15. Gal. 2. 12 13 14. Barnabas a good man and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith Acts 11. 24. yet fell into sharp contention with Paul stumbled on the blinde side in siding with Mark his sisters son Col. 4. 10. Acts 15. 37 c. and halted with Peter Gal. 2. to instance in no more 3. The comings and manifestations of the Lord in his Spirit may be lost in a great degree by the Saints as the experiences of David Psal 51. 11 12. Heman Psal 88. 11. 15. and others are upon Record in Scripture Famous is that of Mr. Robert Glover Martyr who two or three days before his death was lumpish and desolate of all spiritual Consolation till going to the Stake the Lord restored his Joys and then he cryed out to his friend Mr. Bernher Austine he is come he is come Christ is free to come or go and withdraw as he pleaseth both as to the in-comes of joy and of power also and look to it O ye lost souls who trust to these deceivers that trust to their present manifestations were they never so true their hearts deceive them and their doctrines deceive you if onely you keep to ordinances and that of the Lords Supper till you have got a little comfort and then bid farewell to all Great is the pride and unthankfulness of such who after they have been enlightned and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the holy Ghost and have tasted of the good word of God the sweetness of the promises and the powers of of the world to come do fall off from the means and ordinances a great forerunner it is to the unpardonable sin to wilful malitious Apostasie which if it be totall will be final and irrecoverable Heb. 6. 4 5 6. c. 14. Head of their Scripture-contradiction Concerning Prayer Section 41. I Had noted their express contradiction we are against publique Prayer to what we have 1 Cor. 14. 14. and 1 Tim. 2. 8. for prayer in the publique meetings of the Church and in every place R. F. * Page 21. Publique prayer not forbidden by Christ tells me I have wronged the words by turning them into a wrong sense Rep. What is their sense He saith they are against a publique prayer which is in the state of the Pharisee Rep. What is a prayer in the state of the Pharisee He tells us that which Christ forbids Matth 6. 5. Matth. 6 5. vindicated Rep. 1. What have we there let the words be read And when thou prayest thou shalt not be as the hypocrites for they love to pray standing in the Synagogues and in the corners of the streets that they may be seen of men Here is no prohibition of publique prayers in publique places but of affectation of private prayers in publique places to be seen and observed of men It is indeed Pharisaical to fall to private devotion when a publique work is in hand in the same place or when there is none yet there is company to observe it is without and against rule to pray by a mans self when the company cannot be edified by that which a man speaks unto God and not in the hearing of the persons present and to their understanding but R. F. hath not this sense but judgeth rather we are all in the state of the Pharisee who are the mouth to the rest in our publique meeting places 2. We have found their practical opposition and refusal of joyning with our publique prayer which is the best interpreter of their sense and speaks more what is in their hearts then R. F. his gloss upon it Once at Edinburgh one of theirs went out at the end of my Sermon after he had spoken what he had to say when I told him I would go to prayer for the discovery where the error laid on his part or ours Another time since at Cogges-hall in Essex on a day of prayer and fasting when I was about to pray before Sermon one J. Parnell first being called upon by the magistrate to put off his Hat ask't why he bade not him in the Pulpit put off his Cap and then turned his back upon the ordinance although he was offered liberty to speak further if he would stay quietly till our work was ended if this be their maner of owning publique prayer it is neither after the way of truth love or peace nor after the order of the Spirit of God who teacheth better maners and behaviour before God and men R. F. must not think to put us off with but the praying with the Spirit we own as if they that pray in publique did not pray with the Spirit or that it
