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A37296 Nayler's blasphemies discovered, or, Several queries to him proposed with his owne answers thereunto / by a friend to the truth of Christ. Deacon, John, 17th cent. 1657 (1657) Wing D486; ESTC R19310 45,154 64

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any thing that men or Angels are able to conceive but onely the finger of God is able to accomplish it as the worker for with man it is impossible but not with God for though we may heare the word of God sounding in our eares as a whistling wind yet cannot we comprehend the secret motions of it in our hearts and therefore not understand the depth of this unsearchable Mystery In a word the begetting or fashioning of this New Creature the Ministry of the word of God by man is but the instrument whereby the spirit of God worketh without the which it is no more able to form this new creature then are the tools belonging to any work able to bring the same to passe without the hand or guidance of the Artificer and he that knoweth it by the Letter of Scripture knowes it not without the light for the Scripture was written by man but revealed by the true light and therefore the words of him from whom it proceeded and God is pleased to reveal himself but two wayes to the best of my knowledge and that either ordinary by his written Word by which we may try and in some sort judge of spirits too that hee which denies Christ as come in the flesh is a lyar and an Antichrist and he that denies the use and ministration of Ordinances mentioned there resists that power that instituted them and he that resists receiveth unto himself damnation a sad word or extraordinary by his spirit which is not commonly usual but still with this limitation he never reveales himselfe to any by his spirit to oppose his commands in the letter And since your spirit is such a one I leave it unto you to examine whether it be a spirit of delusion or no for Christ never resisteth his own will and ordinances and if it seems so unto you remember Satan hath transformed himselfe into an Angel of light and if you be his Ministers as the tree Antichrist is known by his fruits heresie in Doctrine cease to call thy selfe the Minister of Christ and pull off the sheeps cloathing of your faire pretences that so we may discerne you in your colours and see the Pope in your wolvish shapes Quere 5. Whether the least measure of saving faith in Christ Jesus be not present power above the Devil and all the powers of darknesse which if it be then what is the cause that men must be captivated to commit sin while they live whether it is want of faith or that there is not power in faith to overcome the evil one or hath any faith in Christ further then they have power over sinne and the world or is there any rest to a beleever short of that power An Answer to the Fifth Quere The least measure of saving faith in Christ Jesus is sufficient to support us from everlasting misery and from the condemnation which the Devil would by his power bring us under and to build us up to that inheritance immortal which fadeth not away but is reserved in heaven for us and it is present power above the destructive powers of the Devil and darknesse but not against the disturbative power of sinne whose policy hath in the first Adam purchased an interest in all his posterity unlesse that with the second Adam we became one in unity and glory with him and if it were present power to conquer Satan and all the powers of darknesse and by its puissance to wholly subdue him presently this were present victory which is the end of war when as a Christians pilgrimage to heaven is a continual warfare the victory whereof is onely sealed perfectly in death for though by faith in Christ we are free from the dominion of sin and death too yet is the most faithful not perfectly free from the remnants of sinne which is the sting of death for though the least measure of saving faith in Christ be sufficient to free and keep us from the dominion of sinne yet the greatest portion or fulnesse that ever was distributed unto the greatest of the Apostles exempted them not from the remnant of sinne not onely original but also actual too for Peter he was accused get thee behinde me Satan and after deny'd his Master and then dissembled so as to be contradicted by Paul who also was so far lifted up on the wings of ambition that he needed to be corrected and therefore received a prick in the flesh which was neither through the wants nor disabilities of faith through which he boasted he could doe all things but the law of his members the remnants of sin there warring against the law of his minde brought him captive to the law of sinne and death which remnants are commonly called sins of infirmity which are left as thorns in our sides to prove us whether we will continue faithful to the end that so we may be crowned with glory And who had faith so much and so strong as to be translated in the spirit and give his soule the prospect of that no lesse eternally sacred then incomprehensibly glorious object of the third heavens and by this overcame the power as a Saint but could not shun the temptation as he was a man but both his will and affections were so far subordinate as the latter to those powers of darknesse that faith he the good that I would doe that doe I not and the evil that I would not that doe I but then as the former If any man may b●ast mu●h more I I live and yet not I but Christ that liveth in me and until the one be separated from the other there can be no perfect perfection for the same Apostle asserts this is a faithful saying Christ died to save sinners of whom I not onely was but am the chief and we including himselfe too have all sinned all none excepted and come short of the glory of God and James saith also the same that in many things we ●ffend all and John that Apostle of love and Eagle-ey'd Evangelist to pry into the secrets of those Mysteries of the Son of glory records this that he that saith he hath no sinne is a lyar and the truth is not in him and therefore you are lyars and void of the truth if then the Apostles who had the most eminent faith above all others were not free from the remnant of sinne nay and some grosse ones too I cannot be convinced that perfect perfection can be in any before a dissolution of mortality and a resurrection unto glorification I say since that they were contented to rest without discomfort in perseverance till Jesus the Author and Finisher of their faith should come to change their vile bodies therefore not pure and make them like his glorious body I cannot apprehend that any one shall attaine any higher perfection until they come to the end of their race eternal rest if they run so as to obtaine and they that content
