to pass into the Swine Answ 2. Ye cannot away to hear of the Saints arrival to the measure of Christs stature Why Because ye your selves are so short thereof Also well know ye in your selves That as many as are come hither or fair in the way thereto be now tall enough to over-look all your deceits and failings Answ 3. I demand Whether All the Saints shall come to this neasure all at one time that is as you say at the end of the world If ye say Yea then it seems after your sense the Saints shall neither till then come to the unity of the Faith or the knowledge of the Son of God Forasmuch as both these are coupled together with the other which were very absurd to affirm taking the end of the world in that sense you take it and openly contradictory to many other places of Scriptures Whosoever is truly in the Faith is one with all others who are likewise in the same Faith The Beleevers of old time were all of one heart and of one soul Acts 4.32 were not these come to the Unity of the Faith also in the way of attaining to the measure of Christs stature c. The one Faith being in many makes them all of one heart mind and consent We are one bread fellow-members of the same body See also 1 John 1.7 Again how can a man be a true Believer that is not in some measure come to the knowledge of the Son of God See Iohn 17.3 1 Cor. 2.2 Phil 3.10 2 Thes 1.8 1 John 2.3 2.13 c. Now that all these things namely Unity of the Faith Knowledge of the Son of God and Coming to be a Perfect man are referred to one and the same time i e. the time of this life with coming to the measure of the stature of Christs fulness is very plain in that they are all alike joyned together in one form and manner of speech under the word until See more of this in Section 49 6. section 57 T L. Whether Magistrates are not truly styled Ministers of God though ordained by men Answ Magistrates indeed are Gods very Ministers but in Civil not in a Spiritual accompt And yet if the Magistrate so well as ye now account him should once abandon your Function to voluntary Contribution you would turne your Tale I beleeve section 58 T L. Whether those that say none other things than those which Moses and the Prophets did say should come Acts 26.22 and that determine to know nothing yea to Preach nothing but Jesus Christ and him Crucified and that according to the Scriptures may not be rightly styled to speak as the Oracles of God Answ They only are to be said to speak as the Oracles of God who speak by inspiration or revelation of the holy Ghost or else in the Light speak those things which themselves have handled and tasted both seasonably and aptly for the edification or benefit of the hearers But they that are in the flesh cannot please God Rom. 8 8. whatever they say or determine to know or preach And though ye may use the words of Scripture yet cannot ye thus be covered the Tempter so did and that cunningly too and yet got he thereby no thank at all at Christs hands No more do you neither by Preaching long Sermons compiled of words stoln in like manner out of the Scriptures and other Books T.L. That these are very vertues c. And yet we affirm That through Grace some yea many of us have attained to this That even the piercing eye of malice it self cannot see so far as justly to charge us Answ The eye of wisdome then sees farthet than the eye of malice for this sees you full of iniquities Now the eye of malice is of your side and therefore not so apt to charge you how far soever it may see into your guiltiness yea even this piercing eye hath a mote in it self and therefore cannot see a beam in yours T.L. That our Gifts and Conversations are not at least in a competent measure suitable to that high Calling whereunto we are called However not unto us not unto us you mean not here of Tythes and Augmentations c. but unto our God's name be the praise Answ Our Gifts If ye were indeed wise yet your Gifts would blind your eyes Your Conversations they are like a menstruous garment whereof is no part remaining clean but is wholly defiled Your Calling is from the Serpent and your Gifts and Conversations are suitable to it But why is your Calling an high Calling Because it sets you in the Pulpit on high It 's certain were it not for Tythes and rich Livings the most of your number would turn the deaf ear to this High Calling and say they never heard sound thereof But how bountiful ye are to God! To his Name be the praise A few empty words without any true ground Go offer unto God the firstlings of your flock and the fat thereof until ye so do the Lord will have no more respect to your Sacrifice than he had unto his who for envy slew his Brother a vice most truly yours section 60 T.L. Whether when the Obedience and satisfaction of Christ our Surety unto the Law and Justice of God is by God the Father freely imputed to us the righteousness of the Law may not in the Apostles sense Rom 8.4 be truly said to be fulfilled in us or by us 2 Cor. 5 19,21 Answ Here may the Reader take a taste whereby to judge what kind of Interpreters ye are of the Scriptures the which where they fit not your purpose or fansie ye stick not to wrest contract extend at the beck of each frivolous Opinion just as if they were a Nose of VVax But Paul hath sufficiently declared what he means when he saith That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us not out of us in that he adds immediately after Who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit And they that so walk do verily fulfil the righteousness of the Law By these words therefore he expresseth the mean or way wherein or whereby such righteousness is fulfilled section 61 T.L. VVhether those that are said 1 Cor. 14. to speak by immediate revelation were not extraordinary Officers and such as continued only for a time in the Church of God and its first planting and are now ceased Answ VVhile the Churches did abide in the Truth and wayes of God so long was God also with them and they did feel the movings of his Spirit and spake accordingly as of it they were moved But when they began to forsake their first love and to joyn with the whore and false Prophets and to worship the Beast then did God also justly with-draw himself from them then did their Sun begin to set and the shadows of Night ensued Now heard they not the VVord of the Lord nor the workings of his Spirit did they perceive but became