elsewhere to take hire for preaching another thing to preach for hire By the Scripture that Question also * page 22. Qu. 4. may be judged proud and malitious as of the Devil What rule have you in Scripture to take a Text c. If R. F. justifies this as 't is likely he will we must bid him go and learn and what that meaneth Luke 4. 17. our humble Saviour took up the Bible and pitcht upon a Text let us learn at last of him to be lowly in heart Matth. 11. 29. If it be said it followeth in the Question and to speak from it what you have studied with your Vses Points Tryals Motives and Applications We must send them again to 2 Tim. 3 16 17. The Scripture is given so to be improved whether men will hear or forbear Let R. F. consider if the scope of that * Qu. 24. Question Whether that Light which comes from Christ be natural yea or nay be not to make all Light-given alike for kinde as appeareth by Quere 29. Whether the Light of the world or of every man be not a saving Light in the least measure yea or nay and how can that be said to be natural These Questions come from the Devils envy against the Saints peculiar light who see all things after another maner then natural men can do The Gentiles did things by nature or power of natural conscience and the light of it which yet they perisht in their light and their works were neither of them saving Rom. 2. 12 and 14. This light of nature comes from Christ as God not as Mediator he that is the true Light enlightneth every man but not with saving Light I must send back R. F. to Sect. 10. and the superadded Conclusions in the end thereof If any man be ignorant let him be ignorant 1 Cor. 14. 38. But yet if we examine those Questions * Qu. 44 and 45. Where had you this Doctrine to tell people they could never be wholly cleansed or be set free from sin so long as they are upon the earth And whether this be not in opposition to the Doctrine of Christ who saith Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect What shall we finde here but ignorance and confusion for want of will or skill to distinguish between Justification and Sanctification which according to the Scripture I have desired R. F. and others to perpend and weigh in Sect. 23. And I must send all Novices still to that Scripture Eccles 7. 20. There is not a just man upon earth that doth good and sinneth not which hath no opposition to the Doctrine of Christ Mat. 5. 48. where the Lord as all along the Chapter Mat. 5 48. vindicated urgeth sincerity and integrity of obedience upon his Disciples in opposition to the Pharisees counterfeit and partial expositions of the ten Commandments with further growth and endeavour after more conformity to their heavenly pattern still keeping perfection in all degrees as the white in their eye unto which the Lord will bring his children at their dissolution and time of their souls immediate entrance into heaven and not before as hath been demonstrated in Sect. 29. As to that Question * Qu 48. What is your own righteousness and what is the righteousness of Christ and how do you distinguish betwixt the one and the other He that did propound it tells us at the foot of Page 25. It was not as if he knew them not even all that he enquired of but for the satisfaction of the simple and for the clearing of the truth and manifesting our deceit to the world But that which is a thorough good Question indeed not coming from Satan and a corrupt heart must arise from a sound and good principle and be propounded to as good an end Now this Quere 1. proceeds not from a good principle because their judgements are vitiated and in their Doctrine they confound as do the Papists our inherent righteousness-sanctifying with Christs righteousness which justifieth Christs righteousness which justifieth a believing sinner is not the essential righteousness of his God-head but that obedience of his Active and Passive which in the humane nature that he assumed and united to his divine person he wrought out in the room and stead of others and which he presenting to Gods Justice as a price and ransom for them God accepteth and reckoneth to every one that believeth for his perfect Justification That righteousness which is in Scripture called our own as inherent in us is either what is done by the power of natural conscience without the written word or what is done according to the bare letter of the written command or from a common gift of the Spirit or in a Gospel-way from a living principle of grace habits and acts of holiness by the holy Spirit and faith given stirred up actuated and improved this also with all the former is a righteousness of ours that men would establish in the room of Christs imputed righteousness for their justification But though it be wrought by the strength of Christ in us and be found in us that are sanctified yet as to justification of his person Paul would not be found in it for a world but saith he Phil. 3. 8 9. I do count all things but loss even what he had done and suffered since conversion and what he was now a doing and dung that I may win Christ and be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law or done in my person from the best principles in obedience to the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith this is every true Believers vote and resolution If R. F. be otherwise minded and belong to God God shall reveal even this unto him 2. The above mentioned Quere by the bare propounding doth not attain the ends pretended our answer may satisfie some simple ones some wise not all This Quere and other of the like stamp doth but obscure the truth and help to stagger and seduce Gods servants as for our deceit in this great business of a sinners justification if J. Parnell should arise from the dead or R. F. should tell us he hath been in the third Heaven nor one nor other shall be able to manifest that which is not To conclude whence came that * Quer. 3â— question quarrelling more with God then with us How doth it stand with the impartial God to give to one man a measure of grace and not to another and yet require obedience from all If R. F. thinketh there is ground for such a Question he must be sent to Rom. 9. 18. 20. for his Answer God hath mercy on whom he will have mercy c. and O man who art thou that replyest against God 21. Head of their Scripture-contradiction Concerning civil Honor. Section 49. THeir discourse papers and practise is notorious enough in opposition