congruant to Antichrist then the true Messias And as no natural minde that either denies the true light or sets up a new light in its stead cannot apprehend these things so neither can they in that state distinguish between the spirit of Christ and that of Antichrist And this inded is the reason why you and your Society are so deluded and take that for the true Messias which is rather something crying crying Loe here and loe there is Christ in you which is onely the spirit of delusion and the rather I beleeve it because it so much opposeth Christ Jesus the true Messias in his Institutions And for what you adde further the Text I have cleared elsewhere already Qu. 14. Whether the soul of man be mortal or immortal if mortal for what then did Chr. Jesus suffer to purchase eternal glory And what profiteth holiness in life If immortal where then shall it abide after death since you say there is noheaven nor hell but in a mans conscience Answ. The first part of this Quere I answer the soul is immortal but the latter part being made up of a lye I returne it back into thy Fathers bottle from whence it came till thou hast prov'd that ever I said there is no Heaven nor Hell but in a mans Conscience Reply 14. Since it is usual with thee O secret deceit to speak that in one breath which thou wilt deny in another I wonder the lesse to see you stil uphold your lying practice else you might remember the superscription of my Queries were thus For the Speakers plurully not for you their Speaker singularly of that Society called Quakers neither did I know who was to speak at that time when I brought them with me whether you or another yet resolved to deliver them to him I should there finde when probability gave me good reason to expect Hoberthorn rather then your self to exercise there at that time because he was there the Lords day then last past and I think not before and then durst not own his own name and practices And though I confesse I cannot prove it against you in particular though perhaps others may yet is it commonly known to be the opinion of the Quaking Faction and so of them to whom my Queries were directed and therefore you here lay under the guilt of a two fold lye First in denying that which is truth to wit that it is not the doctrine of your Fraternity that there is neither heaven nor hell but in a mans conscience pure Familists Secondly in giving me the lye when I spoke the truth but I see you bear in minde your old profession your bottle and so your plow though you have now changed it for a lesse laborious yet diabolical employment somention of Heresie Qu. 15. If you are perfectly free from sinne as you assert you are what then is the sting of death or are you in the flesh immortal on earth Answ. The former part of this Query I returne thee back with the latter part of thy foregoing being both of one root but to the latter part I answer where the new birth is witnessed which is not of corruptible seed but incorruptible partakers of the Divine Nature the life of Christ made manifest in mortal flesh and where life and immortality is brought to light there the sting of death is seen to be abolisht on earth but this Cain's generation knows not where death reignes and therefore would murder such as are translated from death to life Reply 15. Now O incomparable hypocritical lyar let us try the contest whether you or I in this be the lyar nay let thy own writings decide the controversie which thus asse rts expressely them who say they have faith and yet their life is not the life of Christ and say they cannot be saved from their sinnes in this world but in part Them and their Faith we deny and as I told you in publick dispute so say I now againe if this be not perfect perfection what is or was the life of Christ imperfect And is not perfect purity from sinne perfect perfection in righteousnesse But you then reply'd though I denyed it in others said you yet thou liest plaine English to say I own it in my selfe but if it be not hypocrisie to disown that in another to wit imperfection if thou thy selfe are not perfect and is not this the Character Paul gives of a false Prophet Teaching lies saith he in hypocrisie But let us see if you lye not here againe for you further adde in the same page speaking of that light in every man this light we beleeve and follow observe that and by this light are led out of all the wayes works and worships of this dark world and if this be not perfect perfection then is light darknesse so that it is proved not onely to be taught and upheld by your society which had been sufficient but also by you in particular so that here you lie under the guilt of a double lye againe as before and that others of your Society have taught and upheld the same I need not stand to repeat it being so clearly proved against you and Hoberthorn affirmed the same the Lords day before I delivered my Queries in Now my Querie being thus justified it rests wholly unanswered in the least and therefore your pretended answer might be justly cast by without any further reply but out of charity take this as an almes not a debt that the former part of my last Query and the latter part of this are both of one root I acknowledge to wit the false doctrines of your spirit which how infallible soever is a lying one And here you againe abuse the Text for that incorruption is not to be put on till this corruption shall be put off by a dissolution of the body till when the sting of death remaines which is sinne but then when by a natural death as due for the disobedience of the first Adam we shall rise againe to incorruption and life everlasting as due for the meritorious obedience of the second and when the last enemy death shall be destroyed then O Death where is thy sting and O Grave where is thy victory but not before and therefore all that you seem to heap up as a mountaine is nothing pertinent to the thing required for if the sting of death were wholly abolished then death could have no power on us and this were terestrial and present immortality the enjoyment whereof is not till having put off this corruptible by death we shall have put on incorruption which is not earthly as you pretend to say it is in this life but heavenly and in another so that you know neither how nor where death reignes nor where or when it reignes not and though I question not but you have Cain's malice yet blessed be God if you had also his might you could not so far reach as to murder them