sinning and so never sin But if thou say its impossible so to resist and that he must needs give way to temptations and so commit sin Then is this not to be counted a sin which thus is not willingly committed but as an enforced passion and is of the same accompt with a Rape which a woman may suffer without any guilt of sin section 52 T.L. Whether though none of our Hearers in this life either are or can be free from the reliques and remainders of sin Ro. 7.23,24 yet whether many of them are not perfectly freed from the condemnation of sin Rom 8 1 33,34 yea so far from the dominion and power of sin Rom 6 14 that though sin be in them yet they are not in sin but that we may comfortably believe that testimony of them which the Scripture gives of Iob Iob 1 1. That they feare God and eschew evil And that notwithstanding their human frailties and infirmities yet neverthelesse their hearts as the heart of Asa was are perfect all their dayes 2. Chron. 15.17 so perfect as to be sincere and upright Answ Concerning the righteousnesse and perfection of your Hearers I Answer That by their fruits they are known And if they be not free from sin then not dead to sin and so under the Law and not under grace Rom. 7.6 Rom. 6 18 22 In Rom. 3 23,24 Paul declareth his warring estate at which time he was carnal sold under sin verse 14 brought into the captivity to the law of sin verse 23 At which time he also cryeth out Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death But the same Paul in other places doth witness a far different estate from this for thus he saith When we were in the flesh verse 5 Ye are not in the flesh Rom. 8.9 For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death Rom. 8 2 How can we that are dead to sin live any longer therein Rom. And if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin Rom. 8.10 See also Rom. 7.6 From these and many other places that might have been alleaged it is most evident That Paul in this seventh Chapter to the Romans treateth of his warfare of the condition he then was in while yet he was not wholly dead to sin nor had yet obtained the victory over the carnal part and so was not yet delivered from under the thunders and tempest of Sinai's condemnation section 53 T.L. Whether any of you received the mystery of Christ by Revelation the same way that Paul did who received it by Christs speaking to him in the Hebrew tongue compare Eph. 3.3,4,5 with Acts 26.14 Answ This seemeth to me a very silly quaere as though the language in which God speaketh when he calls any one to the Ministery or other service were of any consideration or moment as in respect to the validity of such a Call and authority thereby received Let the Reader compare these two Scripturers in the quaere and he shall find the latter end of this question yet worse than the beginning section 54 T.L. Whether those faithful men at Ephesus to whom Timothy committed those things that he had heard of Paul 2 Tim. 22. and 3.14 And whether those Elders that were ordained in Creet by Titus whom Paul left there for that purpose Tit. 1.5 might not be truly stiled Ministers made by Jesus Christ i. e. by Christs appointment though they were not Apostles Prophets or Evangelists Answ 1. To that of Timothy I Answer 1. They were to be faithful men 2. It follows not That this committing of things heard c unto them did make and constitute such men ipso facto Christs Ministers 3. Timothy was able to judge who were fit and able To teach others also Did such a man or men as Timothy was give any of you commission to teach others Of this before Answ 2. Neither doubt I but Titus had good Authority to Ordain those Elders so as the place importeth And had your Ordainers as good also I should as little doubt theirs too Answ 3. If your Ordainers had Ordained such Ministers as Paul there describeth and appoints to be Ordained Tit. 1.6,7,8,9,10 I believe I should readily own and embrace them For such had been blameless sober just holy temperate and not given to Filthy Lucre c. which are such vertues and graces we cannot yet see in any of you no not though we stand never so near you Whereas the contrary vices are so vigorous in you that you yield a bad scent wherever you come with them that have senses incorrupt to smell it Answ 4 And is it not rather to be said That this ordaining of Elders was not a constituting of Ministers simply but an assigning or appointing of them that were such before to some new and special or particular charge or service The word is as well if not better englished Settle Place Also this sence the cohering words do favour In every City He saith not of such or such a place or Church nor yet Elders simply Finally It 's here to be remembred what kind of Ordination was in use in those Primitive times For this see Sect. 3. section 55 T.L. Whether Christs promise That he would be with his Apostles unto the end of the World Matth 28.19,20 can be any otherwise made good then in his being present with ordinary Pastors that should succeed in the Church to the end of the world Answ If the place be so to be understood as the Quaerent taketh it then where were those Pastors and Successors to the Apostles and how was God with them for so many hundreds or years even during all the time of Popish Apostacy which began even in the Apostles age But your main business is to prove your selves to be true Pastors of Christ which ye never can do so long as ye continue Hirelings See Iohn 10.12 section 56 T.L. Whether ordinary Pastors and Teachers are not as well said to be given for the Work of the Ministry c as well as Apostles Prophets Evangelists Eph 4 11,12 and that till we all come to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ vers 13. which is not cannot be till the end of the world compare Ephes 4.11,12,13 with 1 Cor. 12.28 Answ 1 I deny your distinction of Pastors into ordinary and extraordinary taking the word Pastor as distinct from Apostle c This is your case ye are asham'd to claim to your selves the name of Apostle or Pastor in a Scripture sense which you seem to call extraordinary This one name therefore ye craftily divide into two that being driven from the possession of the one i. e. exttaordinary ye may yet as a reserve have the other to flye to imitating herein after a sort those Spirits that being commanded to go out of the man prayed they might have leave