men called Quakers are dealt with the more abusive they are If any do make ingenuous confession as the 42 Ministers Pastors and Preachers of their failings the more readily they will hang them up in a legal way without any Gospel-mercy And if we grant they speak a truth sometimes they would make the world believe they speak all truth at all times when as hitherto so many lies as R. F. for his share hath charged upon me and hath proved none nor will be able God still keeping me and guiding my Tongue and Pen to make good a proof so many slanders will by the Lord be set upon his score and account The Lord himself rebuke him in time savingly and to purpose even to the manifestation of the purpose of his love to do him good for ever 3. Head of Self-contradiction Concerning the light within them Section 11. I Noted how from John 1. 4. and 9. they dreaming of a Christ and Saviour in all deny the sense to respect the natural light of every man and yet speak of their own living in a natural condition for several years And R. F. both blindly and boldly answereth If we do we have warrant for it for it is the light supernatural John 8. 12. John 8. 12. cleared Rep. What if Christ speaks of supernatural light given to believers and his followers John 8. 12. doth it follow that he speaks of such a light John 1. 4. 9. a blind and bold consequence it is neither modest nor true The Evangelist indeed speaks of him chap. 1. 4. 9. as the Author of light which is given to every man and He of himself chap. 8. 1â— as the fountain of light which is given to some men but although the giver of light be the same the light given and way of giving is different in its proper form and kinde First the light given to all men John 1. 4. and 9. is a dim Difference of every mans light and the believers light light and as the light of the Moon cold and insufficient to salvation unable to make discovery of the true Saviour the light given to some men is the light of life a quickning light as the light of the Sun a saving light Secondly for the way of giving Christ as God as hath been shewed in the first part of this Reply gives reason and common judgement about some things to all men but as Mediator he gives onely to some men that saving supernatural light or light of supernatural things in a saving way which effectually brings them into a gracious life and unto a glorious life R. F. goes on * Page 26. If one of them did say he lived in a natural condition before his conversion is that such a strange thing and then he instanceth in Paul Gal. 1. and others with him 2 Cor. 4. 6. who had given them the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus c. which is a mystery Col. 1. 27. But tels me I am minded to cavil on purpose against the work of God c. Rep. 1. All this doth not salve the contradiction viz. of every mans having a supernatural light from his coming into the world a light of life which is saving and yet yield his as others living in a natural state at that time when he hath such a light 2. It is not strange to me that unconverted men should live as they are natural and carnal but it was and is strange that men will grant a natural life and condition lived in for several years and yet imagine a saving supernatural light in every such man as if every man brought a Saviour with him into the world at his first birth That every man hath a Pope in his belly I have heard and believe that he hath roots and seeds of all Antichristian doctrine of all heresie and sin in him from and by his first birth of men as men sinning in Adam this is not strange But that every mans light should be accounted supernatural and saving light and nature accounted grace though it be not strange to Pelagians yet it is strange to me that professors of the Gospel for many years should now interfere and halt and limp as they do and be bewitched with this notion If the Apostle Paul and others as R. F. granteth were natural before they were spiritual what a contradiction is it to their doctrine of every mans light as they state it and account it in a degree spiritual while the best Saint upon earth is no more but spiritual in some degrees of light and holiness 3. This is neither my cavilling against Gods work nor envy at the breakings forth of light as he would make men believe but a naked representation of his and others fallacies R. F. thinks he had in the words before laid in a sure proof of my cavilling and envy for thus he wraps up his argument * Page 26. He commanded the light to shine out of darkness c. and if it had not been there in a mystery Col. 1. 27 how could it in them have been so after manifested in them but that thou art mindeful to cavil on purpose c. Rep. 1. Here is a piece of the mystery of Iniquity as subtle as Christ for salvation not in every man any the Antichrist of Rome hath in his budget viz. The light of Christ for salvation which the Apostle speaks of 2 Cor. 4. 6. and Gal. 1. 16. Gods son revealed in him and Col. 1. 27. Christ in you was there and in them twice repeated by R. F. for emphasis sake that is it was in the hearts of Paul and the Gentiles as of every natural man before their conversion for as my Antagonist reasoneth If it had not been there c. how could it in them have been so after manifested but if he will have patience to hear I will tell him A thing may be manifest at the very coming in to a place that was not there before A Sun-beam makes it self manifest at its first breaking into a dark room where it never shone before Christ for salvation was not in the heart of Paul till God revealed him to him and in him Christ by his Spirit of grace was not in the Gentiles before their conversion Ephes 2. 12. They were all at that time without Christ and without hope Christ therefore was not in them while they were in a natural state as he was when they were sanctified viz. the hope of their glory Were it as this man imagineth Mysterious Absurdities The grace of the Gospel is but a manifestation of natures light A natural state is but grace under an eclipse The light in every man is their little Savior and at their conversion it becomes their great Savior for now the Sun is come out of the eclipse But 2. To assert Christ-mediator to be in natural men is contrary to the Apostles sense and to these mens plain words
reason light and understanding though lighted up as a candle within me by Christ the true God working with the Father in all acts of Creation and Providence hitherto is truly called as it is natural light and seeing every man John 5. 17. hath some of it the most of whom have no saving light it is truly called as it is common and universal light Will R. F. allow Ed. Burroughs to call some light natural and not me so to phrase it or will he allow J. Nayler to distinguish between common light and saving and may not I and others with me have the same liberty First let Ed. Burroughs be heard * Warning to under barrow pag. 37. I write not as from man whose light Section 20 is onely natural and carnal and doth onely make manifest carnal transgressions c. And again By the natural light through the earthly law is no natural man able to judge of that which is spoken or declared from that which is eternal And again I deny to have this cause put into the judgement of carnal Lawyers who judge by the natural light c. Let us hear J. Nayler speak his minde * Discovery of the man of sin pag. 29. In your reply meaning the Ministers at Newcastle you deceitfully put in that word saving light which is not spoken by me for though Christ be the light of the world that enlightens all yet none are saved by him but who believe c. There is a light then which is in natural men unbelievers and all the Heathen which is but natural and a light which is not saving and therefore but common by their own confession what unreasonableness is it in them to except against the term of distinction what contradiction to their own reason 2. The preeminence of Scripture-light is this that it is our standing rule for faith and maners so are not immediate Revelations or Teachings of which see 1. Part Sect. 1. Here is the Letter or Scripture-fulness that I assert There is sufficient light in it to guide men to salvation seeing it is the Spirits light and given by the Spirit for a rule yea the Spirit gives out himself thereby for our clear understanding and satisfaction in the things of God insomuch as that very witness which a believer hath in himself the Scripture bears testimony of The Spirit tells us in the Scripture what he worketh in our hearts and he stamps upon our hearts what he had before caused to be stampt into Scripture or upon the Bible R. F. objecteth Thou wouldst have the Spirit to be bought and sold if it were in the Letter Rep. How the Spirit is in the Letter that is in the Scripture I have opened in its due place 2. Part Sect. 8. but that it followeth it may therefore be bought and sold is a weak and poor exception R. F. his minde goes along with his Pamphlet and his spirit is in his book yet it is not his person but the ink and paper that is bought and sold so the ink and paper of the Scriptures as other creatures of God are bought and sold not so the Spirit though he be more in them then R. F. is in his book for this poor man cannot change my minde nor many thousands more if they read his Pamphlet with me into his erroneous judgement when as the Spirit in the Scripture changeth my minde and all that are made to own the light and authority of it into the same truth that is there delivered Again he taunteth Thou wouldst have a Letter-Savior if the Letter could give the Spirit and eternal life Rep. 1. I never said the Letter could or did give the Spirit but the Spirit is given by it or as I even now exprest it the Spirit gives out himself by it and he gives out Christ or the knowledge of Christ and eternal life by it also who shall hinder him if he will begin and further our salvation by it 2. It is R. F. his disdainful expression not mine a Letter-Savior Christ a Savior according to Scripture but this I say from the Lord He that slights the Savior which the Scripture witnesseth and maketh known is not like to finde any Spirit-Savior of him or a Savior in vigor life and Spirit to his soul and if he be not such a Savior he is not at all a Savior to him Did ever any of the Apostles or such as had indeed immediate teachings from the Spirit vilifie and reproach Christ or the Scripture with such inkhorn terms Yet again With a Letter-fulness thou wouldst have no witness of God without the Letter Rep. 1. That follows not for his providential works are witnesses of him Acts 14. 17. to the very Heathens and much more to Christians But 2. He shall be no Christian to me or in my account who brings any testimony as from God without the Scriptureattestation But saith R. F. If the Scripture be lost the fulness and the witness would be lost and his people be without supply and strength according to thy account Rep. 1. Should they be lost that one way whereby God gives out his fulness and by which he witnesseth and worketh for his peoples supply and strength would be lost yet God loseth none of his fulness in himself and Christ hath other witnesses of him John 5. His Father his Works John Baptist But 2. Seeing there are Scriptures as they cannot be broken John 10. 35. they cannot be lost God hath and will ever preserve them for his peoples supply and strength 3. What vain jangling is here from R. F. his pen tending to no edification at all of the Reader but to the alienation of peoples mindes from the Scriptures and from those that teach according to them to seduce and draw poor souls after their pretended immediate teachings while yet they will be quoting of Scripture as if it were written and pen'd to destroy it self For thus R. F. gathers up the Rere of his forces * Page 28. He to wit Christ is before all things and by him all things consist and he is the Head of the body the Chruch who is the beginning and first-born from the dead that in all things he might have the preeminence for in him the fulness dwells Rep. 1. Are not these words written by the Spirits secretary Col. 1. 17 18 19. And is not R. F. beholden to the Scripture for that literal knowledge 2. If ever he feels the power of these as other Scriptures The Scripture magnifies Christ above it self God will teach him to honor the Scripture so much the more as it magnifies Christ above it self and to speak more wisely of it then to conclude as he doth In him the fulness dwells then not in the Letter yet the Letter declares of it Rep. 1. If the Letter declares of Christs fulness then we shall need to know no more of Christ then what for substance is in the Scripture there
Baptism With water proved 176. 183 Of Infants vindicated 178 Sprinkling lawful 180 One Baptism consisting of two parts 178 182 Bible To be read and preached upon 20 See Scriptures C. Call To the Ministery how lawful 211 Inward to be tried by the outward fruits 214 The Churches call spiritual 215 Some may counterfeit an Immediate call 211 Some mediate calls good 213 214 Some bad ibid. Christ Exalted by the Scriptures and the Scriptures by Christ 43 44 Christ above his gifts 59 His Godhead asserted and cleared 54 How he leads out of the fall 86 How he was made sin or a sinner 132 As Mediator not in natural men 262 276 When and how in the soul 264 His condemning sin in the flesh beyond conscience-condemnation 266 A Savior according to Scripture 283 Commandment How the general includes particular persons 106 What is a command in the Spirit 109 Saints experiences about a command 110 What is a Gospel-command 111 Communion Of Saints on earth with Saints in heaven 146 Conviction By the Spirit beyond that of a natural conscience 266 Conscience If but natural and not renewed gives no saving testimony 269 Covenant Of works and of grace what 90 Of works in Adam 97 Differences of the Covenant of works and of grace 90 Covenant of grace one for the substance 91 Two for maner of administration 93 Old and new what 8 The reason of the change 94 E. Elders Their Ordination by man though not of man 207 F. Forms Of Religion 291 Of Speech 292 Fruits Of the Spirit 293 Of the flesh ibid. G. God How God is Light 68 His Essence not mixed with created Beings 236 Gospel Gospel-Light above natural reach 75 Grace Given by means 173 H. Hearing Of the word 173 Holy Ghost A person one of the Three in the Godhead See Spirit 49 c. 207 Honor Civil due to Superiors and to all men 231 ibid. Gestures of honor some bad and idolatrous 233 Some civil and but good maners ibid. The denial hereof what it argues 292 I. Imputation Gods imputation of righteousness his covering of our sin 130 A constant act of Gods free favor 131 The doctrine of it no pleading for sin 123 c. Justification The material cause not the new-birth 119 Not sanctification 132 Its difference from sanctification 126 God justifieth sinful persons believing 120 121 How justified by faith ibid. Defilements of sin remain in a pardoned soul 125 Peter in his falls not out of a state of justification 128 Perfect at first believing 135 L. Law How set up in stead of Gospel 12 Levitical Law way Typical Gospel 89 Law-Levitical no Covenant of works 95 Law-moral positions concerning it 97 How subservient to the Covenant of grace 98 How inservient to the Covenant of works ibid. Gods Law above the conscience 307 Letter What in a large or in a strict sense 4 5 The Spirits Letter is Gods written word 9 How denied 244 Light Of the Godhead in every man not redemption-light 52 Strange notions of the Light in every man 53 How light without Scripture is no light 64 The Light-giver not to be confounded with the light-given 59 84 Light in every man no Teacher of saving truths 60 Not Gospel-light 75 Not the light of Saints as such 61 261 Much less equal with Christs person 59 Not supernatural 61 Not above but beneath the Scripture-light 66 Not a part of the New-creature 77 Not the Corner-stone 80 Nor the first principle of Christian Religion 82 Leads not out of the fall 83 Obeyed gives no saving excuse or testimony in the conscience 269 Creature and Scripture-light compared 76 Not to be confounded 275 Mysterious absurdities 263 How the least degree of light is perfect 274 How counterfeit ibid. True conclusions about light 69 Lords Supper The visible outward part no carnal invention 185 Bread and wine the outward matter 186 The Institution spiritual 188 The benefit great 190 A strange trans-mutation by 192 James Nayler His reasons broken 193 Antidotes against the dissolution of the Lords Supper 200 M. Magistrates Their forbearance 308 Means of grace attended with a promise of blessing 174 N. Nakedness No Commission for going naked in these times 291 O. Oaths see Swearing Ordinances How owned or disowned 302 P. Perfection Of holiness but comparative 162 164 Not absolute in all degrees till death 143 144 How denied how not 141 158 161 This life a time onely of pressing after it 290 Person What it is 48 What a person in the Godhead is ibid. How distinguished 49 Prayer Publique not forbidden 201 Gods Spirit is there 204 Preaching By Doctrine Reason and Vse c. justified 72 293 How free and consistent with taking Wages 209 Printing When invented 21 The benefit of printed Bibles ibid. Promise Of grace and leading out of the fall none annexed to the good use of natural light 87 Yet the light of a promise helps to lead out of the fall 86 Prophets Some immediately inspired some mediately taught 217 They studied the Scriptures 218 Some distinguisht from men in office 217 Psalms Not sung without some kinde of meeter 205 Q. Quaking From visible manifestations of Gods majesty how and by whom imitable 287 See Trembling Questions Their fit place 223 Which are of the devil 224 R. Reconciliation Of the person perfect before the heart is perfectly sanctified and how 134 135 Regeneration By the Scripture-promise 132 257 Remorse What. 171 Repentance How decryed 171 Righteousness What our own 145 329 What the Quaking Papists mean by Christs righteousness 278 S. Sabbath A mercy as a duty 303 Saints Their light beneath Scripture-light for the degree 271 Their highest degree of light and grace not here attained 272 Experimentally imperfect 148 Scriptures The word of truth 1 To all 2 The word of God and truly so called 3 40 In what sence 25 The witness of God 4 The Letter of God and the Scripture of God all one Ib. A standing Rule 7 A more standing Rule then visions and revelations 13 15 37 38. Not mans word or other mens words 18 The Touch-stone of Doctrine 23 253 And Judge of controversies 258 Not carnal 24 The Spirits sword 26 Powerful 153 The ground of the Saints acting 26 31 And how 27 Interpretation by Scripture 37 A Voice a Light a Rule a Guide 43 44 Scripture-light above the light of nature 66 74 76 Its further preeminence 271 281 Scripture-light Salvation-light 73 Its fulness 284 It magnifies Christ above it self ibid A more excellent Teacher then the creatures 70 To be studied 218 220 Who deny them 244 Gods mouth is in the Letter 247 252 Sin Visible in and to the Saint 112 Groaned under all the life time by true Saints ibid in what respect 113 Sin and purity dwell in one soul not as one 118 Sin confessed is not pleaded for 125 It dwelleth and acteth in the Saints 138 It continueth in them they continue not in it 151 No heart perfectly pure form it 158 159 160